How to Speak Surish:

[TiJiL]

Here is a thread to learn how to speak the twassecc language, Surish. Anyone is welcome to create new words for the language, as long as they fit the established rules. Wouldn't it be awesome if we could all become fluent?


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Lesson I: Basics of Surish

A note on prefixes and suffixes: Surish contains many prefixes, suffixes, and compounding words together. If the latter word in any combined pair starts with a vowel, a hyphen is placed between the words to facilitate pronunciation. Most prefixes involve adding a hyphen; they do not if they are commonly used in conjunction with other prefixes that do use hyphens.


Nouns:
Example Nouns:

Fen – Self
Lesth – Weapon
Epi – Pants*
Kaptose – Fat
Rek – Food
Theva – Drink
Matoss – Slave
Kinath – Path
Peteiv – Intake
Vuppa – Slob
Tusug – Entrails

*Note that pants, while often referred to as if plural in English, are singular in Surish.

Nouns are always regular in Surish. The plural form of any noun is found by adding the prefix ‘Xi-’. Therefore:

Xi-matoss - Slaves
Xi-lesth - Weapons


Pronouns:
Example Pronouns:

Bik - I
Hett - He
Sett - She
Trett - It
Huud - You

There is more on showing possession with pronouns later. Bear in mind that the pronouns follow the same plural rule as nouns. Thus:

Xi-huud - You all
Xi-bik - We
Xi-sett - They (female)
Xi-trett - They (mixed or non gendered)


Verbs:
Example Verbs:

Zem Kiif - To be
Zem Flinnacci - To remove
Zem Kanno - To change*
Zem Obil - To fight
Zem Seja - To say
Zem Reiv - To go
Zem Vegen – To need
Zem Yul – To kill

Verbs in Surish have no conjugations. The base form is used in all cases. Thus:

‘Bik obil huud!’ and ‘Xi-bik obil huud!’ use the same verb form.

Verb tenses are expressed with the prefixes ‘Yu-’, indicating past tense, and ‘Tu-’, indicating future tense. Therefore:

Bik yu-vegen lesth - I needed a weapon
Huud tu-kiif matoss - You will be a slave

To negate a verb, the prefix ‘ul’ is needed. Bear in mind that the negation prefix goes after the tense prefix. Thus:

Bik ulkiif human - I am not a human
Huud yu-ulvegen Xi-matoss - You did not need the slaves

*Kanno is one of the verbs that uses the prefixes ‘te-’ for down and ‘ti-’ for up. Thus, te-kanno means to decrease, and ti-kanno to increase.


Adjectives:
Example Adjectives:

Toelno - Inferior
Toelnin - Superior
Tizig - Large
Tezig - Small

Normally, an adjective will go directly after the noun it modifies. Thus:

Bik kiif toelnin zem huud, vuppa! - I am superior to you, slob!
Huud kiif toelno zem xi-matoss, human! - You are inferior to slaves, human!
Lesth tizig tu-yul huud. – The large weapon will kill you.


Possession:

The Surish system to show possession is rather simple. The noun or pronoun that is the owner has an ‘a’ added to the end of the word, followed by the object being possessed. If the object starts with a vowel, a hyphen is also used. If the owner noun ends in a vowel, no ‘a’ is added. Thus:

Settafen – Herself
Tretta-epi – Its pants
Matossa-tusug – The slave’s entrails
Vuppalesth – The slob’s weapon
Bikamatoss – My slave
Huddafen – Yourself

To simply say something is ‘yours’, ‘mine’, ‘hers’, etc, the suffix ‘re’ is added. Therefore:

Huudre – Your, Yours
Hettre – His
Bikre – My, mine

[TiJiL]

Lesson II: Pronouns in depth




Personal Pronouns


First person singular:
Bik (I, me), Bikre (my, mine)

First person plural:
Xi-bik (we, us), Xi-bikre (our, ours)

Second person singular:
Huud (you), Huudre (your, yours)

Second person plural:
Xi-huud (you all), Xi-huudre (your, yours)

Third person singular:
Hett (he, him), Hettre (his), Sett (she, her), Settre (hers), Tett (it), Tettre (its)

Third person plural:
Xi-Hett (they/them male), Xi-Sett (they/them female), Xi-Tett (they/them neuter or mixed), Xi-Hettre (their/theirs male), Xi-Settre (their/theirs female), Xi-Tett (their/theirs neuter or mixed)

Examples:

Bikre monik ulkiff Yekkar – My name is not Yekkar
Huud vegen huudre xi-matoss? – You need your slaves?
Ulyul matoss tey, Bik vegen tettre tusug – Do not kill the slave now, I need its entrails



Reflexive/Intensive Pronouns
-- Reflexive and intensive pronouns use ‘fen’.


