Dragon/yixuidan

a language spoken by all dragons.

Natively known as: yixdu /jixˈtʊ/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
ben ab marebta u xagsh a ben kuma u rö shegch nes she
Pronunciation: /ben aw marewˈtʰa ʊ xagʃ a ben kʰʊˈma ʊ rɵ ʃegʧʰ nes ʃe /
Yixduian word order: and stood holding hat his he and turned his face wet the wind to

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b f g j kʰ m n nʲ r s t tʰ w wʲ x xʲ ɮ ɮʲ ʃ ʦ ʦʰ ʧ ʧʰ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal	m		n nʲ
Stop	b		tʰ t			kʰ g
Affricate			ʦ ʦʰ	ʧʰ ʧ
Fricative		f	s	ʃ		x xʲ
Approximant					j
Trill			r
Lateral fricative			ɮ ɮʲ

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w wʲ

Vowel inventory: a e i u ɔ ɵ ʊ

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Near-high			ʊ
High-mid	e	ɵ
Low-mid			ɔ
Low	a

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

Pronunciation	Spelling
w	b
t	d / !_ʰ
tʰ	t
ʧʰ	ch
ʧ	ch
ʦʰ	c
ʦ	c
kʰ	k
ɮ	l
ʃ	sh
ɔ	o
ɵ	ö
pʰ	p
u	ü
ʊ	u
j	y
ʲ

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Grammar

Main word order: Verb Object (Prepositional phrase) Subject. “Mary opened the door with a key” turns into Opened the door with a key mary.
Adjective order: Adjectives are positioned after 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 gish /giʃ/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	Suffix -ɔrʧʰ gishorch /giˈʃɔrʧʰ/ (verb done to) dog

Singular	No affix gish /giʃ/ dog
Plural	Suffix -ɔ gisho /giˈʃɔ/ dogs

Articles

Definite	buch /bʊʧ/ the
Indefinite	cüg /ʦʰug/ a, some

Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Definite article can be omitted: ‘I am going to supermarket’
• Used to talk about countable nouns in general: English’s ‘I like cats’ would translate to ‘I like the cats’
• Used for languages: ‘The English’
• Used with place names: ‘The London’

Uses of indefinite article that differ from English:

• Not used for non-specific countable nouns: non-specific means ‘I am looking for a (any) girl in a red dress’, whereas specific means ‘I am looking for a (particular) girl in a red dress’

Pronouns

	Nominative	Accusative
1st singular	ca /ʦa/ I	gogch /gɔgʧʰ/ me
2nd singular	blöls /bɮɵɮs/ you	nuc /nʲʊʦ/ you
3rd singular masc	a /a/ he, it (masc)	blo /bɮɔ/ his, it (masc)
3rd singular fem	yon /jɔn/ she, it (fem)	cholt /ʧɔɮtʰ/ her, it (fem)
1st plural inclusive	na /na/ we (including you)	rirt /rirtʰ/ us (including you)
1st plural exclusive	dö /tɵ/ we (excluding you)	shi /ʃi/ us (excluding you)
2nd plural	de /te/ you all	fo /fɔ/ you all
3rd plural	gab /gaw/ they	ga /ga/ them

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	alt /aɮtʰ/ my
2nd singular	so /sɔ/ your
3rd singular masc	u /ʊ/ his
3rd singular fem	sebs /sews/ her
1st plural inclusive	curd /ʦʊrt/ our (including you)
1st plural exclusive	ble /bɮe/ our (excluding you)
2nd plural	nübch /nʲuwʧʰ/ your (pl)
3rd plural	i /i/ their

Verbs

Present	No affix shuce /ʃʊˈʦe/ learn
Past	Suffix -a shucea /ʃʊʦeˈa/ learned
Remote past	If ends with vowel: Suffix -gʃ Else: Suffix -igʃ shucegsh /ʃʊˈʦegʃ/ learn (long ago)

Yixduian uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: ʦʰi - ci shuce /ʦʰi ʃʊˈʦe/ will learn

Progressive aspect

The ‘progressive’ aspect refers to actions that are happening at the time of speaking, such as I am learning.
Yixduian uses an affix for progressive:

Progressive

Suffix -e shucee /ʃʊʦeˈe/ 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).
Yixduian uses a standalone particle word for habitual:

Habitual

Particle before the verb: bɔ - bo shuce /bɔ ʃʊˈʦe/ learns

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.
Yixduian uses an affix for the perfect aspect:

Perfect

Reduplicate first part of first syllable shushuce /ʃʊʃʊˈʦe/ have learned

Numbers

Yixduian has a base-20 number system:
1 - xüst
2 - chü
3 - shi
4 - blat
5 - mö
6 - tü
7 - gelca
8 - cü
9 - sab
10 - ü
11 - chuch
12 - i
13 - fis
14 - xeoch
15 - blümch
16 - docrüa
17 - diche
18 - cö
19 - fa
20 - fötle
400 - fü
8000 - mo

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -sre
Else: Suffix -asre
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -tʰgɵ
Else: Suffix -utʰgɵ
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Suffix -ɵ
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʦ
Else: Suffix -ɵʦ
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʧ
Else: Suffix -ɵʧ
Noun to verb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -t
Else: Suffix -et
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Suffix -ɔg
Tending to = Suffix -ʊʦʰ
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -a
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Suffix -ɔ
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -rtʰ
Else: Suffix -ertʰ
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -gi
Else: Suffix -igi
Diminutive = Suffix -ʊwʧʰ
Augmentative = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʧʰ
Else: Suffix -aʧʰ

Writing System

it has no writing system.

Dictionary

3028 Words.

Spoken by

• Dragons