Hobbitish

Phonology

Vowels

Hobbitish has five vowel phonemes, each with both short and long versions.

• Short vowels: /a, e, i, o, u/.
• Long vowels: /aː, eː, iː, oː, uː/.

Diphthongs

Hobbitish has three diphthongs, each with distinct broad and slender variants:

Diphthong	Broad Pronunciation	Slender Pronunciation
/ai/	/ɑi/	/æi/
/ei/	/eɪ/	/ɛɪ/
/ou/	/oʊ/	/ɵʊ/

• These broad/slender distinctions also influence allophonic vowel shifts in nearby words.
• Short vowels undergo phonetic reduction to /ə/ in unstressed syllables.
• Long vowels only occur in root words and never in suffixes.

Consonants

All consonants in Hobbitish have broad (velarized) and slender (palatalized) variants. However, these distinctions only affect phonological shifts and do not impact meaning or grammatical distinctions.

Plosives	Fricatives	Nasals	Liquids
/p, t, k/	/f, v, h, x, ç/	/m, n, ŋ/	/l, ɾ, r/
/b, d, g/

One of the most distinctive aspects of Hobbitish is initial consonant mutation, where the first letter of a word changes depending on grammatical context. There are two types:

Lenition (Softening of Consonants)

Shifts

• /b/ → /β/
• /c/ → /x/
• /d, g/ → /ɣ/
• /m/ → /v/
• /p/ → /f/
• /t/ → /θ/

Eclipsis (Prefixing Nasals)

Shifts:

• /b/ → /m/ /c/ → /ɡ/ /d/ → /n/ /g, m/ → /ŋ/ /p/ → /b/ /t/ → /d/

Preposition-Triggered Mutations

• Lenition: Occurs when a preposition ends in a vowel or a voiced fricative (/v, h, x, ç/).
• Eclipsis: Occurs when a preposition ends in a nasal (/m, n, ŋ/) or a broad stop (/b, d, g/).
• No mutation: Occurs when a preposition ends in a voiceless stop (/p, t, k/) or a liquid (/l, r/).

Mutations in Hobbitish are fully regular, meaning they always follow these patterns without exception.

Rhotic Variation

• Hobbitish has both a tapped /ɾ/ and a trilled /r/.
• These are in free variation.

Stress and Prosody

• Stress falls on the first syllable.
• Hobbitish prefers long vowels in stressed syllables.
• The language has a musical speech rhythm, but no pitch accent system.
• Hobbitish uses word stress for emphasis rather than changing word order.
• The most important word in a sentence is pronounced with a stronger stress.
• Hobbitish allows "marked stress".
• Marked stress only affects emphasis, not grammar.

Morphology

Nouns

Grammatical Gender & Cases

Hobbitish nouns have two grammatical genders:

• Masculine
• Feminine

There are four grammatical cases:

• Nominative
• Genitive
• Vocative
• Dative

Plural Formation

Hobbitish plurals are formed through internal vowel changes, following these patterns:

Singular	Plural
/oː/	/ɯɪ/
/aː/	/aːɪ/
/ʊ/	/ɪ/

These shifts are fixed and not subject to additional variation.

Case Endings

Case	Singular Example (/baːd/)	Plural Example (/baːɪd/)
Nominative	bád /baːd/	báid /baːɪd/
Genitive	báda /baːda/	báide /baːɪdɛ/
Vocative	á bhád! /aː βaːd/	á bháide! /aː βaːɪdɛ/
Dative	bádu /baːdʊ/	báidu /baːɪdʊ/

Prepositions

Hobbitish prepositions influence case marking but do not fuse with pronouns.

Verb Morphology

• There is no subject-based conjugation.
• No irregular verbs, even for "to be" or "to have".
• Distinction between habitual and simple present actions.

Conjugation Patterns

Example Verb: tól /t̪oːl/

Tense	Singular	Plural
Present	tól /t̪oːl/	tólim /t̪oːlɪm/
Past	atól /ɑt̪oːl/	atólim /ɑt̪oːlɪm/
Future	tóla /t̪oːlɑ/	tólam /t̪oːlɑm/

Diminutives

Hobbitish frequently uses -l /l/ or -ele /ɛlɛ/ to create diminutives, based on gender.

Syntax

Word Order

• Hobbitish follows a strict Verb-Subject-Object (VSO) word order.
• This order remains unchanged even in questions or emphatic statements.

Adjective Placement

Adjectives always come before the noun they modify.

Possession (Genitive Constructions)

Hobbitish follows a possessor + possessed noun structure.

Yes/No Questions

Yes/no questions are formed using an interrogative particle placed at the beginning of the sentence.

Negation

Negation is formed using a negative particle before the verb.

Pronouns

• Hobbitish is pro-drop, meaning subject pronouns can be omitted in informal speech if the verb form makes the subject clear.
• Pronouns never appear as clitics.

Relative Clauses

Hobbitish uses a relative particle to introduce relative clauses.

Prepositions and Articles

Prepositional phrases in Hobbitish follow the structure: Preposition + Article + Noun. However, in informal speech, the article is often dropped.

Preposition	Meaning	Case Used	IPA Pronunciation
i	in	Dative	/i/
fa	under	Dative	/fɑ/
ó	from	Genitive	/oː/
do	to, for	Dative	/d̪o/
ar	on	Dative	/ɑɾ/
le	with	Dative	/lɛ/
gan	without	Genitive	/ɡɑn/

Article	Singular	Plural
Definite	an	na
Indefinite	sa	---

Spoken by

• Shirefolk