Ubari (/übɑry̤/)

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
hoʊ ṇø m̈ò pö bìdü ṇìzhi hoʊ pö g̈edö dag̈ì pho dòg’ü ha
Pronunciation: /hoʊ̯ ɳø ɱɶ ɓö ˈbɨdü ˈɳɨɮi hoʊ̯ ɓö ˈɣœdö ˈdaɣɨ ɸɔ ˈdɶʛü ha/
Ubari word order: and he stood his hat holding and his wet face turned the wind to

Ubari is the native language of the southern Rotsava peoples. Its sole speakers are the Rotsava themselves, and, like all foreign languages, there are few Imperial records of it. Some translators do exist, but they are rare and the burden of translation usually falls upon the Rotsava. As a result, many words from the Common speech have bled into the language. It has strong regional variation due to the isolation of the Rotsava peoples, and as a result, certain dialects may be near unintelligible to each other.

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b d f g h k l m n r s t ħ ɓ ɢ ɣ ɫ ɮ ɱ ɳ ɸ ʀ ʂ ʛ ʣ ʦ ʨ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Retroflex	Alveolo-palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Glottal
Nasal	m	ɱ	n	ɳ
Stop	b		t d			k g	ɢ
Implosive	ɓ						ʛ
Affricate			ʦ ʣ		ʨ
Fricative	ɸ	f	s	ʂ		ɣ		ħ	h
Trill			r				ʀ
Lateral fricative			ɮ
Lateral approximant			l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Velarized alveolar
Lateral approximant	ɫ

Vowel inventory: a i oʊ̯ ö ü y̤ ø œ ɑ ɔ ɤ ɨ ɯ˧˨ ɵ ɶ ʉ ʏ
Diphthongs: oʊ̯

	Front	Central	Back
High	i y̤	ɨ ʉ	ɯ˧˨ ü
Near-high	ʏ
High-mid	ø	ɵ	ɤ ö
Low-mid	œ		ɔ
Low	a ɶ		ɑ

Syllable structure: (C)V
Stress pattern: Penultimate — stress is on the second last syllable
Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ɔ	o
œ	e
ɵ	u
ɑ	à
ɨ	ì
ɶ	ò
ɤ	è
ʉ	ù
ʏ	ǔ
ɓ	p
ɢ	q
ɫ	ll
ɮ	zh
ɳ	ṇ
ɸ	ph
ʂ	ṣ
ʛ	g’
ʣ	dz
ʦ	ts
ʨ	ch
ɣ	g̈
ħ	ḧ
ɱ	m̈
ʀ	r̈
◌̯

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Grammar

Main word order: Subject Object Verb (Prepositional phrase). “Mary opened the door with a key” turns into Mary the door opened with a key.
Adjective order: Adjectives are positioned before the noun.
Adposition: postpositions

Nouns

Nouns have five cases:

• Nominative is the doer of a verb: dog bites man.
• Accusative is the done-to of a verb: man bites dog.
• Genitive is the possessor of something: dog’s tail hits man.
• Dative is the recipient of something: man gives ball to dog.
• Locative is the location of something: man goes to town.

Nominative	No affix poḧøg’à /ɓɔˈħøʛɑ/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	Prefix toʊ̯- toʊpoḧøg’à /ˌtoʊ̯ɓɔˈħøʛɑ/ (verb done to) dog
Genitive	Prefix ha- hapoḧøg’à /ˌhaɓɔˈħøʛɑ/ dogʼs
Dative	Prefix ɱɨ- m̈ìpoḧøg’à /ˌɱɨɓɔˈħøʛɑ/ to (the/a) dog
Locative	Prefix ɮɯ˧˨- zhɯ˧˨poḧøg’à /ˌɮɯ˧˨ɓɔˈħøʛɑ/ near/at/by (the/a) dog

	Singular	Plural
Definite	No affix poḧøg’à /ɓɔˈħøʛɑ/ the dog	Prefix ʀʏ- r̈ǔpoḧøg’à /ˌʀʏɓɔˈħøʛɑ/ the dogs
Indefinite	Prefix ʣoʊ̯- dzoʊpoḧøg’à /ˌʣoʊ̯ɓɔˈħøʛɑ/ a dog	Prefix ɫa- llapoḧøg’à /ˌɫaɓɔˈħøʛɑ/ some dogs

Articles

Ubari encodes definite article ‘the’, and indefinite article ‘a’ in noun affixes. See Noun section.

