Vesenian

Vesenian (native: vesenesko /veseˈnesko/) is a Slavic language.

Introduction

Vesenian is an attempt to create a "Spanish-sounding" Slavic language.

Phonology

Consonants

Vesenian consonant phonemes

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Postalveolar/ Palatal	Velar/ Guttural
Nasal		m		n	ɲ	(ŋ)
Stop	voiceless	p	t		c ~ tʃ	k
	voiced	b	d			ɡ
Fricative	voiceless	f	θ	s		x
	voiced	v	ð	z	ʝ
Approximant		(β̞)	(ð̞)		(j)	(w), (ɣ˕)
Lateral				l	ʎ
Trill				r
Tap				ɾ

Phonological history

From Proto-Slavic (with original vowel length preserved) to Proto-Vesenian

Vowels

• *oRC > *oRъC
• *eRC > *eRьC
• *ъRC > *ъRъC
• *ьRC > *ьRьC
• Weakening of yers:
  • Yers were considered weak (and were likely shortened to some extent but were not completely dropped) when final, and when followed by a syllable in the same word that did not contain a weak yer.
  • Yers followed by a syllable containing a weak yer were considered strong.
  • Weak yers could not carry an accent. Therefore, any accent they had was shifted to the previous vowel, resulting in the neoacute.
• All final-syllable accents were shifted to the previous syllable (or the syllable before that if the penultimate syllable contained a weak yer), forming more cases of the neoacute.
• Neoacute vowels (including yers) were lengthened.

Consonants

• *šč > *sc / adjacent to front vowels
• *č > *c / adjacent to front vowels
• *č > *ť / otherwise
• *ždž > *zdz / adjacent to front vowels
• *ždž > *žď / otherwise
• *ž > *z / adjacent to front vowels
• *š > *s / adjacent to front vowels
• *ś > *s / everywhere

Proto-Venesian prounciation notes

• Preserved *š = /ç/
• Preserved *ž = /ʝ/
• *ť = /c/
• *ď = /ɟ/
• *ь = /ɪ/
• *ъ = /ʊ/

From Proto-Vesenian to Early Old Vesenian

Vowels

• Reformulation of strong and weak yers (only applies to short yers):
  • The earlier distinction between strong and weak yers was lost.
  • Final yers were preserved except when part of a polysyllabic inflectional ending and in some other exceptional cases.
  • Elsewhere, yers were dropped whenever phonotactically feasible (with the second of a sequence of two yers being dropped when possible), lengthening the preceding vowel. This process was highly susceptible to analogy.
  • Yers were also added to break impermissible consonant clusters. The quality of the yer was in accordance with the vowel of the syllable that it split.
  • A front yer was also added word-initially before clusters of a sibilant + consonant.
• *ь̄ > e
• *ъ̄ > o
• *e > ь / before palatal consonants (j, ž, š, ť, ď)
• *o > vъ / initially before palatal consonants (j, ž, š, ť, ď)
• *o > ъ / non-initially before palatal consonants (j, ž, š, ť, ď)

From Early Old Vesenian to Late Old Vesenian

Vowels

• ь, ъ > i / adjacent to j, ž, š
• ь, ъ > e / adjacent to ť, ď
• ь > e / otherwise
• ъ > o / otherwise
• ě > ē
• ę > ēN / before a consonant (N = homorganic nasal to following consonant)
• ę > ē / otherwise
• ǫ > ōN / before a consonant
• ǫ > ō / otherwise

Consonants

• šť > ť / initially
• šť > jť / otherwise
• žď > ď / initially
• žď > jď / otherwise
• ť > č /c/ (purely transcription change)
• ď > ž /ʝ/
• j > ∅ / #_i

Transcription Notes

• Long vowels are consistently marked with macrons.

From Late Old Vesenian to Modern Vesenian

Vowels (vowel length marked)

• Non-final posttonic short vowels were often dropped where phonotactically feasible.
• Posttonic long vowels were shortened.
• ē > ië (note: ë = /ə/)
• ō > uë
• ā > a
• ī > i
• ū > u
• ȳ > ë
• ë > e
• CjV, CijV > CiV (i.e. became an opening diphthong)
• uej > ui /u̯i/
  • This occurred after gC > jC and resulted in Old Vesenian ōgC becoming uiC.
• Cuie > Cui
  • This (and the change below) occurred after CvV > CuV
• Cui > Cuj / before non-front vowels

Consonants

• š /ç/ > x
• c > ť /θ/
• j > j /ʝ/ / except when before a consonant (i.e. in a closing diphthong) or after /i/, in which case it is pronounced /j/
• ž > j /ʝ/
• dz > ď /ð/
• dl > gl
• tl > kl
• g > j / before consonants
• x > f / before consonants
• fv > f
• v > u /w/ / adjacent to consonants and word-finally
• r > r /ɾ/
• ř > ř /r/
• m > n / word-finally

Morphology

Pronouns

Vesenian personal pronouns

Person/ Number	Subject	Object	Oblique	Approximative	Clitic object		Possessive
					Direct	Indirect	Weak	Strong
1S	ja	me	mene	meneh	me	mi	mi	mije
2S	te	te	tebe	tebeh	te	ti	ti	tije
3SM	ono	ono	onon	onoh	go	gi	gi	jego
3SF	ona	ona	onan	onah	je	ji	ji	ije
3R	—	se	sebe	sebeh	se	si	si	sije
1P	ne	ne	namo	namoh	ne	nas	nas	naso
2P	ve	ve	vamo	vamoh	ve	vas	vas	vaso
3PM	oni	oni	onin	onih	ho	hi	hi	iho
3PF	one	one	onen	oneh	ho	hi	hi	iho

Strong possessives decline as adjectives.

Nouns

Original Proto-Slavic case forms were mostly lost, with some relics.

Possessive adjectives, equivalent to -'s in English, are formed with the suffixes -vo (added after the final vowel of masculine nouns ending in -o or -e) and -ino (added to non-masculine nouns, replacing the final vowel). When formed from a plural noun, the suffix is -sevo (added after the final vowel of the plural).

The plural is traditionally formed by changing the final vowel to -i (masculine) or -e (feminine). An emphatic plural can be formed with the suffix -s added after the vowel of the regular plural. However, the emphatic plural is often used in vernacular as the default plural.

The oblique is formed by adding a final nasal (-n) to a noun in the singular or plural.

The approximative (meaning "around X", "in the area of X", "approximately X") is formed by adding a final (-h) to the plural form of the noun.