Tongue of the moon

Natively known as: secqua /ˈsɛkkwa/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
vu so re vovu da pavo vu mestreva a re coventa polo chera
Pronunciation: /vu so re ˈvovu da ˈpavo vu mɛsˈtreva a re koˈventa ˈpolɔ ˈkera/
Tongeu of the moon word order: and he his hat holding stood and the wind to his wet face turned

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b d f g j k l m n p r s t v w z ɲ ʃ ʎ ʣ ʤ ʦ ʧ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal	m		n		ɲ
Stop	p b		t d			k g
Affricate			ʦ ʣ	ʧ ʤ
Fricative		f v	s z	ʃ
Approximant					j
Trill			r
Lateral approximant			l		ʎ

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: a e i o u ɔ ɛ

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

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

Pronunciation	Spelling
kw	qu
w	u
z	s
ʃ	sc
tʦ	zz
ʦ	z
k	c / !_{i,e,ɛ}
ʧ	ci / !_{i,e,ɛ}
ʧ	c
ʤ	gi / !_{i,e,ɛ}
ʤ	g
k	ch
ʎʎ	gli
ɲ	gn
ɛ	e
ɔ	o
j	i

---

Grammar

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

Nouns

Nouns have seven 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.
• Ablative is movement away from something: man walks from town.
• Instrumental is the use of something: man writes with (using) pen.

Nominative	No affix spo /spo/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	Prefix ʤe- gespo /ˈʤespo/ (verb done to) dog
Genitive	Prefix fe- fespo /ˈfespo/ dogʼs
Dative	Prefix si- sispo /ˈsispo/ to (the/a) dog
Locative	Prefix sɔ- sospo /ˈsɔspo/ near/at/by (the/a) dog
Ablative	Prefix ʤu- giuspo /ˈʤuspo/ from (the/a) dog
Instrumental	Prefix ʤi- gispo /ˈʤispo/ with/using (the/a) dog

Definite

	Singular	Plural
Masculine	No affix messe /ˈmesse/ the man	Prefix vɔ- vomesse /vɔˈmesse/ the men
Feminine	No affix veva /ˈveva/ the woman	Prefix pa- paveva /paˈveva/ the women
Neuter	No affix	Prefix va-

Indefinite

	Singular	Plural
Masculine	Prefix pu- pumesse /puˈmesse/ a man	Prefix ve- vemesse /veˈmesse/ some men
Feminine	Prefix ke- cheveva /keˈveva/ a woman	Prefix ʧa- ciaveva /ʧaˈveva/ some women
Neuter	Prefix me-	Prefix ge-

Articles

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

Pronouns

	Nominative	Accusative	Genitive	Dative	Locative	Ablative	Instrumental
1st singular	vi /vi/ I	gre /gre/ me	si /si/ mine	tre /tre/ to me	da /da/ at me	sta /sta/ from me	quo /kwɔ/ with/using me
2nd singular	ste /ste/ you	va /va/ you	mo /mɔ/ yours	de /de/ to you	sa /sa/ at you	gi /ʤi/ from you	co /kɔ/ with/using you
3rd singular masc	so /so/ he	pe /pe/ him	re /re/ his	nuo /nwɔ/ to him	o /ɔ/ at him	ta /ta/ from him	fo /fɔ/ with/using him
3rd singular fem	vo /vo/ she	mu /mu/ her	cu /ku/ hers	no /nɔ/ to her	po /pɔ/ at her	ma /ma/ from her	qua /kwa/ with/using her
3rd singular neuter	se /se/ it	ca /ka/ it	do /do/ its	chi /ki/ to it	fue /fwe/ at it	lo /lo/ from it	ce /ʧe/ with/using it
1st plural	tro /tro/ we	vu /vu/ us	pi /pi/ ours	fi /fi/ to us	le /le/ at us	buo /bwɔ/ from us	pri /pri/ with/using us
2nd plural	be /be/ you all	fe /fe/ you all	vo /vɔ/ yours (pl)	que /kwe/ to you all	me /me/ at you all	cia /ʧa/ from you all	scu /sku/ with/using you all
3rd plural masc	ve /ve/ they (masc)	co /ko/ them (masc)	o /o/ theirs (masc)	sca /ska/ to them (masc)	fuo /fwo/ at them (masc)	bi /bi/ from them (masc)	ge /ge/ with/using them (masc)
3rd plural fem	ge /ʤe/ they (fem)	che /ke/ them (fem)	la /la/ theirs (fem)	bue /bwe/ to them (fem)	na /na/ at them (fem)	a /a/ from them (fem)	li /li/ with/using them (fem)
3rd plural neuter	pa /pa/ they (neut)	ne /ne/ them (neut)	stre /stre/ theirs (neut)	po /po/ to them (neut)	fa /fa/ at them (neut)	bua /bwa/ from them (neut)	di /di/ with/using them (neut)

Possessive determiners

1st singular	si /si/ my
2nd singular	mo /mɔ/ your
3rd singular masc	re /re/ his
3rd singular fem	cu /ku/ her
3rd singular neuter	do /do/ its
1st plural	pi /pi/ our
2nd plural	vo /vɔ/ your (pl)
3rd plural masc	o /o/ their (masc)
3rd plural fem	la /la/ their (fem)
3rd plural neuter	stre /stre/ their (neut)

Verbs

Present	No affix madia /ˈmadja/ learn
Past	Prefix di- dimadia /diˈmadja/ learned
Remote past	Prefix kɔ- comadia /kɔˈmadja/ learned (long ago)

Tongeu of the moon uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: ke - che madia /ke ˈmadja/ 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).
Tongeu of the moon uses a standalone particle word for imperfective:

Imperfective

Particle before the verb: sa - sa madia /sa ˈmadja/ learns/is learning

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.
Tongeu of the moon uses an affix for the perfect aspect:

Perfect

Change all V(C)*# to __ madiaa /maˈdjaa/ have learned

Numbers

Tongeu of the moon has a base-20 number system:
1 - vi
2 - ta
3 - spe
4 - de
5 - ma
6 - piu
7 - re
8 - mi
9 - ca
10 - pia
11 - sassa
12 - sali
13 - pilezzo
14 - chinda
15 - sarda
16 - netonde
17 - povo
18 - covvomo
19 - crepa
20 - cuso
(Four) hundred - sce
(Eight) thousand - mora

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Prefix ka-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix sɔ-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix tɛ-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix ʤa-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Prefix sa-
Noun to verb = Prefix vi-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix va-
Tending to = Prefix va-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix ko-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Prefix kwe-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Prefix ba-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Prefix kwe-
Diminutive = Prefix su-
Augmentative = Prefix kra-

Dictionary

222 Words.