The Old Tongue - Foitur

Natively known as: Foitur "The Old Tongue"

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind... koi on tee hi kui iiwoo koi yy kui däks hääks nei ɣien Pronunciation: /ˈkoi on teː hi ˈkui ˈiːwoː ˈkoi yː ˈkui dæks hæːks ˈnei ˈɣien/ Foitur word order: and stood he holding hat his and turned his face wet to the wind.

Note: Translator does not automatically do word order and only finds exact matches in your dictionary (will not find plurals, past-tense, etc.) However, all available affixes in the language may be used. Making the translator smarter is a work in progress.

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: /b d f fː h j k kː l lː m mː n nː p pː r rː s sː t tː ŋ ʋ/

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m mː		n nː		ŋ
Stop	p pː b		t tː d		k kː
Fricative		f fː	s sː			h
Approximant		ʋ		j
Trill			r rː
Lateral approximant			l lː

Vowel inventory: /e ei eu i iː o oi ou oː u ui uo uː ɑ ɑi ɑu ɑː/
Diphthongs: ei, eu, oi, ou, ui, uo, ɑi, ɑu ?

	Front	Back
High	i iː	u uː
High-mid	e	o oː
Low		ɑ ɑː

Syllable structure: Custom defined ? Stress pattern: advanced ? Word initial consonants: d, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, ʋ Mid-word consonants: b, d, f, fː, h, hd, hj, hk, hm, ht, hʋ, j, k, ks, kː, l, lh, lj, lk, ll, lm, lp, lpː, lt, ltː, lʋ, lː, m, mp, mpː, mː, n, nh, np, nr, ns, nsː, nt, ntː, nː, p, ps, pt, pː, r, rh, rj, rk, rkː, rm, rp, rst, rt, rʋ, rː, s, sk, st, sː, t, tk, tn, ts, tː, ŋk, ŋkː, ʋ Word final consonants: ks, l, n, p, rt, s, t
Phonological changes (in order of application): ?

• d → Ø / C_
• m → n / _f
• f → m / _n
• j → ɣ / _E
• s → h / V_V
• j → w / _o
• o → u / _#

Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
eː	ee
fː	ff
iː	ii
kː	kk
lː	ll
oː	oo
sː	ss
tː	tt
uː	uu
yː	yy
ɣ:	vh
æ	eh
aeː	eh
ø	ö
ŋ	n
ɑ	a
ɑː	aa
ʋ	v

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Grammar

Main word order: Verb-Subject-Object-Oblique. "Mary opened the door with a key" turns into Opened Mary the door with a key. Adjective order: Adjectives are positioned after the noun. Adposition: Preposition are position before the Object.

Nouns

Nouns have six 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 recipeint of something: man gives ball to dog.
• Locative is the location of something: man goes to town.
• Ablative is movement away from something: man walks from town.

Nominative	No affix wot /wot/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	Suffix -iːt wotiit /ˈwotiːt/ (verb done to) dog
Genitive	Suffix -in wotin /ˈwotin/ dogʼs
Dative	Suffix -oi wotoi /ˈwotoi/ to (the/a) dog
Locative	Suffix -æː woteh /ˈwoteh/ near/at/by (the/a) dog
Ablative	Suffix -eit woteit /ˈwoteit/ from (the/a) dog

	Masculine	Feminine
Singular	No affix ui /ˈui/ man	No affix öi /ˈøi/ woman
Plural	Suffix -oks uioks /ˈuioks/ men	Suffix -iks öiiks /ˈøiiks/ women

Articles

Foitur has no definite article ‘the’, or indefinite article ‘a’.

