Rajū

Natively known as: rajū /ˈraʤuː/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
jā ’i jindī ’uḩ ’i shīs jā ḑiqqa ’i hāl mal lah şa
Pronunciation: /ʤaː ʔi ˈʤindiː ʔuħ ʔi ʃiːs ʤaː ˈdˤiqqa ʔi haːl mal lah sˤa/
Rajū word order: and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face the wind to

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b d dˤ f h j k l m n q r s sˤ t tˤ w x z ð ðˤ ħ ɣ ʃ ʔ ʕ ʤ θ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Glottal
Nasal	m			n
Stop	b			t tˤ d dˤ			k	q		ʔ
Affricate					ʤ
Fricative		f	ð θ ðˤ	s sˤ z	ʃ		ɣ x		ʕ ħ	h
Approximant						j
Trill				r
Lateral approximant				l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: a aː i iː u uː

	Front	Back
High	i iː	u uː
Low	a aː

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

Pronunciation	Spelling
ʔ	’
θ	th
j	y
ʤ	j
x	kh
ð	dh
ʃ	sh
sˤ	ş
dˤ	ḑ
tˤ	ţ
ʕ	ʻ
ɣ	gh
ħ	ḩ
aː	ā
iː	ī
uː	ū

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Grammar

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

Nouns

Singular	If ends with vowel: Suffix -rdˤ Else: Suffix -irdˤ adirḑ /ˈadirdˤ/ dog
Plural	No affix ad /ad/ dogs

Articles

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

Pronouns

	Nominative	Accusative
1st singular	bām /baːm/ I	ţa /tˤa/ me
2nd singular	ḑīk /dˤiːk/ you	duḩ /duħ/ you
3rd singular masc	’i /ʔi/ he, it (masc)	nū /nuː/ his, it (masc)
3rd singular fem	sī /siː/ she, it (fem)	miḩ /miħ/ her, it (fem)
1st plural inclusive	rū /ruː/ we (including you)	sā /saː/ us (including you)
1st plural exclusive	ţarḑ /tˤardˤ/ we (excluding you)	’ad /ʔad/ us (excluding you)
2nd plural	’āt /ʔaːt/ you all	nuf /nuf/ you all
3rd plural	ra /ra/ they	hāl /haːl/ them

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	bām /baːm/ my
2nd singular	ḑīk /dˤiːk/ your
3rd singular masc	’i /ʔi/ his
3rd singular fem	sī /siː/ her
1st plural inclusive	rū /ruː/ our (including you)
1st plural exclusive	ţarḑ /tˤardˤ/ our (excluding you)
2nd plural	’āt /ʔaːt/ your (pl)
3rd plural	ra /ra/ their

Verbs

Present	No affix wull /wull/ learn
Past	Suffix -uː wullū /ˈwulluː/ learned
Future	Suffix -an wullan /ˈwullan/ 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).
Rajū uses an affix for imperfective:

Imperfective

If ends with vowel: Suffix -l Else: Suffix -ul wullul /ˈwullul/ learns/is learning

Numbers

Rajū has a base-20 number system:
1 - ţu
2 - ’i
3 - dhū
4 - ’as
5 - nīfl
6 - ʻāḩ
7 - mīru
8 - dār
9 - hūd
10 - yā’
11 - māb
12 - şayy
13 - ka’
14 - rā
15 - ghī
16 - hūl’ut
17 - rādha
18 - yafl
19 - ghanţāţ
20 - niʻtā
400 - kūl
8000 - tasa

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -f
Else: Suffix -aːf
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -w
Else: Suffix -aw
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʕ
Else: Suffix -aʕ
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -sm
Else: Suffix -ism
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʕ
Else: Suffix -iʕ
Noun to verb = Suffix -an
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Suffix -aː
Tending to = Suffix -aː
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -m
Else: Suffix -aːm
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʃa
Else: Suffix -uʃa
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʕtaː
Else: Suffix -aʕtaː
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -n
Else: Suffix -un
Diminutive = Suffix -iːn
Augmentative = If ends with vowel: Suffix -w
Else: Suffix -uːw
Language of = If ends with vowel: Suffix -q
Else: Suffix -aq
Tribe of = If ends with vowel: Suffix -qʔi
Else: Suffix -ʔi

Dictionary

3080 Words.

Spoken by

• Lathat mu' Dhāddāz'