The Shesti
2500 years ago, the Earth passed
through a region of space packed densely with asteroids – effectively like
walking through a minefield blindfolded, since any one of these meteors could
have destroyed human society. An alien culture who happened upon the planet
decided to take action to preserve the human species. Using a myriad of
technologies, they removed and transplanted part of the Caucasus Mountains (the
region that today forms the basin of Lake Sevan, Armenia) with a thriving
community aboard a giant ship, and later to a separate, uninhabited planet. The
people who inhabited the region developed their own, distinct culture, and
gradually became the Shesti.
Today, the Shesti people number almost three million, most of
whom live near their home island (the transplanted landmass) in an area little
bigger than Great Britain, but several groups have founded settlements around
their planet. They are decidedly pre-industrial, and live an agricultural-based
life – however, they have a primitive writing system and a remarkable knowledge of natural processes. Their language is heavily related to Indo-European,
but bears some marks of Kartvelian influence – for example, the complicated
verb and noun system.
The Shesti Language
Shesti orthography
A a
|
/a/
|
H h
|
/x/
|
N n
|
/n/
|
Š š
|
/ʃ/
|
B b
|
/b/
|
I i
|
/i/*
|
O o
|
/o/
|
T t
|
/t/
|
C c
|
/ts/
|
J j
|
/dz/
|
Ó ó
|
/ɑ/
|
U u
|
/ə//ʊ/
|
D d
|
/d/
|
K k
|
/k/
|
P p
|
/p/
|
Ú ú
|
/u/
|
E e
|
/ɛ/
|
L l
|
/l/
|
R r
|
/r/
|
Z z
|
/z/
|
G g
|
/g/
|
M m
|
/m/
|
S s
|
/s/
|
‘
|
/ʔ/
|
*Before another vowel, /i/
becomes /j/ and /u/ becomes /w/.
Shesti morphology
Shesti has seven cases for
all nouns:
-
The nominative
is the subject noun.
-
The accusative
is the direct object noun.
-
The dative
is the indirect object noun, or a noun with the preposition “to” in
English.
-
The perfective
is the direct object of a completed action. Its use is equivalent to the
perfective aspect of verbs in most Slavic languages.
-
The genitive
is the possessive noun, or a noun with the preposition “of”.
-
The superessive
is a noun with the preposition “on” or “onto”.
-
The inessive
is a noun with the preposition “in” or “into”.
There
is also the vocative case, showing
direct address, used in animate nouns and given names.
Each
noun case also has a dual form, marked with “eni”, and a plural form, marked
with “i”.
There
are two types of declension – animate and inanimate.
Example of declension
Šgaú =
wolf, hound (animate declension)
Singular
|
Dual
|
Plural
|
|
Nom
|
Šgaú
|
Šgaúeni
|
Šgaúi
|
Acc
|
Šgu
|
Šguni
|
Šgai
|
Dat
|
Šgan
|
Šgani
|
Šgani
|
Per
|
Šgamek
|
Šgamekeni
|
Šgameki
|
Gen
|
Šgag
|
Šgageni
|
Šgagi
|
Sup
|
Šgaiu
|
Šgaiuni
|
Šgaiui
|
Ine
|
Šgaie
|
Šgaieni
|
Šgaiei
|
Voc
|
Šgai!
|
Šgaiei!
|
Šgaiei!
|
The accusative and dative
cases are commonly ignored in favour of the nominative, since these are
determined by sentence position (Shesti uses SVO, like most Indo-European
languages).
Features of Shesti verbs
Verbs are not conjugated
on quantity, but only person. Here is some vocabulary:
-
Lyrical: A
tense which describes events which took place before the speaker’s memory, or
in a mythical sense.
-
Instrumental:
A set of verb forms which describe an action completed using another noun.
For example, “I cut the bread with the knife” – cutting the bread involves
using the knife, so in Shesti, the verb “to cut” would take the instrumental,
and the noun “knife” would immediately precede it.
-
Dependent:
A verb in a subordinate clause.
-
Reflexive:
A verb with a reflexive noun as its subject, e.g. “I wash myself”
Shesti verbs – 1st
(medial) class
These are verbs to do with thoughts and emotions (note that
the dash refers to the bare verb form).
For example, “es”, meaning “to be/ to feel an emotion”.
Standard
|
Instrumental
|
Dependent/Reflexive
|
||||||||||
Present
|
Past
|
Lyrical
|
Future
|
Present
|
Past
|
Lyrical
|
Future
|
Present
|
Past
|
Lyrical
|
Future
|
|
1st
|
-
|
i-
|
o-
|
-ú
|
-ce
|
i-ce
|
o-ce
|
-úc
|
-e
|
i-e
|
o-e
|
-úe
|
2nd
|
-
|
i-
|
o-
|
-ú
|
-có
|
i-có
|
o-có
|
-úc
|
-e
|
i-e
|
o-e
|
-úe
|
3rd
|
-o
|
i-o
|
o-o
|
-ú
|
-co
|
i-co
|
o-co
|
-úc
|
-i
|
i-i
|
o-i
|
-úe
|
Shesti verbs – 2nd
class
Example – “ler”, “to go to”.
