07/Mar/2021

06/Ago/2021

Warning: I assume anyone reading this post (and anything else related to the language), to have some previous knowledge and interest in languages.

Lao, sireho Sirlan, and here I'll be starting to post some stuff about the ehrinaki language.
This post will be about the basics, with the letters, the syllables, structure, and some words.

These are only using the romanization, soon™ there will be a post about the writing system[s].

The vowels are: a/a/, e/e/, i/i/, ó/ɔ/, o/o/, u/u/

The consonants are:

	Bi-labial	Labio-dental	Dental	Alveolar	Post alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Glotal
Plosive	p/p/ b/b/		t/t/		d/d/			k/k/or/g/*
Nasal	m/m/				n/n/
Tap					r/ɾ/
Fricative		f/f/ v/v/		s/s/ z/z/		x/ʂ/ j/ʐ/*			h/h/*
Approximant							j/j/*
Lateral Approximant					l/l/

• 'k' can be said /k/ or /g/ from preference, will be written as 'q' before 'a', 'ó', and 'o'
• 'h' is silent when at the end of a syllable
• 'j' is /ʐ/ by default, and /j/ when before 'e' and 'o', at the end of a syllable /dʐ/

The syllables are:

• V, only as the last syllable of a word
• (C)CV(C), the last C can't be 'h'
• VC, C can only be 'h' 'l' 's' 'r' 'n' or 'v'

In a CC cluster in a CCV(C), the possible combinations for consonants are:

b d t k	v h l r z
p	v h l r s
f v	t h k l r z
r	h
j	h n
h	j
l m n
s z	b d t f v h k m n p r
x	b d t k m n p

• A glottal stop (ʔ) between the 'rh' and 'j(hn)' in a cluster
• If a syllable ends with the same consonant the next one starts, say a glottal stop (ʔ) in between
• If there is a (C)CV V and the Vs are the same, say a glottal in between

With the intonation being generally on the second last syllable of the word. It's not absolute, some words may have specific intonations.

The general structure is SVO; But because 1- the verbs are always conjugated on the subject, it can be omitted, and 2- there is the accusative case '-nie', so the object can appear in SOV.

A substantive is only on its plural form when you don't specify them number of things.

To 'pluralize' a substantive, put '-s', if it doesn't fit the word syllables, '-se'; If the word already ends in 's', or 'se', change it to 'sen'.

• fokes
• fokesen
• 'two' fokes

The adjectives appear after the substantive, in the order of most important to least important; When doubled it assumes the superlative form.

Words can be either substantives or verbs (and sometimes adjectives and adverbs), verbs will always appear conjugated. You can group words with hyphen('-') to make compounds.

And a few words to learn here are:

• lao - hi
• ta - yes
• ahe - no
• siro - sub. 'characteristic', verb 'to be/have' an inherit characteristic of the thing ("The building is tall")
• set - sub. 'estate', verb 'to be' a certain state ("The person is tired")
• fokes - fox
• jasuu - wolf
• ohkej - house
• kine - tree trunk

Have fun trying to discover these phrases:
fokes qosir mondel jasuu-ohkejnie pelqas seelol.
kine sirul qosir.

Warning: All the pronunciation is based on the opinions and views of a Brazilian (Bahia), not even I pronounce things they way they are supposed to, there's quite some leeway about it

Also, 'in-universe' the different tribes have some differences between the way they use the language, if that much (the more separated) tribes closer to other territories decided to speak mostly the foreign tongue, be it Portuguese or Spanish.