Wätakhen (ˈβætaʡɛn)

Natively known as: wätakh /ˈβætaʡ/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind... xzäȟ hiitra ʻä zh̀äh khäzh hekhä xzäȟ ʻä zäzh tathäh däȟ ʻä ʻa[alt] Pronunciation: /t̪s̪äʕ hiːt̠ɹ̠̊ ʔæ ɮæh ʡäʒ ˈhexæ t̪s̪äʕ ʔæ zäʒ t̪θæh dæʕ ʔä ʔa/ Wætaʡian word order: and he his hat holding stood and his wet face the wind to turned[/alt]

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b b̪ d d̠ f h k p p̪ q s̪ t t̠ t̪ v x z ħ ɕ ɢ ɦ ɮ ɴ ɸ ɹ̠ ɹ̠̊ ʀ ʁ ʃ ʒ ʔ ʔ̞ ʕ ʜ ʡ ʡ̆ ʢ β θ χ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Alveolo-palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Epiglottal	Glottal
Nasal								ɴ
Stop	p b	p̪ b̪	t̪	t d	t̠ d̠		k	q ɢ		ʡ ʡ̆	ʔ
Fricative	ɸ β	f v	θ	z	ʃ ʒ	ɕ	x	χ ʁ	ħ ʕ		h ɦ
Approximant					ɹ̠ ɹ̠̊
Trill								ʀ	ʜ ʢ
Lateral fricative				ɮ

Vowel inventory: a ä e iː æ ɔɪ̯ ɛ ʌ
Diphthongs: ɔɪ̯

	Front	Back
High	iː
High-mid	e
Low-mid	ɛ	ʌ
Near-low	æ
Low	a ä

Syllable structure: Custom defined Stress pattern: Penultimate — stress is on the second last syllable Word initial consonants: b̪v d dz h k p qχ tɕ t̠ʃ t̪s̪ t̪θ x z ħ ɢʁ ɮ ɴ ʀ ʁ ʔ ʕ ʜ ʡ ʡ̆ ʢ β χ Mid-word consonants: b d̠ɹ̠ t x ʔ̞ β χ Word final consonants: h p̪f t̠ɹ̠̊ ħ ɦ ɸ ʒ ʕ ʡ
Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ʔ	ʻ
ɔɪ̯	oi
ʌ	o
ɛ	ě
x	kh
ɕ	ch
ʃ	sh
ɢ	g
ʒ	zh
ɴ	ng
ɸ	ph
ʀ	r
β	w
θ	th
χ	gh
ħ	h̀
ʜ	ḧ
ʕ	ȟ
ʁ	r̀
ɮ	zh̀
Vː	VV
ʡ	kh
æ	ä
t̠ɹ̠̊	tra
t̪s̪	xz
t̪	ta
ʢ	a
ɹ̠	r
ɦ	h
̯
p̪	p
b̪	b
s̪	s
t̪	t

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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.

Nouns form plural with separate plural word:

Plural

Particle before the noun: tɕiːʕ - tchiiȟ r̀oi /tɕiːʕ ʁɔɪ̯/ dogs

	Definite	Indefinite
Nominative	No affix r̀oi /ʁɔɪ̯/ the dog (when doing the verb)	If starts with vowel: Prefix tɕ- Else: Prefix tɕʌ- tchor̀oi /ˈtɕʌʁɔɪ̯/ a dog (when doing the verb)
Accusative	Prefix ʜe- ḧer̀oi /ˈʜeʁɔɪ̯/ (verb done to) the dog	If starts with vowel: Prefix tɕ- Else: Prefix tɕä- tchär̀oi /ˈtɕäʁɔɪ̯/ (verb done to) a dog
Genitive	Prefix ʌ- or̀oi /ˈʌʁɔɪ̯/ the dogʼs	Prefix ħä- h̀är̀oi /ˈħäʁɔɪ̯/ a dogʼs
Dative	Prefix ʔɔɪ̯- ʻoir̀oi /ˈʔɔɪ̯ʁɔɪ̯/ to the dog	If starts with vowel: Prefix t̠ʃ- Else: Prefix t̠ʃa- t̠shar̀oi /ˈt̠ʃaʁɔɪ̯/ to a dog

Articles

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

Pronouns

	Nominative	Accusative	Genitive	Dative
1st singular	gr̀ii /ɢʁiː/ I	ḧäh̀ /ʜæħ/ me	de /de/ mine	da /da/ to me
2nd singular	ʻii /ʔiː/ you	dzäh /dzäh/ you	ȟatra /ʕat̠ɹ̠̊/ yours	ʻatra /ʔat̠ɹ̠̊/ to you
3rd singular	hiitra /hiːt̠ɹ̠̊/ he, she, it	xzii /t̪s̪iː/ him, her, it	ʻä /ʔæ/ his, hers, its	do /dʌ/ to him, her, it
1st plural	hii /hiː/ we	ke /ke/ us	dziiȟ /dziːʕ/ ours	tchoizh /tɕɔɪ̯ʒ/ to us
2nd plural	xzoi /t̪s̪ɔɪ̯/ you all	xzoh̀ /t̪s̪ʌħ/ you all	detra /det̠ɹ̠̊/ yours (pl)	khe /ʡe/ to you all
3rd plural	kokh /kʌʡ/ they	xzě /t̪s̪ɛ/ them	t̠sheph /t̠ʃeɸ/ theirs	ḧäh /ʜæɦ/ to them

