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 |
| |||||
| Close-mid | ||||||
| Mid | ||||||
| Open-mid | ||||||
| Near-open | ||||||
| Open | ||||||
Consonants
| Bilabial | Labio- dental |
Dental | Alveolar | Post- alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | |||||||
| Nasal | |||||||
| Vibrant | |||||||
| Fricative | |||||||
| Affricate | |||||||
| Approximant | |||||||
| Lateral approximant | |||||||
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).
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 | |||
| Genitive | |||
| Dative | |||
| Accusative | |||
| Partitive | It can be translated with the adjectives some any | ||
| Essive | It can be translated with the word as | ||
| Causal | It can be translated with prepositions because of for | ||
| Originative | It can be translated with prepositions from of | ||
| Instrumental | It can be translated with prepositions with by | ||
| Comitative | It can be translated with preposition (together) with | ||
| Agentive | It can be translated with the adjectives some any | ||
| Finalitative- benefactive |
It can be translated with preposition for | ||
| Abessive | It can be translated with preposition without | ||
| Temporal | It can be translated with prepositions at during | ||
| Terminative | It can be translated with preposition until | ||
| Inessive | |||
| Elative | |||
| Illative | |||
| Superessive | |||
| Delative | |||
| Sublative | |||
| Adessive | |||
| Ablative | |||
| Allative | |||
| Interjective | |||
| Transitive | |||
| Translative |
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 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| statement in | |||
| movement to | |||
| movement from | |||
| movement across |
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
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
Interrogative pronouns use the same endings for substantives to decline.
Numerals
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:
| Personal Desinence | Latin | Cyrillic |
|---|---|---|
| I | ||
| Thou | ||
| He/She/It | ||
| We (exclusive) | ||
| We (inclusive) | ||
| You | ||
| They |
This makes the nominative personal pronouns completely useless to conjugate verbs.
Before adding the personal endings, you have to indicate the verb’s mood, by adding modal endings:
| Mood | Latin | Cyrillic |
|---|---|---|
| indicative | ||
| subjunctive | ||
| conditional | ||
| accusative | ||
| imperative |
- The Indicative mood marks certain facts and it’s the mood of the reality.
- The Subjunctive mood marks uncertain facts, doubts, and possibility..
- The Conditional mood marks facts under a specified condition, possibility, unreality.
- The Accusative mood marks actions in subordinated clauses. It can only appear in this kind of clauses, which so do not require particular conjunctions. It can be added together with subjunctive or conditional endings, if the meaning of the verbal action requires them.
- The Imperative mood marks orders. It does not require personal endings.
At last, but before the personal endings, you should add the temporal endings, to indicate the verb’s tense:
| Tense | Latin | Cyrillic |
|---|---|---|
| Present | ||
| Aorist | ||
| Perfect Past | ||
| Imperfect Past | ||
| Ancient Past | ||
| Anterior Past | ||
| Recent Future | ||
| Far Future | ||
| Anterior Future |
- The Present tense marks an action which takes place in present time.
- The Aorist tense marks an action, which took place in past time, but without any time reference, and any aspectual reference.
- The Perfect Past tense marks an action in a specified past, with the meaning of the completeness of the action itself. The expressed action is complete and with no links with present time.
- The Imperfect Past tense marks an action in a specified past, with the meaning of incompleteness of the action itself. The expressed action is not complete or it has some links with present time, or we talk about the time of last of the action itself.
- The Ancient Past tense marks an action, which took place before an action expressed by the Aorist tense.
- The Anterior Past tense marks an action, which took place before an action expressed by the Perfect Past tense or Imperfect Past tense.
- The Recent Future tense marks an action, which will take place in a future not far from present time.
- The Far Future tense marks an action, which will take place in a far future from present time.
- The Anterior Future tense marks an action, which will take place before an action expressed by Recent Future tense or Far Future tense.
