Lotlan

Natively known as: lotla /lotˈɬa/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
me be tshwo betso mmong kaera me kaneng mmong nohing gatholo la lani
Pronunciation: /me be tsʰwo betˈsʼo mmoŋ kʼaeˈra me kʼaˈneŋ mmoŋ noˈhiŋ xatʰoˈlo la laˈni/
Lotlan word order: and he stood holding hat his and turned his face wet to the wind

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b c h j k kʰ kʼ l m n pʰ pʼ r s sʰ sʼ t tʰ tʼ w x xʰ ŋ ɬ ɬʰ ɸ ɺ ʤ ʧʰ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m	n			ŋ
Stop	b pʼ pʰ	tʼ t tʰ		c	kʼ k kʰ
Affricate			ʤ ʧʰ
Fricative	ɸ	s sʼ sʰ			x xʰ	h
Approximant				j
Trill		r
Lateral fricative		ɬʰ ɬ
Lateral approximant		l
Lateral flap		ɺ

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 ?
Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
tɬʰ	tlh
tsʰ	tsh
ʧʰ	tšh
kxʰ	kg
kʰ	kh
ŋ	ng
pʰ	ph
tʰ	th
tɬ	tl
ts’	ts
ɺ	d
ɸ	f
x	g
j	y
ʤ	j
k’	k
p’	p
t’	t

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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

	Masculine	Feminine
Singular	Prefix so- sontli /sontˈɬi/ boy	If starts with vowel: Prefix x- Else: Prefix xe- gesoko /xesoˈkʼo/ girl
Plural	If starts with vowel: Prefix s- Else: Prefix so- sontli /sontˈɬi/ boys	If starts with vowel: Prefix kʼ- Else: Prefix kʼo- kosoko /kʼosoˈkʼo/ girls

Articles

Definite	pheng /pʰeŋ/ the
Indefinite	geng /xeŋ/ a, some

Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Definite article can be omitted: ‘I am going to supermarket’
• Not used for mass (uncountable) nouns: ‘Walking in the mud’ would always translate to ‘Walking in mud’.
• Used for personal names in third person: ‘The Maria has left for school’
• 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’

Pronouns

1st singular	ku /kʼu/ I, me, mine
2nd singular	ke /kʼe/ you, yours
3rd singular masc	be /be/ he, him, his, it (masc), its (masc)
3rd singular fem	ge /xe/ she, her, hers, it (fem), its (fem)
1st plural	peng /pʼeŋ/ we, us, ours
2nd plural	nnya /nnja/ you all, yours (pl)
3rd plural masc	ka /kʼa/ they (masc), them (masc), theirs (masc)
3rd plural fem	ging /xiŋ/ they (fem), them (fem), theirs (fem)

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	le /le/ my
2nd singular	tsa /tsʼa/ your
3rd singular masc	mmong /mmoŋ/ his
3rd singular fem	ka /kʼa/ her
1st plural	bo /bo/ our
2nd plural	gong /xoŋ/ your (pl)
3rd plural masc	meng /meŋ/ their (masc)
3rd plural fem	bong /boŋ/ their (fem)

Verbs

Present

	1st singular	2nd singular	3rd singular masc	3rd singular fem	1st plural	2nd plural	3rd plural masc	3rd plural fem
Masculine	If starts with vowel: Prefix al- Else: Prefix alo- alosehang /aˌloseˈhaŋ/ (I (masc)) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix kʼ- Else: Prefix kʼe- kesehang /kʼeseˈhaŋ/ (you (masc)) learn	Prefix kʼo- kosehang /kʼoseˈhaŋ/ (it (masc)/he) learns	Prefix a- asehang /aseˈhaŋ/ (it (masc)) learns	If starts with vowel: Prefix kʼ- Else: Prefix kʼo- kosehang /kʼoseˈhaŋ/ (we (masc)) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix ɺ- Else: Prefix ɺa- dasehang /ɺaseˈhaŋ/ (you (masc) all) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix tɬ- Else: Prefix tɬa- tlasehang /tɬaseˈhaŋ/ (they (masc)) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix x- Else: Prefix xo- gosehang /xoseˈhaŋ/ (they (masc)) learn
Feminine	If starts with vowel: Prefix l- Else: Prefix la- lasehang /laseˈhaŋ/ (I (fem)) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix pʼ- Else: Prefix pʼa- pasehang /pʼaseˈhaŋ/ (you (fem)) learn	Prefix a- asehang /aseˈhaŋ/ (it (masc)) learns	Prefix ɸa- fasehang /ɸaseˈhaŋ/ (it (fem)/she) learns	If starts with vowel: Prefix s- Else: Prefix sa- sasehang /saseˈhaŋ/ (we (fem)) learn	Prefix la- lasehang /laseˈhaŋ/ (you (fem) all) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix x- Else: Prefix xo- gosehang /xoseˈhaŋ/ (they (masc)) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix n- Else: Prefix na- nasehang /naseˈhaŋ/ (they (fem)) learn

