Tamkuian

Natively known as: tamku /ˈtamku/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
su mu ɾe pocta pom waɲe su ɾe kapil uɲam ɾorit wa yot
Pronunciation: /su mu ɾe ˈpocta pom ˈwaɲe su ɾe ˈkapil ˈuɲam ˈɾorit wa jot/
Tamkuian word order: and he hat his holding stood and his face wet the wind to turned

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: c j k l m p r s t w ɲ ɾ ʔ ʧ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m			ɲ
Stop	p	t		c	k	ʔ
Affricate			ʧ
Fricative		s
Approximant				j
Tap		ɾ
Trill		r
Lateral approximant		l

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

Nouns

Nouns have seven cases:

• Nominative is the doer of a verb: dog bites man.
• Accusative is the done-to of a verb: man bites dog.
• Genitive is the possessor of something: dog’s tail hits man.
• Dative is the recipient of something: man gives ball to dog.
• Locative is the location of something: man is in town.
• Ablative is movement away from something: man walks from town.
• Instrumental is the use of something: man writes with (using) pen.

Nominative	If ends with vowel: Suffix -t Else: Suffix -ut ɾerut /ˈɾerut/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ɲ Else: Suffix -eɲ ɾereɲ /ˈɾereɲ/ (verb done to) dog
Genitive	If ends with vowel: Suffix -me Else: Suffix -ame ɾerame /ɾeˈrame/ dogʼs
Dative	If ends with vowel: Suffix -m Else: Suffix -om ɾerom /ˈɾerom/ to dog
Locative	Suffix -u ɾeru /ˈɾeru/ near/at/by dog
Ablative	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʧ Else: Suffix -aʧ ɾeraʧ /ˈɾeraʧ/ from dog
Instrumental	If ends with vowel: Suffix -r Else: Suffix -ar ɾerar /ˈɾerar/ with/using dog

Singular	If ends with vowel: Suffix -m Else: Suffix -em ɾerem /ˈɾerem/ dog
Plural	If ends with vowel: Suffix -t Else: Suffix -ot ɾerot /ˈɾerot/ dogs

Articles

Definite	yiɲ /jiɲ/ the
Indefinite	pe /pe/ a, some

Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Used to talk about countable nouns in general: English’s ‘I like cats’ would translate to ‘I like the cats’
• Used for personal names in third person: ‘The Maria has left for school’

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

	1st singular	2nd singular	3rd singular masc	3rd singular fem	1st plural	2nd plural	3rd plural
Nominative	ʧi /ʧi/ I	ɾe /ɾe/ you	mu /mu/ he, it (masc)	ku /ku/ she, it (fem)	wo /wo/ we	kas /kas/ you all	yo /jo/ they
Accusative	cel /cel/ me	ra /ra/ you	miɾ /miɾ/ his, it (masc)	ɲuɲ /ɲuɲ/ her, it (fem)	ci /ci/ us	ya /ja/ you all	te /te/ them
Genitive	e /e/ mine	li /li/ yours	ɲo /ɲo/ his, its (masc)	cas /cas/ hers, its (fem)	ɾo /ɾo/ ours	si /si/ yours (pl)	kur /kur/ theirs
Dative	i /i/ to me	yoʧ /joʧ/ to you	ɲu /ɲu/ to his, to it (masc)	ʧaɲ /ʧaɲ/ to her, to it (fem)	yut /jut/ to us	ki /ki/ to you all	iɾ /iɾ/ to them
Locative	u /u/ to me	ma /ma/ to you	ʧo /ʧo/ to his, to it (masc)	ɾa /ɾa/ to her, to it (fem)	ca /ca/ to us	re /re/ to you all	wa /wa/ to them
Ablative	cu /cu/ from me	luɲ /luɲ/ from you	ʧe /ʧe/ from his, from it (masc)	le /le/ from her, from it (fem)	o /o/ from us	ka /ka/ from you all	siʧ /siʧ/ from them
Instrumental	ʧiɲ /ʧiɲ/ with/using me	yu /ju/ with/using you	ye /je/ with/using his, with/using it (masc)	yi /ji/ with/using her, with/using it (fem)	mi /mi/ with/using us	ke /ke/ with/using you all	pu /pu/ with/using them

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	wi /wi/ my
2nd singular	laɾ /laɾ/ your
3rd singular masc	ɾe /ɾe/ his
3rd singular fem	weɾ /weɾ/ her
1st plural	wa /wa/ our
2nd plural	yu /ju/ your (pl)
3rd plural	ɲe /ɲe/ their

Verbs

Tamkuian uses a standalone particle word for past tense:

Past	Particle before the verb: mim - mim koʧim /mim ˈkoʧim/ learned

Tamkuian uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: ɾe - ɾe koʧim /ɾe ˈkoʧim/ will learn

Imperfective aspect

The ‘imperfective’ aspect refers to ongoing actions, such as I am learning and habitual actions, such as I learn (something new every day).
Tamkuian uses a standalone particle word for imperfective:

Imperfective

Particle before the verb: li - li koʧim /li ˈkoʧim/ learn

Numbers

Tamkuian has a base-12 number system:
1 - pot
2 - ʧuʧ
3 - ɲo
4 - ɾos
5 - re
6 - aʧ
7 - ɾepwe
8 - teyʔek
9 - mir
10 - ra
11 - raru
12 - mot
144 - ɲectoɲak
1728 - saɲ

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -s
Else: Suffix -is
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ɾ
Else: Suffix -eɾ
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Suffix -uʧ
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Suffix -am
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Suffix -a
Noun to verb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -m
Else: Suffix -um
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Suffix -o
Tending to = Suffix -a
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -il
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -m
Else: Suffix -em
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -l
Else: Suffix -il
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -m
Else: Suffix -um
Diminutive = If ends with vowel: Suffix -l
Else: Suffix -ul
Augmentative = Suffix -a

Dictionary

3170 Words.