Pronouns

	Nominative	Accusative	Genitive	Dative	Locative	Ablative
1st singular	nil /nil/ I	hyi /hyi/ me	hyin /hyin/ mine	kinhyi /kin hyi/ to me	hyöi /døi/ at me	höys /høys/ from me
2nd singular	je /je/ you	je /je/ you	pyöp /pyøp/ yours	kinje /kin je/ to you	hueje /hue je/ at you	doutje /dout je/ from you
3rd singular masc	tee /teː/ he	neu /neu/ him	dyy /dyː/ his	eit /eit/ to him	le /le/ at him	dees /deːs/ from him
3rd singular fem	o /o/ she	vyy /ʋyː/ her	he /he/ hers	piet /piet/ to her	räil /ræil/ at her	ku /ku/ from her
1st plural	dyö /dyø/ we	ki /ki/ us	leu /leu/ ours	meirt /meirt/ to us	u /u/ at us	hoo /hoː/ from us
2nd plural	iiks /iːks/ you (all)	eet /eːt/ you (all)	keert /keːrt/ yours	niirt /niːrt/ to you (all)	mäit /mæit/ at you (all)	pip /pip/ from you (all)
3rd plural masc	uurt /uːrt/ they	höirt /høirt/ them	rii /riː/ theirs	nuu /nuː/ to them	teen /teːn/ at them	päit /pæit/ from them
3rd plural fem	hi /hi/ they	haap /hɑːp/ them	meep /meːp/ theirs	kai /kɑi/ to them	oin /oin/ at them	lyiks /lyiks/ from them

Possessive determiners

1st singular	teip /teip/ my
2nd singular	louks /louks/ your
3rd singular masc	kui /kui/ his
3rd singular fem	piet /piet/ her
1st plural	hu /hu/ our
2nd plural	jyi /jyi/ your
3rd plural masc	uon /uon/ their
3rd plural fem	haas /hɑːs/ their

Verbs

Present	No affix hel /hel/ learn
Past	Prefix dei- deihel /ˈdeihel/ learned

Foitur uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

pe /pe/ will

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). Foitur uses a standalone particle word for imperfective:

Imperfective

lau /lɑu/ imperfect particle

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. Foitur uses an affix for the perfect aspect:

Perfect

If contains (eː|ie|y|yi|yø|yː|æ|æi|æy|æː|ø|øi|øy): Prefix æː- Else: Prefix eu- euhel /ˈeuhel/

Numbers

Foitur has a base-10 number system:
1 - mä 2 - i 3 - duurt 4 - duu 5 - viiks 6 - ɣöil 7 - he 8 - eelen 9 - miidyi 10 - ne 11 - mä koi ne “one and ten” 100 - mä ääp “one hundred” 101 - mä ääp mä “one hundred one” 200 - i ääp 1000 - mä köt “one thousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb (personal → personally) Suffix -de
Adjective → noun (slow → slowness) Suffix -oin
Adjective → verb (weak → weaken) Suffix -sha
Noun → adjective (recreation → recreational) Suffix -kø
Noun → verb (glory → glorify) Suffix -ɑl
Verb → adjective (drink → drinkable) Suffix -jie
Verb → adjective (likely to do [verb]) Suffix -ie
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -sik
Verb → noun that verb physically produces (e.g. build → building) Suffix -kit
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) Suffix -dyø
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) Suffix -ru

Diminutive Suffix -øys
Augmentative= Suffix -yirt

The Nehxi Example Nook

To standardize a lot of the concepts behind Foitur, it would be simplest if pretty much any modifier, like an adjective or adverb or prepositional phrase, comes after the word it modifies. So for example, using one of the sentences in your noun case explainer graphic: 
Dog's tail hits man. 
Word order would be verb subject [subject modifier] [direct object of verb], so Hits tail dog's man. With the suffixes appropriately appended:
Tyil piks woti uii:t (ui is man, iit is accusative) 
A more complex version of this would be: 
The dog's bony tail hit the man's knee under the table. 
Order-wise, following the rule of putting modifiers after the words they modify, would be: [past tense] verb subject descriptor possessor object possessor prepositional phrase. which is to say, [past tense] Hit tail bony dog's knee man's under table
Deityil piks køvyibe woti iep uii:t vää öykä. (vyibe is bone, so the adjective derived from it is kovyibe)
He stopped me because I was too powerful. [past tense] stop he me because was I powerful too Jæyäi tee ji uu deiu nil kekeilti soi.

Dictionary

4451 Words.