First person:
Bikafen (myself), Xi-bikafen (ourselves)

Second person:
Huudafen (yourself), Xi-huudafen (yourselves)

Third person:
Settafen (herself), Hettafen (himself), Tettafen (itself), Xi-settafen (themselves female), Xi-hettafen (themselves male), Xi-tettafen (themselves neuter or mixed)

Examples:

Micne tu-obil hettafen tey, eko xi-bik tu-yul hett – Micne will fight himself now, or we will kill him
Bajexi yu-paaj settafen sef epi – Bajexi bought herself new pants

Ett Mirad hettafen reiv Ett Elite ches rek aj theva – The Admiral himself goes to The Elite for food and drink
Xi-bik yu-yul xi-ure xi-bikaffen – We killed the ure ourselves



Demonstrative Pronouns

Singular:
Hekk (This, that)

Plural:
Xi-Hekk (These, those)

Examples:

Hekk kiif netal bik tass sibek – That is the planet where I want to live
Bik tass reiv zem Minthrop I aj Minthrop II, xi-hekk kiif bikre xi-illov – I want to go to Minthrop I and Minthrop II, those are my favorites.
Urrek hekk matoss, Bill! – Eat that slave, Bill!



Relative Pronoun:

Ketet (That/which/who/whom/whose)

Examples:

Hett yu-urrek mattos ketet hett ostol – He ate the slave that he found
Makta, ketet xi-bik inka, kiif toelno human – Makta, whom we hate, is an inferior human



Interrogative Pronouns:

Phit (What), Phitsecc (who), Phit-ett (which), Phitseccre (whose)

Examples:

Phit kiif huudanetal Illov? – What is your favorite planet?
Phitsecc inka ett xi-matoss? Ett Mirad? – Who hates the slaves? The Admiral?
Phitseccre xi-matoss kiif xi-hekk? – Whose slaves are these?
Phit-ett kiif tilart, zem urrek xi-matoss eko zem yul xi-matoss? Ilps! - Which is better, to eat the slaves or to kill the slaves? Both!






New Word List:

Tey – now
Eko – or
Zem Paaj – to buy
Aj – and
Ches – for
Ett – the
Mirad – Admiral
Netal – Planet
Zem Tass – to Want
Zem Sib – To Live
Zem Sibek – To Live at*
Illov – favorite
Zem Urrek – To eat
Zem Inka – To hate
Zem Ostol – To find
Secc – Person
Hekk – That (demonstrative)
Ketet – That (relative)
Phit – What
Lart – To Compare**
Ilps – Both
Sef - New



*At is not truly a word in Surish, but a suffix, ek.
**Lart also uses te and ti. Thus, tilart means better and telart, worse

[Devvyn]

Are vowel sounds (dipthongs and tripthongs) such as ei, ou, eu, ae, ai, and whatever other combinations there are, considered vowels so you would put a hyphen between it, so that a word would be word-ouword ?

[Dragonfly]

Arreck, TiJiL, and I were speaking the other day about Surish, and the issue about articles popped up. We have already agreed that the definite article, "the" has been ascribed to the surish word, "ett," but when we were discussing things later, we decided that the indefinite articles should be thrown out. There is no need for them.

Surish does not utilize articles such as "a", "an", or "some."

If one wishes to say that there was a singular object he would simply use the number for "one."

If one wishes to say that there were many objects, he would simply use the adjective for "multiple."

Directly translated, no Surish sentence would ever say, "I threw a ball." or "I crushed an infant."

The most common way to say it would simply be directly translated as, "I threw ball." or "I crushed infant." Or in some cases, if there was possible concern to the number of balls thrown, or infants crushed, one would say "I threw one ball." or "I crushed one infant." But, in a regular instance, the "one" is simply not needed, just as "a", "an", or "some" aren't needed.

If one wishes to make the amount plural, he would simply provide the amount of objects that took place in the circumstance, for instance:

"I crushed two infants." would be a direct translation. You would not ever see, "I crushed some infants." as a direct translation from a Surish sentence.

And if the amount of objects is unsure, yet the crusher was positive that he crushed more than one infant. He would simply use the word for multiple:

"I crushed multiple infants." would be the direct translation.

It is simply because of the fact that the articles "a", "an", and "some" are so useless that they are not to be found in Surish.

[TiJiL]

Devvyn, in the case you supplied a hyphen would be used.

