<< Languages of Meitsung: Mayu lháni & Meitsung soré

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Introduction

Of the conlangs I created for the the story that eventually became The Book of Immortality, the dragon language was always the most fleshed out. It had to be, as it was used as a magic language and there were going to be passages written in it. I didn’t have to expand the grammar much.

Also, this conlang didn’t have a real name until earlier this year. Célis zisun means “mountain language”, and it’s one of the two dragon languages spoken in Greater Meitsung – primarily in East and West Rhécare. The other dragon language, mízha zisun “island language”, is spoken on the island of Mízharos.

Phonology

The original dragon language contained /ɲ/, /ɸ/, /β/, /x/, /ɣ, and /ʍ/ in addition to every consonant listed in the table below. The number of fricatives was truly ridiculous, and it made no sense to have /ɸ β/ and /f v/ as well as /h/ and /x/. Those consonants weren’t even allophones or anything – they were independent phonemes.

	Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	n (ɱ)		n
Stop	p	t d			k g
Fricative	f v	θ ð	s z ʃ ʒ			h
Approximant			l	j	w
Rhotic			ɾ r

In contrast, I added one vowel – /e/. The original dragon language only had /ɛ/ as a front mid vowel.

	Front	Central	Back
Close	ɪ i		u
Mid	ɛ e		o
Open		a

Diphthongs are /iu/, /io/, /iɛ/, and /ia/. Syllable structure is CVF, where C is any consonant, V is any vowel, and F is /n/, /l/ or /s/. There are no words that start with vowels. Primary stress falls on the first syllable of a word, and secondary stress falls on following odd syllables.

Orthography

Since this conlang was first developed when I was still obsessed with Irish orthograph, there are some influences – namely, using <c> to represent /k/. That also immediately distinguishes it from the other languages of Meitsung.

Letter	a	c	d	dh	e	é	f
Sound	/a/	/k/	/d/	/ð/	/ɛ/	/e/	/f/
Letter	g	h	i	í	l	m	n
Sound	/g/	/h/	/ɪ/	/i/	/l/	/m/	/n/
Letter	o	p	r	rh	s	sh	t
Sound	/o/	/p/	/ɾ/	/r/	/s/	/ʃ/	/t/
Letter	th	u	v	w	y	z	zh
Sound	/θ/	/u/	/v/	/w/	/j/	/z/	/ʒ/

Nouns

Nouns (and adjectives) are marked for case, number, and definiteness; those markers are suffixed in the form case-number-definiteness with the exception of the vocative case, which is a prefix.

There are six cases: nominative, genitive, accusative, dative, instrumental, and vocative. For some strange reason, there were originally separate possessive and genitive cases. I’m genuinely not sure why.

Case	Marker
Nominative	–
Genitive	-in
Accusative	-ul
Dative	-eta
Instrumental	-we
Vocative	a-

Célis zisun has two numbers: singular and plural. The singular is unmarked, and the plural suffix is –le. Nouns are assumed to be indefinite by default. The definite ending is –(a)ne.

Why is there even a definite marker in this conlang. I’m not sure. Perhaps I was thinking of the Scandinavian languages at the time.

Pronouns

Pronouns are marked for case and number in the same way nouns are – not definiteness, because…that wouldn’t make any sense.

	Singular	Plural
1st	len	riv
2nd Informal	rhal	rhale
2nd Formal	van	vanle
3rd	dhas	dhasle

Verbs

Verbs are marked for tense, mood, and person/number. There are three tenses: past, present, future, and three moods: indicative, subjunctive, and imperative. The 2nd person formal and informal are not distinguished in verbs.

		Singular			Plural
		1st	2nd	3rd	1st	2nd	3rd
Past	Indicative	-esan	-esva	-esica	-esrí	-essi	-esne
	Subjunctive	-eson	-esonva	-esonica	-esonrí	-esonsi	-esonne
Present	Indicative	-an	-va	-(i)ca	-rí	-si	-ne
	Subjunctive	-onan	-onva	-onica	-onrí	-onsi	onne
	Imperative	-lion	-liova	-lioca	-liorí	-liosi	-lione
Future	Indicative	-inan	-inva	-inica	-inrí	-insi	-inne
	Subjunctive	-inonan	-inonva	-inonica	-inonrí	-inonsi	-inonne

Numerals

Célis zisun‘s number system is base ten. To form numbers in the teens, the word lemu “ten” is followed by a numeral. For example, lemu fari is 15. To form multiples of ten, a numeral (2, 3, 4, etc.) is followed by the plural form of ten. Heda lemule is 40 and pel lemule wora is 68.

Other Things

There is a copula, hen, that’s much more irregular than other verbs. Adjectives follow nouns, and adverbs follow verbs. Word order is Subject-Object-Verb, and has been through all forms of this conlang.

Despite this conlang being more fleshed out than the previous two, it’s still largely a naming language. Perhaps sometime in the future I’ll come back and work on it more, but for now this is all there is.