Durtish

Dutrish (Dutrish: Durtshas or durtur tanha - Dutrish language) is the most widely spoken of the Dutronic languages, with about 36 million speakers, mostly in Dutreland and some thousands L2 speakers around the world. It is the official language of the Lumobeish province of Dutreland and has many native speakers in northern Volsland and Oghuzland.

Dutrish reflects the Dutre's high regard for religion, knowledge and nature, specially plant life. For example, their religion consists on a pantheon of twelve deities, giving place to the 12-based number system (common in other languages), the name of the 12 months of the year and the Twelve Commandments, the basis of Dutrish ethics. All cultural aspects of the Dutrish daily life were shaped by their religion, most noticeable in their arts.

Occupying the same level of importance, the acquiring of knowledge was considered indispensable for the Dutres. For example, one of the biggest libraries of the Ancient World was built in Brespänd (lit. tree city), the capital city of Dutreland. Many big educational buildings were built during the golden years of the Azdamish Empire. Their well integrated and organised education system allowed them to be leaders in the fields of health, commerce and war.

Finally, the respect for nature was both sacred and logical in Dutrish philosophy, especially the worshipping of plant life since plants they are the main source of food and clothing. The Dutronish peoples compared their stages of life with a plant, beginning as a seed, then a sprout and finally a mature plant. Animals commonly found in forests are worshipped too, with each member of the pantheon having an animal companion. For example, the owl is associated of the deity of wisdom and knowledge.

Classification
Dutrish is a member of the Dutric branch of the Dutronic language family. There is a high degree of intelligibility between Dutrish and other Dutric languages, including Turdonish and Lebernish. It shares the same features of all the Dutronic languages, such as their signature vowel harmony system, the nominative-accusative alignment, heavy agglutination and the classification of nouns according to animacy.

History
The raising and evolution of Dutrish was determined by many geographical and social factors. Firstly, the the Dutronish peoples, who originated in central Buvaria, were among the first people to domesticate the horse, which allowed the expansion of their language. Their advanced equestrian abilities allowed the spread of people speaking Dutronish languages across the Buvarish continent and eastern Lumobea.

Particularly, the Dutrish Dutrons brought their language into the Omberish peninsula, where Old Dutrish originated. The oldest registered script of Dutrish was written around the 6thcentury and the first comprehensive dictionary of Dutrish was published in the 12th century.

During its evolution, Dutrish was highly influenced by Olobish and Volsish. It first started following the adoption of Behomatism in the 9th century by the Zaryek Duntrons, the ruling dynasty of the newly formed Azdamish Empire. The administrative language of this state acquired many loanwords of Olobish words directly or through Volsish.

Then, during the 9thand 12th centuries, Dutrish scientific and artistic literature incorporated a big collection of words from Volsish. This variety, called Middle Dutrish or Azdamish Dutrish, diverged significantly from the variety spoken by the less-educated and rural members of society, which contained a higher percentage of native vocabulary and served as the basis for the modern Dutrish language.

At the beginning of the 20thcentury, after the formation of the Dutrish Republic, Dutrish underwent a process of reformation performed by the newly established Dutrish National Language Academy (DNLA) under the patronage of the first elected Prime Minister of Dutreland. The aim of this institutions was the study of Dutrish and the most important task then was to replace loanwords of Olobish and Volsish origin with native Dutrish equivalents. Thus, Modern Standard Dutrish (MSD) was created.

The DNLA introduced most of the words derived of Dutronish roots, process helped by its agglutinative morphology. Nonetheless, the DNLA also revived words of Old Dutrish which had not been used for centuries since the formation of the Azdamish Empire. The ban of the use of loanwords by the press and other media and in the public institutions made this process occur rather quickly.

This sudden change created a generational gap, with more young people speaking the reformed version taught in schools while the older people remained speaking Azdamish Dutrish. The role of the DNLA of the coining of new words is a never-ending work. However, some created words sound to artificial and forced, which led to the use of previous or new loanwords. Moreover, some words restored from Old Dutrish have acquired specialised meanings. See more.

Geographic distribution
Dutrish is natively spoken by the Dutrish people in Dutreland and the Dutrish diaspora in some other countries. In particular, Dutrish-speaking communities exist in regions that formerly belonged wholly or partially to the Azdamish Empire, such as Volsland in the United Federation of Viyara and Drotsland, Gurpusland, Atherland, South Lumosland and Glenland in Lumobea. Also, there are significant Dutrish-speaking communities in the United Federation of Northsnowland.

Official status
It has official status in the province of Dutreland and has a special status in the United Federation of Lumobea as a lingua franca of the southwestern region of the country, which previously belonged to the Azdamish Empire. The regulatory body is the Dutrish National Language Academy (DNLA), which serves under the authority of the Dutrish Provincial Ministry of Education and Science.

Dialects and accents
Modern Standard Dutrish is based on the dialect spoken in the capital area of Dutreland, which belongs to Capital Dutrish dialect group, and constitutes the model of written and spoken Dutrish. With the rising of the DNLA and the support of famous writers, a levelling process has occurred as the standard version was implemented in mass media and in public institutions.

However, in spite of these efforts, dialectal variation persists. It evident in colloquial speech and, even more, in rural areas, thus creating a dialect continuum. Some linguists consider that hadn't the DNLA been founded, these dialects would've become languages on their own. See more. There are 6 dialect groups of Dutrish, shown below accounting for number of speakers: One famous Dutrish poet and screenwriter once said that Dutrish accents are as numerous as the quantity of languages spoken in the world. Although it is an overstatement, there is some true in those words. Furthermore, the person's accent is subjected to social status, formality and politeness.
 * Capital Dutrish
 * Forest Dutrish
 * Coastal Dutrish
 * Plains Dutrish
 * Mountain Dutrish
 * Insular Dutrish

On one hand, the way the aristrocrats and the nobility used to pronounce words in Brespand during the age of the Azdamish Empire, known as the Brespandish accent, is considered nowadays as the most refined of all accents. Nowadays, it's the accent used by the ruling class, in state mass media and service institutions, for education and for science. One notable exception was Altair Ben-Aharon, the 3rd Prime Minister of Dutreland, who was born to an Olobish father and Tafarish mother in the Plains Region.

