Zîrkænian language

From Scandia

General Information

One of the earliest books in Zîrkænian is this translation of the Holy Book of Cruis

Zîrkænian is the language of the People's Republic of Zîrkæ. The language is spoken in Zîrkæ, the Mîrson Republic and in some border regions on the Niverian continent.

It is an ancient language, which evolved out of the languages spoken by the northern tribes and the people of the southern coastal lands. Some scientists however believe the language has Cassatic roots, or at least having experienced substantial influence from it. The first account of written Zîrkænian dates back to the year 291 - an account of the construction costs of a house for a wealthy trader.

Grammar

The language is considered hard to learn for foreigners, since Zîrkænian grammar is usually illogical and apparently 'at random'. One reason Zîrkænian grammar is considered difficult is because present-day Zîrkænian uses two genders, undenominational and masculine/feminine. The grammar however is constructed around the former 4 genders, undenominational, masculine, feminine and plural - which was a seperate gender until abolished during the language reforms of 1302.

When learning Zîrkænian, you should learn the grammatical gender of every word in order to use the grammar correctly. Zîrkænian verbs have around 31 conjugations, which can indicate the subject, time, location, or otherwise. This results in relatively short sentences which are hard to follow for foreigners.

The above is probably the reason that Ingallish is a obligatory subject for all Zîrkænian students.

The Zîrkænian alphabet

The Zîrkænian language uses a number of marks to make a character shift in pronounciation. There is only one composed sound in the entire language.

Zîrkænian uses the following marks:

• ¸ is only used in "ç"
• ¨ is used for a complete altering of pronounciation, used with some characters
• ~ is only used in "ñ"
• ^ is used to 'shorten' a vowel. The exeption is "o" where it is used to longen the sound.

Notes:

• there is no "a" in Zîrkænian, only "â" or "æ".
• the only composed sound in the Zîrkænian language is "sš" which is pronounced j, as in French "jour".
• the "z" is only used at the beginning of a word.
  • otherwise, a "s" is pronounced as "z".
• the "s" is only used at the beginning of a word to represent the s-sound.
  • the "ç" is otherwise used for the s-sound, altough it can be used at the beginning of a word just as well.
• the "f" is only used at the beginning of a word.
  • otherwise the "ph" is used for the f-sound.

Character chart