Ätəyäian

Natively known as: ätəyä /ˈɐtɨjɐ/

  ...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
bə fə ə kərä ’əʽə zələ bə kä yətä ə yərəka ’arə ri
Pronunciation: /bɨ fɨ ɨ ˈkɨrɐ ˈʔɨʕɨ ˈzɨlɨ bɨ kɐ ˈjɨtɐ ɨ ˈjɨrɨka ˈʔarɨ ri/
Ätəyäian word order: and he his hat holding stood and to the wind his wet face turned  

Spelling & Phonology

  Consonant inventory: b d f g h j k kʼ l m n p r s sʼ t tʼ w x z ħ ɲ ʃ ʃʼ ʒ ʔ ʕ  

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Pharyngeal	Glottal
Nasal	m		n		ɲ
Stop	b p		t d tʼ			k g kʼ		ʔ
Fricative		f	z s sʼ	ʃʼ ʒ ʃ		x	ħ ʕ	h
Approximant					j
Trill			r
Lateral approximant			l

  Co-articulated phonemes  

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

  Vowel inventory: a e i o u ɐ ɨ  

	Front	Central	Back
High	i	ɨ	u
High-mid	e		o
Near-low		ɐ
Low	a

  Syllable structure: Custom defined ?
Stress pattern: Initial — stress is on the first syllable ?   Spelling rules:  

Pronunciation	Spelling
ɲ	ñ
ʔ	’
dʒ	ǧ
tʼ	ṭ
tʃʼ	č̣
kʼ	q
ʃ	š
x	ḵ
ħ	ḥ
ʕ	ʽ
tsʼ	ṣ
j	y
ɨ	ə
ɐ	ä

 

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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: prepositions ?  

Nouns

  Nouns have seven 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 is in town.
• Ablative is movement away from something: man walks from town.
• Instrumental is the use of something: man writes with (using) pen.

Nominative	Prefix zɨ- zəbifäḥä /ˈzɨbiˌfɐħɐ/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	Prefix tsʼɨ- ṣəbifäḥä /ˈtsʼɨbiˌfɐħɐ/ (verb done to) dog
Genitive	Prefix tʼɨ- ṭəbifäḥä /ˈtʼɨbiˌfɐħɐ/ dogʼs
Dative	Prefix nɨ- nəbifäḥä /ˈnɨbiˌfɐħɐ/ to dog
Locative	Prefix tɨ- təbifäḥä /ˈtɨbiˌfɐħɐ/ near/at/by dog
Ablative	Prefix ʔɨ- ’əbifäḥä /ˈʔɨbiˌfɐħɐ/ from dog
Instrumental	Prefix da- dabifäḥä /ˈdabiˌfɐħɐ/ with/using dog

 

Singular	Prefix nu- nubifäḥä /ˈnubiˌfɐħɐ/ dog
Plural	Prefix kɨ- kəbifäḥä /ˈkɨbiˌfɐħɐ/ dogs

 

Articles

 

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	ṣa /tsʼa/ the	mä /mɐ/ a
Plural	sə /sɨ/ the	ḥo /ħo/ 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’
• Used for languages: ‘The English’
• Used with place names: ‘The London’

  Uses of indefinite article that differ from English:

• Not used for non-specific countable nouns: non-specific means ‘I am looking for a (any) girl in a red dress’, whereas specific means ‘I am looking for a (particular) girl in a red dress’

 

Pronouns

 