In contrast, the accents of the peasantry and the working class living the different regions of the Azdamish Empire were considered informal and impolite, sometimes to the point of being regarded as aggressive and vulgar. This accent continuum almost corresponds to the dialectal continuum. In recent times, they are the accents spoken by the lower working class. The middle and higher working class speak in between the standard and their local accents. The interaction of social status and the Dutrish language is responsible for the different registers. See more.

Phonology
Dutrish has a quite diverse inventory of phonemes. It retained most the phonemes of the Proto-Dutronic language with some minor changes and additions. A common feature in the Dutronish family is a system of vowel harmony and consonant assimilation.

Consonants
The evolution of Dutrish consonantal sounds followed the other members of the Dutric branch, although it has some difference due to the contact with many languages of other families throughout its history, mainly during the age of the Azdamish Empire. Middle Dutrish had the velar stop [q], the velar fricatives [χ] and [ʁ], and the pharyngeal fricatives [ħ] and [ʕ] due to the introduction of Olobish loanwords. However, with the reform during the 20th century, many of these words were replaced with native Dutrish and Dutronic words. The few loanwords that remained were Dutronised using native Dutronic sounds: 1, 2 The labiodental fricatives [f] and [v] are realised as their bilabial equivalents [ɸ] and [β] in most of the Insular dialects. This occurs as a result of the contact with the Atherish language.
 * [q] > [k] word-initially and finally, intervocalic [q] > [g]
 * [χ] > [h] word-initially, between syllables and in codas [χ] > [x]
 * [ʁ] > [r] word-initially, between syllables and in codas [ʁ] > [ɣ]
 * [ħ] > [h] word-initially and between syllables, [ħ] > ∅ in codas
 * [ʕ] > [j] in all environments

3, 4 The phonemes [l] and [ɫ] are allophones, with /l/ pronounced as a clear or light [l] next to front vowels (including word finally) and as a velarized [ɫ] next to the back vowels. Similarly, [r] and [ɾ] are allophones, with /r/ pronounced as the trill [r] word-initially and as [ɾ] in any other environment.

5, 6 The post-alveolar fricatives [ʃ] and [ʒ] are realised as their palatal counterparts [ɕ] and [ʑ] next to front and retroflex [ʂ] and [ʐ] next to back vowels. in some of the Mountain and Forest dialects in contact with Zelofish languages. This occurs because Zelofish languages are stress-timed.

7, 8, 9, 10 The velar stops [k] and and velar fricatives [x] and [ɣ] are realised as their uvular counterparts [q], [], [χ] and [ʁ] next to back vowels in some of the Plains and Insular dialects in contact with Zidunish languages.

Consonant assimilation
Dutrish is an agglutinative language where a series of affixes are added to the stem word. Consonant assimilation and vowel harmony are a phonological phenomena which ensure a smooth flow of speech, requiring the least amount of oral movement as possible.

Dutrish shows anticipatory assimilation to an adjacent segment when words ends in a nasal. The spelling rule is: Dutrish shows lag assimilation to an adjacent segment, that's why suffixes beginning with a consonant come in triplets: The consonants v, f, y, gh, kh and h do are not used un neither inflectional nor derivative. There are relevant in compound words or when adopting loanwords with clusters not allowed in Dutrish, in which case other phenomena like epenthesis and metathesis occur. Therefore, the sound changes are not predictable in compound words.
 * n, nj, and nh turn into m before any labial or labiodental consonant (b, p, v, f).
 * m, nj, and nh turn into n before any other consonant; however, the palatal nasal and velar nasal retain their prononciation.
 * b, p and m: b is used after words ending with voiced consonants except for b, p is used after words ending with voiceless consonants except for p and, finally, m is used after words ending in a vowel, b or p.
 * d, t and n: d is used after words ending with voiced consonants except for d, t is used after words ending with voiceless consonants except for t and, finally, n is used after words ending in a vowel, d or t.
 * g, k and nh: g is used after words ending with voiced consonants except for g, k is used after words ending with voiceless consonants except for k and, finally, nh is used after words ending in a vowel, g or k.
 * z, s and r follow the same pattern, except that r is used after dh, th, zh and sh as well.
 * zh, sh and nj follow the same pattern, except that nj is used after dh, th, z and s as well.
 * dh, th and l follow the same pattern, except that l is used after z, s, zh and sh as well.

Vowels
The vowels of the Dutrish language are, in their alphabetical order, ⟨a⟩, ⟨ä⟩, ⟨e⟩, ⟨ë⟩, ⟨i⟩, ⟨ï⟩, ⟨o⟩, ⟨ö⟩, ⟨u⟩, ⟨ü⟩. The Dutrish vowel system can be considered as being three-dimensional, where vowels are characterised by how and where they are articulated focusing on three key features: front and back, rounded and unrounded and vowel height. Vowels are classified [±back], [±round] and [±high]. Dutrish is among the few Dutronic langauges that retained the ten vowels of Proto-Dutronic, with five front vowels paried to five back vowels. In contrast, Lebernish lost [ʌ] and Turdonish lost both [æ] and [ʌ]. There aren’t long vowels nor diphthongs; therefore, two paired vowels are pronounced as different syllables, although this is rare.

Vowel harmony
As mentioned before, vowel harmony makes agglutination more easy. Grammatical affixes, both inflectional and derivative, have a chameleon-like quality regarding the vowels. It means that the place and manner of articulation of the vowels will determine which pattern of vowel harmony the affixes and the whole word will adopt. There are three patterns: The a-type pattern, also known as twofold pattern, only takes into account the place of articulation. While the e-type and i-type patterns, also known as low fourfold and high fourfold patterns, account for both place and manner of articulation. In dictionaries, the patterns use the notation a2, e4 and i4 for the three patterns of vowel harmony
 * a-type: the affixes use ä with front vowels and a with back vowels.
 * e-type: the affixes use e and ë after unrounded vowels (front and back respectively); and ö and o after the corresponding rounded vowels.
 * i-type: the affixes use i and ï after unrounded vowels (front and back respectively); and ü and u after the corresponding rounded vowels.

