Zemeni language

Zemeni is the language commonly spoken by the inhabitants of Novyi Zem.

Known words[]

Zemeni	English translation
bes adawa	to fight^[1]
adawe	fight (imperative)^[2]
adawesi	we fight^[2]
zowa	blessed (also used to refer to Grisha)^[3]
Can anyene?	How is your day?^[4]
Cav anyene?	How is your donkey?^[4]
can	day^[4]
cav	donkey^[4]
anyene	how is

From the words and phrases of Zemeni given in the books, it is possible to derive several pieces of linguistic information:

Possessive pronouns seem to be able to be left off where context would make it obvious.
A preverbal particle bes forms the infinitive, possibly in combination with a suffix (see below).
Other verb forms are more complicated to figure out. A number of possibilities exist for how inflection works.
- One possibility is that the infinitive is accompanied by a suffixed -a, overriding a final vowel, and a bare verb form can be used as an imperative. In this case, the first person plural can be formed with -si.
- Another possibility is that a suffix -e, overriding a final vowel, forms the imperative, and -esi, similarly overriding a final vowel, forms the first person plural.
- A third interpretation is that a suffixed -a forms the infinitive, -e forms the imperative, and -esi forms the first person plural.