Dhekout

Overview

=Alphabet and Pronunciation= There are 26 letters in this alphabet; 6 vowels(a, au, ɛ, i, o, and ou) and 20 consonants(Б, c, k, d, dh, g, h, l, m, n, p, pz, r, s, ss, th, t, v, w, zh).

Here is how to pronounce them:


 * A - pronounced 'ah'
 * Au - pronounced 'ay'
 * Б - pronounced 'b'
 * C(used only in adjectives and adverbs)/K(used only in nouns, pronouns, and verbs) - pronounced as a hard c
 * D - pronouced 't'
 * Dh - pronounced as a mixture between 'j' and 'sh'. it is like the French 'j'
 * ɛ - pronounced 'uh'
 * G - pronounced as a hard g
 * H - pronounced 'hy', as in 'human' or 'humid'
 * I - pronounced 'ee'
 * L - pronounced 'y'
 * M - pronounced 'm'
 * N - pronounced 'n'
 * O - pronounced 'oh'
 * Ou - pronounced 'oo'
 * P - pronounced 'p'
 * Pz - pronounced 'ps'
 * R - pronounced 'l'
 * S - pronounced 's'
 * Ss(used for singular words)/Th(used for plural words) - pronounced 'z'
 * T - pronounced 'ch', as in 'cheese'
 * V - pronounced 'f'
 * W - pronounced 'v'
 * Zh - pronounced 'sh'

=Basic Grammar=

Articles
There are only 3 articles; ssa, mau, and sson.

Ssa is the equivalent of 'the'. It is used when describing something specific. Ssa does not change gender.

Mau is the equivalent of 'a/an' for describing feminine nouns.

Sson is the other equivalent of 'a/an', except this is used for describing masculine nouns.

EXAMPLES
mlau ssa

the cat

Бok sson

a dog

paunɛ mau

a cloud

Nouns
Nouns have two genders, masculine and feminine. Masculine nouns always end in one of the 20 consonants. When they become plural, they end in -ɛn. Feminine nouns always end in one of the 6 vowels. When they become plural, they end in -ɛnɛ. If the word already ends with ɛ, then just add -nɛ.

EXAMPLES
iowɛ

flower

iowɛnɛ

flowers

goudh

bird

goudhɛn

birds

Pronouns
Pronouns have two genders and two ages. They are masculine-young, masculine-older, feminine-young, and feminine-older. 'They' and 'We', however, are only masculine and feminine. 'It' is classified as masculine, and is therefore used like 'he.'

There are 20 subject pronouns.


 * 'I' masculine-young = aun
 * 'I' masculine-older = hɛr
 * 'I' feminine-young = vissɛ
 * 'I' feminine-older = kou
 * 'We' masculine     = Бousk
 * 'We' feminine      = kamɛ
 * 'You' masculine-young= rin
 * 'You' masculine-older= dhauk
 * 'You' feminine-young= ssaunɛ
 * 'You' feminine-older= vossɛ
 * 'He' masculine-young= moup
 * 'He' masculine-older= at
 * 'She' feminine-young= hangɛ
 * 'She' feminine-older= dho
 * 'They' masculine   = asoun
 * 'They' feminine    = houi

Honorifics
These are suffixes attached to people's names, or to pronouns when you do not know the person's name. They are never attached to your own name when you are speaking of yourself.
 * lɛss - used for people you don't know very well, regardless of sex or age.
 * Бɛnɛ - used for younger women you are familiar with.
 * Бɛl - used for younger men you are familiar with.
 * dhi - used for older females you are familiar with.
 * pzaun - used for older males you are familiar with.
 * nor - used for teachers, professors, and tutors, regardless of sex or age.

Verbs
Verbs are not classified by sex. The verb is found at the very end of the sentence, regardless of the rest of the sentence.

Conjugation
Verbs are conjugated into Simple Present, Present Continuous, Simple Past, Perfect, Pluperfect, and Future tenses.