However, there are some affixes that undergo vowel harmony asymmetrically. The roundness of the vowel of the affix is the same regardless of position. Thus, this results in four sub-patterns: e2, i2, o2 and u2. This sub-patterns are used with some verbal suffixes and when creating compound words, with vowel harmony spreading from left to right.

Phonotactics
Dutrish phonotactics is almost completely regular. The maximal syllable structure is (C1)(C2)V(C3)(C4), although there are some restrictions of which sounds occur depending on the place of the syllable: Multi-syllable words are syllabified to have (C)C.CV or V.CV syllable splits, C.V split is disallowed, V.V split is only found in specific occurrences like loanwords and proper names that originated from a different language family. Although, this split becomes rarer as the DNLA began dutronising every adopted loanword, prospectively and retrospectively.
 * C1 may be any consonant
 * C2 may be either a liquid ([ɾ] and [l ~ ɫ]) after a stop or fricative or a fricative after a stop
 * C3 may be a liquid or a nasal
 * C4 may be any consonant except for [h]

Two adjacent plosives and fricatives must share voicing, even if they are not in the same syllable. Germinates are not allowed, epenthetic vowels are used to avoid them. There are no diphthongs, the epenthetic y is used in inflectional and derivative morphology, whilst h is used when dutronising proper names and some other words.

Rhythm and word accent
Dutrish has a syllable-timed rhythm, which suits its agglutinative morphology. However, it may sound somewhat stress-timed in some Mountain, Plains and Insular dialects and when Dutrish is spoken by people of stress-timed languages such as Sorish or Olobish. Word-accent is always on the last syllable of words. Azdamish Dutrish allowed variations in word-accent due to the incorporation of many loanwords and proper names. After the reforms, however, the DNLA stated that words must be stressed on the last syllable to be in agreement with the other Dutronish languages. Even proper names and loanwords are modified to comply with this rule. This process is known as dutronisation.

Writing system
Dutrish writing system varied throughout its evolution. Proto-Dutronic and its closest descendants, including Old Dutrish, were written in the Old Dutronic scipt. It was first discovered in the region between the Alhan and Jamezi rivers and Qadup Gömil, a Lebernish linguist, was the first to describe it. Thus, it is called the Alhan-Jamezi script or the Gömil's script. Then, during the Azdamish Empire, Middle Dutrish was written in the Volsolobish script. The Volsolobish script failed to represent all the sounds in Dutrish, but it was favoured by the ruling class.

Finally, during the reform of the 20th century, the Old Dutronish script was revived. There was an attempt to adopt the Loksish script instead, but it's currently reserved for loksicisation (romanisation) purposes. When creating the New Dutronish script, some symbols were repurposed to show the phonology of Modern Standard Dutrish. This is a phonemic script, which each sound represented by a single symbol. * The letter j is only used in the digraph nj and not as a separate letter.

Grammar
Dutrish is an agglutinative language because of the use of affixes, more frequently suffixes than affixes, to indicate the grammatical function of a word and to create new words. such as creating a verb from a noun, or a noun from a verbal root. Dutrish sentences follow a nominative-accusative alignment and is an exclusively head-final language, thus adjectives precede the nouns they modify and postpositions are used to show other cases and relation between words not showed morphologically.

Classification
Nouns are classified according animacy. Nouns can be animate or inanimate, although animacy doesn’t correspond to the state of living, but to the capability of movement. For example, trees are living things, but they are fixed on the ground, so they are considered inanimate. Conversely, rivers, brooks and streams are non-living things, but they represent a continuous flow of water, which is moving, thus they are considered animate nouns. The difference according to animacy isn’t shown by morphology, but rather it must be memorised. Nevertheless, there are some rules to determine if a noun is animate or inanimate:

Animate nouns
* Although the grammatical rule is to use -pe4r after voiceless consonants, the sequence -nt- triggers the use of -me4r.
 * Words ending in the agentive suffix: ghospor - runner, d – lantmër*, d - forester.
 * Words to measure time: d – hour, d – minute, d – second, d – day (24 h), d – month, d – year.
 * Words for bodies of moving water or air: flonh – river, mekhir – stream/brook, rïnla – wind, rïnladï (little wind) – breeze.
 * Some natural phenomena: tlan – rain, vëndagon (big storm) – typhoon/cyclone/hurricane, d – earthquake.
 * Moving animals: vünz - lynx, lörb - wolf, sräle – owl, otkay - horse, tëvu – eagle.
 * Celestial bodies: tepäs - sun, abay - moon, d – comet. But not d – star, which were considered to be static on the sky before it was discovered that they travel in orbits through the galaxies.

Inanimate nouns

 * Abstract nouns formed from adjectives and verbs: d – goodness, d – sadness.
 * Words used for specific parts of the day (24 h): tsun - day (24 h), d – day (part of the day with sunlight), d – night, rahïn – morning, d – afternoon, d – evening.
 * Words of geographical features and static water: d – mountain, d – valley, d – forest, d – jungle, d – lake, banës – sea.
 * Non-moving and slow-moving animals: d – star fish, d – coral, d – jellyfish.
 * Word of materials: d – metal, d – wood, d – paper, d – stone.
 * Name of metals: d – gold, d – silver, s – iron.

