Zeigouŋdeizese

[Shemtov]

Zeigouŋdeizese is a Waanic language, specifically the Lingua Franca of Greater Zeigouŋdeiza, the westernmost part of a a large peninsula (and small islands off the coast of said peninsula) on the southwest part of the Island of Waan, which is located about 4KM off the Northeast coast of Fuhe. The language was originally the language of the City-State of Zeigouŋdeiza, which is located on the southwest shore of the peninsula, and on the island of South Zeigouŋ, which is separated from the mainland by a narrow channel, c. 85 Meters wide.

Phonetic Inventory:
/p b~β ɓ t d~ð t' t͡ʃ d͡ʒ t͡ʃ' k g~ʁ k' ʔ/ <p b b' t d t' c c' j k g k' '>
/m n ɲ ŋ/ <m n ñ ŋ>
/θ s ɬ ʐ h/ <z s ł x h>
/r / < ř>
/ɾ/ <r>
/l/ <l>
/w j/ <w y>

/i ɛ u o a/ <i e u o a>
/i: e: u: a:/ <ii ei uu aa>
/ai au ɛu/ <ai a eu>


Phontactics: (C)V(C)
<eu> and <e> can only occur before <k>, <g> and <ŋ>.
Permitted finals:
/p b t d k g s h ʐ m n ŋ r l j w/


Allophony:
The voiced stops take their fricative allophone when syllable-final.

Vowels, have two allophones, Checked, before voiceless stops,, and Plain, in other contexts. Long vowels, diphthongs, and /o/ also have Semi-Checked allophones before voiced stops and all fricatives:

Plain:
<a> [a]
<aa> [ɑ:]
<e> [ɛ]
<ei> [e:]
<i> [ i ]
<ii> [i:]
<u> [ u ]
<uu> [u:]
<o> [o:]
<ai> [ai]
<au> [au]
<eu> [ɛu]

Checked:
<a> [ɐ]
<aa> [aɐ]
<e> [æ]
<ei> [ɛɪ]
<i> [ɪ]
<ii> [ɪ:]
<u> [ʊ]
<uu> [ʊ:]
<o> [ɔ]
<ai> [ɐɪ]
<au> [ɐʊ]
<eu> [æʊ]

Semi-Checked:
<aa> [a:]
<ei> [eɪ]
<ii> [iɪ]
<uu> [uʊ]
<o> [o]
<ai> [aɪ]
<au> [aʊ]
<eu> [ɛʊ]

[DV82LECM]

Neat allophony.

[Shemtov]

CV Reduplication is an important part of the language, and causes the following morphophonological changes to the reduplicated vowel: <aa>, <ii> and <uu> shorten, <ai> and <au> monophthongize to <ei> and <o> repsectively, <e> becomes <a>, and <eu> changes to either <u> or <o>. This last change is conditioned based on morpheme in educated speech, but in colloquial speech, it is either <u> or <o>, based on dialect.

Nouns are pluralized in 5 ways, based on unpredictable declensions.

Declension 1: CV reduplication:
Paařok "Trading Boat"
PLR. Papaařok

Declension 2: Suffix -(i)m:
Juluzi " Religious term for a non-Prophetic Ancient Sage or a Clergyman who guides lower members of the Clergy on Meditation or who has written an accepted commentary on Scripture."
PLR. Juluzim

Declension 3: CV redulplication+suffix (i)m
Hono "Harbor"
PLR: Hohonom

Declension 4. Consists of monosyllabic CVC Nouns- Full redulplication
La' "Chili pepper"
PLR. La'la'

Declension 5: No change
C'u "Deity
PLR. C'u

[Shemtov]

The genitive phrase:
Inalienable possesion is formed by adding the possessive suffixes directly to the possesum.
Possessive suffixes:
1P sing: -(i)n
1P Plr. Incl. -(i)nek
1P PLR Exlcl. -(i)naanu
2P sing: (y)ek
2P Plr: -(y)eŋta
3P Sing. -(w)uu
3P plr: (y)eim

So from Leŋjeil "foot"
Leŋjeilin
"My foot"

