Trinti ([trinti])

Trinti, natively known as Trint, is the protolanguage of the goblins, and the language from which the goblin languages evolved. the name of the language comes from the word for necklace.

Natively known as: trint /trint/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
woult sche soupto kee pij irvoe woult kee gre boenzie spreert lil kein
Pronunciation: /ʋɑu̯lt sxə ˈsɑu̯ptoː keː pɛi̯ ˈɪrvu ʋɑu̯lt keː ɣrə ˈbunzi spreːrt lil kɛi̯n/
Trinti word order: and he stood his hat holding and his wet face turned the wind to

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b d f j k l m n p r s t v x z ŋ ɣ ɦ ʋ

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

Vowel inventory: aː eː i oː u y øː œy̯ ɑ ɑu̯ ɔ ə ɛ ɛi̯ ɪ ʏ
Diphthongs: œy̯ ɑu̯ ɛi̯

	Front	Central	Back
High	i y		u
Near-high	ɪ ʏ
High-mid	eː øː		oː
Mid		ə
Low-mid	ɛ		ɔ
Low	aː		ɑ

Syllable structure: Custom defined
Stress pattern: advanced
Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
sx	sch
x	g / _#
x	ch
ʋ	w
p	b / _#
t	d / _#
d	t / C_#
ɣ	g
ɦ	h
ŋk	ng
ŋ	ng
yu	uw
u	oe / !_w
ɑoe̯	ou
eː	ee
aː	a
ɑ	a
oː	o
ɛi̯	ij / _#
ɛi̯	ei
ɛ	e
ɔ	o
i	ie / C_#
œy̯	ui
ɪ	i
ʏ	u
y	u
øː	eu
ə	e
̯

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Grammar

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

Nouns

Nouns have three 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.

Nominative	No affix moes /mus/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	Prefix ʋɑu̯- woumoes /ˈʋɑu̯mus/ (verb done to) dog
Genitive	If starts with vowel: Prefix urtn- Else: Prefix urtnoː- oertnomoes /ˈurtnoːmus/ dogʼs

Singular	No affix moes /mus/ dog
Plural	Reduplicate last part of last syllable moesoes /ˈmusus/ dogs

Articles

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	plu /ply/ the	pla /plaː/ a
Plural	vrob /vroːp/ the	u /y/ some

Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Definite article can be omitted: ‘I am going to supermarket’
• Used for personal names in third person: ‘The Maria has left for school’
• Used for languages: ‘The 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

	Nominative	Accusative	Genitive
1st singular	e /ɛ/ I	twui /tʋœy̯/ me	teen /teːn/ mine
2nd singular	marcht /maːrxt/ you	bleib /blɛi̯p/ you	ir /ɪr/ yours
3rd singular masc	sche /sxə/ he, it	as /ɑs/ him, it	kee /keː/ his, its
3rd singular fem	ne /nɛ/ she, it	krij /krɛi̯/ her, it	staf /stɑf/ hers, its
1st plural	we /ʋə/ we	pe /pə/ us	joucht /jɑu̯xt/ ours
2nd plural	schob /sxɔp/ you all	do /doː/ you all	vlee /vleː/ yours (pl)
3rd plural	brist /brist/ they	vleug /vløːx/ them	snoe /snu/ theirs

Possessive determiners

1st singular	teen /teːn/ my
2nd singular	ir /ɪr/ your
3rd singular masc	kee /keː/ his
3rd singular fem	staf /stɑf/ her
1st plural	joucht /jɑu̯xt/ our
2nd plural	vlee /vleː/ your (pl)
3rd plural	snoe /snu/ their

Verbs

Present	No affix us /ʏs/ learn
Past	If starts with vowel: Prefix kl- Else: Prefix klɛ- klus /klʏs/ learned
Remote past	Prefix eː- eeus /ˈeːʏs/ learned (long ago)
Future	If starts with vowel: Prefix ɑu̯rsx- Else: Prefix ɑu̯rsxœy̯- ourschus /ˈɑu̯rsxʏs/ 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).
Trinti uses an affix for imperfective:

Imperfective

If starts with vowel: Prefix vl- Else: Prefix vleː- vlus /vlʏs/ learns/is learning

Numbers

Trinti has a base-10 number system:
1 - kelf
2 - rui
3 - drui
4 - der
5 - tronwie
6 - kikent
7 - pie
8 - sa
9 - ikt
10 - kluik
Hundred - peeb
Thousand - na

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Suffix -ɛi̯
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Suffix -eːŋ
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix j-
Else: Prefix jə-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix s-
Else: Prefix seː-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Prefix jʏ-
Noun to verb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -t
Else: Suffix -yt
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix ɔ-
Tending to = If ends with vowel: Suffix -l
Else: Suffix -oːl
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -unt
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -xt
Else: Suffix -əxt
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Suffix -ɪs
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -rs
Else: Suffix -ɔrs
Diminutive = Prefix mɑ-
Augmentative = Suffix -y