Chiran

The language spoken on Calphia Island 

Natively known as: chira /ˈʧiːɹæ/

  ...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
chà mu bíthe ti mu angà chà ípí mu tàgoú kousù jie use
Pronunciation: /ʧɑ muː ˈbɪθɛ tiː muː ˈæŋɑ ʧɑ ˈɪpɪ muː ˈtɑgoʊ̯ ˈkaʊ̯sʌ ʤaɪ̯ ˈuːsɛ/
Chiran word order: and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind  

Spelling & Phonology

  Consonant inventory: b d f g h j k l m n p s t v w z ð ŋ ɹ ʃ ʒ ʤ ʧ θ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m			n			ŋ
Stop	p b			t d			k g
Affricate					ʧ ʤ
Fricative		f v	θ ð	s z	ʃ ʒ			h
Approximant				ɹ		j
Lateral approximant				l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: aɪ̯ aʊ̯ eɪ̯ iː oʊ̯ uː æ ɑ ɔɪ̯ ɔː ɛ ɜː ɪ ʊ ʌ   Diphthongs: aɪ̯ aʊ̯ eɪ̯ oʊ̯ ɔɪ̯

	Front	Central	Back
High	iː		uː
Near-high	ɪ		ʊ
Low-mid	ɛ	ɜː	ʌ ɔː
Near-low	æ
Low			ɑ

Syllable structure: (C)V
Stress pattern: Penultimate — stress is on the second last syllable   Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
aɪ̯	ie
aʊ̯	ou
eɪ̯	ay
iː	i
uː	u
æ	a
ɛ	e
ɔː	o
ɔɪ̯	oi
ɪ	í
ʊ	ú
ɜː	á
ʌ	ù
ɑ	à
j	y
θ	th
ð	dh
ŋ	ng
ɹ	r
ʃ	sh
ʒ	zh
ʤ	j
ʧ	ch
Vː	VV
◌̯

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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 before the noun.
Adposition: prepositions  

Nouns

	Singular	Plural
Definite	No affix giwou /ˈgiːwaʊ̯/ the dog	Suffix -ʤɑ giwoujà /giːˈwaʊ̯ʤɑ/ the dogs
Indefinite	Suffix -nɛ giwoune /giːˈwaʊ̯nɛ/ a dog	Suffix -ɹɔɪ̯ giwouroi /giːˈwaʊ̯ɹɔɪ̯/ some dogs

Articles

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

Pronouns

1st singular	bà /bɑ/ I, me, mine
2nd singular	he /hɛ/ you, yours
3rd singular masc	mu /muː/ he, him, his, it, its
3rd singular fem	là /lɑ/ she, her, hers, it, its
1st plural	pa /pæ/ we, us, ours
2nd plural	ta /tæ/ you all, yours (pl)
3rd plural	wù /wʌ/ they, them, theirs

Possessive determiners

1st singular	bà /bɑ/ my
2nd singular	he /hɛ/ your
3rd singular masc	mu /muː/ his
3rd singular fem	là /lɑ/ her
1st plural	pa /pæ/ our
2nd plural	ta /tæ/ your (pl)
3rd plural	wù /wʌ/ their

Verbs

Future

Suffix -tʌ thevutù /θɛˈvuːtʌ/ will learn

Chiran uses a standalone particle word for past tense:

Past	Particle before the verb: ʤɜː - já thevu /ʤɜː ˈθɛvuː/ learned

Progressive aspect

  The ‘progressive’ aspect refers to actions that are happening at the time of speaking, such as I am learning.
Chiran uses a standalone particle word for progressive:

Progressive

Particle before the verb: ðɛ - dhe thevu /ðɛ ˈθɛvuː/ is 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).
Chiran uses an affix for habitual:

Habitual

Suffix -lɑ thevulà /θɛˈvuːlɑ/ learns

Numbers

  Chiran has a base-10 number system:   1 - wi
2 - jú
3 - shàcha
4 - dá
5 - fù
6 - chehipe
7 - za
8 - o
9 - lie
10 - lí
Hundred - de
Thousand - oi  

Derivational morphology

  Adjective → adverb = Suffix -wʊ
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Suffix -jɔː
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Suffix -kɔɪ̯
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Suffix -θæ
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Suffix -jɛ
Noun to verb = Suffix -jiː
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Suffix -ʧɛ
Tending to = Suffix -næ
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -ʤʌ
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Suffix -sɔɪ̯
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Suffix -baɪ̯
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Suffix -noʊ̯
Diminutive = Suffix -kuː
Augmentative = Suffix -haʊ̯