Juluzi Leŋjeiluu
"The Juluzi's foot"

Juluzim Leŋjeileim
"The Juluzis' feet"

Alienable possesion is formed by adding the possesive suffixes to the particle Łu:

Łun la'
"My chili pepper"

Juluzi łuwuu la'
"The Juluzi's chili pepper"

Juluzim łuyeim la'
"The Juluzis' chili pepper"


Juluzim łuyeim la'la'
"The Juluzis' chili peppers"

[Shemtov]

I've been unsure how to present the rest of the language, but I landed on the conclusion that I should have waited to present the genitive phrase until after the verb, which I will present now:

The language has Austronesian alignment. The verb in its citation form is in the active voice, contionuos aspect, indicative mood.

Example Verb: Maŋcaik "To eat"

Passive voice: Infix <eg> after first consonan
Megaŋcaik

Applicative-causative Voice:
Passive voice with CV reduplication
Memegaŋcaik

Locative-Instrumental Voice:
CV Reduplication with suffix -(i)h
Mamaŋcaikih

The "Target" noun takes the preposition <Au>

Maŋcaik au juluzi pizipi
eat DEF Juluzi tomato
"The Juluzi is/was eating a tomato"

Megaŋcaik juluzi au pizipi
Megaŋcaik juluzi au pizipi
eat\PASS Juluzi DEF tomato
"The tomato is/was being eaten by the Juluzi"
eat\PASS Juluzi DEF tomato
"The tomato is/was being eaten by the Juluzi"

The Active and Passive voices (and probably the Applicative Voice, I haven't completely made up my mind) can take the same suffixes as the genitive to show the target noun is 1P, 2P or an anaphoric 3P:


Maŋcaikin pizipi
Maŋcaik-in pizipi
eat-1P.Sing tomato
"I am/was eating a tomato"

Megaŋcaikuu juluzi
M<eg>aŋcaik-uu juluzi
eat\PASS-3P Juluzi
"It is/was being eaten by the Juluzi"

Note that this can be combined with a specified target noun to mark it as topic:

Megaŋcaikuu juluzi au pizipi
M<eg>aŋcaik-uu juluzi au pizipi
eat\PASS-3P Juluzi DEF tomato
"The tomato, it is/was being eaten by the Juluzi"

[Shemtov]

Numbers (AKA the Janko post):
Zeigouŋdeizese has a base-20 number system, with a subbase of 5.

Numbers 1-20
1 Iha
2 Ca'
3 Auzi
4 Caaŋ
5 Lau
6 Lauha
7 Lauca'
8 Lauzi
9 Laucaaŋ
10 Ciŋc'aal
11 Ciŋc'aaliha
12 Ciŋc'aalca'
13 Ciŋc'aalauzi
14 Ciŋc'aalcaaŋ
15 Całim
16 Całimiha
17 Całiŋca'
18 Całimauzi
19 Całiŋcaaŋ
20 Ihac'aal

Numbers between 20-40 are formed like so:
Ihac'aal u iha
Ihac'aal u ca'
Ihac'aal u auzi
etc.

Note that numbers that end in 5, such as 25, 45, 65 etc. use an alternate word for 5, Łim, which also means "hand", thus Ihac'aal u łim for 25.

Multiples of 20:
40: Dusc'aal
60 Auzic'aal
80 Caaŋc'aal
100 , Łiŋc'aal

Beyond 100, multiples of 20 are pretty regular.

Numbers 3+ come before the plural of the noun, but Ca', 2 is before the singular. Thus, Auzi la'la' "Three chili peppers" but Ca' la' "Two chili peppers"
However, 2 has an alternate form, <Dus> that refers to pairs and for human beings, this being due to the fact that the dual was lost later for nouns with human reference then for other nouns.
Thus:
Dus Zaŋab
"Pair of shoes"

Dus Juluzi
"Two Juluzi"

[Glenn]

I really like your number system - both the way the base-20 and subbase-5 systems fit together, and the alternate forms for 2 and 5. I am tempted to steal lovingly borrow the basic structure for a project of my own, if it ever gets off the ground.