How to read Fiyuri! ♦ ♦ ♦ ────────────────────────────────────────────────
No, we're not talking about the actual Fiyuri writing system. That was lost hundreds of years ago, along with technology; Corleos don't read or write anymore. We're talking about Fiyuri written in Roman alphabet.
For example, what is this supposed to sound like?
Ppamazim ppurix'ak hix'ovurra? "What does this say?" or "How do you read this?"
Click the Spoiler button for the full pronunciation guide!There will be some voice recording clips in the future as well, so you can actually hear how these sound.
a- "ah," as in father.
b- "b" as in bed
bh- Your usual "b" sound followed by an extra puff of air.
ch- "ch" as in choice
d- daddy
d'- Note the apostrophe.This one sounds like a D with a strong R-flavor. For instance, "ad'a" sounds like a mixture between "arda" and "adra."
dh- like with the bh, this is a D followed by an extra puff of air.
e- Edward. Occasionally also refers to the "ae" sound as in add, but I will not be differentiating these two vowels here. Not all dialects differentiates those two vowels anyway.
f- SOUNDS a lot like the F in English, but the actual pronunciation mechanism is different. See, Corleos have sharp, pointy teeth in their default form. They don't like to bite themselves just to produce a sound. So instead of using their teeth, they produce their F with their lips only.
g- get
gh- same deal with the bh and dh: a "hard G" sound followed by an extra puff of air.
h- hello
i- like the Spanish i. Somewhere between the American "feat" and "fit."
j- joy
k- car
kk- similar to scar. Yes, this is different from the regular single k. If you know Korean, this is exactly like the Korean kk.
L- look. Most dialects pronounce it with the top of the tongue, towards the tip. This sounds a bit different from the American L, which is pronounced with the very tip of the tongue.
m- mouse
n- nose
ng- sing. Unlike in English, this NG sound can come at the head of a syllable.
o- like the Spanish o.
p- pin
pp- similar to spin. Again, distinct from the single P. If you know Korean, this is exactly like the Korean pp.
q- square. Identical to KK, but occurs in specific contexts.
r- like the Spanish r. If you see rr, you roll'em just like in Spanish.
s- sun
s'h- This sound does not exist in English. It's... an "aspirated S." Kind of similar to the Korean S, but different.
sh- shine. Note the lack of the apostrophe.
t- tie
t'- Like with the d', this is a T with a strong R-flavoring. "At'a" sounds like a mixture between "arta" and "atra."
tt- similar to stun. Again, Korean speakers, this is the TT that you are familiar with. (But note that Fiyuri lacks the CHCH/ JJ.)
u- like the Spanish u
v- victory. Like with the F, this is pronounced with lips only, for the same reason.
w- wand
x- has NOTHING to do with the English X. This denotes the tongue-clicking sound as in "tsk tsk tsk."
x'- Another click consonant. To pronounce the Fiyuri x', click/pop your tongue against your gums behind your top front teeth.
Kka: Yes. Qya: Informal yes (like "yeah") Yega: No Yaga: Informal no (like "nope" or "nah") Ye/ Ya: Very informal no
♦ Numbers Note that Fiyuri uses hexadecimal. However, for the sake of everyone's sanity, you can disregard this when RPing unless the difference in numeral systems becomes an important topic for that scene.
Am (1), Gham (2), Sram (3), Gram (4), Lo (5), Bal (6), Nuk (7), Ruk (8 ) Tti (9), Wos (10), Cho (11), Mal (12), Jek (13), Def (14), Ring (15), Ije (16)
Ije-am (17), Ije-gram (18 ), Ije-zram (19), ...
Kuppi (256) ... This is their "hundred."
Shan (4096) ... This is their "thousand."
♦ Kinship Terms You know how in virtually every human language, "mom" and "dad" have M/ D/ B/ P sounds because those are the sounds a baby is most likely to make? It doesn't happen that way in Fiyuri. Because of subtle differences in their vocal organs, those are not the sounds a baby Corleo is most likely to make.
Xoxo: mom/ mommy Xottri: mother Ngongo: dad/ daddy Ngondi: father
Rizu: son Hurin: daughter Sidya: child/ offspring/ descendant (gender neutral)
On a cultural note, Corleos make an extensive use of kinship terms. When referring to a family member, kinship terms completely replace any and all pronouns. Using a pronoun to refer to a family member means you no longer see that family member on a regular basis. In some parts of Sildat, it's even more serious: such pronoun usage is an indication of serious family drama, e.g. estrangement or renouncement.
