Poirih

Poirih (pronounced "poytich" with a Spanish P, an American T and a Scottish CH, X-SAMPA ["pOI.4ix]) is the dominating language in Yuunli.

There is a different dialect in every province. The Balembai dialect is the closest one to Standard Poirih, but Standard Poirih is actually an artificial construction with elements of both Mysh Island and Sklyrachy dialects. See Poirih dialects for details.

Alphabet

In the following picture, capital letters are black, lowercase letters blue, and the Latin transcription red:

Two diacritics are used: a horizontal bar above a vowel indicates an -A diphthong, a c-shaped hook open on the left above the vowel indicates an -I diphthong.

Pronunciation of the letters in the Latin transcription (Standard Poirih):
A [6], B [b], CH [C], E [E], F [f], H [x], I [i], K [k], L [l`], M [m], N [n], NG [N], NK [Nk], O [O], P [p], R [4], T [t], U [u], Y [j], Z [z]

see Poirih dialects for regional variations

Syntax

Word Order

The basic word order is:
subject - finite verb - object - nonfinite verb
The word order does not change in questions and subordinate clauses.
Note that verbs show person, number and in one case (3rd singular) even gender. That's why personal pronouns are usually omitted.

Case

There are three noun cases in Poirih:

• Nominative for the subject of a sentence
• Accusative for the direct object of a sentence
• Dative for a beneficiary or indirect object of a sentence

Gender

All nouns in Poirih are either feminine or masculine. The gender distinction is only visible in singular, though.

Morphology

Definite Article

Indefinite Article

As in many other Germanic languages, there is no indefinite article in plural.

Adjectives

Adjectives are not declined.

Verbs

• Infinitive: -a or ending with a nasal consonant
• 1st person singular: -i
• 2nd person singular: -st
• 3rd person singular feminine: -tsi
• 3rd person singular masculine: -ta
• 1st person plural: -ama
• 2nd person plural: -ana
• 3rd person plural: -atsi