Penginijtung

it-Penginijtung is one of two languages (the other being Pengeálige) created for the Free Commonwealth of Penguinea, though it was originally intended to be a language for the Talossan territory of Péngöpäts, in addition to the Talossan language. Created by Miestrâ Schivâ, Evan Gallagher and Ián Txaglh, Penginijtung was based on Japanese, Icelandic, German and Welsh.

Phonology

Consonants

	Bilabial	Labio-dental	Dental	Alveolar	Post-alveolar	Palatal	Labio-velar	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	P /p/ B /b/			T /t/ D /d/				C/K /k/ G /g/
Nasal	M /m/			N /n/
Fricative		F /f/ V /v/	Þ /θ/	S /s/ Z /z/	X /ʃ/				H /h/
Affricate				TX /tʃ/ DX /dʒ/
Approximant				R /r/		J /j/	W /w/
Lateral approximant				L /l/

C and K may be used interchangeably according to personal preference.

Vowels

The vowels of Penginijtung are short, pure vowels as in most languages:

A	/ʌ/
E	/ɛ/
I	/ɪ/
O	/ɒ/
U	/ʊ/
Y	/ə/

All vowels are pronounced short unless followed by a semivowel, eg. "aw", "ej", "ij", "ow", "uw", or are in a monosyllable. The schwa, "y," can often be omitted if the pronunciation of the resulting consonant cluster is not too difficult. Identical vowels in apposition which are not diphthongs are separated by "j" if "e" or "i", "w" if "o" or "u", "h" if "a."

Stress

Accent is on the last syllable before the final to precede a consonant cluster or contain a diphthong (vowel + "j" or "w"), or failing any the first, not counting particles. Particles are never accented.

Grammar

Penginijtung's grammar is particle-based, much like Japanese. Unlike Japanese, however, the particles may follow the noun (or pronoun), precede it, or both, depending on questions of euphony and practicality.

Particles

Prefixed	Suffixed	Meaning	Examples
a-	-(h)a	Vocative: person being addressed	a-Dafneja "Hey, Daphne!"
o-	-(w)o	Nominative: agent of transitive verb or argument of intransitive	o-meo "I"
e-	(j)e	Accusative: patient of transitive verb	e-meje "me"
is-	-(j)is	Genitive: denotes the possessor; can be omitted in chains of genitives	is-Evanis awje "Evan's eye"
at-	-(h)at	Locative: shows position (in, at, on)	at-Penginijat "in Penguinea"
in-	-(h)in	Dative: indirect object of a verb; movement towards the noun	in-hirin "to it"
ov-	-(w)ov	Ablative: movement away from the noun	ov-hirov "from it"
av	-(h)av	"concerning..."; equivalent to Latin "dative of advantage"	av-hirmerhav "concerning her, for her advantage"
de-	-de	Instrumentive: manner or means of action	de-þude "[done] by you"
fyr-	-fyr	Example	fyr-þuhahirfyr "[intended] for you two"
ha-	-ha	Conjunctive: "with"	ha-Jan "with Jan"
na-	-na	Partitive: "member of"	cij na-hilefaniþ "three of the elephants"
jix-	-jix	Attributive: turns a noun into an adjective, similar to English "-ish" or "-like" (also achievable by simple apposition	xi-jix "poetic"

Particles preceding a noun are joined by a hyphen to the noun, and aspirate initial vowels--the vocative form of the name Ejne is a-hEjneha. Particles are never capitalised. Particles are nested logically according to meaning; for example, "my destiny" in the objective form is eis-meis dowme, since "my destiny" is treated as a unit. When the meaning is totally unambiguous, either initial or final, but not both, particles may be omitted.

Word Order

The usual word order of Penginijtung is Subject-Object-Verb, as in Latin and Japanese: o-Meo e-þuje xinfuir "I love you." Adjectives precede the noun, except in poetic speech, and particles occur at the beginning and end of noun phrases (cf. eis-meis dowme, above).

Nouns & Adjectives

Nouns form their plural in -iþ, occurring at the end of the noun before the particle. There is no grammatical gender, and the plural suffix can be omitted if the meaning is clear.

Personal Pronouns

1. me "I"
2. þu "you"
3. hir "he/she/it"

There are four distinct first-person plural forms:

• meiþ "we" (exclusive)
• mehaþu "you and I"
• mehahir "I and he/she/it/they"
• wi "we, all of us" (inclusive)

The second and third persons may be pluralized with the suffix -iþ, in situations when necessary. In the second person, þuhahir is used for "the two of you." There are no distinctions for gender or familiarity, though one may use hirman for "he" and hirmerh for "she" when necessary

Articles

There is no indefinite article. The definite article is it-, prefixed to the noun in the phrase.

