Quessite

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind... waw̃q ye faw̃ zâv shĩǧ qâq waw̃q tavmuq o faw̃ tãbe sog yũnmez Pronunciation: /wɔ̃q je fɔ̃ zəv ʃĩɢ qəq wɔ̃q ˈtavmuq o fɔ̃ ˈtãbe sog ˈjũnmez/ Quessite word order: and he his hat holding stood and the wind to his wet face turned

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: /b d f g j k m n p q s t v w z ŋ ɢ ʃ ʒ/

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular
Nasal	m		n			ŋ
Stop	p b		t d			k g	q ɢ
Fricative		f v	s z	ʃ ʒ
Approximant					j

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labio-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: /a ã e i ĩ o u ũ ɔ ɔ̃ ə ɛ ɛ̃/

	Front	Central	Back
High	i ĩ		u ũ
High-mid	e		o
Mid		ə
Low-mid	ɛ ɛ̃		ɔ̃ ɔ
Low	ã a

Syllable structure: (C)V(C) Stress pattern: Initial — stress is on the first syllable Word initial consonants: b, d, f, j, k, m, q, s, t, v, w, z, ŋ, ʃ, ʒ Mid-word consonants: b, bd, bm, bs, bw, bz, bʃ, d, dg, dm, dw, dʃ, dʒ, f, fd, ff, fg, fj, fp, ft, fʃ, g, gb, gf, gk, gm, gt, gw, gʃ, gʒ, j, jb, jd, jf, jn, jʃ, jʒ, k, kb, kf, kk, ks, kt, kz, m, md, mf, mg, mj, mk, ms, mt, mv, mz, mʃ, n, nd, nj, nm, nn, ns, nw, nz, nʒ, p, pf, pj, pk, pp, pw, pz, pʃ, q, qd, qq, qt, s, sb, sd, sg, sj, sk, sm, ss, st, sv, sw, t, tf, tg, tj, tn, tp, tt, tw, tz, tʃ, v, vd, vm, vn, vw, w, wb, wd, wk, wm, wp, wq, ws, wt, wz, wʃ, z, zd, zg, zj, zk, zn, zt, zv, zz, ŋ, ŋb, ŋd, ŋg, ŋk, ŋp, ŋs, ŋt, ɢ, ʃ, ʃb, ʃp, ʃs, ʃt, ʒ, ʒb Word final consonants: b, d, f, g, k, m, p, q, t, v, w, z, ɢ
Phonological changes (in order of application):

• e → i / _(C)i
• L → d / #_
• dj → z / V_V

Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
j	y
ŋ	ng
ɔ	aw
ə	â
ɛ	ê
ɢ	ǧ
ʃ	sh
ʒ	zh

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Grammar

Main word order: Subject-Oblique-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 three cases:

• Ergative 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.

Ergative	Suffix -i tawshtâfi /ˈtɔʃtəfi/ dog (doing the verb to something)
Absolutive	No affix tawshtâf /ˈtɔʃtəf/ dog (doing the verb not to something)
Genitive	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ŋe Else: Suffix -iŋe tawshtâfinge /ˈtɔʃtəˌfiŋe/ dogʼs

Singular	No affix tawshtâf /ˈtɔʃtəf/ dog
Plural	If ends with vowel: Suffix -v Else: Suffix -iv tawshtâfiv /ˈtɔʃtəfiv/ dogs

Articles

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	yĩ /jĩ/ the	fễ /fɛ̃/ a
Plural	kaw̃b /kɔ̃b/ the	sho /ʃo/ some

Pronouns

	Ergative	Absolutive	Genitive
1st singular	bĩ /bĩ/ I	yo /jo/ me, I	ik /ik/ mine
2nd singular	me /me/ you	bu /bu/ you	te /te/ yours
3rd singular masc	ye /je/ he	e /e/ him, he	aw /aw/ his
3rd singular fem	bug /bug/ she	sêz /sɛz/ her, she	â /ə/ hers
1st plural inclusive	vễ /vɛ̃/ we (including you)	yũd /jũd/ us, we (including you)	wi /wi/ ours (including you)
1st plural exclusive	kawp /kɔp/ we (excluding you)	fãq /fãq/ us, we (excluding you)	sĩ /sĩ/ ours (excluding you)
2nd plural	sum /sum/ you (all)	we /we/ you (all)	kễ /kɛ̃/ yours
3rd plural	ũq /ũq/ they	sok /sok/ them, they	taw̃ /tɔ̃/ theirs

Possessive determiners

1st singular	zãp /zãp/ my
2nd singular	sĩ /sĩ/ your
3rd singular masc	faw̃ /fɔ̃/ his
3rd singular fem	zũǧ /zũɢ/ her
1st plural inclusive	zho /ʒo/ our (including you)
1st plural exclusive	yif /jif/ our (excluding you)
2nd plural	ngo /ŋo/ your
3rd plural	va /va/ their

