City of the Dying Flame

This page will be all about my constructed language (conlang) called Pórzér. If you want to find out more about conlangs in general, check out The Beauty of Words page. It has great links. Pórzér is derived from pór, meaning "mind", and zér is from zéreth, meaning "to speak". I started this conlang sometime in 2005 (I think) and I have been working on it on and off since then (about 97% off and 3% on). I'm kind of proud that I developed it as much as I have (usually I don't stick to things long enough to make much progress).

The Alphabet

I suppose this is a good place to start explaining my language. First, I will list the vowels (using Roman letters) and give examples of their pronunciations:

(1) ä - father, pot, ah  (2) á - pate, age, say  (3) a - pat, act, bat  (4) e - set, pet, edge  (5) é - equal, peat, bee   (6) i - pit, if  (7) í - ice, bite  (8) ó - over, boat, no  (9) ú - moo, too  (10) u - up, sun, putt

Now that the vowel pronunciations are clear, the whole alphabet can be seen on this chart:

Here are the proper pronunciations of the letters, in the above order, using X-SAMPA:

p, b, w, m, f, v, t, d, s, z, r\, l, n, dZ, h, j, k, g, T, tS, S, a, e, {, E, i, I, aI, o, u, @

Basic Grammar

The sentence structure of Pórzér is one that is less common than others. The order of the sentences is object-subject-verb. However, if the object renames the subject, then the object comes after the verb. Modifiers usually come after what they modify. The stress of each word is lightly on the second to last syllable. When forming questions, the subject and verb order is inverted. My language has postpositions rather than prepositions. Nouns are pluralized by adding the suffix -tó at the end.

There are nine base pronouns in my language. I is pí, singular you is síó, he is tep, she is ná, it is óhé, inclusive we is jä, exclusive we is fí, they is kem, and plural you ("you guys") is súväv. Exlusive we includes the group that is talking only. Inclusive we includes the group that is talking and the one being spoken to.

Now for the verbs. The infinitive forms of the verbs end in -ech, -esh, and -eth. To conjugate verbs, the e's in the suffixes are dropped and the corresponding letter for each pronoun is added to the verb. The suffix -ló is added to the conjugated verb to put it into the past tense. To put a verb in the future tense, one adds -län at the end of the conjugated verb. The perfect tense is formed by putting the word nú after the verb.

Here's an example of verb conjugation. Let us use the infinitive verb for "to have", which is ugutech. The I form is ugutché, the singular you form is ugutchu, the he/she/it form is ugutchí, the we (both exclusive and inclusive) form is ugutchó, the they form is ugutchá, and the plural you form is ugutchú. The bold characters at the end are the suffixes for conjugation. For past and future tense, -ló and -län are added to the end, respectively.

Here is a small lexicon of words: