Atlantean language
Encyclopedia
The Atlantean language is a constructed language
created by Marc Okrand
for Disney's film Atlantis: The Lost Empire
. The language was intended as a possible "mother language" and was therefore crafted to include a vast Indo-European
word stock with its very own grammar, which is at times described as highly agglutinative, inspired in Sumerian
and North American languages. The decision of this language being a possible "mother language" was actually a decision made by the script-writers of the movie, and not by Marc Okrand himself, who followed this presumption upon its creation.
for Disney’s 2001 film Atlantis: The Lost Empire and associated media, The Atlantean language is therefore based both on historic reconstructions or realities as well as on the elaborate fantasy
/science fiction
of the Atlantis: The Lost Empire mythos. Here are the fictional bases upon which the Atlantean language was created: Atlantean is the “Tower of Babel language”, the “root dialect” from which all languages descended. It has existed without change since sometime before 100,000 B.C., within the First or Second Age of Atlantis until the present. This is when the Mother Crystal (Matag Yob) descended to Earth and brought enlightenment to the Atlantean people. It is preserved by the presence of the Mother Crystal in the same way that The Shepherd’s Journal, the City of Atlantis (Wil Adlantisag), the Atlantean people (luden), and especially its royalty (yaseken) are preserved, healed, and given extended blissful life.
To create this, Dr. Okrand took common characteristics of all world languages and applied them to the Proto-Indo-European language
. His main source of words (roots and stems) for the language is Proto-Indo-European, but Okrand also uses ancient Chinese
, Biblical Hebrew
, Latin and Greek
languages, along with a variety of other ancient languages or ancient language reconstructions
They are listed in order of creation. Okrand originally put together the language in Writer’s Script. For those many parts in the movie for which it was written, the filmmakers wrote it using the Atlantean Alphabet, created by John Emerson with the help of Marc Okrand. For those fewer parts of the movie for which it is spoken, Okrand devised a Berlitz-style notation which he hoped would make the Atlantean easier to read for the actors.
Example:
(Spirit.Plural.Vocative Atlantis.Genitive, Chamber.Oblique you-plural-familiar.Genitive defile.Past-Perfect.1st-Person-Singular for and land.Oblique into intruder.Plural.Oblique bring.Past-Perfect.1st-Person-Singular for I-Dative forgive.Imperative-Plural.)
(Written boustrophedon
, as if in Atlantean alphabet: )
NISHENTOP ADLANTISAG KELOBTEM
MIG TEB KIMILKORAK NIRBAG
DEMOTTEM NET GETANOSENTEM
BIGAK TEB KIMILTONREB
LEWIDYOH
.
20 letters of the Atlantean alphabet are used to write Atlantean in the media of Atlantis: The Lost Empire. The letters c, f, j, q, v, x, z, ch, or th have likewise been acknowledged by the filmmakers as not being used. They were created so that Atlantean might be used as a simple cipher code. They are all also based on diverse ancient characters, just like the rest of the alphabet.
writing order. It is written left to right for the first line, right to left the second, and left to right again the third, to continue the pattern. This order was also suggested by Okrand, based on ancient writing systems, and it was accepted because, as he explained, "It's a back-and-forth movement, like water, so that worked."
. If used according to the now-offline Official Website's directions, they are used, alternatively, like Arabic numerals
.
Ordinals
are formed with the suffix (d)lag: sey 'three', sey.dlag 'third'. The d is omitted if the root ends with an obstruent
or nasal consonant
: dut 'two', dut.lag 'second'.
Fractions are formed with the suffix (d)lop: kut 'four', kut.lop 'quarter', sha 'five', sha.dlop 'fifth (part)'.
Distributives are formed with the suffix noh: din 'one', din.noh 'one at a time, one each'.
Atlantean's phonetic inventory includes a vowel system with the above five phoneme
s, a system common to many languages, such as Spanish
. Most vowels have two prominent allophonic
realizations, depending on whether it occurs in a stressed or unstressed syllable. Vowels in stressed syllables tend to be tense
, and likewise unstressed ones tend to be more lax. Thus, for example, /i/ is realized as i or ɪ in stressed and unstressed syllables, respectively. Likewise, /e/ is realized as e or ɛ, and so on. There are three diphthongs.
Where symbols occur in pairs, the left represents the voiceless consonant and the right represents the voiced consonant.
Notes:
0 -> [m,n] in the context of [i,o/e]_-Person/Aspect Suffix
/bernot-o-ik/
/bernot-o-mik/
[bernot-o-mik]
n -> [k,t] in the context of _ [i,o]
/bernot-e-ik/
/bernot-e-nik/
/bernot-e-kik/
[bernot-e-kik]
The given order of all parts of speech and particles is as follows in both an interrogative and declarative
statement (a little redundant in order to use the whole sentence):
There are two given variations on the simple sentence order involving sentence connectors, also called connective particles. These are grammatical particles whose particular roles seen here occurs in Native American languages, among other languages. These Atlantean sentence connectors relate two clauses in a logical yet idiomatic manner which produces a complete thought in the same way that the equally complicated English sentence does.
English doesn't use sentence connectors in the following ways, however:
Notes:
Nouns are marked as plural with the suffix -en. Case suffixes never precede the -en plural suffix. "-Mok" occurs after it.
Notes:
Constructed language
A planned or constructed language—known colloquially as a conlang—is a language whose phonology, grammar, and/or vocabulary has been consciously devised by an individual or group, instead of having evolved naturally...
created by Marc Okrand
Marc Okrand
Marc Okrand is an American linguist and is most notable as the creator of the Klingon language, which he speaks.-Biography:Okrand worked with Native American languages. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1972...
for Disney's film Atlantis: The Lost Empire
Atlantis: The Lost Empire
Atlantis: The Lost Empire is a 2001 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation. Written by Tab Murphy, directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, and produced by Don Hahn, it is the first science fiction film in the Disney animated features canon and the 41st overall. The film...
. The language was intended as a possible "mother language" and was therefore crafted to include a vast Indo-European
Indo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major current languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and South Asia and also historically predominant in Anatolia...
word stock with its very own grammar, which is at times described as highly agglutinative, inspired in Sumerian
Sumerian language
Sumerian is the language of ancient Sumer, which was spoken in southern Mesopotamia since at least the 4th millennium BC. During the 3rd millennium BC, there developed a very intimate cultural symbiosis between the Sumerians and the Akkadians, which included widespread bilingualism...
and North American languages. The decision of this language being a possible "mother language" was actually a decision made by the script-writers of the movie, and not by Marc Okrand himself, who followed this presumption upon its creation.
Concept/Origin
The Atlantean language (Dig Adlantisag) is a historically constructed, artistic language put together by Marc OkrandMarc Okrand
Marc Okrand is an American linguist and is most notable as the creator of the Klingon language, which he speaks.-Biography:Okrand worked with Native American languages. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1972...
for Disney’s 2001 film Atlantis: The Lost Empire and associated media, The Atlantean language is therefore based both on historic reconstructions or realities as well as on the elaborate fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
/science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
of the Atlantis: The Lost Empire mythos. Here are the fictional bases upon which the Atlantean language was created: Atlantean is the “Tower of Babel language”, the “root dialect” from which all languages descended. It has existed without change since sometime before 100,000 B.C., within the First or Second Age of Atlantis until the present. This is when the Mother Crystal (Matag Yob) descended to Earth and brought enlightenment to the Atlantean people. It is preserved by the presence of the Mother Crystal in the same way that The Shepherd’s Journal, the City of Atlantis (Wil Adlantisag), the Atlantean people (luden), and especially its royalty (yaseken) are preserved, healed, and given extended blissful life.
To create this, Dr. Okrand took common characteristics of all world languages and applied them to the Proto-Indo-European language
Proto-Indo-European language
The Proto-Indo-European language is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans...
. His main source of words (roots and stems) for the language is Proto-Indo-European, but Okrand also uses ancient Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
, Biblical Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
, Latin and Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
languages, along with a variety of other ancient languages or ancient language reconstructions
Writing systems
There are three identified writing systems for Atlantean:- Writers Script
- The Atlantean Alphabet
- Reader’s Script AHD-luhn-tihs
They are listed in order of creation. Okrand originally put together the language in Writer’s Script. For those many parts in the movie for which it was written, the filmmakers wrote it using the Atlantean Alphabet, created by John Emerson with the help of Marc Okrand. For those fewer parts of the movie for which it is spoken, Okrand devised a Berlitz-style notation which he hoped would make the Atlantean easier to read for the actors.
Example:
- Spirits of Atlantis, forgive me for defiling your chamber and bringing intruders into the land.
- Nish.en.top Adlantis.ag, Kelob.tem Gabr.in karok.li.mik bet gim demot.tem net getunos.en.tem bernot.li.mik bet kag.ib lewid.yoh. (Okrand's original wouldn't have had periods; these are used for the translation below.)
- NEE-shen-toap AHD-luhn-tih-suhg, KEH-loab-tem GAHB-rihn KAH-roak-lih-mihk bet gihm DEH-moat-tem net GEH-tuh-noh-sen-tem behr-NOAT-lih-mihk bet KAH-gihb LEH-wihd-yoakh.
(Spirit.Plural.Vocative Atlantis.Genitive, Chamber.Oblique you-plural-familiar.Genitive defile.Past-Perfect.1st-Person-Singular for and land.Oblique into intruder.Plural.Oblique bring.Past-Perfect.1st-Person-Singular for I-Dative forgive.Imperative-Plural.)
