Chreientae

Chreientae (chreientae, IPA: [ˈxreɪəntaɪ]) is a constructed language which came under creation during November, 2010. The name of the conlang literally means "created language," or "made-up language." Chreientae is a priori language, despite few loan words from languages such as English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, and Arabic.

Phonology & Orthography

The phonology and orthography are quite different than most other languages. There a quite a bit of various sounds in this languages, which makes it unique in a way. Both the phonology and orthography are not based off of any natural language.

Consonants

PHONOLOGY:

	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Palatal	Labial-Palatal	Velar	Labaial-Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Plosive	/p/ /b/			/t/ /d/				/k/ /g/		/q/ /ɢ/	/ʔ/
Nasal	/m/			/n/		/ɲ/		/ŋ/
Trill				/r/						/ʀ/
Fricative		/f/ /v/	/θ/ /ð/	/s/ /z/	/ʃ/ /ʒ/			/x/ /ɣ/
Lateral Fricative				/ɬ/ /ɮ/
Approximant						/j/	/ɥ/		/w/
Lateral Approximant				/l/			/ʎ/

ORTHOGRAPHY:

	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Palatal	Labial-Palatal	Velar	Labaial-Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Plosive	p b			t d				k g		q c	w
Nasal	m			n		gn**		ng**
Trill				r						r*
Fricative		f v	th** ð	s s*	ş z			ch** h
Lateral Fricative				tl** dl**
Approximant						j	ȳ		ł
Lateral Approximant				l			gl**

* The times when these consonants take this pronunciation must be memorized

** The times when these consonants are pronounced exactly the way they look must be memorized

Vowels

PHONOLOGY:

	Front		Central		Back
Close	/i/ /y/				/u/
		/ɪ/ /ʏ/		/ʊ/
Close-Mid	/e/ /ø/				/o/
			/ə/
Open-Mid	/ɛ/ /œ/				/ɔ/
	/æ/
Open	/a/

ORTHOGRAPHY:

	Front		Central		Back
Close	i* y*				u*
		i** y**		u**
Close-Mid	e* ø*				o*
			e***
Open-Mid	e** ø**				o**
	a**
Open	a*

* These vowels are called "long vowels" and are pronounced this way when before one consonant, another vowel, or at the end of a word. These vowels are actually elongated when doubled or when there's an acute accent on the letter (which also makes that vowel's syllable stressed).

** These vowels are called "short vowels" and are pronounced this way when before two or more consonants, which included digraphs.

*** This vowel is pronounced this way when unstressed in most situations

Diphthongs

PHONOLOGY:

	Front	Back
Close-Mid	/eɪ/ /eʊ/ /øʏ/	/oɪ/ /oʊ/
Open	/aɪ/ /aʊ/

ORTHOGRAPHY:

	Front	Back
Close-Mid	ei eu øy	oe ou
Open	ae au

* All of these diphthongs' sounds are lengthened when an acute accent is added on the first letter. This also puts the stress on that diphthong's syllable.

** When a diaeresis is placed on the second letter of a supposed diphthong, it tells you that each vowel is pronounced separately. Also, if there is an acute accent on the second letter in a supposed diphthong, it tells you that each letter is pronounced separately and the vowel with the acute accent's syllable is stressed.

Stress

Stress is usually on the second to last syllable of a word. The stress of a certain syllable can be changed when that syllable's vowel or diphthong has an acute on it. Another exception is when adding the definite article suffix; even though another syllable may be added, the stress is the same as if that suffix was not there. There are few other exception, but when there are, those must me memorized.

Grammar

The grammar of Chreientae is quite similar to that of Indo-European languages. However, there are some unique qualities the language.

Nouns

The way nouns work in Chreientae are very similar to many Indo-European languages. There are two genders, two numbers, one article, three persons, and eight cases.

