Sgen language

The Sgen language(Sgen Language: Ikerikete Repemie, literally "Farmer's language") is a language isolate spoken by the Sgen people living in the Soltenna area of Miraria.

In the past, the Sgen people were virtually all peasants, as a result, the sgen language used to be a language without writting system, and the Sgen alphabet was only introduved in 1890s.

Phonology

Consonants

	bilabial	dental	velar
voiceless	p/ɸ/f	t/ts/s	k/x
voiced	m/b/β	ɾ/l/n/d	ɣ/ɡ/ŋ/ɰ

vowels

	front	back
closed	ɪ/ɪː/iː	o/oː/ɤ/ʊ
open	ɛ/ɛː/eː	ɑ/ɑː/ɒ/ʌ/ɔ

Syllable structure:(C)V

Transcription

• A - /ɑ//ɒ//ʌ//ɔ/
• E - /ɛ/
• GH - /ɣ//ɡ//ŋ//ɰ/
• I - /ɪ/
• K - /k/
• M - /m//b//β/
• O - /o//ɤ//ʊ/
• P - /p/
• R - /ɾ//l//n//d/
• T - /t//ts//s/

Note: "aa", "ee", "ii", and "oo" are not long vowels of "a", "e", "i", and "o", "aa", "ee", "ii", and "oo" should be pronounced separately e.g. "ee" is frequently pronounced as /ɛ ɛ/, not /ɛː/ or /eː/

Vowel Harmony

If vowels of the stem of a word are front vowels, the vowels of affixes change into front vowels; If vowels of the stem of a word are back vowels, the vowels of affixes change into back vowels.

The vowel Harmony rule is shown below:

• o(close-mid back vowels or near-close back vowels)<->i(near-close front vowels)
• a(Open-mid back vowels or open back vowels)<->e(Open-mid front vowels)

example:

• rakataka(person/human) --> rakataka-ro(to the person)
• ikeremi(child) --> ikeremi-ri(to the child)
• rakataka(person/human) + teriki(land) --> rakataka-taroko(Homeland of Sgen people)

However, in the modern language, compound words often don't follow the vowel harmony rule

Grammar

Syntax

Word Order

• Basic Word Order: Subject-Object-Verb(SOV)
• Adpositions are postpositions, conjunctions are at the end of the sentence

Morphology

• Noun inflections:
  • Numbers:
    • dual:-po/-pi
    • plural:-pa/-pe
  • Cases:
    • Nominative:-ma/-me
    • Genitive:-ta/-te
    • Dative:-ro/-ri
    • Accusative:-mo/-mi
    • Benefactive:-ga/-ge
    • Instrumental:-go/-gi
    • Locative:-to/-ti
    • Ablative:-ra/-re

• Verb inflections:
  • infinitive/adverbial: -paro/-peri
  • Tense-aspects-mood:
    • Indicative:
      • present:-paro/-peri
      • past imperfective:-poka/-pike
      • present continuous:-roka/-rike
      • perfective:-gata/-gete
    • subjunctive: -ra/-re
    • optative:-gomo/-gimi
  • Other marks:
    • question maker:-kaga/-kege
    • negation:-pamo/-pemi

• adjective:-ta/-te
• dependent clause ender:-maro/-meri

words

This is only a part of the words, the complete word list is under construction.

Numbers

1. one:mo
2. two:pi
3. three:pepi
4. four:emi
5. five:poka
6. (six:mopokapao(1+5); pokamopao(5+1))
7. (seven:pipikepei(2+5, vowel mutation); pokapopao(5+2, vowel mutation))
8. (eight:piemi(2*4, vowel mutation); pokapapopao(5+3, vowel mutation); pepipikepei(3+5, vowel mutation))
9. (nine:taamopoa(10-1, vowel mutation); emipikepei(4+5, vowel mutation); pokaamopao(5+4, vowel mutation))
10. ten:taa

• hundred:kaamaa
• plus:pao
• minus:pie
• -th:-ata/-ete

Pronouns

	single	dual	triple	plural
1st exclusive	ako	akopo	akoka	akopa
1st inclusive	ako	akopota	akopotapo	akopotapa
2nd	pite	pitepi	piteke	pitepe
3rd general	amo	amopo	-	amopa
3rd near(this/these)	eri	eripi	-	eripe
3rd far(that/those)	ara	arapo	-	arapa

Conjugations and other words

• And: a
• Or: e
• If: i
• Then: mepi
• Because: ka
• So; therefore: ta
• before(also used with dative nouns): pie
• after(also used with dative nouns): pa
• when(not pronoun); as soon as: apo