Gnomish

Natively known as: gnomeuche /ˈɲomøʃ/

  ...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
cue garle platre garle el droui cue garle ifu flo muo pli quin
Pronunciation: /kɥe gaʁl platʁ gaʁl ɛl dʁwi kɥe gaʁl ˈify flo mwo pli kɛ̃/
Gnomish word order: and he stood his hat holding and his wet face turned the wind to  

Spelling & Phonology

  Consonant inventory: b d f g j k l m n p s t v w z ɥ ɲ ʁ ʃ ʒ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular
Nasal	m		n		ɲ
Stop	p b		t d			k g
Fricative		f v	s z	ʃ ʒ			ʁ
Approximant					j
Lateral approximant			l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-palatal	Labial-velar
Approximant	ɥ	w

Vowel inventory: a e i o u y ø œ ɑ̃ ɔ ɔ̃ ɛ ɛ̃

	Front	Back
High	i y	u
High-mid	e ø	o
Low-mid	ɛ ɛ̃ œ	ɔ ɔ̃
Low	a	ɑ̃

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

Pronunciation	Spelling
e	e*4 | er / _#
ksj	cti
ks	xe / _#
ks	x
k	que / _#
kt	ct
sk	squ
k	c / !_{i,e,ɛ}
k	qu
d	de / _#
t#	te
wi	oui
wɛ̃	oin
jɛ̃	ien
ɛ̃	e
wɑ{a,ɑ}	oi
ʒ	g / _{i,e,ɛ}
ʒm	gem
ɥ	u
y	ē
j	i
ʒ	ge / _#
ʒ	j
ʃ	che / _#
ɲ	gn
∅	e / CC_#
v	ve / _#
ʃ	ch
ʁ	r | rd | rt / _#
ʁ	r
ɔ̃	on | om / _#
ɔ̃	on
ɔ	o
ɑ̃	ö
ɛ	e
ø	eu
œ	eu
w	u

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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 before the noun.
Adposition: postpositions  

Nouns

  Nouns have two cases:

• Nominative is the doer of a verb: dog bites man.
• Accusative is the done-to of a verb: man bites dog.

  Nouns form plural with separate plural word:

Plural

Particle before the noun: me - me pre /me pʁe/ dogs

Nominative	No affix pre /pʁe/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʁv Else: Suffix -ɔ̃ʁv prerve /pʁeʁv/ (verb done to) dog

Articles

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	liencte /ljɛ̃kt/ the	piöble /pjɑ̃bl/ a
Plural	druacle /dʁwakl/ the	po /po/ 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’
• Used for personal names in third person: ‘The Maria has left for school’
• Used for languages: ‘The English’
• Used with place names: ‘The London’

  Uses of indefinite article that differ from English:

• 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	fom /fɔ̃/ I	cleu /klœ/ me
2nd singular	lö /lö/ you	gruge /gʁuʒ/ you
3rd singular masc	garle /gaʁl/ he, it	ii /ij/ him, it
3rd singular fem	suave /swav/ she, it	greg /gʁɛg/ her, it
1st plural inclusive	o /ɔ/ we (including you)	vie /vjɛ/ us (including you)
1st plural exclusive	orque /oʁk/ we (excluding you)	jo /ʒɔ/ us (excluding you)
2nd plural	cli /kli/ you all	vrardre /vʁaʁdʁ/ you all
3rd plural	reutme /ʁœtm/ they	dērque /dyʁk/ them

Possessive determiners

1st singular	fom /fɔ̃/ my
2nd singular	lö /lö/ your
3rd singular masc	garle /gaʁl/ his
3rd singular fem	suave /swav/ her
1st plural inclusive	o /ɔ/ our (including you)
1st plural exclusive	orque /oʁk/ our (excluding you)
2nd plural	cli /kli/ your (pl)
3rd plural	reutme /ʁœtm/ their

Verbs

Present	No affix suan /swɑ̃/ learn
Past	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʒ Else: Suffix -œʒ suöge /swɑ̃ʒ/ learned
Remote past	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʁs Else: Suffix -œʁs suörse /swɑ̃ʁs/ learned (long ago)

Gnomish uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: fœd - feude suan /fœd swɑ̃/ will learn

Numbers

  Gnomish has a base-10 number system:   1 - vieucle
2 - puque
3 - zo
4 - olque
5 - ardu
6 - globle
7 - igne
8 - tin
9 - de
10 - choza
11 - vieucle cue choza “one and ten”
100 - guge “hundred”
101 - guge vieucle “hundred one”
200 - puque guge
1000 - eucte “thousand”  

Derivational morphology

  Adjective → adverb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -lm
Else: Suffix -ɛlm
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -v
Else: Suffix -ɛv
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʁm
Else: Suffix -ɔʁm
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -pʁ
Else: Suffix -apʁ
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʁdʁ
Else: Suffix -oʁdʁ
Noun to verb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -k
Else: Suffix -ik
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʁm
Else: Suffix -œʁm
Tending to = If ends with vowel: Suffix -l
Else: Suffix -al
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -pʁ
Else: Suffix -epʁ
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Suffix -ɛ̃ʁm
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Suffix -ɔʒ
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Suffix -ɛ̃
Diminutive = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʁ
Else: Suffix -ɛʁ
Augmentative = Suffix -a