Gulðain

Natively known as: gulðːɐin /gulˈðːɐɪn/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
i dä orn joks ark snil i vu joks glylv fjor uskob fårs
Pronunciation: /iː dɛ ɔrn jɔks ark sniːl iː vɵ jɔks glyːlv fjɔr ˈɵskɔb foːrs/
Guldain word order: and stood holding hat his he and turned his face wet the wind to

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b d f g h j k l m n p r s t v ŋ ɕ ɖ ɧ ʂ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Retroflex	Alveolo-palatal	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m		n				ŋ
Stop	p b		t d	ɖ			k g
Fricative		f v	s	ʂ	ɕ			h
Approximant						j
Trill			r
Lateral approximant			l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Sj-sound
Fricative	ɧ

Vowel inventory: a eː iː oː uː yː øː œ ɑː ɔ ɛ ɛː ɪ ɵ ʉː ʊ ʏ

	Front	Central	Back
High	iː yː	ʉː	uː
Near-high	ɪ ʏ		ʊ
High-mid	eː øː	ɵ	oː
Low-mid	ɛ ɛː œ		ɔ
Low	a		ɑː

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

Pronunciation	Spelling
ɛː	ä
ɛ	ä
øː	ö
œ	ö
oː	å
ɔ	o
yː	y
ʏ	y
ʉː	u
ɵ	u
ʊ	o
uː	o
iː	i
ɪ	i
eː	e
ɑː	a
ŋn	gn
ŋ	ng
j	g / _#
ɧ	sj
kk	ck
ɕ	k
C₁C₁	C₁ / _j

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Grammar

Main word order: Verb Object (Prepositional phrase) Subject. “Mary opened the door with a key” turns into Opened the door with a key Mary.
Adjective order: Adjectives are positioned after 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 goes to town.
• Ablative is movement away from something: man walks from town.
• Instrumental is the use of something: man writes with (using) pen.

Definite

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	No affix aa /ˈaɑː/ the dog (when doing the verb)	If starts with vowel: Prefix m- Else: Prefix mʏ- maa /ˈmaɑː/ the dogs (when doing the verb)
Accusative	Prefix ʉː- uaa /ʉːˈaɑː/ (verb done to) the dog	If starts with vowel: Prefix kr- Else: Prefix krɪ- kraa /ˈkraɑː/ (verb done to) the dogs
Genitive	Prefix klɔ- kloaa /klɔˈaɑː/ the dogʼs	If starts with vowel: Prefix br- Else: Prefix broː- braa /ˈbraɑː/ the dogsʼ
Dative	If starts with vowel: Prefix l- Else: Prefix la- laa /ˈlaɑː/ to the dog	If starts with vowel: Prefix sk- Else: Prefix skøː- skaa /ˈskaɑː/ to the dogs
Locative	Prefix ʊ- oaa /ʊˈaɑː/ near/at/by the dog	Prefix pɛ- päaa /pɛˈaɑː/ near/at/by the dogs
Ablative	If starts with vowel: Prefix k- Else: Prefix kœ- kaa /ˈkaɑː/ from the dog	If starts with vowel: Prefix kr- Else: Prefix krʉː- kraa /ˈkraɑː/ from the dogs
Instrumental	If starts with vowel: Prefix spr- Else: Prefix sprɛ- spraa /ˈspraɑː/ with/using the dog	Prefix mʏ- myaa /mʏˈaɑː/ with/using the dogs

Indefinite

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	If starts with vowel: Prefix kr- Else: Prefix krɛ- kraa /ˈkraɑː/ a dog (when doing the verb)	If starts with vowel: Prefix v- Else: Prefix vœ- vaa /ˈvaɑː/ some dogs (when doing the verb)
Accusative	If starts with vowel: Prefix l- Else: Prefix liː- laa /ˈlaɑː/ (verb done to) a dog	Prefix a- aaa /aˈaɑː/ (verb done to) some dogs
Genitive	Prefix grʉː- gruaa /grʉːˈaɑː/ a dogʼs	If starts with vowel: Prefix sv- Else: Prefix svoː- svaa /ˈsvaɑː/ some dogsʼ
Dative	Prefix ɔ- oaa /ɔˈaɑː/ to a dog	If starts with vowel: Prefix ɧ- Else: Prefix ɧʊ- sjaa /ˈɧaɑː/ to some dogs
Locative	Prefix uː- oaa /uːˈaɑː/ near/at/by a dog	If starts with vowel: Prefix v- Else: Prefix vøː- vaa /ˈvaɑː/ near/at/by some dogs
Ablative	Prefix tiː- tiaa /tiːˈaɑː/ from a)dog	Prefix oː- åaa /oːˈaɑː/ from some dogs
Instrumental	Prefix œ- öaa /œˈaɑː/ with/using a dog	Prefix fɛː- fäaa /fɛːˈaɑː/ with/using some dogs