Inflection
The dictionary-form of a noun can take up to four (kinds of) #Inflectional suffixes, generally in the following order: Derivative suffixes can be attached to a word in between inflectional suffixes to change or add to the meaning of the word, and must follow vowel harmony.
 * Plural suffix
 * Suffix of possession
 * Case suffix

Number
Nouns can be countable or uncountable. Count nouns can be either singular or plural, the singular form being the unmarked form. In contrast, mass nouns need classifiers so they can be counted. The plural is marked by the suffix –(j)ar/-(j)är, with an epenthetic [j] if the word ends in a vowel.
 * Words referring to people, body parts, animals, fruits and pieces of clothes are count nouns: flonh – river > flonhar – rivers, kith – tooth > kithär – teeth, khüvi – sword > khüvijär – swords.
 * Words referring to abstractions, food, metals, materials and some physical phenomena are mass nouns: gan – water, ïdo – fire, hüfe – air.

Possession
As noted earlier, the suffixes of possession give the person (and number) of the possessor of what is named by the noun. When a word takes one of the endings of possession, the word becomes the name of something possessed, not possessing. The word for the possessor, if present, takes the genitive case ending.

Case
Dutrish has 9 cases which derive from the 15 cases of Proto-Dutronic. It is one if the few Dutronic languages that retained the vocative case. They follow vowel harmony and consonant harmony. * These forms are also used when the words ends in d, t and y. For example: otkay - horse > otkaynak - by horse (as a means of transport)

Nominative

The nominative is the citation form of a noun in a dictionary:

Its basic use is to indicate the grammatical subject of a sentence:

Accusative

Its basic use is to indicate the direct object of a verb in a sentence:

It's used as the 'accusative of exclamation' in phrases that aren't complete sentences, as if dependent on an unstated verb:

(I wish you a) Happy new year!

Finally, some postpositions assign the accusative:

(accusative of duration)

('accusative of changing state' or 'translative case')

Dative

Its basic use is to mark the indirect object of verb in a sentence:

Some verbs govern the dative:

Some postpositions assign the dative:

(dative of purpose)

(dative of benefit or harm’, also known as the 'benefactive case')

Genitive

Its basic use is to indicate that the noun is the possessor of something:

It’s also used as the “genitive of material” to show that something is made out of a particular material:

It’s also used to show the 'partitive case' with mass nouns modified by quantifiers:

Some verbs govern the genitive case, often with an accusative before the genitive or in adjectival phrases:

Finally, some postpositions assign the genitive:

Ablative

It’s used to describe movement away from, as well as a concept, object, act or event originating from an object, person, location or entity. Proto-Dutronic differentiated the outer ablative and inner elative cases, both of which merged during the transition to Old Dutrish:

It's also used as the 'ablative of comparison', being equivalent to the construction

Locative

It’s used to indicate location, which corresponds to the prepositions ‘in’, ‘on’, ‘at’ and ‘by’. Proto-Dutronic differentiated the outer adessive and inner inessive, which merged during the transition to Old Dutrish:

Lative

It’s used to describe movement into or onto something. Proto-Dutronic differentiated the outer allative and inner illative cases, which merged during the transition to Old Dutrish:

Instrumental

Its basic use is to indicate the instrument or the means with or by which actions are accomplished, meaning ‘with’, ‘by’ and ‘by the means of’:

Some postpositions assign the instrumental:

(comitative case, meaning ‘in company with’, ‘together with’, ‘along with’)

(abessive case, meaning ‘without’)

Vocative

It's used to indicate that a noun (person, animal, object, etc.) is being addressed:

Pronouns
Dutrish,as all the Dutronic languages, differentiates 1st, 2ndand 3rd person along with two personal numbers (singular and plural). Old Dutrish was very sensitive to formality, with a strict T-V distinction in the 2nd person. It was favoured due to the highly aristocratic society of the Azdamish Empire, in which the language developed.

However, it has changed in recent times because of the development of better communications technologies, with people now favouring the philosophy of comradery and equality regardless of formal distinctions. Dutrish is one of the few Dutronic languages that makes the distinction of animacy in the 3rd person plural, the others being Leberni and some Olteic languages.

All the pronouns inflect in the same way as nouns do, although there are some irregularities in some cases. In the dative, front vowels become rounded; in the locative, back vowels become unrounded; and in the lative, low vowels become mid vowels. This is a feature common in most of the Dutronic languages.

Adjectives
Adjectives are words that modify a noun or pronoun, giving more information about the noun or referent of pronoun. They derive from stative verbs and from nouns by the use of derivative suffixes. Unlike nouns, adjectives do not inflect for number, possession or case. They inflect for class, except when they are used in the predicate.

Classification
Adjectives can be descriptive or determinative. Determinative adjectives are subdivided into demonstrative, numerical, definite, indefinite and interrogative adjectives. Adjectives follow a specific order:
 * 1) determinative
 * 2) intensifier (adverb of degree)
 * 3) opinion
 * 4) size
 * 5) age
 * 6) shape
 * 7) colour
 * 8) proper adjective (e.g. nationality, origin)
 * 9) noun adjective (adjective derived form a noun)

Descriptive adjectives
Descriptive adjectives can be used in two ways, attributively and predicatively. For example: ernel - good and rahïnïr The official translation into Modern English is: The morning sunlight is good for your skin. The adjective rahïnïr derives from the noun rahïn - morning (period of the day between sunrise and noon). More about derivative morphology is shown further.
 * Attributive adjectives are part of the noun phrase headed by the noun they modify. The suffixes -(j)e4m and -(j)i4m is attached to the stem to indicate and adjective is used attributively with animate inanimate nouns respectively. Since Dutrish is a head-final language, attributive adjectives always precede the noun they modify.
 * Predicative adjectives are linked to the noun or pronoun they modify by a copula, therefore, no suffix is added. They always succeed the noun or pronoun they modify

Demonstratives adjectives
Demonstrative adjectives are used to indicate which entities are being referred to and to distinguish those entities from others. Their meaning depends on a particular frame of reference and cannot be understood without context. Dutrish makes a three-way distinction of demonstratives: Demonstratives can be nominalised by attaching the suffixes -ke for animate nouns, -ki for inanimate nouns and -kä when the speaker doesn't now the animacy of the noun being omitted. Nominalised demonstratives can take any of the inflectional suffixes.
 * Proximal pesh – this/these, indicates nouns close to the speaker.
 * Medial thesh – that/those, indicates nouns close to the listener
 * Distal yesh - yon/yonder, indicates nouns far from both the speaker and the listener

