<seg xml:id="title-main">Jastugay</seg>: <seg xml:id="title-sub">Documentation and Dictionary</seg>

Jastugay (jästūgā) is an early culture and language in the Jastu‐Fizonal sprachbund. It is a direct descendant of Jastulae and the principal ancestor language to Zheshwi.

Unlike other languages in the Jastu‐Fizonal family, Jastugay does actually have direct attestation, albeit in a very small fragment of text: pə dätzē āʒo dāʒo (a gloss of this text is available here: ). Note that this text is an unmistakably early form of the language and features grammatical constructs not present in the version documented here.

Dearth of evidence aside, Jastugay is a complete, if small, language with a functioning, albeit rudimentary, grammar that can be used for the composition of meaningful texts.

Jastugay has been given the language code qjt; the script subtag Latn should also be supplied. A native script for Jastugay was developed; the tag Qabj may be used to indicate it.

Phonology

Syllables in Jastugay are relatively simple, having an onset of zero or one consonant, a single vowel or diphthong, and an optional coda. The consonant inventory is as follows:

Glottal Velar Post‐Alveolar Alveolar Labial Sonorants tl n w Stop g dʒ t, d p Fricative h x ʒ s f

A few of these sounds are the result of mergers:

/w/ was historically sometimes realized as [m]. /ʒ/ was historically sometimes realized as [z]. /f/ was historically sometimes realized as [v].

Only /s/, /d/, /t/, and /x/ are permitted in syllable codas; /n/ cannot start syllables and is only permitted after the diphthong /eɘ/ (and may be followed by another consonant). /tl/ is syllabic and features neither vowel nor coda; in later periods, it is often realized [ʔɫ]. Voicing is only phonemic for the alveolar consonants.

The vowel inventory is as follows:

Back Front Close ɑ Mid ʌ ɛ Open u i A⁓ aʊ aɪ E⁓ eɘ eɪ O⁓ ɔʊ ɔɪ

Jastugay formerly had a close front vowel /æ/, but it merged with /ɑ/.

Orthography

Jastugay follows a straightforward phonetic orthography based in English pronunciation:

Letter Pronunciation Letter Pronunciation ä /ɑ/ ī /aɪ/ ā /eɪ/ j /dʒ/ æ /eɘ/ l’ /tl/ å /aʊ/ n /n/ d /d/ ō /ɔʊ/ ë /ɛ/ œ /ɔɪ/ ē /i/ p /p/ ə /ʌ/ s /s/ f /f/ t /t/ g /g/ ū /u/ h /h/ w /w/ ħ /x/ ʒ /ʒ/

There is also a native syllabary for the language: . Note that this syllabary predates the loss of certain phonemes, like /v/, /m/, and /z/.

Grammar

Basic word order in Jastugay is OVSObject‐Verb‐Subject (passive voice) or SOVSubject‐Object‐Verb (active voice). Passive voice is the default and required for verbs without an object.

Jastugay does not have nouns and adjectives proper; these are combined into a single word class (nominals). Noun phrases consist of a required article (or determiner?), any number of postpositional phases, and finally the nominal which is functioning as a noun. This may be further followed by any number of nominals functioning as adjectives.

Plurality is not marked on nominals. All numbers require a classifier ().

Verbs are conjugated for mood but not tense/aspect or nominal agreement. Modal conjugation takes the form of a prefix appended to the verb, and optionally a suffix as well.

Jastugay does not feature grammatical gender per se, but the vowel æ(n) has strong feminine associations. Consequently, the normally nongendered becomes with a feminine referent.