Lotmi

Natively known as: lotmi /ˈlʉtmi/

  ...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
ti re hu khasarpa ruk lukh ti yanlikh ur hu likh nal ne
Pronunciation: /ti re hu xaˈsarpa ruk lux ti ˈjanlix ur hu lix nal ne/
Lotmi word order: and he his hat holding stood and the wind to his wet face turned  

Spelling & Phonology

  Consonant inventory: c h j k l m n p r s t w x ŋ ʧ  

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m	n			ŋ
Stop	p	t		c	k
Affricate			ʧ
Fricative		s			x	h
Approximant				j
Trill		r
Lateral approximant		l

  Co-articulated phonemes  

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

  Vowel inventory: a e i u ʉ  

	Front	Central	Back
High	i	ʉ	u
High-mid	e
Low	a

  Syllable structure: (C)V(C) ?
Stress pattern: Penultimate — stress is on the second last syllable ?   Spelling rules:  

Pronunciation	Spelling
ʉ	o
j	y
ŋ	ng
c	j
ʧ	ch
x	kh

 

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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 three cases:

• Nominative is the doer of a verb: dog bites man.
• Accusative is the done-to of a verb: man bites dog.
• Genitive is the possessor of something: dog’s tail hits man.

Nominative	No affix hikh /hix/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ŋ Else: Suffix -eŋ hikheng /ˈhixeŋ/ (verb done to) dog
Genitive	Suffix -i hikhi /ˈhixi/ dogʼs

 

Singular	No affix hikh /hix/ dog
Plural	Reduplicate first part of first syllable hihikh /ˈhihix/ dogs

 

Articles

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

Pronouns

 

	Nominative	Accusative	Genitive
1st singular	la /la/ I	to /tʉ/ me	je /ce/ mine
2nd singular	yil /jil/ you	kach /kaʧ/ you	yi /ji/ yours
3rd singular masc	re /re/ he, it (masc)	hu /hu/ his, it (masc)	khak /xak/ his, its (masc)
3rd singular fem	chuk /ʧuk/ she, it (fem)	o /ʉ/ her, it (fem)	lap /lap/ hers, its (fem)
1st plural	pa /pa/ we	pu /pu/ us	chep /ʧep/ ours
2nd plural	lukh /lux/ you all	mi /mi/ you all	ko /kʉ/ yours (pl)
3rd plural	tu /tu/ they	lu /lu/ them	na /na/ theirs

 

Possessive determiners

 

	Possessive
1st singular	je /ce/ my
2nd singular	yi /ji/ your
3rd singular masc	hu /hu/ his
3rd singular fem	lap /lap/ her
1st plural	chep /ʧep/ our
2nd plural	ko /kʉ/ your (pl)
3rd plural	na /na/ their

 

Verbs

 

Present	If ends with vowel: Suffix -r Else: Suffix -ir aytuopir /ˌajtuˈʉpir/ learn
Past	No affix aytuop /ajˈtuʉp/ learned
Remote past	If ends with vowel: Suffix -k Else: Suffix -ek aytuopek /ˌajtuˈʉpek/ learned (long ago)
Future	Suffix -at aytuopat /ˌajtuˈʉpat/ will learn

 

Imperfective aspect

  The ‘imperfective’ aspect refers to ongoing actions, such as I am learning and habitual actions, such as I learn (something new every day).
Lotmi uses a standalone particle word for imperfective:  

Imperfective

Particle before the verb: hu - hu aytuop /hu ajˈtuʉp/ learns/is learning

 

Numbers

  Lotmi has a base-20 number system:   1 - ki
2 - tekh
3 - lu
4 - ra
5 - i
6 - nuk
7 - yosat
8 - nikh
9 - yejok
10 - kha
11 - kungha
12 - khetka
13 - hech
14 - u
15 - top
16 - ama
17 - ach
18 - uylayap
19 - ak
20 - jipang
400 - lul
8000 - lal
 

Derivational morphology

  Adjective → adverb = Suffix -a
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Suffix -i
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -p
Else: Suffix -ip
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -p
Else: Suffix -ep
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Suffix -e
Noun to verb = Suffix -ix
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -s
Else: Suffix -ʉs
Tending to = Suffix -al
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -tri
Else: Suffix -atri
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Suffix -aʧ
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -l
Else: Suffix -al
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -r
Else: Suffix -er
Diminutive = If ends with vowel: Suffix -te
Else: Suffix -ate
Augmentative = Suffix -ʉ