Castren

Natively known as: castren /kasˈtɾen/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...

flu bre gos molle mod sej flu pia dij gos dracuij grir sri

Pronunciation: /flu bɾe gos moˈʎe mod sex flu piˈa dix gos dɾaˈkwix gɾiɾ sɾi/

Castren word order: and he his hat holding stood and the wind to his wet face turned

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: /b d f g k l m n p r s t w x ɲ ɾ ʎ ʧ/

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal	m		n		ɲ
Stop	p b		t d			k g
Affricate				ʧ
Fricative		f	s			x
Tap			ɾ
Trill			r
Lateral approximant			l		ʎ

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: /a e i o u/

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

Syllable structure: Custom defined

Stress pattern: Ultimate — stress is on the last syllable

Word initial consonants: b, bl, bɾ, d, dɾ, f, fl, fɾ, g, gɾ, k, kl, kw, kɾ, l, m, n, p, pl, pɾ, r, s, sɾ, t, tɾ, x, ʎ, ʧ

Mid-word consonants: b, bl, bs, bx, bɾ, d, dɾ, f, g, gl, gn, gɾ, k, ks, kt, kw, kɾ, l, lb, ld, ldɾ, lg, lk, lm, lp, ls, lt, lɾ, m, mb, mbɾ, mp, mpl, mpɾ, n, nb, nd, ndɾ, nf, ng, ngl, ngɾ, nk, nkl, nkɾ, nm, ns, nstɾ, nt, ntɾ, p, ps, pt, pɾ, r, s, sd, sg, sgɾ, sk, skɾ, sl, sm, sp, st, stɾ, t, tɾ, x, xp, xpl, xs, xtɾ, ɲ, ɾ, ɾb, ɾd, ɾf, ɾg, ɾk, ɾl, ɾm, ɾn, ɾp, ɾpɾ, ɾs, ɾt, ɾx, ɾʧ, ʎ, ʧ

Word final consonants: d, l, n, s, x, ɾ





Phonological changes (in order of application):

• p → ∅ / _#

Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ɾ	r
ʎ	y / #_
ʎ	ll
kw	cu
k	c
ʧ	ch
ɲ	ñ
x	g / _{e,i}
x	j

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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 four 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 recipeint of something: man gives ball to dog.

Nominative	No affix monar /moˈnaɾ/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	If starts with vowel: Prefix m- Else: Prefix mo- momonar /momoˈnaɾ/ (verb done to) dog
Genitive	If starts with vowel: Prefix ʎ- Else: Prefix ʎi- yimonar /ʎimoˈnaɾ/ dogʼs
Dative	If starts with vowel: Prefix pɾ- Else: Prefix pɾo- promonar /pɾomoˈnaɾ/ to (the/a) dog

Singular	No affix monar /moˈnaɾ/ dog
Plural	Prefix u- umonar /umoˈnaɾ/ dogs

Articles

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	tre /tɾe/ the	tu /tu/ a
Plural	jar /xaɾ/ the	nud /nud/ some

Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• 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 with place names: ‘The London’

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

	Nominative	Accusative	Genitive	Dative
1st singular	ple /ple/ I	cued /kwed/ me	se /se/ mine	ne /ne/ to me
2nd singular	tu /tu/ you (masc)	clul /klul/ you	jal /xal/ yours	ca /ka/ to you
3rd singular masc	bre /bɾe/ he, it	ti /ti/ him, it	gos /gos/ his, its	da /da/ to him, at it
3rd singular fem	cuen /kwen/ she, it	dra /dɾa/ her, it	brel /bɾel/ hers, its	dil /dil/ to her, at it
1st plural	sas /sas/ we	pro /pɾo/ us	sa /sa/ ours	tre /tɾe/ to us
2nd plural	di /di/ you all	do /do/ you all	cue /kwe/ yours (pl)	cri /kɾi/ to you all
3rd plural	cua /kwa/ they	mo /mo/ them	pros /pɾos/ theirs	lo /lo/ to them

Possessive determiners

1st singular	se /se/ my
2nd singular	jal /xal/ your
3rd singular masc	gos /gos/ his
3rd singular fem	brel /bɾel/ her
1st plural	sa /sa/ our
2nd plural	cue /kwe/ your (pl)
3rd plural	pros /pɾos/ their

Verbs

	Present	Past
Singular	No affix yirmubil /ʎiɾmuˈbil/ (I/you/he/she) learns	Prefix ne- nellirmubil /neˌʎiɾmuˈbil/ (I/you/he/she) learned
Plural	No affix yirmubil /ʎiɾmuˈbil/ (we/they) learn	Prefix o- ollirmubil /oˌʎiɾmuˈbil/ (we/they) learned

Castren uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: nun - nun yirmubil /nun ʎiɾmuˈbil/ will learn

Numbers

Castren has a base-10 number system:





1 - cue

2 - lar

3 - flud

4 - sed

5 - ser

6 - dor

7 - ra

8 - ba

9 - clus

10 - ne

11 - cue flu ne “one and ten”

100 - cue clubri “one hundred”

101 - cue clubri flu cue “one hundred and one”

200 - lar clubri

1000 - cue jasa “one thousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If starts with vowel: Prefix tɾ-

Else: Prefix tɾe-

Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix bɾe-

Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix r-

Else: Prefix re-

Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix ʧa-

Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If starts with vowel: Prefix kw-

Else: Prefix kwe-

Noun to verb = If starts with vowel: Prefix bɾ-

Else: Prefix bɾe-

Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix da-

Tending to = If starts with vowel: Prefix sɾ-

Else: Prefix sɾi-

Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix r-

Else: Prefix re-

Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If starts with vowel: Prefix g-

Else: Prefix ga-

One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Prefix u-

Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If starts with vowel: Prefix pl-

Else: Prefix ple-

Diminutive = Prefix e-

Augmentative = Prefix se-