Zefāzh
Zefāzh is a language developped in the early-mid twenty-first century, spoken at first primarily by devoted followers of the World-Maker Zef; within a decade, it had become the lingua franca for those from all over the world immigrating to Zefasja, a nation founded on a partially esoteric philosophical movement referred to varyingly as "Zefism," "Poetic Imperialism" or "Trinitism."
Phonology
Consonants
| Consonants | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bilabial | Labiod. | Dental | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Coarticulated | ||||||||||
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||||||||||||||
| Plosive | p | b | t | d | k | g | ||||||||||||
| Fricative | f | v | θ | ð | s | z | ʃ | ʒ | ç | ʝ | χ | ɕ | ʑ | |||||
| Approximant | j | |||||||||||||||||
| Tap | ɾ | |||||||||||||||||
| Trill | r | ʀ | ||||||||||||||||
| Lateral Approximant | l | ɫ | ||||||||||||||||
Vowels
| Vowels | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Near-front | Near-back | Back | |||||||
| Close | i | u | ||||||||
| Near-Close | ɪ | ʊ | ||||||||
| Close-Mid | e | o | ||||||||
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ | ||||||||
| Open | a | ɑ | ||||||||
Romanization
The various phonemes are represented with the Latin Alphabet as they are in English, with the following additions/exceptions:
/θ/ - th
/ð/ - dh
/ʃ/ - sh
/ʒ/ - zh
/ç/ - c
/ʝ/ - j
/χ/ - x
/ɕ/ - ś, or sj
/ʑ/ - ź, or zj
/ɾ/ - r
/r/ - rr
/ʀ/ - rh
/l/ - l
/ɫ/ - ll
/ɪ/ - i
/i/ - ī, or ii
/ɛ/ - e
/e/ - ē, or ee
/a/ - a
/ɑ/ - ā, or aa
/ɔ/ - o
/o/ - ō, or oo
/ʊ/ - u
/u/ - ū, or uu
The following diphthongs may be found, and are written thus:
/aj/ - ai /ɛj/ - ei /ɔj/ - oi /ʊj/ - ui /aw/ - au /ɔj/ - ou
Syllable Structure
Zefāzh has a rather restrictive syllable structure, where the most complicated possibility is CCVC. While any consonant can form the onset and coda in a (C)V(C) syllable, only the following clusters are permitted at syllable onsets:
/f, v, θ, ð, ʃ, ʒ, ç, ʝ/ + /n, m, ŋ/
Any plosive or fricative + /ɾ, l, ɫ, j/
Mutation
In addition, when certain phonemes meet up at syllable boundaries (such as with affixes, inflection or conjugation), certain mutations may occur. The following mutations occur during inflection of nouns and adjectives:
Dative Case /ɾr/ - /r/
/ʀr/ - /ʀ/
/χr/ - /ʀ/
/θr/ - /θɾ/
/ðr/ - /ðɾ/
Genitive Case
/zs/ - /s/
/ʃs/ - /ɕ/
/ʒs/ - /ʑ/
/ɕs/ - /θ/
/ʑs/ - /ð/
Instrumental Case
/ʒʃ/ - /ʃ/ /ɕʃ/ - /ʃ/ /ʑʃ/ - /ʒ/
