Originally posted on Wordpress on 12 November 2021

Introduction

Zarya Heul is a conlang I originally created in 2015. I'd been reading about the Tocharian languages and was inspired, so Zaryaheul /zarja.heɯl/ took some influences from Tocharian and was intended to be spoken by a fictional Central Asian people. It had some extreme vowel harmony (syllables could only contain front vowels or back vowels, not both) and consonant assimilation, which I thought was impressive at the time but probably contributed to me losing interest in the conlang after a few months.

When it came time to write The Book of Immortality, I decided to revamp Zarya Heul. I dropped the vowel harmony, greatly simplified the consonant structure, and decided that words wouldn't compound/stick together like they previously did. This brought it from a somewhat synthetic language to a more analytic one.

Information relevant to The Book of Immortality:

Zarya Heul "silk language" is a language spoken in the homelands of the Zarya Tel people. These homelands comprise the entirety of the West Zarya Wa Province and the majority of East Zarya Wa Province in the Meitsung Empire, as well as some lands to the north and west of the Empire.

Phonology

Zarya Heul's consonant inventory is fairly "normal". The 2015 version of the conlang had voiced and unvoiced versions of each consonant (not just stops), but that was dropped in the final version.

Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ŋ
Stop p b t d k g
Fricative s z h
Affricate ts dz
Approximant l j w
Trill r

Originally, the conlang had diphthongs; they were all removed. All vowels are now pronounced separately. Each vowel also had rounded and unrounded counterparts, but since vowel harmony was removed, there was no longer any need for them.

Front Back
Close i e
Mid e o
Open a

Syllable structure is CVN, where:

Stress usually falls on the first syllable. Words are rarely longer than three syllables.

Nouns

All modifiers (adjectives, numbers, etc.) precede nouns and case markers follow. Nouns are not inflected as Zarya Heul is an analytic language. The resulting "noun phrase" is NUMBER ADJECTIVE NOUN CASE.

There are six numbers: singular, dual, general plural, small plural, large plural, and all. As the singular is default, it is unmarked.

Marker Meaning
Singular - One thing
Dual et Two tings
General plural as Things
Small plural wo A few things
Large plural vi A lot of things
All apa Every

Examples:

Nouns have multiple case markers: nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, and instrumental.

Marker Meaning
Nominative - Subject
Accusative len Direct object
Genitive sil Possessor
Dative ra Indirect object
Instrumental neng With, using

Zarya Heul also has a series of locative markers, which can be understood as cases:

Marker Meaning
Ablative din Away from
Allative ku To, toward
Adessive gat On, on top of
Inessive hera In, inside
Elative long Out of
Illative yo Into

Pronouns

Pronouns are treated the same as nouns; they are preceded by modifiers and followed by case markers.

Person Singular Gen. Plural
1st yel as vel
2nd sen as sen
3rd daru as daru

Reflexive pronouns are followed by the marker nar:

Person Singular Gen. Plural
1st yel nar as vel nar
2nd sen nar as sen nar
3rd daru nar as daru nar

Verbs

Verbs have two types of markers: auxiliaries which express modality, and tense. Auxiliaries precede the verb and tenses follow it. If the verb is negated, the negation particle is first in line.

There are five tenses: far past, near past, present, near future, and far future.

Tense Marker Meaning
Far past esa A while ago
Near past arza Recently
Present toku Currently
Near future ker Soon
Far future lau A long time from now

The far past is used for actions that happened a significantly long time ago. What is considered a long time is fairly flexible, and usually up to the speaker.

Yel weki esa zarya heul len.

The near past tense is used for actions that happened recently. It is similar to a perfect aspect.

Yel woan arza as kisang len.

The present tense is only used for actions that are currently occurring.

Yel miya toku.

The near future tense is used for actions that will happen soon. Like with the far past, what is considered "soon" is up to the speaker.

Yel penke ker as sare len.

The far future tense is used for actions that will happen far in the future.

Yel penke lau as sare len.

Verbs that are not marked for tense can be used for general statements:

Yel miya.

Yel penke as sare len.

Verbal auxiliaries are used in place of mood:

Auxiliary Marker Meaning
Can/could dur be able to
May/might king possibly
Must/shall tenai requirement, obligation

Dur is used to indicate that an action can be carried out:

Yel dur miya.

King is used to express that an action could possibly occur:

Yel king penke as sare len.

Tenai is used to express that a verb is an obligation or requirement:

Yel tenai penke as sare len.

Negation is indicated with the particle tu:

Yel tu miya toku.

Other Parts of Speech

Zarya Heul has two determiners: ngas "this", which is used for objects close by, and keyu "that", which is used by objects further away.

There are two locative adverbs: poku “here” and tsung “there”. Location can also be expressed with the constructions ngas kilar “this place/here” and keyu kilar “that place/there”.

Zarya Heul has multiple question words. Interrogative phrases start with a question word and end with the question tag mat:

Location Word Meaning
Beginning of phrase lang how
Beginning of phrase garas what
Beginning of phrase muka when
Beginning of phrase liya where
Beginning of phrase yar why
Beginning of phrase tuwe who
End of phrase mat question tag

Examples:

Yar sen miya toku mat?

Liya sen penke as sare len mat?