Saa ze Vir’zariesi –
Language of the Vir’zariesi
The syllabical structure of the vir’zariesi tongue is (V)(C) V (V) (C) (V). In other words, there must always be at least
one vowel in the word- it can be a one-letter word, but it must be a
vowel. Two vowels can be together in
any one word (ex: ua, meaning all), but two consonants cannot. A consonant can start or end a word, but
both cases are rare.
Just to give you a vague idea of the way the vir’zariesi create names, I’ll explain the word vir’zariesi. “Vir’zariesi”
means, literally, “watchers of the world.”
“Vir” means “world.” “Arie”
means “watcher.” The suffix –si makes the word plural. The prefix z- shows that
the watchers are of the world – it means “of” in a vague sense.
“V” is an honorific letter, as seen by vir (world), and vae (oath
– oaths are pretty much sacred to the vir’zariesi). On the other hand, “o” is a
derogatory letter, implying scorn, disgust, or even hatred. It’s rarely used, but it is used in the word vae’zolaesi. “Vae” is
“oath,” “z” is “of,” and “lae” is “breaker,” with the “o” adding disgust. Many of the vae’olaesi strike the “o” from their name, calling themselves
the vae’zlaesi. Some keep the “o” as a twisted mark of pride- a sort
of martyrdom, you might say.
z- used in a name-word is a vague sort of “of.” It’s used when neither word is an
adjective. Usually, in a name-word, the
adjective goes before the noun it describes, and the two words are separated by
a hyphen. In the case that an “of” is
needed, like in “watchers of the world” or “breakers of the oath,” a z is placed in front of the second-placed noun and an
apostrophe divides the words, rather than a hyphen. In the vir’zariesi language,
“of” is “ze.”
The suffix –si makes words
plural. Without the –si, they’re singular.
It’s only in the instances of the honorific v, the plural si-, and
the “of” z- that two consonants are ever
seen together. You’ll never find a
“ch,” “th,” or “sh” in the vir’zariesi tongue.
Now a short excursion into pronunciation. Vowel sounds never change.
a as in father
e as in ray (the
sound anyway; e doesn’t look like a
– oh, never mind…)
i is pronounced like a long e (eee!)
o as in own
u as in you
Y is almost nonexistent in vir’zariesi. An i followed
by any other vowel often blurs into a “yea” sound.
R is often hard, or at least somewhat hard, though
never rolled. Just think of it as a
very soft d.
Name-words are an adjective and a noun, and can describe appearance,
personality, favorite form, or background.
A name-word is distinguished from a normal word by a gender-defining
prefix before the adjective that uses the only y in the vir’zariesi tongue.
Female: mey
Male: sey
While a vir’zariesi is a child
(up until they’re fifty- vir’zariesi are
very long lived), s/he is named only
with a noun. For instance, Ilausa-mey,
“star,” would be a female less than fifty vir-arie years old. When
Ilausa-mey became an adult, she gained an adjective after her name. Because Ilausa-mey is a vae’zolae, she was made an outcast, and so chose her own
adjective- “guiding,” because all she wanted to do was help… So, Ilausa-mey became Ilausa-meyarale, “Guiding
Star.”
Now to grammar. Since the vir’zariesi
are recorders, they use a lot of adjectives.
Word order is roughly Object, Subject, Verb (OSV). Adjectives always come after the noun, and
the verb is always last. Prepositions
come after the subject and before the verb.
“Ilausa ran under the log” would therefore look something like “the log
under Ilausa ran.” Forget “the” and “a”
– they aren’t used. Prefixes are used
to denote subject and object.
Subject: ilu-
Object: ali-
“Ilausa ran under the brown log” now looks something like “O-log brown
under S-Ilausa ran.”
Clauses are nonexistent. If you
want to say “Ilausa, a helpful vae’zolaesi,
ran under the brown log, which had
fallen in a storm,” you’d have to split it up so it’d look like this: “Ilausa
is a helpful vae’zolaesi. She
ran under the brown log. The log had
fallen in a storm.” With proper vae’zolaesi grammar, it would look like this: “O-vae’zolaesi helpful S-Ilausa
is. O-Log brown under S-she ran. O-Storm in S-log had fallen.” Not very efficient, and I’ve said some
things are objects which in English aren’t technically objects, but it’s less
confusing than English clauses. By the
way, “had fallen” isn’t what would be used.
It would just be the past tense of “fall.”
Possession is simply shown by ze-. Everything is “of” whatever it belongs to (i.e: saa ze vir’zariesi – language of the vir’zariesi).
Personal pronouns… yay… *grimace*
I = ure We = uresi
You = ari You (pl) = arisi
He = ise They (m) = isesi
She = asu They (f) = asusi
It = ika They (n) = ikasi
Verbs are conjugated by tense only.
Past tense: -eka
Present tense: -uki
Future tense: -ake