Mechyrdian Language

Mechyrdian (Mec. Šprah Mehurdias "Language of Mechyrdia", Mehurdias "of Mechyrdia") is the official language of the Empire of Mechyrdia.

Phonology

C, SC, and G before front vowel letters E and I, as well as semivowel letter J, are pronounced /ts/, /s/, and /j/, respectively. For example, sciencj is pronounced /si.ɛnts/, the word gia is pronounced /ja/, and the word burgj is pronounced /bu.ri/.

J after a consonant at the end of a word palatalizes said consonant, something that also applies to C and G, for example Francj is pronounced /frants/, but Franc is pronounced /fraŋk/.

X is pronounced /ks/.

Mechyrdian also has diphthongs: AU, EI, OI, EU, and UO are pronounced /aʊ/, /aɪ/, /oɪ/, /əʊ/, and /ʊə/, respectively.

Grammar

Mechyrdian is a synthetic language: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, and articles are all inflected for grammatical meaning.

Nouns

Mechyrdian doesn't use grammatical gender; instead, nouns are inflected based on their dictionary (i.e. nominative singular) ending and what it ends in.

It also has grammatical cases:

• Nominative is used for calling to people (vocative), or for the subject of a sentence.
• Genitive is used for possession, origin, partition, or specification, e.g. can mei "my dog", Ciarstuo Mehurdias "Empire of Mechyrdia", pocul acvas "cup of water", hóm Pólani "Polish man".
• Dative is used for the indirect object of a sentence, e.g. Rex Jóhan pópule manam giftaviþ "King Johan gave the people mana".
• Accusative is used for the direct object of a sentence.

The stems switch ending patterns in the plural; the plural consonant stem -i takes vowel stem endings, and the plural vowel stem -s takes consonant stem endings. However, nouns ending in palatalized consonants (consonant + J) are treated as vowel stems ending in -i, unless it is a -cj or -gj, in which case it is treated as consonant stems with a soft C or G. For example, the accusative form of Francj "France" is Franciu, while the accusative form of franc "Swiss franc" is francu; the genitive form of Francj is Franci, while the genitive form of franc is franqui.

Pronouns

Mechyrdian pronouns also don't use gender. First second, third person, singular and plural, no gender (that means no he, she, or it). If you need to distinguish between multiple people, use adjectives, e.g. és defórm "the ugly (lit. deformed) man/woman/thing", éj pieti "the faithful ones".

Personal pronouns also take case stacking; the first case is declined as above, and following cases take the normal declensions.

Correlatives

There are other pronouns, determiners, and numerals too, which are mostly declined normally.

• hvar: Who? (sometimes irregular) (also means "anyone" inside of si/ču clauses)
  • hvas: What?
  • hvant: How many?
  • hval: What kind?
  • hvó: Where?
  • hvan: When?
  • mit: When... (relative version of hvas)
  • hvari: Whose?
  • hvasi: Of what, from where?
  • hve: How?
  • ihvó: Where to, until when?
  • ahvó: Where from, starting when?
  • hvascaus: Why? (compound w/ caus)
  • þes + ... = This person, this thing, this kind of, here, now...
  • ali- + ... = Anyone, anything, any kind of, anywhere, any time...
  • ... + -te = Whoever, whatever, whatever kind of, wherever, whenever...
• þar: He/she...
  • þas: It/that...
  • þant: That many.
  • þal: That kind.
  • þó: There...
  • þan: Then...
  • þari: Theirs
  • þasi: Of that, from there
  • iþó: To there, until then
  • eþó: From there, starting then
  • prócaus: Because... (pró + caus)
  • ne- + ... = No-one, nothing, no kind of, nowhere, never
  • pan- + ... = Everyone, everything, every kind of, everywhere, always

The correlatives hvar, hvas, þar, and þas can also take consonant stem case endings for case inflection.

Numerals

Mechyrdian numerals use base 10, however digits are grouped in fours, rather than threes. For example:

• nil: Zero
• un: One
• duo: Two
• tré: Three
• quat: Four
• quinh: Five
• sect: Six
• sept: Seven
• oct: Eight
• nen: Nine
• decamt: Ten
• cent: 100
• myrias: 1,0000 = 10,000
• mil: 1,0000,0000 = 100,000,000
• bil: 1,0000,0000,0000,0000 = 10,000,000,000,000,000
• tril: 1,0000,0000,0000,0000,0000,0000,0000,0000 = 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
• infinihet: ∞

Construction

Numbers are constructed as follows:

• 10⁰ - 1 (= 0) to 10³ - 1 (= 999) have normal names, ranging from nil zero to nen cent nen decamt nen nine-hundred ninety-nine
• 10³ (= 1,000) to 10⁴ - 1 (= 9,999) are split into groups of two digits separated by cent "hundred", e.g. 1,234 is decamt duo cent tré decamt quat, literally "twelve-hundred thirty-four", and is written numerically as 1234
• 10⁴ (= 10,000) to 10⁸ - 1 (= 99,999,999) are split into groups of four digits separated by myrias "myriad", e.g. 12,345,678 is decamt duo cent tré decamt quat myrias quinh decamt sect cent sept decamt oct literally "twelve-hundred thirty-four-myriad fifty-six-hundred seventy-eight", and is written numerically as 1234,5678
• 10⁸ to 10¹⁶ - 1 are split into groups of eight digits and are separated by mil "million"
• 10¹⁶ to 10³² - 1 are split into groups of sixteen digits and are separated by bil "billion"
• 10³² to 10⁶⁴ - 1 are split into groups of thirty-two digits and are separated by tril "trillion"
• etc.

