Cetandari

Natively known as: cetandari /ceˌtandaˈri/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
bez ɑt gavɑzu uð jɛ fɑl bez jin jɛ bɛet vɑf ja parræb
Pronunciation: /bez ɑt gawɑˈzu uð jɛ fɑl bez jin jɛ bɛˈet wɑf ja paˈrræb/
Cetandari word order: and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b d f g h k kʷ l m n p r s t w

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m		n
Stop	p b		d t	k kʷ g
Fricative		f	s		h
Trill			r
Lateral approximant			l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: a ae̯ au̯ aː e ei̯ eu̯ eː i io̯ iu̯ iː o oe̯ oː u ui̯ uː
Diphthongs: ae̯ au̯ ei̯ eu̯ io̯ iu̯ oe̯ ui̯ ?

	Front	Back
High	i iː	u uː
High-mid	e eː	o oː
Low	a aː

Syllable structure: Custom defined ?
Stress pattern: Ultimate — stress is on the last syllable ?
Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
kʷ	qu
ks	x
k	c
w	v
ː
̯

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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 have three 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.

	Singular	Plural
Ergative	If starts with vowel: Prefix p- Else: Prefix pi- pibas /piˈbas/ dog (doing a transitive verb)	If starts with vowel: Prefix ɛgr- Else: Prefix ɛgra- ɛgrabas /ɛgraˈbas/ dogs (doing a transitive verb)
Absolutive	No affix bas /bas/ dog (doing an intransitive verb)	Prefix wi- vibas /wiˈbas/ dogs (doing an intransitive verb)
Genitive	If starts with vowel: Prefix z- Else: Prefix zu- zubas /zuˈbas/ dogʼs	Prefix æ- æbas /æˈbas/ dogsʼ

Articles

Definite	tu /tu/ the
Indefinite	θæ /θæ/ a, some

Uses of definite article that differ from English:

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

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
1st singular	væ /væ/ I	jɑt /jɑt/ me	ga /ga/ mine
2nd singular	fo /fo/ you	om /om/ you	ve /ve/ yours
3rd singular masc	ɑt /ɑt/ he, it (masc)	jɛ /jɛ/ his, it (masc)	tɑz /tɑz/ his, its (masc)
3rd singular fem	e /e/ she, it (fem)	vu /wu/ her, it (fem)	gɛt /gɛt/ hers, its (fem)
1st plural inclusive	ɑ /ɑ/ we (including you)	ɛl /ɛl/ us (including you)	ta /ta/ ours (including you)
1st plural exclusive	ɛd /ɛd/ we (excluding you)	tɛ /tɛ/ us (excluding you)	zif /zif/ ours (excluding you)
2nd plural	væx /væx/ you all	gag /gag/ you all	i /i/ yours (pl)
3rd plural	has /has/ they	væx /wæx/ them	got /got/ theirs

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	ga /ga/ my
2nd singular	ve /ve/ your
3rd singular masc	jɛ /jɛ/ his
3rd singular fem	gɛt /gɛt/ her
1st plural inclusive	ta /ta/ our (including you)
1st plural exclusive	zif /zif/ our (excluding you)
2nd plural	i /i/ your (pl)
3rd plural	got /got/ their

Verbs

	Present	Past	Future
1st singular	Prefix we- vefɑm /weˈfɑm/ (I) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix d- Else: Prefix di- difɑm /diˈfɑm/ (I) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix p- Else: Prefix pa- pafɑm /paˈfɑm/ (I) will learn
2nd singular	If starts with vowel: Prefix r- Else: Prefix re- refɑm /reˈfɑm/ (you) learn	Prefix ɛ- ɛfɑm /ɛˈfɑm/ (you) learned	Prefix u- ufɑm /uˈfɑm/ (you) will learn
3rd singular	Prefix rɛ- rɛfɑm /rɛˈfɑm/ (he/she/it) learns	If starts with vowel: Prefix t- Else: Prefix tɑ- tɑfɑm /tɑˈfɑm/ (he/she/it) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix p- Else: Prefix pe- pefɑm /peˈfɑm/ (he/she/it) will learn
1st plural inclusive	If starts with vowel: Prefix l- Else: Prefix lo- lofɑm /loˈfɑm/ (we (including you)) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix owg- Else: Prefix owgo- ovgofɑm /owgoˈfɑm/ (we (including you)) learned	Prefix a- afɑm /aˈfɑm/ (we (including you)) will learn
1st plural exclusive	Prefix bæ- bæfɑm /bæˈfɑm/ (we (excluding you)) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix en- Else: Prefix eno- enofɑm /enoˈfɑm/ (we (excluding you)) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix j- Else: Prefix jɑ- jɑfɑm /jɑˈfɑm/ (we (excluding you)) will learn
2nd plural	If starts with vowel: Prefix okf- Else: Prefix okfa- ocfafɑm /okfaˈfɑm/ (you all) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix ak- Else: Prefix aku- acufɑm /akuˈfɑm/ (you all) learned	Prefix ri- rifɑm /riˈfɑm/ (you all) will learn
3rd plural	If starts with vowel: Prefix v- Else: Prefix va- vafɑm /vaˈfɑm/ (they) learn	Prefix lɛ- lɛfɑm /lɛˈfɑm/ (they) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix j- Else: Prefix ju- jufɑm /juˈfɑm/ (they) will learn

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.
Cetandari uses the word for ‘finish’ dac for the perfect aspect.

Numbers

Cetandari has a base-10 number system:
1 - ji
2 - zɛm
3 - pi
4 - vut
5 - jox
6 - ɛm
7 - cab
8 - dædsa
9 - faz
10 - ɑc
100 - evrɑ
1000 - ci

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If starts with vowel: Prefix p-
Else: Prefix pæ-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix t-
Else: Prefix ta-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix k-
Else: Prefix ko-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix tæ-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Prefix æ-
Noun to verb = Prefix i-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix i-
Tending to = If starts with vowel: Prefix g-
Else: Prefix gi-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix ɑ-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Prefix xa-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Prefix ɛ-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Prefix va-
Diminutive = If starts with vowel: Prefix g-
Else: Prefix gɛ-
Augmentative = If starts with vowel: Prefix ɛnn-
Else: Prefix ɛnna-

Writing System

While Cetandari uses the same Cavellan alphabet, four letters and all the symbols have largely fallen away; this means that modern written Cetandari uses only 26 letters of the old Cavellan alphabet.

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Table of Contents

Dictionary

3043 Words.

Root Languages

• Cavellan