Deben

Natively known as: dēb’e /deːˈɓe/

  ...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
ngo nī jad’ē jo ditɨi g’echō ngo jo chog’ama ebē pochē seso khō
Pronunciation: /ŋo niː ʄaˈɗeː ʄo diˈtɨi̯ ɠeˈʧoː ŋo ʄo ʧoɠaˈma eˈbeː poˈʧeː seˈso xoː/
Dēb’en word order: and he stood his hat holding and his wet face turned the wind to  

Spelling & Phonology

  Consonant inventory: b d g j k m n p s t w x ŋ ɓ ɗ ɠ ʄ ʔ ʧ  

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m	n			ŋ
Stop	p b	t d			k g	ʔ
Implosive	ɓ	ɗ		ʄ	ɠ
Affricate			ʧ
Fricative		s			x
Approximant				j

  Co-articulated phonemes  

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

  Vowel inventory: a aː e eː i iː o oː ɨi̯   Diphthongs: ɨi̯  

	Front	Back
High	i iː
High-mid	e eː	o oː
Low	a aː

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

Pronunciation	Spelling
ʔ	ʻ
j	y
x	kh
ŋ	ng
ɓ	b’
ɗ	d’
ɠ	g’
ʄ	j
ʧ	ch
Vː	V̄
◌̯

 

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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 before the noun.
Adposition: postpositions  

Nouns

  Nouns have four 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.
• Dative is the recipient of something: man gives ball to dog.

  Nouns form plural with separate plural word:

Plural

Particle before the noun: ki - ki ɨima /ki ɨi̯ˈma/ dogs

 

Nominative	No affix ɨima /ɨi̯ˈma/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	Suffix -ʔaː ɨimaʻā /ɨi̯maˈʔaː/ (verb done to) dog
Genitive	Suffix -maː ɨimamā /ɨi̯maˈmaː/ dogʼs
Dative	Suffix -doː ɨimadō /ɨi̯maˈdoː/ to (the/a) dog

 

Articles

 

Definite	se /se/ the
Indefinite	g’ē /ɠeː/ a, some

  Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Used for personal names in third person: ‘The Maria has left for school’
• Used for languages: ‘The English’

  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	Genitive	Dative
1st singular	wi /wi/ I	so /so/ me	ma /ma/ mine	b’ī /ɓiː/ to me
2nd singular	mɨi /mɨi̯/ you	ō /oː/ you	pe /pe/ yours	ne /ne/ to you
3rd singular	nī /niː/ he, she, it	d’a /ɗa/ him, her, it	jo /ʄo/ his, hers, its	g’ē /ɠeː/ to him, her, it
1st plural	bā /baː/ we	po /po/ us	bī /biː/ ours	ga /ga/ to us
2nd plural	o /o/ you all	mā /maː/ you all	sa /sa/ yours (pl)	mi /mi/ to you all
3rd plural	na /na/ they	wē /weː/ them	kē /keː/ theirs	dē /deː/ to them

 

Possessive determiners

 

1st singular	ma /ma/ my
2nd singular	pe /pe/ your
3rd singular	jo /ʄo/ his, her, its
1st plural	bī /biː/ our
2nd plural	sa /sa/ your (pl)
3rd plural	kē /keː/ their

 

Verbs

 

	Present	Past	Remote past
1st singular	Suffix -moː pīd’emō /piːɗeˈmoː/ (I) learn	Suffix -ti pīd’eti /piːɗeˈti/ (I) learned	Suffix -dɨi̯ pīd’edɨi /piːɗeˈdɨi̯/ (I) learned (long ago)
2nd singular	Suffix -ɓɨi̯ pīd’eb’ɨi /piːɗeˈɓɨi̯/ (you) learn	Suffix -ʔe pīd’eʻe /piːɗeˈʔe/ (you) learned	Suffix -bɨi̯ pīd’ebɨi /piːɗeˈbɨi̯/ (you) learned (long ago)
3rd singular	Suffix -we pīd’ewe /piːɗeˈwe/ (he/she/it) learns	Suffix -ʄeː pīd’ejē /piːɗeˈʄeː/ (he/she/it) learned	Suffix -be pīd’ebe /piːɗeˈbe/ (he/she/it) learned (long ago)
1st plural	Suffix -ʔaː pīd’eʻā /piːɗeˈʔaː/ (we) learn	Suffix -jɨi̯ pīd’eyɨi /piːɗeˈjɨi̯/ (we) learned	Suffix -baː pīd’ebā /piːɗeˈbaː/ (we) learned (long ago)
2nd plural	Suffix -ŋo pīd’engo /piːɗeˈŋo/ (you all) learn	Suffix -wi pīd’ewi /piːɗeˈwi/ (you all) learned	Suffix -ga pīd’ega /piːɗeˈga/ (you all) learned (long ago)
3rd plural	Suffix -je pīd’eye /piːɗeˈje/ (they) learn	Suffix -piː pīd’epī /piːɗeˈpiː/ (they) learned	Suffix -meː pīd’emē /piːɗeˈmeː/ (they) learned (long ago)

  Dēb’en uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: ʄeː - jē pīd’e /ʄeː piːˈɗe/ will learn

 

Progressive aspect

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

Progressive

Particle before the verb: ba - ba pīd’e /ba piːˈɗe/ 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).
Dēb’en uses a standalone particle word for habitual:

Habitual

Particle before the verb: ʄaː - jā pīd’e /ʄaː piːˈɗe/ learns

 

Perfect aspect

  The perfect aspect in English is exemplified in ‘I have read this book’, which expresses an event that took place before the time spoken but which has an effect on or is in some way still relevant to the present.
Dēb’en uses the word for ‘already’ i for the perfect aspect.  

Numbers

  Dēb’en has a base-10 number system:   1 - mē
2 - ma
3 - so
4 - wi
5 - akhōnga
6 - mi
7 - nga
8 - mēbī
9 - pe
10 - ngɨi
Hundred - pomi
Thousand - b’achō  

Derivational morphology

  Adjective → adverb = Suffix -sɨi̯
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Suffix -wiː
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Suffix -ʔa
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Suffix -de
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Suffix -boː
Noun to verb = Suffix -ba
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Suffix -meː
Tending to = Suffix -ja
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -kɨi̯
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Suffix -si
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Suffix -ʧo
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Suffix -siː
Diminutive = Suffix -ɓoː
Augmentative = Suffix -ko