Cɛkdan

Natively known as: cɛkda /cɛkˈda/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
ja da nhɛ cakɛ cu kari ja kɔ̱k cu bo ŋath i̱ cɛlɔ
Pronunciation: /ɟa da n̪ɛ caˈkɛ cṳ kaˈri ɟa kɔ̤k cṳ bo ŋat̪ i̤ cɛˈlɔ/
Cɛkdan word order: and he stood holding hat his and turned his face wet to the wind

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b c d f g h j k l m n n̪ p r s t t̪ v w x ŋ ɟ ɣ ɲ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m		n̪	n	ɲ	ŋ
Stop	b p		t̪	d t	c ɟ	k g
Fricative		f v		s		ɣ x	h
Approximant					j
Trill				r
Lateral approximant				l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: a a̤ e e̤ i i̤ o o̤ ṳ ɔ ɔ̤ ɛ

	Front	Back
High	i̤ i	ṳ
High-mid	e e̤	o o̤
Low-mid	ɛ	ɔ̤ ɔ
Low	a a̤

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

Pronunciation	Spelling
a̤	a̱
e̤	e̱
i̤	i̱
j	y
ɟ	j
n̪	nh
ɲ	ny
o̤	o̱
ɔ̤	ɔ̱
t̪	th
ṳ	u

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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 after the noun.
Adposition: prepositions ?

Nouns

	Singular	Plural
Definite	Suffix -ɛŋ cɛcuɛŋ /cɛˈcṳɛŋ/ the dog	If ends with vowel: Suffix -j Else: Suffix -a̤j cɛcuy /cɛˈcṳj/ the dogs
Indefinite	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ɲ Else: Suffix -oɲ cɛcuny /cɛˈcṳɲ/ a dog	If ends with vowel: Suffix -n Else: Suffix -i̤n cɛcun /cɛˈcṳn/ some dogs

Articles

Cɛkdan encodes definite article ‘the’, and indefinite article ‘a’ in noun affixes. See Noun section.

Pronouns

1st singular	ma /ma/ I, me, mine
2nd singular	ci̱ /ci̤/ you, yours
3rd singular masc	da /da/ he, him, his, it (masc), its (masc)
3rd singular fem	bi /bi/ she, her, hers, it (fem), its (fem)
1st plural inclusive	ku /kṳ/ we (including you), us (including you), ours (including you)
1st plural exclusive	jac /ɟac/ we (excluding you), us (excluding you), ours (excluding you)
2nd plural	ɔ̱ /ɔ̤/ you all, yours (pl)
3rd plural	jɔ̱ /ɟɔ̤/ they, them, theirs

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	ye /je/ my
2nd singular	ke /ke/ your
3rd singular masc	cu /cṳ/ his
3rd singular fem	wɛ /wɛ/ her
1st plural inclusive	mɔ̱ /mɔ̤/ our (including you)
1st plural exclusive	dɛ /dɛ/ our (excluding you)
2nd plural	ma /ma/ your (pl)
3rd plural	ga /ga/ their

Verbs

	Singular	Plural
Present	If ends with vowel: Suffix -t Else: Suffix -at cɛŋat /cɛˈŋat/ (I/you/he/she/it) learn(s)	Suffix -ɔ̤n cɛŋɔ̱n /cɛˈŋɔ̤n/ (we/you all/they) learn
Past	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ŋ Else: Suffix -eŋ cɛŋeŋ /cɛˈŋeŋ/ (I/you/he/she/it) learned	Suffix -ic cɛŋic /cɛˈŋic/ (we/you all/they) learned
Future	If ends with vowel: Suffix -t̪ Else: Suffix -ṳt̪ cɛŋuth /cɛˈŋṳt̪/ (I/you/he/she/it) will learn	If ends with vowel: Suffix -c Else: Suffix -a̤c cɛŋa̱c /cɛˈŋa̤c/ (we/you all/they) will learn

Progressive aspect

The ‘progressive’ aspect refers to actions that are happening at the time of speaking, such as I am learning.
Cɛkdan uses an affix for progressive:

Progressive

Suffix -e̤ cɛŋe̱ /cɛˈŋe̤/ be 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).
Cɛkdan uses an affix for habitual:

Habitual

If ends with vowel: Suffix -nɛ Else: Suffix -ɛnɛ cɛŋɛnɛ /cɛˈŋɛnɛ/ learn (often, habitually)

Numbers

Cɛkdan has a base-12 number system:
1 - mɛ
2 - ma
3 - be
4 - mi̱
5 - kɛ
6 - the
7 - ci̱ŋ
8 - tho̱
9 - ba
10 - bimɔmo
11 - mu
12 - pi̱
144 - nhun
1728 - thɛk

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ff
Else: Suffix -a̤ff
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Suffix -o
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Suffix -a̤ɲ
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Suffix -ɔ
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Suffix -an
Noun to verb = Suffix -ɛ
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -t
Else: Suffix -at
Tending to = Suffix -en
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -n
Else: Suffix -i̤n
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -pɛ
Else: Suffix -ɛpɛ
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Suffix -ɔ̤c
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Suffix -ɛ
Diminutive = If ends with vowel: Suffix -na
Else: Suffix -ena
Augmentative = If ends with vowel: Suffix -t̪
Else: Suffix -i̤t̪

Dictionary

3110 Words.