OK, steam-rolling ahead here on National Dialects Day (just kidding...just a busy day for me ) Anyways. Here's some information on Зaru, the language of Tarbiyaan. It's an offshoot of Derrâ, so it's related but simplified. There are fewer characters but more grammar rules. So here goes:

In this booklet you will find a concise and quick easy-to-use reference while learning Зaru. You will be given example setences, new vocabulary, grammar instructions, and model dialog to learn from. The language of Зaru was created for a world-building exercise. It is used in the world of Enderion, specifically in the nation of Tarbiyaan. It is based off of Derrâ and yet introduces new grammar rules and modifies letters.

We'll start you off by learning that alphabet, and then we'll give you some words and phrases. From then we'll give you some basic grammar rules. Remember, Зaru split from Derrâ seven hundred years ago, so variances naturally will occur.

Rather than use the complicated tails system of Derrâ, Зaru is fond of repeating letters. This can make words long, but is easier than writing tails and accents.

Alphabet
The alphabet is based off of the Latin alphabet but has other additional characters as well. Some parts of it are similar to the Derrâ alphabet.

E e (short E)
EE ee (Long E as in Fee)
A a ('Ah')
AA aa (Long 'a' as in 'pay', not influx)
O o (as in 'Oh')
OO o (long 'O' as in 'Ooze') (NOTE: Usually written as 'U' i.e: Зaru officially written Зaroo)
Ŏ ŏ (open 'O' as in Awe) *
D d ('D')
F f ('F')
J j ('DJ')
C c ('K' sound)
CC cc ('CH') (Formerly 'ç', this character sometimes used as well)
T T ('T')
V v ('VL' as in 'table' with 'b' pronounced as 'v')
P p ('Psh' as in opening a can of soda)
G g ('G')
H h (Soft 'H' as in 'house')
R r ('R', always rolled)
B b ('B')
L l ('L' as in 'life')
N n ('N' as in 'noise')
NN nn ('N' as in 'pond' [not as in 'noise'])
Ņ ņ ('ng') (very rarely used; usually the 'nn' sound and the 'ņ' sound are indistinguishable to Tarbiyan ears, causing 'pond' and 'pongd' to sound the same. When in doubt, prounounce the sound as 'ng')
S s ('S')
SS ss ('SH' as in 'shell')
З з ('DZ')
ˬ ˬ (Pause -- Indicates a pause between two vowels that are not double vowels)

* Technically, one can make a vowel open by adding this symbol: ˘ but the language only officially uses it on the Ŏ character.

As you can see, many English letters are similar to their Зaru equivalents. There are seven vowel sounds. The alphabet is not difficult to learn; a day's work will have it easily memorized. In creating the language, the sovereigns of Tarbiyaan saw the importance of cutting down vowel sounds; unfortunately they added many grammar rules.

Some of the Grammar rules for Зaru (NOTE: I'm still adding to these )
Double Character Rule
In Зaru, double characters such as 'CC', 'AA', and so on may not be repeated in the 'C-V' order. They may, however, be repeated in the 'Vowel-Consonant' order, thus making deccaa not a valid word in Зaru, but daacc a valid word. Other valid words include joosscc and ccarg. An invalid example would be geccaa.

Vowel-Word Rule
A vowel may never start a word, regardless of whether it is double or single vowels. Double vowels can end words while single vowels cannot, unless the double vowel comes after a double consonant, in which case it cannot end the word (see above rule Double Character Rule). Valid Зaru example words: vess and coonaa. Invalid Зaru example words: ess and nnoccaa

No-Repeat Rule
No consonant may ever be repeated unless it is specifically a double character letter, but a vowel may be repeated to make that vowel into a long sound. For example, the letter 'R' may never be repeated in a word, as it is in Derrâ. Instead, a single R is always rolled. Additionally, 'Tarbiyaan' is different from 'Tarbiyan' (Note: Tarbiyaan describes the nation, a 'Tarbiyan' is someone who lives in 'Tarbiyaan')

Influx Rule
With its heavy influence from Qaluros, it is natural that Tarbiyans would pick up some Derrâ words and incorporate them into their vocabulary. But this arises the problem that many letters of Derrâ do not exist in Зaru. Words can be 'imported', however. One of the most common sounds in Derrâ is the influx, characterized by the ^symbol. To import this symbol into Зaru, simply double the letter over which the accent rests, thus turning Derrâ into Deraa (Note, double R's are not allowed in Зaru thus the single 'r'). When 'importing' influx words into Зaru, traditional grammar rules such as the vowel-word rule and the double-character can be disregarded.

Meeting and Greeting
When a Tarbiyan meets someone (s)he generally says: ssadee. The response is also ssadee. Then (s)he asks many questions inquiring into the other person's well-being. Usually one devotes five minutes of a conversation to answer these questions in a formal (and not always truthful) way.

If there is an emergency and one must break with tradition, one says upon greeting Tŏsstaa ssadee, which loosely translated, means 'Bad peace' and alerts your listener that what you are saying must be said quickly, without delay.

When Qalurans introduce themselves they generally use both their first name and the name of their father. Generally people add an ending on to their father's name, so that someone might say their name as follows:

Erŏhaaran Braˬeenn aal
Speaker's name father's name family name ending.

Therefore, when introducing themselves, they would state their full name as Srugóз Elşideļ. Most common endings are the following:
For men: eel, naal For Women: aalee, noolee

Usually, one addresses one another with aag, 'older brother', and een 'older sister' to show respect. Those who are older are usually respected and addressed according by those who are younger. These words are added to the end of someone's name to show respect. For example, if one were talking to a person named Erŏhaaran in the market, one would say Erŏhaaranaag, which shows respect.

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And there we go...that's about all I've got for Зaru so far. I've developed the grammar rules more extensively than Derrâ, but Derrâ has more words. Over the next week I'm going to be developing both of them a lot. Since Зaru is based off of Derrâ, you should see a few similarities between the two languages.

Let me know what you think. And if you're in shock...well, so am I...I made this all this afternoon
eruheran

This has now been archived.