Rejistanian

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Rejistanian

Spoken in:

Introduction

The rejistani language is a conlang created to allow communication between the different peoples of Rejistania without any preference. It is generally used on formal occasions, although some terms are frequently used in ordinary situations. Most rejistanis know the language well enough for simple conversations since it is taught in school and courses for adults are offered free of charge by the government. The grammar is based on northern rejistani languages, but very much simplified. Concepts from Isesi are also adopted, most prominently the 10 forms of comparism. the vocabulary is based on terms used in commerce and that of the Jisu, but that is because the Jisu people conquered large parts of the Rejistanian Island and many of their words became used in other languages. To avoid problems with the different concepts of pronunciation, Rejistanian uses a minimal alphabet of only 18 sounds and letters. Its grammar reminds one partly of Japanese and of Esperanto since it relies heavily on prefixes and suffixes, making it almost agglutinative. Rejistani is written either in the Latin alphabet or in a special rejistani one. The apostrophe is used to separate the different parts of a word. Notable also is the important position of the verb in this language: "xe'ki'lanja'isa'han'ta" (translation: "I will not go there/come.", literal translation: "I'amgoingto'maybe'go'to'not") is a complete sentence, which only consists of a verb ('isa: to go) with its pre- and suffixes.

The alphabet

Rejistanian has fewer characters than most languages, but in transcripts of other languages on the rejistanian island more sounds than those from rejistanian are needed. Characters representing these sounds are composed of two letters and, to avoid confusion, a tilde is put between them. In the rejistani alphabet, an arc is drawn below these letters.

The rejistani alphabet has the following letters: a, d, e, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, r, s, t, u, v, x, y. Pronunciations in IPA: Vowels

  • a = /a/
  • e = /e/ (if short it changes to /ɐ/)
  • i = /i/
  • o = /o/
  • u = /u/
  • y = /aɪ/

Consonants (xihim-consonants):

  • m = /m/
  • n = /n/
  • l = /l/ (can be /ɭ/ at the beginning of words)
  • j = /ʐ/
  • s = /z/
  • x = /ʂ/
  • h = /h/ (at the end of a syllable quiet (even though in western nanti pronounced also there) and here indicating the vowel is short. Example: jilih = /ʐiːli/)
  • v = /w/

Consonants (leji-consonant):

  • t = /t/
  • k = /k/ (can be /q/ at the beginning of words)
  • r = /x/ (in some nanti invariably /ʀ/)
  • d = /d/

If the syllable ends with a consonant, the vowel is short. At the beginning of a word, a xihim-consonant can be as its own syllable (example: xkora is: /ʂ.koːraː/). This influences the stress, which is on the second syllable or at compound-words often on the second word (example: ehasalan = /eː.haːˈ.zaː.lanˌ/ eha=number and salan=high form this word meaning 'to be relegated').

The most common archaic combinations are: (vowel)~n (the vowel is pronounced nasal, similar to French), (vowel)~l (the vowel is stressed and the tone slightly rises, the l is silent), (vowel)~r (the vowel is stressed and the tone slightly falls, the r is silent), s~v (a sound similar to 'th' in thanks) and a~o (which is pronounced like in soul).

Loan words mostly origin from English (since it is the predominant NS-Language), but also other terms have somehow travelled into rejistanian. Loan words are written in Rejistanian as they are spoken, which makes them untracable for most foreigners unless they have some knowledge of the rejistani pronunciation and a lot of fantasy, which is required to find government in kovomin (which only means democratically elected government in contrast to shensa), stadium in estadije or sifr in xivire (which only refers to numbers which have no value like telephone numbers).

Words and easy sentences

Like in Esperanto, a word doesn't change its form if used in different functions (as an example: il'isa sydi = [you] go fast. Adverbial use of "sydi" in comparism to: sydi'il!= [You] hurry! where it is used as a verb). But since rejistanian also knows no cases, a strict word order is required to make the language comprehensible. The order is: [subject] verb [object]. Subject and object are not required: xe'ki'lanja'isa'han'ta = Maybe, I will not come/(go to). is a complete and correct sentence. This maybe highlights another specialty of rejistanian, a grammatical form of a verb can include:

  • subject/pronoun (imperative form can also be formed by this)
  • tense
  • probability
  • negation
  • duration
  • direction
  • passive form

This maybe explains why rejistanian is notorious for long words with many apostrophes.

