Lišěč

Lišĕč is a language, spoken in a zone on the border between Poland and Ucraine. It’s an highly agglutinative language, and it‘s similar to Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian languages, maybe related to the Uralic family, but it has many differences, that show the influence of Slavic and German languages.

It can be written both with Latin Alphabet and with Cyrillic alphabet.

Phonology

Vowel harmony

The vowel harmony is typical phenomenon of non-Indo-european languages in Europe.

The vowels of interchangeable endings change according to the last vowel in the last syllable of the word.

The interchangeable vowels in the endings are:

• -e-: for a last front vowel in the world
• -a-: for a last central vowel in the world
• -o-: for a last back vowel in the world

Examples: The plural endings are: -nes, -nas, -nos / -нес, -нас, -нос

Lin (man) → Linnes / Лин (man) → Линнес
Tanõk (sea) → Tanõknos / Танõк (sea) → Танõкнос
Sava (river) → Savanas / Сава (river) → Саванас

Vowels

	Front	Near-front	Central	Near-back	Back
Close	i • y   ɨ u e o ə    ɛ • œ ɔ æ      a
Close-mid
Mid
Open-mid
Near-open
Open

Consonants

	Bilabial	Labio- dental	Dental	Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Plosive	p b		t d				k ɡ
Nasal	m	ɱ	n			ɲ
Vibrant			r
Fricative		f v	θ ð	s z	ʃ
Affricate				ʦ ʣ	ʧ ʤ
Approximant						j	ɰ
Lateral approximant			l			ʎ

Writing systems

Lišěč can be written with both a modified version of Latin alfabet (called Latinka/Латинка) and a modified version of Cirillic alfabet (сalled Kirilica/Кирилица).

IPA consonant	Latin	Cyrillic
/p/	p	п
/b/	b	б
/t/	t	т
/d/	d	д
/k/	k	к
/g/	g	г
/m/	m	м
/n/	n	н
/ɲ/	ň	њ
/ʦ/	c	ц
/ʣ/	z	ѕ
/ʧ/	č	ч
/ʤ/	ğ	ђ
/f/	f	ф
/v/	v	в
/θ/	ţ	ө
/ð/	đ	ћ
/s/	s	с
/z/	ś	з
/ʃ/	š	ш
/r/	r	р
/j/	j	й
/ɰ/	u	у
/l/	l	л
/ʎ/	ł	љ

IPA vowel	Latin	Cyrillic
/i/	i	и
/y/	ü	ÿ
/ɨ/	y	ы
/u/	u	у
/e/	e	е
/ɛ/	ĕ	ĕ
/ə/	ë	ё
/œ/	ö	ö
/æ/	ä	ä
/a/	a	а
/ɔ/	õ	õ
/o/	o	о

Morphology

Lišĕč has an agglutinative morphology, i.e, words are declined and take endings, but these ending have only one meaning, instead of the multiple meaning of a Indo-european desinence.

Exemple:

• Latin: Urbium (genitive plural of the cities): root urb + desinence -ium, the desinence have meaning of both plural and genitive case.
• Lišĕč: Gradanasal (genitive plural of the cities): root grada + plural desinence -nas- + genitive desinence -al

Substantives

Substantives have no genre, but they decline according to number (singular, plural and collective) and cases (29 cases):

Number

Number	Latin	Cyrillic
Singular	-	-
Plural	-nas/nes/nos	-нас/нес/нос
Collective	-ałij/ełij/ołij	-аљий/ељий/ољий

The collective number means a defined group of objects or beings, while plural number indicates an undefined number of objects or things (both functions are covered by plural in Indo-european languages):

The collective should be used:

• With cardinal numbers
• Without numbers to indicate “a group of” or with uncountable nouns to indicate “a little of”, “a bit of”

Case

The case indicates the role the word plays in the sentence, without prepositions. Lišěč has 29 cases, many more of any Indo-european language, but a large number of cases is normal for Uralic languages.

