Zjenav

Zjenav is a language created by BenJamin P. Johnson in 2020 for Luca-Fabio di Franco to be used in an upcoming novel series.

Phonology

Vowels

There are five vowels and eight diphthongs. Vowels do not have phonemic length. In some dialects, some diphthongs may be merged, and/or rising diphthongs may become falling.

	Simple Vowels				Diphthongs
	Front	Back			Front	Back
High	i /i/	u /u/		High-to-High	ui /ui/ [uɪ̯]	iu /iu/ [iʊ̯]
Mid		o /o/		Mid-to-High	ei /ei/ [ɛɪ̯]	oi /oi/ [ɔɪ̯]
	e /ɛ/			Low-to-High	ai /ai/ [ɑɪ̯]	au /au/ [ɑʊ̯]
Low	a /ɑ/ [ä~ɑ]			Low-to-Mid	ae /ae/ [ɑɛ̯]	ao /ao/ [ɑɔ̯]

Consonants

The consonants of Zjenav are notable for having robust set of unvoiced sonorants.

(Pardon the compactified consonant table. I know it doesn't quite all line up “properly,” but it does make more sense this way as regards the Valthungian language. If in doubt, rely on the transcription and not the row or column.)

	Labial	Coronal	Palatal	Velar	Uvular
Plosive	p · b /p · b/	t · d /t · d/		k · g /k · g/	q · /q/
Affricate			tj · dj /t͡ʃ · d͡ʒ/
Fricative	f · v /f · v/	s · z /s· z/	sj · zj /ʃ · ʒ/		h · /h/ [h~x]
Nasal	hm · m /m̥ · m/	hn · n /n̥ · n/
Approximant	· w /w/	hr · r /r̥ · r/ [ɾ̥~r̥ · ɾ~r]	· y /j/	hl · l /l̥ · l/ [l̥~ɫ̥ · l~ɫ]

Zjenav Script (Abjad)

Zjenav is most commonly written in an impure abjad (that is, an alphabet, but the vowels are written as diacritic marks above or below the consonants, depending on the positioning of any ascenders or descenders which may obstruct their positioning). There is also a “placeholder” consonant (') for vowels which occur at the beginning of words.

Consonants

The consonants are divided into types according to their place of articulation (where in the mouth each consonant is produced). These align roughly with the columns of the consonant table at the beginning of the phonology section, and consist of: labial, coronal, palatal, and dorsal (the last being a combination of the sparsely populated velar and uvular columns). There are also three types of consonant ligatures; that is, two consonants which are joined together to form a new letter when written together.

Vowels

Vowels are written as marks above or below the consonant that precedes them. In all there are five vowels and eight diphthongs, but they are all written as diacritics, for a total of thirteen possible vowels. By default, they are written above, but when a consonant has an ascender (a line which rises upward and encroaches on the space where the vowel should be placed), the vowel is placed below the consonant and flipped, so that the vowel maintains the same orientation toward its consonant “base.” (Wider consonants, like 〈hm〉, with sufficient room for ascenders may still have vowels above.)

Four consonants – 〈s〉, 〈z), 〈sj〉, and 〈zj〉 – have both ascenders and descenders. Vowels are placed above these characters. In some cases, the vowel markings may be turned or modified in order to fit properly. Finally 〈h〉 is a solid line with no room to put a vowel either above or below, so a special variant character is used and the vowel is placed above.

Alignments

Typology

The typology of Zjenav is predominantly SVO (subject-verb-object). The positions of subject and object may shift depending on topicality or markedness.

Morphosyntactic Alignment

Zjenav has nominative-accusative alignment, which means that nouns and pronouns are differentiated for subject and object roles.

Headedness

The Zjenav language is predominantly head-final (“right-branching”).

Noun Phrases

In noun phrases, prepositions, demonstratives and articles, and numerals precede the noun. Ad-jectives, genitive constructions, and relative clauses all follow the noun, in that specific order (preposition—(demonstrative)—NOUN—adjective (phrase)—numeral—relative clause). Genitive, dative, benefactive, and instrumental phrases may appear anywhere in the clause, though they tend to follow the main noun except in marked speech.

For example, the phrase “with those three thin men from Zakalasrava who stole my book” would be assembled in the order:

…dum zjesrahom dehla djat Zakalasravan zjai kotresjiu la butjat qane.

dum	zjesrah-om	dehla	djat	Zakalasrava-an	zj-ai	kotresji-iu la	butjat-∅	qa-ne
with	man-dat.pl	thin	three	Zakalasrava-gen	rel3.ani	steal-3pl pst	book-acc	1sg-gen
with	men	thin	three	from Zakalasrava	who	stole	book	my

‘…with those three thin men from Zakalasrava who stole my book.’

Adjective Phrases

In adjective phrases, (adverbial) measurements of degree (very, so, too, &c.) always precede the adjective.

Tai zji moiqat gimesj kezj.

t-ai	zji	moiqat	gim-esj	kezj
that-ani	cop	dog	far-adv	good
that	is	dog	very	good

‘That is a very good dog.’

