The Tžuro Thread

[kav]

Old Tžuro and its close relatives look cool, but there's no grammar posted yet. In the meantime I thought I'd scrounge up whatever info I can.

Consonants
/m n ñ ŋ/
/p t k/
/b d g/
/č tž j/
/f s š h/
/v z ž/
/w/
/r l/

Vowels
/i u/
/e o/
/a/

From the Almeopedia:

Tžuro nouns that end in a consonant form their plurals like Old Skourene affixing nouns, namely, by adding the vowel that appears before the ending consonant (lam > lama, asev > aseve, etc.). Nouns ending in a back vowel add -m (jeŋu > jeŋum), while others add -u (fsava > fsavau).

Jippirasti literally means “I have heard Jippir”, with the implication “heard and obeyed”. An individual believer is a Jippirasutu, plural -m. The final -u changes the listener from 1st to third person, and the infixed -u- is also third person, but now referring to Jippir; in short the term is a sentence, roughly “Jippir spoke and he listened.”

This hints at something a bit like watered-down Old Skourene. It looks to me like roots are mostly bisyllabic, probably with a stem vowel to match. Let's try and conjugate the verb asti in what's probably the past tense.

Code: Select all

         subject
object   I      we     he/she  they
none     asti   astim  astu   astum
me       asiti  asitim asitu  asitum
him/her  asuti  asutim asutu  asutum

Not all of these forms are directly attested, but some are implied.

Here's a Pseudo-Tžuro text I cooked up from the view of somebody explaining to the Fananaki viceroy what happened to their commander on an expedition gone wrong.

Aŋgot kunu ista si jalmana.
viceroy listen.3s.PST language of river-person-PL
The army commander listened to the language of the river people.

Asutum si ñok nak imiti.
listen.3s.3p.PST of two new town-small-PL
They listened to him speak about two new little towns.

Ñalam adupu.
female-spirit judge.3s.3s.PST
A female spirit judged him.

S ikebaja, pitu lama am jenču huj.
of vigil-NEG, follow.3s.PST spirit-PL and meet.3s.PST filth
In a terrible trance, he followed the spirits and wallowed in filth.

Kulig asutu mefkome.
Kulig listen.3s.3s.PST spirit-world
Kulig spoke to him of the spirit world.

Aŋgot sotuja s ipeja si Fananak.
commander purify.3s.PST-NEG of disease of Fananak
The commander became corrupted with Fananak disease.

Ružim, Alešpluj. Jippir mul am asti.
thank.3s.3p, viceroy-big. Jippir speak and listen.3s.PST
We thank you, great Viceroy. Jippir spoke and I listened to him.

There weren't any sources talking about word order, but Jippir mul am asti seems SVO enough. I use si/s ‘the’ generously here since it's the only real particle other than am ‘and’ that I could dig up. (And Ampaji means ‘all-conqueror’ – do I smell a homophone?)
I took the liberty of coining a few terms: ikebaja should be a pretty strong word, basically the evil opposite to a Jippirasti vision quest. Likewise, jenču huj should sound disgusting: the commander's perverting a fundamental ritual with spirits, blood, phlegm and Jippir knows what else. I'm really not sure if “Alešp-luj” sounds properly honorific or shockingly colloquial. And of course exactly how verbs work is fuzzy, so forgive me if my conjugation doesn't pass Babur's standards.


Here's the complete lexicon for every single Tžuro, Lenani and Carhinnian word I could get my grubby fingers on and then some, cognates and whatnot included. (Discounting proper nouns with no given etymology, of course.)