Departed family members are usually referred to with kinship terms as a sign of respect and love.
♦ Words That Sound Like English As you can imagine, these are a common cause for misunderstandings and hilarity.
Is/ Yes: means "if" in Fiyuri. Ye/Ya: means "nope" in Fiyuri. Hilda: a name in English; means "white" in Fiyuri. Dip: means "come from" in Fiyuri. Pilo: sounds like pillow... means "crotch" in Fiyuri. Pal: means "tail" in Fiyuri (only refers to long, bending tails such as Corleo tails). Laf: means "go from" in Fiyuri. Perhaps not as confusion-inducing as one might think: the English word "laugh" does not sound like laf to Corleos, as they will hear "laugh" as "lef." Ninja: Not a genuine English word, but hey. Means "female" in Fiyuri.
Yambas. Hello.. Yor x'ajam. Goodbye. (literally "be well.") Batujol darunog-wi. Nice to meet you. (literally "let us get to know each other from now on.") Metobes om bochuna kkara vrahe. [formal] Long time no see. (literally "A long time has passed.") Bochuna kkara. [informal] Long time no see. S'hemingu. Sleep well. Yo evurkka. Welcome. Ish______ yo evurkka. Welcome to ______. (actually an ungrammatical expression... I'll discuss this in another post.)
♦ Gratitude A bit more complex than how it is in English. Humans get these mixed up all the time.
Yo rinikka. Thanking for a favor done just now.. Yo riniyosh. Thanking for a favor done some time ago. Yo riniyusha. Thanking for a long term favor that's currently happening. Om bohibhoki darra. Formal expression of gratitude. The "om" at the beginning is optional. Has a less common variation: (om) bohibhoki darsha.
♦ Expletives
Bojwame. . Spat. Rough equivalent to "s**t," as in "s**t, this is bad." Unlike the English word s**t, it's a pure expletive and doesn't have any meaning other than 'the word you utter when things go wrong.' Ttacha. Rough equivalent to "********," as in "********, this is bad." Unlike the English word s**t, it doesn't have any sexual meaning attached to it. It has roots in tacho, which means to escape. It probably became an expletive because when your prey gets away, that tends to inspire swearing...
♦ Stress System. Majorly dialect-dependent. Thankfully, stress placement does not change the meaning of the word. If you stress the wrong syllable, it'll sound weird, but it probably won't be mistaken for a different word.
This will be discussed in detail in a separate post, when I talk about the differences in major dialects.
♦ Two or More Vowels in a Row This is not allowed in Fiyuri, except in the Hurin dialect. Most dialects will insert glides (y's and w's) in order to prevent two or more vowels occurring in a row. For instance, the Japanese word "aoi" would be pronounced like "awoye" in Fiyuri.
Sometimes, the morphemes themselves come with a failsafe consonant or optional vowel. The suffix -hut has the H as the failsafe consonant. This morpheme, which can be translated as "one who does ____," appears as -ut when attaching to a word that ends in a consonant: ishul (uniqueness, pioneering, "firstness") + ut = ishulut (forerunner/ Harbinger)
But when it attaches to a morpheme (or a partial morpheme) that ends in a vowel, the H suddenly appears so you don't end up with two vowels in a row. ra + hut = rahut (predator).
The animacy agreement morpheme mbo, on the other hand, has an optional vowel at the end. The o is dropped when it is followed by a morpheme that begins with a vowel.
♦ F~V Allophony. F and V are the same phoneme in Fiyuri. It's considered as one sound. When it's at the beginning or the end of a word/phrase, it becomes F; anywhere else, it becomes V. For example:
"van" and "fan" sound the same to Corleos. A Corleo will pronounce both as "fan." "telephone" is pronounced as "televon." "iPhone" becomes "ayevon." On the other hand, "phone" is pronounced relatively correctly: "fon." "love" and "Victor" are pronounced as "lof" and "Fictor" respectively.
This is a linguistic issue, not a biological limit. A Corleo who has become familiar with English will be able to tell the difference between "van" and "fan," and maybe even be able to pronounce "van" correctly.
♦ S~Z Allophony Same deal as the F~V. It becomes F at the beginning and the end of a word/phrase, and V everywhere else. Examples:
"zip" and "sip" sound the same to Corleos. A Corleo will pronounce both as "sip." "fussy" and "fuzzy" sound the same to Corleos. A Corleo will pronounce both as "fuzzy." "assassins" is pronounced as "azazins." (note that in English, the last S in "assassins" is actually pronounced as Z.)
