Ancient Shipspeak

The original language spoken aboard ship. Used on ancient tech, relics and tomes. It has very little practical use beyond scholarship. Few read and write it, but even fewer can actually speak it.

Natively known as: dûsvüth /ˈdʊsvɜːθ/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
foûg dhaï faw duhn chiv foûg beïj duhn rawmlû zhal tɔïd shos
Pronunciation: /foʊ̯g ðaɪ̯ fɔː dʌn ʧiːv foʊ̯g beɪ̯ʤ dʌn ˈɹɔːmlʊ ʒæl tɔɪ̯d ʃɑs/
Shipspeak word order: and he stood holding hat his and turned his face wet to the wind

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b d f g h j k l m n p s t v w z ð ŋ ɹ ʃ ʒ ʤ ʧ θ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m			n			ŋ
Stop	b p			t d			g k
Affricate					ʧ ʤ
Fricative		f v	ð θ	z s	ʃ ʒ			h
Approximant				ɹ		j
Lateral approximant				l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: aɪ̯ aʊ̯ eɪ̯ iː oʊ̯ uː æ ɑ ɔɪ̯ ɔː ɛ ɜː ɪ ʊ ʌ
Diphthongs: aɪ̯ aʊ̯ eɪ̯ oʊ̯ ɔɪ̯ ?

	Front	Central	Back
High	iː		uː
Near-high	ɪ		ʊ
Low-mid	ɛ	ɜː	ɔː ʌ
Near-low	æ
Low			ɑ

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

Pronunciation	Spelling
iː	i
uː	u
æ	a
ɛ	e
ɑ	o
ɜː	ü
ɔː	aw
ʊ	û
ʌ	uh
ɪ	ï
eɪ̯	ay
aʊ̯	ou
aɪ̯	ie
ɔɪ̯	oi
ɹ	r
θ	th
ʒ	zh
ð	dh
j	y
ʃ	sh
ŋ	ng
ʤ	j
ʧ	ch
Vː	VV
̯

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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 after the noun.
Adposition: prepositions ?

Adjective affixes

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	No affix zo /zɑ/  (the) big (dog)	Prefix ɪ- ïzo /ˈɪzɑ/  (a) big (dog)
Plural	If starts with vowel: Prefix ð- Else: Prefix ðɜː- dhüzo /ˈðɜːzɑ/  (the) big (dogs)	Prefix fʊ- fûzo /ˈfʊzɑ/  (some) big (dogs)

Verb affixes

	1st person	2nd person	3rd person
Remote past	Prefix ɑ- ouhb /ˈɑʌb/  (I/we) learned (long ago)	If starts with vowel: Prefix m- Else: Prefix miː- muhb /mʌb/  (you/you all) learned (long ago)	Prefix ʃɑ- shouhb /ˈʃɑʌb/  (he/she/it/they) learned (long ago)
Past	If starts with vowel: Prefix b- Else: Prefix buː- buhb /bʌb/  (I/we) learned	Prefix oʊ̯- oûuhb /ˈoʊ̯ʌb/  (you/you all) learned	Prefix ðeɪ̯- dheïuhb /ˈðeɪ̯ʌb/  (he/she/it/they) learned
Present	Prefix luː- luuhb /ˈluːʌb/  (I/we) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix aɪ̯pj- Else: Prefix aɪ̯pjaɪ̯- aïpyuhb /ˈaɪ̯pjʌb/  (you/you all) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix l- Else: Prefix lʌ- luhb /lʌb/  (he/she/it/they) learn(s)
Future	If starts with vowel: Prefix g- Else: Prefix gɜː- guhb /gʌb/  (I/we) will learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix g- Else: Prefix gaʊ̯- guhb /gʌb/  (you/you all) will learn	Prefix wɜː- wüuhb /ˈwɜːʌb/  (he/she/it/they) will learn
Remote future	Prefix vɑ- vouhb /ˈvɑʌb/  (I/we) will learn (long from now)	Prefix ɹuː- ruuhb /ˈɹuːʌb/  (you/you all) will learn (long from now)	Prefix maʊ̯- maûuhb /ˈmaʊ̯ʌb/  (he/she/it/they) will learn (long from now)

Verb affixes

Perfective	Suffix -aɪ̯ uhbaï /ˈʌbaɪ̯/  learn
Habitual	Suffix -ɑ uhbo /ˈʌbɑ/  learn (often, habitually)
Progressive	If ends with vowel: Suffix -t Else: Suffix -ɜːt uhbüt /ˈʌbɜːt/  be learning
Perfect	If ends with vowel: Suffix -l Else: Suffix -ʊl uhbûl /ˈʌbʊl/  have learned

Determiners

Definite	gü /gɜː/  the
Indefinite	wa /wæ/  a, some

Possessive determiners

	1st person	2nd person	3rd person
Possessive	nü /nɜː/  my, our	fa /fæ/  your, your (pl)	duhn /dʌn/  his, her, its, their

Pronouns

Neuter

	Singular	Plural
1st person	ü /ɜː/  I (neut), me (neut), mine (neut)	jaû /ʤaʊ̯/  we (neut), us (neut), ours (neut)
2nd person	tum /tuːm/  you (neut), yours (neut)	faïdh /faɪ̯ð/  you (neut) all
3rd person	so /sɑ/  it (neut), its (neut)	tût /tʊt/  they (neut), them (neut), theirs (neut)

Numbers

Shipspeak has a base-10 number system:
1 - shol
2 - chüng
3 - mul
4 - taû
5 - ɔï
6 - naû
7 - gu
8 - maï
9 - goûn
10 - dhûno
100 - loû
1000 - go

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If starts with vowel: Prefix ɛgt-
Else: Prefix ɛgtæ-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ænʧ-
Else: Prefix ænʧaʊ̯-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix m-
Else: Prefix mʌ-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix g-
Else: Prefix gʌ-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If starts with vowel: Prefix s-
Else: Prefix seɪ̯-
Noun to verb = If starts with vowel: Prefix ʃ-
Else: Prefix ʃɛ-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix bʊ-
Tending to = Prefix mɔː-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix ɪ-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ɑθl-
Else: Prefix ɑθlɔː-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If starts with vowel: Prefix w-
Else: Prefix wuː-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ð-
Else: Prefix ðɜː-
Diminutive = If starts with vowel: Prefix ð-
Else: Prefix ðɔː-
Augmentative = If starts with vowel: Prefix n-
Else: Prefix naʊ̯-

Successor Languages

• Modern Shipspeak
• Mejornic
• Ormiric