Daren

Daren^listen is the primary language used in the Daren Hegemony. It is a human-primary language. While Daren is spoken by a majority of the inhabitants of the Hegemony, it is often the second or third language of many.

Natively known as: dāren /ˈdɑːren/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
snǣf mæalwl bry cniu mā gi snǣf cniu āgid scrīupr gē smæhnosc glu ^listen
Pronunciation: /snæːf mæɑɫwl bry kniu mɑː ji snæːf kniu ɑːˈjid skriːupr jeː ˈsmæhnosk glu/
Daren word order: and he stood his hat holding and his wet face turned the wind to

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b d f g h j k l m n p r rˠ s t w ɫ ʃ ʧ θ

↓Manner/ Place→	Bilabial	Labio- dental	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar
Nasal	m			n
Stop	p b			t d
Fricative		f	θ	s	ʃ
Trill				r
Lateral approximant				l
↓Manner/ Place→	Palatal	Velar	Labio-velar	Glottal
Nasal
Stop		k g
Fricative				h
Approximant	j		w

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar	Velarized alveolar
Approximant	w
Lateral approximant		ɫ

Vowel inventory: e eo eː eːo i iu iː iːu o oː u uː y yː æ æɑ æː æːɑ ø øː ɑ ɑː
Diphthongs: eo eːo iu iːu æɑ æːɑ

	Front	Back
High	i iː y yː	u uː
High-mid	e eː ø øː	o oː
Near-low	æ æː
Low		ɑ ɑː

Syllable structure: Custom defined
Stress pattern: No fixed stress
Word initial consonants: b bl br d dr dw f fl fn fr g gl gn gr h hl hn hr hw j k kl kn kr kw l m n p pl pr r rˠwr s sk skr sl sm sn sp spl spr st str sw t tr tw w ɫwl ʃ ʃr ʧ θ θr θw
Mid-word consonants: b bl br d dr dw f fl fn fr g gl gn gr h hl hn hr hw j k kl kn kr kw l m n p pl pr r rˠwr s sk skr sl sm sn sp spl spr st str sw t tr tw w ɫwl ʃ ʃr ʧ θ θr θw
Word final consonants: b bl br d dr dw f fl fn fr g gl gn gr h hl hn hr hw j k kl kn kr kw l m n p pl pr r rˠwr s sk skr sl sm sn sp spl spr st str sw t tr tw w ɫwl ʃ ʃr ʧ θ θr θw
Phonological changes (in order of application):

• [+fricative] → [+voice] / V_V
• j → dʒ / n_
• g → ɣ / V_
• ɣ → x / _#
• ɣ → g / #_
• ɣɣ → g
• x → ç / [+front]_
• x → h / #_
• n → ŋ / _k
• n → ŋ / _g
• hw → ʍ
• hl → l̥
• hn → n̥
• hr → r̥
• l → ɫ / _C
• r → rˠ / _C
• ɑ → ɒ / _[+nasal]

Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
#θ	þ
dʒ|ddʒ	cg
eː	ē
iː	ī
j	g
ks	x
k	c
l̥	hl
n̥	hn
øː	ō
ø	o
oː	ō
rˠ	r
r̥	hr
ʧ	ċ
uː	ū
v	f
yː	ȳ
æː	ǣ
ç	h
ŋ	n
ɑː	ā
ɑ	a
ɒ	o
ɣ	g
ɫ	l
ʃ	sc
ʍ	hw
θ	ð

Grammar

Main word order: Subject Object Verb (Prepositional phrase). “Mary opened the door with a key” turns into Mary the door opened with a key.
Adjective order: Adjectives are positioned before the noun.
Adposition: postpositions

Nouns

Nouns have two cases:

• Nominative is the doer of a verb: dog bites man.
• Accusative is the done-to of a verb: man bites dog.

Nominative	No affix plē /pleː/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	If ends with vowel: Suffix -tw Else: Suffix -iːtw plētw /pleːtw/ (verb done to) dog

Singular	No affix plē /pleː/ dog
Plural	If ends with vowel: Suffix -hw Else: Suffix -øːhw plēhw /pleːhw/ dogs

Articles

Daren has no definite article ‘the’, or indefinite article ‘a’.

Pronouns

	Nominative	Accusative
1st singular	mō /møː/ I	ēog /eːoj/ me
2nd singular	scī /ʃiː/ you	hlǣa /hlæːɑ/ you
3rd singular	mæalwl /mæɑɫwl/ he, she, it	þe /θe/ him, her, it
1st plural	so /so/ we	sca /skɑ/ us
2nd plural	clīu /kliːu/ you all	mū /muː/ you all
3rd plural	spu /spu/ they	sīg /siːj/ them

Possessive determiners

1st singular	crōf /kroːf/ my
2nd singular	ri /ri/ your
3rd singular	cniu /kniu/ his, her, its
1st plural	i /i/ our
2nd plural	ǣsm /æːsm/ your (pl)
3rd plural	mu /mu/ their

Verbs

	Future
1st person	Suffix -eː cīsē /kiːˈseː/ (I/we) will learn
2nd person	Suffix -isk cīsisc /kiːˈsisk/ (you/you all) will learn
3rd person	Suffix -øːhw cīsōhw /kiːˈsøːhw/ (he/she/it/they) will learn

Daren uses a standalone particle word for past tense:

Past	Particle before the verb: klyg - clyg cīs /klyg kiːs/ learned

Progressive aspect

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

Progressive

Particle before the verb: gyː - gȳ cīs /gyː kiːs/ 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).
Daren uses a standalone particle word for habitual:

Habitual

Particle before the verb: feːtw - fētw cīs /feːtw kiːs/ learns

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.
Daren uses an affix for the perfect aspect:

Perfect

Prefix ʃuː- scūcīs /ˈʃuːkiːs/ have learned

Numbers

Daren has a base-10 number system:
1 - meoc
2 - try
3 - trī
4 - dīn
5 - brō
6 - wy
7 - gī
8 - fnohl
9 - spēp
10 - hnēo
11 - hnēo snǣf meoc “ten and one”
100 - cwih “hundred”
101 - cwih snǣf meoc “hundred and one”
200 - try cwih
1000 - min “thousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -tr
Else: Suffix -yːtr
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -h
Else: Suffix -oh
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix yː-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -br
Else: Suffix -yːbr
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If starts with vowel: Prefix sk-
Else: Prefix skøː-
Noun to verb = If starts with vowel: Prefix s-
Else: Prefix sø-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -tr
Else: Suffix -øtr
Tending to = If starts with vowel: Prefix ʃ-
Else: Prefix ʃu-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -hw
Else: Suffix -ɑːhw
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Prefix æ-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Prefix æːɑ-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -n
Else: Suffix -uːn
Diminutive = If ends with vowel: Suffix -j
Else: Suffix -æj
Augmentative = If starts with vowel: Prefix ʧ-
Else: Prefix ʧøː-

Dictionary

4486 Words.