Old Draconic

Old Draconic is the dead language that originated from the desert land now named Seven Cities. At the prime of the Draconic Empire, the language was known as ʤeˈgʊðe, pronounced 'jegüze'. The language has changed over time and can still be seen in current Draconic, as well as Maazinian. However, during an ancient time, it was the main language spoken by an entire region of Dragons, the Dragonborn, and the Kobolds at around 100,000BU, centuries before another group of people would settle in the empty desert of Dragons.
After the fall of the Dragons and their retreat to the endless skies of Kurvald Dehlaine, the remnants of their empire remained in Seven Cities and adapted to their new environment, and new neighbours. Old Draconic was quickly forgotten and changed to be a more civilized tongue spoken by younger Dragons throughout Elderforge, current Draconic. There are only small hints of this ancient language remaining in Seven Cities, preserved through the revered relics found by the religious peoples of the land that settled in the inhospitable desert. Because the people of the Seven Cities Domain worship the Gem Dragons, whose corpses feed life into the Holy River, any ancient relic or small scriptures the Maazin uncover is very important to them. Some words in the current Maazinian language directly derive from Old Draconic through the connections to the ancient civilization the newer one built its roots upon. These include, flame which was ʤɔðe in Old Draconic, and the Maazinian word for it is ʤɔth, pronounced joth. The word river was also taken from Old Draconic. In the older language river was tutɛ̙, and in Maazinian it has adapted slightly and is now tutɛ̙y.

Natively known as: jegüze /ʤeˈgʊðe/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind... taw tü ï ujä zædudi evïgu taw ï thiʻügaw thitæ güjothe thä büpï[alt] Pronunciation: /tɔ tʊ ɪ uˈʤɜ ðæˈdudi eˈvɪgu tɔ ɪ θiˈʔʊgɔ θiˈtæ gʊˈʤoθe θɜ bʊˈpɪ/ Jegüzen word order: and he his hat holding stood and his wet face the wind to turned[/alt]

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b d f g p s t v ð ʔ ʕ ʤ θ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Velar	Pharyngeal	Glottal
Stop	p b			t d		g		ʔ
Affricate					ʤ
Fricative		f v	θ ð	s			ʕ

Vowel inventory: a e i o u æ ɔ ɜ ɪ ʊ

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Near-high	ɪ		ʊ
High-mid	e		o
Low-mid		ɜ	ɔ
Near-low	æ
Low	a

Syllable structure: (C)V Stress pattern: Second — stress is on the second syllable Word initial consonants: b f g p t v ð ʤ θ Mid-word consonants: b d f g p s t v ð ʔ ʕ ʤ θ Word final consonants:
Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ʔ	ʻ
ɔ	aw
ɜ	ä
ɪ	ï
ʊ	ü
θ	th
ð	z
ʕ	h
ʤ	j

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Grammar

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

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 recipient 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 thotü /θoˈtʊ/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	Prefix vu- vuthotü /vuˈθotʊ/ (verb done to) dog
Genitive	Prefix ðu- zuthotü /ðuˈθotʊ/ dogʼs
Dative	Prefix gʊ- güthotü /gʊˈθotʊ/ to (the/a) dog
Locative	Prefix be- bethotü /beˈθotʊ/ near/at/by (the/a) dog
Ablative	Prefix fʊ- füthotü /fʊˈθotʊ/ from (the/a) dog

Singular	No affix thotü /θoˈtʊ/ dog
Plural	Prefix bi- bithotü /biˈθotʊ/ dogs

Articles

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	thaw /θɔ/ the	bi /bi/ a
Plural	bä /bɜ/ the	pä /pɜ/ some

Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Used with place names: ‘The London’

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

	1st singular	2nd singular	3rd singular	1st plural	2nd plural	3rd plural
Nominative	je /ʤe/ I	ü /ʊ/ you	tü /tʊ/ he, she, it	tæ /tæ/ we	the /θe/ you all	bo /bo/ they
Accusative	u /u/ me	bi /bi/ you	thæ /θæ/ him, her, it	zæ /ðæ/ us	gï /gɪ/ you all	jaw /ʤɔ/ them
Genitive	ju /ʤu/ mine	gü /gʊ/ yours	ï /ɪ/ his, hers, its	ta /ta/ ours	ja /ʤa/ yours (pl)	gu /gu/ theirs
Dative	go /go/ to me	pü /pʊ/ to you	vo /vo/ to him, her, it	væ /væ/ to us	pï /pɪ/ to you all	paw /pɔ/ to them
Locative	ä /ɜ/ at me	zü /ðʊ/ at you	fo /fo/ at him, her, it	pe /pe/ at us	æ /æ/ at you all	jo /ʤo/ at them
Ablative	bu /bu/ from me	pæ /pæ/ from you	pu /pu/ from him, her, it	faw /fɔ/ from us	ba /ba/ from you all	pä /pɜ/ from them

