Chyaparathi

This is the language of the Elf and Orc race.  

Natively known as: taunt /tau̯nt/

  ...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
ben gruw lwy gruw lif lai ben gruw fast sif dwwrth wi dy
Pronunciation: /beːn grɨu̯ lʊɨ̯ grɨu̯ lɪv lai̯ beːn grɨu̯ vast siv dwʊrθ wɪ də/
Chaparathi 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 l m n n̥ p r r̥ s t v w ð ŋ ɬ ʃ θ χ  

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	m			n n̥			ŋ
Stop	b p			d t			k g
Fricative		v	ð θ	s	ʃ			χ	h
Approximant						j
Trill				r̥ r
Lateral fricative				ɬ
Lateral approximant				l

Co-articulated phonemes    

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: a ai̯ au̯ aɨ̯ aː ei̯ eɨ̯ eː i iː oː u uː ɔ ɔi̯ ɔɨ̯ ə əu̯ ɛ ɛu̯ ɨ ɨu̯ ɨː ɪ ɪu̯ ʊ ʊɨ̯   Diphthongs: ai̯ au̯ aɨ̯ ei̯ eɨ̯ ɔi̯ ɔɨ̯ əu̯ ɛu̯ ɨu̯ ɪu̯ ʊɨ̯ ?  

	Front	Central	Back
High	iː i	ɨ ɨː	u uː
Near-high	ɪ		ʊ
High-mid	eː		oː
Mid		ə
Low-mid	ɛ		ɔ
Low	a aː

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

Pronunciation	Spelling
f	ph
v	f
k	c
ŋ	ng
χ	ch
θ	th
r̥	rh
ɬ	ll
ð	dd
ɪu̯	iw
ɨu̯	uw
ʊɨ̯	wy
ɛu̯	ew
ɔi̯	oi
əu̯	yw
eɨ̯	ey
aː	a
ɔ	o
oː	o
iː	i
ɪ	i
eː	e
ɛ	e
uː	w
ʊ	w
j	i
ɨː	y
ɨ	y
ə	y
ʃ	si
n̥	n
̯

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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 after 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: meː - me gww /meː gwʊ/ dogs

 

Nominative	No affix gww /gwʊ/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	If ends with vowel: Suffix -l Else: Suffix -ɔɨ̯l gwwl /gwʊl/ (verb done to) dog

Articles

   

Definite	bof /bɔv/ the
Indefinite	da /da/ a, some

Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Not used for mass (uncountable) nouns: ‘Walking in the mud’ would always translate to ‘Walking in mud’.

  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	dwoi /dwɔi̯/ I	sti /sti/ me
2nd singular	dudd /duð/ you	treyt /treɨ̯t/ you
3rd singular	gruw /grɨu̯/ he, she, it	de /dɛ/ his, her, it
1st plural	as /aːs/ we	clay /klaɨ̯/ us
2nd plural	miwl /mɪu̯l/ you all	cym /kɨm/ you all
3rd plural	bla /bla/ they	o /oː/ them

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	dwoi /dwɔi̯/ my
2nd singular	dudd /duð/ your
3rd singular	gruw /grɨu̯/ his, her, its
1st plural	as /aːs/ our
2nd plural	miwl /mɪu̯l/ your (pl)
3rd plural	bla /bla/ their

Verbs

Present	No affix rhyd /r̥ɨd/ learn
Past	Suffix -ɔ rhydo /r̥ɨˈdɔ/ learned
Remote past	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ð Else: Suffix -að rhydadd /r̥ɨˈdað/ learned (long ago)
Future	Suffix -ʊɨ̯g rhydwyg /r̥ɨˈdʊɨ̯g/ will learn

Progressive aspect

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

Progressive

Particle before the verb: χɨ - chy rhyd /χɨ r̥ɨd/ 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).
Chaparathi uses an affix for habitual:

Habitual

Suffix -aː rhyda /r̥ɨˈdaː/ learns

Numbers

  Chaparathi has a base-10 number system:   1 - cers
2 - ei
3 - gesg
4 - bo
5 - the
6 - ddyw
7 - sbull
8 - hy
9 - triw
10 - pau
100 - cy
1000 - steill
 

Derivational morphology

  Adjective → adverb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ɬ
Else: Suffix -aɨ̯ɬ
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -g
Else: Suffix -ag
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -n
Else: Suffix -ɔn
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -rθeɨ̯
Else: Suffix -ərθeɨ̯
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Suffix -ɛrs
Noun to verb = Suffix -ɪ
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -rð
Else: Suffix -irð
Tending to = If ends with vowel: Suffix -bə
Else: Suffix -ai̯bə
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -au̯
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Suffix -irs
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Suffix -ɔ
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -tblɪ
Else: Suffix -ei̯tblɪ
Diminutive = If ends with vowel: Suffix -s
Else: Suffix -us
Augmentative = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ba
Else: Suffix -əu̯ba