Past

	1st singular	2nd singular	3rd singular masc	3rd singular fem	1st plural	2nd plural	3rd plural masc	3rd plural fem
Masculine	Prefix se- sesehang /seseˈhaŋ/ (I (masc)) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix tʼ- Else: Prefix tʼo- tosehang /tʼoseˈhaŋ/ (you (masc)) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix l- Else: Prefix lo- losehang /loseˈhaŋ/ (it (masc)/he) learned	Prefix xe- gesehang /xeseˈhaŋ/ (it (masc)) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix j- Else: Prefix ja- yasehang /jaseˈhaŋ/ (we (masc)) learned	Prefix kʼe- kesehang /kʼeseˈhaŋ/ (you (masc) all) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix ɺ- Else: Prefix ɺe- desehang /ɺeseˈhaŋ/ (they (masc)) learned	Prefix o- osehang /oseˈhaŋ/ (they (masc)) learned
Feminine	Prefix mo- mosehang /moseˈhaŋ/ (I (fem)) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix il- Else: Prefix ile- ilesehang /iˌleseˈhaŋ/ (you (fem)) learned	Prefix xe- gesehang /xeseˈhaŋ/ (it (masc)) learned	Prefix si- sisehang /siseˈhaŋ/ (it (fem)/she) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix b- Else: Prefix bo- bosehang /boseˈhaŋ/ (we (fem)) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix x- Else: Prefix xa- gasehang /xaseˈhaŋ/ (you (fem) all) learned	Prefix o- osehang /oseˈhaŋ/ (they (masc)) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix x- Else: Prefix xe- gesehang /xeseˈhaŋ/ (they (fem)) learned

Future

	1st singular	2nd singular	3rd singular masc	3rd singular fem	1st plural	2nd plural	3rd plural masc	3rd plural fem
Masculine	Prefix ʤwo- jwosehang /ʤwoseˈhaŋ/ (I (masc)) will learn	Prefix ɸo- fosehang /ɸoseˈhaŋ/ (you (masc)) will learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix atsʼ- Else: Prefix atsʼa- atsasehang /atˌsʼaseˈhaŋ/ (it (masc)/he) will learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix ɺ- Else: Prefix ɺi- disehang /ɺiseˈhaŋ/ (it (masc)) will learn	Prefix xo- gosehang /xoseˈhaŋ/ (we (masc)) will learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix ol- Else: Prefix ole- olesehang /oˌleseˈhaŋ/ (you (masc) all) will learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix b- Else: Prefix be- besehang /beseˈhaŋ/ (they (masc)) will learn	Prefix le- lesehang /leseˈhaŋ/ (they (masc)) will learn
Feminine	If starts with vowel: Prefix ir- Else: Prefix ira- irasehang /iˌraseˈhaŋ/ (I (fem)) will learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix b- Else: Prefix ba- basehang /baseˈhaŋ/ (you (fem)) will learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix ɺ- Else: Prefix ɺi- disehang /ɺiseˈhaŋ/ (it (masc)) will learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix oɺ- Else: Prefix oɺi- odisehang /oˌɺiseˈhaŋ/ (it (fem)/she) will learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix ʤ- Else: Prefix ʤo- josehang /ʤoseˈhaŋ/ (we (fem)) will learn	Prefix sa- sasehang /saseˈhaŋ/ (you (fem) all) will learn	Prefix le- lesehang /leseˈhaŋ/ (they (masc)) will learn	Prefix ma- masehang /maseˈhaŋ/ (they (fem)) will learn

Numbers

Lotlan has a base-12 number system:
1 - kang
2 - ke
3 - su
4 - ne
5 - kwa
6 - ang
7 - koke
8 - seng
9 - kge
10 - go
11 - kongwa
12 - fi
144 - deneng
1728 - wong

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Prefix e-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix ʤe-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ej-
Else: Prefix eja-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix e-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Prefix a-
Noun to verb = If starts with vowel: Prefix etʼ-
Else: Prefix etʼe-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix se-
Tending to = If starts with vowel: Prefix mm-
Else: Prefix mmo-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix o-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Prefix o-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If starts with vowel: Prefix kxʰ-
Else: Prefix kxʰa-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If starts with vowel: Prefix x-
Else: Prefix xa-
Diminutive = If starts with vowel: Prefix in-
Else: Prefix ina-
Augmentative = Prefix kxʰe-

Dictionary

3136 Words.