Meric language

Meric (Meric: Merinsprict, IPA : [ˈmɛːrɪk]) is a Goetic language spoken in southern Artemia. Meric is one of the oldest Goetic languages, spoken in its' oldest form as early as the 6th century CE. It is most commonly spoken in Mero-Curgovina, which is home to 82% of all Meric speakers worldwide. It is the official language of Mero-Curgovina. As a major language of Artemia, Meric is a native language to 62 million people worldwide. It is the third most commonly spoken Goetic language.

The majority of Meric vocabulary developed from the Teutonic family of the Indo-Artemian languages, but a smaller share is derived from Romantic and Anglic. Meric is pluricentric and spawned a family of global dialects. The three standards for the Meric language are Modern Low (or 'Vulgar') Meric, Curnymeric, and Avalonian Meric. Major dialects include Curnic, spoken north of the Carling Mountains in Mero-Curgovina, Ramaysprec, brought by white settlers to Ramay in the 18th century, and Meresprace, the dialect spoken by select Artemsch and Rumantsch communities in Mero-Curgovina. Meric is popularly considered a hard language to learn outside of Western Artemia, and has been used as the basis of cants in settler communities in the colonies.

Etymology
The name Meric is a shortening of the longer Merinsprict- a modern interpretation of the compounded Merand and the Auln Meric isprect. Merand refers to the Merand people, and is derived from mari meaning "from the sea". The older isprect can be translated as "spoke". The name Merand had only been used to describe the people of what is now modern Merandy since the invention of the printing press, and before that they had been called Marands or Marans. Thus the word Merinsprict is believed not to have developed from mari, but from Merand. As such, Merinsprict can translate indirectly as the "speech of the Merands" or literally as "that spoken by the Merands."

Adjectives
Meric adjectives precede their respective nouns. Their case and number affect their endings, but not their gender. Meric adjectives can be attributive, but in this scenario have no variation of ending between case and number.

e.g. ‘is wauthal sagg’ - a loud song ‘tag eiz wauthad saggaz’ - the two loud songs ‘ta sagg asd wauth’ - the music / song is loud ‘tag eiz saggaz asd wauth’ - the two songs are loud

Pronouns, case, and person
The Meric language features moderate declension, falling between Teutonic and Anglic in terms of inflection. These cases are the nominative, the subject of a sentence which carries out an action, and the genitive, the possessor of something or the object of select prepositions and verbs. In Meric slang and informal speech, the Anglic practice of total declension is often practiced with the exception of gender.

Meric has various forms of pluralization. The standard pluralization is ‘z’ or ‘az’, but the language also borrows loan pluralization and features changes in stressed syllables and the ‘t’ or ‘at’ pluralization in words where a ‘z’ pluralization would be awkward.

e.g. ‘te manaz’ - the men ‘te arbusast’ - the workers ‘te sevalirs’ - the knights, from Ovancian chevaliers

Meric possesses three genders- masculine, feminine, and neutral. However, a vast majority of Meric neutral nouns default to masculine rather than to a neutral or feminine gender. Neutral nouns are most likely to be masculine when denoting people or positions, and female or neutral when denoting places. The feminization of place names occurs more frequently when they would be considered impressive or anthropomorphized- a road is neutral, whereas a mountain is feminine.

e.g. ‘te wairman’ - the man ‘til wifman’ - the woman ‘te arbusas’ - the worker ‘ta gaug’ - the path, the road ‘til barg’ - the mountain

Demonyms
Place names in Meric usually stem from the name used by the local population, resulting in a large amount of demonyms for many individual countries. A place name may be turned into a demonym with the addition of the -ar suffix. This suffix is normally added to the end of words ending in consonants. Place names ending in vowels or a combination of vowels will often have those vowels dropped in favour of the -ar suffix. If a place name ends with "z" or "sh" it may instead receive the suffix -i. This suffix was originally only used in Meric slang, stemming from the common demonym Cezi used for labourers brought into Mero-Curgovina from Kesh. It has since found its' way into the official Meric vocabulary. This method of naming is commonly used for nations in Kesh. As an example, Ramayar is a compound of Ramay and -ar, meaning in Ramay. Demonyms are frequently discarded in favour of the names of individual cultures. An example of this is the use of the word "Merand" when the 'proper' demonym for a person from Merandy would be Merandar. Although these terms are not incorrect, they are not common in informal speech.

