Dongukhi

Natively known as: dongukh /ˈdoŋuχ/

  ...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind... khe kabsu ba buft mi koyya khe fka mi monf fkotsse wad tunuyye[alt] Pronunciation: /χe ˈkabsu ba buft mi ˈkojja χe fka mi monf ˈfkoʦse wad tuˈnujje/ Dongukhi word order: and stood he holding hat his and turned his face wet to the wind[/alt]  

Spelling & Phonology

  Consonant inventory: b d f g j k m n q s t w ŋ ɢ ʔ ʦ χ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	m		n		ŋ
Stop	b		t d		k g	q ɢ	ʔ
Affricate			ʦ
Fricative		f	s			χ
Approximant				j

  Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

  Vowel inventory: a e i o u

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

  Syllable structure: (C)(C)V(C)(C) Stress pattern: Penultimate — stress is on the second last syllable Word initial consonants: b d fk gj j k m nd q s sd sf st t tj w ŋk ɢ ʦ ʦw χ Mid-word consonants: b bd bn bs d dd dg dj ds dw f fd fg fm fn ft fw g gb gf gm gt gw j jb jd jg jj jk jt k kd kn kt kʦ m md mf mg mm mn mw mʦ n nd ng nm nʦ q qd s sf sj sm st sʔ t tb tj tk tn tt tw w wk ww ŋ ŋb ŋd ŋj ŋn ŋs ŋʦ ɢ ʔ ʔd ʔm ʦ ʦk ʦn ʦs ʦt χ χm χn χt Word final consonants: d f fs ft g gŋ jf jj js jt m ms n nf nʦ q s sg sk ss st sʦ t tm ŋ ɢ χ   Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ʔ	ʻ
j	y
ŋ	ng
ʦ	ts
χ	kh
ɢ	g̊

 

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Grammar

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

Nouns

  Nouns have six 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.
• Locative is the location of something: man goes to town.
• Ablative is movement away from something: man walks from town.

Nominative	No affix yogbasg /ˈjogbasg/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	Prefix ku- kuyogbasg /kuˈjogbasg/ (verb done to) dog
Genitive	If starts with vowel: Prefix k- Else: Prefix ka- kayogbasg /kaˈjogbasg/ dogʼs
Dative	If starts with vowel: Prefix sd- Else: Prefix sdu- sduyogbasg /sduˈjogbasg/ to (the/a) dog
Locative	Prefix ki- kiyogbasg /kiˈjogbasg/ near/at/by (the/a) dog
Ablative	Prefix o- oyogbasg /oˈjogbasg/ from (the/a) dog

Singular	No affix yogbasg /ˈjogbasg/ dog
Plural	If starts with vowel: Prefix b- Else: Prefix be- beyogbasg /beˈjogbasg/ dogs

 

Articles

Definite	yus /jus/ the
Indefinite	wonf /wonf/ 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’
• Not used for mass (uncountable) nouns: ‘Walking in the mud’ would always translate to ‘Walking in mud’.
• Used for languages: ‘The English’

 

Pronouns

	Nominative	Accusative	Genitive	Dative	Locative	Ablative
1st singular	we /we/ I	ye /je/ me	tswa /ʦwa/ mine	mu /mu/ to me	tsut /ʦut/ at me	meyy /mejj/ from me
2nd singular	tye /tje/ you	kam /kam/ you	bom /bom/ yours	ndu /ndu/ to you	yi /ji/ at you	waf /waf/ from you
3rd singular masc	ba /ba/ he, it	sofs /sofs/ him, it	qu /qu/ his, its	g̊ong /ɢoŋ/ to him, at it	stekh /steχ/ at him, at it	fka /fka/ from him, from it
3rd singular fem	wonts /wonʦ/ she, it	khat /χat/ her, it	yu /ju/ hers, its	yeyt /jejt/ to her, at it	qusk /qusk/ at her, at it	ngka /ŋka/ from her, from it
1st plural inclusive	khem /χem/ we (including you)	min /min/ us (including you)	tswess /ʦwess/ ours (including you)	yo /jo/ to us (including you)	sfa /sfa/ at us (including you)	tsa /ʦa/ from us (including you)
1st plural exclusive	sto /sto/ we (excluding you)	buq /buq/ us (excluding you)	de /de/ ours (excluding you)	man /man/ to us (excluding you)	kan /kan/ at us (excluding you)	me /me/ from us (excluding you)
2nd plural	tsu /ʦu/ you all	sfo /sfo/ you all	qi /qi/ yours (pl)	mo /mo/ to you all	sdod /sdod/ at you all	son /son/ from you all
3rd plural	wast /wast/ they	fki /fki/ them	bi /bi/ theirs	si /si/ to them	sasg /sasg/ at them	yuyy /jujj/ from them

 

Possessive determiners

1st singular	ta /ta/ my
2nd singular	moq /moq/ your
3rd singular masc	mi /mi/ his
3rd singular fem	khaf /χaf/ her
1st plural inclusive	bid /bid/ our (including you)
1st plural exclusive	ngketm /ŋketm/ our (excluding you)
2nd plural	gyuf /gjuf/ your (pl)
3rd plural	de /de/ their

 

Verbs

	Future
Singular	Prefix ju- yuwem /ˈjuwem/ (I/you/he/she/it) will learn
Plural	Prefix o- owem /ˈowem/ (we/they) will learn

  Dongukhi uses a standalone particle word for past tense:

Past	Particle before the verb: ʦam - tsam wem /ʦam wem/ learned

 

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).   Dongukhi uses a standalone particle word for imperfective:

Imperfective

Particle before the verb: wog - wog wem /wog wem/ learns/is learning

 

Numbers

  Dongukhi has a base-10 number system:   1 - me 2 - sekh 3 - fko 4 - g̊em 5 - tyang 6 - sfo 7 - tyoys 8 - meno 9 - bam 10 - fkoyt 11 - fkoytme “ten-one” 100 - me kukho “one hundred” 101 - me kukho khe me “one hundred and one” 200 - sekh kukho 1000 - me boko “one thousand”  

Derivational morphology

  Adjective → adverb = Prefix jo- Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix u- Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix u- Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix k- Else: Prefix ka- Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If starts with vowel: Prefix b- Else: Prefix ba- Noun to verb = Prefix χe- Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix ŋko- Tending to = Prefix wa- Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix do- Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If starts with vowel: Prefix b- Else: Prefix bu- One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Prefix u- Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If starts with vowel: Prefix χ- Else: Prefix χi- Diminutive = Prefix a- Augmentative = If starts with vowel: Prefix tj- Else: Prefix tji-