Dalizumish/Gnomish

a language spoken by most gnomes.

Natively known as: dalizum /ˈdalizum/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
sto kmayash gash 'o shog kitso sto dvi shog hafo bnefshi pag seg
Pronunciation: /sto ˈkmajaʃ gaʃ ʔo ʃog ˈkitso sto dvi ʃog ˈhafo ˈbnefʃi pag seg/
Dalizumish word order: and stood he holding hat his and turned his face wet to the wind

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b d f g h j k l m n p s t v x z ʁ ʃ ʔ ʕ ʦ χ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Glottal
Nasal	m		n
Stop	p b		t d			k g			ʔ
Affricate			ʦ
Fricative		f v	s z	ʃ		x	χ ʁ	ʕ	h
Approximant					j
Lateral approximant			l

Vowel inventory: a e i o u

	Front	Back
High	i	u
High-mid	e	o
Low	a

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

Pronunciation	Spelling
j	y
χ	kh
ʦ	tz
ʁ	r
ʃ	sh
ʔ	'

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Grammar

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

Nouns

Nouns have three 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.

Nominative	No affix kot /kot/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	If starts with vowel: Prefix km- Else: Prefix kme- kmekot /ˈkmekot/ (verb done to) dog
Genitive	If starts with vowel: Prefix af- Else: Prefix afi- afikot /ˈafikot/ dogʼs

Singular

	Definite	Indefinite
Masculine	No affix zmeta /ˈzmeta/ the boy	Prefix mi- mizmeta /ˈmizmeta/ a boy
Feminine	No affix mashur /ˈmaʃuʁ/ the girl	If starts with vowel: Prefix d- Else: Prefix de- demashur /ˈdemaʃuʁ/ a girl

Plural

	Definite	Indefinite
Masculine	Prefix ka- kazmeta /ˈkazmeta/ the boys	Prefix zma- zmazmeta /ˈzmazmeta/ some boys
Feminine	Prefix u- umashur /ˈumaʃuʁ/ the girls	Prefix a- amashur /ˈamaʃuʁ/ some girls

Articles

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

Pronouns

	Nominative	Accusative	Genitive
1st singular	hil /hil/ I	sheh /ʃeh/ me	tzot /ʦot/ mine
2nd singular	ra /ʁa/ you	rush /ʁuʃ/ you	mim /mim/ yours
3rd singular masc	gash /gaʃ/ he, it (masc)	shog /ʃog/ his, it (masc)	ye /je/ his, its (masc)
3rd singular fem	tmi /tmi/ she, it (fem)	mesh /meʃ/ her, it (fem)	mi /mi/ hers, its (fem)
1st plural	di /di/ we	yi /ji/ us	dva /dva/ ours
2nd plural	kli /kli/ you all	klug /klug/ you all	bno /bno/ yours (pl)
3rd plural masc	tzat /ʦat/ they (masc)	zmam /zmam/ them (masc)	shi /ʃi/ theirs (masc)
3rd plural fem	ka /ka/ they (fem)	lis /lis/ them (fem)	mu /mu/ theirs (fem)

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	tzot /ʦot/ my
2nd singular	mim /mim/ your
3rd singular masc	shog /ʃog/ his
3rd singular fem	mi /mi/ her
1st plural	dva /dva/ our
2nd plural	bno /bno/ your (pl)
3rd plural masc	shi /ʃi/ their (masc)
3rd plural fem	mu /mu/ their (fem)

Verbs

Present	No affix og /og/ learn
Past	Prefix χe- kheog /ˈχeog/ learned

Dalizumish uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: dvi - dvi og /dvi og/ 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.
Dalizumish uses an affix for the perfect aspect:

Perfect

If starts with vowel: Prefix ʃ- Else: Prefix ʃu- shog /ʃog/ have learned

Numbers

Dalizumish has a base-10 number system:
1 - pa
2 - ta
3 - kviy
4 - kho
5 - tza
6 - sheto
7 - sho
8 - kal
9 - kmu
10 - bnim
100 - mivar
1000 - klayla

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If starts with vowel: Prefix dv-
Else: Prefix dva-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -jlo
Else: Suffix -ujlo
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Suffix -o
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʦ
Else: Suffix -iʦ
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Suffix -uʃ
Noun to verb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -t
Else: Suffix -ot
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -d
Else: Suffix -id
Tending to = If ends with vowel: Suffix -d
Else: Suffix -ed
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix g-
Else: Prefix ga-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -s
Else: Suffix -es
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If starts with vowel: Prefix uʃt-
Else: Prefix uʃta-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -v
Else: Suffix -ev
Diminutive = If starts with vowel: Prefix ul-
Else: Prefix ula-
Augmentative = If starts with vowel: Prefix ʃ-
Else: Prefix ʃa-

Dictionary

3032 Words.

Spoken by

• Gnomes