Swadesh List
• # 	I - is

• # 	you (singular) - ju

• # 	he - we

• # 	we - wiz

• # 	you (plural) - ju

• # 	they - sea

• # 	this - tist

• # 	that - tyz

• # 	here - her

• # 	there - þar

• # 	who - hwast

• # 	what - hwaz

• # 	where - hwier

• # 	when - hwan

• # 	how - hwae

• # 	not - nect

• # 	all - alz, pan

• # 	many - menec

• # 	some - iste

• # 	few - isi

• # 	other - anter

• # 	one - ist

• # 	two - biet

• # 	three - þry

• # 	four - fier

• # 	five - fanf

• # 	big - grod

• # 	long - lenc

• # 	wide - braide

• # 	thick - þice

• # 	heavy - pesd

• # 	small - il

• # 	short - ila

• # 	narrow - angwe

• # 	thin - dun

• # 	woman - wifman

• # 	man (adult male) - wairman

• # 	man (human being) - man

• # 	child - cinde

• # 	wife - bryd

• # 	husband - ehwerman

• # 	mother - mutar

• # 	father - ata

• # 	animal - andje

• # 	fish - fiscas

• # 	bird - vucal

• # 	dog - hond

• # 	louse - lus

• # 	snake - wyrm

• # 	worm - erdfis

• # 	tree - bahm

• # 	forest - welde

• # 	stick - staf

• # 	fruit - acran

• # 	seed - semo

• # 	leaf - laub

• # 	root - wrut

• # 	bark (of a tree) - barc

• # 	flower - bluma

• # 	grass - gras

• # 	rope - reif

• # 	skin - vela

• # 	meat - mams

• # 	blood - blot

• # 	bone - bain

• # 	fat (noun) - fat

• # 	egg - aga

• # 	horn - haurn

• # 	tail - sterz

• # 	feather - fetera

• # 	hair - har

• # 	head - cop

• # 	ear - ors

• # 	eye - auj

• # 	nose - nas

• # 	mouth - munde

• # 	tooth - tunth

• # 	tongue (organ) - tunc

• # 	fingernail - glidnal

• # 	foot - fut

• # 	leg - laje

• # 	knee - newa

• # 	hand - hand

• # 	wing - fiþri

• # 	belly - buc

• # 	guts - gain

• # 	neck - hals

• # 	back - rac

• # 	breast - brost

• # 	heart - hart

• # 	liver - libaro

• # 	to drink - drincan

• # 	to eat - estan

• # 	to bite - bitan

• # 	to suck - saugan

• # 	to spit - spucan

• # 	to vomit - spewan

• # 	to blow - wehwan

• # 	to breathe - antjan

• # 	to laugh - lahjan

• # 	to see 	- saian

• # 	to hear - hauzan

• # 	to know - wistan

• # 	to think - þauhtecjan

• # 	to smell - smulan

• # 	to fear - ogan

• # 	to sleep - slepan

• # 	to live - libjan

• # 	to die - todan

• # 	to kill - todejan

• # 	to fight - drauhan

• # 	to hunt - jaugan

• # 	to hit - slahan

• # 	to cut - maitain

• # 	to split - daljan

• # 	to stab - stican

• # 	to scratch - hriban

• # 	to dig - graban

• # 	to swim - swimman

• # 	to fly - plaigvan

• # 	to walk - gaugan

• # 	to come - ciman

• # 	to lie (as in a bed) - laujan

• # 	to sit - sidjan

• # 	to stand - standan

• # 	to turn (intransitive) - wandjan

• # 	to fall - drusan

• # 	to give - gifjan

• # 	to hold - handan

• # 	to squeeze - nipan

• # 	to rub - banauan

• # 	to wash - wascan

• # 	to wipe - wiscan

• # 	to pull - tucgan

• # 	to push - þrucjan

• # 	to throw - wairþan

• # 	to tie - bindan

• # 	to sew - siuan

• # 	to count - graþjan

• # 	to say - sprican

• # 	to sing - saggan

• # 	to play - lagan

• # 	to float - flocdan

• # 	to flow - rinnan

• # 	to freeze - frezan

• # 	to swell - suelan

• # 	sun - son

• # 	moon - mun

• # 	star - stairna

• # 	water - wase

• # 	rain - ryn

• # 	river - auvo

• # 	lake - laug

• # 	sea - mari

• # 	salt - sals

• # 	stone - stain

• # 	sand - sam

• # 	dust - stub

• # 	earth - erd

• # 	cloud - wulc

• # 	fog - nebula, milhm

• # 	sky - hilmne

• # 	wind - vinaz

• # 	snow - sny

• # 	ice - iz

• # 	smoke - rauz, milhm

• # 	fire - brin

• # 	ash - az

• # 	to burn - brinnan

• # 	road - gaug

• # 	mountain - barge

• # 	red - rot

• # 	green - gron

• # 	yellow - gela

• # 	white - wis

• # 	black - ricas

• # 	night - nahts

• # 	day - dag

• # 	year - jera

• # 	warm - warm

• # 	cold - calt

• # 	full - fulsd

• # 	new - nov

• # 	old - auln

• # 	good - gode

• # 	bad - ubils

• # 	rotten - fol

• # 	dirty - unrain

• # 	straight - straic

• # 	round - rund

• # 	sharp (as a knife) - west

• # 	dull (as a knife) - stampad

• # 	smooth - slap

• # 	wet - waste

• # 	dry - þrocan

• # 	correct - rehts

• # 	near - nehwe

• # 	far - faran

• # 	right - decse

• # 	left - winste

• # 	at - at

• # 	in - en

• # 	with - mid

• # 	and - ond

• # 	if - upe

• # 	because - unte

• # 	name - nomt