Dragonrider's Dragonrace Language • The Language of Tāwan

Natively known as: tāwan /ˈtaːwan/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
pwō gbe mwu tmānkyip gbe hyen pwō pwē gbe yēk nak ātki tme
Pronunciation: /pwoː g͡be mwu ˈtmaːnkjip g͡be hjen pwoː pweː g͡be jeːk nak ˈaːtki tme/
Tāwan word order: and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face the wind to

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: g͡b h j k k͡p m n p t w ŋ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m	n		ŋ
Stop	p	t		k
Fricative					h
Approximant			j

Co-articulated phonemes

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

Vowel inventory: a aː e eː i iː o oː u uː

	Front	Back
High	i iː	u uː
High-mid	e eː	o oː
Low	a aː

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

Pronunciation	Spelling
g͡b	gb
j	y
k͡p	kp
ŋ	ng
Vː	V̄

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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 before the noun.
Adposition: postpositions ?

Nouns

Singular	No affix haykī /ˈhajkiː/ dog
Plural	If starts with vowel: Prefix p- Else: Prefix piː- pīhaykī /ˈpiːhajkiː/ dogs

Articles

Definite	hwū /hwuː/ the
Indefinite	nī /niː/ 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 personal names in third person: ‘The Maria has left for school’
• Used for languages: ‘The English’

Pronouns

1st singular	hyo /hjo/ I, me, mine
2nd singular	ton /ton/ you, yours
3rd singular	gbe /g͡be/ he, him, his, she, her, hers, it, its
1st plural	muw /muw/ we, us, ours
2nd plural	nu /nu/ you all, yours (pl)
3rd plural	tmo /tmo/ they, them, theirs

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	hyo /hjo/ my
2nd singular	ton /ton/ your
3rd singular	gbe /g͡be/ his, her, its
1st plural	muw /muw/ our
2nd plural	nu /nu/ your (pl)
3rd plural	tmo /tmo/ their

Verbs

	Present	Past
1st singular	Prefix eː- ēmāmi /ˈeːmaːmi/ (I) learn	Prefix jaː- yāmāmi /ˈjaːmaːmi/ (I) learned
2nd singular	Prefix a- amāmi /ˈamaːmi/ (you) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix n- Else: Prefix no- nomāmi /ˈnomaːmi/ (you) learned
3rd singular	If starts with vowel: Prefix m- Else: Prefix mu- mumāmi /ˈmumaːmi/ (he/she/it) learns	Prefix mwa- mwamāmi /ˈmwamaːmi/ (he/she/it) learned
1st plural	If starts with vowel: Prefix inkt- Else: Prefix inkto- inktomāmi /ˈinktoˌmaːmi/ (we) learn	Prefix paː- pāmāmi /ˈpaːmaːmi/ (we) learned
2nd plural	If starts with vowel: Prefix aw- Else: Prefix aweː- awēmāmi /ˈaweːˌmaːmi/ (you all) learn	Prefix tmoː- tmōmāmi /ˈtmoːmaːmi/ (you all) learned
3rd plural	If starts with vowel: Prefix kw- Else: Prefix kwo- kwomāmi /ˈkwomaːmi/ (they) learn	Prefix i- imāmi /ˈimaːmi/ (they) learned

Tāwan uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: kwuːk͡p - kwūkp māmi /kwuːk͡p ˈmaːmi/ 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.
Tāwan uses the word for ‘already’ twap for the perfect aspect.

Numbers

Tāwan has a base-10 number system:
1 - en
2 - kō
3 - mo
4 - hyē
5 - mwi
6 - tep
7 - yūwē
8 - pap
9 - twan
10 - mop
100 - ka
1000 - kūn

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If starts with vowel: Prefix okt-
Else: Prefix okteː-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix mw-
Else: Prefix mwuː-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix aːmk-
Else: Prefix aːmka-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix aː-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If starts with vowel: Prefix k-
Else: Prefix kuː-
Noun to verb = If starts with vowel: Prefix tw-
Else: Prefix tweː-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix aː-
Tending to = Prefix oː-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix eː-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If starts with vowel: Prefix aːŋ-
Else: Prefix aːŋu-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If starts with vowel: Prefix k-
Else: Prefix keː-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If starts with vowel: Prefix in-
Else: Prefix inu-
Diminutive = If starts with vowel: Prefix k-
Else: Prefix ka-
Augmentative = Prefix iː-

Dictionary

4278 Words.