Goblin

Natively known as: vunsi /ˈvunsi/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
ra pro ma quistu cioderi spi ra disu fuo ma boa tre cio
Pronunciation: /ra pro ma ˈkwistu ˈʧɔderi spi ra ˈdizu fwo ma ˈbɔa tre ʧo/
Vunsi word order: and he his hat holding stood and the wind to his wet face turned

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b d f g j k l m n p r s t v w z ɲ ʃ ʎ ʣ ʤ ʦ ʧ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal	m		n		ɲ
Stop	p b		t d			k g
Affricate			ʦ ʣ	ʧ ʤ
Fricative		f v	s z	ʃ
Approximant					j
Trill			r
Lateral approximant			l		ʎ

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
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: Initial — stress is on the first syllable
Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
kw	qu
w	u
z	s
ʃ	sc
tʦ	zz
ʦ	z
k	c / !_{i,e,ɛ}
ʧ	ci / !_{i,e,ɛ}
ʧ	c
ʤ	gi / !_{i,e,ɛ}
ʤ	g
k	ch
ʎʎ	gli
ɲ	gn
ɛ	e
ɔ	o
j	i

---

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: postpositions

Nouns

Nouns have six cases:

• Ergative is the doer of a verb, when the verb is done to something: dog bites man.
• Absolutive is used in two scenarios: the doer of a verb when not done to something (dog bites), and 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.
• Ablative is movement away from something: man walks from town.

	Singular	Plural
Ergative	Suffix -dra dermadra /ˈdɛrmadra/ dog (doing the verb to something)	Suffix -nti dermanti /ˈdɛrmanti/ dogs (doing the verb to something)
Absolutive	No affix derma /ˈdɛrma/ dog (doing the verb, but not to something)	Suffix -mu dermamu /ˈdɛrmamu/ dogs (doing the verb, but not to something)
Genitive	Suffix -rtʃo dermartsco /ˈdɛrmartʃo/ dogʼs	Suffix -ɲo dermagno /ˈdɛrmaɲo/ dogsʼ
Dative	Suffix -ppɔ dermappo /ˈdɛrmappɔ/ to (the/a) dog	Suffix -dʤa dermadgia /ˈdɛrmadʤa/ to (the/some) dogs
Locative	Suffix -ra dermara /ˈdɛrmara/ near/at/by (the/a) dog	Suffix -ltru dermaltru /ˈdɛrmaltru/ near/at/by (the/some) dogs
Ablative	Suffix -stro dermastro /ˈdɛrmastro/ from (the/a) dog	Suffix -rɔ dermaro /ˈdɛrmarɔ/ from (the/some) dogs

Articles

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	va /va/ the	zu /ʦu/ a
Plural	a /a/ the	so /so/ 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 personal names in third person: ‘The Maria has left for school’
• Used for languages: ‘The English’

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

	Ergative	Absolutive	Genitive	Dative	Locative	Ablative
1st singular	fu /fu/ I	cre /kre/ me, I	cri /kri/ mine	stri /stri/ to me	schi /ski/ at me	gua /gwa/ from me
2nd singular	o /o/ you	cio /ʧɔ/ you	gru /gru/ yours	cia /kja/ to you	nia /nja/ at you	que /kwe/ from you
3rd singular masc	pro /pro/ he, it	to /tɔ/ him, it	u /u/ his, its	co /ko/ to him, at it	be /be/ at him, at it	fue /fwe/ from him, from it
3rd singular fem	le /le/ she, it	squo /skwo/ her, it	pio /pjo/ hers, its	du /du/ to her, at it	a /a/ at her, at it	gi /ʤi/ from her, from it
1st plural inclusive	so /sɔ/ we (including you)	ve /ve/ us, we (including you)	ro /rɔ/ ours (including you)	la /la/ to us (including you)	ca /ka/ at us (including you)	ua /wa/ from us (including you)
1st plural exclusive	pe /pe/ we (excluding you)	ui /wi/ us, we (excluding you)	zu /ʦu/ ours (excluding you)	sta /sta/ to us (excluding you)	vu /vu/ at us (excluding you)	pri /pri/ from us (excluding you)
2nd plural	gio /ʤɔ/ you all	va /va/ you all	ge /ge/ yours (pl)	tra /tra/ to you all	fo /fo/ at you all	lo /lo/ from you all
3rd plural	pre /pre/ they	o /ɔ/ them, they	nue /nwe/ theirs	pro /prɔ/ to them	pa /pa/ at them	vo /vo/ from them

Possessive determiners

1st singular	sca /ska/ my
2nd singular	stro /strɔ/ your
3rd singular masc	ma /ma/ his
3rd singular fem	u /u/ her
1st plural inclusive	zo /ʦɔ/ our (including you)
1st plural exclusive	ti /ti/ our (excluding you)
2nd plural	te /te/ your (pl)
3rd plural	ve /ve/ their

Verbs

Present	No affix casi /ˈkazi/ learn
Past	Suffix -mi casimi /ˈkazimi/ learned

Vunsi uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: ri - ri casi /ri ˈkazi/ will learn

Progressive aspect

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

Progressive

Suffix -nʦu casinzu /ˈkazinʦu/ is 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).
Vunsi uses a standalone particle word for habitual:

Habitual

Particle before the verb: fwɔ - fuo casi /fwɔ ˈkazi/ learns

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.
Vunsi uses an affix for the perfect aspect:

Perfect

Suffix -ffi casiffi /ˈkaziffi/ have learned

Numbers

Vunsi has a base-10 number system:
1 - te
2 - me
3 - lolta
4 - su
5 - fre
6 - bo
7 - bi
8 - o
9 - tu
10 - pia
11 - te ra pia “one and ten”
100 - gru “hundred”
101 - gru ra te “hundred and one”
200 - me gru
1000 - schi “thousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Suffix -sta
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Suffix -ne
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Suffix -da
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Suffix -ro
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Suffix -rru
Noun to verb = Suffix -ma
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Suffix -tʦu
Tending to = Suffix -nne
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -tto
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Suffix -rde
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Suffix -rna
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Suffix -ngwe
Diminutive = Suffix -ʃʃu
Augmentative = Suffix -tɔ

Dictionary

3035 Words.