Desian

Natively known as: deseth /ˈdeseθ/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
reccaec spa petinib mau pruna bu reccaec mau urep glitha bonetba cubenim cutan
Pronunciation: /ˈɾekaek spa ˈpetinib maʊ̯ ˈpɾuna bu ˈɾekaek maʊ̯ ˈuɾep ˈgliθa ˈbonetba ˈkubenim ˈkutan/
Desian word order: and he stood his hat holding and his wet face turned the wind to

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b d f g h k l m n p r s t v w z ŋ ɾ ʃ ʤ ʧ θ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m			n		ŋ
Stop	p b			d t		g k
Affricate					ʧ ʤ
Fricative		f v	θ	s z	ʃ		h
Tap				ɾ
Trill				r
Lateral approximant				l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: a aʊ̯ eɪ̯ i o u ɛ
Diphthongs: aʊ̯ eɪ̯ ?

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

Syllable structure: Custom defined ?
Stress pattern: Initial — stress is on the first syllable ?
Sound changes (in order of application):

• r → ɾ
• us → es / _#
• um → im / _#
• t → θ / _#
• w → b
• qu → ku / _C
• q → k / _#
• q → k / _C

Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
kw	qu
ks	x
k	cc / V_V
k	c
ʧ	c
r	r̂
ɾ	r
ŋ	gn
ʤ	g
ʃ	sc
nz	ns
ɛ	e
eɪ̯	ei
aʊ̯	au
ʦ	t
θ	th

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Grammar

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

Nouns

Nouns have five 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.
• Locative is the location of something: man is in town.

Nominative	No affix bututalim /ˈbutuˌtalim/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	Prefix a- abututalim /ˈabuˌtutalim/ (verb done to) dog
Genitive	Prefix o- obututalim /ˈobuˌtutalim/ dogʼs
Dative	If starts with vowel: Prefix v- Else: Prefix vaʊ̯- vaubututalim /ˈvaʊ̯buˌtutalim/ to dog
Locative	Prefix fɾaʊ̯- fraubututalim /ˈfɾaʊ̯buˌtutalim/ near/at/by dog

	Singular	Plural
Masculine	No affix ceives /ˈkeives/ boy	Suffix -sa ceivussa /ˈkeiˌvussa/ boys
Feminine	No affix bula /ˈbula/ girl	Suffix -sa bulasa /ˈbulasa/ girls
Neuter	No affix bututalim /ˈbutuˌtalim/ dog	Suffix -sa bututalumsa /ˈbutuˌtalumsa/ dogs

Articles

Desian has no definite article ‘the’, or indefinite article ‘a’.

Pronouns

	Nominative	Accusative	Genitive	Dative	Locative
1st singular	cri /kɾi/ I	te /tɛ/ me	frins /fɾinz/ mine	so /so/ to me	donc /donk/ to me
2nd singular	vi /vi/ you	ris /ɾis/ you	mi /mi/ yours	si /si/ to you	ti /ti/ to you
3rd singular masc	spa /spa/ he,	ler /lɛɾ/ his,	crei /kɾeɪ̯/ his,	gro /gɾo/ to his, to	dem /dɛm/ to his, to
3rd singular fem	o /o/ she,	dis /dis/ her,	vo /vo/ hers,	i /i/ to her, to	gru /gɾu/ to her, to
3rd singular neuter	nei /neɪ̯/ it (neut)	peith /peɪ̯θ/ it (neut)	me /mɛ/ its (neut)	hi /hi/ to it (neut)	bo /bo/ to it (neut)
1st plural	e /ɛ/ we	pros /pɾos/ us	nau /naʊ̯/ ours	cru /kɾu/ to us	la /la/ to us
2nd plural	fau /faʊ̯/ you all	ned /nɛd/ you all	be /bɛ/ yours (pl)	dei /deɪ̯/ to you all	spi /spi/ to you all
3rd plural masc	cbi /kbi/ they (masc)	tix /tiks/ them (masc)	ha /ha/ theirs (masc)	fra /fɾa/ to them (masc)	do /do/ to them (masc)
3rd plural fem	ronc /ɾonk/ they (fem)	ri /ɾi/ them (fem)	u /u/ theirs (fem)	le /lɛ/ to them (fem)	a /a/ to them (fem)
3rd plural neuter	rauth /ɾaʊ̯θ/ they (neut)	bei /beɪ̯/ them (neut)	glau /glaʊ̯/ theirs (neut)	per /pɛɾ/ to them (neut)	spim /spim/ to them (neut)

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	fei /feɪ̯/ my
2nd singular	pla /pla/ your
3rd singular masc	mau /maʊ̯/ his
3rd singular fem	cbau /kbaʊ̯/ her
3rd singular neuter	po /po/ his, her, its (neut)
1st plural	hu /hu/ our
2nd plural	menc /mɛnk/ your (pl)
3rd plural masc	fes /fɛs/ their (masc)
3rd plural fem	ci /ʧi/ their (fem)
3rd plural neuter	ta /ta/ their (neut)

Verbs

Present	No affix veldandin /ˈveldandin/ learn
Past	Prefix a- aveldandin /ˈavelˌdandin/ learned
Future	Prefix naʊ̯- nauveldandin /ˈnaʊ̯velˌdandin/ will learn

Numbers

Desian has a base-10 number system:
1 - uteccoth
2 - sa
3 - bo
4 - camev
5 - ubbilcbi
6 - cobalra
7 - simda
8 - cbiev
9 - bandu
10 - urcamag
100 - selti
1000 - dalbam

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If starts with vowel: Prefix m-
Else: Prefix mi-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix h-
Else: Prefix heɪ̯-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Suffix -u
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ɾ
Else: Suffix -oɾ
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ks
Else: Suffix -aʊ̯ks
Noun to verb = Prefix u-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Suffix -a
Tending to = Suffix -ank
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -pɾeɪ̯
Else: Suffix -ɛpɾeɪ̯
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Suffix -u
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Prefix eɪ̯-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ɾ
Else: Suffix -ɛɾ
Diminutive = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ks
Else: Suffix -aks
Augmentative = If starts with vowel: Prefix b-
Else: Prefix ba-
Language of = Suffix -eθ
People of = Suffix -i
Land or place of = If ends with vowel: Suffix -nilan
Else: Suffix -ilan

Dictionary

3858 Words.

Spoken by

• Desi