Ot'efian (ˈɔtʼɛfiːɛn)

Natively known as: ɔtʼef /ˈɔtʼɛf/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind... lej nass cé tez güoll közt lej cé kess kógü né küg héso[alt] Pronunciation: /lɛj nɒʃʃ ʦeː tɛz ɟoll køzt lɛj ʦeː kɛʃʃ koːɟ neː kyg ˈheːʃo/ Ot'efian word order: and he his hat holding stood and his wet face the wind to turned[/alt]

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b d f g h j k l m n p r t v z ɟ ɲ ʃ ʦ ʧ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m		n		ɲ
Stop	p b		t d		ɟ	k g
Affricate			ʦ	ʧ
Fricative		f v	z	ʃ			h
Approximant					j
Trill			r
Lateral approximant			l

Vowel inventory: aː eː i iː o oː u uː y yː ø øː ɒ ɛ

	Front	Back
High	i iː y yː	u uː
High-mid	eː ø øː	o oː
Low-mid	ɛ
Low	aː	ɒ

Syllable structure: Custom defined Stress pattern: Penultimate — stress is on the second last syllable Word initial consonants: b d f fr g h j k l m n p pr r t v z ɟ ɲ ʃ ʦ ʧ Mid-word consonants: b bb bl br d dv f g gf gh gl h j jt k kk kʃ l ld lg lh lj lk ll lm ln lr lt ltʃ lv lʃ m mb mʃ n nd ndt ng ngz nk nl nn nt nʃ p pv pʃ r rd rf rg rj rk rl rm rn rr rt rtʃ rv rʃ t tk tl tm tʃ v z zd zk zl zn zt zz ɟ ɟʃ ɲ ʃ ʃk ʃl ʃt ʃʃ ʦ ʧ Word final consonants: b bb d g j jt k l ld ll lt lɟ lʧ m n ng nt nʃ nʦ nʧ p r rd rt rʃ rʦ t tt v z zt ɟ ɲ ʃ ʃt ʃʃ
Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ɒ	a
aː	á
ʦ	c
ʧ	cs
ɛ	e
eː	é
ɟ	gy
iː	í
ɲ	ny
oː	ó
øː	ő
ø	ö
s	sz
ʒ	zs
ʃ	s
uː	ú
yː	ű
y	ü

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Grammar

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

Nouns

Nouns have four cases:

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

Nominative	No affix güncsz /gynʧ/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	Prefix y- ügüncsz /ˈygynʧ/ (verb done to) dog
Genitive	Prefix aː- ágüncsz /ˈaːgynʧ/ dogʼs
Dative	If starts with vowel: Prefix z- Else: Prefix zi- zigüncsz /ˈzigynʧ/ to (the/a) dog

Singular

	Masculine	Feminine
Definite	No affix ti /ti/ the man	No affix űbb /yːbb/ the woman
Indefinite	Prefix yː- űti /ˈyːti/ a man	If starts with vowel: Prefix m- Else: Prefix muː- műbb /myːbb/ a woman

Plural

	Masculine	Feminine
Definite	Prefix ko- koti /ˈkoti/ the men	Prefix jaː- jáűbb /ˈjaːyːbb/ the women
Indefinite	Prefix ɲyː- nüűti /ˈɲyːti/ some men	If starts with vowel: Prefix t- Else: Prefix tiː- tűbb /tyːbb/ some women

Articles

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

Pronouns

	Nominative	Accusative	Genitive	Dative
1st singular	ak /ɒk/ I	vazt /vɒzt/ me	ti /ti/ mine	üng /yng/ to me
2nd singular	e /ɛ/ you	fú /fuː/ you	bonc /bonʦ/ yours	do /do/ to you
3rd singular masc	nass /nɒʃʃ/ he, it	dó /doː/ him, it	bü /by/ his, its	frítt /friːtt/ to him, at it
3rd singular fem	mú /muː/ she, it	fóncsz /foːnʧ/ her, it	sö /ʃø/ hers, its	vú /vuː/ to her, at it
1st plural inclusive	zít /ziːt/ we (including you)	li /li/ us (including you)	sú /ʃuː/ ours (including you)	prö /prø/ to us (including you)
1st plural exclusive	vá /vaː/ we (excluding you)	nüass /ɲɒʃʃ/ us (excluding you)	nö /nø/ ours (excluding you)	se /ʃɛ/ to us (excluding you)
2nd plural	tett /tɛtt/ you all	to /to/ you all	pé /peː/ yours (pl)	pri /pri/ to you all
3rd plural masc	prá /praː/ they (masc)	pe /pɛ/ them (masc)	nő /nøː/ theirs (masc)	gő /gøː/ to them (masc)
3rd plural fem	tű /tyː/ they (fem)	vird /vird/ them (fem)	kans /kɒnʃ/ theirs (fem)	lűgü /lyːɟ/ to them (fem)

Possessive determiners

1st singular	do /do/ my
2nd singular	vű /vyː/ your
3rd singular masc	cé /ʦeː/ his
3rd singular fem	vancsz /vɒnʧ/ her
1st plural inclusive	gu /gu/ our (including you)
1st plural exclusive	la /lɒ/ our (excluding you)
2nd plural	nö /nø/ your (pl)
3rd plural masc	fíld /fiːld/ their (masc)
3rd plural fem	zöld /zøld/ their (fem)

Verbs

Future

If starts with vowel: Prefix l- Else: Prefix lɒ- lagers /ˈlɒgɛrʃ/ will learn

Ot'efian uses a standalone particle word for past tense:

Past	Particle before the verb: ɛɲ - enü gers /ɛɲ gɛrʃ/ learned

Progressive aspect

The ‘progressive’ aspect refers to actions that are happening at the time of speaking, such as I am learning.
Ot'efian uses a standalone particle word for progressive:

Progressive

Particle before the verb: pry - prü gers /pry gɛrʃ/ 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).
Ot'efian uses an affix for habitual:

Habitual

Prefix oː- ógers /ˈoːgɛrʃ/ learns

Numbers

Ot'efian has a base-10 number system:
1 - a 2 - navont 3 - re 4 - me 5 - pűnü 6 - hu 7 - parka 8 - mos 9 - de 10 - kö 11 - köa “ten-one” 100 - a pős “one hundred” 101 - a pős a “one hundred one” 200 - navont pős 1000 - a í “one thousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Prefix ɟo- Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -t Else: Suffix -oːt Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -n Else: Suffix -øːn Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Suffix -ɒ Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Suffix -ɛ Noun to verb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -t Else: Suffix -øːt Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ɲ Else: Suffix -øɲ Tending to = If ends with vowel: Suffix -r Else: Suffix -ɒr Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix vo- Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Prefix nɛ- One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -lʧ Else: Suffix -ɛlʧ Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Prefix kɛ- Diminutive = Suffix -o Augmentative = Suffix -ø

Dictionary

4577 Words.