INTRODUCTION
Yargish is spoken in an as-yet unnamed Fantasy coniverse by a number of Orc clans, known individually as the Uzgay , the Kantay , the Jighar, the Fanyyaran and the Garyung, plus a few smaller clans. When they have to distinguish themselves as a group as opposed to outsiders (Orcs from other regions as well as other races) they usually simply call themselves U-Nayarg "The Warriors", and there language is therfore U-Rakh U-Nayargiz-ung "The Speech of the Warriors". (The English designation is simply the stem yarg "warrior" plus the ending -ish).
PHONOLOGY
The Orcs' massive lower jaws with protuding teeth make them unable to pronounce bilabial sounds, and the /f/ and /v/ phonemes are pronounced with the lower teeth against the upper lip. Otherwise their oral and nasal cavities are quite similar to our own. The orthography used in this article isn't very systematic, but should be reasonably familiar-looking to English-speakers. Hyphens attach clitics to their main words.
Consonants:
- labiodental alveolar palatal velar - t ch [tS] k - d j [dZ] g - f s sh [S] kh [x] - v z zh [Z] gh [G] - n ny [J] ng [N] - r [r] y [j]
/ng/ is written as |n'g| to differentiate from |ng| /N/. /Ng/ is written |ngg|. /nj/ is similarly written |n'y| to differentiate from unitary /J/
Valid inital clusters are /kr/, /gr/, /st/ and /zd/. Valid final clusters are /r/ or /j/ plus any (oral) stop, africate or fricative, and any nasal plus an homorganic voiced or voiceless stop. To avoid rampant orthographic ugliness, what should be |nych|, |nyj| and |ngk| are written as respectively |nch|, |nj| and |nk|. Note however |ngg| for /Ng/ to differentiate from |ng|=/N/. Almost all two-consonant combinations are allowed medially, with some assimilations. Three-consonant combinations lose the middle consonant; eg kanch "iron" + tay "Orc" > Kantay "Iron Orc(s)" (name of a clan).
Vowels:
A simple three vowel system /i a u/. The "target" pronounciation for each vowel is respectively [i], [a] and [M], but quite alot of variation is acceptable. The Orcs never round any vowels, but would probably not notice if an outsider speaking their language did.
Phonemic diphthongs don't occur in native words. (-)VyC(-) patterns like other (-)VCC(-) sequences.
STRESS
The stress falls on the first syllable of the stem of the head word in each phrase. Thus in u-chash yarga "the strong warrior (erg)" the stress falls on YAR.
GRAMMAR
Yargish is an ergative SOV language. Despite its interfictionally being spoken by non-humans, it doesn't have any very alien features (this far, at least).
THE ARTICLE
Yargish has only one defintie article, u- , which is unchanged in all cases and numbers. Thus, rakh "speech, language", u-rakh "the speech/language".
NOUNS
The Yargish noun has four cases; absolutive, ergative, dative and locative. The first three are about what you'd expect, while the locative is only used in combination with postpositions (see below). The plural number is indicated with a prefix na- , orginally an independent word meaning "many". Taking the word yarg "(Orc) warrior", the paradigm of a regular noun then is:
- sg pl - abs yarg nayarg - erg yarga nayarga - dat yargu nayargu - loc yargiz nayargiz
PRONOUNS
Yargish pronouns don't have any gender distinctions, nor any formal/informal distinctions, which makes for a neat pronoun table with forms for three persons, two numbers and four cases (again, the locative is only used with postpositions).
