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/
