Halfling

Natively known as: lut /lʲʊtʲ/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
mí ia thaith cabh pa sith mí thach pa teo lan ci íco
Pronunciation: /mˠiː iə̯ həu̯h kavˠ pʲəi̯ ʃɪh mˠiː hax pʲəi̯ t̪ˠoː ɫanʲ cɪ iːˈkɔ/
Luti word order: and stood he holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: bʲ bˠ c dʲ d̪ˠ fʲ fˠ g h k lʲ mʲ mˠ nʲ n̪ˠ pʲ pˠ sˠ tʲ t̪ˠ vʲ vˠ x ç ŋ ɟ ɫ ɲ ɾʲ ɾˠ ʃ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	mˠ mʲ		n̪ˠ	nʲ		ɲ	ŋ
Stop	bˠ bʲ pˠ pʲ		d̪ˠ t̪ˠ	tʲ dʲ		c ɟ	k g
Fricative		fˠ fʲ vʲ vˠ		sˠ	ʃ	ç	x	h
Tap				ɾˠ ɾʲ
Lateral approximant				lʲ

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Velarized alveolar
Lateral approximant	ɫ

Vowel inventory: a eː ia̯ iə̯ iː oː uə̯ uː ɑː ɔ əi̯ əu̯ ɛ ɪ ʊ
Diphthongs: ia̯ iə̯ uə̯ əi̯ əu̯ ?

	Front	Back
High	iː	uː
Near-high	ɪ	ʊ
High-mid	eː	oː
Low-mid	ɛ	ɔ
Low	a	ɑː

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

Pronunciation	Spelling
ca	cea
coː	ceo
cu	ciu
kɪ	coi | cai | cui
k	c
h	th
x	ch
ç	ch
ɲ	nn
#n̪ˠ	n
nʲ	n
n̪ˠ	nn
ŋg	ng
ŋ	ng
mʲ	m
mˠ	m
pʲ	p
pˠ	p
bʲ	b
bˠ	b
lʲ	l
ɫ	l
ʃa	sea
sˠɪ	sai
sˠi	suí
sˠeː	sao
ʃɔ	seo | sio
ʃo	seo
ʃu	siu
ʃ	s
sˠ	s
tʲu	tiu
tʲ	te / _{a,ɑː}
tʲ	t
t̪ˠoː	teo
t̪ˠɛ	te
t̪ˠ	t
fˠi	faoi
fˠɪ	fui
fˠuː	fiú
fˠ	f
fʲ	f
ɟ	g
ɪ	i
ɑː	á
eːɾˠ	éar
ɾˠ	r
ɾʲ	r
vˠ	bh | mh
vʲ	bh
d̪ˠ	d
dʲ	d
əi	a
eː	é
ɛ	ei
ɔ	o
oː	ó
iː	í
uː	ú
iə	ia
əu	ai
uə	ua
ʊ	u
̯

---

Grammar

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

Nouns

Nouns have two cases:

• Ergative is the doer of a verb, when the verb is done to something: dog bites man.
• Absolutive is used in two scenarios: the doer of a verb when not done to something (dog bites), and the done-to of a verb (man bites dog).

Singular

	Definite	Indefinite
Ergative	Prefix ɔ- ofrém /ɔˈfʲɾʲeːmˠ/ the dog (doing a transitive verb)	If starts with vowel: Prefix ia̯fʲ- Else: Prefix ia̯fʲuː- iafúfrém /ia̯ˈfʲuːfʲɾʲeːmˠ/ a dog (doing a transitive verb)
Absolutive	No affix frém /fʲɾʲeːmˠ/ the dog (doing an intransitive verb)	If starts with vowel: Prefix tʲɾʲ- Else: Prefix tʲɾʲʊ- trufrém /tʲɾʲʊˈfʲɾʲeːmˠ/ a dog (doing an intransitive verb)

