Giant/Drerdian

Natively known as: drerd /dɹɛɹd/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
fjaafte bre braa u slu rau̯kk fjaafte kra slu nagrau̯ itto hjaaks pa
Pronunciation: /fjaːft bɹɛ bɹaː u slu ɹaʊ̯kk fjaːft kɹɑ slu naˈgɹaʊ̯ ɪtˈto hjaːks pɑ/
Drerdian word order: and stood he holding hat his and turned his face wet to the wind

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b d f g h j k l m n p r s t v w z ŋ ɹ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m		n		ŋ
Stop	p b		t d		k g
Fricative		f v	s z			h
Approximant			ɹ	j
Trill			r
Lateral approximant			l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: a aʊ̯ aː e o u ɑ ɘ ə ɛ ɪ ʊ
Diphthongs: aʊ̯

	Front	Central	Back
High			u
Near-high	ɪ		ʊ
High-mid	e	ɘ	o
Mid		ə
Low-mid	ɛ
Low	a aː		ɑ

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

Pronunciation	Spelling
aː	aa
aʊ	au
ft#	fte
ss#	sse
pp#	ppe
ɑ	a
ɛ	e
ɘ	y
ə	u
ɪ	i
ʊ	u
ŋ	ng
ɹ	r

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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 five 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.

Definite

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	No affix farg /faɹg/ the dog (when doing the verb)	Prefix ə- ufarg /əˈfaɹg/ the dogs (when doing the verb)
Accusative	If starts with vowel: Prefix fl- Else: Prefix fla- flafarg /flaˈfaɹg/ (verb done to) the dog	If starts with vowel: Prefix n- Else: Prefix nə- nufarg /nəˈfaɹg/ (verb done to) the dogs
Genitive	Prefix da- dafarg /daˈfaɹg/ the dogʼs	If starts with vowel: Prefix ov- Else: Prefix ovɛ- ovefarg /oˈvɛfaɹg/ the dogsʼ
Dative	If starts with vowel: Prefix dɹ- Else: Prefix dɹɘ- dryfarg /dɹɘˈfaɹg/ to the dog	If starts with vowel: Prefix b- Else: Prefix bɪ- bifarg /bɪˈfaɹg/ to the dogs
Locative	Prefix ko- kofarg /koˈfaɹg/ near/at/by the dog	Prefix faʊ̯- fau̯farg /faʊ̯ˈfaɹg/ near/at/by the dogs

Indefinite

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	If starts with vowel: Prefix dv- Else: Prefix dva- dvafarg /dvaˈfaɹg/ a dog (when doing the verb)	If starts with vowel: Prefix pɹ- Else: Prefix pɹɛ- prefarg /pɹɛˈfaɹg/ some dogs (when doing the verb)
Accusative	If starts with vowel: Prefix bl- Else: Prefix blɛ- blefarg /blɛˈfaɹg/ (verb done to) a dog	Prefix a- afarg /aˈfaɹg/ (verb done to) some dogs
Genitive	If starts with vowel: Prefix ɛb- Else: Prefix ɛbe- ebefarg /ɛˈbefaɹg/ a dogʼs	Prefix aː- aafarg /aːˈfaɹg/ some dogsʼ
Dative	Prefix aʊ̯- au̯farg /aʊ̯ˈfaɹg/ to a dog	Prefix straː- straafarg /straːˈfaɹg/ to some dogs
Locative	Prefix spo- spofarg /spoˈfaɹg/ near/at/by a dog	Prefix zaː- zaafarg /zaːˈfaɹg/ near/at/by some dogs

Articles

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

Pronouns

	Nominative	Accusative	Genitive	Dative	Locative
1st singular	strakt /strakt/ I	svell /svell/ me	skaa /skaː/ mine	fja /fja/ to me	kro /kɹo/ at me
2nd singular	vu /və/ you	gaamm /gaːmm/ you	bru /bɹu/ yours	kra /kɹa/ to you	grulm /gɹʊlm/ at you
3rd singular masc	braa /bɹaː/ he, it	kri /kɹɪ/ him, it	fju /fjə/ his, its	du /də/ to him, at it	u /u/ at him, at it
3rd singular fem	strur /strʊɹ/ she, it	ske /ske/ her, it	mad /mɑd/ hers, its	nag /nɑg/ to her, at it	kjau̯k /kjaʊ̯k/ at her, at it
1st plural	brefte /bɹeft/ we	inst /ɪnst/ us	do /do/ ours	dvolm /dvolm/ to us	aall /aːll/ at us
2nd plural	re /ɹɛ/ you all	buk /buk/ you all	pro /pɹo/ yours (pl)	fjau̯ /fjaʊ̯/ to you all	nolm /nolm/ at you all
3rd plural	strak /strak/ they	sam /sam/ them	stro /stro/ theirs	krynk /kɹɘnk/ to them	ple /ple/ at them

Possessive determiners

1st singular	slam /slɑm/ my
2nd singular	glaa /glaː/ your
3rd singular masc	slu /slu/ his
3rd singular fem	dra /dɹa/ her
1st plural	blaag /blaːg/ our
2nd plural	u /ə/ your (pl)
3rd plural	hvalv /hvɑlv/ their

Verbs

Present	No affix fa /fa/ learn
Past	If starts with vowel: Prefix d- Else: Prefix dɪ- difa /dɪˈfa/ learned
Remote past	If starts with vowel: Prefix tɹ- Else: Prefix tɹʊ- trufa /tɹʊˈfa/ learned (long ago)

Drerdian uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: bɹəmm - brumm fa /bɹəmm fa/ will learn

Progressive aspect

The ‘progressive’ aspect refers to actions that are happening at the time of speaking, such as I am learning.
Drerdian uses an affix for progressive:

Progressive

Prefix a- afa /aˈfa/ is learning

Habitual aspect

The ‘habitual’ aspect refers to actions that happen habitually, such as I learn (something new every day), as opposed to actions that happen once (I learned something).
Drerdian uses a standalone particle word for habitual:

Habitual

Particle before the verb: hə - hu fa /hə fa/ learns

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Prefix slaː-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix aː-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix dɹ-
Else: Prefix dɹo-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix e-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If starts with vowel: Prefix kv-
Else: Prefix kvɘ-
Noun → verb (to create [noun]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix fl-
Else: Prefix flɪ-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix k-
Else: Prefix ke-
Verb → adjective (likely to do [verb]) = Prefix a-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix ɑ-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Prefix plə-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Prefix a-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ugɹ-
Else: Prefix ugɹa-
Diminutive = If starts with vowel: Prefix sl-
Else: Prefix sle-
Augmentative = If starts with vowel: Prefix ɛj-
Else: Prefix ɛjaʊ̯-

Dictionary

3028 Words.

Spoken by

• Myrian
• Uborean