COLMERHÆD

LANGUAGE FAMILY: COLMERIC
# SPEAKERS / WORLD RANKING: 871K / #35
SPOKEN IN: Aolling - 200K / Bugh - 170K / Dragonshead (South) - 140K / Cerlin - 115K / Fierthain - 100K / Gilmere - 60K / Sakxa - 40K / Shagirrin - 35K / Chillwind - 6K / Reollan - 5K
Spoken in Aolling and Shagirrin with deeply regional accents which are difficult for southerners to understand. The regional dialect in Gilmere is heard by other speakers almost as another language.
PERIOD OF USE:
SCRIPT USED:
PARENT LANGUAGE:

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"...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind..."
Translation: dem ba cüd rhe ny beb dem sdyll ny heel hiiˈros bly ciwnd
Pronunciation: dɛm ba kʊd r̥ɛ nə bɛb dɛm sdɨɬ nə heːl hiːˈrɔs blɨ kɪund

Colmerhaed word order: and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: /b d h j k l m n n̥ p r r̥ s t v w ð ŋ ɡ ɬ ʃ θ χ/

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	m			n n̥			ŋ
Stop	p b			t d			k ɡ
Fricative		v	θ ð	s	ʃ			χ	h
Approximant						j
Trill				r̥ r
Lateral fricative				ɬ
Lateral approximant				l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: /a ai au aɨ aː ei eɨ eː i iː oː u uː ɔ ɔi ɔɨ ə əu ɛ ɛu ɨ ɨu ɨː ɪ ɪu ʊ ʊɨ/
Diphthongs: ai, au, aɨ, ei, eɨ, ɔi, ɔɨ, əu, ɛu, ɨu, ɪu, ʊɨ

	Front	Central	Back
High	iː i	ɨ ɨː	u uː
Near-high	ɪ		ʊ
High-mid	eː		oː
Mid		ə
Low-mid	ɛ		ɔ
Low	a aː

Syllable structure: Custom defined
Stress pattern: Second — stress is on the second syllable
Word initial consonants: b, bl, d, dr, dw, h, j, k, kl, l, m, n, nt, n̥, p, pl, pr, r, rn, r̥, s, sd, sn, t, tr, v, w, ð, ɡ, ɡw, ɡwl, ɡwn, ɡwr, ɬ, ʃ, θ, θj, χ
Mid-word consonants: b, d, dl, dr, h, l, m, ml, mr, ms, n, nr̥, nt, nw, r, rb, rd, rv, rw, rɬ, sɡ, tbl, v, vj, vl, vn, ð, ðj, ŋ, ɡ, ɡl, ɡw, ɬ, θ, χ, χr
Word final consonants: N/A
Phonological changes (in order of application):

• ə → a / _#
• t → ʦ / _i
• j → ɡ / _#
• i → ɐ / _m
• k → ɡ / n_

Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ɡ	g
f	ph
v	f
k	c
ŋ	ng
χ	ch
θ	th
r̥	rh
ɬ	ll
ð	dd
ɪu	iw
ɨu	uw
ʊɨ	wy
ɛu	ew
ɔi	oi
əu	yw
eɨ	ey
aː	a
ɔ	o
oː	o
iː	i
ɪ	i
eː	e
ɛ	e
uː	w
j	i
ɨː	y
ɨ	y
ə	y
ʃ	si
n̥	n
ʊ	ü
V₁ː	V₁V₁

Grammar

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

Nouns

Articles

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	cewr /kɛur/ the	dy /dɨ/ a
Plural	no /nɔ/ the	rnau /rnau/ some

Pronouns

1st singular	na /na/ I, me, mine
2nd singular	ce /kɛ/ you, yours
3rd singular masc	ba /ba/ he, him, his, it, its
3rd singular fem	ne /nɛ/ she, her, hers, it, its
1st plural	darth /darθ/ we, us, ours
2nd plural	no /nɔ/ you all, yours (pl)
3rd plural masc	diill /diːɬ/ they (masc), them (masc), theirs (masc)
3rd plural fem	cyy /kɨː/ they (fem), them (fem), theirs (fem)

