Skov Common

The most common language of the realm of Skovasil, mostly spoken by humans.

Natively known as: skovg /skovg/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
okt frok vo sprosh frok gri okt slo frok kvo shlote fklar vrij
Pronunciation: /okt frok vo sproʂ frok grʲi okt sʲlʲo frok kvo ʂlʲote fklʲarʲ vrʲij/
Skov word order: and he stood holding hat his and turned his face wet to the wind

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b bʲ d dʲ f fʲ g j k l lʲ m mʲ n nʲ p pʲ r rʲ s sʲ t tʲ v vʲ x z zʲ ɕː ʂ ʂː ʐ ʐː ʦ ʨ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Retroflex	Alveolo-palatal	Palatal	Velar
Nasal	m mʲ		n nʲ
Stop	p pʲ b bʲ		t tʲ d dʲ				k g
Affricate			ʦ		ʨ
Fricative		f fʲ v vʲ	s sʲ z zʲ	ʂ ʂː ʐ ʐː	ɕː		x
Approximant						j
Trill			r rʲ
Lateral approximant			l lʲ

Vowel inventory: a e i o u

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

Syllable structure: Custom defined
Stress pattern: No stress
Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ʨ	ch
x	kh
ʐ	zh
ʂ	sh
ʦ	ts
ʲ
ɕː	shch

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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 after the noun.
Adposition: prepositions

Nouns

Singular	No affix tku /tku/ dog
Plural	If starts with vowel: Prefix tk- Else: Prefix tko- tkotku /tkotku/ dogs

Articles

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	ju /ju/ the	fsir /fsʲirʲ/ a
Plural	krich /kriʨ/ the	zi /zʲi/ some

Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Definite article can be omitted: ‘I am going to supermarket’
• Used for personal names in third person: ‘The Maria has left for school’
• Used for languages: ‘The English’

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’
• Not used for non-specific mass (uncountable) nouns: non-specific means ‘Would you like some (any) tea?’ whereas specific means ‘Some tea (a specific amount) fell off the truck’

Pronouns

1st singular	kti /kti/ I, me, mine
2nd singular	grakh /grʲax/ you, yours
3rd singular masc	frok /frok/ he, him, his, it, its
3rd singular fem	je /je/ she, her, hers, it, its
1st plural inclusive	vir /vʲirʲ/ we (including you), us (including you), ours (including you)
1st plural exclusive	bar /barʲ/ we (excluding you), us (excluding you), ours (excluding you)
2nd plural	i /i/ you all, yours (pl)
3rd plural	kvosht /kvoʂtʲ/ they, them, theirs

Possessive determiners

1st singular	kti /kti/ my
2nd singular	grakh /grʲax/ your
3rd singular masc	frok /frok/ his
3rd singular fem	je /je/ her
1st plural inclusive	vir /vʲirʲ/ our (including you)
1st plural exclusive	bar /barʲ/ our (excluding you)
2nd plural	i /i/ your (pl)
3rd plural	kvosht /kvoʂtʲ/ their

Verbs

	Present	Past	Remote past
1st person	Prefix pi- pija /pija/ (I/we) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix gdʲ- Else: Prefix gdʲi- gdija /gdʲija/ (I/we) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix srʲ- Else: Prefix srʲi- srija /srʲija/ (I/we) learned (long ago)
2nd person	Prefix a- aja /aja/ (you/you all) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix pr- Else: Prefix pri- prija /prija/ (you/you all) learned	Prefix e- eja /eja/ (you/you all) learned (long ago)
3rd person	Prefix i- ija /ija/ (he/she/it/they) learn	Prefix kste- ksteja /ksteja/ (he/she/it/they) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix ʦ- Else: Prefix ʦi- tsija /ʦija/ (he/she/it/they) learned (long ago)

Skov uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: znu - znu ja /znu ja/ 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).
Skov uses an affix for imperfective:

Imperfective

If starts with vowel: Prefix fʲpʲ- Else: Prefix fʲpʲa- fpaja /fʲpʲaja/ learns/is learning

Numbers

Skov has a base-10 number system:
1 - sho
2 - plo
3 - vra
4 - di
5 - i
6 - sprime
7 - do
8 - zrer
9 - dna
10 - sti
Hundred - kashch
Thousand - lars

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Suffix -a
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -kst
Else: Suffix -ukst
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix zʲi-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Suffix -o
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Prefix vna-
Noun to verb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -s
Else: Suffix -os
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ijtʲ-
Else: Prefix ijtʲe-
Tending to = If ends with vowel: Suffix -f
Else: Suffix -if
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -tʲ
Else: Suffix -otʲ
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -lk
Else: Suffix -ulk
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -t
Else: Suffix -it
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If starts with vowel: Prefix sr-
Else: Prefix sru-
Diminutive = Suffix -ir
Augmentative = Suffix -e

Dictionary

3034 Words.

Root Languages

• Common

Spoken by

• Enyu