One evening, I was struck with a burst of inspiration, and I decided to create my own artificial language for Yuoo and his foxy friends. (Yes, it was a lot of inspiration!) :-) I want this to be more than just a "mapped language" that some video games or fantasy stories use (taking an existing language such as English and simply replacing the alphabet with a different set of symbols or sounds). Instead, I aim to make a language with its own phonetics, alphabet, and grammar structure (albiet borrowing bits and pieces from real languages), and I want this language to have its own distinct vocabulary (albeit limited, and with some "borrowed" words).
Now, how does this language fit into Yuoo's imaginary world of Loblolly? Well, I want the creatures of this world to be as un-divided by species as possible, so I don't want to create any language barriers that fall along species lines. Instead, I think I'll say that this language Fenni is spoken by the inhabitants of the planet Fennicus Prime. (This is from an online game I play.)
Well, I will be building the Fenni language little by little until I have something along the lines of Elvish (Lord of the Rings) or Klingon (Star Trek). If you have any suggestions, please e-mail me.
And now...
Here is a chart displaying the characters, the Romanized equivalent, and a now they are pronounced. Many of these characters are borrowed from the Korean Hangul alphabet.
English sentences written in Romanized Fenni phonics.
The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.
thE rAn in spAn stAs mAnlE in thE plAn.
In Hartford, Harisburg, and Hampshire, hurricanes hardly happen.
in hortfOrd, hArisburg, and hampshIr, huricAns hordlE hapin.
cup of tea
cup uv tE
How kind of you to let me come.
how kInd ov yU tU let mE cum.
With blackest moss, the flower pots were thickly crusted, one and all.
with blakest moss, thE flowur pots wur thiklE krusted, wun and ol.
(personal pronouns, to join with verbs)
O' - I (eg O'listen = "I listen.")
so' - you (eg so'listen = "You listen.")
o' - he, she, it (eg o'listen = "She listens." or "He listens." or "It listens.")
sOmo' - we (eg sOmo'listen = "We listen.")
sEo' - ya'll (eg sEo'listen = "Ya'll (all of you) listen.")
no' - they (eg no'listen = "They listen.")
'd - verb past tense (eg I jump'd in the lake.)
'sez - verb ongoing action (eg I take'sez good care of my car.)
'p - verb future tense (eg I run'p for President one day.)
'sez'd - verb ongoing past tense (eg I jog'sez'd every day last year.)
'sez'p - verb ongoing future tense (eg I jog'sez'p every day from now on.)
'ra - add this to any verb (default form) to make a performer of this action (eg I want to be a professional skydive'ra when I grow up.)
'sez - noun plural (eg I want two egg'sez for breakfast.)
'mintE - add this to any adjective to create the adverb form
Interrogative (questions) - To put a sentence in interrogative form, place the word "vera" before the subject. (eg "You like pizza." --> "vera you like pizza?" which literally means "Truly, you like pizza?")
vera hU - Who? (eg vera hU stole the cookies?)
vera kA - What? (eg vera kA are we having for dinner?)
vera kronO - When? (eg vera kronO is dinnertime?)
vera lOkA - Where? (eg vera lOkA are the cookies located?
vera mOtA - Why? (eg vera mOtA did you steal the cookies?)
vera vA - How? (eg vera vA did you sneak past me?)
There are no word contractions in Fenni (eg isn't, can't, I'll, he'd, etc). You must use the complete words (eg is not, can not, I will, he would, etc).
You can't use 's to show ownership in Fenni (eg Jill's car, Bob's lunch, the cat's tail). Instead, you must say "the car of Jill" or "the lunch of Bob" or "the tail of the cat."
However, there are personal pronouns that show ownership. (Will add later)
Just like in Spanish, adjectives follow the words they modify. (eg "el taco grande" is literally "the taco big", or "la casa blanca" is literally "the house white")
mE - I, myself
tE - you
rE - he
bE - she
brE - he or she
nE - it
sOmE - we, us
sOtE - ya'll (all of you)
sObrE - they, them (persons)
sOnE - they, them (non-persons)
dAmE - mine
dAtE - your
dArE - his
dAbE - her
dAbrE - his or her
dAnE - its
dAsOmE - our
dAsOtE - ya'lls (owned by all of you)
dAsObrE - their (owned by persons)
dAsOnE - their (owned by non-persons)
u - a
ud - the
e - that there
ed - this here
e'sez - those there
ed'sez - these here
dun - all
dAdun - each
En - and
or - or
um - yes
gok - no
All verbs shall begin with consonants and end in vowels.
Try to avoid making vital differences between words depend on similar sounds, especially sounds that are indistinguishable native speakers of certain languages. For instance:
i <--> I l <--> r f <--> p
Dictionary File - in CSV format
The Fenni Language described on this page is copywrited by Jesse Birch. I grant permission for this language to be used in academic and non-commercial settings. (Though if you do, please let me know because I'd love to hear about it.)