Articles

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

Pronouns

	1st singular	2nd singular	3rd singular masc	3rd singular fem	1st plural	2nd plural	3rd plural
Nominative	sla /sla/ I	kvett /kveːtt/ you	snil /sniːl/ he, it	yrt /yːrt/ she, it	nö /nœ/ we	sjän /ɧɛn/ you all	jö /jœ/ they
Accusative	ro /ruː/ me	url /ɵrl/ you	träk /trɛːk/ him, it	nurt /nɵrt/ her, it	kral /kral/ us	krupt /krʉːpt/ you all	tvast /tvast/ them
Genitive	ho /hʊ/ mine	di /dɪ/ yours	joks /jɔks/ his, its	sä /sɛ/ hers, its	svysst /svyːsst/ ours	plirg /plɪrj/ yours (pl)	vy /vyː/ theirs
Dative	e /eː/ to me	bly /blʏ/ to you	skri /skrɪ/ to him, at it	öpp /øːpp/ to her, at it	lermt /leːrmt/ to us	ipt /iːpt/ to you all	fjo /fjuː/ to them
Locative	ki /ɕiː/ at me	ogs /ʊgs/ at you	män /mɛn/ at him, at it	pant /pɑːnt/ at her, at it	no /nɔ/ at us	hest /heːst/ at you all	no /nʊ/ at them
Ablative	o /uː/ from me	lall /lall/ from you	glung /glʉːŋ/ from him, from it	fryngkt /fryːŋkt/ from her, from it	ra /ra/ from us	fav /fav/ from you all	brö /brœ/ from them
Instrumental	fond /fɔnd/ with/using me	klam /klɑːm/ with/using you	orn /ʊrn/ with/using him/it	dräpp /drɛpp/ with/using her/it	klä /klɛː/ with/using us	um /ʉːm/ with/using you all	rel /reːl/ with/using them

Possessive determiners

1st singular	ho /hʊ/ my
2nd singular	di /dɪ/ your
3rd singular masc	joks /jɔks/ his
3rd singular fem	sä /sɛ/ her
1st plural	svysst /svyːsst/ our
2nd plural	plirg /plɪrj/ your (pl)
3rd plural	vy /vyː/ their

Verbs

	Future
1st person	If starts with vowel: Prefix n- Else: Prefix nɵ- nufä /ˈnɵfɛː/ (I/we) will learn
2nd person	If starts with vowel: Prefix g- Else: Prefix geː- gefä /ˈgeːfɛː/ (you/you all) will learn
3rd person	If starts with vowel: Prefix kr- Else: Prefix krɛ- kräfä /ˈkrɛfɛː/ (he/she/it/they) will learn

Guldain uses a standalone particle word for past tense:

Past	Particle before the verb: hʏ - hy fä /hʏ fɛː/ learned

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.
Guldain uses an affix for the perfect aspect:

Perfect

Reduplicate last part of last syllable fää /ˈfɛːɛː/ have learned

Numbers

Guldain has a base-20 number system:
1 - krö
2 - lorl
3 - mant
4 - klond
5 - ho
6 - trä
7 - sla
8 - nåd
9 - fi
10 - fjag
11 - pammyk
12 - vant
13 - dög
14 - url
15 - ock
16 - lagn
17 - ild
18 - rip
19 - vul
20 - ösosköd
(Four) hundred - a
(Eight) thousand - drons

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If starts with vowel: Prefix ɕ-
Else: Prefix ɕɛ-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -m
Else: Suffix -ɛːm
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -nsk
Else: Suffix -oːnsk
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ŋkt
Else: Suffix -ɛːŋkt
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -k
Else: Suffix -ʊk
Noun to verb = Suffix -ɛ
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -jf
Else: Suffix -œjf
Tending to = Prefix ɔ-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -kk
Else: Suffix -ɛːkk
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Prefix svɔ-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Suffix -oːj
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Prefix gɪ-
Diminutive = If starts with vowel: Prefix p-
Else: Prefix piː-
Augmentative = If starts with vowel: Prefix d-
Else: Prefix dyː-