Case	Latin	Cyrillic	Case function
Nominative	-	-	Case of subject
Genitive	-al/el/ol	-ал/ел/ол	Case of possession
Dative	-am/em/om	-ам/ем/ом	Case of indirect object
Accusative	-an/en/on	-ан/ен/он	Case of direct object
Partitive	-a/e/o	-а/е/о	Case of ripartition It can be translated with the adjectives some any
Essive	-as/es/os	-ас/ес/ос	Case of existence It can be translated with the word as
Causal	-fal/fel/fol	-фал/фел/фол	Case of causes It can be translated with prepositions because of for
Originative	-dala/dele/dolo	-дала/деле/доло	Case of origin It can be translated with prepositions from of
Instrumental	-kam/kem/kom	-кам/кем/ком	Case of instrument It can be translated with prepositions with by
Comitative	-sam/sem/som	-сам/сем/сом	Case of company It can be translated with preposition (together) with
Agentive	-õlna/õlne/õlno	-õлна/õлне/õлно	Case of agent It can be translated with the adjectives some any
Finalitative- benefactive	-ossa/osse/osso	-осса/оссе/оссо	Case of finality and benefice It can be translated with preposition for
Abessive	-baś/beś/boś	-баз/без/боз	Case of absence It can be translated with preposition without
Temporal	-ňal/ňel/ňol	-њал/њел/њол	Case of time It can be translated with prepositions at during
Terminative	-õňa/õňe/õňo	-õња/õње/õњо	Case of end It can be translated with preposition until
Inessive	-ka/ke/ko	-ка/ке/ко	See table below
Elative	-kaňa/keňe/koňo	-кања/кење/коњо	See table below
Illative	-kaţun/keţun/koţun	-каөун/кеөун/коөун	See table below
Superessive	-sõda/sõde/sõdo	-сõда/сõде/сõдо	See table below
Delative	-šanë/šenë/šonë	-шанë/шенë/шонë	See table below
Sublative	-sõğa/sõğe/sõğo	-сõђа/сõђе/сõђо	See table below
Adessive	-đyna/đyne/đyno	-ћына/ћыне/ћыно	See table below
Ablative	-daţë/deţë/doţë	-даөë/деөë/доөë	See table below
Allative	-adanë/edenë/odonë	-аданë/еденë/одонë	See table below
Interjective	-rağä/reğä/roğä	-рађä/ређä/рођä	See table below
Transitive	-rakä/rekä/rokä	-ракä/рекä/рокä	See table below
Translative	-arykë/erykë/orykë	-арыкë/ерыкë/орыкë	See table below

The last 12 cases in table above are Locative cases. The locative system of Lišĕč language is highly developed, with indication for interior (inside), surface (on, above) and adjacency (near), and with the four locative complements: statement in, movement to, movement from and movement across.

So, for example, the sublative case means a movement towards above, or a movement over a surface.

Case System
	interior	surface	adjacency
statement in	inessive	superessive	adessive
movement to	illative	sublative	allative
movement from	elative	delative	ablative
movement across	interjective	transitive	translative

Adjectives

Adjectives act like substantives, they take the same endings of case and number. Adjectives in attributive function are placed always before their substantives. Only past participles (which are adjectives) can be placed after the substantive.

There is no article at all.

Adverbs

Adverbs derived from adjectives are built by adding to adjectives’ base form the adverbial ending: -õkša/õkše/õkšo,-õкша/õкше/õкшо

Locative adverbs

Lišĕč locative adverbs have a particular feature, which makes them different from the other languages‘ adverbs: they decline. They take the same locative endings of substantives, to indicate what kind of movement or statement they express, according to the locative system, explained in the table above. For example:

Sinaan/Синаан has the unspecified meaning of there, but its role can be specified by adding the locative endings:

With the elative ending, Sinaankaňa/Синаанкања, it specifies its meaning in from there inside

With the adessive ending, Sinaanđyna/Синаанћына, it specifies its meaning in there (statement) near.

And so the other locative adverbs decline.

Pronouns

Personal Pronouns

Pronouns	Latin	Cyrillic
I	kaj	кай
Thou	le	ле
He/she/it	am	ам
We (exclusive)	fi	фи
We (inclusive)	fikaj	фикай
You	lěni	лěни
They	amini	амини

Personal pronouns use the same endings substantives to decline. Personal pronouns in nominative are not needed before declined verbs, since they already show their person with desinences.

Personal pronouns declined in genitive play the role of our possessive adjectives/pronouns. They are placed before the substantive but they are not adjectives and they do not decline (note: they are already declined in genitive). Other Uralic languages have particular personal desinence to express our possessive adjectives, and maybe Lišěč had but surely lost them.

My mother: kajal anja/кайал анйа

Interrogative Pronouns

Pronouns	Latin	Cyrillic
What	nik	ник
Who	këta	кëта
Which	jõgë	йõгë
How Much	skolg	сколг

Interrogative pronouns use the same endings for substantives to decline.

Numerals

Number	Latin	Cyrillic
0	nõl	нõл
1	ögši	öгши
2	kägśi	кäгзи
3	öłne	öљнë
4	ňiła	њиљп
5	biśi	бизи
6	güśij	гÿзий
7	sjěn	сйěн
8	vaśën	вазëн
9	điviţ	ћивиө
10	kyme	кыме

Verbs

Verbs do conjugate according to persons, moods (indicative, subjunctive, conditional, accusative, imperative) and tenses (present, aorist, perfect past, imperfect past, ancient past, anterior past, recent future, far future, anterior future)

Verbs do conjugate according to persons by adding some personal endings: