Ɖuɖaxian

Natively known as: ɖuɖax /ˈɖuɖax/

  ...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
tsɔ so ɛɖong ga vem ŋetem tsɔ vem vem ɖeƒi mysa ɖilf ɖo
Pronunciation: /t͡sɔ so ˈɛɖong ga vem ˈŋetem t͡sɔ vem vem ˈɖeɸi mjsa ɖilf ɖo/
Ɖuɖaxian word order: and he stood holding hat his and turned his face wet the wind to  

Spelling & Phonology

  Consonant inventory: b c d d͡z f g g͡b h j k k͡p l m n p r s t t͡s v w x z ŋ ɖ ɣ ɲ ɸ β  

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m		n		ɲ	ŋ
Stop	b p		t d	ɖ	c	k g
Affricate			d͡z
Fricative	ɸ β	v f	s z			x ɣ	h
Approximant					j
Trill			r
Lateral approximant			l

  Co-articulated phonemes  

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Stop	g͡b k͡p
Approximant	w

  Vowel inventory: a ao̯ẽ̯ e i o u ɔ ɛ   Diphthongs: ao̯ẽ̯ ?  

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

  Syllable structure: Custom defined ?
Stress pattern: Penultimate — stress is on the second last syllable ?   Spelling rules:  

Pronunciation	Spelling
d͡z	dz
ɡ͡b	gb
k͡p	kp
ɲ	ny
t͡s	ts
β	ʋ
j	y
ɸ	ƒ

 

---

Grammar

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

Nouns

 

Singular	If ends with vowel: Suffix -x Else: Suffix -ex ƒix /ɸix/ dog
Plural	If ends with vowel: Suffix -m Else: Suffix -um ƒim /ɸim/ dogs

 

Articles

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

Pronouns

 

1st singular	le /le/ I, me, mine
2nd singular	ɖi /ɖi/ you, yours
3rd singular masc	so /so/ he, him, his, it (masc), its (masc)
3rd singular fem	nyes /ɲes/ she, her, hers, it (fem), its (fem)
1st plural	ɔ /ɔ/ we, us, ours
2nd plural	ge /ge/ you all, yours (pl)
3rd plural	ye /je/ they, them, theirs

 

Possessive determiners

 

	Possessive
1st singular	ne /ne/ my
2nd singular	ƒu /ɸu/ your
3rd singular masc	vem /vem/ his
3rd singular fem	le /le/ her
1st plural	nyi /ɲi/ our
2nd plural	e /e/ your (pl)
3rd plural	mɔm /mɔm/ their

 

Verbs

 

	Present	Past	Future
1st singular	If ends with vowel: Suffix -m Else: Suffix -em ɣumem /ˈɣumem/ (I) learn	If ends with vowel: Suffix -m Else: Suffix -ɔm ɣumɔm /ˈɣumɔm/ (I) learned	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ja Else: Suffix -aja ɣumaya /ɣuˈmaja/ (I) will learn
2nd singular	If ends with vowel: Suffix -m Else: Suffix -im ɣumim /ˈɣumim/ (you) learn	Suffix -im ɣumim /ˈɣumim/ (you) learned	If ends with vowel: Suffix -du Else: Suffix -idu ɣumidu /ɣuˈmidu/ (you) will learn
3rd singular	If ends with vowel: Suffix -k͡pɔ Else: Suffix -ak͡pɔ ɣumakpɔ /ɣuˈmak͡pɔ/ (he/she/it) learns	Suffix -ah ɣumah /ˈɣumah/ (he/she/it) learned	Suffix -aŋ ɣumaŋ /ˈɣumaŋ/ (he/she/it) will learn
1st plural	Suffix -em ɣumem /ˈɣumem/ (we) learn	If ends with vowel: Suffix -m Else: Suffix -um ɣumum /ˈɣumum/ (we) learned	If ends with vowel: Suffix -m Else: Suffix -am ɣumam /ˈɣumam/ (we) will learn
2nd plural	Suffix -i ɣumi /ˈɣumi/ (you all) learn	Suffix -a ɣuma /ˈɣuma/ (you all) learned	If ends with vowel: Suffix -s Else: Suffix -us ɣumus /ˈɣumus/ (you all) will learn
3rd plural	Suffix -ɔn ɣumɔn /ˈɣumɔn/ (they) learn	If ends with vowel: Suffix -m Else: Suffix -om ɣumom /ˈɣumom/ (they) learned	Suffix -o ɣumo /ˈɣumo/ (they) will learn

 

Progressive aspect

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

Progressive

If ends with vowel: Suffix -m Else: Suffix -im ɣumim /ˈɣumim/ 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).
Ɖuɖaxian uses a standalone particle word for habitual:

Habitual

Particle before the verb: d͡ze - dze ɣum /d͡ze ɣum/ learn (often, habitually)

 

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.
Ɖuɖaxian uses the word for ‘already’ ŋetu for the perfect aspect.  

Numbers

  Ɖuɖaxian has a base-12 number system:   1 - ɣe
2 - nem
3 - ɖem
4 - mi
5 - tɛx
6 - ku
7 - nyimex
8 - leŋele
9 - lu
10 - nesim
11 - di
12 - kpu
144 - ŋu
1728 - lewe
 

Derivational morphology

  Adjective → adverb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -m
Else: Suffix -om
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ɖu
Else: Suffix -aɖu
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -m
Else: Suffix -um
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -m
Else: Suffix -im
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -m
Else: Suffix -ɔm
Noun to verb = Suffix -es
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Suffix -um
Tending to = If ends with vowel: Suffix -m
Else: Suffix -um
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -e
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -s
Else: Suffix -es
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Suffix -am
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -m
Else: Suffix -em
Diminutive = Suffix -em
Augmentative = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ba
Else: Suffix -ɔba