Zeibear

Zeibear is the official language of Zeiberland and is spoken by over 17 million native speakers and over 8 million non native speakers.

Phonology

Vowels

VOWELS	Front		Central	Back
Close	[i]i	[y]u			[u:]ū
Mid	[ɛ]e		[ɐ ~ a:/ɑ:]a		[ɔ:]ō
Open	[æ]æ				[ɒ]o

Dipthongs

[aɪ] ai

[eɪ] ei

[ɪə]ea

[ou]ou

[au]au

[ɪə]ia

Consonants

CONSONANTS	labial		Alveodental		Alveopalatal		Velar		Glottal
Plosive	[p]p	[b]b	[t]t	[d]d			[k]k	[ɡ]g	[ʔ]'
Nasal		[m]m		[n]n				[ŋ]ṅ
Fricative	[f]f	[v]v	[s]s	[z]z	[ʃ]ś	[ʒ] j	[x ] h	(ɣ)
Approximant		[w]w		[l]l		[j]y
Rhotics			[r ~ ɹ ~ ʀ]r
Affricate			[ts] c/ts		[tʃ ~ tɕ] c /tś

Phonotactics

1. Syllable structure CCVʔVCC

C = consonant V = all vowels and dipthongs ʔ = glottal stop

2. Glottal stops can only occur between vowels

3.  [ɣ] and [ʔ] never cluster.

4. [i] can be nasalised if it is followed by [ŋ]. [ɒ],[æ] are nasalised sometimes if followed by a nasal consonant.

5. Only plosives and nasals germinate and germination is fairly rare.

6. 'c' can be 'ts' or 'tʃ' depending on the word. Generally it is 'tʃ'

7. When [x] comes after 'g' (and sometimes 'r'), it turns into (ɣ)

Grammar

1. Word order

SVO, strictly

2. Grammatical number

Singular and Plural

A noun may be pluralised by adding the following at the end. s, z, ez or es depending on the end of the word.

3. Grammatical Gender

There is an animate/inanimate distinction and every noun is divided into these two genders.

Articles

Articles in Zeibear
Before consonants
	Singlular		Plural
Indefinite	yu		yel
Definite	je		le
Partitif		del
Before vowels
Indefinite	y'		yel
Definite	j'		l'
Partitif		del

Pronouns

Pronouns

Subjective pronouns:

Objective pronouns

Possesive pronouns(sing nouns)

Possesive pronouns(plural nouns)

Singular

Plural

Singular

Plural

Singular

Plural

Singular

Plural

1st person

ma

nū(inc)

nous(excl)

moi

noi(inc)

nois(excl)

mon

nūn(inc)

nons(excl)

mes

nūs(inc)

nos(excl)

2nd person

ta(normal)

ta'i(respect)

vū

toi(normal)

to'i(respect)

voi

tan(nromal)

to'an(repect)

von

tas(nromal)

to'as(repect)

vos

3rd inanimate

fi

sun

fea

sund

fil

zun

filz

zund

3rd animate

shi

sun

shea

sund

shil

zun

shilz

zund

impersonalised

n/a

ona

n/a

ond

n/a

owa

n/a

oha

Subjective, Objective and Possesive are the only pronoun cases

Possesive pronouns change depending on the number of nouns

3rd person sing is split into inaminate and animate

eg- My car - Mon voishur

My cars - Mes voishurs

Stress pronouns

Pronoun	Before -ir verbs	Before imperative
1st per sing	mu	-
1st per plu incl	nu	nuj
1st per plu excl	nuh	nuś
2nd per sing	tu	tuj
2nd per plu	vu	vuj
3rd per sing	śu	-
3rd person plu	su	-
impersonalised	ṅu	ṅūj

Verbs

Modality is conveyed through modals

All verb stems in Zeibear end on:
-ōn/-on	These are informally known as (GRP 1 verbs)
-e	These are informally known as (GRP 2 verbs)
-ir	These are reflexive verbs
-eh	These are the modals and auxiliary verbs

Conjugation

Each group conjugates in its own way. There are four irregular verbs- se, avōn, gōn, fōn. (they all conjugate in the same way except the imperatives and simple past)

Imperatives and all -ir verbs have a stress pronoun preceding the verb.

The pase resont (recent past) is vian + verb in simple past

Infinitive

Simple present

Present continous

Simple past

Past habitual

Past perfect

Past continous

Simple future

Future continous

Future perfect

Imperative

-eh/ah

-ih

-es

-oh

-ans

-ou

-as

-ej

-us

-ea

stress pronoun +infinitive

-on/ōn

-ont

-ouz

-oṅ

-ans

-out

-onz

-ūj

-ūn

-uṅ

-e

stem or -i

-es

-o

-an

-ou

-as

-ej

-us

-ea

-ir

-ia

-ich

-iaz

-ian

-iwn

-isez

-iz

-it

-iṅ

Negation

Adding 'ne' or 'non' or 'no' before any verbs automatically turns it into a negative verbs. If the modal is not a standalone verb then negation comes before the modal.