Possessive determiners

1st singular	hyy /hɨː/ my
2nd singular	bel /bɛl/ your
3rd singular masc	ny /nə/ his
3rd singular fem	ne /nɛ/ her
1st plural	dun /dun/ our
2nd plural	dit /dit/ your (pl)
3rd plural masc	ro /rɔ/ their (masc)
3rd plural fem	ma /ma/ their (fem)

Verbs

	Present	Past
1st singular	If ends with vowel: Suffix -n Else: Suffix -an beˈran /bɛˈran/ (I) learn	Suffix -iː beˈrii /bɛˈriː/ (I) learned
2nd singular	If ends with vowel: Suffix -n Else: Suffix -ɔn beˈron /bɛˈrɔn/ (you) learn	Suffix -eɨɡ beˈreyg /bɛˈreɨɡ/ (you) learned
3rd singular masc	If ends with vowel: Suffix -n Else: Suffix -ɛn beˈren /bɛˈrɛn/ (he) learns	Suffix -ɪ beˈri /bɛˈrɪ/ (he) learned
3rd singular fem	Suffix -ɔr beˈror /bɛˈrɔr/ (she) learns	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ɬ Else: Suffix -aɬ beˈrall /bɛˈraɬ/ (she) learned
1st plural	If ends with vowel: Suffix -s Else: Suffix -eɨs beˈreys /bɛˈreɨs/ (we) learn	Suffix -ɪn beˈrin /bɛˈrɪn/ (we) learned
2nd plural	If ends with vowel: Suffix -s Else: Suffix -aɨs beˈrays /bɛˈraɨs/ (you all) learn	If ends with vowel: Suffix -v Else: Suffix -eɨv beˈreyf /bɛˈreɨv/ (you all) learned
3rd plural masc	Suffix -a beˈra /bɛˈra/ (they) learn	If ends with vowel: Suffix -b Else: Suffix -ɔb beˈrob /bɛˈrɔb/ (they) learned
3rd plural fem	If ends with vowel: Suffix -θ Else: Suffix -aθ beˈrath /bɛˈraθ/ (they) learn	If ends with vowel: Suffix -s Else: Suffix -ɨs beˈrys /bɛˈrɨs/ (they) learned

Colmerhaed uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: kei - cei ber /kei bɛr/ 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).
Colmerhaed uses an affix for imperfective:

Imperfective

If ends with vowel: Suffix -vn Else: Suffix -ʊɨvn beˈrwyfn /bɛˈrʊɨvn/ learns/is learninɡ

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.
Colmerhaed uses the word for ‘finish’ cyg for the perfect aspect.

Numbers

Colmerhaed has a base-20 number system:
1 - ro
2 - doo
3 - na
4 - llyd
5 - dwyˈga
6 - hoo
7 - ntün
8 - do
9 - lly
10 - gwoo
11 - reˈron
12 - chiiˈnge
13 - siiˈga
14 - hyyl
15 - gyˈlly
16 - muuˈnge
17 - ciˈnwyc
18 - diiˈmyd
19 - pafr
20 - dyrs
21 - ro dem dyrs “one and twenty”
400 - dyyn “fourhundred”
401 - dyyn ro “fourhundred one”
800 - doo dyyn “two fourhundred”
8000 - cen “eightthousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -l Else: Suffix -al
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -l Else: Suffix -ɛl
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -n Else: Suffix -an
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Suffix -ɛv
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Suffix -ɔ
Noun to verb = Suffix -a
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -n Else: Suffix -an
Tending to = Suffix -a
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -a
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Suffix -ə
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Suffix -ɔr
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -n Else: Suffix -ɨn
Diminutive = If ends with vowel: Suffix -vn Else: Suffix -ivn
Augmentative = If ends with vowel: Suffix -m Else: Suffix -ɛm

Dictionary

4427 Words.