Semhudi

Semhudi (sɛm.u.ɾi) is a language with a rich culture in the nation of Tortuga. It may be connected to the old Amaniti language of Valondor, but is now used as the official language of the Church of Garfism, declaration by Luke Greencoat. Semhudi is mainly spoken in Deparja and Greenstem, but it also spoken in the rest of Barataria. The language is featured in three out the twelve names of the boroughs of Felesia i.e. Pifiki, Fovaejos, and Iosiat. In Semhudi's early days, it was called Stemoshudi, but was later simplified to Semhudi after gender loss and other minor changes.

Proto-Semhudi
Without too much detail, Proto-Semhudi was quite complicated in terms of noun cases, noun gender, and plurality. Nouns in Proto-Semhudi used to have 8 cases compared the 5 present in Modern Semhudi. Nominative, Genitive, Dative, Accusative, Ablative, Elative, Vocative, and Transitive. Elative, Vocative, and Transitive fell out of use. Nouns and verbs have 4 types of plurality: Singular, Dual, Plural, and Superplural, all which stayed throughout Semhudi's history. Adding onto that, nouns were divided into their respective 3 genders: Masculine, Feminine, and Neuter. Because there was no line between what was feminine, masculine, and neuter, the concept fell out of use, leaving Modern Semhudi with no more gender. Gender later evolved into animacy. In total, nouns had 96 endings, later being simplified to 76.

Grammar
The word order of Semhudi is Subject-Verb-Object (SVO), similar to Traveler's Tongue. Adjectives fall before nouns in all instances. Because articles are attached to the animate and inanimate nouns, they all always before the noun. Instead of saying "The orange cat," you would say "Orange the+cat."

Semhudi has a distinction between animacy and inanimacy. In Proto-Semhudi, this distinction was present with gender. There were three genders: Masculine, Feminine, and Neuter. Over time, most animate and proper nouns were used in the masculine cases while inanimate nouns, including animals, were used with the feminine and neuter cases. Even after gender formed into animacy, animate nouns split into two parts: nouns and proper nouns. In order for a noun to be animate, it must be referring to people, Garfist items, sun, moon, sky, days, body parts, and minor exceptions. To be a proper noun, it must be a place, Garfist saint/character. In order for nouns to be inanimate, they must refer to animals or object, ideas, and concepts.

Proper Nouns
Proper nouns, unlike other nouns, can not have any articles placed on them.

Reflexive Verbs
In order to have a sentence with a reflexive verb. you must remove the subject and lengthen the first vowel in the object, as they are the same thing.

Example: I love myself = Fjō oosm. (love 1st,sing.,masc.)

Moods
If one mood is inflicted in a verb, the ending is suffixed. When there are multiple, the mood endings become their own word.

Suffixed:

Example: Do I love myself? Fjeh oosm.

Example: Love myself! Fjiir oosm.

Combined:

Example: Can I love myself? Fjō ehez oosm.

Example: Let me love myself! Fjō iirez oosm.

Imperative Mood
The imperative mood implies an command. To have a command in Semhudi, just add -iir at the end of the verb.

Interrogative Mood
The interrogative mood implies a question. To have a question in Semhudi, just add -eh at the end of the verb.

Permissive Mood
The permissive mood implies permission being given. It must be paired with another mood in its own word. To have ask for permission in Semhudi, just add -ez at the end of the ending.

Articles
Articles are present in Semhudi. Instead of being their own words, they are prefixes: t’. T’ is the only article, used definitely and indefinitely. Before a vowel, like in T’Ezōdii, is pronounced like the ejective alveolar stop, like in Georgian. Before a consonant, like the T’Fini, is pronounced te. Unlike in English where you would state the before the adjective and the noun, it is just before the noun, like in Harti t’Garfian.

Formality
If you are ever speaking to a much higher rank than you, its polite to add “eth” to the end of the sentence and add -re at the end of any verbs.

