Gnomes (ˈmo˥nkwɛ˥)

mo˥nque

https://www.vulgarlang.com/

Natively known as: mo˥nque˥ /ˈmo˥nkwɛ˥/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
fu˥ e˥ zo˥ o˥ddo˥ schi˥ o˥ba˥ fu˥ o˥pru˥ schi˥ a˥llo˥ te˥mpe˥ te˥ i˥spi˥
Pronunciation: /fu˥ e˥ ʦo˥ ˈo˥ddɔ˥ ski˥ ˈɔ˥ba˥ fu˥ ˈo˥pru˥ ski˥ ˈa˥llo˥ ˈte˥mpe˥ tɛ˥ ˈi˥spi˥/
Gnomes word order: and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b d f g j k l m n p r s t v w z ɲ ʃ ʎ ʣ ʤ ʦ ʧ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal	m		n		ɲ
Stop	p b		t d			k g
Affricate			ʦ ʣ	ʧ ʤ
Fricative		f v	s z	ʃ
Approximant					j
Trill			r
Lateral approximant			l		ʎ

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: a e i o u ɔ ɛ
Tones: ˥

	Front	Back
High	i	u
High-mid	e	o
Low-mid	ɛ	ɔ
Low	a

Syllable structure: Custom defined
Stress pattern: Penultimate — stress is on the second last syllable
Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
kw	qu
w	u
z	s
ʃ	sc
tʦ	zz
ʦ	z
k	c / !_{i,e,ɛ}
ʧ	ci / !_{i,e,ɛ}
ʧ	c
ʤ	gi / !_{i,e,ɛ}
ʤ	g
k	ch
ʎʎ	gli
ɲ	gn
ɛ	e
ɔ	o
j	i

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Grammar

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

Nouns

	Masculine	Feminine
Singular	No affix nua˥ /nwa˥/ man	No affix nie˥ /njɛ˥/ woman
Plural	Prefix ba˥- ba˥nua˥ /ˈba˥nwa˥/ men	Prefix ku˥- cu˥nie˥ /ˈku˥njɛ˥/ women

Articles

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	de˥ /dɛ˥/ the	quo˥ /kwɔ˥/ a
Plural	me˥ /me˥/ the	ca˥ /ka˥/ some

Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Used to talk about countable nouns in general: English’s ‘I like cats’ would translate to ‘I like the cats’
• Not used for mass (uncountable) nouns: ‘Walking in the mud’ would always translate to ‘Walking in mud’.
• Used for languages: ‘The English’

Uses of indefinite article that differ from English:

• Not used for non-specific countable nouns: non-specific means ‘I am looking for a (any) girl in a red dress’, whereas specific means ‘I am looking for a (particular) girl in a red dress’
• Not used for non-specific mass (uncountable) nouns: non-specific means ‘Would you like some (any) tea?’ whereas specific means ‘Some tea (a specific amount) fell off the truck’

Pronouns

1st singular	tro˥ /tro˥/ I, me, mine
2nd singular	ce˥ /ʧɛ˥/ you, yours
3rd singular masc	e˥ /e˥/ he, him, his, it, its
3rd singular fem	nua˥ /nwa˥/ she, her, hers, it, its
1st plural	ne˥ /ne˥/ we, us, ours
2nd plural	u˥ /u˥/ you all, yours (pl)
3rd plural masc	qui˥ /kwi˥/ they (masc), them (masc), theirs (masc)
3rd plural fem	a˥ /a˥/ they (fem), them (fem), theirs (fem)

Possessive determiners

1st singular	ro˥ /rɔ˥/ my
2nd singular	te˥ /tɛ˥/ your
3rd singular masc	schi˥ /ski˥/ his
3rd singular fem	go˥ /gɔ˥/ her
1st plural	e˥ /ɛ˥/ our
2nd plural	fru˥ /fru˥/ your (pl)
3rd plural masc	quu˥ /kwu˥/ their (masc)
3rd plural fem	chi˥ /ki˥/ their (fem)

Verbs

	Present	Past	Future
1st singular	Prefix nju˥- niu˥schi˥ /ˈnju˥ski˥/ (I) learn	Prefix lo˥- lo˥schi˥ /ˈlo˥ski˥/ (I) learned	Prefix ja˥- ia˥schi˥ /ˈja˥ski˥/ (I) will learn
2nd singular	Prefix fi˥- fi˥schi˥ /ˈfi˥ski˥/ (you) learn	Prefix fwu˥- fuu˥schi˥ /ˈfwu˥ski˥/ (you) learned	Prefix nwa˥- nua˥schi˥ /ˈnwa˥ski˥/ (you) will learn
3rd singular masc	Prefix ju˥- iu˥schi˥ /ˈju˥ski˥/ (he) learns	Prefix njɔ˥- nio˥schi˥ /ˈnjɔ˥ski˥/ (he) learned	Prefix pi˥- pi˥schi˥ /ˈpi˥ski˥/ (he) will learn
3rd singular fem	Prefix ʤɛ˥- ge˥schi˥ /ˈʤɛ˥ski˥/ (she) learns	Prefix spɔ˥- spo˥schi˥ /ˈspɔ˥ski˥/ (she) learned	Prefix ʤa˥- gia˥schi˥ /ˈʤa˥ski˥/ (she) will learn
1st plural	Prefix le˥- le˥schi˥ /ˈle˥ski˥/ (we) learn	Prefix bɛ˥- be˥schi˥ /ˈbɛ˥ski˥/ (we) learned	Prefix kri˥- cri˥schi˥ /ˈkri˥ski˥/ (we) will learn
2nd plural	Prefix ʧi˥- ci˥schi˥ /ˈʧi˥ski˥/ (you all) learn	Prefix bwe˥- bue˥schi˥ /ˈbwe˥ski˥/ (you all) learned	Prefix vɛ˥- ve˥schi˥ /ˈvɛ˥ski˥/ (you all) will learn
3rd plural masc	Prefix vi˥- vi˥schi˥ /ˈvi˥ski˥/ (they) learn	Prefix pa˥- pa˥schi˥ /ˈpa˥ski˥/ (they) learned	Prefix gwu˥- guu˥schi˥ /ˈgwu˥ski˥/ (they) will learn
3rd plural fem	Prefix te˥- te˥schi˥ /ˈte˥ski˥/ (they) learn	Prefix ke˥- che˥schi˥ /ˈke˥ski˥/ (they) learned	Prefix ko˥- co˥schi˥ /ˈko˥ski˥/ (they) will learn

Progressive aspect

The ‘progressive’ aspect refers to actions that are happening at the time of speaking, such as I am learning.
Gnomes uses a standalone particle word for progressive:

Progressive

Particle before the verb: fɛ˥ - fe˥ schi˥ /fɛ˥ ski˥/ is learning

Habitual aspect

The ‘habitual’ aspect refers to actions that happen habitually, such as I learn (something new every day), as opposed to actions that happen once (I learned something).
Gnomes uses a standalone particle word for habitual:

Habitual

Particle before the verb: re˥ - re˥ schi˥ /re˥ ski˥/ learns

Numbers

Gnomes has a base-10 number system:
1 - li˥
2 - e˥
3 - ciu˥
4 - ge˥
5 - sce˥
6 - u˥da˥
7 - spi˥
8 - guo˥
9 - sa˥
10 - gue˥
11 - gue˥li˥ “ten-one”
100 - u˥na˥ “hundred”
101 - u˥na˥ fu˥ li˥ “hundred and one”
200 - e˥ u˥na˥
1000 - su˥ “thousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Prefix fɛ˥-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix ʤi˥-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix sta˥-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix ʤɔ˥-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Prefix krɔ˥-
Noun to verb = Prefix vu˥-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix ʤe˥-
Tending to = Prefix ve˥-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix tu˥-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Prefix stre˥-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Prefix bwe˥-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Prefix li˥-
Diminutive = Prefix ro˥-
Augmentative = Prefix ge˥-

Dictionary

307 Words.

Spoken by:

Gnomes