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.
| Poirih | |
|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Yuunli |
| Genetic classification: |
Indo-European |
There is a different dialect in every province. Standard Poirih is actually an artificial construction with elements of both Mich-Inzl and Chirachi dialects. See Poirih dialects for details.
Contents
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
Grammar
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
| fem | masc | pl | |
|---|---|---|---|
| NOM | t | t | ti |
| AKK | t | ten | ti |
| DAT | tea | tem | ten |
Indefinite Article
As in many other Germanic languages, there is no indefinite article in plural.
| fem | masc | |
|---|---|---|
| NOM | a | a |
| AKK | a | an |
| DAT | oana | oam |
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
Dialects
There are four groups of dialects:
- Standard Poirih
- West Mich-Inzl
- East Mich-Inzl
- Chirachi
People in Honkoa speak a dialect with western and eastern Mich-Inzl elements.
See Poirih dialects for details.
