Inarian (/Inarian/)

Natively known as: inawén /iˈnawén/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
pi ge ihe ha ge konu pi zun ge nasen eyun to karan
Pronunciation: /pi ge ˈihe ha ge ˈkomu pi zun ge ˈmasen ˈejun to ˈkaɾan/
Inarian word order: and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b d g h j k m n p s t w z ŋ ɾ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m	n		ŋ
Stop	p b	t d		k g
Fricative		s z			h
Approximant			j
Tap		ɾ

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: a e i o u

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

Syllable structure: Custom defined
Stress pattern: Penultimate — stress is on the second last syllable
Word initial consonants: b d g h j k m n p s t w z ɾ
Mid-word consonants: b bj d g gj h hj j k kj m mb mj mp n nj ns nt nw nɾ p pj s t w z ŋg ɾ ɾj
Word final consonants: n
Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ŋ	n
m	n
j	y
ɾ	r

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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: prepositions

Nouns

Nouns form plural with separate plural word:

Plural

Particle before the noun: su - su tode /su ˈtode/ dogs

Articles

Definite	kun /kun/ the
Indefinite	su /su/ a, some

Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Definite article can be omitted: ‘I am going to supermarket’
• 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’
• Used with place names: ‘The London’

Pronouns

	Nominative	Accusative
1st singular	ku /ku/ I	nin /min/ me
2nd singular	da /da/ you	bin /bin/ you
3rd singular	ge /ge/ he, she, it	e /e/ him, her, it
1st plural	nu /mu/ we	yun /jun/ us
2nd plural	ka /ka/ you all	ta /ta/ you all
3rd plural	un /un/ they	ran /ɾan/ them

Possessive determiners

1st singular	ku /ku/ my
2nd singular	da /da/ your
3rd singular	ge /ge/ his, her, its
1st plural	nu /mu/ our
2nd plural	ka /ka/ your (pl)
3rd plural	un /un/ their

Verbs

Inarian uses a standalone particle word for past tense:

Past	Particle before the verb: un - un doru /un ˈdoɾu/ learned

Inarian uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: ju - yu doru /ju ˈdoɾu/ will learn

Progressive aspect

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

Progressive

If starts with vowel: Prefix k- Else: Prefix ka- kadoru /kaˈdoɾu/ 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).
Inarian uses a standalone particle word for habitual:

Habitual

Particle before the verb: ho - ho doru /ho ˈdoɾu/ learns

Numbers

Inarian has a base-20 number system:
1 - bi
2 - ren
3 - tekyu
4 - don
5 - zuku
6 - kurin
7 - san
8 - uzan
9 - sun
10 - ru
11 - oze
12 - uto
13 - sanbi
14 - punu
15 - aso
16 - kuri
17 - karu
18 - onraka
19 - nuzahyon
20 - bide
21 - bide pi bi “twenty and one”
400 - uyuki “fourhundred”
401 - uyuki bi “fourhundred one”
800 - ren uyuki “two fourhundred”
8000 - pupu “eightthousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If starts with vowel: Prefix ɾ-
Else: Prefix ɾi-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix d-
Else: Prefix da-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix n-
Else: Prefix ni-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix d-
Else: Prefix da-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Prefix ke-
Noun to verb = Prefix a-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix h-
Else: Prefix hi-
Tending to = Prefix u-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix t-
Else: Prefix ta-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Prefix se-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If starts with vowel: Prefix d-
Else: Prefix do-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If starts with vowel: Prefix s-
Else: Prefix sa-
Diminutive = Prefix u-
Augmentative = Prefix so-

Dictionary

307 Words.