Dwarven

Natively known as: dírd /d̪ˠiːɾˠd̪ˠ/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
ár dru scria pisté sréch án ár scria caluabh dod deimh tí mu
Pronunciation: /ɑːɾʲ dʲɾʲʊ ʃcɾʲia̯ ˈpˠɪsˠt̪ˠeː sˠɾˠeːx ɑːnʲ ɑːɾʲ ʃcɾʲia̯ ˈkalʲuə̯vʲ dʲɔdʲ dʲɛvˠ tʲiː mˠʊ/
Dírdian word order: and he his hat holding stood and his wet face the wind to turned

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: bʲ bˠ c dʲ d̪ˠ fʲ fˠ g h k lʲ mʲ mˠ nʲ n̪ˠ pʲ pˠ sˠ tʲ t̪ˠ vʲ vˠ x ç ŋ ɟ ɫ ɲ ɾʲ ɾˠ ʃ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	mʲ mˠ		n̪ˠ	nʲ		ɲ	ŋ
Stop	pʲ pˠ bʲ bˠ		t̪ˠ d̪ˠ	tʲ dʲ		c ɟ	k g
Fricative		fʲ fˠ vʲ vˠ		sˠ	ʃ	ç	x	h
Tap				ɾʲ ɾˠ
Lateral approximant				lʲ

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Velarized alveolar
Lateral approximant	ɫ

Vowel inventory: a eː ia̯ iə̯ iː oː uə̯ uː ɑː ɔ əi̯ əu̯ ɛ ɪ ʊ
Diphthongs: ia̯ iə̯ uə̯ əi̯ əu̯

	Front	Back
High	iː	uː
Near-high	ɪ	ʊ
High-mid	eː	oː
Low-mid	ɛ	ɔ
Low	a	ɑː

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

Pronunciation	Spelling
ca	cea
coː	ceo
cu	ciu
kɪ	coi | cai | cui
k	c
h	th
x	ch
ç	ch
ɲ	nn
#n̪ˠ	n
nʲ	n
n̪ˠ	nn
ŋg	ng
ŋ	ng
mʲ	m
mˠ	m
pʲ	p
pˠ	p
bʲ	b
bˠ	b
lʲ	l
ɫ	l
ʃa	sea
sˠɪ	sai
sˠi	suí
sˠeː	sao
ʃɔ	seo | sio
ʃo	seo
ʃu	siu
ʃ	s
sˠ	s
tʲu	tiu
tʲ	te / _{a,ɑː}
tʲ	t
t̪ˠoː	teo
t̪ˠɛ	te
t̪ˠ	t
fˠi	faoi
fˠɪ	fui
fˠuː	fiú
fˠ	f
fʲ	f
ɟ	g
ɪ	i
ɑː	á
eːɾˠ	éar
ɾˠ	r
ɾʲ	r
vˠ	bh | mh
vʲ	bh
d̪ˠ	d
dʲ	d
əi	a
eː	é
ɛ	ei
ɔ	o
oː	ó
iː	í
uː	ú
iə	ia
əu	ai
uə	ua
ʊ	u
̯

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Grammar

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

Nouns

Nouns have five 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 goes to town.

Nominative	No affix seos /ʃɔʃ/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	Prefix lʲa- lasios /ˈlʲaʃɔʃ/ (verb done to) dog
Genitive	If starts with vowel: Prefix tʲɾʲ- Else: Prefix tʲɾʲiə̯- triaseos /ˈtʲɾʲiə̯ʃɔʃ/ dogʼs
Dative	Prefix eː- ésios /ˈeːʃɔʃ/ to (the/a) dog
Locative	If starts with vowel: Prefix d̪ˠ- Else: Prefix d̪ˠa- dasios /ˈd̪ˠaʃɔʃ/ near/at/by (the/a) dog

	Singular	Plural
Definite	No affix sios /ʃɔʃ/ the dog	If starts with vowel: Prefix kɫ- Else: Prefix kɫoː- clósios /ˈkɫoːʃɔʃ/ the dogs
Indefinite	If starts with vowel: Prefix gɾˠ- Else: Prefix gɾˠuː- grúseos /ˈgɾˠuːʃɔʃ/ a dog	Prefix ɑː- ásios /ˈɑːʃɔʃ/ some dogs

Articles

Dírdian encodes definite article ‘the’, and indefinite article ‘a’ in noun affixes. See Noun section.