Standard
|
Instrumental
|
Dependent/Reflexive
|
||||||||||
Present
|
Past
|
Lyrical
|
Future
|
Present
|
Past
|
Lyrical
|
Future
|
Present
|
Past
|
Lyrical
|
Future
|
|
1st
|
-
|
i-
|
o-
|
-ú
|
-je
|
i-je
|
o-je
|
-új
|
-e
|
i-e
|
o-e
|
-úe
|
2nd
|
-ó
|
i-ó
|
o-ó
|
-ú
|
-jó
|
i-jó
|
o-jó
|
-új
|
-o
|
i-o
|
o-o
|
-úe
|
3rd
|
-a
|
i-a
|
o-a
|
-ú
|
-jo
|
i-jo
|
o-jo
|
-új
|
-i
|
i-i
|
o-i
|
-úe
|
Shesti verbs – 3rd
class
Example – “ur”, “to go from”.
Standard
|
Instrumental
|
Dependent/Reflexive
|
||||||||||
Present
|
Past
|
Lyrical
|
Future
|
Present
|
Past
|
Lyrical
|
Future
|
Present
|
Past
|
Lyrical
|
Future
|
|
1st
|
-
|
i-
|
o-
|
-ú
|
-c
|
i-c
|
o-c
|
-úc
|
-e
|
i-e
|
o-e
|
-úe
|
2nd
|
-ó
|
i-ó
|
o-ó
|
-ú
|
-ca
|
i-ca
|
o-ca
|
-úc
|
-a
|
i-a
|
o-a
|
-úe
|
3rd
|
-o
|
i-o
|
o-o
|
-ú
|
-co
|
i-co
|
o-co
|
-úc
|
-i
|
i-i
|
o-i
|
-úe
|
Imperatives
For imperatives, use the pronouns “Do” and “Denu” for the
nominative second person.
“Dzó”, “Dzo”, “Na”
and other particles
All Shesti particles, other than those specifically stated
otherwise, come before the main clause.
“Dzó” means “No”, and forms the negative with all verbs.
“Dzo” is the conditional, equivalent to “could/would”.
“Na” forms the affirmative mood, e.g. “Na me ler shoba” “I
do go to the town/I definitely go to the town”.
“Sha” and “shi” express the verb “to want”, and come between
the subject and noun. “Ta” and “ti” express “to need” in the same way.
The article “stó” means “and”, and “e”, when before the
accusative, means “except for/but”.
To form ordinal numbers, put the number into the genitive case.
Pronouns
The basic pronouns only cover the nominative, accusative,
dative and genitive cases. For the superessive and inessive cases, the article “e”
follows the pronoun. This changes the meaning to:
-
Dative - Superessive
-
Genitive - Inessive
Nominative
|
Accusative
|
|||||
Sing.
|
Du.
|
Plu.
|
Sing.
|
Du.
|
Plu.
|
|
1st
|
Me
|
Meni
|
Mi/Ni
|
Ma
|
Mai
|
Nai
|
2nd
|
De
|
Deni
|
Di
|
Da
|
Dai
|
Dai
|
3rd
|
Ce
|
Ceni
|
Ci
|
Ca
|
Cai
|
Cai
|
Dative
|
Genitive
|
|||||
1st
|
Mú
|
Maú
|
Maú
|
Ame
|
Amin
|
Ami
|
2nd
|
Dú
|
Daú
|
Daú
|
Ade
|
Adin
|
Adi
|
3rd
|
Cú
|
Caú
|
Caú
|
Ace
|
Acin
|
Aci
|
Numerals
0 = Dzón 1 = Ine 2 = Tare 3 = Tó 4 = Úr 5 = An 6 = Shets 7 = Sher 8 = Ka’ 9 = Khai 10 = Dedi
11
= Dedine 12 = Detare 13 = Detó 14 = Dedúr 15 = Dedan 16 = Deshets 17 = Desher 18 = Deka’
19
= Dekhai 20 = Tas 30 = Tós 40 = Úrs 50 = Ans 60 = Shes 70 = Shers 80 = Kats 90 = Khais 100 = Olú
101 = Olú ine 200
= Olta 300 = Oltó 400 = Olúr 500 = Olan 600 = Oshets 700 = Osher 800 = Olka’
900
= Olkhai 1000 = Dedolú
2000 = Olta dedolú 10000 = Olilú 100000= Dedolilú 1000000 = Olililú
To form ordinal numbers, put the number into the genitive case.
Prepositions &
sentence position
∅
|
Before verb/direct object
|
“da”
|
“ke”
|
“e”
|
|
Dat
|
To
|
At, beside
|
∅
|
For
|
Across, along
|
Gen
|
Of
|
∅
|
∅
|
From
|
Against
|
Sup
|
On
|
Up
|
Above
|
Onto
|
∅
|
Ine
|
In
|
Down
|
Under
|
Into
|
Behind, beyond, past
|
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