Dwarven

Natively known as: nizdif /ˈnizdif/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
mak lan bne zmumka i lifam mak hun i heg kekhuv 'i klada
Pronunciation: /mak lan bne ˈzmumka i ˈlifam mak hun i heg ˈkeχuv ʔi ˈklada/
Nizdifian word order: and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b d f g h j k l m n p s t v x z ʁ ʃ ʔ ʕ ʦ χ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Glottal
Nasal	m		n
Stop	p b		t d			k g			ʔ
Affricate			ʦ
Fricative		f v	s z	ʃ		x	χ ʁ	ʕ	h
Approximant					j
Lateral approximant			l

Vowel inventory: a e i o u

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

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

Pronunciation	Spelling
j	y
χ	kh
ʦ	tz
ʁ	r
ʃ	sh
ʔ	'

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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: prepositions ?

Nouns

Singular	No affix tmir /tmiʁ/ dog
Plural	Prefix e- etmir /ˈetmiʁ/ dogs

Articles

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	tze /ʦe/ the	a /a/ a
Plural	za' /zaʔ/ the	i /i/ 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

1st singular	khu /χu/ I, me, mine
2nd singular	di /di/ you, yours
3rd singular masc	lan /lan/ he, him, his, it (masc), its (masc)
3rd singular fem	nukh /nuχ/ she, her, hers, it (fem), its (fem)
1st plural	khotz /χoʦ/ we, us, ours
2nd plural	ig /ig/ you all, yours (pl)
3rd plural	nas /nas/ they, them, theirs

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	ku /ku/ my
2nd singular	klan /klan/ your
3rd singular masc	i /i/ his
3rd singular fem	mu /mu/ her
1st plural	mo /mo/ our
2nd plural	ya /ja/ your (pl)
3rd plural	bitz /biʦ/ their

Verbs

Present	No affix imug /ˈimug/ learn
Past	If starts with vowel: Prefix k- Else: Prefix ka- kimug /ˈkimug/ learned
Remote past	Prefix a- aimug /aˈimug/ learned (long ago)

Nizdifian uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: tmim - tmim imug /tmim ˈimug/ will learn

Progressive aspect

The ‘progressive’ aspect refers to actions that are happening at the time of speaking, such as I am learning.
Nizdifian uses a standalone particle word for progressive:

Progressive

Particle before the verb: i - i imug /i ˈimug/ is learning

Habitual aspect

The ‘habitual’ aspect refers to actions that happen habitually, such as I learn (something new every day), as opposed to actions that happen once (I learned something).
Nizdifian uses a standalone particle word for habitual:

Habitual

Particle before the verb: a - a imug /a ˈimug/ learns

Numbers

Nizdifian has a base-10 number system:
1 - ked
2 - dve
3 - shun
4 - niv
5 - 'e
6 - khu
7 - kvitre
8 - i
9 - um
10 - okhu
100 - tom
1000 - zirbo

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If starts with vowel: Prefix kv-
Else: Prefix kvi-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix k-
Else: Prefix ku-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix b-
Else: Prefix bu-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix te-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Prefix e-
Noun to verb = If starts with vowel: Prefix dv-
Else: Prefix dve-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix emk-
Else: Prefix emka-
Tending to = If starts with vowel: Prefix tm-
Else: Prefix tmi-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix a-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If starts with vowel: Prefix kl-
Else: Prefix kle-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If starts with vowel: Prefix z-
Else: Prefix za-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ejf-
Else: Prefix ejfo-
Diminutive = Prefix a-
Augmentative = If starts with vowel: Prefix el-
Else: Prefix eli-

Dictionary

3070 Words.

Root Languages

• Celestial
• Terran

Spoken by

• Gorum
• Zoyuragi