Czisilian language

Czisilian
lum ċīsīlā
Pronunciation	[lʉm ˈt͡ʃi:si:la:]
Native to	Czisilia
Ethnicity	Czisil people
Native speakers	X
Language family	Milevic Czisilic Czisilian
Early form	Old High Czisilian
Writing system	Mixed scripts of Wadiin script and Czisilian logograms
Official status
Official language in	Czisilia

Czisilian (ċīslum [ˈt͡ʃi:slʉm], lum ċīsīlā [lʉm ˈt͡ʃi:si:la:]) is a Czisilic language spoken in Czisilia. It descended from Old High Czisilian, which was the lingua franca of the Milevic Empire. Its closest relative is Lhidian.

History

Old High Czisilian

Main article: Old High Czisilian language

Phonology

Consonants

Consonant phonemes in Czisilian

	Labial	Alveolar/ Dental	Palato- alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal	m	n
Stop	p	t			k
Affricate			t͡ʃ • d͡ʒ
Fricative	f • (v)	s • z	ʃ • ʒ		x • ɣ
Approximant	w	l		j

Consonants in Czisilian undergo some allophonic shifts:

• fortition – the labiovelar approximant /w/ becomes [v] before consonants (e.g. yewġeḍ [ˈjɛvɣɛð] "foothill"). Before voiceless consonants, this becomes a voiceless [f].

Vowels

Czisilian has 11 vowels, separated into 2 classes:

• 6 short vowels – /ɪ ʉ ɛ o ɔ ə/
• 5 long vowels – /i: u: e: o: a:/

Morphology

Verbs

Czisilian verbs conjugate for 4 tenses:

• present tense – marked with -ī (e.g. wal zumī "I sleep")
• past imperfective tense – marked with -ēm (e.g. wal zumēm "I was sleeping")
• past perfective tense – marked with -am (e.g. wal zumam "I slept")
• future tense – TBA

Additionally, there are 6 modal and valency markers:

Copula

The copula in Czisilian is an independent particle if no nominal object is present and suffixed to the object if there is one. It is also an independent word to express possession ('X has Y'), in which case the possessor is marked for dative/instrumental and the possessed is marked for transitive case (accusative if animate or semi-animate, absolutive if inanimate). Finally the copula has four forms, animate and inanimate, which agree with the animacy of the subject, and affirmative and negative forms.

Copula

	An.	Inan.
Affirmative	wi	wī
Negative	hi	hī

Usage examples

English	Czisilian	Gloss
"I am"	Wal wi	wal-∅ wi-∅ 1S.NOM COP-AN
"It is a lake"	Ḍeṡ wŏlwī	ḍeṡ-∅ wŏl-wī 3S.INAN lake-COP.INAN
"I have a father"	Wal pānīw wi	wal-∅ pān-īw wi-∅ 1S.NOM father-INSTR COP-AN

Nouns

Czisilian exhibits a split-ergative alignment nicknamed Milevic alignment which is shared by all the Milevic languages. The split-ergative part depends on the noun's animacy, which has three degrees: Animate, Semi-animate, and Inanimate.

• Animate nouns follow a nominative-accusative alignment, with marked accusative.
• Inanimate nouns follow an ergative-absolutive alignment, with marked ergative. They also do not have distinct plural forms.
• Semi-animate nouns follow a nominative-accusative alignment, however it has unmarked accusative and nominative marked with the ergative ending.

This has caused some linguists to reanalyse the ergative and nominative cases as one transitive case, while the absolutive and accusative are unmarked and marked intransitive case respectively.

Czisilian nominal morphology is as follows:

Nominal suffixes

	Sg.	Pl. (an.)	Pl. (inan.)
Nominative/ Absolutive	unmarked	-ī	-u
Ergative	-(a)n	-in	-un
Accusative	-(w)is	-iwis	-ūis
Dative- Locative	-īl	-iyīl	-uīl
Genitive	-ā	-iyā	-uā
Instrumental	-īw	-iyīw	-uīw

Case stacking

Czisilian makes use of case stacking in specific circumstances:

• if a genitive construction is acting as the agent of a transitive verb, both possessor and possessee are marked with the ergative case
  • compare walā zafu taam (1S-GEN eyelid-PL be_closed-PST.PFV) "my eyelids [are] closed" with walān zafun gō haī (1S-GEN-ERG eyelid-PL-ERG 2S see-PRES) "my eyelids see you"
• if a genitive construction is marked by a postposition, both possessor and possessee are marked with the appropriate case
  • ceceāīl zupazīl num (chicken-GEN-LOC nest-LOC LOC) "in the chicken's nest"