Worth noting: S'H is distinct from S, but it too becomes Z when it's not at the beginning of a word/ phrase; when it's at the end of a word/phrase, it becomes S. SH (without the apostrophe) is SH everywhere, though. It does not turn into Z or anything else for that matter.
♦ Allophony Breaker Occasionally, V and Z remain voiced even when they're at the beginning of a phrase. One common example is the wordvubhuwhich literally means "three+ eyes" and is the name of a three-eyed snake species. This word is always vubhu; in most dialects, it's never pronounced as fubhu.
What's going on? This is a weird example of dissimilation. The bh is a voiced consonant, yet it's aspirated and is a close cousin of voiceless consonants. In most dialects, syllables with a voiceless aspirated consonant (namely bh or dh) are stressed; they're very salient sounds in Fiyuri, and they are very breathy. In order to contrast and highlight their breathyness, the F/S of the adjacent syllable(s) become voiced.
Not every dialect does this every time you have a F/S next to a BH/DH, though. In some dialects, this happens only when the two syllables share a common vowel, which makes the syllables too similar, thus requiring dissimilation.
♦ One Consonant Per Coda. Coda is the ending consonant in a syllable. For example, N is the coda in pin, sin, grin. L is the coda in roll, spill, deal. Syllables like "do" or "see" don't have codas at all.
In English, you can have multiple consonants in a single coda. For example, "rooms" have M and Z.This is not allowed in Fiyuri."Rooms" would be pronounced like "rumuz." The previous vowel is duplicated to break up the consonant cluster. "Excerpts" (four consonants in the coda!) would turn into "ikzoptos" or perhaps "ikzorosh."
♦ Loss of Distinction You know how D, D', DH, T, TT and T' are six different sounds in Fiyuri? When you put them in codas, though, they ALL become T. "Bid" and "bit" would sound the same to a Corleo, and would both be pronounced as "bit."
Same with B, BH, P and PP. They all become P. "Crab" and "crap" are both pronounced as "crap."
Same with S~Z and S'H. They both become S.
No other sounds are affected.
Posted: Tue Oct 08, 2013 1:09 am
Introduction to Fiyuri Grammar ♦ ♦ ♦ ────────────────────────────────────────────────
♦ Subject Object Verb. Fiyuri is a SOV language, similar to Latin, Japanese, Korean, etc. The word ordering is flexible. You could put the object first, subject second, verb last, and it would still be understood the same way as SOV.
♦ Parts of Speech It can be argued that Fiyuri doesn't have distinct parts of speech. Looking at a sentence likePpadho ralxayosh("I have sinned,"), one might be tempted to translate the 'verb'alxaas "to sin," but it's really not a verb; it can be easily conjugated as the subject or the object of a sentence, and it can easily be made into an adjective or an adverb as well.
♦ Animacy Hierarchy Fiyuri assigns an animacy level to all beings. This is kind of similar to word gender found in German, Spanish, etc. but unlike gender, it's not random. Here is the animacy hierarchy:
Level 1: superior person Level 2: equal as the speaker, or inferior/ subordinate Level 3: newborns, infants, or simply an inferior/ subordinate. Sometimes the mute are also grouped into this category because they can't speak just like newborns, although that is considered offensive. Level 4: predators or very large animals, such as wolves or cows.
The following three levels are grouped together into one level in some dialects; those dialects have only five levels total.
Level 5: preys or very small animals, such as a frog (even though it's a predator) Level 6: animate non-living, such as falling leaves or moving water Level 7: everything else, including the inanimate, the abstract and activities (such as "jumping")
The levels affect conjugation. An action performed by a level 1 subject is conjugated differently than an action performed by a level 3 subject. As a matter of fact, the subject themselves would be conjugated differently.
♦ Plurality Fiyuri has three categories here: singular, dual and plural (three or more). Singular is denoted by the suffix -na. Dual has the suffix -den. Plural has the suffix -bhu. Meaning if you have only one of something, you say ____den. If you have exactly two of it, ____na. Got three or more? It's ____bhu.
Here's the tricky part. Every "noun" is either inherently singular, inherently dual or inherently plural. This is semi-random. For instance, "korliyo" (meaning Corleo) is inherently singular, so you don't say "korliyoden" to say one Corleo. But if you have two Corleos, it's "korliyona." If you have three or more, it's "korliyobhu."