Numerical adjectives
Numerical adjectives are treated specially. They can take derivative suffixes, but not inflectional suffixes on their own. The basic forms are called cardinal numbers, which comprises a dozenal system (based on 12): When writing multiples of 10, üm is attached to the multiplier cardinal and undergoes vowel harmony, creating the suffix -(y)u2m: When writing multiples of 100, yös is attached to the multiplier cardinal and undergoes vowel harmony, creating the suffix -yo2s. And so forth. When writing multiples of 1000, fän is attached to the multiplier cardinal and undergoes vowel harmony, creating the suffix -v/fa2n. Powers of ten are attached to the püz one: Units follow multiples of ten; powers of ten come in descending order. Numbers are grouped with hyphens in sets of three digits:
 * 10 (12) - pürüm - one dozen
 * 100 (144) - püryös - one hundred
 * 1,000 (1728) - pürvän - one thousand
 * 10,000 (20,736) - pürümävn - ten thousand
 * 100,000 (248,832) - püryösfän - one hundred thousand
 * 1,000,000 (2,985,984) - pürvängen - one million (fängen - million, which results from fän + augmentative suffix -ge4n)
 * 1,000,000,000,000 (8.91610045e12) - püryösfängen - one thousand million
 * 11↊4 (1996) – pürvän püryös-drashëyum-tekh


 * 1220 (2040) – pürvän egüyös-egüyüm

Ordinals are formed adding the suffix -li2s to the word for the number. When using the number symbols, the suffix is attached with an apostrophe. Ordinals can be nominalised with the suffixes -ke2 or -ki2 according to the animacy of the noun omitted:
 * 1,204 (2020, the year of the creation of the Dutrish language) - pürvän egüyös-tekh - two thousand and twenty or twenty twenty
 * 247 (343, the speed of sound in air at 20ºC in m/s) - egüyös-tekhüm-ghotu - two hundred and forty-three
 * 84,497,00ᘔ (299,792,458, the speed of light in space in m/s) - zögüsüm-tekhfängen terkhyös-tëgïsum-ghotufan drashë - two hundred ninety-nine million seven hundred ninety-two thousand four hundred fifty-eight.

Interrogative adjectives
These adjectives are used to form questions, they are equivalent to the English wh-words and German W-Fragewörter: Both hen and hin are used with other nouns to create questions:
 * hen? - which? it's used for animate nouns
 * hin? - which? it's used for inanimate nouns
 * hen zhöge? - who? (lit. 'which person')
 * hin malso? - what? (lit. 'which thing')
 * hin suru? - what for? (lit. 'to which reason')
 * hin surus? - why (lit. 'of which reason')
 * hin tövdü? - how? (lit. 'in which manner')
 * hin batnë? - where? (lit. 'in/at which place')
 * hin batnën? - whence?/from where? (lit 'from which place')
 * hin batnïr? - whither?/towards where? (lit. 'towards which place')
 * hen zendi? - when? (lit. 'at which time')
 * hen zendes? - since when? (lit. 'from which time')
 * hen zendäm? - for when? (lit. 'towards which time')
 * hin kïsh? - how much/many? (lit. 'which quantity')

Adverbs
Adverbs are indeclinable words that are used to specify when, how and where an event occurs. There are five types of adverbs in Dutrish. The three main types are:

Adverbs of time
Adverbs of time describe ‘when’ an event takes place. Locative phrases and constructions may also serve as adverbs of time. They are usually formed by using the locative case of the plural forms of words like morning, afternoon, evening. For example: rahïn - morning > rahïnardë in the mornings

Adverbs of manner
Adverbs of manner express ‘how’ an event happens. Mostly, adverbs of manner derive from adjectives by adding the suffix -zha2s, which becomes -sha2s  after voiceless consonants and -nja2s. after s, sh, y, z and zh or a vowel. They are mostly used to describe verbs. Some adverbs may derive from nouns.
 * ernel - good > ernelzhär - well
 * tsunur - daily > tsunurzhar - every day

Adverbs of place
Adverbs of place describe “where” an event takes place. Locative phrases and constructions may also serve as adverbs of place.

There are also other types of adverbs, or rather subtypes:

Adverbs of degree
These adverbs express ‘how much’ or to ‘what extent’ an event happens or something is. They modify adjectives, verbs and other adverbs. They are of subtype of adverbs of manner.

Adverbs of frequency
These adverbs express ‘how often’ an event happens. They are a subtype of adverbs of time. Some of them are formed by using the -nj/sh/zha2m suffix applied to an temporal adjective.

Adverbs of cause
These adverbs express ‘why’ (the cause)

Verbs
Verbs are words that convey an action, an event or state of being. They almost always come at the end of the sentence. They inflect according to tense, aspect and mood and voice and evidentiality (TAMVE). There is no agreement to gender or number, thus Dutrish does not allow pronoun dropping. Dutrish shows tense, aspect, mood and voice with suffixes and evidentiality with a preffix.

Classification
Verbs in Dutrish can be either stative or dynamic. In addition, verbs can either be intransitive, transitive or ditransitive. Further classification is according to telicity, which determines which aspects a verb may inflect to.

Stative verbs
Stative verbs express static states. Verbs like the stative copula [] be (in the sense of the Romance verbs estar, stare and a sta),

Dynamic verbs
Dynamic verbs express change, action provoked or actively upheld by the subject. These verbs include the attributive copula [] – be (in the sense of the Romance verbs ser, essere, ésser and a fi),

Intransitive verbs
Intransitive verbs do not allow a direct object but rather adverbs or adverbial constructions: Some intransitive verbs allow for objects, either in the accusative case or dative case:
 * It rains (heavily)
 * The sun shines
 * I slept
 * Ven zenis zhodës - I help you (as in German ich helfe dir)

In general, intransitive verbs often involve weather terms, involuntary processes, states, bodily functions, motion, action processes, cognition, sensation, and emotion.
 * Ven zene baduyës - I see you (as in German ich sehe dich)

Transitive verbs
Transitive verbs require a direct object

Some transitive verbs are treated as intransitive in the indicative perfective present (which acts as a gnomic aspect). See the section about mood, tense and aspect for more information: Bite is a transitive verb but when used in the perfective present, it acts as an intransitive verb.
 * Barking dogs seldom bite

Ditransitive verbs
Ditransitive verbs require both a direct object and an indirect object, which correspond to the accusative case and dative case, respectively. These verbs include give, pass, hand, send, say, read, write.