Pronouns

	Nominative	Accusative	Genitive	Dative	Locative
1st singular	beinn /bʲɛn̪ˠ/ I	giart /giə̯ɾˠt̪ˠ/ me	ci /cɪ/ mine	lé /ɫeː/ to me	eis /ɛsˠ/ at me
2nd singular	gli /gɫɪ/ you	bí /bˠiː/ you	tha /həi̯/ yours	gol /gɔlʲ/ to you	bé /bˠeː/ at you
3rd singular masc	dru /dʲɾʲʊ/ he, it	ód /oːd̪ˠ/ him, it	scria /ʃcɾʲia̯/ his, its	sea /ʃa/ to him, at it	sí /ʃiː/ at him, at it
3rd singular fem	ceith /cɛh/ she, it	chli /xɫɪ/ her, it	srabh /sˠɾˠavˠ/ hers, its	sil /ʃɪlʲ/ to her, at it	gú /ɟuː/ at her, at it
1st plural inclusive	sio /ʃɔ/ we (including you)	bach /bˠax/ us (including you)	tónn /tʲoːn̪ˠ/ ours (including you)	á /ɑː/ to us (including you)	bú /bʲuː/ at us (including you)
1st plural exclusive	í /iː/ we (excluding you)	ca /ka/ us (excluding you)	ont /ɔnʲtʲ/ ours (excluding you)	crá /cɾʲɑː/ to us (excluding you)	círt /kiːɾʲtʲ/ at us (excluding you)
2nd plural	bei /bʲɛ/ you all	bis /bˠɪʃ/ you all	brad /bʲɾʲad̪ˠ/ yours (pl)	crei /kɾˠɛ/ to you all	cí /ciː/ at you all
3rd plural	a /a/ they	a /əi̯/ them	tria /tʲɾʲia̯/ theirs	teo /t̪ˠoː/ to them	sracht /sˠɾˠaxt̪ˠ/ at them

Possessive determiners

1st singular	ci /cɪ/ my
2nd singular	tha /həi̯/ your
3rd singular masc	scria /ʃcɾʲia̯/ his
3rd singular fem	sramh /sˠɾˠavˠ/ her
1st plural inclusive	tónn /tʲoːn̪ˠ/ our (including you)
1st plural exclusive	ont /ɔnʲtʲ/ our (excluding you)
2nd plural	brad /bʲɾʲad̪ˠ/ your (pl)
3rd plural	tria /tʲɾʲia̯/ their

Verbs

Present	Prefix eː- ébia /ˈeːbʲiə̯/ learn
Past	No affix bia /bʲiə̯/ learned
Future	Prefix bʲɪ- bibia /ˈbʲɪbʲiə̯/ will learn

Imperfective aspect

The ‘imperfective’ aspect refers to ongoing actions, such as I am learning and habitual actions, such as I learn (something new every day).
Dírdian uses an affix for imperfective:

Imperfective

Prefix ʃɔ- siobia /ˈʃɔbʲiə̯/ learns/is learning

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.
Dírdian uses the word for ‘finish’ uannar for the perfect aspect.

Numbers

Dírdian has a base-10 number system:
1 - ant
2 - lérócht
3 - mú
4 - sai
5 - ul
6 - drangó
7 - ur
8 - chí
9 - i
10 - pu
Hundred - crág
Thousand - pil

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If starts with vowel: Prefix bˠ-
Else: Prefix bˠɛ-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ɾˠtʲ
Else: Suffix -ɔɾˠtʲ
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix bʲɾʲəu̯-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʃtʲeː
Else: Suffix -ia̯ʃtʲeː
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If starts with vowel: Prefix c-
Else: Prefix cɪ-
Noun to verb = Prefix gɾˠa-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Suffix -ɑːɾˠ
Tending to = Suffix -ɛd̪ˠ
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -ia̯h
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If starts with vowel: Prefix t̪ˠɾˠ-
Else: Prefix t̪ˠɾˠia̯-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If starts with vowel: Prefix t̪ˠɾˠ-
Else: Prefix t̪ˠɾˠɪ-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Suffix -ɑːmʲ
Diminutive = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ɾʲeː
Else: Suffix -aɾʲeː
Augmentative = Suffix -eː

Dictionary

3049 Words.