Hokenian

Known to some as 'common', this is the most common language worldwide.

Natively known as: hokeni /hoˈkɛnɪ/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
yshuthon shon mukih ifr shon henand yshuthon omfrorom shon shalhar shenthot shatek friun
Pronunciation: /iˈʃʌθon ʃon ˈmʌkɪh ɪfɹ ʃon ˈhɛnɑnd iˈʃʌθon omˈfɹoɹom ʃon ˈʃɑlhɑɹ ˈʃɛnθot ˈʃɑtɛk ˈfɹɪʌn/
Hokenian word order: and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: d f h k l m n r s t v

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m		n
Stop			t d	k
Fricative		f v	s		h
Trill			r
Lateral approximant			l

Vowel inventory: a e i o u y

	Front	Back
High	i y	u
High-mid	e	o
Low	a

Syllable structure: Custom defined ?
Stress pattern: Penultimate — stress is on the second last syllable ?
Sound changes (in order of application):

• a → ɑ
• bb → b
• b → b
• ch → ʧ
• c → k
• d → d
• e → ɛ
• ff → f
• f → f
• gg → g
• g → g
• h → h
• i → ɪ
• j → ʤ
• kk → k
• k → k
• ll → l
• l → l
• m → m
• ng → ŋ
• nn → n
• n → n
• o → o
• p → p
• q → k
• r → ɹ
• sh → ʃ
• ss → s
• s → s
• th → θ
• t → t
• u → ʌ
• v → v
• w → w
• x → ks
• y → i
• z → z

Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ɑ	a
b	b
ʧ	ch
d	d
ɛ	e
f	f
g	g
h	h
i	i
ɪ	i
ʤ	j
k	k
l	l
m	m
ŋ	ng
n	n
o	o
p	p
ɹ	r
ʃ	sh
s	s
θ	th
t	t
ʌ	u
v	v
w	w
x	ks
z	z

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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

Singular	No affix nurstoh /ˈnʌɹstoh/ dog
Plural	Prefix no- nonurstoh /noˈnʌɹstoh/ dogs

Articles

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

Pronouns

1st singular	e /ɛ/ I, me, mine
2nd singular	ten /tɛn/ you, yours
3rd singular	shon /ʃon/ he, him, his, she, her, hers, it, its
1st plural	o /o/ we, us, ours
2nd plural	ma /mɑ/ you all, yours (pl)
3rd plural	fri /fɹɪ/ they, them, theirs

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	e /ɛ/ my
2nd singular	ten /tɛn/ your
3rd singular	shon /ʃon/ his, her, its
1st plural	o /o/ our
2nd plural	ma /mɑ/ your (pl)
3rd plural	fri /fɹɪ/ their

Verbs

	Singular	Plural
Present	No affix fryshushar /fɹiˈʃʌʃɑɹ/ (I/you/he/she/it) learn(s)	Prefix nu- nufryshushar /ˌnʌfɹiˈʃʌʃɑɹ/ (we/you all/they) learn
Past	Prefix ma- mafryshushar /ˌmɑfɹiˈʃʌʃɑɹ/ (I/you/he/she/it) learned	If ends with vowel: Suffix -n Else: Suffix -u fryshusharu /ˌfɹiʃʌˈʃɑɹʌ/ (we/you all/they) learned
Future	Suffix -it fryshusharit /ˌfɹiʃʌˈʃɑɹɪt/ (I/you/he/she/it) will learn	Suffix -ym fryshusharym /ˌfɹiʃʌˈʃɑɹim/ (we/you all/they) 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).
Hokenian uses an affix for imperfective:

Imperfective

If ends with vowel: Suffix -m Else: Suffix -i fryshushari /ˌfɹiʃʌˈʃɑɹɪ/ learns/is learning

Numbers

Hokenian has a base-10 number system:
1 - hi
2 - honeran
3 - merstme
4 - sho
5 - sholerst
6 - enafrfrun
7 - ofrifr
8 - ta
9 - frynar
10 - emnito
100 - frakhorstta
1000 - nikifr

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -fr
Else: Suffix -e
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Suffix -in
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix ny-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -h
Else: Suffix -a
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Suffix -yfr
Noun to verb = Suffix -un
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -sh
Else: Suffix -e
Tending to = If ends with vowel: Suffix -n
Else: Suffix -i
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -um
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Suffix -um
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Prefix te-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Prefix ni-
Diminutive = If ends with vowel: Suffix -fr
Else: Suffix -e
Augmentative = Prefix fry-

Trivia

This language becomes relevant mostly for naming and for characters that don't speak Common.

Dictionary

3088 Words.