Conjugation
Verbs can conjugated in finite and non-finite forms. Non-finite forms usually act as nouns or adjectives. They are also used in dependent clauses:

Infinitive
The infinitive form is used as the dictionary form of the verbs. It consists on the root (which is usually a noun, but also an adjective) + -(y)e2k. As mentioned before, the infinitive suffix undergoes an asymmetrical form of vowel harmony, only accounting for place of articulation (front-back). For example:
 * bas - state > basëk - to be (stative meaning)
 * ulï - essence > ulïyëk - to be (dynamic meaning)
 * zif - love > zifek - to love
 * häzhä - life > häzhäyek - to live
 * firnhek - to reside/to bedwell/to inhabit
 * ghosëk - to run
 * gümpek - to build
 * zhodëk - to help
 * baduyëk - to see/to watch (transitive)
 * ïksanhëk - to learn
 * shefrülek - to shine (emit light)
 * pïho - big - pïhoyëk - to grow (lit. to become big)
 * upsëk - to do/to perform (this verb can be used to refer to a verb mentioned previously. It's a feature borrowed from the Grumavic languages like Amblish and Teudonish)
 * ülpenek - to study.
 * sädbiyek - to exit/to get out

Gerund
The gerund form is used as nouns. It consists on the root (which is usually a noun) + -ro2. The gerund suffix is another example of asymmetrical vowel harmony. Verbs in this form can take thhe e possessive and case suffixes. For example: The official translation into Modern English is: I love living here.

Participle
The participle in Dutrish acts as an adjective. This form indicates an irreversible change of state as a result of the action conveyed by a verb. It's formed using the root of the verb plus the suffix -(y)u2n. Then again, this suffix undergoes asymmetrical vowel harmony. Participles may be active or passive.

Zen pül ghosloyom vünz ulïyës - You are a running lynx which is the shortened version of 'you are as agile as running lynx'. Word by word:

Finite verbal forms
The finite conjugations of verbs are created by attaching different suffixes to the stem. The order of the suffixes is the following:

Polarity
The default conjugation of verbs are affirmative or positive, but the suffix -(y)a2sh, which derives from the word yash meaning yes, is used for emphasis. For negative statements, the suffix -(y)e4n is used, which derives from the word yën meaning no For example: The official translation into Modern English is: We ran there The official translation into Modern English is: We did run there, with the emphatic did. The positive affix may also be used The official translation into Modern English is: We didn't run there, with the negative didn't.

Voice
The complex verbal voice system of Dutrish is the result of influence form nominative-accusative languages form the north and east, ergative-absolutive languages from the west and the tripartite alignment languages from the south. Dutrish use the nominative-accusative alignment, but adopted other voices to simplify sentences. The likely translation into Modern English is: I love you. The likely translation into Modern English is: I am loved by you. The agentive postpositional phrase zeni aptën - by you isn't necessary for the sentence to make sense. The likely translation into Modern English is: This house was built in the 8th century. The likely translation into Modern English is: S/he saw us and we ran. Using the antipassive voice makes unnecessary to use the pronoun zis - we in the coordinated clause. The likely translation into Modern English is: You helped yourselves. Nowadays, the particle hazh is used as a postposition that takes the possessive suffixes in phrases as the following one: The likely translation into Modern English is: You can see the Sun yourself. In this phrase there is an example of a proper name with a case suffix and the apostrophe between noun and the suffix. The likely translation into Modern English is: I learn maths at a school. Meanwhile, using the causative suffix: The likely translation into Modern English is: I teach maths at a school.
 * Active voice is the default, so no suffix is used. For example:
 * Passive voice is formed by adding the suffix -bi4 just before the tense-aspect-mood suffix. After voiceless consonants it becomes -pi4 and after vowels or the consonants b and p, it becomes -mi4. For example:
 * Antipassive voice is used when coordinating clauses. This voice indicates that the direct object of the verb in the main clause is performing the action in the coordinated clause. It is formed by adding the suffix -ze4. After voiceless consonants it becomes -se4 and after vowels or the consonants b and p, it becomes -le4. For example:
 * Reflexive or middle voice is used when the subject of the statement is both the agent and the patient of the verb. This voice corresponds to the use of reflexive pronouns in English, which is the form used in Viyaro-Lumobean languages. In the past, the middle voice was shown by a reflexive particle hazh, which then became attached to the verb stem as the suffix -(y)a2zh. For example.
 * Causative voice is used in a similar fashion to the construction in English make + noun/pronoun + to-verb. In English, as well as in many Indo-European languages, causative verbs usually are paired with a stative verb, as the pair to learn - to teach. In Dutrish, there is the causative suffix -(y)i4l but in recent times, the construction infinitve + yilek, which means to cause in Dutrish, is more commonly used.

* The root is ülpen from the verb ülpenek - to study. When agglutinating both ülpen and bat - place, the final n becomes m before the labial consonant.

Evidentiality
Dutrish has a two-tiered evidentiality system. Unlike most affixes in Dutrish, evidentiality is showend by a prefix. The two levels of evidentiality are: The likely translation into Modern English is: I love seeing the sunshine in the mornings. Verbs that convey sensory actions (to see, to hear, to touch) use this level of evidentiality. The likely translation into Modern English is: This tree grows well with sunlight. In this sentence, the use of the indirect level of evidentiality transmit an inferential meaning.
 * Direct evidentiality. It's used when the speaker has the certainty of some event and the information is acquired by some of the five senses. This level includes sensory and witness evidence. It's the default form of the verbs, this no prefix is used.
 * Indirect evidentiality. It's used when the speaker isn't certain about the information he or she is transmitting. This level includes reported, non-witness and inferential evidence. It's formed by attaching the prefix ha2- to the stem.