• trevoriþ "citizens"
• it-trevoriþ "the citizens"
• eit-trevoriþe "the citizens (accusative)"
• is-Penginijis it-trevoriþ "the citizens of Penguinea"

When the definite article covers a phrase, "it" may be repeated at the end of the phrase to avoid ambiguity.

Comparison

The comparative degree is expressed via the prefix mor-; the superlative by the suffix -yst.

• hwit "white"
• morhwit "whiter"
• hwityst "whitest"

Verbs & Adverbs

Adverbs are formed by the suffix -lij. Verbs occur at the end of the sentence. They only inflect for tense, not person or number, and inflect by regularly suffixing the verb stem. Tense suffixes for verbs are:

	Present	Past	Future
Transitive	-ir	-di	-vil
Intransitive/Passive	-ot	-in	-enij

(The default past tense is the imperfect.) Verbs are negated by adding -na after the tense suffix: o-Hirmano e-hirmerhe xinfuirna "He does not love her." Reflexive verbs are indicated with the suffix -sej: o-Hirmano xinfuirsej "He loves himself." Interrogatives are marked by the suffix -ca, which is added to the part of speech under question, e.g. o-hEjneho e-hise hanasdica "Did Ejne say this?" o-hEjneho e-hiseca hanasdi "Did Ejne say this?" o-hEjnehoca e-hise hanasdi "Did Ejne say this?" The perfect mood is indicated by the infinitive followed by verb "pennejd" (complete, finish) with the appropriate tense suffix.

	Present	Past	Future
Simple	o-Meo rojir "I take"	o-Meo rojdi "I was taking"	o-Meo rojvil "I will take"
Perfect	o-Meo roj pennejdir "I take"	o-Meo roj pennejddi "I was taking"	o-Meo roj pennejdvil "I will take"
Passive	o-Meo rojot "I am taken"	o-Meo rojic "I was taken"	o-Meo rojenij "I will be taken"
Passive Perfect	o-Meo roj pennejdot "I have been taken"	o-Meo roj pennejdic "I had been taken"	o-Meo roj pennejdenij "I will have been taken"

The subjunctive mood is indicated by the word vismaj at the beginning of the clause. Vismaj o-hirmerho e-þue xinfuir "She would love you." Participles and gerundives are formed by adding the adjective-suffix -jix to the appropriate form of the verb: man wacarijirjix "an understanding man." Gerunds are formed with the suffix -hejd: wacarijirhejd "(an) understanding." The infinitive (verb without any affixes) is used for the intangible quality of an action, especially in prepositional phrases. oit-Txino sem o-juo e-varue xinfuir "The person whom you love to hate" (literally: "the person as you the hating love"). There is no single verb "to have." This construction is expressed by the conjunctive, or locative, or possessive particle with sem. o-hEjrico sem fyr-tungiþ ha-gajx hofha. "Ejrik has strange taste in languages."

Copula

In simple noun-complement phrases, such as "John is big," the passive verb suffixes are used with the adjective: o-Dxono mawrot. In more complex constructions, such as "Penguinea is the greatest nation on earth," the copula sem is used: Penginij sem at-it-Bijdat dxujonyst it-gulad (literally "Penguinea is on-the-earth greatest the-country").

Conjunctions

Conjunctions are attached by hyphens between the words they qualify. Two or more words or phrases joined by conjunctions are considered to be one word and thus may (although this is not mandatory) have only one terminal particle: a-Jan-ha-Dafnej-ha-hEvan-ha "Hey, Jan, Daphne, and Evan!" When phrases are joined with a conjunction, no hyphen is used.

sem

The relative clause marker is sem, which also serves as the "copula" or "identity marker" in subject/complement constructions (see above under "Copula"), and the "as" in comparative sentences--e.g. sem snaw morwhit, "as white as snow." Subordinate clauses are preceded by the particle for the part of speech to which they refer and the marker sem, and suffixed with the particle, if necessary.

• o-Meo vilir "I want."
• it-hun e-sem o-Meo vilir "the thing that I want"
• o-þuo e-sem o-Meo vilire canir. "You know what I want."

Numbers

1. þuw
2. zal
3. cij
4. sa
5. mah
6. huþ
7. semf
8. cesp
9. nurf
10. xar

External links

• it-Cejndijtung- The website of it-Cejndijtung, the constructed language formerly known as it-Penginijtung.