Demeng (Dwarvish)

Natively known as: demeng /ˈdemɛŋ/

  ...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
me nuilf zvo bak ang ij me zvo sted brocht eeng sprak slie
Pronunciation: /mə nœy̯lf zvoː bɑk ɑŋ ɛi̯ mə zvoː stɛt brɔxt eːŋ spraːk sli /
Dwarvish word order: and stood his hat holding he and his wet face turned to the wind  

Spelling & Phonology

  Consonant inventory: b d f j k l m n p r s t v x z ŋ ɣ ɦ ʋ ʤ  

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m		n			ŋ
Stop	b p		d t			k
Affricate				ʤ
Fricative		v f	z s			ɣ x	ɦ
Approximant		ʋ			j
Trill			r
Lateral approximant			l

  Vowel inventory: aː eː i oː u y øː œy̯ ɑ ɑu̯ ɔ ə ɛ ɛi̯ ɪ ʏ   Diphthongs: œy̯ ɑu̯ ɛi̯ ?  

	Front	Central	Back
High	i y		u
Near-high	ɪ ʏ
High-mid	eː øː		oː
Mid		ə
Low-mid	ɛ		ɔ
Low	aː		ɑ

  Syllable structure: Custom defined ?
Stress pattern: Penultimate — stress is on the second last syllable ?   Sound changes (in order of application):  

• ʋ → v
• ɦ → h
• øː → ʊː

  Spelling rules:  

Pronunciation	Spelling
sx	sch
x	g / _#
x	ch
ʋ	w
p	b / _#
t	d / _#
d	t / C_#
ɣ	g
ɦ	h
ŋk	ng
ŋ	ng
yu	uw
u	oe / !_w
ɑoe̯	ou
eː	ee
aː	a
ɑ	a
oː	o
ɛi̯	ij / _#
ɛi̯	ei
ɛ	e
ɔ	o
i	ie / C_#
œy̯	ui
ɪ	i
ʏ	u
y	u
øː	eu
ə	e
̯
ʊ	u
ʤ	dz

 

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Grammar

  Main word order: Object Verb (Prepositional phrase) Subject. “Mary opened the door with a key” turns into The door opened with a key mary.
Adjective order: Adjectives are positioned before the noun.
Adposition: prepositions ?  

Nouns

 

	Singular	Plural
Definite	No affix spruːn /sprʊːn/ the dog	If starts with vowel: Prefix əʋ- Else: Prefix əʋɛ- evespruːn /əˈvɛsprʊːn/ the dogs
Indefinite	If starts with vowel: Prefix t- Else: Prefix tə- tespruːn /ˈtəsprʊːn/ a dog	Prefix ɛ- espruːn /ˈɛsprʊːn/ some dogs

 

Articles

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

Pronouns

 

1st singular	eift /ɛi̯ft/ I, me, mine
2nd singular	zui /zœy̯/ you, yours
3rd singular masc	ij /ɛi̯/ he, him, his, it (masc), its (masc)
3rd singular fem	scheecht /sxeːxt/ she, her, hers, it (fem), its (fem)
1st plural	kve /kvɛ/ we, us, ours
2nd plural	lan /laːn/ you all, yours (pl)
3rd plural	volf /vɔlf/ they, them, theirs

 

Possessive determiners

 

	Possessive
1st singular	vokt /vɔkt/ my
2nd singular	uircht /œy̯rxt/ your
3rd singular masc	zvo /zvoː/ his
3rd singular fem	dreecht /dreːxt/ her
1st plural	bud /byt/ our
2nd plural	tvint /tvɪnt/ your (pl)
3rd plural	roe /ru/ their

 

Verbs

 

Present	No affix vroed /vrut/ learn
Past	If starts with vowel: Prefix ɦ- Else: Prefix ɦʏ- huvroed /ˈhʏvrut/ learned
Future	If starts with vowel: Prefix v- Else: Prefix vɔ- vovroed /ˈvɔvrut/ will learn

 

Numbers

  Dwarvish has a base-10 number system:   1 - u
2 - pu
3 - tong
4 - tart
5 - meek
6 - vlist
7 - renden
8 - gad
9 - kvans
10 - schrus
100 - poer
1000 - pant
 

Derivational morphology

  Adjective → adverb = If starts with vowel: Prefix st-
Else: Prefix stʏ-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ufx-
Else: Prefix ufxɑ-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix mɪ-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix p-
Else: Prefix pœy̯-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Prefix plaː-
Noun to verb = Prefix jɛ-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix kʋ-
Else: Prefix kʋeː-
Tending to = If starts with vowel: Prefix p-
Else: Prefix pɔ-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix b-
Else: Prefix bɔ-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Prefix pri-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Prefix ə-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If starts with vowel: Prefix z-
Else: Prefix zə-
Diminutive = If starts with vowel: Prefix bl-
Else: Prefix bleː-
Augmentative = Prefix ɪ-
Language of = Suffix -ɛŋ
Realm belonging to rank = Suffix -ʤæŋ
Verb to noun = If starts with vowel: Prefix øːrbr-
Else: Prefix øːrbraː-