Tzenejri

The main language of the country of Tzenej, on the planet Jen.

Phonology

Pronounciation guide

Consonants

The consonants are: ch d f g h j k l m n p r s sh t tz v w y z '

ch: as in "chip"
h: longer and more pronounced than in English
sh: as in "shop"
tz: like the ts in "tsunami"
': glottal stop

All other consonants are pronounced the same as in English.

Vowels

a: as in "attic"
â: as in "maze"
e: as in "met"
i: as in "mania"
o: as is "top"
ô: as is "zone"
u: as in "bun"
û: like the oo in "boot"

Grammar

Tzenejri is an agglutinating language with no case system, no grammatical genders and no definite or indefinite articles.

Verbs

All verbs are derived a noun by adding the suffix '-ti'. For example, the Tzenejri word for movement is 'nef', and it is altered to the verb 'nefti', meaning 'to move'.

Tenses

Tzenejri has four tenses: present, past, future and continuous. The latter three are added as suffixes to a verb as follows:
Past tense: '-che'
Future tense: '-lan'
Continuous tense: '-le'

Sentence structure

The basic word order is Verb Subject Object, however this changes to Verb Object Subject in a question. As with English, syllable stress in Tzenejri words are unpredicatble, however it rarely matters much.

Grammatical numbers

There are three grammatical numbers in Tzenejri: singular, plural (for a specific number of things) and collective plural (for an unspecific number of things). They are indicating as suffixes to a noun as follows:
Plural: '-vi'
Collective plural: '-li'

Note: even if the number of things is not mentioned, a normal plural is still used if the number is known by the speaker, e.g. "the cat's legs"- I know a cat has 4 legs, so I would use the '-vi' suffix.

Dialects

The 'g' sound was not originally in the language, and was only introduced by invaders later on. In more remote regions it is still pronounced as a 'k'. Those living in the north of the country speak with an unusual accent and tend not to change word order when asking a question, but to keep the normal word order and simply use a higher tone on the last syllable. The dialect is possibly influenced by closeness to the country of Qazan- it is not uncommon for northeners to be proficient in Tzenejri and Qazal.

Sample text

English: The only free cheese is in the mouse trap

Tzenejri: enti vijâ unajchiz sôh maûs zirok
Note that the words mouse (maûs) and cheese (chiz) are just translated to the letters that make the same pronounication here- they don't exist on Jen.

Tzenejri lexicon