Verbs

As I said before, the verb has a paramount role in rejistanian. Most important are of course the conjugations:

  • xe' (I)
  • il' (you)
  • mi' (he or she)
  • me' (he)
  • my' (she)
  • xen' (we)
  • iln' (you (plural))
  • min' (they)
  • men' (they (male form))
  • myn' (they (female form))

These forms are always used first if it is a normal sentence and last if it is supposed to be an imperative.

The rejistanian language only knows three tenses, the present form has no prefix, while past and future are indicated by prefixes, which follow the conjugational prefix. In the following list, this is indicated by two apostrophes.

  • 'la' (past)
  • 'ki' (future)

Let me tell something about the future tense, which is confusing for foreigners: It is often interpreted as "going to" not as "will". It is recommended to indicate "will" by making the verb less probable.

Directions can be indicated by a huge amount of suffixes, which follow the verb directly. They can also follow the noun if otherwise the meaning is not clear: xe'isa sike'tes kalisimu'han = [I] go from Sike to Kalisimu. 'ra (in), 'tes (from) and 'han (to) are the most common suffixes.

The negation is indicated by a suffix, which is either last or in the imperative form nexttolast. It is 'ta.

If someone keeps on doing something or the action takes a long time, 'jet is appended after the directional suffixes.

There are again many ways to express probability and the normal/certain form is not indicated by any prefix. In other cases, the prefix has its place between the tenseprefix and the verb. Some examples: 'lanja' (probably), 'meshi' (maybe), 'oki' (surely, if you want to emphasize it) and 'lanjameshi' (extremely improbable, however not impossible)

The passive form is indicated by 'rala', which fits between the tense and ... well, simply summarize the entire order so you can see it.

pronoun, tense, passive form, probability, verb, direction, duration, negation

You know: for the imperative form, the pronoun wanders to the last position. I didn't write it here, since the list is difficult enough if done in this way.

Nouns

Wow, you are still not scared? No reason for it, since nouns are pretty simple compared to verbs. like in Vietnamese, classificators exist, that means, articles, which depend on the type of noun. Rejistanian uses only three classificators, but they are more important since they are needed to distinguish between two or more possible meanings of a noun. The position of the classificator and the plural indication depend on the intended meaning: myju'het = house, myju'het'ny = houses, myju'ny'tan = settlements (housesabstract). If you know Esperanto, this might sound familiar to you. The overview of suffixes:

  • 'ny (plural)
  • 'het (concrete object)
  • 'tan (abstract object or concept)
  • 'he (person)

Animals seem to lack a place in this characterization, but it helps to think if you would use he/she ('he) or it ('het) in English. A classificator can be omitted if the meaning remains clear.

Shifted directive suffixes are simply appended: myju'het = house and 'ra becomes myju'het'ra = in the house.

Possessive pronouns are also suffixes of the nouns, but unlike in German, English or even Esperanto, you don't have to learn new words, again the position is deciding. The suffixes are the pronouns, which are used for the grammatical form of verbs: xe, il, mi and so on. If something belongs to someone, who cannot be referenced by a possesvive pronoun, you append the required pronoun and then the name: myju'het'xe = my house, myju'het'me Syku = Syku's (his) house.

Adjectives and adverbs

Adjectives always follow the noun they are referring to; adverbs always follow the verbs they describe. Unlike in English, there is no difference between the adverbal and adjective forms. I will use "adjectives" in the meaning of "adjectives or adverbs" for that reason. While english cannot append an adjective directly to a noun in a sentence (she is tall), rejistanian can often use adjectives as "state verbs" which means: as verbs indicating a state, not an action (my'salan). This is another example of the importance of verbs in the rejistanian language.

If the situation requires it to make the meaning clear, or you want to put emphasis on the adjective, you can append 'reja.

Ordinals are irregular: They simply consist of the number and the classifier of the word, they are referring to. But in that case, the classifier is not needed for the noun and omitted there. While any other time it is not wrong to use a classifier to indicate a noun, it is considered to be incorrect here. Example: heven'het vinali = final league, heven mje'het = first league. The form indicating "the second person" is irregular: instead of xi'he (2[nd] person), mjekir is used.

Comparism is infamous in rejistanian due to ten different forms, but you should not be scared since it is far easier than the English equivalents. While English uses for words with more than one syllable 5 forms: least ..., less ..., as ... as, more ... and most, rejistanian has two different forms for each level:

  • niltenany (least (by far))
  • niltena (least)
  • nilnany (less (by far))
  • nilna (less)
  • nilte (as ... as (negative form))
  • alte (as ... as (normal form))
  • alna (more)
  • alnany (much more/by far more)
  • altena (most)
  • altenany (most (by far))

The difference between nilte and alte is that nilte refers to negative or unpleasant facts, while alte can be used in any other situation. Often nilte implies "equal on low level" (like in: Windows 1.0 and Dosshell are equally userfriendly, when you mean they both aren't userfriendly).

