DRAKSI

LANGUAGE FAMILY: ERELIC
# SPEAKERS / WORLD RANKING: 14.5M / #2
SPOKEN IN: Draksineon - 8M / Beurin - 1.7M / Galori - 1.5M / Rello - 1M / Miesz - 770K / Bim - 300K / Del - 300K / Sau-Hezib - 300K / Arlos - 200K / Ceweren - 150K / Chalornok - 100K / Jolim - 100K / Mersi - 80K
PERIOD OF USE: 300 UT to present
SCRIPT USED:
PARENT LANGUAGE: Haidrak*

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"...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind..."

Translation: züdz dzaos pin d’ios yä zmuj züdz tseos yä ab’ oyo gaw chtüsi

Pronunciation: zɯʣ ˈʣaos pin ˈɗios jə zmuʤ zɯʣ ˈʦeos jə aɓ ˈojo gɔ ˈʧtɯsi


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

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: /b c͡ç d g g͡b j k kʼ k͡p m n p pʼ s t tʼ x z ŋ ɓ ɗ ɟ͡ʝ ɠ ɣ ʃ ʄ ʒ ʣ ʤ ʦ ʧ/

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal	m	n			ŋ
Stop	p pʼ b	t tʼ d			k kʼ g
Implosive	ɓ	ɗ		ʄ	ɠ
Affricate		ʦ ʣ	ʧ ʤ	c͡ç ɟ͡ʝ
Fricative		s z	ʃ ʒ		x ɣ
Approximant				j

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Stop	k͡p g͡b

Vowel inventory: /a e i o u ɔ ə ɯ/

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		ɯ u
High-mid	e		o
Mid		ə
Low-mid			ɔ
Low	a

Syllable structure: Custom defined
Stress pattern: Penultimate — stress is on the second last syllable
Word initial consonants: bj, c͡ç, d, dj, g, gj, g͡b, j, k, kj, kʼ, k͡p, m, mb, md, nd, nt, p, pʼ, s, sd, sj, sk, sx, t, tk, tʼ, x, z, zb, zm, zn, ɓ, ɗ, ɟ͡ʝ, ɠ, ɣ, ɣn, ʃ, ʃp, ʃt, ʄ, ʣ, ʤ, ʤd, ʤj, ʦ, ʧ, ʧt
Mid-word consonants: b, bd, bs, bz, c͡ç, d, dd, dg, dm, dx, dʒ, dʣ, dʤ, g, gb, gg, gj, gn, gx, gz, gʒ, gʤ, g͡b, j, jb, jd, jn, js, k, kb, kd, kk, kt, kʃ, kʧ, kʼ, k͡p, m, mb, mj, mm, ms, mt, mʤ, mʦ, n, ng, nn, np, nt, nx, nʧ, p, pm, pn, ps, pʃ, pʧ, pʼ, s, sb, sd, sg, ss, sx, sz, sʧ, t, td, tg, tj, tk, tm, tp, tz, tʤ, tʦ, tʼ, x, xk, xz, z, zb, zd, zg, zm, zn, zp, ŋ, ŋb, ŋd, ŋg, ŋj, ŋk, ŋz, ɓ, ɗ, ɟ͡ʝ, ɠ, ɣ, ɣj, ʃ, ʃj, ʃm, ʄ, ʒ, ʒb, ʒd, ʒj, ʒn, ʣ, ʤ, ʤt, ʦ, ʦk, ʦn, ʦs, ʦt, ʧ, ʧg, ʧk, ʧm
Word final consonants: N/A
Phonological changes (in order of application):

• ʃ → x / B_#
• m → w / _#
• sk → ʃ / #_
• t → ʔ / V_V

Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
k͡p	kp
ɡ͡b	gb
ʣ	dz
ʦ	ts
ɔ	aw
ə	ä
ɯ	ü
ʒ	zh
j	y
ʤ	j
ɡ	g
ʧ	ch
ŋ	ng
x	kh
ɗ	d’
ɓ	b’
ʃ	sh
ʄ	j’
ɠ	g’
ɟ͡ʝ	j̀
ɣ	g̀
c͡ç	ch̀

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 three 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).
• Genitive is the possessor of something: dog’s tail hits man.

