Nadesti, Language of the Artin

Natively known as: nadest /naˈdest/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
shan nenm di nortûl nir chhim shan di alo his thast bi dod
Pronunciation: /shan nenm di norˈtyl nir chim shan di aˈlo his thast bi dod/
Nadesti word order: and he his hat holding stood and his wet face the wind to turned

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b c d f g h k l m n p q r s t v w

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	m		n
Stop	p b		t d	c	k g	q
Fricative		f v	s				h
Trill			r
Lateral approximant			l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: a e i o u y

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

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

Pronunciation	Spelling
y	û
c	ch

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Grammar

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

Nouns

Nouns have four 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.

Nominative	No affix adak /aˈdak/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	If starts with vowel: Prefix f- Else: Prefix fo- fadak /faˈdak/ (verb done to) dog
Genitive	If starts with vowel: Prefix v- Else: Prefix ve- vadak /vaˈdak/ dogʼs
Dative	Prefix de- deadak /deaˈdak/ to dog

	Singular	Plural
Definite	No affix adak /aˈdak/ the dog	Prefix da- daadak /daaˈdak/ the dogs
Indefinite	If starts with vowel: Prefix sh- Else: Prefix sha- shadak /shaˈdak/ a dog	Prefix o- oadak /oaˈdak/ some dogs

Articles

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

Pronouns

	Nominative	Accusative	Genitive	Dative
1st singular	thesh /thesh/ I	hu /hu/ me	bif /bif/ mine	shan /shan/ to me
2nd singular	ar /ar/ you	da /da/ you	dof /dof/ yours	u /u/ to you
3rd singular masc	nenm /nenm/ he, it (masc)	di /di/ his, it (masc)	pa /pa/ his, its (masc)	nas /nas/ to his, to it (masc)
3rd singular fem	hof /hof/ she, it (fem)	banm /banm/ her, it (fem)	ag /ag/ hers, its (fem)	a /a/ to her, to it (fem)
1st plural	shanm /shanm/ we	i /i/ us	ha /ha/ ours	bo /bo/ to us
2nd plural	bich /bic/ you all	wor /wor/ you all	qa /qa/ yours (pl)	qe /qe/ to you all
3rd plural	lar /lar/ they	she /she/ them	e /e/ theirs	shech /shec/ to them

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	bif /bif/ my
2nd singular	dof /dof/ your
3rd singular masc	di /di/ his
3rd singular fem	ag /ag/ her
1st plural	ha /ha/ our
2nd plural	qa /qa/ your (pl)
3rd plural	e /e/ their

Verbs

Present	Prefix dy- dûfo /dyˈfo/ learn
Past	No affix fo /fo/ learned

Nadesti uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: mad - mad fo /mad fo/ 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.
Nadesti uses an affix for the perfect aspect:

Perfect

Prefix qa- qafo /qaˈfo/ have learned

Numbers

Nadesti has a base-10 number system:
1 - chhu
2 - nal
3 - lo
4 - na
5 - qal
6 - ne
7 - dar
8 - waqthû
9 - dor
10 - qe
100 - qennu
1000 - hi

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If starts with vowel: Prefix n-
Else: Prefix na-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ch-
Else: Prefix chi-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix elth-
Else: Prefix eltho-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix b-
Else: Prefix ba-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Prefix a-
Noun to verb = If starts with vowel: Prefix ch-
Else: Prefix chi-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix sha-
Tending to = Prefix sha-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix b-
Else: Prefix ba-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Prefix o-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ulth-
Else: Prefix ultha-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If starts with vowel: Prefix n-
Else: Prefix ne-
Diminutive = Prefix ba-
Augmentative = Prefix a-

Dictionary

3037 Words.