Gender

Three genders exist in Chreientae. A noun's gender is important is seeing which article it takes, how it declines, etc. A noun's gender usually just must be memorized, however, there are a few tricks that makes memorizing or guessing a noun's gender.

Masculine

Most masculine nouns ends in a consonant, however consonant-ending nouns may also be feminine or neuter. Nouns that end in -ta, a vowel with an acute accent on it, or any diphthong are always masculine. Also, any noun that depicts a male person or animal is always masculine.

EXAMPLES:

Chreientae	English
amsa	man
loch	book
sahóm	bag
brota	brother
balachá	floor
galostae	sadness

Feminine

Most feminine nouns end in -a, however, there are many feminine nouns that end in a consonant. Nouns that end in -i or -ach are always feminine. Any noun that depicts a female person or animal is always feminine.

EXAMPLES:

Chreientae	English
fymma	woman
kiasa	cat
gítari	guitar
máðraas	school
faðach	marker
fjaeða	faith

Neuter

Most neuter nouns end in -o, however, there are many neuter nouns that end in a consonant. Nouns that end in -j, -ł, -ȳ, and any doubled vowel are always neuter.

Chreientae	English
bawan	child
siato	dog
nah	evening
kangee	store
dafáej	nail
waan	house

Articles

There is only one article in Chreientae. Other articles used to be used, however they have been taken out of the language completely.

Definite Article

In Chreientae, the definite article is a suffix added to the noun based on gender, but not number nor case. It comes after the declension of the noun. The suffix also depends on whether or not the word ends in a vowel or consonant. Another important thing to note is that when the definite article has its own syllable, it doesn't change the original stress of the word.

	vowel ending	consonant ending
m.	-n	-en
f.	-m	-am
n.	-ð	-ið

EXAMPLES:

	Chreientae	English
m.	amsan	the man
m.	lochen	the book
f.	fymmam	the woman
f.	máðraasam	the school
n.	siatoð	the dog
n.	bawanið	the child

Cases

Nouns decline based on case. There are eight cases in Chreientae, and the endings are different depending on the gender and number. Some verbs make the noun proceeding it take a certain case, and sometimes one verb can change meaning depending on which case the noun proceeding it is in. Also, all propositions have a certain case.

Nominative

The nominative case is used when the noun is the subject of the sentence. Also, certain verbs like vaera (to be), ðiałara (to become), etc. take the nominative case. Since the dictionary form of a noun and the nominative singular are exactly the same, in the chart below, the ending will appear as blank. In future reference, if an ending is blank, it just means that the dictionary form is used in that particular instance. One thing good to note is that when masculine nouns end in a vowel, the vowel is never dropped. This goes the same for neuter nouns that end in a double vowel. However, the vowel ending on any other feminine and neuter nouns must be dropped. The letters in parenthesis represent an extra letter that must be added to the end if the word end in a vowel (m.) or a doubled vowel (n.).

	Singular	Plural
m.	-	-(j)ii
f.	-	-i
n.	-	-(ł)a

EXAMPLES:

	Singular	Plural
m.	loch	lochii
m.	amsa	amsajii
f.	fymma	fymmi
n.	bawan	bawana
n.	kangee	kangeeła

Verbs

Verbs, as in many other languages, conjugate according to the subject of the sentence. Verb are conjugated based on aspect, evidentiality, mood, polarity, tense, transitivity, and voice.

Tense

Two tenses exist in Chreientae.

Present Tense

The present tense is used to express what one is doing currently or habitually. Also, since Chreientae has no future tense, it is also used when talking about future actions. Words such as "tomorrow", "later", etc. can give context clues to whether or not what the speaker is talking about is in the future.

Adjectives

One interesting aspect about Chreientae is how its adjectives work. Adjectives always proceed the noun it is describing and must agree with it based on gender and number, but not case. In the case where one would is to verb to be in English + an adjective, in Chreientae, one would just put the adjective. It should be noted as well that when used in this way, the adjective does not agree and uses its dictionary form.