This is Keniglyphs, an alphabet that I made by taking little sketches that my partner drew and simplifying them in three stages until I got letter like symbols. It's an alphabet that is apt for writing in both English and my conlang Pearish.
Pearish (or ᛈⲉꞃιʃ /pɛɹɪʃ/) is a language specifically designed for my partner and I to communicate without anyone else understanding. It is the language of the pears because of my partner and I's connection to the quote, "They say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, but what if I'm not an apple, what if I'm a pear? If I change my laugh, if I change my hair, am I still destined to be just like my father?" It consists of influences from English, Latin, Irish, Ancient and Modern Greek, Russian, Spanish and a whole host of others with lots of original stuff thrown in the mix. We have been working on it for about a year, and while it still gets added to often, it has reached adequacy for most every-day conversation. It is written in the Latimpo alphabet of my own design that is a culmination of letters across languages that already exist as to allow for support across digital platforms.
Consonants
Pulmonic
| Bilabial | Labiodental | Dental | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | /m/ | /n/ | /ŋ/ | |||||
| Plosive | /p/ /b/ | /t/ /d/ | /k/ /ɡ/ | |||||
| Sibilant Affricative | /t̠͡ʃ/ /d̠͡ʒ/ | |||||||
| Sibilant Fricative | /s/ /z/ | /ʃ/ /ʒ/ | ||||||
| Non-Sibilant Fricative | /f/ /v/ | /θ/ /ð/ | /ɣ/ | /χ/ | ||||
| Approximate | /w/ | /j/ | ||||||
| Lateral Approx. | /l/ |
Non-Pulmonic
| Clicks |
|---|
| /kǀ/ tenuis velar Dental |
| /kǃ/ tenuis velar Alveolar |
| /kǁ/ tenuis velar Lateral |
Vowels
Mutations
Each letter in Pearish has another pre-existing letter (with the exception of 𐓚 (/ɑ/) and Ᵹ (/ɡ/) which make the sounds /ɒ/ and /ɣ/ respectively when mutated) that it mutates to. This process is called shévú (ʃɍꝼ̇γ, /ʃɛɪvu/) and is used in many different grammatical circumstances, it is notated with an acute accent over the letter. There also exists a double mutation called fadu (ꝼ𐓚ⲇπ, /fɑdə/), which adds /w/ to consonants before vowels and /wə/ to all other cases with exception to where /w/ is already present, in which it removes the /w/ sound, fadu is notated with a dot accent above the letter. Yeah I know that's really complicated :). One important usage of shévú is that mutating the first letter of a word pluralizes it.
Word Order
Pearish (as we'll see soon) uses noun declensions, so there is no required word order, but convention is VSO. Adjectives must come directly after nouns, as they do not have a matching suffix to the noun such as Latin per se, but when adjectives come before a noun, that is how you know it is a compound word. A good example of this is ⲇωċb𐓚ν /dɑut̠͡ʃbɑn/ which means coffee, and is a compound of ⲇωċ /dɑut̠͡ʃ/ meaning brown, and b𐓚ν /bɑn/ meaning water.
Nouns
Nouns decline into the nominative, genitive, dative, accusative and ablative cases in three different declensions. We'll use жī𐓚 /ʒiɑ/ - day for nouns ending in 𐓚 /ɑ/, ɍkoς /ɛɪkos/ - house for nouns ending in oς /os/ or πς /əs/, and eþπꞃ /eθəɹ/ - earth for nouns ending in anything else, as examples.
| Dec. Number | 1st dec. | 2nd dec. | 3rd dec. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | жī𐓚 /ʒiɑ/ | ɍkoς /ɛɪkos/ | eþπꞃ /eθəɹ/ |
| Genitive | жīы /ʒiɑi/ | ɍkī /ɛɪki/ | eþπꞃις /eθəɹɪs/ |
| Dative | жīīς /ʒi'is/ | ɍku /ɛɪky/ | eþπꞃι /eθəɹɪ/ |
| Accusative | жī𐓚מ /ʒiɑm/ | ɍkπמ /ɛɪkəm/ | eþπꞃιמ /eθəɹɪm/ |
| Ablative | жīa /ʒiæ/ | ɍko /ɛɪko/ | eþπꞃⲉ /eθəɹɛ/ |
As mentioned previously, plurality is denoted by a shévú mutation on the first letter of the noun. There also exists a dual, which is formed by a fadu mutation on the first letter of the noun.
The noun declensions function mostly the same as Latin, with some oddball exceptions.
Verbs
Every single verb in Pearish has the exact same conjugation for person and number that by itself, is the present tense. All other tenses, except for the conditional, use tense particles that come directly before the verb. The conjugation is as follows, with ꞇ𐓚 kɾoιʃo /tɑ klo'ɪʃo/ - to hear, as an example.
| Infinitive | ꞇ𐓚 kɾoιʃo /tɑ klo'ɪʃo/ |
|---|---|
| 1st pers. sing. | kɾoιʃīמ /klo'ɪʃim/ |
| 2nd pers. sing. | kɾoιʃ𐓚ꞃꞇ /klo'ɪʃɑɹt/ |
| 3rd pers. sing. | kɾoιʃīς /klo'ɪʃis/ |
| 1st pers. pl. | kɾoιʃoמo /klo'ɪʃomo/ |
| 2nd pers. pl. | kɾoιʃ𐓚ꞃ /klo'ɪʃɑɹ/ |
| 3rd pers. pl. | kɾoιʃ𐓚ꞃς /klo'ɪʃɑɹs/ |
The tense particles are as follows.
| Plu-perfect | pɾπ /plə/ |
|---|---|
| Past | 𐓚νꞇⲉ /ɑntɛ/ |
| Future | poς /pos/ |
| Future-perfect | ꝼγꞇγ /futu/ |
The verb ꞇ𐓚 σⲉɾ - to be, is as follows, and is the only irregular verb.
| Infinitive | ꞇ𐓚 σⲉɾ |
|---|---|
| 1st pers. sing. | σīמ |
| 2nd pers. sing. | 𐓚ꞃꞇ |
| 3rd pers. sing. | īς |
| 1st pers. pl. | oמo |
| 2nd pers. pl. | 𐓚ꞃ |
| 3rd pers. pl. | 𐓚ꞃz |
There's also the conditional, subjunctive and passive, but this is probably already a bit much for one post, so I'll leave it at what's here. Thank you, and I hope you find Pearish interesting!
ᚪνⲇ𐓚ꞃꞇמ Ᵹɍιɾ ⲉꞇ ⲇγ σꞇaⲇo! /ɑndɑɹtm gɛɪ'ɪl ɛt du stædo/ - Thank you and goodbye!
