Luminayatli

Natively known as: lleing /ɬei̯ŋ/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
aib hi cune cuw hi pi aib da hi dda crod rhyth drin
Pronunciation: /ai̯b hiː kuˈnɛ kɨu̯ hiː pɪ ai̯b daː hiː ða krɔd r̥ɨθ drɪn/
Luminayatli word order: and he stood holding hat his and turned his face wet the wind to

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b d g h j k l m n n̥ p r r̥ s t v w ð ŋ ɬ ʃ θ χ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	m			n n̥			ŋ
Stop	b p			d t			k g
Fricative		v	ð θ	s	ʃ			χ	h
Approximant						j
Trill				r̥ r
Lateral fricative				ɬ
Lateral approximant				l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: a ai̯ au̯ aɨ̯ aː ei̯ eɨ̯ eː i iː oː u uː ɔ ɔi̯ ɔɨ̯ ə əu̯ ɛ ɛu̯ ɨ ɨu̯ ɨː ɪ ɪu̯ ʊ ʊɨ̯
Diphthongs: ai̯ au̯ aɨ̯ ei̯ eɨ̯ ɔi̯ ɔɨ̯ əu̯ ɛu̯ ɨu̯ ɪu̯ ʊɨ̯ ?

	Front	Central	Back
High	iː i	ɨ ɨː	u uː
Near-high	ɪ		ʊ
High-mid	eː		oː
Mid		ə
Low-mid	ɛ		ɔ
Low	a aː

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

Pronunciation	Spelling
f	ph
v	f
k	c
ŋ	ng
χ	ch
θ	th
r̥	rh
ɬ	ll
ð	dd
ɪu̯	iw
ɨu̯	uw
ʊɨ̯	wy
ɛu̯	ew
ɔi̯	oi
əu̯	yw
eɨ̯	ey
aː	a
ɔ	o
oː	o
iː	i
ɪ	i
eː	e
ɛ	e
uː	w
ʊ	w
j	i
ɨː	y
ɨ	y
ə	y
ʃ	si
n̥	n
̯

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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: postpositions ?

Nouns

Singular	No affix crws /krʊs/ dog
Plural	Reduplicate first part of first syllable crwcrws /krʊˈkrʊs/ dogs

Articles

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	cai /kai̯/ the	sbayng /sbaɨ̯ŋ/ a
Plural	sa /sa/ the	cey /keɨ̯/ 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’

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’
• 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

1st singular	cont /kɔnt/ I, me, mine
2nd singular	huwch /hɨu̯χ/ you, yours
3rd singular masc	hi /hiː/ he, him, his, it (masc), its (masc)
3rd singular fem	llwnt /ɬʊnt/ she, her, hers, it (fem), its (fem)
1st plural	cly /klɨ/ we, us, ours
2nd plural	pru /pru/ you all, yours (pl)
3rd plural	ri /rɪ/ they, them, theirs

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	cont /kɔnt/ my
2nd singular	huwch /hɨu̯χ/ your
3rd singular masc	hi /hiː/ his
3rd singular fem	llwnt /ɬʊnt/ her
1st plural	cly /klɨ/ our
2nd plural	pru /pru/ your (pl)
3rd plural	ri /rɪ/ their

Verbs

Present	No affix gweyn /gweɨ̯n/ learn
Past	Suffix -ai̯ gweynai /gweɨ̯ˈnai̯/ learned
Remote past	Suffix -uː gweynw /gweɨ̯ˈnuː/ learned (long ago)
Future	Suffix -oː gweyno /gweɨ̯ˈnoː/ 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).
Luminayatli uses an affix for imperfective:

Imperfective

Suffix -oːd gweynod /gweɨ̯ˈnoːd/ learns/is learning

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.
Luminayatli uses an affix for the perfect aspect:

Perfect

Suffix -ei̯ gweynei /gweɨ̯ˈnei̯/ have learned

Numbers

Luminayatli has a base-20 number system:
1 - ca
2 - aynd
3 - cid
4 - cwa
5 - wyl
6 - nufr
7 - ste
8 - sta
9 - dei
10 - dewnt
11 - dww
12 - plarth
13 - nocha
14 - blydaur
15 - cwau
16 - path
17 - iol
18 - i
19 - yth
20 - oyg
400 - dy
8000 - yrch

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -d
Else: Suffix -ʊɨ̯d
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -n
Else: Suffix -ɨu̯n
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Suffix -uːvn
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -rs
Else: Suffix -ɔrs
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -rθ
Else: Suffix -aɨ̯rθ
Noun to verb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ld
Else: Suffix -ɨu̯ld
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Suffix -a
Tending to = Suffix -ə
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ðɪu̯
Else: Suffix -ɛðɪu̯
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -rð
Else: Suffix -aːrð
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Suffix -eːl
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -χ
Else: Suffix -aχ
Diminutive = Suffix -eː
Augmentative = If ends with vowel: Suffix -n
Else: Suffix -ɛn

Dictionary

3036 Words.