Giant/nuhte

a language spoken by all giants.

Natively known as: nuhte /nuhˈte/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
pfa no pfehi tyapfo sa sunpo pfa yutshi sa pitma siha pansi shmu
Pronunciation: /pfa no pfeˈhi tjapˈfo sa sunˈpo pfa jutˈʃi sa pitˈma siˈha panˈsi ʃmu/
Nuhten word order: and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face the wind to

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: f h j k m n p s t ʃ ʧ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m		n
Stop	p		t			k
Affricate				ʧ
Fricative		f	s	ʃ			h
Approximant					j

Vowel inventory: a e i o u

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

Syllable structure: Custom defined ?
Stress pattern: Ultimate — stress is on the last syllable ?
Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
j	y
ʃ	sh
ʧ	ch

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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: postpositions ?

Nouns

Singular	Suffix -ʧa pyefmacha /pjefmaˈʧa/ dog
Plural	No affix pyefma /pjefˈma/ dogs

Articles

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	ksu /ksu/ the	sha /ʃa/ a
Plural	shme /ʃme/ the	pi /pi/ some

Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Definite article can be omitted: ‘I am going to supermarket’
• Used to talk about countable nouns in general: English’s ‘I like cats’ would translate to ‘I like the cats’
• Used for personal names in third person: ‘The Maria has left for school’
• Used for languages: ‘The English’

Uses of indefinite article that differ from English:

• Not used for non-specific mass (uncountable) nouns: non-specific means ‘Would you like some (any) tea?’ whereas specific means ‘Some tea (a specific amount) fell off the truck’

Pronouns

	Nominative	Accusative
1st singular	su /su/ I	nya /nja/ me
2nd singular	mi /mi/ you	kho /kho/ you
3rd singular	no /no/ he, she, it	sho /ʃo/ his, her, it
1st plural inclusive	chu /ʧu/ we (including you)	tye /tje/ us (including you)
1st plural exclusive	sa /sa/ we (excluding you)	ma /ma/ us (excluding you)
2nd plural	nyu /nju/ you all	pfa /pfa/ you all
3rd plural	me /me/ they	pye /pje/ them

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	shmu /ʃmu/ my
2nd singular	nyi /nji/ your
3rd singular	sa /sa/ his, her, its
1st plural inclusive	psu /psu/ our (including you)
1st plural exclusive	shmi /ʃmi/ our (excluding you)
2nd plural	yi /ji/ your (pl)
3rd plural	khu /khu/ their

Verbs

1st singular	Suffix -kti tsoskikti /tsoskikˈti/ (I) learn
2nd singular	Suffix -pa tsoskipa /tsoskiˈpa/ (you) learn
3rd singular	Suffix -npu tsoskinpu /tsoskinˈpu/ (he/she/it) learns
1st plural inclusive	Suffix -hi tsoskihi /tsoskiˈhi/ (we (including you)) learn
1st plural exclusive	Suffix -ntu tsoskintu /tsoskinˈtu/ (we (excluding you)) learn
2nd plural	Suffix -jsu tsoskiysu /tsoskijˈsu/ (you all) learn
3rd plural	Suffix -pfu tsoskipfu /tsoskipˈfu/ (they) learn

Nuhten uses a standalone particle word for past tense:

Past	Particle before the verb: mo - mo tsoski /mo tsosˈki/ learned

Nuhten uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: e - e tsoski /e tsosˈki/ will learn

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.
Nuhten uses an affix for the perfect aspect:

Perfect

Reduplicate first part of first syllable tsotsoski /tsotsosˈki/ have learned

Numbers

Nuhten has a base-20 number system:
1 - pfe
2 - sa
3 - pyo
4 - khi
5 - nya
6 - kso
7 - tyi
8 - pye
9 - shma
10 - pofshape
11 - u
12 - fa
13 - ne
14 - ma
15 - pi
16 - fyepchu
17 - yu
18 - fu
19 - psu
20 - mu
400 - tyeste
8000 - matshe

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Suffix -nte
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Suffix -ʃpa
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Suffix -mu
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Suffix -tpu
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Suffix -kfa
Noun to verb = Suffix -sma
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Suffix -kku
Tending to = Suffix -pse
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -ji
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Suffix -ʧma
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Suffix -nhi
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Suffix -sti
Diminutive = Suffix -jta
Augmentative = Suffix -po

Dictionary

3052 Words.

Successor Languages

• Kjelkian/Thri-Kreen
• Frendti/Goliath

Spoken by

• Giants