Teshpen

the kugma language family

Natively known as: teshpe /tɛʃˈpɛ/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
he wu me mawmpt dholz vîng he zhemb uldzh me uhng arsmuhng yi
Pronunciation: /hɛ wu mɛ mɔmpt ðɑlz vɪŋ hɛ ʒɛmb uldʒ mɛ ʌng ærsˈmʌng ji/
Teshpen word order: and he hat his holding stood and the wind to his face wet turned

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b d f g h j k l m n p r s t v w z ð ŋ ʃ ʒ θ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m			n			ŋ
Stop	b p			d t			g k
Fricative		f v	θ ð	s z	ʃ ʒ			h
Approximant						j
Trill				r
Lateral approximant				l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: i u æ ɑ ɔ ɛ ɪ ʊ ʌ

	Front	Back
High	i	u
Near-high	ɪ	ʊ
Low-mid	ɛ	ɔ ʌ
Near-low	æ
Low		ɑ

Syllable structure: (C)V(C)(C)(C) ?
Stress pattern: Ultimate — stress is on the last syllable ?
Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
æ	a
ɛ	e
ɑ	o
ɔ	aw
ʊ	û
ʌ	uh
ɪ	î
θ	th
ʒ	zh
ð	dh
j	y
ʃ	sh
ŋ	ng

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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 after the noun.
Adposition: postpositions ?

Nouns

Nouns have six 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.

Nominative	No affix le /lɛ/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	Suffix -ɑ leo /lɛˈɑ/ (verb done to) dog
Genitive	Suffix -ʌ leuh /lɛˈʌ/ dogʼs
Dative	Suffix -ʊ leû /lɛˈʊ/ to dog
Locative	If ends with vowel: Suffix -m Else: Suffix -ʊm lem /lɛm/ near/at/by dog
Ablative	If ends with vowel: Suffix -mb Else: Suffix -umb lemb /lɛmb/ from dog

Singular	No affix le /lɛ/ dog
Plural	Reduplicate first part of first syllable lele /lɛˈlɛ/ dogs

Articles

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

Pronouns

	1st singular	2nd singular	3rd singular	1st plural	2nd plural	3rd plural
Nominative	sho /ʃɑ/ I	awrsh /ɔrʃ/ you	wu /wu/ he, she, it	o /ɑ/ we	yuh /jʌ/ you all	tuhlz /tʌlz/ they
Accusative	bak /bæk/ me	ya /jæ/ you	me /mɛ/ his, her, it	di /di/ us	tiw /tiw/ you all	pa /pæ/ them
Genitive	tersh /tɛrʃ/ mine	aw /ɔ/ yours	zhû /ʒʊ/ his, hers, its	dhîrn /ðɪrn/ ours	lesp /lɛsp/ yours (pl)	sawmp /sɔmp/ theirs
Dative	band /bænd/ to me	mondz /mɑndz/ to you	yuhlz /jʌlz/ to his, to her, to it	pamp /pæmp/ to us	bursh /burʃ/ to you all	vondzh /vɑndʒ/ to them
Locative	dhawnz /ðɔnz/ to me	zandzh /zændʒ/ to you	thozt /θɑzt/ to his, to her, to it	suh /sʌ/ to us	huh /hʌ/ to you all	zu /zu/ to them
Ablative	os /ɑs/ from me	nîndzh /nɪndʒ/ from you	ve /vɛ/ from his, from her, from it	zhalm /ʒælm/ from us	paw /pɔ/ from you all	si /si/ from them

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	tersh /tɛrʃ/ my
2nd singular	aw /ɔ/ your
3rd singular	me /mɛ/ his, her, its
1st plural	dhîrn /ðɪrn/ our
2nd plural	lesp /lɛsp/ your (pl)
3rd plural	sawmp /sɔmp/ their

Verbs

	Present	Past	Future
1st singular	If ends with vowel: Suffix -mblɑ Else: Suffix -ɪmblɑ natîmblo /nætɪmˈblɑ/ (I) learn	If ends with vowel: Suffix -spt Else: Suffix -ɑspt natospt /næˈtɑspt/ (I) learned	Suffix -æ nata /næˈtæ/ (I) will learn
2nd singular	If ends with vowel: Suffix -rn Else: Suffix -ɪrn natîrn /næˈtɪrn/ (you) learn	Suffix -unθ natunth /næˈtunθ/ (you) learned	Suffix -ing nating /næˈting/ (you) will learn
3rd singular	Suffix -ɑ nato /næˈtɑ/ (he/she/it) learns	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ndz Else: Suffix -ɛndz natendz /næˈtɛndz/ (he/she/it) learned	Suffix -u natu /næˈtu/ (he/she/it) will learn
1st plural	If ends with vowel: Suffix -str Else: Suffix -ɪstr natîstr /næˈtɪstr/ (we) learn	Suffix -ɪ natî /næˈtɪ/ (we) learned	If ends with vowel: Suffix -mp Else: Suffix -imp natimp /næˈtimp/ (we) will learn
2nd plural	Suffix -ʌ natuh /næˈtʌ/ (you all) learn	If ends with vowel: Suffix -skt Else: Suffix -æskt nataskt /næˈtæskt/ (you all) learned	Suffix -ɑlp natolp /næˈtɑlp/ (you all) will learn
3rd plural	If ends with vowel: Suffix -t Else: Suffix -ɔt natawt /næˈtɔt/ (they) learn	If ends with vowel: Suffix -t Else: Suffix -ɪt natît /næˈtɪt/ (they) learned	Suffix -i nati /næˈti/ (they) 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).
Teshpen uses an affix for imperfective:

Imperfective

Suffix -ɔ nataw /næˈtɔ/ learns/is learning

Numbers

Teshpen has a base-10 number system:
1 - leys
2 - yuh
3 - saw
4 - vawmz
5 - aw
6 - suh
7 - puh
8 - wî
9 - vi
10 - puhmpf
100 - si
1000 - zemf

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Suffix -ɑk
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Suffix -ɔfts
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -fts
Else: Suffix -ɑfts
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Suffix -ɪ
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ntʃ
Else: Suffix -untʃ
Noun to verb = Suffix -ændz
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -lm
Else: Suffix -ʊlm
Tending to = If ends with vowel: Suffix -zt
Else: Suffix -ɑzt
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -ʊz
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ndl
Else: Suffix -ʊndl
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ŋ
Else: Suffix -ʊŋ
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Suffix -ɑ
Diminutive = Suffix -ɑ
Augmentative = Suffix -ʌ

Dictionary

3064 Words.

Spoken by

• Kugma