"Vu" means two eyes. If you want to talk about only one eye, it's "vuden." Have we got a three-eyed person? That person has "vubhu."
"Ngashal" means mushrooms. Three or more mushrooms, to be precise. If you have only one mushroom, it's "ngashalden." If you have two, it's "ngashana."
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Posted: Tue Oct 08, 2013 1:12 am
Conjugating the Subject: Intransitive ♦ ♦ ♦ ────────────────────────────────────────────────
Instead of relying on the word order, Fiyuri utilizes subject and object markers. These markers are prefixes, which is somewhat unusual among SOV languages.
___Ppalgere ikorliyor x'a. ___"You are a Corleo."
Gere means "you," a second person pronoun. The ppal preceding the gere signifies that "you" are the subject of this sentence.
In some situations, the subject marker may appear as ppa without the L:
___Ppadho ikorliyor x'a. ___"I am a Corleo."
This is a phonological issue, and not terribly important. Just don't be alarmed when you see the ppal missing the L.
What IS important is the "honorable" intransitive subject marker, mal (which can also lose its L sometimes).
___Malzere ikorliyor x'a. ___"You are a Corleo."
Zere (actually s'here, but S'H turns into a Z when preceded by any sound) is a second person pronoun for animacy level 1. When you have a level 1 subject, you need to conjugate it with mal rather than pal.
Conjugating the Subject: Transitive ♦ ♦ ♦ ────────────────────────────────────────────────
For animacy level 1, the transitive subject marker iss'hettu(if the subject-word begins with a consonant) ors'hel(if the subject-word begins with a vowel). Note that "s'hettu" is often shortened to "s'he."
___S'hengongdi medho evraniwo-kka. ___"My father just helped me."
For animacy level 2+, the transitive verb marker isfe(if the subject-word begins with a consonant) oravel(if the subject-word begins with a vowel). "Fe" and "avel" don't differ as much in Fiyuri as they would in English. F and V are variants of the same sound in Fiyuri; if it's at the beginning or the end of a word or a phrase, it's pronounced as F. Everywhere else, it's pronounced as V.
Some verbs that are intransitive in English are transitive in Fiyuri. Major examples:
dip: "come from." In Fiyuri, the location where you're coming from is the object of this verb. yeqri: "come to." In Fiyuri, the location where you're coming to (or arriving at) is the object of this verb. laf: "go to." I'm sure you can guess what becomes the object of this verb... t'am: "go from." Yup, you guessed it. chuna: "pass." So something like "time passes" becomes "it passes time" in Fiyuri.
It can happen the other way around, too. Behold!
hix'of: "say," as in "I said no." In such a sentence, Fiyuri does not consider "no" to be the object of the verb say/ said. It's a different category altogether. The same thing happens with all similar verbs, such as thinking, telling, believing, etc. They are all intransitive in Fiyuri.
When the object of a verb is level 1 in terms of animacy, you use the prefixset.If the object-word begins with a consonant, the T is dropped, so you simply sayse.
Fiyuri is an agglutinative language. English uses some bound morphemes for certain tenses (e.g. -d for "I fainted"), but it uses a lot of separate words, too (e.g. "I have been living."). In Fiyuri, almost all of tense-aspect-mood expression is done with bound morphemes.
A complete verb phrase goes like this:
1. Animacy of the subject 2. Transitive/ Intransitive/ Passive 3. Root (the actual verb) 4. Tense 5. Aspect 6. Mood X 7. Negation (if required) 8. Mood Y
This order is fixed and cannot be changed, except in a couple of very irregular exceptions.
WTF are "aspect" and "mood"? Read on and it will all become clear! ...Hopefully...
Along with Tense, Aspect expresses how the action relates to the passage of time. If you see a present tense action verb phrase with no Aspect marker, assume progressive. If you see a non-present tense action verb phrase with no Aspect, assume instantaneous. If you see a stative verb phrase with no Aspect marker, assume perpetual.
Perpetual (distinct from Timeless):sha Habitual (e.g. I go there every day):lno Instantaneous:ttol Progressive (e.g. I am running):yen General Pervasive/ Perfect:ra Pervasive from the past (started in the past, still going on. e.g. I have been watching you)va Pervasive from non-past (starting from now, or some point in the future)unokif the verb phrase ends there;unogif there's more after it
Since the rest of the verb phrase components (6, 7 and 8) is not required for every sentence, we now have enough information to start constructing complete verb phrases!
Root morphemes are underlined. Non-underlined parts are the conjugators. For ease of dissection, I will put a hyphen between every morpheme in the verb phrase.
