Fosaki

Natively known as: fosaki /ˈfɔsaki/

Fosaki is the primary, common language for the Felox, or 'fox folk'. It's a breathy, tonal language that was formed from the ancient peoples of Vulpi Hassani and their ancient days as hunters among the large predators of Vulpi Hassani who primarily use sound to detect prey, or threats.

Sample Sentence

The early hunter catches the bird

When pronounced in Fosaki

ochil pwipor mge mah suji iant

Pronunciation

/ˈɔʧil ˈpwipɔr mɠɛ mah ˈsuʄi ˈiant/

Fosaki word order

Hunter that early the bird caught

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b d f g h j k l m n p q r s t v w x z ð ŋ ɓ ɗ ɠ ɣ ɲ ʃ ʄ ʤ ʧ θ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	m			n		ɲ	ŋ
Stop	p b			t d			k g	q
Implosive	ɓ			ɗ		ʄ	ɠ
Affricate					ʧ ʤ
Fricative		f v	θ ð	s z	ʃ		x ɣ		h
Approximant						j
Trill				r
Lateral approximant				l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: a i u ɔ ɛ

	Front	Back
High	i	u
Low-mid	ɛ	ɔ
Low	a

Stress pattern

Initial — stress is on the first syllable

Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ɛ	e
ɔ	o
ɲ	ny
ɓ	b
j	y
ʄ	j
ɗ	d
ð	dh
θ	th
ŋg	ng
ŋ	ng'
ɠ	g
ʃ	sh
ɣ	gh
x	kh
ʧ	ch
nʤ	nj̤̤̤

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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 two cases:

• Nominative is the doer of a verb: dog bites man.
• Accusative is the done-to of a verb: man bites dog.

Nominative	No affix lasy /lasj/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	Prefix i- ilasy /ˈilasj/ (verb done to) dog

	Singular	Plural
Masculine	No affix ji /ʄi/ man	Prefix i- iji /ˈiʄi/ men
Feminine	No affix kre /krɛ/ woman	Prefix nu- nukre /ˈnukrɛ/ women
Neuter	No affix lasy /lasj/ dog	If starts with vowel: Prefix aks- Else: Prefix aksu- aksulasy /ˈaksulasj/ dogs

Articles

Definite	mah /mah/ the
Indefinite	mu /mu/ a, some

Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Used for personal names in third person: ‘The Maria has left for school’
• Used with place names: ‘The London’

Dictionary

3036 Words.

Spoken by

• Curisak
• Tibesan

Writing System

Fosaki's written form is a flowing script, where each letter is written in a curving brush style. It's read from left to right, and contains no capital letters. Written Fosaki is a calligraphic style and considered quite expressive.

Pronouns

	Nominative	Accusative
1st singular	it /it/	mke /mkɛ/ me
2nd singular	qi /qi/ you	u /u/ you
3rd singular masc	i /i/ he, it (masc)	ye /jɛ/ his, it (masc)
3rd singular fem	mil /mil/ she, it (fem)	dhah /ðah/ her, it (fem)
3rd singular neuter	ir /ir/ it (neut)	kint /kint/ it (neut)
1st plural	ndiw /ndiw/ we	dha /ða/ us
2nd plural	hi /hi/ you all	mcho /mʧɔ/ you all
3rd plural masc	ut /ut/ they (masc)	bwun /ɓwun/ them (masc)
3rd plural fem	vesy /vɛsj/ they (fem)	a /a/ them (fem)
3rd plural neuter	wigh /wiɣ/ they (neut)	nj̤̤̤up /nʤup/ them (neut)

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	nnet /nnɛt/ my
2nd singular	yo /jɔ/ your
3rd singular masc	mwu /mwu/ his
3rd singular fem	oll /ɔll/ her
3rd singular neuter	mgam /mɠam/ its
1st plural	pu /pu/ our
2nd plural	kwi /kwi/ your (pl)
3rd plural masc	mnyo /mɲɔ/ their (masc)
3rd plural fem	arch /arʧ/ their (fem)
3rd plural neuter	lutty /luttj/ their (neut)

Verbs

	1st person	2nd person	3rd person
Present	If starts with vowel: Prefix j- Else: Prefix jɔ- yurch /jurʧ/ (I/we) learn	Prefix ju- yuurch /ˈjuurʧ/ (you/you all) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix mt- Else: Prefix mti- mturch /mturʧ/ (he/she/it/they) learn
Past	If starts with vowel: Prefix mb- Else: Prefix mbɔ- mburch /mburʧ/ (I/we) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix q- Else: Prefix qi- qurch /qurʧ/ (you/you all) learned	Prefix i- iurch /ˈiurʧ/ (he/she/it/they) learned
Remote past	If starts with vowel: Prefix q- Else: Prefix qu- qurch /qurʧ/ (I/we) learned (long ago)	If starts with vowel: Prefix ap- Else: Prefix api- apurch /ˈapurʧ/ (you/you all) learned (long ago)	If starts with vowel: Prefix it- Else: Prefix ita- iturch /ˈiturʧ/ (he/she/it/they) learned (long ago)
Future	Prefix ɔ- ourch /ˈɔurʧ/ (I/we) will learn	Prefix mɛ- meurch /ˈmɛurʧ/ (you/you all) will learn	Prefix jɛ- yeurch /ˈjɛurʧ/ (he/she/it/they) will learn

Numbers

Fosaki has a base-10 number system:
1 - mta
2 - mshi
3 - i
4 - tu
5 - qill
6 - ke
7 - ble
8 - yup
9 - thokh
10 - mchuw
100 - how
1000 - enya

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If starts with vowel: Prefix k-
Else: Prefix ka-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix sa-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ɛmr-
Else: Prefix ɛmri-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix a-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If starts with vowel: Prefix m-
Else: Prefix mi-
Noun to verb = If starts with vowel: Prefix kr-
Else: Prefix kru-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix vj-
Else: Prefix vji-
Tending to = If starts with vowel: Prefix θ-
Else: Prefix θu-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix i-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If starts with vowel: Prefix m-
Else: Prefix mɔ-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Prefix ɔ-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If starts with vowel: Prefix uʃ-
Else: Prefix uʃa-
Diminutive = If starts with vowel: Prefix pr-
Else: Prefix pri-
Augmentative = Prefix ɛ-