- 1st.sg 1st.pl 2nd.sg 2nd.pl 3rd.sg 3rd.pl - abs ang nazur zdi naja ach nava - erg nga zura zda ja acha va - dat ngu zuru zdu ju achu vu - loc ngiz zuriz zdiz jayz achiz naviz
POSTPOSITIONS
Yargish has a largish number of postpositions, that combines with the ergative, dative and locative cases. For spatial postpositions, the ergative carries ablative meaning, the dative allative and the locative, um, locative meaning. Taking dir "forest" and -zata "in, inside", we then have:
u-dira-zata "from inside the forest" u-diru-zata "into the forest" u-diriz-zata "in the forest"
Non-spatial postpositions usually combine with the locative. This is seen the the designation u-rakh nayargiz-ung , where -ung is attached to the pl loc form of yarg "warrior".
Postpositions this far are:
-zata "in" -ja "at" -u "on the surface of" -vakh "above" -ugha "beneath" -zay "behind -in "in front of" -kuz "through" (can't combine with locative) -ich "to the right of (from the POV of the speaker)" -aj "to the left of (from the POV of the speaker)" -ung "of, belonging to" (only combines with locative) -uz "by, using" (only combines with locative)
VERBS
The Yargish verb has two tenses, present and past, and three aspects, punctual, continuative and habitual. The forms are examplified by the verb khak "kill" below:
- present past - pun khak khakuz - con khak-id khakuz-id - hab khak-ur khakuz-ur
The future is handled by the present form plus an adverbial signifying "tomorrow" or "next year" or whatever. (The "present" tense is, like the English, really rather a "non-past" one.)
The punctual aspect indicates an eventive, more or less instantaneous action. Therefore is it rarely used as a true present - the present punctual is most commonly found in future constructions. The past punctual roughly corresponds to the English simple past and perfect.
The continuative aspect indicates an ongoing or repeated action. It's quite similar to the English "is -ing" and "was -ing" forms.
The habitual aspect refers to actions that are regularly reoccuring, and to states. The past habitual refers to actions that used to be regularly reoccuring, and to former states.
Theoretically, any verb can occur in any of the six tense-aspect combinations, altho' you rarely need the habitual of "to die" or the punctual of "to sleep".
The imperative is expressed by the clitic -at; eg yar- "to fight", yar-at! "fight!". Other moods are handled by adverbs or auxiliaries.
ADJECTIVES
Yargish has noun-like adjectives, that preceed the noun they modify.
There are no comparative or superlative forms, instead comparation is handled by constructions with -vakh "above" and -ugha "below". Eg:
chash "strong" chash u-yargiz-vakh "strong above the warrior"="stronger than the warrior" chash ariz-vakh "strong above all"="strongest of all"="strongest" chash ar-u-nayargiz-vakh "strong over all the warriors"="strongest of the warriors"
EXAMPLE SENTENCES:
U-chash yarga najurz khak-ur u-diriz-zata. "The strong warrior (habitually) kills wolves in the forest."
U-khurga najurz khak-id. "The chief kills wolves (right now)."
Ach az-ur yarg. "He is a warrior." (note the habitual for a permanent function)
U-Nazg garuz-id zuru-u. "The Sun was shining on us."
U-stunya u-khurgiz-ung u-yarg khakuz. "The chief's sword killed the warrior"
U-grinj u-Jighar khurgiz-ung yir-ur u-Kanch Diriz-zata. "The tomb of the Jighar chief was in the Iron Forest"
Khu zhus-at u-yuran! "Don't feed the troll!"
VOCAB:
ach "he/she/it" ang "I" ar- "all" az- "is" (supletive past yir- ) chash "strong" chaz- "to use the magical parallel plane" chazan "one who chaz-es; Shaman" dir "forest" fany "flame, fire" gar- "shine" ghurd "land, country, region" grinj "grave, tomb" guz "claw" jand "clan" jid "descendant" jurz "wolf" kanch "iron, steel" khu "not" kin "falcon" khak- "kill" khurg "chief" naja "you (pl)" Narg "the Sun" nava "they" nazur "we" nyayg "fish" rakh "language" stuny "sword" tay "Orc" u- "the" yar- "fight" yarg "warrior" yur "large" yuran "troll" zda "thou" zhus- "to feed"