Ddibazen

Natively known as: ddibaze /ddiˈbaze/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
mpar to tar yo ngigh bwila mpar aff ngigh nsagh byoh bent mumip
Pronunciation: /mpar to tar jo ngigh ˈbwila mpar aff ngigh nsagh bjoh bent ˈmumip/
Ddibazen 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 gʼ h j jʼ k l m n nʼ p r s t v w wʼ z ɟ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m		n nʼ
Stop	b p		t d	ɟ c	k g gʼ
Fricative		f v	s z			h
Approximant				j jʼ
Trill			r
Lateral approximant			l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w wʼ

Vowel inventory: a e i o u

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

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

Pronunciation	Spelling
j	y
ɟ	j

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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

Nouns form plural with separate plural word:

Plural

Particle before the noun: o - o hi /o hi/ dogs

Articles

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	ne /ne/ the	nis /nis/ a
Plural	kah /kah/ the	gya /gja/ some

Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Definite article can be omitted: ‘I am going to supermarket’
• Used to talk about countable nouns in general: English’s ‘I like cats’ would translate to ‘I like the cats’
• Not used for mass (uncountable) nouns: ‘Walking in the mud’ would always translate to ‘Walking in mud’.
• Used for languages: ‘The English’

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’
• 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
1st singular	nga /nga/ I	sih /sih/ me
2nd singular	bar /bar/ you	njo /nɟo/ you
3rd singular masc	to /to/ he, it (masc)	ntagh /ntagh/ his, it (masc)
3rd singular fem	lwe /lwe/ she, it (fem)	ddon /ddon/ her, it (fem)
1st plural	nu /nu/ we	yer /jer/ us
2nd plural	e /e/ you all	le /le/ you all
3rd plural	ka /ka/ they	sa /sa/ them

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	ma /ma/ my
2nd singular	dda /dda/ your
3rd singular masc	ngigh /ngigh/ his
3rd singular fem	kah /kah/ her
1st plural	nnyo /nnjo/ our
2nd plural	lya /lja/ your (pl)
3rd plural	ngugh /ngugh/ their

Verbs

Present	Prefix ku- kungomu /kunˈgomu/ learn
Past	Prefix u- ungomu /unˈgomu/ learned
Future	If starts with vowel: Prefix ot- Else: Prefix ota- otangomu /ˌotanˈgomu/ will learn

Progressive aspect

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

Progressive

If starts with vowel: Prefix as- Else: Prefix asa- asangomu /ˌasanˈgomu/ 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).
Ddibazen uses a standalone particle word for habitual:

Habitual

Particle before the verb: ka - ka ngomu /ka ˈngomu/ learn (often, habitually)

Numbers

Ddibazen has a base-12 number system:
1 - maff
2 - kaff
3 - ba
4 - kin
5 - mpi
6 - ma
7 - gyento
8 - ddoff
9 - ngaff
10 - kun
11 - nga
12 - ka
144 - yeff
1728 - waff

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Prefix nge-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix u-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ak-
Else: Prefix aka-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix e-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ng-
Else: Prefix nge-
Noun to verb = If starts with vowel: Prefix m-
Else: Prefix ma-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix gj-
Else: Prefix gjo-
Tending to = If starts with vowel: Prefix ul-
Else: Prefix uli-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix k-
Else: Prefix ka-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If starts with vowel: Prefix un-
Else: Prefix una-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If starts with vowel: Prefix m-
Else: Prefix mi-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If starts with vowel: Prefix nd-
Else: Prefix ndo-
Diminutive = Prefix i-
Augmentative = If starts with vowel: Prefix nʼ-
Else: Prefix nʼu-

Dictionary

3122 Words.