	Nominative	Accusative	Genitive	Dative	Locative	Ablative	Instrumental
1st singular	zə /zɨ/ I	rə /rɨ/ me	’u /ʔu/ mine	o /o/ to me	a /a/ to me	bə /bɨ/ from me	kə /kɨ/ with/using me
2nd singular	nä /nɐ/ you	də /dɨ/ you	mu /mu/ yours	ḥä /ħɐ/ to you	’ə /ʔɨ/ to you	kä /kɐ/ from you	yə /jɨ/ with/using you
3rd singular masc	fə /fɨ/ he, it (masc)	ə /ɨ/ his, it (masc)	nə /nɨ/ his, its (masc)	ä /ɐ/ to his, to it (masc)	gə /gɨ/ to his, to it (masc)	ḥə /ħɨ/ from his, from it (masc)	’e /ʔe/ with/using his, with/using it (masc)
3rd singular fem	dä /dɐ/ she, it (fem)	za /za/ her, it (fem)	bi /bi/ hers, its (fem)	zo /zo/ to her, to it (fem)	i /i/ to her, to it (fem)	zä /zɐ/ from her, from it (fem)	ba /ba/ with/using her, with/using it (fem)
1st plural inclusive	ṣä /tsʼɐ/ we (including you)	sə /sɨ/ us (including you)	ka /ka/ ours (including you)	bu /bu/ to us (including you)	ṣa /tsʼa/ to us (including you)	ki /ki/ from us (including you)	ṣə /tsʼɨ/ with/using us (including you)
1st plural exclusive	ze /ze/ we (excluding you)	’a /ʔa/ us (excluding you)	mä /mɐ/ ours (excluding you)	ko /ko/ to us (excluding you)	bä /bɐ/ to us (excluding you)	mə /mɨ/ from us (excluding you)	rä /rɐ/ with/using us (excluding you)
2nd plural	ṭä /tʼɐ/ you all	na /na/ you all	yä /jɐ/ yours (pl)	hə /hɨ/ to you all	yu /ju/ to you all	qa /kʼa/ from you all	ya /ja/ with/using you all
3rd plural	ṭə /tʼɨ/ they	ta /ta/ them	č̣a /tʃʼa/ theirs	ṣo /tsʼo/ to them	’i /ʔi/ to them	ḥa /ħa/ from them	’ä /ʔɐ/ with/using them

 

Possessive determiners

 

	Possessive
1st singular	ba /ba/ my
2nd singular	sa /sa/ your
3rd singular masc	ə /ɨ/ his
3rd singular fem	ṭä /tʼɐ/ her
1st plural inclusive	nə /nɨ/ our (including you)
1st plural exclusive	’ə /ʔɨ/ our (excluding you)
2nd plural	bə /bɨ/ your (pl)
3rd plural	ko /ko/ their

 

Verbs

 

Present	Prefix nɨ- nəṭə /ˈnɨtʼɨ/ learn
Past	Prefix ħɨ- ḥəṭə /ˈħɨtʼɨ/ learned

  Ätəyäian uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: ɨ - ə ṭə /ɨ tʼɨ/ will learn

 

Progressive aspect

  The ‘progressive’ aspect refers to actions that are happening at the time of speaking, such as I am learning.
Ätəyäian uses an affix for progressive:  

Progressive

Prefix kɨ- kəṭə /ˈkɨtʼɨ/ be 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).
Ätəyäian uses a standalone particle word for habitual:

Habitual

Particle before the verb: nɨ - nə ṭə /nɨ tʼɨ/ learn (often, habitually)

 

Numbers

  Ätəyäian has a base-12 number system:   1 - ko
2 - dä
3 - yə
4 - kə
5 - ḥu
6 - mäḵa
7 - ’ələ
8 - kəmə
9 - fə
10 - wəḵə
11 - ’ə
12 - na
144 - ru
1728 - kuʽəyə
 

Derivational morphology

  Adjective → adverb = Suffix -ni
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Suffix -rɨ
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix zɨ-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Suffix -rɐ
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Suffix -nɨ
Noun to verb = Prefix ʔɨ-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Suffix -no
Tending to = Suffix -rɨ
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix nɨ-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Suffix -jɐ
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Suffix -mɐ
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Suffix -ʕa
Diminutive = Prefix ʔɨ-
Augmentative = Suffix -tɐ