[Arreck]

Additional words!

Hyl, Bik sibek ett vasspiis, ven lheed. Ett Mirad yu-nes bik weltt zem sib phitoett bik tass. Phit ven trett? Phitoett huud sibek?



Hyl (Pronounced 'hill')= Yes
Ulhyl=No
Zem Krep=To Walk
Zem Krip=To Run
Weltt=Permission
Coit=With
Nesth=Gun
Vass=Flag
Piis=Ship
Vasspiis=Flagship
Ven=Of
Freppa=Zeal
Lheed=Course, I.E. Crash Course, Main Course, Of Course
Ven lheed= Common phrase, 'of course'.
Zem Nes= To Give
Oett=Place
Phitoett=Where
Slix=Mess
Zem Tass= To Wish, desire, want
Geer=Common (Tigeer=Uncommon, tegeer=Very Common)
Zem Zaug= To cruise/amble/walk slowly
Zaugpiis= Cruiser
Pyken (Pikken)= Especially
Kleft= Battle, War (Noun)
Kleftzaugpiis= Battlecruiser/Warcruiser
Kleftpiis= Battleship, Warship
Obilpiis= Fighter (Spacecraft, Aircraft)
Obilkleftpiis= Space or Aircraft Carrier
Qessiva (Kay-see-va)= Animal


Bik yu-nes ett xi-matoss zem ett xi-qessiva. Ett xi-qessiva yu-urreck xi-trett coit freppa, pyken ett xi-Graakk. Ha ha ha ha ha! Phit slix! Ha ha ha ha ha!

[DigiDayDreamer]

(Hope this is acceptable.)

Tris, bikre monik kiif Raizi aj bik kiif nogan. Hyl, trett kiif vug verke zem seja suth flept hriica ed twassec. Ci yanner bik res seja wloog. Res bik tu-kiif tiquejo, bik tu-ulkiif seja suth hekk aj tu-gurv trett zem kiif trom aj xak. Ghe trett kiif cierk tingre bik wegirzem trett.

Tris - Hello
Gaaz - Goodbye/Bye
Vug - Stupid/Lame
Verke - Attempt
Suth - In
Flept - Other
Sluuk - Another
Hriica - Language
Ed - Like
Ci - So
Zem Yanner - To Forgive/Pardon
Res - If
Ghe - But
Wloog - Weird/Strange
Quejo - Young
Rouje - Old
Trom - Boring
Cierk - Exciting/Fun
Xak - Painful
Tingre - Once*
Zem Weg - To Get
Zem Wegirzem - To Get Use To**
Zem Gurv - To Think

*Once is actually tin-gre, the -gre to change one to once. Same goes for twice and thrice.
**(Feel free to revise if necessary)

[Arreck]

Bravo, bravo! Very good. Only change to vocabulary is that twasseccs don't use "Qu". Just get rid of the U in Quejo, making it Qejo, and it looks twassecc-y. Oh yeah. Get rid of Hello and Goodbye. Twasseccs use the words "Blifferberax" and "Okbasnavoki". They are all-purpose, like aloha; Okbasnavoki, though, is condescending, and is for adressing inferiors.

(You couldn't have known that, but it's been verbal knowledge between TiJiL and I for a long time)

There are some grammar errors, but I'm not very good at grammar, and I'll let TiJiL explain them. (It's good enough, though, to be understood easily)



New word!

Ploog=*censored definition, imagine a very disturbing and degrading act involving feces and the tongue*

[TiJiL]

Well, that's very good, Digi. Changes I see, though:

First, what does tiqejo mean? I don't understand what the ti- would do to young, unless it means very young.

Second, I decree that gre = time, making tingre mean literally one time.


So, (This is as much practice for me as for you), I am going to try and directly translate what you have said and point out any errors I see.


Hello, my name is Raizi and I am nogan. Yes, it is stupid attempt to speak in other language like twassecc. So forgive me if speak weird. If I will be very young, I will not be speak in that and will think it if to are boring and painful. But it is fun once I get used to it.

Well, I don't really understand that second to last sentence, but in any case, remember that adjectives go after the words they modify. (Perhaps that should be changed. That is so hard.)

[DigiDayDreamer]

Thanks for the help, guys!

TiJiL: Tiqejo "means" younger, because you implied ti- means "more" or "up". Um, and sorry about the confusing second-to-last sentence. I forgot about the words for would, could and should (which I haven't made yet and will leave it to you and Arreck) where above sentence should have said, "If I was younger, I wouldn't be speaking it and it would be boring and painful."