Trolls

Natively known as: toh˦nrau˨ /ˈtoː˦nʁaʊ̯˨/

  ...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
schpra˨ fra˦ mä˨chdt y˨chdt fra˦ knä˧ schpra˨ schü˦ fra˦ su˧ sä˧ schlü˨ o˨ʧ
Pronunciation: /ʃpʁa˨ fʁa˦ mɛ˨xt y˨çt fʁa˦ knɛ˧ ʃpʁa˨ ʃyː˦ fʁa˦ sʊ˧ zɛ˧ ʃlyː˨ ʔɔ˨ʧ/
Trolls word order: and he stood holding hat his and turned his face wet to the wind  

Spelling & Phonology

  Consonant inventory: b d f g h j k l m n p s t v x z ç ŋ ʁ ʃ ʔ ʦ ʧ χ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	m		n			ŋ
Stop	p b		t d			k g		ʔ
Affricate			ʦ	ʧ
Fricative		f v	s z	ʃ	ç	x	χ ʁ	h
Approximant					j
Lateral approximant			l

Vowel inventory: a aɪ̯ aʊ̯ aː e eː i iː o oː u uː y yː øː œ ɐ ɔ ɔʏ̯ ə ɛ ɛː ɪ ʊ ʏ   Diphthongs: aɪ̯ aʊ̯ ɔʏ̯   Tones: ˦ ˧ ˨

	Front	Central	Back
High	i iː y yː		u uː
Near-high	ɪ ʏ		ʊ
High-mid	e eː øː		o oː
Mid		ə
Low-mid	ɛ ɛː œ		ɔ
Near-low		ɐ
Low	a aː

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

Pronunciation	Spelling
v	w
p	b / _#
t	dt / _#
ks	chs
x	ch
ç	ch
ʃ	sch
ʁ	r
z	s
ʦ	z
k	ck / {a,e,i,o,u,œ,ɐ,ɔ,ɛ,ɪ,ʊ,ʏ}_
{m,b,l,t,n,p,s}	__ / {a,e,i,o,u,œ,ɐ,ɔ,ɛ,ɪ,ʊ,ʏ}_
ŋk	nk
ŋ	ng
ʦj	ti
ʦ	zt / _#
ʦ	z
iː	ie
ɛː	ä
ɛ	ä | e
œ	ö
aʊ	au
oː	o | oh | oo
ɔ	o
ɔʏ	eu
aɪ	ei | ai
yː	ü
ʏ	ü
uː	u | uh
ʊ	u
aː	a
ɐ	er / !_r
ɐ	e
ɪ	i
øː	ö
ø	ö
eː	ä | äh | e | eh | ee
ə	e
ʔ
̯

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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 after the noun.
Adposition: prepositions  

Nouns

	Masculine	Feminine
Singular	No affix ä˦ /ɛ˦/ man	No affix schwei˦ /ʃvaɪ̯˦/ woman
Plural	Prefix a˦- a˦e˦ /ˈa˦ɛ˦/ men	Prefix ɔ˦- o˦schwei˦ /ˈɔ˦ʃvaɪ̯˦/ women

Articles

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	wä˨nsch /veː˨nʃ/ the	kwa˦ /kva˦/ a
Plural	de˧sdt /də˧st/ the	bruh˦ /bʁuː˦/ some

Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Used to talk about countable nouns in general: English’s ‘I like cats’ would translate to ‘I like the cats’

  Uses of indefinite article that differ from English:

• 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’
• 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

1st singular	rü˨ngchs /ʁyː˨ŋks/ I, me, mine
2nd singular	au˧m /aʊ̯˧m/ you, yours
3rd singular masc	fra˦ /fʁa˦/ he, him, his, it, its
3rd singular fem	wa˧ngsdt /va˧ŋst/ she, her, hers, it, its
1st plural	schpre˦ /ʃpʁeː˦/ we, us, ours
2nd plural	bie˨nsch /biː˨nʃ/ you all, yours (pl)
3rd plural masc	a˦rn /aː˦ʁn/ they (masc), them (masc), theirs (masc)
3rd plural fem	su˦ /sʊ˦/ they (fem), them (fem), theirs (fem)

Possessive determiners

1st singular	rü˨ngchs /ʁyː˨ŋks/ my
2nd singular	au˧m /aʊ̯˧m/ your
3rd singular masc	fra˦ /fʁa˦/ his
3rd singular fem	wa˧ngsdt /va˧ŋst/ her
1st plural	schpree˦ /ʃpʁeː˦/ our
2nd plural	bie˨nsch /biː˨nʃ/ your (pl)
3rd plural masc	a˦rn /aː˦ʁn/ their (masc)
3rd plural fem	su˦ /sʊ˦/ their (fem)

Verbs

  Trolls uses a standalone particle word for past tense:

Past	Particle before the verb: mu˧p - mu˧b ri˦ /mu˧p ʁɪ˦/ learned

Trolls uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: hɪ˦ - hi˦ ri˦ /hɪ˦ ʁɪ˦/ will learn

Progressive aspect

  The ‘progressive’ aspect refers to actions that are happening at the time of speaking, such as I am learning.
Trolls uses an affix for progressive:

Progressive

If starts with vowel: Prefix v- Else: Prefix vɐ˧- wer˧ri˦ /ˈvɐ˧ʁɪ˦/ 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).
Trolls uses an affix for habitual:

Habitual

Prefix dʁɔʏ̯˧- droü˧ri˦ /ˈdʁɔʏ̯˧ʁɪ˦/ learns

Numbers

  Trolls has a base-20 number system:   1 - de˧
2 - frü˦ch
3 - ble˧
4 - nai˨
5 - ha˦
6 - ö˦
7 - i˧
8 - feh˦
9 - bee˦
10 - i˨
11 - kne˨
12 - ä˧ngsdt
13 - schpö˧
14 - o˧fdt
15 - schma˨
16 - grer˨
17 - ne˦dt
18 - y˧ng
19 - schtru˨
20 - kna˧21 - kna˧ schpra˨ de˧ “twenty and one”
400 - de˧ schtai˨ “one fourhundred”
401 - de˧ schtei˨ de˧ “one fourhundred one”
800 - frü˦ch schtei˨ “two fourhundred”
8000 - de˧ blö˦ “one eightthousand”  

Derivational morphology

  Adjective → adverb = Prefix eː˦-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ʦ-
Else: Prefix ʦyː˨-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix tʁ-
Else: Prefix tʁɪ˧-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix fʁɛ˦-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ʁ-
Else: Prefix ʁɔ˧-
Noun to verb = If starts with vowel: Prefix z-
Else: Prefix zu˦-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ʃn-
Else: Prefix ʃny˨-
Tending to = If starts with vowel: Prefix bl-
Else: Prefix blaː˦-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix fʁ-
Else: Prefix fʁɔ˦-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Prefix ʏ˨-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Prefix iː˨-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Prefix dɛ˨-
Diminutive = If starts with vowel: Prefix j-
Else: Prefix jɔ˦-
Augmentative = Prefix iː˦-