Code: Select all

Old Tžuro
alešp			viceroy
añesom		father (from OS aŋesom)
am			and? all?
Ampaji		‘all-conqueror’
attafei			almighty
asti			to speak? to hear?
	asutu		a speaking
	ihasta		(knowing) Babur's words of Jippir?
	ista		language?
Baburkunim		“Babur spoke and we listened”, holy book of Jippirasti
čelepa			book? classification? recordings? annals?
dej			three [OS ded, Wd. śir]
dep?			to judge? [OS deld-]
	adep		judge
fsava			matrilineal male-led Tžuro clan, lineage [OS bsepa, Len. bofa]
	asev		uncle, eldest male in a fsava, patriarch, paterfamilias
	ñasev		older woman, eldest female in a fsava, matriarch, materfamilias
galun			unorthodox [OS ger-?]
	igalna		confusion
got			military despotate [OS gidr-?]
	aŋgot		army commander
greja			house [OS greḍa]
huj			phlegm, snot, vomit, discharges from disease, etc.
i-			nominalizer, of?
igejruda		sex with a woman outside her bed, rape
igobaña		alleviation of suffering
ikeba			arduous vigil, journey similar to a vision quest
im			town, city [OS eŋ]
iraža			gratitude, thanksgiving, fasting, charity
-it			small [OS -its, Wd. śiya]
-ja			negative [OS ḍer, Wd. yur]
jal			river [OS ḍel, Wd. ye]
jenčim			ritual meeting with one's fsava or other Jippirasutum every six days
	ajenč		celebrant
jeŋu			god
	jeŋukome	‘the world of Jippir’
Jippir			God
	Jippirasti	“I have heard Jippir”, monotheistic religion founded by Babur
	Jippirasutu	“Jippir spoke and he listened”, a believer in Jippir
jori			to rule as an unbeliever
jos			kingdom, realm of unbelievers
	ajjos		king, ruler
	ñajos		queen
kini			to listen [OS kisn-]
	kuni		I listened?
	kunim		we listened (and obeyed)?
kome			world?
Kulig			the strongest and most evil of the lama [OS -urg?]
lam			great spirit
-luj			big [OS riḍ-, Wd. ŋor]
mahi			wheat [OS maki, Wd. mai]
man			people [OS man, Wd. bogu]
mef?			to be spiritual?
	amef		spirit
	mefkome	‘the world of spirit’, the spirit world
mej?			body? to be physical? [OS med]
	mejkome	‘the world of body’, the physical world
mo			one [OS moṭ, Wd. bo]
mul			to speak? he spoke?
nak?			new [OS -naku]
neb?			to teach?
	aneb		teacher [Len. enev?]
	ineba		teaching mission
ña-			female? [OS maşḍ-?]
ñok			two [OS ḍog, Wd. yok]
pej?			to be healthy? [OS pelg-?]
	ipeja		disease
piči			to follow, to believe [OS sipt- ‘follow’]
	pita		division
s			of (before vowels)? [OS -san? -sir? -şat?]
	si		of (before consonants)?
sačutu			orthodox
soti			to clean, to purify [OS salt-]
	gostu		expiator in bondage
	gust		bondholder over a gostu
	igosota		expiation, ritual purification
	isota		morality, cleansing
stutu			to clean
	istuja		dirt, filth, uncleanliness, sin
	stuja		unclean
tej			administration, realm, empire, kingdom, spiritual community [OS tebbeḍ]
	atej		successor to Babur, spiritual head of Jippirasti, voice of Jippir, emperor
	iteja		tej-ness
teji			to rule a Jippirasti state


Šureni
ajjos (ajjosu)		king
ažraŋ			senate-appointed administrative trustee
mafali			senate [OS smapali]


Jaešeni
Fan			Fei
	Fana		Feináe
	Fananak	‘New Feináe’, Fananak
nak			new
teŋŋir			saint


Fananaki
Iček			Itseʔ
jos			kingdom


Lenani
Babukizem		Baburkunim
bofa (bofama)		patrilineal Lenani clan, tribe, lineage
enev			priest
staji			orthodox


Carhinnian	
Baučinim		Baburkunim
Ečənaiba		‘faithful ones’, Carhinnoi
ənep (ənebba)		Kahon priest
*qarxaun		a Carhinnoi

Interesting how the only Tžuro word that actually starts with tž seems to be Tžuro itself! Maybe if some Mexicans sail in à la Elenicoi they can get the recipe for tžurros.

[Birdlang]

Is tilde-n palatal or palatized alveolopalatal?

[zompist]

I'll fill in some of the question marks for you...

am and
asti speak, hear
čelepa book (borrowing from OS)
deli judge
mefi think
mej body
muli speak
nebi to teach
ñ- female

And here's the past tense of muli. The three forms are absolute, ergative, reciprocal.

I - muli, mil, mili
you - mula, mal, mala
he/she - mulu, mul, mulu
you + I - mulis, mzil, miliš
you two - mulas, mzal, malaš
those two - muluz, mzul, muluš
we - mulim, mail, mailin
you all - mulah, mol, molon
they - mulum, maul, maulan

As for birdlang's question, the language doesn't have true palatals. ñ is like Spanish, but alveolo-palatal.

(Man, autocorrect is annoying when talking about conlangs.)

[Birdlang]

So č is ts\ tž is d_0z\ š is s\ and ž is z\?