Estemari (Ehs-tih-MAWR-ee)

Natively known as: estemar̄i /ˌesteˈmaɾi/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
be ćo saeyr̄ di yajtin defḡoeyr̄ be di eñ sufpu yoeyr̄ siba dañ
Pronunciation: /be ko θaeyr̄ di ˈʝaxtiɱ ðefgoeyr̄ be di eɲ ˈθufpu ɟʝoeyr̄ ˈθiβa ðaɲ/
Estemari word order: and he stood his hat holding and his wet face turned the wind to

Phonology

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b d f g k l m n p r s t tʃ v x z ð ŋ ɟʝ ɣ ɱ ɲ ɾ ʃ ʎ ʝ β θ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal	m	ɱ		n		ɲ	ŋ
Stop	p b			t d			k g
Fricative	β	f v	θ ð	s z	ʃ	ʝ	x ɣ
Tap				ɾ
Trill				r
Lateral approximant				l		ʎ

Vowel inventory: a e i o u

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

Syllable structure: (C)V(C)
Stress pattern: Penultimate — stress is on the second last syllable
Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
b	b
β	b
d	d
ð	d
f	f
ɡ	ḡ
ɣ	g
ɟʝ	y
ʝ	y
k	ć
l	l
m	m
ɱ	n
n	n
ɲ	ñ
ŋ	n
p	p
r	r
ɾ	r̄
s	s
θ	s
x	j
tʃ	ch
ʃ	x
t	t
v	f
ʎ	ll
z	s
a	a
e	e
i	i
o	o
u	u

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Grammar

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

Nouns

Nouns have five 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 is in town.

Ergative	Prefix va- fafamći /vaˈvamki/ dog (doing a transitive verb)
Absolutive	No affix famći /ˈvamki/ dog (doing an intransitive verb)
Genitive	If starts with vowel: Prefix ʎ- Else: Prefix ʎe- llefamći /ʎeˈvamki/ dogʼs
Dative	If starts with vowel: Prefix r- Else: Prefix ro- rofamći /roˈvamki/ to dog
Locative	If starts with vowel: Prefix d- Else: Prefix du- dufamći /duˈvamki/ near/at/by dog

	Singular	Plural
Definite	No affix famći /ˈvamki/ the dog	Prefix fi- fifamći /fiˈvamki/ the dogs
Indefinite	If starts with vowel: Prefix x- Else: Prefix xi- jifamći /xiˈvamki/ a dog	Prefix sa- safamći /saˈvamki/ some dogs

Articles

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

Pronouns

	Ergative	Absolutive	Genitive	Dative	Locative
1st singular	fe /fe/ I	se /ze/ me	yu /ɟʝu/ mine	be /βe/ to me	ses /zes/ to me
2nd singular	de /ðe/ you	ći /ki/ you	tu /tu/ yours	u /u/ to you	ćom /kom/ to you
3rd singular masc	ćo /ko/ he, it (masc)	ba /ba/ his, it (masc)	te /te/ his, its (masc)	ću /ku/ to his, to it (masc)	bo /bo/ to his, to it (masc)
3rd singular fem	ća /ka/ she, it (fem)	yi /ɟʝi/ her, it (fem)	ni /ɱi/ hers, its (fem)	bo /βo/ to her, to it (fem)	a /a/ to her, to it (fem)
1st plural	buy /buʝ/ we	fa /fa/ us	xe /ʃe/ ours	se /θe/ to us	dan /daɱ/ to us
2nd plural	jer /xer/ you all	fa /va/ you all	ja /xa/ yours (pl)	fi /fi/ to you all	du /du/ to you all
3rd plural	fos /foz/ they	do /do/ them	sić /zik/ theirs	na /ɱa/ to them	nus /ɱuz/ to them

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	bu /βu/ my
2nd singular	od /od/ your
3rd singular masc	di /di/ his
3rd singular fem	ña /ɲa/ her
1st plural	xi /ʃi/ our
2nd plural	ti /ti/ your (pl)
3rd plural	ñu /ɲu/ their

Verbs

Present	Prefix zi- sićeeyr̄ /ˌzikeˈeyr̄/ learn
Past	No affix ćeeyr̄ /keˈeyr̄/ learned
Remote past	Prefix o- oćeeyr̄ /ˌokeˈeyr̄/ learned (long ago)

Estemari uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: ɱu - nu ćeeyr̄ /ɱu keˈeyr̄/ 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).
Estemari uses a standalone particle word for imperfective:

Imperfective

Particle before the verb: βu - bu ćeeyr̄ /βu keˈeyr̄/ learns/is learning

Numbers

Estemari has a base-10 number system:
1 - llo
2 - si
3 - ra
4 - fo
5 - xi
6 - do
7 - tufa
8 - bimo
9 - fur̄
10 - am
100 - fesa
1000 - ćoro

Morphology

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Suffix -um
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ɣɾa
Else: Suffix -eɣɾa
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Suffix -e
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix enr-
Else: Prefix enri-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Suffix -az
Noun to verb = If starts with vowel: Prefix d-
Else: Prefix de-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix a-
Tending to = Prefix ʃo-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ɣ
Else: Suffix -eɣ
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Suffix -ið
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Suffix -il
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -l
Else: Suffix -el
Diminutive = If ends with vowel: Suffix -t
Else: Suffix -at
Augmentative = If ends with vowel: Suffix -k
Else: Suffix -ok

Dictionary

1867 Words.

Spoken by

• Estemari