In English, the adverbs apparently, maybe and perhaps as well as the verbal construction seem + infinitive convey this meaning. In Dutrish, the equivalent adverbs can be used. But if there is enough context, they may be committed. The indirect forms may also be used to indicate mirativity (surpirse), irony and doubt. The likely translation into Modern English is: Trees grow well in this place, but (it seems) this one did not.

Tense
The tense indicates the time when the action is performed relative to the speaker. The tense suffixes go at the end of the word. Aspects

The aspect of the verb indicates when the action is performed relative to a certain point of time. The likely translation into Modern English is: S/he doesn't eat pork. In this example, the aorist meaning is conveyed. This sentence informs the listener that a person is does not eat meat at all, and not merely that s/he happens not to be eating meat at that very moment. For that purpose, the imperfective aspect is used. Another example: The likely translation into Modern English is: We ate pork once and we liked it. In this sentence, the semelfactive meaning is coveyed wiht the aid of the adverbial phrase pür gäläne - once/one time. The message is the the speakers ate pork at some point of the past just once and they liked it. One last example:
 * The perfective aspect denotes one-time (semelfactive) and momentary actions at some indeterminate time. No suffix is used. It corresponds to the English simple present, simple past and future. Verbs using this aspect also denotes aorist actions.

The likely translation into Modern English is: You will eat apricot then and you'll like it. In this sentence, the message is that the listener will eat apricot at some point in the future and the speaker is certain that the listener will like it. Atelic verbs often convey an imperfect meaning, although can be conjugated in the imperfective aspect in order to emphasise that the actions is taking place in the very moment the speaker is referring to. For example, the perfective aspect is used in the following sentence: The likely translation into Modern English is: I enjoy the eating of apricots, although a native English speaker would say ''I enjoy eating apricots. ''This is an example of the use of the genitive case as the partitive case. Meanwhile, the imperfective aspect is used in the following sentence: The likely translation into Modern English is: I am enjoying eating apricots with you, with emphasis in the fact that the speaker is enjoying both the company of the listener and eating apricots in that very moment.
 * The imperfective aspect denotes progressive and continuous actions. It's indicated by adding the suffix -(y)a2v before the tense suffix.

Verbs conjugated in both the paste tense and imperfective aspect gives place to the English imperfect, found in many languages around the word. For example: The likely translation into Modern English is: You were studying maths this morning.


 * The retrospective aspect or perfect aspect denotes that an action occurred before another action. It corresponds to the English construction have + past participle. It's indicated by adding the suffix -(y)i2d before the tense suffix:


 * In the present tense, it corresponds to the English present perfect, but it's used mainly indicate recent past events, like in French venir de + infinitive or in Spanish acabar de - infinitive. In the present tense, it corresponds to the perfect in English. It's also used in phrases with

The prospective aspect denotes that an action will occur after another action.. It corresponds to the English constructions would + infitinitve, was/were going to + infinitve and be about to + infinitive.

Other aspects, like the inchoactive, cessative, gnomic and habitual aspects are sometimes indicated by adverbs or by syntax instead of morphology. The likely translation into Modern English is: They love me. In this sentence, the verb zifes is conjugated in the present perfective or simple present, however it conveys the gnomic aspect. Also, this sentence uses the direct level of evidentiality, which enhance the sense that the speaker is certain that the people s/he is referring to love him/er, as a general truth.


 * Moods are: indicative, subjunctive, hortative/jussive. Other moods are indicated by adjetival construction, lake the potential, necessitative, permissive moods.



Derivation
Derivative morphology is done by the use of affixes, such as inflectional morphology. They also undergo vowel and consonant harmony.

Noun derivation Verb derivation Adjective derivation Adverb derivation
 * -g/k/nhe4: it's used for nominalising adjectives modifying an animate noun.
 * -g/k/nhi4: it's used for nominalising adjectives modifying an inanimate noun.
 * -g/k/nha2: it's used for creating nouns from verbs and adjectives, like in English -hood, -(i)ty, -ness and -ship.
 * -b/p/me4r: it's used to create agentive nouns from verbs and nouns, usually denotes professions, like the English suffix -er.
 * -b/p/mi4r: it's used to create instruments from verbs, like the English suffix -er.
 * -d/t/na2l: it's used to create noun frequently denoting a "fellow of", "having in common", "sharing", like in English suffix -mate.
 * -(y)o2re2k: it's used to create verbs from nouns.
 * -(y)a2re2k: it's used to create verbs from adjectives.
 * -li2s: it's used to form ordinals from numbers, like the English suffix -(e)th. It's also used to form demonyms from countries and places, like the English suffixes -ish, -ese and -ian. It derives from the genitive suffix -(y)i4s
 * -(y)e4na2l: it's used to form adjectives from nouns meaning 'capable of' and 'worthy of', like the English suffixes -able, -ible and -worthy.
 * -(y)i4r: it's used to create adjectives with the meaning 'relating to' or 'pertaining to', like the English suffix -ly.
 * -(j)i4ga2: it's used to from adjectives meaning 'full of', like the English suffix -ful.
 * -me4nh: it's used to from adjectives meaning 'empty of' or 'without', like the English suffix -less.
 * -nj/zh/sha2m: it's used to create adverbs from adjectives and nouns, like the English suffixes -ly and -like.