If you ask if "mi'veka" could be replaced by "mi'aru veka" (are good) or "mi'milhan veka" (play well), of course it can. You can mentally substitute "mi'veka" by these two forms and have all three different kinds of adjective forms in rejistanian: State verbs, normal adjectives and adverbs. The comparisms are not affected by that.

Questions

There are two types of questions, those which you can answer by yes or no and those, which need a more detailed answer. The first type of question is very simple: Simply add the word 'su' after the sentence with normal word order. Example: "il'isa'han exkola" (You'go'to school) becomes "il'isa'han exkola su?" The word 'su' has no exact equivalent in English, the nearest word being "do", but Esperanto and Turkish know the same concept. questions, which need more than a yes or a no need question words, which normally take the position of the required information in the sentence: "Il'myju sunra? xe'myju'ra KaMaRi." (You'live where? I'live'in KaMaRi), "Sunje ki'isa'han? Syku ki'isa'han." (Who will'go'to/come? Syku will'come). If the verb is subject of the question, you need the verb "'va" meaning 'to do': "il'va sunhet? xe'isira" (You'do what? I'write)

Basic vocabulary

This is based on a language guide for tourists

Hello and Goodbye

Hejida! Hello!

Hejida (name)'he Hello Mr/Mrs (name)

Il su? How are you?

veka/mesit/sejil fine/not quite fine/bad

Jilih veka, xe'mesu il(n). I am glad to see you (more formal greeting)

Va veka Good bye (from the one who is leaving)

Va dary Good bye (from the one who is staying)

Being polite

Viije Sorry! or Excuse me!

ma vy Please (if possible)

Texeki Thank you

Halen'ta/Jilih halen'ta You're welcome

Il('lanja)'ma visko jusa su? Can you speak English? (the 'lanja makes the question a bit more polite) (People consider it quite impolite to start speaking in a language, they do not understand, even if you do not know any more rejistanian, you ought to know that sentence)

Words and sentences, which help you

Ve/Nil Yes/no

(place/thing) mi(n)'aru sunra? Where is (place/thing)? (the n is required if the subject is plural)

Su? Come again? (if you didn't understand)

Il'ma niva su, (location) mi'aru sunra? Can you draw where (location) is? (It is a much better idea to ask for a drawing than try to understand a rejistani description)

Xe'sidekhir (place)'han sunreja? How can I get to (place)?

Here you need terms like this to understand the answer:

yh/lis left/right

yjik/ritmu/riva Street/crossing/fork

etju any method of public transport: bus, train, metro

etju('reja) lines/junis/redy/makin/anum/omeh/seli/veran/maru/ynu/kimi (by) the yellow/orange/red/pink/violet/blue/turquoise/green/brown/black/white bus train or metro (due to several ways to write numbers, public transport lines have different colors, not different numbers)

numbers

words in brackets are optional

  • 1: mje
  • 2: xi
  • 3: ly
  • 4: mji
  • 5: de
  • 6: se
  • 7: sa
  • 8: jo
  • 9: da
  • 10: ke
  • 11: ke mje
  • 12: ke xi
  • 20: xi ke
  • 21: xi ke mje
  • 100: ri
  • 101: ri mje (nu)
  • 110: ri mje ke
  • 111: ri mje (ke) mje
  • 200: xi ri
  • 1000: ky
  • 1001: ky mje (nu)
  • 1010: ky mje ke
  • 1100: ky mje ri
  • 10,000: kyke
  • 11,000: kyke mje ky
  • 100,000: kyri
  • 111,000: kyri mje kyke mje ky
  • 1,000,000: jeo

Numbers are written either in arabic or in rejistanian numbers. The letter is interesting since it does not have a zero but writes numbers as they are spoken: 200,000 is written as "2 (kyry)" (kyry has its own symbol), 200,010 is "2 (kyry) 1 (ke)". The signs are mirrored if the number is negative and decimal numbers are signified by adding another symbol after the power of 10.

Slani is rejistani word which became common in #sport.

There exists a page on rejistanian terms in sports


Languages of NationStates
Major constructed or created languages: Dienstadi | Gurennese | Jevian | Necrontyr | Noterelenda | Pacitalian | Pacitalian English | Rejistanian | Rethast | Riikan | Solen
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For a full list of NationStates languages see Category:Languages.