The Language of Teulian

Natively known as: teula /teˈula/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
yo ba ba haza fu dar yo tow lee ba geeliz fak vo
Pronunciation: /jo ba ba ˈhaza fu dar jo tow lee̯ ba ˈgee̯liz fak vo/
Teulian word order: and he his hat holding stood and the wind to his wet face turned

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b c͡h d f g h hng h͡d h͡l h͡m h͡n h͡w j k l m n n͡g p q r s t v w x z

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	m		n
Stop	p b		t d		k g	q
Fricative		f v	s z		x		h
Approximant				j
Trill			r
Lateral approximant			l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: a aa̯ ay̯ ee̯ i ii̯ o oo̯ u uu̯
Diphthongs: aa̯ ay̯ ee̯ ii̯ oo̯ uu̯

	Front	Back
High	i	u
High-mid		o
Low	a

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

Pronunciation	Spelling
j	y
x	kh
◌̯

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Grammar

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

Nouns

Nouns have two cases:

• Nominative is the doer of a verb: dog bites man.
• Accusative is the done-to of a verb: man bites dog.

Nominative	No affix h͡liq /h͡liq/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	Suffix -iq h͡liqiq /ˈh͡liqiq/ (verb done to) dog

Singular	No affix h͡liq /h͡liq/ dog
Plural	Reduplicate first part of first syllable h͡lih͡liq /ˈh͡lih͡liq/ dogs

Articles

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	c͡ha /c͡ha/ the	hngu /hngu/ a
Plural	beew /bee̯w/ the	hnga /hnga/ 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’

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’

Pronouns

	Nominative	Accusative
1st singular	vu /vu/ I	ho /ho/ me
2nd singular	kho /xo/ you	bi /bi/ you
3rd singular	ba /ba/ he, she, it	tu /tu/ him, her, it
1st plural	wiw /wiw/ we	miv /miv/ us
2nd plural	hngee /hngee̯/ you all	h͡nay /h͡nay̯/ you all
3rd plural	kha /xa/ they	yo /jo/ them

Possessive determiners

1st singular	vu /vu/ my
2nd singular	kho /xo/ your
3rd singular	ba /ba/ his, her, its
1st plural	wiw /wiw/ our
2nd plural	hngee /hngee̯/ your (pl)
3rd plural	kha /xa/ their

Verbs

Teulian uses a standalone particle word for past tense:

Past	Particle before the verb: hngix - hngikh dukh /hngix dux/ learned

Teulian uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: mi - mi dukh /mi dux/ 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).
Teulian uses a standalone particle word for imperfective:

Imperfective

Particle before the verb: tih͡w - tih͡w dukh /tih͡w dux/ learns/is learning

Numbers

Teulian has a base-10 number system:
1 - bu
2 - h͡mi
3 - i
4 - h͡lay
5 - tamhu
6 - wik
7 - mah͡w
8 - gin͡g
9 - may
10 - hngik
11 - hngikbu “ten-one”
100 - h͡wiv “hundred”
101 - h͡wiv bu “hundred one”
200 - h͡mi h͡wiv
1000 - khaw “thousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Suffix -o
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Suffix -u
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Suffix -i
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -r
Else: Suffix -ar
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -g
Else: Suffix -ug
Noun to verb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -h͡m
Else: Suffix -ee̯h͡m
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -h͡d
Else: Suffix -ih͡d
Tending to = Suffix -i
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -o
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -w
Else: Suffix -iw
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -q
Else: Suffix -ee̯q
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -f
Else: Suffix -if
Diminutive = Suffix -ay̯t
Augmentative = If ends with vowel: Suffix -f
Else: Suffix -ay̯f

Dictionary

337 Words.

Spoken by

• Southern Native Eisic Confederation (SNEF)