Verbs

	Present	Past	Remote past	Future
1st singular	No affix ukka /ˈukka/ (I) study	If ends with vowel: Suffix -kũ Else: Suffix -ɛkũ ukkakũ /ˈukkakũ/ (I) studied	If ends with vowel: Suffix -fjə Else: Suffix -ĩfjə ukkafyâ /ˈukkafjə/ (I) studied (long ago)	If ends with vowel: Suffix -tzi Else: Suffix -itzi ukkatzi /ˈukkatzi/ (I) will study
2nd singular	No affix ukka /ˈukka/ (you) study	Suffix -ɛq ukkaêq /ˈukkaɛq/ (you) studied	Suffix -i ukkai /ˈukkai/ (you) studied (long ago)	Suffix -ĩw ukkaĩw /ˈukkaĩw/ (you) will study
3rd singular masc	If ends with vowel: Suffix -pwĩ Else: Suffix -ĩpwĩ ukkapwĩ /ˈukkapwĩ/ (he) studies	Suffix -e ukkae /ˈukkae/ (he) studied	Suffix -ã ukkaã /ˈukkaã/ (he) studied (long ago)	Suffix -ɔ̃ ukkaaw̃ /ˈukkaɔ̃/ (he) will study
3rd singular fem	If ends with vowel: Suffix -mʃɛ̃ Else: Suffix -umʃɛ̃ ukkamshễ /ˈukkamʃɛ̃/ (she) studies	If ends with vowel: Suffix -qta Else: Suffix -eqta ukkaqta /ˈukkaqta/ (she) studied	Suffix -ãk ukkaãk /ˈukkaãk/ (she) studied (long ago)	Suffix -im ukkaim /ˈukkaim/ (she) will study
1st plural inclusive	No affix ukka /ˈukka/ (we) study (including you)	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ɢ Else: Suffix -ɛ̃ɢ ukkaǧ /ˈukkaɢ/ (we) studied (including you)	If ends with vowel: Suffix -bze Else: Suffix -ĩbze ukkabze /ˈukkabze/ (we) studied (including you) (long ago)	If ends with vowel: Suffix -nwe Else: Suffix -ĩnwe ukkanwe /ˈukkanwe/ (we) will study (including you)
1st plural exclusive	No affix ukka /ˈukka/ (we) study (excluding you)	Suffix -ed ukkaed /ˈukkaed/ (we) studied (excluding you)	Suffix -ĩm ukkaĩm /ˈukkaĩm/ (we) studied (excluding you) (long ago)	Suffix -ãv ukkaãv /ˈukkaãv/ (we) will study (excluding you)
2nd plural	If ends with vowel: Suffix -f Else: Suffix -əf ukkaf /ˈukkaf/ (you all) study	If ends with vowel: Suffix -tto Else: Suffix -ĩtto ukkatto /ˈukkatto/ (you all) studied	If ends with vowel: Suffix -k Else: Suffix -ek ukkak /ˈukkak/ (you all) studied (long ago)	If ends with vowel: Suffix -t Else: Suffix -ut ukkat /ˈukkat/ (you all) will study
3rd plural	If ends with vowel: Suffix -f Else: Suffix -ɛf ukkaf /ˈukkaf/ (they) study	If ends with vowel: Suffix -dwɛ Else: Suffix -ɔdwɛ ukkadwê /ˈukkadwɛ/ (they) studied	If ends with vowel: Suffix -t Else: Suffix -ĩt ukkat /ˈukkat/ (they) studied (long ago)	If ends with vowel: Suffix -tfe Else: Suffix -ɛtfe ukkatfe /ˈukkatfe/ (they) will study

Numbers

Quessite has a base-10 number system:
1 - med 2 - dũg 3 - mawz 4 - yiq 5 - sũ 6 - qã 7 - yum 8 - iê 9 - taw̃q 10 - doq 11 - doq waw̃q med “ten and one” 100 - med qũb “one hundred” 101 - med qũb med “one hundred one” 200 - dũg qũb 1000 - med fat “one thousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -pko Else: Suffix -əpko Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Suffix -ok Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -p Else: Suffix -op Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -fpə Else: Suffix -ĩfpə Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -t Else: Suffix -ũt Noun → verb (to create [noun]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -k Else: Suffix -ɔk Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -k Else: Suffix -ek Verb → adjective (likely to do [verb]) = Suffix -o Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -eɢ Verb → noun that verb physically produces (e.g. build → building) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -t Else: Suffix -ut One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Suffix -ũp Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -q Else: Suffix -ɛq Diminutive = Suffix -ũ Augmentative = If ends with vowel: Suffix -q Else: Suffix -oq

Dictionary

4344 Words.