Language of Halflings

Natively known as: Horllas /ˈhɔrɬas/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind... no don tan hobo nanaddy thyd no nanem lly tan gwis geng lyro Pronunciation: /noː dɔn tan ˈhɔboː ˈnanaːðə θɨd noː ˈnanɛm ɬə tan ɡwɪs ɡɛŋ lɨˈroː/ Horllasian word order: and he his hat holding stood and the wind to his wet face turned

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: /b d h j k l m n n̥ p r r̥ s t v w ð ŋ ɡ ɬ ʃ θ χ/

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	m			n n̥			ŋ
Stop	p b			t d			k ɡ
Fricative		v	θ ð	s	ʃ			χ	h
Approximant						j
Trill				r̥ r
Lateral fricative				ɬ
Lateral approximant				l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: /a ai au aɨ aː ei eɨ eː i iː oː u uː ɔ ɔi ɔɨ ə əu ɛ ɛu ɨ ɨu ɨː ɪ ɪu ʊ ʊɨ/
Diphthongs: ai, au, aɨ, ei, eɨ, ɔi, ɔɨ, əu, ɛu, ɨu, ɪu, ʊɨ

	Front	Central	Back
High	iː i	ɨ ɨː	u uː
Near-high	ɪ		ʊ
High-mid	eː		oː
Mid		ə
Low-mid	ɛ		ɔ
Low	a aː

Syllable structure: Custom defined Stress pattern: No fixed stress Word initial consonants: b, bl, d, dr, dw, h, j, k, kl, l, m, n, nt, n̥, p, pl, pr, r, rn, r̥, s, sd, sn, t, tr, v, w, ð, ɡ, ɡw, ɡwl, ɡwn, ɡwr, ɬ, ʃ, θ, θj, χ Mid-word consonants: b, d, dl, dr, h, l, m, ml, mr, ms, n, nr̥, nt, nw, r, rb, rd, rv, rw, rɬ, sɡ, tbl, v, vj, vl, vn, ð, ðj, ŋ, ɡ, ɡl, ɡw, ɬ, θ, χ, χr Word final consonants: b, d, k, l, ld, m, n, nd, nt, r, rs, rθ, s, sɡ, t, v, vn, vr, ð, ŋ, ɡ, ɬ, θ, χ
Phonological changes (in order of application):

• w → u / t_
• t → ɾ / _a
• r → l / _#
• i → ɪ / _CC
• v → Ø / u_i
• j → ɲ / _V[+nasal]

How to read phonological rules
Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ɡ	g
f	ph
v	f
k	c
ŋ	ng
χ	ch
θ	th
r̥	rh
ɬ	ll
ð	dd
ɪu	iw
ɨu	uw
ʊɨ	wy
ɛu	ew
ɔi	oi
əu	yw
eɨ	ey
aː	a
ɔ	o
oː	o
iː	i
ɪ	i
eː	e
ɛ	e
uː	w
j	i
ɨː	y
ɨ	y
ə	y
ʃ	si
n̥	n

---

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 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 recipeint of something: man gives ball to dog.
• Locative is the location of something: man goes to town.

Ergative	Suffix -a lyla /ˈlɨla/ doɡ (doinɡ the verb to somethinɡ)
Absolutive	No affix lyl /lɨl/ doɡ (doinɡ the verb, but not to somethinɡ)
Genitive	Suffix -eːχ lylech /ˈlɨleːχ/ doɡʼs
Dative	Suffix -ei lylei /ˈlɨlei/ to (the/a) doɡ
Locative	Suffix -air lylair /ˈlɨlair/ near/at/by (the/a) doɡ

Singular	No affix lyl /lɨl/ doɡ
Plural	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ɡ Else: Suffix -ɔɡ lylog /ˈlɨlɔɡ/ doɡs

Definite	dal /dal/ the
Indefinite	mo /moː/ a, some

Pronouns

	Ergative	Absolutive	Genitive	Dative	Locative
1st singular	tar /tar/ I	my /mɨː/ me, I	den /dɛn/ mine	tas /tas/ to me	nidd /nɪð/ at me
2nd singular	ma /maː/ you	cyng /kɨŋ/ you	nid /nɪd/ yours	da /da/ to you	re /rɛ/ at you
3rd singular masc	don /dɔn/ he, it	bwr /buːr/ him, it	syn /sɨn/ his, its	bund /bund/ to him, at it	cyr /kɨr/ at him, at it
3rd singular fem	na /na/ she, it	e /ɛ/ her, it	gef /ɡɛv/ hers, its	lyd /lɨd/ to her, at it	ge /ɡɛ/ at her, at it
1st plural inclusive	dei /dei/ we (including you)	hy /hɨː/ us, we (including you)	cab /kab/ ours (including you)	so /sɔ/ to us (including you)	hyd /hɨd/ at us (including you)
1st plural exclusive	dewl /dɛul/ we (excluding you)	ho /hɔ/ us, we (excluding you)	co /kɔ/ ours (excluding you)	cai /kai/ to us (excluding you)	dy /də/ at us (excluding you)
2nd plural	pir /pɪr/ you all	cer /kɛr/ you all	dy /dɨː/ yours (pl)	hyn /hɨn/ to you all	gwai /ɡwai/ at you all
3rd plural	ad /ad/ they	bif /biv/ them, they	cafn /kavn/ theirs	rha /r̥a/ to them	bar /bar/ at them

Possessive determiners

1st singular	her /hɛr/ my
2nd singular	na /na/ your
3rd singular masc	tan /tan/ his
3rd singular fem	afn /avn/ her
1st plural inclusive	tas /tas/ our (including you)
1st plural exclusive	tall /taɬ/ our (excluding you)
2nd plural	dausg /dausɡ/ your (pl)
3rd plural	bas /bas/ their

Verbs

Singular	If ends with vowel: Suffix -d Else: Suffix -əd draid /draid/
Plural	If ends with vowel: Suffix -θ Else: Suffix -əuθ draith /draiθ/

Horllasian uses a standalone particle word for past tense:

Past	Particle before the verb: ɡwɨː - gwy drai /ɡwɨː drai/ learned

Horllasian uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: moː - mo drai /moː drai/ will learn

Numbers

Horllasian has a base-20 number system:
1 - a 2 - dunt 3 - dan 4 - hyd 5 - ar 6 - dyr 7 - newmy 8 - hynt 9 - co 10 - thyn 11 - nidd 12 - gwyng 13 - hofna 14 - pegy 15 - nwdro 16 - denyd 17 - tabai 18 - foby 19 - narod 20 - arysg 21 - a no arysg “one and twenty” 400 - a nud “one fourhundred” 401 - a nud a “one fourhundred one” 800 - dunt nud “two fourhundred” 8000 - a miga “one eightthousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Prefix a- Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix ba- Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix d- Else: Prefix da- Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix h- Else: Prefix hɔ- Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Prefix kɔ- Noun to verb = Prefix a- Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix ka- Tending to = If starts with vowel: Prefix ð- Else: Prefix ða- Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix a- Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If starts with vowel: Prefix b- Else: Prefix ba- One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Prefix trɔ- Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Prefix ɨ- Diminutive = If starts with vowel: Prefix ɡ- Else: Prefix ɡɛ- Augmentative = If starts with vowel: Prefix d- Else: Prefix du-

Dictionary

4422 Words.