DUNBAR
So, Dunabar is heavily influenced by Latin and Greek. Phonetically I wanted a simple worded language which was very agglutinative (few prepositions and pronouns, basically only composed of verbs and nouns). Thus, simple words in Dunabar are normally no more than one or two syllable, but once you get into more complicated words things get long and cumbersome, but the definitions are correct. In some ways it's like Chinese.
Phonetics:
/-/ is the true phonetic sound
<-> is the way that sound is written when you write the language.
Consanants
/b t d k g
θ f s z ʃ ʒ h
j
tʃ
l
r
m n/
<b t d k g
th f s z sh j h
y
x
l
r
m n>
Vowels
*<hy> only occurs in one word
VERBS
Dunbar is a VSO language. (Verb Subject Object)
English & Spanish are SVO languages and Latin & German are SOV langauges.
For example, if S= Tom; V= Eats; O= An orange:
SVO: Tom eats an Orange
SOV: Tom an Orange eats.
VSO: Eats Tom an Orange
Dunbar's verbs are constructed the following way:
tense/aspect-
VERB-
mood-
gender-
person-
number
TENSE:
There are 3 morphological tenses in Dunbar: past, present and future. And 3 aspects: simple, imperfective (the action has a beginning and a middle and an end, and the speaker intends to express that) and perfective (the speaker presents the action without reference to any internal structure it may have). This gives Dunbar 9 verbal tense/aspect combinations, each with its own prefix (fusing tense and aspect into one morpheme):
Present simple: i-
Past simple: iz-
Future simple: ti-
Present imperfective: iga-
Past imperfective: ba-
Future imperfective: ta-
Present perfective: dai-
Past perfective: bai-
Future perfective: loi-
MOOD:
There are 7 moods:
Indicative: -k-, the most common, like when you state: Jenny is killing that dog. Killing would be in an Indicative mood.
Hope: -jit-, expresses a wish, a hope.*
Potential: -han-, expresses sureness in the verb. Ex: that IS a bird. He's surely flying!
Dubitative: -lun-, expresses doub in the verb. Ex: meybe that's a bird. He could be flying...
Imperative -bith-, when you order someone. Ex: clean the dishes!
Harsh imperative: -biyuth-, is considered very rude.
Jussive: -badun-, it's a polite imperative.
GENDER:
There are 5 genders:
Human: -al-
Animal: -il-
Object: -ul-, for non living things.
Abstract: -in- things that cannot be held or seen. Like expressions. Ex: war, knowing, archery...
God: -othital-, for gods and royality.
PERSON:
1- e
2- u
3- a
NUMBER:
Singular: -
Plural: -r
EXAMPLE:
Lets conjugate a verb then,
He fights.
i(present simple)-gar(verb: to fight)-k(indicative)-al(gender: 'he' is a human)-a(3rd person SG)
Igarkala ja*.
*Pronoun isn't needed, unless it's polite talk.
Declensions:
Dunbar has 10 cases:
Nominative: Subject
Vocative: When addressing to something
Accusative: Direct Object
Genitive: possessive
Dative: Indirect Object
Ablative: Adverbial case
Company (comitative): donates companionship
Instrumentative: Indicates the instrument
Locative: Donates place
Comparative: comparison
Only the Nominative and Vocative cases have articles.
Articles: singular / plural
Human: al' / ar'
Animal: il' / ir'
Inanimate: ul' / ur'
Abstract: ni' / nir'
Diety: hyal' / hyar'
There are 3 main declinations:
For human, animal and inanimate genders:
Examples are: afga (horse), meti (wall), had (man/human)
For abstract things:
Examples are: gaigala (reason), baji (teaching), duth (thought)
For holy, spiritual objects and gods:
Examples are: lana (godess), tantaji (deamon, ghost), galgur (god)
Pronouns:
Code:
SINGULAR
1st 2nd 3rd
----------------------------------------------
N Ja Sa Ka
V - Oth -
Ac Zai Sur Gai
G Jon Othi Kon
D Jari Othre Kari
Ab Jam Othmai Kam
PLURAL
N Raja Dari Raka
V - Othad -
Ac Zair Dur Gair
G Ajorin Rothid Akorin
D Razak Doth Ragak
Ab Ramij Dotham Ramik
Well, that's the basic stuff. I have a dictionary but it's in Catalan-Dunabar. There's also some stuff that I haven't explained like Relative pronouns and a couple of other pronouns. Dunabar is a pretty flexible language that can be spoken in a simplified vulgar form or the standard form or the royal form.
I'm was planning to make a vulgar "imperial' form of the language which only had person and number for vowels... and no Adverbial Object declensions.
Here are some sample texts!
Extract from the book of the few,
Uhalkahn Ninarion
Kira peirafkothitala Durbanurn farizalo Aknogolionalo: mrru iznokala zinon pahion. Tul paibathkothitala ja: “Daikimkeba ni’pah, itoshbithalur o’hadoriar Karúnion! Ikilkalur ni’amxirt daáion tisathion; olai’Tisath Zarion!”
Translation:
So Durbanurn took the spirit of Aknogol: thus ending the age of coal. He then said: "The dark has fled, come people of Karún! You behold the birth of a new age; the age of light!"
War cry of the Yellow Riders:
Ifisbithalur yarathiaz! Ishinrbithalur róthiaz! Iguthbithalur sadiaz!
Ihayathbithalur deníazleír o’ Hadazáfgaira Tarí! Do Iathakbithalur ko’káidalilal ni’eknilianiam!
Tighten the bow! Collect the arrows! Sharpen the sword! Lift the spear!
Raise your shields Yellow Riders! And shout to the heavens for victory!
I donno what else to say, you can ask more questions if you haven't understood some parts ^^
