Ọdudoian

Natively known as: ọdudo /ɔduˈdo/

  ...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
kẹ pi wen kirayẹn i nimun kẹ men i kọ odẹhon tin rup
Pronunciation: /kɛ pi wen kiɾaˈjɛn i niˈmun kɛ men i kɔ odɛˈhon tin ɾup/
Ọdudoian word order: and he stood holding hat his and turned his face wet to the wind  

Spelling & Phonology

  Consonant inventory: b c d d͡ʒ f g g͡b h j k l m n p s t w ɾ ʃ  

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m		n
Stop	p b		t d		c	k g
Affricate				d͡ʒ
Fricative		f	s	ʃ			h
Approximant					j
Tap			ɾ
Lateral approximant			l

  Co-articulated phonemes  

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

  Vowel inventory: a e i o u ɔ ɛ  

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

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

Pronunciation	Spelling
ɔ	ọ
ɛ	ẹ
ʃ	ṣ
ɾ	r
g͡b	gb
j	y
d͡ʒ	j

 

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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: prepositions ?  

Nouns

 

	Animate	Inanimate
Singular	If starts with vowel: Prefix t- Else: Prefix ti-	Prefix da-
Plural	Prefix a-	If starts with vowel: Prefix k- Else: Prefix ku-

 

Articles

 

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	san /san/ the	pan /pan/ a
Plural	in /in/ the	so /so/ some

  Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Used for personal names in third person: ‘The Maria has left for school’
• Used with place names: ‘The London’

  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

 

1st singular	men /men/ I, me, mine
2nd singular	po /po/ you, yours
3rd singular masc	pi /pi/ he, him, his, it (masc), its (masc)
3rd singular fem	gi /gi/ she, her, hers, it (fem), its (fem)
1st plural	nin /nin/ we, us, ours
2nd plural	gin /gin/ you all, yours (pl)
3rd plural	fi /fi/ they, them, theirs

 

Possessive determiners

 

	Possessive
1st singular	mo /mo/ my
2nd singular	kan /kan/ your
3rd singular masc	i /i/ his
3rd singular fem	an /an/ her
1st plural	se /se/ our
2nd plural	gbe /g͡be/ your (pl)
3rd plural	u /u/ their

 

Verbs

 

Present	If starts with vowel: Prefix d͡ʒ- Else: Prefix d͡ʒa- jakimi /d͡ʒakiˈmi/ learn
Past	Prefix ɔ- ọkimi /ɔkiˈmi/ learned

  Ọdudoian uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: na - na kimi /na kiˈmi/ will learn

 

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.
Ọdudoian uses an affix for the perfect aspect:  

Perfect

If starts with vowel: Prefix m- Else: Prefix mo- mokimi /mokiˈmi/ have learned

 

Numbers

  Ọdudoian has a base-12 number system:   1 - man
2 - mo
3 - ken
4 - e
5 - ne
6 - ma
7 - tan
8 - lo
9 - nid
10 - biyen
11 - bu
12 - ṣaobod
144 - ai
1728 - jan
 

Derivational morphology

  Adjective → adverb = If starts with vowel: Prefix n-
Else: Prefix nu-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix m-
Else: Prefix mi-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix kɛ-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix k-
Else: Prefix ki-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If starts with vowel: Prefix d-
Else: Prefix de-
Noun to verb = Prefix pi-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix iʃ-
Else: Prefix iʃu-
Tending to = If starts with vowel: Prefix m-
Else: Prefix mi-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix o-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If starts with vowel: Prefix d-
Else: Prefix di-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If starts with vowel: Prefix h-
Else: Prefix he-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ak-
Else: Prefix aku-
Diminutive = Prefix so-
Augmentative = If starts with vowel: Prefix b-
Else: Prefix bo-