Jese'dar or Nukan
Natively known as: nukan /ˈnukan/
...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...un yun ruto hon kudo seto un hon nube agyuko hito uhen bin
Pronunciation: /un jun ˈɾuto hon ˈkudo ˈseto un hon ˈnube aˈgjuko ˈhito ˈuhen bin/
Jese'dar word order: and he stood hat his holding and his face wet turned the wind to
Spelling & Phonology
Consonant inventory: b d g h j k m n p s t w z ŋ ɾ↓Manner/Place→ | Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ||
Stop | p b | t d | k g | ||
Fricative | s z | h | |||
Approximant | j | ||||
Tap | ɾ |
↓Manner/Place→ | Labial-velar |
---|---|
Approximant | w |
Front | Back | |
---|---|---|
High | i | u |
High-mid | e | o |
Low | a |
Stress pattern: Penultimate — stress is on the second last syllable Spelling rules:
Pronunciation | Spelling |
---|---|
j | y |
ŋ | ng |
ɾ | r |
Grammar
Main word order: Subject Object Verb (Prepositional phrase). “Mary opened the door with a key” turns into Mary the door opened with a key.Adjective order: Adjectives are positioned after the noun.
Adposition: postpositions
Nouns
Nouns have three 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.
Singular | Plural | |
---|---|---|
Nominative | No affix
dahyupu /daˈhjupu/ dog (when doing the verb) |
Suffix -o
dahyupuo /ˌdahjuˈpuo/ dogs (when doing the verb) |
Accusative | Suffix -un
dahyupuun /ˌdahjuˈpuun/ (verb done to) dog |
If ends with vowel: Suffix -n
Else: Suffix -un dahyupun /daˈhjupun/ (verb done to) dogs |
Genitive | If ends with vowel: Suffix -n
Else: Suffix -en dahyupun /daˈhjupun/ dogʼs |
Suffix -on
dahyupuon /ˌdahjuˈpuon/ dogsʼ |
Articles
Definite | Indefinite | |
---|---|---|
Singular | ro /ɾo/ the | bun /bun/ a |
Plural | su /su/ the | pun /pun/ some |
- Used to talk about countable nouns in general: English’s ‘I like cats’ would translate to ‘I like the cats’
- 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
Nominative | Accusative | Genitive | |
---|---|---|---|
1st singular | un /un/ I | su /su/ me | ne /ne/ mine |
2nd singular | en /en/ you | pu /pu/ you | min /min/ yours |
3rd singular masc | yun /jun/ he, it | sun /sun/ him, it | hon /hon/ his, its |
3rd singular fem | ki /ki/ she, it | gon /gon/ her, it | so /so/ hers, its |
1st plural | yo /jo/ we | ye /je/ us | o /o/ ours |
2nd plural | a /a/ you all | ka /ka/ you all | na /na/ yours (pl) |
3rd plural | ba /ba/ they | do /do/ them | bun /bun/ theirs |
Possessive determiners
1st singular | ne /ne/ my |
2nd singular | min /min/ your |
3rd singular masc | hon /hon/ his |
3rd singular fem | so /so/ her |
1st plural | o /o/ our |
2nd plural | na /na/ your (pl) |
3rd plural | bun /bun/ their |
Verbs
Present | No affix
kiryento /kiˈɾjento/ learn |
Past | Suffix -o
kiryentoo /ˌkiɾjenˈtoo/ learned |
Future | Particle before the verb: a -
a kiryento /a kiˈɾjento/ 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).Jese'dar uses an affix for imperfective:
Imperfective | Suffix -in
kiryentoin /ˌkiɾjenˈtoin/ learns/is learning |
Numbers
Jese'dar has a base-10 number system: 1 - ze2 - wahyun
3 - pu
4 - ke
5 - gen
6 - nu
7 - run
8 - anso
9 - pin
10 - bo
11 - bo un ze “ten and one”
100 - moryeba “hundred”
101 - moryeba ze “hundred one”
200 - wahyun moryeba
1000 - makun “thousand”
Derivational morphology
Adjective → adverb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -nElse: Suffix -en
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Suffix -u
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -n
Else: Suffix -un
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Suffix -a
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -n
Else: Suffix -in
Noun to verb = Suffix -en
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Suffix -an
Tending to = Suffix -in
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -in
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Suffix -en
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -n
Else: Suffix -en
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Suffix -un
Diminutive = Suffix -u
Augmentative = If ends with vowel: Suffix -n
Else: Suffix -un
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