Orcish

Natively known as: yrch /yrch/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
ma kî che nikhetso tiyo recheru ma kome pha che khuphu phino ruwa
Pronunciation: /ma kɨ ʧe ɳixeˈʦo tiˈjo ɻeʧeˈɻu ma koˈme ɸa ʧe xuˈɸu ɸiˈɳo ɻuˈwa/
Orcish word order: and he his hat holding stood and the wind to his wet face turned

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: c͡ç f h j k m p s t w x ŋ ɲ ɳ ɸ ɻ ʃ ʈ ʦ ʧ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m				ɳ	ɲ	ŋ
Stop	p		t		ʈ		k
Affricate			ʦ	ʧ		c͡ç
Fricative	ɸ	f	s	ʃ			x	h
Approximant					ɻ	j

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: a e i o u ɨ

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

Syllable structure: (C)V ?
Stress pattern: Ultimate — stress is on the last syllable ?
Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ɨ	î
ʧ	ch
j	y
x	kh
ŋ	ng
ɳ	n
ɲ	ny
ɸ	ph
ɻ	r
ʃ	sh
ʈ	ṭ
ʦ	ts
c͡ç	cĥ

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Grammar

Main word order: Subject (Prepositional phrase) 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 six 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.
• Dative is the recipient of something: man gives ball to dog.
• Locative is the location of something: man is in town.
• Ablative is movement away from something: man walks from town.

Nouns have both a plural affix and ‘paucal’ affix for referring to a few of something.

Nominative	No affix ṭitso /ʈiˈʦo/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	Suffix -ɲi ṭitsonyi /ʈiʦoˈɲi/ (verb done to) dog
Genitive	Suffix -tɨ ṭitsotî /ʈiʦoˈtɨ/ dogʼs
Dative	Suffix -ji ṭitsoyi /ʈiʦoˈji/ to dog
Locative	Suffix -ʦi ṭitsotsi /ʈiʦoˈʦi/ near/at/by dog
Ablative	Suffix -mo ṭitsomo /ʈiʦoˈmo/ from dog

	Masculine	Feminine
Singular	No affix ngi /ŋi/ boy	No affix rî /ɻɨ/ girl
Plural	Suffix -fo ngifo /ŋiˈfo/ boys	Suffix -ki rîki /ɻɨˈki/ girls
Paucal	Suffix -c͡çi ngicĥi /ŋic͡çˈi/ few boys	Suffix -tu rîtu /ɻɨˈtu/ few girls

Articles

Definite	shu /ʃu/ the
Indefinite	na /ɳa/ a, some

Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Not used for mass (uncountable) nouns: ‘Walking in the mud’ would always translate to ‘Walking in mud’.
• Used for personal names in third person: ‘The Maria has left for school’

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	Dative	Locative	Ablative
1st singular	na /ɳa/ I	ru /ɻu/ me	î /ɨ/ mine	se /se/ to me	e /e/ to me	nye /ɲe/ from me
2nd singular	shi /ʃi/ you	khe /xe/ you	cĥi /c͡çi/ yours	ho /ho/ to you	a /a/ to you	phu /ɸu/ from you
3rd singular masc	kî /kɨ/ he, it (masc)	u /u/ his, it (masc)	hu /hu/ his, its (masc)	ti /ti/ to his, to it (masc)	yo /jo/ to his, to it (masc)	nge /ŋe/ from his, from it (masc)
3rd singular fem	nu /ɳu/ she, it (fem)	shî /ʃɨ/ her, it (fem)	ya /ja/ hers, its (fem)	mo /mo/ to her, to it (fem)	he /he/ to her, to it (fem)	hî /hɨ/ from her, from it (fem)
1st plural	mî /mɨ/ we	khî /xɨ/ us	ku /ku/ ours	ni /ɳi/ to us	fu /fu/ to us	ra /ɻa/ from us
2nd plural	su /su/ you all	si /si/ you all	ngî /ŋɨ/ yours (pl)	khi /xi/ to you all	phî /ɸɨ/ to you all	ha /ha/ from you all
3rd plural masc	ṭa /ʈa/ they (masc)	nyo /ɲo/ them (masc)	re /ɻe/ theirs (masc)	ṭi /ʈi/ to them (masc)	ṭî /ʈɨ/ to them (masc)	ki /ki/ from them (masc)
3rd plural fem	kha /xa/ they (fem)	pa /pa/ them (fem)	ka /ka/ theirs (fem)	ṭo /ʈo/ to them (fem)	ṭu /ʈu/ to them (fem)	hi /hi/ from them (fem)

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	a /a/ my
2nd singular	ma /ma/ your
3rd singular masc	che /ʧe/ his
3rd singular fem	u /u/ her
1st plural	te /te/ our
2nd plural	o /o/ your (pl)
3rd plural masc	e /e/ their (masc)
3rd plural fem	tî /tɨ/ their (fem)

Verbs

	Masculine	Feminine
Present	No affix cĥangi /c͡çaˈŋi/ (I (masc)/we (masc)/you (masc)/you all (masc)/it (masc)/he/they (masc)) learn(s)	No affix cĥangi /c͡çaˈŋi/ (I (fem)/we (fem)/you (fem)/you all (fem)/it (fem)/she/they (fem)) learn(s)
Past	Suffix -ɸo cĥangipho /c͡çaŋiˈɸo/ (I (masc)/we (masc)/you (masc)/you all (masc)/it (masc)/he/they (masc)) learned	Suffix -mi cĥangimi /c͡çaŋiˈmi/ (I (fem)/we (fem)/you (fem)/you all (fem)/it (fem)/she/they (fem)) learned
Future	Suffix -ti cĥangiti /c͡çaŋiˈti/ (I (masc)/we (masc)/you (masc)/you all (masc)/it (masc)/he/they (masc)) will learn	Suffix -me cĥangime /c͡çaŋiˈme/ (I (fem)/we (fem)/you (fem)/you all (fem)/it (fem)/she/they (fem)) 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).
Orcish uses an affix for imperfective:

Imperfective

Suffix -ki cĥangiki /c͡çaŋiˈki/ learns/is learning

Numbers

Orcish has a base-12 number system:
1 - i
2 - ṭo
3 - mo
4 - ngî
5 - che
6 - kufengu
7 - me
8 - ra
9 - rosi
10 - cĥa
11 - a
12 - nyo
144 - pashe
1728 - ṭunyu

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Suffix -ʦe
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Suffix -ɻu
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Suffix -tu
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Suffix -ɻe
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Suffix -ʈu
Noun to verb = Suffix -mu
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Suffix -ɳe
Tending to = Suffix -ʃɨ
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -we
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Suffix -je
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Suffix -ʦu
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Suffix -ki
Diminutive = Suffix -ŋo
Augmentative = Suffix -ku

Dictionary

3061 Words.