Scyll Common

Natively known as: Luthokha /ˈluθoχa/

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: /d f j k kʼ l p r s tʼ z ǀ ǁ ǃ ɢ ɦ ɲ ɴ ʃ ʙ ʣ ʨ β θ χ/

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Alveolo-palatal	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal							ɲ		ɴ
Stop	p			tʼ d				kʼ k	ɢ
Affricate				ʣ		ʨ
Fricative	β	f	θ	s z	ʃ				χ	ɦ
Approximant							j
Trill	ʙ			r
Lateral approximant				l
Click			ǀ	ǃ
Lateral click				ǁ

Vowel inventory: /a i o u y æ ø ɑ ɨ/

	Front	Central	Back
High	i y	ɨ	u
High-mid	ø		o
Near-low	æ
Low	a		ɑ

Syllable structure: Custom defined
Stress pattern: No fixed stress
Word initial consonants: d, dl, dr, f, fl, fp, j, kl, kr, kʼ, l, p, pj, r, rj, s, sd, sj, sl, sp, sr, tʼ, z, zj, zl, ǀ, ǁ, ǃ, ɦ, ɦr, ɴ, ʃ, ʃk, ʃp, ʙ, ʣ, ʨ, ʨj, β, θ, θl, χ
Mid-word consonants: d, dd, dɲ, dʃ, f, fd, fj, fl, fp, fʨ, j, jd, jf, jj, jk, js, k, kd, kj, kk, kl, ks, kʃ, kʼ, l, lf, ll, lr, ls, lz, lɦ, lʨ, p, pf, pj, pk, pr, pʃ, r, rf, rj, rk, rp, rz, rɦ, rɲ, rʃ, rʨ, s, sd, sj, sk, ss, sz, sɲ, sχ, tʼ, z, zd, zj, zl, zz, ǀ, ǁ, ǃ, ɢ, ɦ, ɲ, ɲl, ɲz, ɲɲ, ɲʃ, ɴ, ʃ, ʃj, ʃk, ʃl, ʃp, ʃr, ʙ, ʣ, ʨ, ʨj, ʨk, β, βl, θ, θd, θf, χ, χk, χr
Word final consonants: d, kʼ, l, p, r, s, tʼ, z, ǀ, ǁ, ǃ, ɢ, ɦ, ɲ, ɴ, ʙ, ʣ, ʨ, β, χ

Phonological changes (in order of application):

• j → ∅ / V_u
• j → d / #_
• χ → qʰ / #_

Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ʣ	dz
æ	e
y	ù
ɨ	û
ɑ	à
ʙ	b
β	v
θ	th
ʃ	sh
ɲ	n
j	y
ʨ	ch
χ	kh
ɢ	q
ɴ	ng

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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 after 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).

Ergative	Suffix -fɨ fupufû /ˈfupufɨ/ dog (doing the verb to something)
Absolutive	No affix fupu /ˈfupu/ dog (doing the verb, but not to something)

Definite

	Singular	Plural
People	Suffix -ki	Suffix -ǁo
Animal	Suffix -ʃa	Suffix -βø
Object	Suffix -ǃy	Suffix -ʃɨ
Deity	Suffix -kø	Suffix -fɨ

Indefinite

	Singular	Plural
People	Suffix -ɴi	Suffix -rɑ
Animal	Suffix -χɑ	Suffix -ʃu
Object	Suffix -ʣa	Suffix -ɦi
Deity	Suffix -sɑ	Suffix -da

Articles

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

Pronouns

	Ergative	Absolutive
1st singular	ù /y/ I	fi /fi/ me, I
2nd singular	i /i/ you	ngo /ɴo/ you
3rd singular	rø /rø/ ze	ɦe /ɦæ/ ze, it
1st plural inclusive	ǃo /ǃo/ we (including you)	bi /ʙi/ us, we (including you)
1st plural exclusive	tʼø /tʼø/ we (excluding you)	fu /fu/ us, we (excluding you)
2nd plural	da /da/ you all	ǁa /ǁa/ you all
3rd plural	lû /lɨ/ they	chi /ʨi/ them, they