EXAMPLES of Conjugation
ou dhou -- to run

dhouhɛ -- running

dhoulan -- ran

dhoumau -- will run

ou tou -- to fly

touhɛ  -- flying

toulan -- flew

toumau -- will fly

Simple Present
The root word without 'ou'. When a verb follows a plural noun or pronoun, it becomes plural. Add -oun to the end to make it plural. If it ends in zh or oun, add -noun instead.

EXAMPLE

 * aun pzɛk   -- I(masculine-young) walk
 * hɛr pzɛk   -- I(masculine-older) walk
 * vissɛ pzɛk -- I(feminine-young)  walk
 * kou pzɛk   -- I(feminine-older)  walk
 * Бousk pzɛkoun -- We(masculine)   walk
 * kamɛ pzɛkoun -- We(feminine)     walk
 * rin pzɛk   -- You(masculine-young) walk
 * dhauk pzɛk -- You(masculine-older) walk
 * ssaunɛ pzɛk -- You(feminine-young) walk
 * vossɛ pzɛk -- You(feminine-older) walk
 * moup pzɛk  -- He(masculine-young) walks
 * at pzɛk    -- He(masculine-older) walks
 * hangɛ pzɛk -- She(feminine-young) walks
 * dho pzɛk   -- She(feminine-older) walks
 * asoun pzɛkoun -- They(masculine)  walk
 * houi pzɛkoun -- They(feminine)    walk

Word Order
The typical word order for a simple sentence is as follows:

Noun-Adjective describing the noun-Adverb describing the verb-Verb

Which I generally abbreviate to:

N-ADJ-ADV-V

So that's what I'll be using when I talk about the sentence structure. I'll just be talking about simpler sentences until I've completely figured out the more complex stuff.

EXAMPLES
The cat walked quickly.

Mlau ssa hac pzɛklan.

((cat the quick walked))

=Dictionary=

Numbers

 * 0 - for zero, the word for 'nothing', 'nir', is used, but nir is rarely used at all
 * 1 - an
 * 2 - Бɛn
 * 3 - toun
 * 4 - gin
 * 5 - dhaun
 * 6 - kan
 * 7 - zhɛkin
 * 8 - ripzɛn
 * 9 - don
 * 10 - houn
 * 11 - an-houn
 * 12 - Бɛn-houn
 * 13 - toun-houn
 * 14 - gin-houn
 * 15 - dhaun-houn
 * 16 - kan-houn
 * 17 - zhɛkin-houn
 * 18 - ripzɛn-houn
 * 19 - don-houn
 * 20 - hounan
 * 21 - an-hounan
 * 22 - Бɛn-hounan
 * 23 - toun-hounan
 * 24 - gin-hounan
 * 25 - dhaun-hounan
 * 30 - hountoun
 * 35 - dhaun-hountoun
 * 40 - houngin
 * 45 - dhaun-houngin
 * 50 - houndhaun
 * 60 - hounkan
 * 70 - hounzhɛkin
 * 80 - hounripzɛn
 * 90 - houndon
 * 100 - zhin
 * 125 - gin-hounan-zhin
 * 150 - houndhaun-zhin
 * 175 - dhaun-hounzhɛkin-zhin
 * 200 - zhinan
 * 300 - zhintoun
 * 400 - zhingin
 * 500 - zhinhaun
 * 1000 - pohin
 * 1575 - haun-houzhɛkin-zhinhaun-pohin
 * 2000 - pohinan

Colors

 * red - lohau
 * orange - orandh
 * yellow - ama
 * green - gasso
 * blue - miss
 * violet - pɛr
 * brown - cavi
 * black - naulo
 * white - waiss

Elements

 * earth - wɛrd
 * water - sitna
 * wind - wana
 * fire - fougo
 * ice - akwa

=Example text= Mlau ssa dhoulan.

The cat ran.

Goudh ssa mɛБir toulan.

The bird flew slowly.