Ergative	Suffix -ɔ mdedmawaw /mdedˈmɔɔ/ dog (doing the verb to something)
Absolutive	No affix mdedmaw /ˈmdedmɔ/ dog (doing the verb, but not to something)
Genitive	Suffix -i mdedmawi /mdedˈmɔi/ dogʼs

	Singular	Plural
Definite	If ends with vowel: Suffix -g͡b Else: Suffix -ɔg͡b mdedmawgb /ˈmdedmɔg͡b/ the dog	If ends with vowel: Suffix -g Else: Suffix -əg mdedmawg /ˈmdedmɔg/ the dogs
Indefinite	No affix mdedmaw /ˈmdedmɔ/ a dog	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʣ Else: Suffix -eʣ mdedmawdz /ˈmdedmɔʣ/ some dogs

Articles

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

Pronouns

	Ergative	Absolutive	Genitive
1st singular	dyi /dji/ I	u /u/ me, I	ko /ko/ mine
2nd singular	daw /dɔ/ you	b’e /ɓe/ you	zma /zma/ yours
3rd singular masc	pin /pin/ he, it	pʼikh /pʼix/ him, it	b’äb’ /ɓəɓ/ his, its
3rd singular fem	skhü /sxɯ/ she, it	mi /mi/ her, it	o /o/ hers, its
1st plural	kpe /k͡pe/ we	kawzh /kɔʒ/ us, we	shtag̀ /ʃtaɣ/ ours
2nd plural	gbo /g͡bo/ you all	g̀u /ɣu/ you all	sda /sda/ yours (pl)
3rd plural	migb /mig͡b/ they	khä /xə/ them, they	b’eg’ /ɓeɠ/ theirs

Possessive determiners

1st singular	kawg̀ /kɔɣ/ my
2nd singular	gbaw /g͡bɔ/ your
3rd singular masc	yä /jə/ his
3rd singular fem	znipʼ /znipʼ/ her
1st plural	daw /dɔ/ our
2nd plural	g’u /ɠu/ your (pl)
3rd plural	maw /mɔ/ their

Verbs

Present	If ends with vowel: Suffix -z Else: Suffix -ɯz pünug̀üosüz /pɯˌnuɣɯˈosɯz/ learn
Past	No affix pünug̀üos /ˌpɯnuˈɣɯos/ learned
Future	If ends with vowel: Suffix -g Else: Suffix -eg pünug̀üoseg /pɯˌnuɣɯˈoseg/ 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).
Draksi uses a standalone particle word for imperfective:

Imperfective

Particle before the verb: sdə - sdä pünug̀üos /sdə ˌpɯnuˈɣɯos/ learns/is learning

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.
Draksi uses the word for ‘finish’ zib’os for the perfect aspect.

Numbers

Draksi has a base-10 number system:
1 - mi
2 - sä
3 - ü
4 - gawgb
5 - skä
6 - ndigb
7 - g̀u
8 - ipme
9 - zma
10 - ya
11 - yami “ten-one”
100 - tsoch̀ “hundred”
101 - tsoch̀ mi “hundred one”
200 - sä tsoch̀
1000 - zmapnüj̀üb’ “thousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Suffix -ɯ
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ɟ͡ʝ Else: Suffix -aɟ͡ʝ
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ɟ͡ʝ Else: Suffix -əɟ͡ʝ
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Suffix -ikʼ
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ɟ͡ʝ Else: Suffix -eɟ͡ʝ
Noun to verb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -g Else: Suffix -əg
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Suffix -ɔt
Tending to = Suffix -aʣ
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -x Else: Suffix -ix
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Suffix -ɯ
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Suffix -ɔŋ
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Suffix -ə
Diminutive = If ends with vowel: Suffix -k Else: Suffix -ok
Augmentative = Suffix -oʤ

Dictionary

4455 Words.