Zhitan [ZTJ]
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Typology
Progressing
28 words
Zhitan
Źitaje [ʒiˈta.ɦe]
ZhitanŹitaje [ʒiˈta.ɦe]
Registered by
[Deactivated User] on 16 March 2021
Language type
A priori
Species
Human/humanoid
About Zhitan
The Zhitan language was spoken by the Zhitan people during the start of the Flyslands' Antiquity analogue. This avian-humanoid nation was prosperous and was just starting to name new technological artifacts. They were once nomads before settling, and so they have a variety of words for flora, fauna and other beings.
Their language is going was then mostly agglutinative, and filled with all kinds of affixes for inflexion.
Their language is going was then mostly agglutinative, and filled with all kinds of affixes for inflexion.
Sample of Zhitan[view] Cipihulélaupsa Amuaua Cézécéti
Our Father in heaven, / May your name be honored. / May your kingdom come. / May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. / Give us today our daily bread; / And forgive us our debts, as we ourselves have forgiven our debtors. / And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. / For yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory / Forever, amen.[view all texts]
Our Father in heaven, / May your name be honored. / May your kingdom come. / May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. / Give us today our daily bread; / And forgive us our debts, as we ourselves have forgiven our debtors. / And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. / For yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory / Forever, amen.[view all texts]
Language family relationships
Language treeMajor-Kato-Avian
⤷ Proto-Major-Kato-Avian
⤷
Zhitan
⤷ Proto-Major-Kato-Avian
⤷
Zhitan[view] About Major-Kato-Avian The Major-Kato-Avian family is the largest avian language family below the Mesocryocenter (where most of these languages are spoken), second of all avian language families and third largest overall. Its languages are typicall...
Phonology
| Consonants | Labio- dental | Alveolar | Post- Alveolar | Palatal | Labio- velar | Velar | Glottal | |||||||
| Nasal | ɱ | n | [ɲ]1 | ŋ | ||||||||||
| Plosive | p̪ | b̪ | t | d | k | g | [ʔ]2 | |||||||
| Fricative | s | z | ʃ | ʒ | [ç]3 | [ʝ]4 | x | ɣ | h | ɦ | ||||
| Lateral approximant | l | |||||||||||||
| Lateral fricative | ɬ | ɮ | ||||||||||||
| Approximant | [ʋ̃]5 | [ɹ̪̃]6 | [j]7 | [w]8 | [ɰ̃]9 | |||||||||
| Flap | ɾ | |||||||||||||
- Pronounced as such after the palatal approximant, allophone of /ŋ/
- Allophone of any vowels at vocalic word onset
- Same as 1, allophone of /x/
- Same as 1, allophone of /ɣ/
- Pronounced as such before a cons. in another place of articulation, allophone of /ɱ/
- Same as 5, allophone of /n/
- Pronounced as such in diphthongs, allophone of /i/
- Pronounced as such in diphthongs, allophone of /u/
- Same as 5, allophone of /ŋ/
| Vowels | Front | Back | ||
| Close | i | u [ũ]1 | ||
| Close-mid | e | o [õ]2 | ||
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ [ɔ̃]3 | ||
| Open | a | |||
- Pronounced as such before nasals
- Same as 1
- Same as 1
Stress informationStress is heavily grammatical in Zhitan and can help the reader or listener discern morphemes.
In general, words will be oxytone.
Nouns will have the stress fall in the last syllable that isn't a gender/class suffix if they are in the singular number form. However, if in plural number form, the stress will fall in the last syllable. E.g. /'tro.psa/ means "stone", while /tro'psa/ means "stones".
Adjectives will follow a similar pattern in order to agree with their nouns. In plural form, they are oxytone, but are paroxytone when singular. Except for when they are agreeing with nouns of neutral gender/class. In this case, they will be oxytone regardless of number, as there is no gender/class suffix for adjectives in the neutral gender.
Verbs act in a similar way. They also agree with the noun in number ("He ate" vs. "They 'ates'"). However, they can and often will stack suffixes to encode both tense and aspect. So verbs agreeing with singular will be paroxytone or proparoxytone, depending on how many suffixes it will have, but will be oxytone if the verb is agreeing with a plural noun.
Pronouns carry the same idea as these other PoS. And since they are flexed identically to nouns, the rules are also identical.
In general, words will be oxytone.
Nouns will have the stress fall in the last syllable that isn't a gender/class suffix if they are in the singular number form. However, if in plural number form, the stress will fall in the last syllable. E.g. /'tro.psa/ means "stone", while /tro'psa/ means "stones".
Adjectives will follow a similar pattern in order to agree with their nouns. In plural form, they are oxytone, but are paroxytone when singular. Except for when they are agreeing with nouns of neutral gender/class. In this case, they will be oxytone regardless of number, as there is no gender/class suffix for adjectives in the neutral gender.
Verbs act in a similar way. They also agree with the noun in number ("He ate" vs. "They 'ates'"). However, they can and often will stack suffixes to encode both tense and aspect. So verbs agreeing with singular will be paroxytone or proparoxytone, depending on how many suffixes it will have, but will be oxytone if the verb is agreeing with a plural noun.
Pronouns carry the same idea as these other PoS. And since they are flexed identically to nouns, the rules are also identical.
Orthography
Below is the orthography for Zhitan. This includes all graphemes as defined in the language's phonology settings - excluding the non-distinct graphemes/polygraphs.
| ZhitanOrthography [edit] | ||||||||
| Aa Ia /a/ | Bb Ba /b̪/ | Cc Ca /x/, [ç]1 | Dd Da /d/ | Ee Ie /e/ | Éé Ié /ɛ/ | Ǵǵ Ǵa /ɣ/, [ʝ]2 | Gg Ga /g/ | Hh Ha /h/ |
| Ii Ui /i/ | Jj Ja /ɦ/ | Kk Ka /k/ | Ll La /l/ | Mm Ma /ɱ/, [ʋ̃]3 | Ńń ´Ńa /ŋ/, [ɰ̃]4, [ɲ]5 | Nn Na /n/, [ɹ̪̃]6 | Oo io /o/, [õ]7 | Óó ió /ɔ/, [ɔ̃]8 |
| Pp Pa /p̪/ | Rr Ra /ɾ/ | Ss Sa /s/ | Śś Śa /ʃ/ | Tt Ta /t/ | Uu iu /u/, [ũ]9 | Zz Za /z/ | Źź Źa /ʒ/ | |
| ✖ Unknown alphabetical order [change] | ||||||||
- Same as 1
- Same as 1
- Pronounced as such before a cons. in another place of articulation
- Same as 5
- Pronounced as such after the palatal approximant
- Same as 5
- Same as 1
- Same as 1
- Pronounced as such before nasals
