Dhanyo (/'ðɑ.ɲɵ/)

Phonology

Pulmonic Consonants

	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Post Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Uvular
Plosive		b̪						k	ɢ
Nasal							ɲ	ŋ
Trill									ʀ
Tap						ɽ
Fricative	ɸ		θ, ð		ʒ			x, ɣ
Lateral Fricative				ɮ
Approximant				ɹ				ɰ

Non-Pulmonic Consonants

Ejectives	Voiced Implosives
pʼ	ʄ
sʼ

Dhanyo's non-pulmonic consonants can only appear at the end of a word. If a suffix were to be applied to a word with a non-pulmonic consonant at the end, the phonemes change as follows: /pʼ/ -> /b̪/, /sʼ/ -> /ʒ/, and /ʄ/ -> /ɢ/.

Vowels

	Central	Near-back	Back
Mid		ɵ	ɯ
Open-mid	œ	ɞ
Open			ɑ

Phonotactics

Syllable structure
Valid syllable structures in Dhanyo include CVC, CV, VC, and V. Consonant clusters of up to 2 consonants are permitted.
Stress
Stress generally falls on the second syllable.

Orthography

IPA

b̪

k

ɢ

ɲ

ŋ

ʀ

ɽ

ɸ

θ

ð

ʒ

x

ɣ

ɮ

ɹ

ɰ

pʼ

sʼ

ʄ

ɵ

ɯ

œ

ɞ

ɑ

Romanisation

v

k

g

ny

ng

gr

l

f

th

dh

zh

kh

gh

lz

r

w

p

s

kg

o

y

u

e

a

Morphology

Nouns

Nouns are always accompanied by a prefix. Animate nouns begin with /ɑ/, inanimate nouns begin with /ɵ/, intangible nouns begin with /ɯ/, uncountable nouns begin with /œ/, and locations begin with /ɞ/.

Pronouns

Pronouns inflect for animacy, gender, person, and number. There are three genders in Dhanyo: masculine, feminine, and neutral.
Animate Pronouns

	Singular	Dual (incl.)	Dual (excl.)	Triple (incl.)	Triple (excl.)	Plural
1st (Feminine)	avu	avudh	avunye	avuth	avung	avuzh
1st (Masculine)	azhe	azhedh	azhenye	azheth	azheng	azhezh
1st (Neutral)	awy	awydh	awynye	awyth	awyng	awyzh
2nd (Feminine)	adhu	adhudh		adhuth		adhuzh
2nd (Masculine)	akhe	akhedh		akheth		akhezh
2nd (Neutral)	agy	agydh		agyth		agyzh
3rd (Feminine)	alzu	alzudh		alzuth		alzuzh
3rd (Macsculine)	afe	afedh		afeth		afezh
3rd (Neutral)	ary	arydh		aryth		aryzh

Inanimate Pronouns

	Singular	Dual	Triple	Plural
2nd (Tangible)	ava	avadh	avath	avazh
2nd (Intangible)	yva	yvadh	yvath	yvazh
3rd (Tangible)	ara	aradh	arath	arazh
3rd (Intangible)	yra	yradh	yrath	yrazh

Adjectives

Most adjectives precede the noun they describe, the exception to this being loan words, which follow the noun.

Adverbs

Adverbs act similarly to adjectives.

Prepositions

Prepositions come at the beginning of the prepositional phrase.

Verbs

Infinitive forms

Most infinitive verbs begin with dha- or zhy-. Verbs beginning with zhy- are transitive, while dha- verbs are those that are always intransitive. Transitive verbs are conjugated for future, present, and past tense only, and must agree with the conjugation of the subject. Intransitive verbs are conjugated for each of Dhanyo's tenses, and the subject of a sentence with an intransitive verb does not need to be conjugated.

Tenses and Moods

Dhanyo has a past, present and future tense, which are each split into perfect, continuous, habitual, and narrative. The present and future tense each have an interrogative, imperative, and conditional mood, while the past tense only has an interrogative and conditional mood.

Regular Conjugation

Transitive Conjugation

Past	thezhy-
Present	zhy-
Future	dhazhy-

Intransitive Conjugation

	Past	Present	Future
Perfect	dha-	dha-	adha-
Progressive	edha-	adha-	vedha-
Habitual	dhedha-	vadha-	zhadha-
Conditional	zhathe-	kadhe-	wodha-
Imperative		ghydha-	aghydha-
Interrogative	nyedha-	lzadha-	fedha-
Narrative	gre-	gra-	la-

Irregular Verbs

Some verbs in Dhanyo are irregular. Some irregular verbs look like regular ones, but are conjugated differently, while others don't even look like verbs.

Subject Conjugation

When writing a sentence with a transitive verb, most of the tense information is applied to the subject, rather than the verb. A transitive verb and its subject must agree on past, present, or future tense.

Regular Conjugation

Inanimate Nouns

	Past	Present	Future
Perfect	atho-	tho-	thero-
Progressive	adho-	dho-	dhero-
Habitual	avo-	vo-	vero-
Conditional	anyo-	nyo-	nyero-
Imperative		ro-	rero-
Interrogative	ango-	ngo-	ngero-
Narrative	alzo-	lzo-	lzero-

Intangible Nouns

	Past	Present	Future
Perfect	eky-	ky-	kaly-
Progressive	egy-	gy-	galy-
Habitual	egry-	gry-	graly-
Conditional	evy-	vy-	valy-
Imperative		khy-	khaly-
Interrogative	eghy-	ghy-	ghaly-
Narrative	ewy-	wy-	waly-

Uncountable Nouns

	Past	Present	Future
Perfect	ughu-	ghu-	ghuthu-
Progressive	ukhu-	khu-	khuthu-
Habitual	unyu-	nyu-	nyuthu-
Conditional	ugu-	gu-	guthu-
Imperative		ngu-	nguthu-
Interrogative	uku-	ku-	kuthu-
Narrative	uvu-	vu-	vuthu-

Location Nouns

	Past	Present	Future
Perfect	yzhe-	zhe-	zhodhe-
Progressive	ylze-	lze-	lzodhe-
Habitual	ywe-	we-	wodhe-
Conditional	yfe-	fe-	fodhe-
Imperative		le-	lodhe-
Interrogative	yve-	ve-	vodhe-
Narrative	yge-	ge-	gothe-

Animate Nouns

	Past	Present	Future
Perfect	ofa-	fa-	fywa-
Progressive	ova-	va-	vywa-
Habitual	ora-	ra-	rywa-
Conditional	olza-	lza-	lzywa-
Imperative	ogha-	gha-	ghywa-
Interrogative	ogra-	gra-	grywa-
Narrative	oga-	ga-	gywa-

Syntax

Word Order

Dhanyo has ergative-absolutive alignment, but VOS word order is preferred, though not necessary.

Negation

Dhanyo has negation agreement. Verbs take a negation prefix, and sentences containing verbs with this prefix must also include a negation term at the end of the sentence, denoting the end of the negation. The negation prefix is voth-, and the negation term is dhyva.

Questions

Questions in Dhanyo occur in the interrogative mood, and are prefaced with a question term at the beginning of the question.
Question Terms

English	Dhanyo
Question	lzeth
Who
What
When	thys
Where
How

Dictionary

8 Words.