Possessive determiners

1st singular	ju /ʤu/ my
2nd singular	gü /gʊ/ your
3rd singular	ï /ɪ/ his, her, its
1st plural	ta /ta/ our
2nd plural	ja /ʤa/ your (pl)
3rd plural	gu /gu/ their

Verbs

	Present	Past	Remote past
1st singular	Prefix gɔ- gawjïʻüfe /gɔˈʤɪʔʊˌfe/ (I) learn	Prefix tu- tujïʻüfe /tuˈʤɪʔʊˌfe/ (I) learned	Prefix bɪ- bïjïʻüfe /bɪˈʤɪʔʊˌfe/ (I) learned (long ago)
2nd singular	Prefix fu- fujïʻüfe /fuˈʤɪʔʊˌfe/ (you) learn	Prefix pa- pajïʻüfe /paˈʤɪʔʊˌfe/ (you) learned	Prefix ʤɪ- jïjïʻüfe /ʤɪˈʤɪʔʊˌfe/ (you) learned (long ago)
3rd singular	Prefix bi- bijïʻüfe /biˈʤɪʔʊˌfe/ (he/she/it) learns	Prefix ʤʊ- jüjïʻüfe /ʤʊˈʤɪʔʊˌfe/ (he/she/it) learned	Prefix ði- zijïʻüfe /ðiˈʤɪʔʊˌfe/ (he/she/it) learned (long ago)
1st plural	Prefix θæ- thæjïʻüfe /θæˈʤɪʔʊˌfe/ (we) learn	Prefix fe- fejïʻüfe /feˈʤɪʔʊˌfe/ (we) learned	Prefix gɪ- gïjïʻüfe /gɪˈʤɪʔʊˌfe/ (we) learned (long ago)
2nd plural	Prefix gi- gijïʻüfe /giˈʤɪʔʊˌfe/ (you all) learn	Prefix pi- pijïʻüfe /piˈʤɪʔʊˌfe/ (you all) learned	Prefix gæ- gæjïʻüfe /gæˈʤɪʔʊˌfe/ (you all) learned (long ago)
3rd plural	Prefix fi- fijïʻüfe /fiˈʤɪʔʊˌfe/ (they) learn	Prefix fɜ- fäjïʻüfe /fɜˈʤɪʔʊˌfe/ (they) learned	Prefix pʊ- püjïʻüfe /pʊˈʤɪʔʊˌfe/ (they) learned (long ago)

Jegüzen uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: ɪ - ï jïʻüfe /ɪ ʤɪˈʔʊfe/ will learn

Progressive aspect

The ‘progressive’ aspect refers to actions that are happening at the time of speaking, such as I am learning.
Jegüzen uses an affix for progressive:

Progressive

Prefix tɔ- tawjïʻüfe /tɔˈʤɪʔʊˌfe/ 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).
Jegüzen uses a standalone particle word for habitual:

Habitual

Particle before the verb: ðæ - zæ jïʻüfe /ðæ ʤɪˈʔʊfe/ learns

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.
Jegüzen uses an affix for the perfect aspect:

Perfect

Prefix ʤʊ- jüjïʻüfe /ʤʊˈʤɪʔʊˌfe/ have learned

Numbers

Jegüzen has a base-10 number system:
1 - aw 2 - väpu 3 - thügæ 4 - jæ 5 - ju 6 - gü 7 - bä 8 - fæjaw 9 - gaw 10 - go 11 - go taw aw “ten and one” 100 - zitapü “hundred” 101 - zitapü taw aw “hundred and one” 200 - väpu zitapü 1000 - pæ “thousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Prefix vɜ- Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Suffix -du Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix ðu- Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix gu- Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Prefix bʊ- Noun to verb = Suffix -tɪ Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Suffix -pæ Tending to = Prefix ʤɜ- Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -dɜ Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Suffix -ʔæ One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Suffix -ʔa Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Prefix ʤɜ- Diminutive = Prefix bɜ- Augmentative = Suffix -ga

These days, you'd be hard pressed to find even an Ancient Dragon that speaks any Old Draconic. It is a shame, another language lost to time alongside all its people, swallowed by the land and used as nourishment for the next group of dullards to sprout. It was a sharp, imposing language, perfect for the beautiful yet deadly Dragons that spoke it.

— Historian Aethelward, from the 'First Peoples of Velaria'

Dictionary

347 Words.

Spoken by

• Dragons
• Maazin