Informal:

Why did you declare war on them? Sim vliirleh sinm.

Formal:

Why did you declare war on them? Sim vliirlehre sinm eth.

Negation
In order to negate an action, add the prefix den- before the verb that did not happen.

Example: They did not fight- Zim denfashdit

Relevance of Garfield
Many idioms are used in reference of Garfield in Semhudi, as it is the main language for the church of Garfism, as well as most speakers of Semhudi are Garfism.

Example: Although the weather was cold and the wind was strong, they decided to go hiking in the rugged mountains. : Zui osom avaxo etōnō ōndi erleny t'gel teot, sinm fachožo of dreviv na ytō t'viiksin.

"Osom avaxo etōnō" does not translate to the weather was cold. It translates to "He performed cold weather." On the other hand, "Erleny t'gel teot" does translate to "The wind was strong."

Samples
Although the weather was cold and the wind was strong, they decided to go hiking in the rugged mountains.

Zui osom avaxo etōnō ōndi erleny t'gel teot, sinm fachožo of dreviv na ytō t'viiksin.

Eblian Dialect
The Eblian Dialect of Semhudi is a mix between Semhudi and Taernosi, a language spoken in Taernos, Tortuga. Not too long ago, the town of Apple Harbor was sold to Felesia. In the early days of Apple Harbor, it did not have its own identity yet. That changed when a Taernosi leader implemented his own culture into the town from across the peninsula. The language was adopted too. Now that Apple Harbor is inside of Felesia, Semhudi and Taernosi have been forced to mix together due to Semhudi's dominance over the region. The word Eblian comes from the Semhudi term, "ebl," meaning "apple."

Verbs
Unlike standard Semhudi, there is no distinction between transitive and intransitive verbs.

Reflexive Verbs
In order to have a sentence with a reflexive verb. you must remove the subject and lengthen the first vowel in the object, as they are the same thing.

Grinén Dialect
The Grinén Dialect (Dialect of Grinem) is a more formal and more "holier" sounding dialect spoken up north in the towns of Greenstem and ShrineOfTheDawn (Saint Alesia's Cathedral). After Semhudi became the official language of the Garfist Church, by order of Arbiter Luke Greencoat, the many Garfist officials tweaked the language to sound "holier," or less harsh, more delicate, and peaceful the ear, far from Neoran, and closer to the sound of Felesian. The word Grinén comes from the Semhudi term, "Grinem" meaning "Greenstem."

The Grinén Dialect makes the return of "ae," a letter combination that was in Proto-Semhudi, but later left the Standard and Eblian dialects. Instead of saying the Standard "Hesm," (thank you) you would instead say "Haesmé" (close to the Proto-Semhudi "Haesm")

Consonants
Grinén removed the "ch" from the phonology, so it is substituted with the "sh" sound.

The lateral approximate returns.

The NSF Alveolar is also removed due to difficulty to pronounce for non-speakers.

The NSF Dental becomes voicless.

The "v" sound is removed, so it is substituted with the "f" sound.

Vowels
The "ō" is replaced by a new "ó" sound.

The "y" is replaced by a new "í" letter.

The "e" is replace by a new "é" letter.

The "e" sound returns as "ae."

The "o" has a new mid sound.

Alphabet
A a- o in pot

B b- b in boy

C c- (only used for the ch sound)

D d- d in day

E e- e in bed

F f- f in fan

G g- g in got

H h- h in hat

I i- ee in see

J j- y in yam

K k- k in kit

L l- l in lad

M m- m in man

N n- n in not

O o- o in home

Ō ō- oo in foot

P p- p in pat

R r- both Spanish r sounds

S s- s in sat

T t- t in tin

U u- oo in food

V v- v in van

W w- v in van

X x- xs (phonetic /x/ sound and then the phonetic /s/ sound)

Y y- i in fit

Z z- z in zoo

Ž ž- si in vision