Possessive determiners

1st singular	ǁa /ǁa/ my
2nd singular	dû /dɨ/ your
3rd singular	ɦe /ɦæ/ zer
1st plural inclusive	lu /lu/ our (including you)
1st plural exclusive	ngo /ɴo/ our (excluding you)
2nd plural	yà /jɑ/ your (pl)
3rd plural	ngà /ɴɑ/ their

Verbs

	Present	Past	Future
1st singular	Suffix -po taɦavepo /ˈtaɦaˌβæpo/ (I) learn	Suffix -ji taɦaveyi /taˈɦaβæˌji/ (I) learned	Suffix -so taɦaveso /ˈtaɦaˌβæso/ (I) will learn
2nd singular	Suffix -ɴi taɦavengi /ˈtaɦaˌβæɴi/ (you) learn	Suffix -ʣɨ taɦavedzû /taˈɦaβæˌʣɨ/ (you) learned	Suffix -ǁo taɦaveǁo /taˈɦaβæˌǁo/ (you) will learn
3rd singular	Suffix -pi taɦavepi /taˈɦaβæˌpi/ (he/she/it) learns	Suffix -kʼæ taɦavekʼe /ˈtaɦaˌβækʼæ/ (he/she/it) learned	Suffix -ɦy taɦaveɦù /ˈtaɦaˌβæɦy/ (he/she/it) will learn
1st plural inclusive	Suffix -kø taɦavekø /ˈtaɦaˌβækø/ (we) learn (including you)	Suffix -ǀy taɦaveǀù /ˈtaɦaˌβæǀy/ (we) learned (including you)	Suffix -jy taɦaveyù /taˈɦaβæˌjy/ (we) will learn (including you)
1st plural exclusive	Suffix -ky taɦavekù /ˈtaɦaˌβæky/ (we) learn (excluding you)	Suffix -ǃy taɦaveǃù /taˈɦaβæˌǃy/ (we) learned (excluding you)	Suffix -ʃa taɦavesha /ˈtaɦaˌβæʃa/ (we) will learn (excluding you)
2nd plural	Suffix -ɢy taɦaveqù /taˈɦaβæˌɢy/ (you all) learn	Suffix -ʨø taɦavechø /ˈtaɦaˌβæʨø/ (you all) learned	Suffix -da taɦaveda /ˈtaɦaˌβæda/ (you all) will learn
3rd plural	Suffix -ɦi taɦaveɦi /ˈtaɦaˌβæɦi/ (they) learn	Suffix -ʃɨ taɦaveshû /ˈtaɦaˌβæʃɨ/ (they) learned	Suffix -ʃæ taɦaveshe /ˈtaɦaˌβæʃæ/ (they) will learn

Numbers

Luthokhan has a base-20 number system:

1 - ɦø
2 - ǀi
3 - ɦe
4 - nù
5 - lukû
6 - ka
7 - nguchu
8 - ishù
9 - de
10 - ønoru
11 - ngusozo
12 - fàɦa
13 - røǁû
14 - ɦøchu
15 - ngàkhàtʼi
16 - nøshàǁû
17 - yàke
18 - kachàpe
19 - ǃàdza
20 - ɦøngu
21 - ɦønguɦø “twenty-one”
400 - kʼuǀu “four-hundred”
401 - kʼuǀu lu ɦø “four-hundred and one”
800 - ǀi kʼuǀu “two four-hundred”
8000 - dai “eight-thousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Suffix -βy
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Suffix -sɑ
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Suffix -ʙy
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Suffix -ʣɨ
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Suffix -ǃy
Noun to verb = Suffix -lu
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Suffix -pi
Tending to = Suffix -jø
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -lu
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Suffix -ør
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Suffix -iɲ
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Suffix -æ
Diminutive = Suffix -ky
Augmentative = Suffix -rɑ
Spirit = Suffix -ʀu

Dictionary

2556 Words.