Possessive determiners

1st singular	de /de/ my
2nd singular	ȟatra /ʕat̠ɹ̠̊/ your
3rd singular	ʻä /ʔæ/ his, her, its
1st plural	dziiȟ /dziːʕ/ our
2nd plural	detra /det̠ɹ̠̊/ your (pl)
3rd plural	t̠sheph /t̠ʃeɸ/ their

Verbs

	Present	Past	Remote past
1st singular	Prefix pa- padzatra /ˈpadzat̠ɹ̠̊/ (I) learn	Prefix zɛ- zědzatra /ˈzɛdzat̠ɹ̠̊/ (I) learned	Prefix t̠ʃiː- t̠shiidzatra /ˈt̠ʃiːdzat̠ɹ̠̊/ (I) learned (long ago)
2nd singular	If starts with vowel: Prefix t̪θ- Else: Prefix t̪θa- tathadzatra /ˈt̪θadzat̠ɹ̠̊/ (you) learn	Prefix æ- ädzatra /ˈædzat̠ɹ̠̊/ (you) learned	Prefix t̪θæ- tathädzatra /ˈt̪θædzat̠ɹ̠̊/ (you) learned (long ago)
3rd singular	Prefix qχɔɪ̯- qghoidzatra /ˈqχɔɪ̯dzat̠ɹ̠̊/ (he/she/it) learns	If starts with vowel: Prefix ʔ- Else: Prefix ʔʌ- ʻodzatra /ˈʔʌdzat̠ɹ̠̊/ (he/she/it) learned	Prefix t̠ʃa- t̠shadzatra /ˈt̠ʃadzat̠ɹ̠̊/ (he/she/it) learned (long ago)
1st plural	If starts with vowel: Prefix ʔ- Else: Prefix ʔɛ- ʻědzatra /ˈʔɛdzat̠ɹ̠̊/ (we) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix ʡ- Else: Prefix ʡiː- khiidzatra /ˈʡiːdzat̠ɹ̠̊/ (we) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix h- Else: Prefix ha- hadzatra /ˈhadzat̠ɹ̠̊/ (we) learned (long ago)
2nd plural	If starts with vowel: Prefix ʔ- Else: Prefix ʔiː- ʻiidzatra /ˈʔiːdzat̠ɹ̠̊/ (you all) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix ɢʁ- Else: Prefix ɢʁä- gr̀ädzatra /ˈɢʁädzat̠ɹ̠̊/ (you all) learned	Prefix ʕa- ȟadzatra /ˈʕadzat̠ɹ̠̊/ (you all) learned (long ago)
3rd plural	If starts with vowel: Prefix ʢ- Else: Prefix ʢä- aädzatra /ˈʢädzat̠ɹ̠̊/ (they) learn	Prefix e- edzatra /ˈedzat̠ɹ̠̊/ (they) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix d- Else: Prefix dä- dädzatra /ˈdädzat̠ɹ̠̊/ (they) learned (long ago)

Wætaʡian uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: ʕæʒ - ȟäzh dzatra /ʕæʒ dzat̠ɹ̠̊/ 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).
Wætaʡian uses a standalone particle word for imperfective:

Imperfective

Particle before the verb: a - a dzatra /a dzat̠ɹ̠̊/ learns/is learning

Numbers

Wætaʡian has a base-10 number system:
1 - khä 2 - ʻah 3 - ha 4 - dä 5 - r̀äkh 6 - däwiih 7 - ʻo 8 - r̀iizh 9 - h̀iikh 10 - aatäȟ 11 - aatäȟkhä “ten-one” 100 - ʻeph “hundred” 101 - ʻeph khä “hundred one” 200 - ʻah ʻeph 1000 - ḧezh “thousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Prefix ɔɪ̯- Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -p̪f Else: Suffix -ʌp̪f Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Suffix -iːʒ Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix ɴæ- Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Suffix -äp̪f Noun to verb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʒ Else: Suffix -eʒ Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -t̠ɹ̠̊ Else: Suffix -ʌt̠ɹ̠̊ Tending to = Prefix e- Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʕ Else: Suffix -aʕ Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Prefix ɴiː- One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -h Else: Suffix -ɔɪ̯h Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -t̠ɹ̠̊ Else: Suffix -ɔɪ̯t̠ɹ̠̊ Diminutive = If ends with vowel: Suffix -h Else: Suffix -æh Augmentative = Suffix -iːh

Dictionary

4563 Words.