Suffixes

Ordinals take the suffix -(e)rþ, while numerals of repetition take the suffix -(i)x, and numerals of multiplication take the suffix -(ó)bil.

Adjectives

Adjective declensions are very regular; comparative adjectives take the suffix -iór/jór, while superlative adjectives take the suffix -(i)ssim, and supergressive (defined as "increasingly adj") adjectives take the suffix -(e)rrum.

Verbs

Mechyrdian verbs use four tenses, three participles, three supines, and two moods.

The four tenses are:

• Present (non-past, imperfective): I am verbing
• Imperfect (past, imperfective): I was verbing
• Aorist (past, perfective): I verbed
• Future (non-past, perfective): I will verb

This reduces to two in the subjunctive mood:

• Present: I might verb
• Past: I would verb

The three participles are:

• Present active (verbing)
• Perfect passive (having been verbed)
• Future active (about to verb)

The three supines are:

• Nominal (thing used to verb)
• Verbal (in order to verb)
• Adjectival (adjective to verb)

The two moods are indicative and subjunctive.

The verb forms are as follows:

All verb conjugations are regular, even bem "to be".

Prepositions

Mechyrdian prepositions modify the meaning of a noun with respect to a verb. They can also be prefixed to a verb, modifying the meaning of the verb itself, e.g. dé "around, about", þinkatj "to think", déþinkatj "to think about, ponder, consider". Prepositions can also be compounded to nouns, and the noun can be compounded with a case specifying the meaning of the preposition, to create an adjective.

Prepositions of motion towards tend to take the accusative, while those not relating to motion tend to take the dative. Some prepositions can take both cases, and the case determines the specific meaning of the preposition.

The list of important prepositions is:

• pór (+DAT) "for, in front of"
• pór (+ACC) "supporting, in support of"
• ex/e (+ACC) "out of, away from, exiting" (+DAT) "outside of, not belonging to"
• v/u (+ACC) "into, towards the interior of" (+DAT) "in, inside of"
• justa (+DAT) "next to but different from, contrasting with"
• nében (+DAT) "next to, touching" (different from justa in that it doesn't imply any contrast)
• circu (+DAT) "about, around"
• d/dé (+DAT) "about, concerned with"
• protter (+DAT) "because of"
• prócul (+DAT) "far away from"
• pre (+DAT) "before, more important than"
• aput (+DAT) "among, at the home of"
• n/na (+ACC) "to, towards"
• ab/a (+DAT) "by, near, next to but not contrasting with"
• d/de (+GEN) "down from" (+DAT) "below"
• ult (+GEN) "further from, beyond"
• ob/ó (+DAT) "facing, against, across from"
• cónter (+DAT) "standing against" (+ACC) "attacking"
• có (+DAT) "with, accompanied by" (+ACC) "with, using, by means of"
• sin (+DAT) "without, lacking in"
• per (+ACC) "through, going into and coming out of on the other side"

Circu can also be used as a conjunction, where it multiplies two numbers.

For prepositions that are separated by a slash /, the first is used before words starting in a vowel, and the second is used for words starting in a consonant. E.g. v infernu "into hell", u celu "into heaven".

Direct and Indirect Interrogatives

Mechyrdian interrogatives are words used in Mechyrdian to ask questions. Colloquially known as HV-words, they are mostly listed above in the Pronouns section, with the exception of ču "if/whether". Ču is used for "yes/no" questions, e.g. Ču Mehurdiasu talcast? "Do you speak Mechyrdian?". For answers to ču-questions, the following words are used:

• "yes" tac
• "maybe" móžet
• "yes, among other things" auh
• "it's more complicated than your question implies" tacnet
• "no" nét

Naming customs

Mechyrdian names come in 3-4 parts:

• The birth/personal name: hóminóm (lit. name of the person)
• The patronym (for men) or matronym (for women): erbennóm (lit. inherited name)
• The family name: familinóm (lit. name of the family)
• (OPTIONAL) The honor name: meronóm (lit. earned name)

Hóminóm

The personal name is given to the child at birth. When the child reaches 16, the age of adulthood, he is given the choice to change his name with government records at any time, for a small fee.

Erbennóm

The patronymic/matronymic is derived from the father's (for boys) or mother's (for girls) personal name. Thus, if the father has Titó as a personal name, and the mother has Fausta as a personal name, the sons will have Titówič as their patronymic, and the daughters will have Faustówca as their matronymic. The suffix is -ówič for patronymics, and -ówca for matronymics, and they both replace any word-final vowel.

Familinóm

Familinómi are typically much more diverse than hóminómi. It designates a Mechyrdian citizen as a member of a famil. A famil, which is usually translated as "family" or "tribe", forms an extended Mechyrdian family, all of whom share the same familinóm.

Meronumen

The meronóm, or "earned name", is a part of the Mechyrdian name derived from some heroic or virtuous act that is attributed to the bearer, e.g. the former Chancellor of Mechyrdia Dracan Wladimirów, full name Dracan Arcanówič Wladimirów Fulcraíhi, for reigning during the Mechyrdian victory in the Fulkreyksk Cold War.

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