Basic verbs

 * khomayëk - to eat
 * hëdhruyek - to like/to enjoy

Food

 * od - meat (uncountable). It can be attached to words referring to animals to convey the meaning of meat from that particular animal.
 * khoma - meal
 * rahïnïrïm khoma - break fast (lit. morning meal)

Animals

 * otkay - horse
 * vünz - lynx
 * lörb - wolf
 * sräle - owl
 * taytus - barn owl
 * gantrë - otter

Colours
Colours derive from the genitive of nouns which are of the same colour they represent plus the suffix -le4s. They are considered descriptive adjectives, thus they can take the attributive suffixes -(j)e4m/-(j)i4m and the nominalising suffixes -e4kh/-i4kh:
 * sïnhïnlës - red (lit. 'in the manner of blood')
 * jöfünlös - green (lit. 'in the manner of the leaf')
 * vusunlos - blue (lit. 'in the manner of the sky')
 * nümbünlös - black (lit. 'in the manner of the night')
 * oplajïnlës - white (lit. 'in the manner of the light')
 * rethöjünlös - grey (lit. 'in the manner of ash')
 * malvunlos - magenta (lit 'in the manner of the fuchsia')
 * tepstinles - yellow (lit. 'in the manner of the sun')
 * läshekinles - cyan (lit. 'in the manner of lapis lazuli')
 * gejäkinles - orange (lit 'in the manner of the apricot')
 * azhïmïnlës - navy blue (lit. 'in the manner of the ocean')
 * rëdhojunlos - rose red (lit. 'in the manner of the rose')

Body parts and organs

 * dhalm (from Volsish dalem, which derives from Old Zonzgletish dhaahṛm) - skin. This loanword replace the native Dutronic root dalu, which changed into tälü - leather.
 * moz - head

Time

 * zen - time (uncountable), from Old Dutrish zeen
 * gälä - time (countable)/occasion, from Olobish gele
 * tsun  (a loanword from Sorish, originally  цунь  tsun) - day (24 h).
 * abzhën - month (lit. moon time which was the measure of time for the moon to complete its cycle)
 * tepshen - year (lit sun cycle)
 * yöstepshen - century
 * fäntepshen - millenium
 * gite - day (period of the day between sunrise and sunset)
 * gitelüd - noon/midday
 * mado - night (period of the day between sunset and sunrise)
 * madolud - midnight
 * rahïn - morning
 * fömprös (a Classical Loksish fenepers, which in Loksish means evening) - afternoon
 * ägzenh - evening

Places

 * dahëf (from the Proto-Olobish root dahaaf) - settlement. In Azdamish Dutrish, dahëf means city, but in Modern Dutrish, it has been reanalysed as any type of settlement (village, town, city)
 * bänd - city
 * mozband - capital (lit. head city)
 * oltan (from the Proto-Dutronic root altan) - land/country. It's used to create the names of countries and sub-national divisions.
 * bäriz (from the Ancient Atherish root bariz) - town.

Evolution
Although literacy rates increased thanks to the standardisation of Dutrish, the use of the Loksish script and the educational initiatives of the Dutrish government, there is a new phenomenon that has been occurring in recent times. As linguists have noticed since their discipline was formally established, languages don't remain static, but rather they evolve according to the social context of the people who speak them.

One of theses processes of evolution concerns the change in morphological typology. For instance, Dutrish is a highly agglutinative language, a feature made easy by its system of vowel and consonant harmony. But, with the popularisation of mobile phones and the social media and an increasing access to Internet, it has been acquiring features of fusional and analytical languages.

For example: 1 Modern Standard Dutrish 2 Modern Colloquial Dutrish

In Modern English: I didn't ate your apricots. When comparing the two versions, one can easily notice the differences. Another example of MCD: In Modern English: I didn't ate your apricots. When analysing the two versions, the following changes are noticed: In Modern English: This tree grows well with sunlight. When analysing the two versions, the following changes are noticed:
 * Firstly, the first and second pronouns in MCD ve and se have lost the final -n.
 * Then, the 2nd person genitive seyis is used as a possessive instead of the possessive suffix.
 * The direct object geyäsär - apricots doesn't take the accusative suffix -e. Instead, MCD relies more in word order to differentiate the subject and the direct object. The accusative suffix is only used with definite direct objects.
 * Finally, the verb homënt is the result of sound changes, vowel loss and contraction: kh/gh > h at the beginning of words, the final -a of the stem has lost and the negative suffix and past tense suffix in MSD -yënat has been contracted into -ënt in MCD.
 * Firstly, the 1st person plural zi has lost the final s.
 * In the demonstrative adjective, the post-alveolar sh has turned into the alveolar fricative s.
 * The word rahïndë is the same in both versions.
 * The word for maths in the underwent some vowel changes that affected all words: s became z after all voiced consonants, clusters of consonants in the same manner of articulation aren't allowed, so the b of -bey became v in -vey-. Then again, because it functions as as an indefinite direct object, it doesn't take the accusative suffix -e.
 * Finally, the verb is the most notoriously changed word: the repeated sequence -enen- transformed into -em- as a result of contraction and nasal consonant assimilation. Lastly, the vowel of the imperfective aspect suffix has been lost.
 * Firstly, as shown in the previous sentence, the sh has turned into s in the demonstrative.
 * MCD does not uses the attributive suffixes -e4m and -i4m, but rather relies in word order. When used attributively, adjectives precede the noun they modify.
 * In the word for sunlight, the -ä- of tepäs- has been lost and the the dental fricative dh has turned into the alveolar stop d.
 * In the word meaning well. the post-alveolar zh of the adverbial suffix has turned into the alveolar fricative z. Also, the liquid consonants r and l have undergone metathesis.
 * Finally, in the verb, the final vowel of the stem has been lost.

Example text
The likely translation into Modern English is: I run in the mornings. Although it is grammatical, the native Dutrish speaker would say: The likely translation into Modern English is: I go out for the purpose of running in the mornings/everyday. Someone can also say: The likely translation into Modern English is: I go our for a run on the mornings/everyday. Either way, the message is the same.

More complex statements are created by changing the voice of the verb or by using participles. You saw the man who ate my apricots this morning but didn't tell me.

The man's throwing of a ball was seen by you

You saw the throwing person of the ball