Lizardfolk (Language)

Natively known as: utsdü /ˈuːtsdʊ/

  ...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
a paü nluk zhaí üf wu a zhaí ruh shuy fwoü fyay lú
Pronunciation: /æ paʊ̯ nluːk ʒaɪ̯ ʊf wuː æ ʒaɪ̯ ɹʌ shuːj fwoʊ̯ fjæj lɜː/
Utsdüian word order: and he stood his hat holding and his wet face turned the wind to  

Spelling & Phonology

  Consonant inventory: b d f g h j k l m n p s t v w z ðk ŋ ɹ ʃ ʒ ʤ ʧ θ  

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m			n			ŋ
Stop	b p			d t			g k
Affricate					ʧ ʤ
Fricative		f v	θ	s z	ʃ ʒ			h
Approximant				ɹ		j
Lateral approximant				l

  Co-articulated phonemes  

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

  Vowel inventory: aɪ̯ aʊ̯ eɪ̯ iː oʊ̯ uː æ ɑ ɔɪ̯ ɔː ɛ ɜː ɪ ʊ ʌ   Diphthongs: aɪ̯ aʊ̯ eɪ̯ oʊ̯ ɔɪ̯ ?  

	Front	Central	Back
High	iː		uː
Near-high	ɪ		ʊ
Low-mid	ɛ	ɜː	ɔː ʌ
Near-low	æ
Low			ɑ

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

Pronunciation	Spelling
iː	i
uː	u
æ	a
ɛ	e
ɑ	o
ɜː	ú
ɔː	aw
ʊ	ü
ʌ	uh
ɪ	í
eɪ̯	ay
aʊ̯	ou
aɪ̯	ie
ɔɪ̯	oi
ɹ	r
θ	th
ʒ	zh
j	y
ʃ	sh
ŋ	ng
ʤ	j
ʧ	ch
Vː	VV
◌̯

 

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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.

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	No affix aíla /ˈaɪ̯læ/ dog (doing the verb)	Prefix ɛ- eaíla /ɛˈaɪ̯læ/ dogs (doing the verb)
Accusative	If starts with vowel: Prefix g- Else: Prefix gaʊ̯- gaíla /ˈgaɪ̯læ/ (verb done to) the/a dog	Prefix ʊ- üaíla /ʊˈaɪ̯læ/ (verb done to) dogs
Genitive	Prefix tsæ- tsaaíla /tsæˈaɪ̯læ/ dogʼs	If starts with vowel: Prefix eɪ̯nl- Else: Prefix eɪ̯nlɔɪ̯- eínlaíla /eɪ̯ˈnlaɪ̯læ/ dogsʼ
Dative	Prefix ɔɪ̯- ɔíaíla /ɔɪ̯ˈaɪ̯læ/ to the/a dog	Prefix oʊ̯- oüaíla /oʊ̯ˈaɪ̯læ/ to dogs

 

Articles

 

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	psuh /psʌ/ the	eí /eɪ̯/ a
Plural	ngo /ŋɑ/ the	zho /ʒɑ/ some

  Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Definite article can be omitted: ‘I am going to supermarket’
• Used for personal names in third person: ‘The Maria has left for school’
• Used with place names: ‘The London’

 

Pronouns

 

	Nominative	Accusative	Genitive	Dative
1st singular	hwí /hwɪ/ I	praü /pɹaʊ̯/ me	duh /dʌ/ mine	wí /wɪ/ to me
2nd singular	shli /ʃliː/ you	dzo /dzɑ/ you	an /æn/ yours	svaws /svɔːs/ to you
3rd singular masc	paü /paʊ̯/ he, it (masc)	dzaü /dzaʊ̯/ his, it (masc)	hwo /hwɑ/ his, its (masc)	ksil /ksiːl/ to his, to it (masc)
3rd singular fem	krun /kɹuːn/ she, it (fem)	oü /oʊ̯/ her, it (fem)	gruh /gɹʌ/ hers, its (fem)	baüs /baʊ̯s/ to her, to it (fem)
1st plural	gru /gɹuː/ we	shní /ʃnɪ/ us	dzha /dʒæ/ ours	nla /nlæ/ to us
2nd plural	awth /ɔːθ/ you all	búp /bɜːp/ you all	vzhde /vʒdɛ/ yours (pl)	rú /ɹɜː/ to you all
3rd plural	myü /mjʊ/ they	kva /kvæ/ them	bi /biː/ theirs	beí /beɪ̯/ to them

 

Possessive determiners

 

	Possessive
1st singular	bwa /bwæ/ my
2nd singular	lwo /lwɑ/ your
3rd singular masc	zhaí /ʒaɪ̯/ his
3rd singular fem	vzhdu /vʒduː/ her
1st plural	shvi /ʃviː/ our
2nd plural	zluh /zluːh/ your (pl)
3rd plural	thra /θɹæ/ their

 

Verbs

 

	Present	Past	Remote past
1st person	Prefix ʌ- uhpra /ˈʌpɹæ/ (I/we) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix gwl- Else: Prefix gwlɛ- gwlepra /ˈgwlɛpɹæ/ (I/we) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix kw- Else: Prefix kwʌ- kwuhpra /ˈkwʌpɹæ/ (I/we) learned (long ago)
2nd person	If starts with vowel: Prefix t- Else: Prefix tʌ- tuhpra /ˈtʌpɹæ/ (you/you all) learn	Prefix swɑ- swopra /ˈswɑpɹæ/ (you/you all) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix fst- Else: Prefix fstaʊ̯- fstaüpra /ˈfstaʊ̯pɹæ/ (you/you all) learned (long ago)
3rd person	Prefix iː- ipra /ˈiːpɹæ/ (he/she/it/they) learn(s)	If starts with vowel: Prefix ʌŋ- Else: Prefix ʌŋɜː- uhngúpra /ʌˈŋɜːpɹæ/ (he/she/it/they) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix j- Else: Prefix jɜː- yúpra /ˈjɜːpɹæ/ (he/she/it/they) learned (long ago)

  Utsdüian uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: pɹɔɪ̯ - prɔí pra /pɹɔɪ̯ pɹæ/ will learn

 

Numbers

  Utsdüian has a base-20 number system:   1 - kúf
2 - lwí
3 - zaðk
4 - shni
5 - fstí
6 - sha
7 - gwú
8 - shmi
9 - thak
10 - dfün
11 - yuh
12 - yeí
13 - vyi
14 - bo
15 - otsyi
16 - nyuh
17 - komdzhí
18 - bek
19 - preí
20 - shop
400 - geí
8000 - tsa
 

Derivational morphology

  Adjective → adverb = If starts with vowel: Prefix t-
Else: Prefix tæ-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix paɪ̯-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix æ-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix ɔɪ̯-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Prefix æ-
Noun to verb = If starts with vowel: Prefix ʊbw-
Else: Prefix ʊbwɪ-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix aɪ̯-
Tending to = If starts with vowel: Prefix k-
Else: Prefix kʌ-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix æws-
Else: Prefix æwsuː-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Prefix dvjɪ-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ɔːnb-
Else: Prefix ɔːnbiː-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Prefix ʧlaɪ̯-
Diminutive = Prefix ʧleɪ̯-
Augmentative = Prefix ʃɔː-