Ailkai/Dragonborn

a language spoken by most dragonborn and tortles.  

Natively known as: ailkai /ˈai̯lkai̯/

  ...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
pleng e e gahka e lord pleng maih pai e mataill eba plak
Pronunciation: /pleŋ e e ˈgahka e lord pleŋ mai̯h pai̯ e ˈmatai̯ll ˈeba plak/
Ailkai word order: and he his hat holding stood and the wind to his wet face turned  

Spelling & Phonology

  Consonant inventory: b d f g h j k l m n p r s t w ŋ ɲ ʤ ʧ  

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m		n		ɲ	ŋ
Stop	p b		t d			k g
Affricate				ʧ ʤ
Fricative		f	s				h
Approximant					j
Trill			r
Lateral approximant			l

  Co-articulated phonemes  

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

  Vowel inventory: a ai̯ au̯ e i o u   Diphthongs: ai̯ au̯ ?  

	Front	Back
High	i	u
High-mid	e	o
Low	a

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

Pronunciation	Spelling
ʧ	c
ŋ	ng
j	y
ʤ	j
ɲ	ny
̯

 

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Grammar

  Main word order: Subject (Prepositional phrase) Object Verb. “Mary opened the door with a key” turns into Mary with a key the door opened.
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.

Nominative	No affix irtai /ˈirtai̯/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	If ends with vowel: Suffix -hkai̯ Else: Suffix -ahkai̯ irtaihkai /irˈtai̯hkai̯/ (verb done to) dog

 

Singular	No affix irtai /ˈirtai̯/ dog
Plural	Reduplicate whole word irtaiirtai /ˌirtai̯ˈirtai̯/ dogs

 

Articles

 

Definite	i /i/ the
Indefinite	hau /hau̯/ a, 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’
• Used for personal names in third person: ‘The Maria has left for school’
• 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	troll /troll/ I	plau /plau̯/ me
2nd singular	jol /ʤol/ you	gu /gu/ you
3rd singular masc	e /e/ he, it (masc)	mais /mai̯s/ his, it (masc)
3rd singular fem	ra /ra/ she, it (fem)	kaik /kai̯k/ her, it (fem)
1st plural inclusive	graus /grau̯s/ we (including you)	mi /mi/ us (including you)
1st plural exclusive	shai /shai̯/ we (excluding you)	wep /wep/ us (excluding you)
2nd plural	ru /ru/ you all	ja /ʤa/ you all
3rd plural	hi /hi/ they	tau /tau̯/ them

 

Possessive determiners

 

	Possessive
1st singular	troll /troll/ my
2nd singular	jol /ʤol/ your
3rd singular masc	e /e/ his
3rd singular fem	ra /ra/ her
1st plural inclusive	graus /grau̯s/ our (including you)
1st plural exclusive	shai /shai̯/ our (excluding you)
2nd plural	ru /ru/ your (pl)
3rd plural	hi /hi/ their

 

Verbs

 

	Singular	Plural
Present	Suffix -o greno /ˈgreno/ (I/you/he/she/it) learn(s)	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ll Else: Suffix -all grenall /ˈgrenall/ (we/you all/they) learn
Past	Suffix -u grenu /ˈgrenu/ (I/you/he/she/it) learned	No affix gren /gren/ (we/you all/they) learned
Future	Suffix -uh grenuh /ˈgrenuh/ (I/you/he/she/it) will learn	If ends with vowel: Suffix -r Else: Suffix -or grenor /ˈgrenor/ (we/you all/they) will learn

 

Progressive aspect

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

Progressive

Particle before the verb: frai̯ - frai gren /frai̯ gren/ 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).
Ailkai uses a standalone particle word for habitual:

Habitual

Particle before the verb: su - su gren /su gren/ learns

 

Numbers

  Ailkai has a base-10 number system:   1 - taw
2 - get
3 - baum
4 - ba
5 - pli
6 - kaus
7 - pa
8 - ste
9 - graisa
10 - fre
100 - ang
1000 - ircu
 

Derivational morphology

  Adjective → adverb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -h
Else: Suffix -uh
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Suffix -o
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Suffix -is
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -stau̯
Else: Suffix -au̯stau̯
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -n
Else: Suffix -in
Noun to verb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -n
Else: Suffix -ai̯n
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ŋ
Else: Suffix -oŋ
Tending to = Suffix -e
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -pke
Else: Suffix -ipke
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Suffix -in
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Suffix -i
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Suffix -a
Diminutive = Suffix -ard
Augmentative = Suffix -a