Numbers

Cardinal Numbers

The Zjenavi numbers are in an octal system. For your convenience, numbers in the shaded columns are decimal.

Digits				Teens				Twenties				Multiples
ha	1	1		kehru si ha	11	9		qwekeru si ha	21	17		kehru	10	8
qwe	2	2		kehru si qwe	12	10		qwekeru si qwe	22	18		qwekeru	20	16
djat	3	3		kehru si djat	13	11		qwekeru si djat	23	19		djakeru	30	24
zjequ	4	4		kehru si zjequ	14	12		qwekeru si zjequ	24	20		zjeqeru	40	32
uvuh	5	5		kehru si uvuh	15	13		qwekeru si uvuh	25	21		uvuhru	50	40
alase	6	6		kehru si alase	16	14		qwekeru si alase	26	22		alasehru	60	48
nuqa	7	7		kehru si nuqa	17	15		qwekeru si nuqa	27	23		nuqeru	70	56
kehru	10	8		qwekehru	20	16		djakeru	30	24		tjari	100	64

Exponents
kehru	10	8
kehru si zjequ	12	10
tjari	100	64
tjari ha zjeqeru si zjequ	144	100
sjallov	1,000	512
sjallov ha tjari nuqa si uvuhru	1,750	1,000
tjaqedi	1,000,000	262,144
tjaqedi djat si sjallov tjari alase zjeqeru ha si tjari ha	3,641,100	1,000,000

Ordinals and Compounds

Compounds are created by simply stacking up the numbers from largest to smallest, with the last number separated by the conjunction si (‘and’). E.g. ‘47’ = zjeqeru ‘40’ + si ‘and’ + nuqa ‘7’ → zjeqeru si nuqa. ‘625’ = alase tjari ‘600’ + + qwaqeru ‘20’ + si ‘and’ + uvuh ‘5’ → alase tjari qwakeru si uvuh.

Most ordinal numbers are formed by adding the suffix -aor to the number, e.g. djataor ‘third’, uvuhaor ‘fifth’. Where a numeral ends in a vowel, the vowel is usually deleted, as in alasaor ‘sixth’ from alase, though when a numeral ends in –u, and the –ao– of the suffix is deleted instead (it just sounds better), as in zjequr from zjequ. When –r– occurs in the last syllable of a number, the –r of the suffix changes to –l, as in kehrul and tjaraol. The ordinals for ‘one’ and ‘two’ are as irregular as “first” and “second” – they mean ‘closest to the front’ and ‘the following’, respectively.

Ordinal Numbers
1st	sjamasj	10th	kehrul
2nd	sjolpet	20th	qwekerul
3rd	djataor	30th	djakerul
4th	zjequr	40th	zjeqerul
5th	uvuhaor	50th	uvuhrul
6th	alasaor	60th	alasehrul
7th	nuqaor	70th	nuqerul
10th	kehrul	100th	tjaraol

Determiners

Zjenav has no definite or indefinite articles. Other demonstratives or determiners may be used optionally, as necessary.

Note: Determiners do not inflect for case when used as adjectives; however, when they are used on their own (i.e. without an accompanying noun) they are considered pronouns and do inflect. See Adjectives for more information about inflection.

Demonstratives (‘this’, ‘that’ )

	Animate			Inanimate
	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural
Proximal ‘this’, ‘these’	vai	vae	vai	voq	voqu	voqat
Distal ‘that’, ‘those’	tai	tae	tai	toq	toqu	toqat

Relative and Interrogative Particles

Zjenav makes a distinction which does not exist in English between interrogative and relative determiners, correlatives, and pronouns. In English, words like who, when, where, why, and how (but not what) are used as interrogatives to form a question — such as “When did he arrive?” or “Who are you?” — as well as relatives to form subordinate clauses, such as “That’s when he arrived,” or “That’s the person who arrived.” In Zjenav, interrogatives all begin with 〈z〉 while their relative counterparts begin with 〈zj〉:

Interrogative: Rah djaikaet la zem? ‘When did he arrive?’

Interrogative: Asj zji zai? ‘Who are you?’

Relative: Toq zji zjem rah djaikaet la. ‘That’s when he arrived.’

Relative: Tai zji zjeser zjai djaikaet. ‘That’s the person who arrived.’

Also note that interrogatives are predicative, so they normally follow the verb. E.g. instead of saying “who are you?” you would say, “you are who?” (Asj zji zai?)

These “correlative” roots can be used in combination with other determiners to form additional adverbs and pronouns:

	Person	Thing	Time	Place	Manner	Amount	Reason
Interrogative	zai	zoq	zem	zul	zesj	zazoh	zaqei
Relative	zjai	zjoq	zjem	zjul	zjesj	zjazoh	zjaqei
Proximal	vai	voq	vem	vul	vesj	vazoh	vaqei
Distal	tai	toq	tem	tul	tesj	tazoh	taqei
Negative	qrai	qroq	qrem	qrul	qresj	qrazoh	qraqei