Pronouns

	Nominative	Accusative	Genitive	Dative	Locative
1st singular	mö /mö/ I	i /i/ me	r̈oʊ /ʀoʊ̯/ mine	zha /ɮa/ to me	ö /ö/ at me
2nd singular	g’a /ʛa/ you	ṇi /ɳi/ you	hi /hi/ yours	hà /hɑ/ to you	g’i /ʛi/ at you
3rd singular	ṇø /ɳø/ he, she, it	llü /ɫü/ him, her, it	he /hœ/ his, hers, its	ì /ɨ/ to him, her, it	y̤ /y̤/ at him, her, it
1st plural	pi /ɓi/ we	te /tœ/ us	to /tɔ/ ours	nà /nɑ/ to us	pha /ɸa/ at us
2nd plural	lu /lɵ/ you all	phø /ɸø/ you all	dzò /ʣɶ/ yours (pl)	dø /dø/ to you all	qoʊ /ɢoʊ̯/ at you all
3rd plural	ṇö /ɳö/ they	g’y̤ /ʛy̤/ them	qi /ɢi/ theirs	chy̤ /ʨy̤/ to them	hì /hɨ/ at them

Possessive determiners

1st singular	pì /ɓɨ/ my
2nd singular	ta /ta/ your
3rd singular	pö /ɓö/ his, her, its
1st plural	ma /ma/ our
2nd plural	ø /ø/ your (pl)
3rd plural	oʊ /oʊ̯/ their

Verbs

	Present	Past
1st singular	Prefix ɳɵ- ṇutà /ˈɳɵtɑ/ (I) learn	Prefix tʏ- tǔtà /ˈtʏtɑ/ (I) learned
2nd singular	Prefix ʀɑ- r̈àtà /ˈʀɑtɑ/ (you) learn	Prefix ɳœ- ṇetà /ˈɳœtɑ/ (you) learned
3rd singular	Prefix ɸɑ- phàtà /ˈɸɑtɑ/ (he/she/it) learns	Prefix sɔ- sotà /ˈsɔtɑ/ (he/she/it) learned
1st plural	Prefix ny̤- ny̤tà /ˈny̤tɑ/ (we) learn	Prefix ʨɑ- chàtà /ˈʨɑtɑ/ (we) learned
2nd plural	Prefix ɳi- ṇità /ˈɳitɑ/ (you all) learn	Prefix hœ- hetà /ˈhœtɑ/ (you all) learned
3rd plural	Prefix hɑ- hàtà /ˈhɑtɑ/ (they) learn	Prefix ɮɵ- zhutà /ˈɮɵtɑ/ (they) learned

Ubari uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: ɓy̤ - py̤ tà /ɓy̤ tɑ/ will learn

Imperfective aspect

The ‘imperfective’ aspect refers to ongoing actions, such as I am learning and habitual actions, such as I learn (something new every day).
Ubari uses a standalone particle word for imperfective:

Imperfective

Particle before the verb: ʛɨ - g’ì tà /ʛɨ tɑ/ learns/is learning

Perfect aspect

The perfect aspect in English is exemplified in ‘I have read this book’, which expresses an event that took place before the time spoken but which has an effect on or is in some way still relevant to the present.
Ubari uses an affix for the perfect aspect:

Perfect

Prefix ʛɯ˧˨- g’ɯ˧˨tà /ˈʛɯ˧˨tɑ/ have learned

Numbers

Ubari has a base-10 number system:
1 - nò
2 - bǔ
3 - bɯ˧˨
4 - llà
5 - ṣǔ
6 - zho
7 - hy̤
8 - zhà
9 - chǔphà
10 - ìr̈ǔ
11 - ìr̈ǔnò “ten-one”
100 - pǔṣö “hundred”
101 - pǔṣö hoʊ nò “hundred and one”
200 - bǔ pǔṣö
1000 - m̈uphisì “thousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Prefix sɨ-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix noʊ̯-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix dɨ-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix ʣy̤-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Prefix da-
Noun to verb = Prefix lœ-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix bɑ-
Tending to = Prefix ɸy̤-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix ɮɑ-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Prefix dɵ-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Prefix ɳa-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Prefix ma-
Diminutive = Prefix ʛœ-
Augmentative = Prefix ɱø-

Dictionary

318 Words.

Spoken by

• Rotsavans