Telǔfuyn

Natively known as: telǔfuyn /ˈtelyfujn/

Telǔfuyn literally translates to "distance speak" and is also known as the nomad language.   ...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind... leln flene ti ba a lymos leln fleti a metrin os to lǔnep Pronunciation: /leln ˈflene ti ba a ljmos leln ˈfleti a meˈtrin os to ˈlynep/ Telǔfuyn word order: and stood he holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind.  

Spelling & Phonology

  Consonant inventory: b d f h j l m n p r s t  

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palatal	Glottal
Nasal	m		n
Stop	p b		t d
Fricative		f	s		h
Approximant				j
Trill			r
Lateral approximant			l

    Vowel inventory: a ä e i o u y ɛ ɤ  

	Front	Back
High	i y	u
High-mid	e	ɤ o
Low-mid	ɛ
Low	a ä

    Syllable structure: Custom defined Stress pattern: No fixed stress Word initial consonants: b f fl h l ljm m n s t Mid-word consonants: f l m n np nt sd t tr Word final consonants: jn ln m n nt p r s   Phonological changes (in order of application):  

• r → t / _n

  Spelling rules:  

Pronunciation	Spelling
ɛ	ě
ɤ	ë
y	ǔ
j	y

   

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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 two 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).

Ergative	Suffix -y intǔǔ /ˈintyy/ dog (doing the verb to something)
Absolutive	No affix intǔ /ˈinty/ dog (doing the verb, but not to something)

   

Singular	No affix intǔ /ˈinty/ dog
Plural	Suffix -or intǔor /inˈtyor/ dogs

   

Articles

  Telǔfuyn has no definite article ‘the’, or indefinite article ‘a’.  

Pronouns

 

	Ergative	Absolutive
1st singular	so /so/ I	fli /fli/ me, I
2nd singular	hěnt /hɛnt/ you	ten /ten/ you
3rd singular masc	ti /ti/ he, it	mo /mo/ him, it
3rd singular fem	ǔ /y/ she, it	tär /tär/ her, it
1st plural inclusive	lo /lo/ we (including you)	tar /tar/ us, we (including you)
1st plural exclusive	his /his/ we (excluding you)	flu /flu/ us, we (excluding you)
2nd plural	lë /lɤ/ you all	lip /lip/ you all
3rd plural	an /an/ they	lymi /ljmi/ them, they

   

Possessive determiners

 

1st singular	flä /flä/ my
2nd singular	lim /lim/ your
3rd singular masc	a /a/ his
3rd singular fem	lä /lä/ her
1st plural inclusive	ë /ɤ/ our (including you)
1st plural exclusive	liyn /lijn/ our (excluding you)
2nd plural	ta /ta/ your (pl)
3rd plural	lymë /ljmɤ/ their

   

Verbs

 

	1st person	2nd person	3rd person
Present	If ends with vowel: Suffix -n Else: Suffix -on nunton /ˈnunton/ (I/we) learn	Suffix -ir nuntir /ˈnuntir/ (you/you all) learn	If ends with vowel: Suffix -nt Else: Suffix -ent nuntent /ˈnuntent/ (he/she/it/they) learn
Past	Suffix -i nunti /ˈnunti/ (I/we) learned	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ln Else: Suffix -yln nuntǔln /ˈnuntyln/ (you/you all) learned	If ends with vowel: Suffix -nt Else: Suffix -ont nuntont /ˈnuntont/ (he/she/it/they) learned
Remote past	If ends with vowel: Suffix -n Else: Suffix -en nunten /nunˈten/ (I/we) learned (long ago)	If ends with vowel: Suffix -nt Else: Suffix -int nuntint /ˈnuntint/ (you/you all) learned (long ago)	If ends with vowel: Suffix -jn Else: Suffix -ojn nuntoyn /ˈnuntojn/ (he/she/it/they) learned (long ago)
Future	Suffix -e nunte /ˈnunte/ (I/we) will learn	Suffix -in nuntin /ˈnuntin/ (you/you all) will learn	If ends with vowel: Suffix -r Else: Suffix -ur nuntur /ˈnuntur/ (he/she/it/they) will learn

   

Numbers

  Telǔfuyn has a base-10 number system:   1 - toln 2 - muln 3 - mo 4 - lymäln 5 - tu 6 - si 7 - flǔr 8 - lotre 9 - hont 10 - tǔ 11 - tǔtoln “ten-one” 100 - flo “hundred” 101 - flo leln toln “hundred and one” 200 - muln flo 1000 - tëm “thousand”  

Derivational morphology

  Adjective → adverb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -jn Else: Suffix -ojn Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Suffix -yln Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ln Else: Suffix -uln Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -m Else: Suffix -em Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Suffix -u Noun to verb = Suffix -ip Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Suffix -on Tending to = Suffix -i Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -eln Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Suffix -o One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -p Else: Suffix -äp Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -s Else: Suffix -is Diminutive = Suffix -uln Augmentative = Suffix -u