...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
va kor gopubat ogoraro kor kiko va guk kor nagu to kir tim kavek
Pronunciation: /va kor ˈgopubat ˈagoɾaɾo kor kiˈko va guk kor naˈgu kir tim ˈkavek/
Zozun word order: and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet (preposition) face to the wind

— An Example of a sentence in Zozun



Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory

b d g h j k l m n p r s t v w z ŋ ɾ
 
Pronunciation
↓Manner/Place→BilabialLabiodentalAlveolarPalatalVelarGlottal
Nasalmnŋ
Stopp bt dk g
Fricativevs zh
Approximantj
Tapɾ
Trillr
Lateral approximantl
 
Co-articulated phonemes
↓Manner/Place→Labial-velar
Approximantw
 

Vowel inventory

a e i o u y


Pronunciation
FrontBack
Highi yu
High-mideo
Lowa
 

Stress and Spelling

There is no stress pattern - all syllables are equally long. Pitch, however, does change.

Spelling rules

PronunciationSpelling
ŋn
ɾr
æae
üy
r̈r
ǔu
ûu
üy
 

Grammar

Word Order:Subject Verb Object (Prepositional phrase).
“Mary opened the door with a key” turns into Mary opened the door with a key.
Adjective order: Adjectives are positioned before the noun and attached with either a hyphen or the preposition "to".
Adposition: prepositions

Nouns

SingularNo affix
tyt /tyt/ dog
PluralIf starts with vowel: Prefix k-
Else: Prefix ka-
katyt /ˈkatyt/ dogs
 

Articles

DefiniteIndefinite
Singularka /ka/ the se /se/ a
Pluralzys /zys/ the zur /zur/ some
 
Uses of definite article that differ from English:

Used with place names: ‘The London’

Adjectives

Attached to word with to-
eg. blue light - gir-to-yk (blue-(attachment word)-light)
Sometimes it's just hyphenated instead.
e.g. kintar (ritual) + nizam (magic) = kintar-nizam, ritual magic

Pronouns

1st singulartol /tol/ I, me, mine
2nd singularsa /sa/ you, yours
3rd singular masckor /kor/ he, him, his, it (masc), its (masc)
3rd singular femre /ɾe/ she, her, hers, it (fem), its (fem)
3rd singular genve /ve/ they/it, their/it, theirs/its
1st plural inclusiveno /no/ we (including you), us (including you), ours (including you)
1st plural exclusiveku /ku/ we (excluding you), us (excluding you), ours (excluding you)
2nd pluralti /ti/ you all, yours (pl)
3rd pluralju /ju/ they, them, theirs

Pronouns are not conjugated or changed. Possession can be attributed to a person or thing directly via pronoun. e.g. kor kavis (His container) or with a name pronoun possession pattern e.g. Blossom kor kavis (Blossom's container)

Verbs

For past or future tense verbs, definite or indefinite articles can be used to clarify how certain one is about when that happened.
ka hasum /ka 'hasum/ learned at a time you can pinpoint in the far past.
a hasum /a 'hasum/ learned at a time you feel vague or unsure about but that was in the far past.
ka esum /ka 'esum / will learn at a specific time in the near future (e.g. next week)
a isum /a 'esum / will learn at some eventual future point (e.g. oh I'll get around to it someday)


PresentNo affix
sum /sum/ learn
PastIf starts with vowel: Prefix g-
Else: Prefix go-
gosum /ˈgosum/ learned
Remote pastIf starts with vowel: Prefix h-
Else: Prefix ha-
hasum /ˈhasum/ learned (long ago)
Future (soon)If starts with a vowel: Prefix es
Else: Prefix e-
esum /ˈesum/ will learn (soon)
Future (remote)If starts with a vowel: Prefix is-
Else: Prefix i-
isum /ˈisum/ will learn (eventually)

Imperfective aspect

The ‘imperfective’ aspect refers to ongoing actions, such as I am learning and habitual actions, such as I learn (something new every day).
Zozun uses an affix for imperfective:

ImperfectiveIf vowel: Prefix ot-
Else: Prefix o-
osum: /o'sum/ learns/is learning

Perfect aspect

The perfect aspect in English is exemplified in ‘I have read this book’, which expresses an event that took place before the time spoken but which has an effect on or is in some way still relevant to the present.
Zozun uses an affix for the perfect aspect:

PerfectIf starts with vowel: Prefix z-
Else: Prefix zu-
zusum /ˈzusum/ have learned
 

Numbers

Zozun has a base-10 number system: 0 - nyu
1- kiv
2 - ep
3 - vo
4 - mem
5 - he
6 - mabe
7 - rut
8 - bi
9 - viv
10 - mu
100 - ve
1000 - kima
Infinite - kekani
Larger numbers are stacked multiples:

10,000 - mu-kima (ten 1,000s)
30,000 - vo-mu-kima (three-ten-1,000s)

Derivational morphology

Modified Words

Modifies with stacking affixes.
ti (verb -> noun meaning one who does verb), ka (noun -> verb, meaning doing thing), nizam (magic) -> tikanizam, a magic user.



Compound Words

Words are attached to one another with a hyphen.
tikakintar-nizam, a ritual magic user (ritual-magic: kinta-nizam. So, one who does ritual-magic.


Affixes

Adjective → adverb = If starts with vowel: Prefix s-
Else: Prefix sa-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -lor
Else: Suffix -alor
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix ku-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -lis
Else: Suffix -alis
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ko
Else: Suffix -oko
Noun to verb = If starts with vowel: Prefix k-
Else: Prefix ka-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ik-
Else: Prefix iku-
Tending to = Prefix zo-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix v-
Else: Prefix vy-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If starts with vowel: Prefix v-
Else: Prefix va-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If starts with vowel: Prefix t-
Else: Prefix ti-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If starts with vowel: Prefix k-
Else: Prefix ke-
Diminutive = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ki
Else: Suffix -iki
Augmentative = If ends with vowel: Suffix -si
Else: Suffix -asi
Opposite = If starts with vowel: Prefix w-
Else: Prefix wa-
Below = Prefix e-
Without = Prefix u-
All = Prefix jo-
Small = If ends with vowel: Suffix -va
Else: Suffix -avi
Noun → One Who Uses [noun] = if starts with vowel: Prefix tik-
Else: Prefix tika-