Hello everyone, I am new here but have been lurking for a while. My conlang's name is Georgish, the reason for that is because it is the language of a fictional island on the Georges Bank, a shallow plateau located east of Massachusetts in the USA. One day, perhaps I will construct the island...
The conlang is influenced by French, German, Hungarian, and Lithuanian, but the majority of words are made-up.
The subject of a sentence can be anywhere, but the object follows the verb. It is generally spoken and written as SVO, however.
The alphabet is a modified form of the Latin one. It is phonetic in that each character or certain combinations of characters represent a specific sound or dipthong/ligature (what's the difference?). The four diacritics used are:
Macron:
ā ō ē ū ī
Circumflex:
â ô û î ĝ ĉ ŝ
Umlaut:
ä ör ïr
Caron/haček:
The caron is used when two letters that usually combine to form a certain sound are meant to be pronounced separately. In example, there are two words in Georgish that look the same yet have different meanings, the word
szar (IPA:ɬɑːr). Normally, the
sz combines to make a certain sound. However, in the other meaning of the word, it is pronounced separately. To distinguish between them, a caron is placed over the
s, making the word
šzar (IPA:ʃzɑːr).
The full alphabet and its IPA/English equivalents:
Ā ā = æ = a as in bat
A a = ɑː = o as in long
 â = ɑ̃ = a as in the French pronunciation of
FranceÄ ä = ɛː = ä as in the German pronunciation of
ÄpfelB b = b = b as in boy
Cz cz = tʃ = ch as in check
Ĉ ĉ = ç = ch as in the German pronunciation of
Bach (not K or SH!)
Ĉr ĉr = çr = a sort of French 'chr' that is much more in the throat than
ĉC c = s = s as in song
D d = d = d as in dog
Đ đ = θ = th as in theater
V v = ð = th as in though
E e = eɪ = a as in day
Ē ē = ɛ = e as in bed
F f = f = f as in fun
G g = ɡ = g as in guy
Ĝ ĝ = dʒ = g as in giant
H h = h = h as in home
I i = iː = ee as in sheep
Ī ī = ɪ = i as in bin
Î î = aɪ = i as in fight
J j = ʒ = s as in vision
K k = k = k as in sky
L l = l = l as in lamb
Ŋ ŋ = m = m as in mice
N n = n = n as in nice
Ng ng = ŋ = ng as in long
Nz nz = ? = n as in the French pronunciation of
vent. If you remove the 'n,' something is missing. This is that something...
O o = oʊ = o as in go
Ō ō = ʊ = oo as in took
Ô ô = ɜr = ir as in fir
P p = p = p as in pie
R r = r = r as in run
Rh rh = h+r
Rr rr (written as an R with a macron over it) = ɾ =
linkS s = ʃ = sh as in sheep
Sz sz = ɬ =
linkŜ ŝ = ɮ =
linkT t = t = t as in tie and t as in cat
U u = uː = oo as in food
Ū ū = ʌ = u as in mud
Û û = œ = ö as in the German pronunciation of
schön.
W w = v = v as in vast
Ŵ ŵ = w = w as in west
Y y = j = y as in yes
Z z = z = z as in zoo
Þ þ = ? = nt as in the French pronunciation of
vent. A type of stop.
Ligatures/dipthongs:
Āu āu = aʊ = ow as in how
Är är = ɛːr = är as in the German pronunciation of
BärÖr ör = oʌ
Ïr ïr = iːʌ
Oa oa = oi as in the French pronunciation of
poiOi oi = oy as in boy
There are 10 cases for nouns, and each noun is grouped into one of three declensions. I will go in-depth about this later.
Each verb has 65 forms, including the root infinitive form, "to verb." ("verb" meaning the specific verb in question) This is because of the tenses and numbers of verbs, which I will go into later too.
I haven't yet constructed a clear picture of the grammar...
Other information:
• Numbers are written as 2, 20, 200, 2'000, 20'000, 200'000, 2'000'000, etc.
• Dates are written as year|month|day, i.e 2010|Nov|27
• Names are written as Last Middle First, i.e Christie Agatha
• Addresses are written from most specific to least (this is the general rule wen it comes to describing something)
• All adjectives, not adverbs, are capitalized.
• There is no 'yes' or 'no', when answering a question with a yes or no answer, you have to restate the question. I.e., if the question was "do you have a cat" (in Georgish:
Kczo ŋirebä daz?), you would answer either "I have a cat"
(Ŋirepä daz) or "I have not a cat"
(nī'Ŋirepä daz)-Ian
