Yasski

Natively known as: yasski /ˈjæsski/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
lban ḥal ye ttssan yau lmadd lban segh yau tgen urarag mat tada
Pronunciation: /lbæn ħæl jə ttssæn jæw lmædd lbæn səɣ jæw tgən ˈwræræg mæt ˈtædæ/
Yasski word order: and stood he holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b d dˤ d͡ʒ f g h j k l m n p q r s sˤ t tˤ t͡ʃ w z zˤ ħ ɣ ʃ ʒ ʕ χ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Glottal
Nasal	m		n
Stop	b p		t d tˤ dˤ			k g	q
Affricate				d͡ʒ t͡ʃ
Fricative		f	s zˤ z sˤ	ʃ ʒ		ɣ	χ	ħ ʕ	h
Approximant					j
Trill			r
Lateral approximant			l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: a e i o u æ ə

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
High-mid	e		o
Mid		ə
Near-low	æ
Low	a

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

Pronunciation	Spelling
æ	a
ɡʷ	g
ɡ	g
dˤ	ḍ
ə	e
ħ	ḥ
χ	kh
j	y
d͡ʒ	dj
ʒ	j
w	u
rˤ	ṛ
ɣ	gh
sˤ	ṣ
t͡ʃ	ch
ʃ	c
tˤ	ṭ
zˤ	ẓ

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Grammar

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

Nouns

Nouns have five cases:

• Ergative is the doer of a verb, when the verb is done to something: dog bites man.
• Absolutive is used in two scenarios: the doer of a verb when not done to something (dog bites), and 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.

Ergative	Prefix wri- uriseha /ˈwrisəhæ/ dog (doing a transitive verb)
Absolutive	Prefix jæ- yaseha /ˈjæsəhæ/ dog (doing an intransitive verb)
Genitive	If starts with vowel: Prefix æwdˤ- Else: Prefix æwdˤi- auḍiseha /ˈæwdˤiˌsəhæ/ dogʼs
Dative	Prefix æ- aseha /ˈæsəhæ/ to dog
Locative	If starts with vowel: Prefix ɣ- Else: Prefix ɣæ- ghaseha /ˈɣæsəhæ/ near/at/by dog

	Singular	Plural
Definite	If starts with vowel: Prefix k- Else: Prefix kæ- kaseha /ˈkæsəhæ/ the dog	Prefix ti- tiseha /ˈtisəhæ/ the dogs
Indefinite	If starts with vowel: Prefix n- Else: Prefix nə- neseha /ˈnəsəhæ/ a dog	Prefix di- diseha /ˈdisəhæ/ some dogs

Articles

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

Pronouns

	Ergative	Absolutive	Genitive	Dative	Locative
1st singular	tmuqa /tmwqæ/ I	e /ə/ me	degh /dəɣ/ mine	nej /nəʒ/ to me	ttḥed /ttħəd/ to me
2nd singular	nil /nil/ you	no /no/ you	ttssi /ttssi/ yours	tfe /tfə/ to you	dyan /djæn/ to you
3rd singular	ye /jə/ he, she, it	say /sæj/ his, her, it	ner /nər/ his, hers, its	na /næ/ to his, to her, to it	kred /krəd/ to his, to her, to it
1st plural	la /læ/ we	urin /wrin/ us	di /di/ ours	ttssam /ttssæm/ to us	ttsses /ttssəs/ to us
2nd plural	cfas /ʃfæs/ you all	yagh /jæɣ/ you all	yogh /joɣ/ yours (pl)	tal /tæl/ to you all	lqa /lqæ/ to you all
3rd plural	tghe /tɣə/ they	te /tə/ them	ti /ti/ theirs	nan /næn/ to them	ghi /ɣi/ to them

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	ghe /ɣə/ my
2nd singular	diz /diz/ your
3rd singular	yau /jæw/ his, her, its
1st plural	uri /wri/ our
2nd plural	debs /dəbs/ your (pl)
3rd plural	dil /dil/ their

Verbs

Present	Prefix jæ- yadet /ˈjædət/ learn
Past	Prefix æ- adet /ˈædət/ learned

Yasski uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: təw - teu det /təw dət/ will learn

Progressive aspect

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

Progressive

Prefix wræ- uradet /ˈwrædət/ 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).
Yasski uses a standalone particle word for habitual:

Habitual

Particle before the verb: pən - pen det /pən dət/ learn (often, habitually)

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.
Yasski uses the word for ‘already’ lqademmad for the perfect aspect.

Numbers

Yasski has a base-12 number system:
1 - tkil
2 - e
3 - di
4 - te
5 - mil
6 - nedeg
7 - nariy
8 - llikki
9 - lhahe
10 - kralle
11 - ufed
12 - lkeqe
144 - tti
1728 - lḥigh

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If starts with vowel: Prefix lħ-
Else: Prefix lħæ-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix æ-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix ə-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix kə-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Prefix ə-
Noun to verb = If starts with vowel: Prefix n-
Else: Prefix næ-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix æ-
Tending to = If starts with vowel: Prefix iw-
Else: Prefix iwi-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix n-
Else: Prefix nə-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Prefix ti-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Prefix slə-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ttħ-
Else: Prefix ttħæ-
Diminutive = If starts with vowel: Prefix əkk-
Else: Prefix əkkə-
Augmentative = If starts with vowel: Prefix jwg-
Else: Prefix jwgæ-

Dictionary

3128 Words.