Plural

	Definite	Indefinite
Ergative	If starts with vowel: Prefix d̪ˠ- Else: Prefix d̪ˠiə̯- diafrém /d̪ˠiə̯ˈfʲɾʲeːmˠ/ the dogs (doing a transitive verb)	If starts with vowel: Prefix ç- Else: Prefix çɪ- chifrém /çɪˈfʲɾʲeːmˠ/ some dogs (doing a transitive verb)
Absolutive	If starts with vowel: Prefix fˠ- Else: Prefix fˠɪ- fuifrém /fˠɪˈfʲɾʲeːmˠ/ the dogs (doing an intransitive verb)	If starts with vowel: Prefix eːvʲ- Else: Prefix eːvʲoː- ébhófrém /eːˈvʲoːfʲɾʲeːmˠ/ some dogs (doing an intransitive verb)

Articles

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

Pronouns

	Ergative	Absolutive
1st singular	tra /t̪ˠɾˠa/ I	sio /ʃɔ/ me
2nd singular	ár /ɑːɾʲ/ you	dru /dʲɾʲʊ/ you
3rd singular masc	thaith /həu̯h/ he, it (masc)	fai /fʲəu̯/ his, it (masc)
3rd singular fem	faoí /fˠiː/ she, it (fem)	ág /ɑːɟ/ her, it (fem)
1st plural inclusive	cá /kɑː/ we (including you)	chliard /xɫia̯ɾˠd̪ˠ/ us (including you)
1st plural exclusive	mi /mˠɪ/ we (excluding you)	lú /ɫuː/ us (excluding you)
2nd plural	brabh /bʲɾʲavˠ/ you all	nai /n̪ˠəu̯/ you all
3rd plural	thir /hɪɾʲ/ they	lír /ɫiːɾˠ/ them

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	mar /mˠaɾˠ/ my
2nd singular	si /ʃɪ/ your
3rd singular masc	pa /pʲəi̯/ his
3rd singular fem	luach /lʲuə̯x/ her
1st plural inclusive	pánn /pˠɑːn̪ˠ/ our (including you)
1st plural exclusive	dia /dʲia̯/ our (excluding you)
2nd plural	sea /ʃa/ your (pl)
3rd plural	chul /çʊlʲ/ their

Verbs

Present	No affix breibai /bˠɾˠɛˈbˠəu̯/ learn
Past	Prefix iː- íbreibai /iːˈbˠɾˠɛbˠəu̯/ learned
Remote past	Prefix t̪ˠuə̯- tuabreibai /t̪ˠuə̯ˈbˠɾˠɛbˠəu̯/ learned (long ago)

Luti uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: pʲiə̯ - pia breibai /pʲiə̯ bˠɾˠɛˈbˠəu̯/ will learn

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.
Luti uses an affix for the perfect aspect:

Perfect

Reduplicate last part of last syllable breibaiai /bˠɾˠɛˈbˠəu̯əu̯/ have learned

Numbers

Luti has a base-20 number system:
1 - glécht
2 - fá
3 - thas
4 - fuic
5 - fon
6 - ia
7 - gí
8 - mú
9 - óm
10 - fo
11 - ua
12 - thog
13 - glua
14 - gú
15 - sreimh
16 - teos
17 - dóm
18 - tra
19 - seoth
20 - frá
400 - freinn
8000 - gá

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If starts with vowel: Prefix t̪ˠɾˠ-
Else: Prefix t̪ˠɾˠuə̯-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix ɫia̯-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ʃc-
Else: Prefix ʃcəi̯-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix sˠɾˠ-
Else: Prefix sˠɾˠa-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Prefix hɪ-
Noun to verb = Prefix ia̯-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix uə̯-
Tending to = If starts with vowel: Prefix ç-
Else: Prefix çɪ-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix ɪ-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Prefix gɾˠuː-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Prefix bˠɑː-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If starts with vowel: Prefix gɫ-
Else: Prefix gɫoː-
Diminutive = If starts with vowel: Prefix ɪʃtʲ-
Else: Prefix ɪʃtʲəu̯-
Augmentative = If starts with vowel: Prefix iːmˠpˠ-
Else: Prefix iːmˠpˠəu̯-

Dictionary

3036 Words.

Spoken by

• Luti