Fedho metadwi r-at-mar-kka. "I just caught a deer."
The verb phrase contains the meaning "just caught." The underlined mar is the "catch" part.
We have the animacy agreementr, followed by transitiveatfollowed bymar,then we have the immediate pastkka.Instantaneous aspectttolhas been omitted, but you can put it afterkkaif you'd like.
More examples are coming!
Present VS Timeless VS Perpetual VS Habitual ♦ ♦ ♦ ────────────────────────────────────────────────
English uses present tense for all three. How do they differ in Fiyuri?
Perpetual VS Habitualis easy. Habitual is a repeating action (I go to school every day); perpetual is a continuous state (roses are beautiful), although it can be used with action verbs in some cases.
Present VS Timelessis also simple. They differentiate 'a piece of wood is floating' (describing an actual piece of wood currently floating) versus 'wood floats in water' (describing the general property of wood).
Timeless VS Perpetualis a little bit tricky. It's impossible to say that perpetual is for stative verbs, and Timeless for action verbs because with the "wood floats" example, Fiyuri doesn't differentiate "wood floats" from "wood is floaty." There is certainly a bit of overlap -- cases where you could use either Timeless or Perpetual (but not both).
Generally speaking, though, here's how you differentiate the two:
Timeless is for general everlasting truths, such as the sky being blue, or fish living in water. Perpetual is for persisting truths about specific individuals, such as Bob being an American, or the Harbinger being a male.
"Bob is an American" would use Perpetual. "Bob is an American name" would use Timeless.
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Posted: Tue Oct 08, 2013 1:18 am
Verb Conjugation 6: Mood X ♦ ♦ ♦ ────────────────────────────────────────────────
Not every verb phrase is required to have Mood. Mood only appears when it is required for the meaning.
The difference between mood morphemes and their English counterparts, such as ability mood "wappru" and English "can"/ "be able to"? In English, "be" "able" "to" are three separate words and can be used in a wide variety of contexts; sometimes you can even just say something like "Can or cannot?" and there's nothing wrong with it.
In contrast, Fiyuri won't let you use these mood morphemes outside of their very specific position within the verb phrase. You cannot utter "wappru?" to ask "can or cannot?", for instance. That would be like saying "a?" to ask "you mean run or ran?" This is the defining trait of an agglutinative language, which is what Fiyuri is.
Imperative (commanding):mele, sometimes shortened tomel or even justme Imperative (non-commanding):jam Pleading (e.g. Could you please ____?):zam Permissive Inquiry (May I ____?):tega
Note that the animacy agreement agrees with the addressee, NOT the speaker. So the literal translation of a permissive inquiry sentence would be something along the lines of "do you permit me to ____?")
Note that imperatives and hortatives do not require tense. And hold on, we're not done with mood X.
Desire (want to do ____):zebhi Intention:jimong Un-intention:kuwar or xudi ability (can ___):wappru(shortened towappuif followed by a morpheme containing "rr") obligation (have to/ must):kemme strong obligation (sometimes used threateningly):ghul Evidentiality distinction (e.g. heard about it VS seen it happen -- there's a whole list of them)
Now we can construct verb phrases with various moods in them! Same convention as the last time: hyphen between each morpheme, the actual verb being underlined.
The above is a complete sentence consisting solely of a verb phrase. The subject is not present, but is assumed to be "you." It COULD be anything/ anyone, technically, although the use of "ghul" kind of implies the speaker is talking directly to whoever it is that needs to start helping.
Animacy agreementr+ transitiveat+niwomeaning "help." Present tensedar+ starting from now/futureunok(k is being omitted due to a phonological issue) Strong, almost threatening obligationghul
Example Number Gham:
Ppadho ri-viyuri-sha-wappru. "I can speak Fiyuri."
Note that "Fiyuri" is being conjugated as a verb, so it's kind of like "I can Fiyuri."
Animacy agreementr(the i is there because "rvi" is not a valid syllable) +viyuri+ perpetualsha+ abilitywappru
The subject is optional, so let's omit it. And while you're at it, contract sha and wappru, as a Corleo would in casual speech.Riviyuri-shappru.
Speaking of sha-wappru contraction, it has an alternate version:shppuru.Note the u insertion between pp and r because Fiyuri doesn't allow three consonants in a row within a single syllable.
In very fast speech, however, you can say "shppru" by shifting "sh" to the previous syllable if the previous syllable ends in a vowel:Riviyurish-ppru.
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