Delisean

Background
Delisean, is an indigenous language spoken in Spain, of the Delta-Mevevta family, as Meula and Kabean.

Ortography
Alphabet: a ä b d e è f g h i k l m n o ó ø p q r s t u ü v x χ

Numbers
Delisean uses an octal system.

1: hü 2: nin 3: gó 4: fó 5: dit 6: χes 7: lä 8: mut 9: muteng hü 10: muteng nin 11: muteng gó 12: muteng fó [...] 16: nisemut 17: nisemuteng hü 24: gósemut 25: gósemuteng hü 32: fósemut 33: fósemuteng hü 40: ditsemut 48: χesemut 56: läsemut 64: serak 65: serakeng hü 73: serakeng muteng hü 128: niserak 192: góserak [...] 512: sankserak 1000: sankserakeng läserakeng ditsemut 1022: sankserakeng läserakeng läsemuteng χes 1024: nisangrak 1536: gósangrak 2048: fósangrak [...] 4096: säkrak 8192: nisäkrak [...] 36864: muteng hü säkrak [...] 16777216 (4096²): säkrak säkrak 16777217: säkrak säkrakeng hü

Nouns
Originally, the dual form was made with -a and the plural with -eth, but the dual form became used for general plural except for commonly dual nouns, which also have lost its dual in the modern language. Modern nouns can have a dual form adding the prefix i-, ik- (for accusative), or ü-/if- (for dative) to the plural form. The prefix on the plural noun derives from the old oblique particle of a singular conjugation of a plural word, and the dual nouns retained are still conjugated as singular in the modern language.

The nominative case is the subject of a sentence, the accusative marks the direct object and the dative the indirect object. The causative takes prepositions and is the agent of intransitive verbs when placed before the verb. The adverbial case acts as an adjective before a noun and as an adverb before a verb. It also indicates possession. The pronouns have a reflexive form, used as a direct object when the object is the same, which is used even when the subject (and object) is a noun. This table shows the types of regular nouns. Words with such nominative endings will have these declinations for singular. The plural is a different declination shown on the last line. The declinations 10 and 12 are only used as plural. There are a few irregular nouns, most have their own patterns. Some words ending on s and x do not take the first declination but are irregular instead.

Possession
Possession can be expressed in two different ways in two different contexts. When the possessor is general (all of its kind) the adverbial case is used, making an adjective. If the possessor is limited, the preposition küx (out of, from) is used.

Delatè kadara: People's cities, human cities.

Küx dela kadara: Cities of these people, cities of the (specified quantity) people.

Examples of irregular nouns
Irregular -x: Polysyllabic nouns ending on -x simply lose the -x for plural and some singular cases, and decline as a noun ending on its vowel. Defective -x: Only for single-syllable nouns. /x/ becomes /h/ intervocallicaly. Acc. sg. and Adv. sg. are iregular.

Irregular -s: From old -z. Becomes /rj/ intervocallicaly, but /r/ for the dative case.

Irregular -s words starting with a front vowel have a different ending for plural and dual in cases with hiatus (no /j/ before /r/, only for accusative). This can alternatively be spelled with the i, as it was noted that in slow speech it is pronounced.

Adjectives
Adjectives agree to case and number and are placed before their nouns. When a noun is dual the adjective remains singular. The adverbial case can be used for making adjectives out of nouns.

Adverbs
Adverbs are placed before the verb. Adverbs from adjectives are made from their adverbial case. The case is also used for nouns meaning the action was done using the noun. For example, "to walk (qerom) with shoes (hadar)" would be "hadarete qerom"

Tense adverbs
Verb tenses and aspect are made with adverbs, which are sometimes ignored when other temporal adverbs are present.

The future adverbs are also used for imperative. The perfective for imperative is used for only a few verbs, such as start or finish, or instead of start.

Conjugations
The infinitive suffix is -(e)n. The past participle suffix is -(e)nte and it is used to make passive voice much like in English. Some verbs with -ri ending stem act like ending on consonant.

Prefixes
There are a number of prefixes that change a verb meaning. They are also used for other word classes, but are most noticeable in verbs. The most important are:

The meanings are only the prefix idea, not actual meaning. For instance, the verb to be fèb makes 9 other verbs out of it: gäfèb (warn), hafèb (forget), haχfèb (accompany, be with), tèmfèb (become), vefèb (feel sorry, feel guilty), venifèb (hide), verifèb (flee), χüfèb (visit).

Syntax
The basic word order is SOV. Adjectives are placed before the noun and adverbs before or after the verb.

Links
Delisean/Vocabulary

Delisean/Words usage