(Written boustrophedon
Boustrophedon
Boustrophedon , is a type of bi-directional text, mostly seen in ancient manuscripts and other inscriptions. Every other line of writing is flipped or reversed, with reversed letters. Rather than going left-to-right as in modern English, or right-to-left as in Arabic and Hebrew, alternate lines in...
, as if in Atlantean alphabet: )
NISHENTOP ADLANTISAG KELOBTEM
MIG TEB KIMILKORAK NIRBAG
DEMOTTEM NET GETANOSENTEM
BIGAK TEB KIMILTONREB
LEWIDYOH
Writing systems correspondence
Here’s how they all correspond to one another. For sake of standardization, they are arranged according to a fan-composed alphabet. It is based on the oldest example of the Northern Semitic Abecedary as found in the Ugaritic languageUgaritic language
The following table shows Proto-Semitic phonemes and their correspondences among Ugaritic, Arabic and Tiberian Hebrew:-Grammar:Ugaritic is an inflected language, and as a Semitic language its grammatical features are highly similar to those found in Classical Arabic and Akkadian...
.
| Writers Script | a | b | g | d | e | w | h | i | y | k | l | m | u | n | o | p | r | s | sh | t |
| Readers Script | uh ah | b | g | d | eh e | w | kh | ee ih | y | k | l | m | oo u | n | oa,oh | p | r | s | sh | t |
20 letters of the Atlantean alphabet are used to write Atlantean in the media of Atlantis: The Lost Empire. The letters c, f, j, q, v, x, z, ch, or th have likewise been acknowledged by the filmmakers as not being used. They were created so that Atlantean might be used as a simple cipher code. They are all also based on diverse ancient characters, just like the rest of the alphabet.
Atlantean alphabet: use
There is no punctuation or capitalization in the Atlantean Writing System. These characteristics are based by Okrand on ancient writing systems. The Atlantean Alphabet is written in normal boustrophedonBoustrophedon
Boustrophedon , is a type of bi-directional text, mostly seen in ancient manuscripts and other inscriptions. Every other line of writing is flipped or reversed, with reversed letters. Rather than going left-to-right as in modern English, or right-to-left as in Arabic and Hebrew, alternate lines in...
writing order. It is written left to right for the first line, right to left the second, and left to right again the third, to continue the pattern. This order was also suggested by Okrand, based on ancient writing systems, and it was accepted because, as he explained, "It's a back-and-forth movement, like water, so that worked."
Atlantean numeral system
Joe Emerson, Marc Okrand, and the filmmakers also created numerals for 0-9. They are stacked horizontally, however, and hold place values of 1, 20, and 400. Their components are based on Mayan numerals and internally composed for the font (example above) like Roman numeralsRoman numerals
The numeral system of ancient Rome, or Roman numerals, uses combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet to signify values. The numbers 1 to 10 can be expressed in Roman numerals as:...
. If used according to the now-offline Official Website's directions, they are used, alternatively, like Arabic numerals
Arabic numerals
Arabic numerals or Hindu numerals or Hindu-Arabic numerals or Indo-Arabic numerals are the ten digits . They are descended from the Hindu-Arabic numeral system developed by Indian mathematicians, in which a sequence of digits such as "975" is read as a numeral...
.
Atlantean numbers and suffixes
| Numeral | Atlantean root | English |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | din | one |
| 2 | dut | two |
| 3 | sey | three |
| 4 | kut | four |
| 5 | sha | five |
| 6 | luk | six |
| 7 | tos | seven |
| 8 | ya | eight |
| 9 | nit | nine |
| 10 | ehep | ten |
| 30 | sey dehep | thirty |
Ordinals
Ordinal number
In set theory, an ordinal number, or just ordinal, is the order type of a well-ordered set. They are usually identified with hereditarily transitive sets. Ordinals are an extension of the natural numbers different from integers and from cardinals...
are formed with the suffix (d)lag: sey 'three', sey.dlag 'third'. The d is omitted if the root ends with an obstruent
Obstruent
An obstruent is a consonant sound formed by obstructing airflow, causing increased air pressure in the vocal tract, such as [k], [d͡ʒ] and [f]. In phonetics, articulation may be divided into two large classes: obstruents and sonorants....
or nasal consonant
Nasal consonant
A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :...
: dut 'two', dut.lag 'second'.
Fractions are formed with the suffix (d)lop: kut 'four', kut.lop 'quarter', sha 'five', sha.dlop 'fifth (part)'.
Distributives are formed with the suffix noh: din 'one', din.noh 'one at a time, one each'.
Vowels and diphthongs
| IPA Symbol | Readers Script | Writers Script | Example in IPA | Meaning | Example in IPA | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| /i, ɪ/ | ee, ih, i | i | ti'kʊdɛ | to be located | ˈalɪʃ | child |
| /e, ɛ/ | eh, e | e | we'sɛr | marketplace | ||
| /ej/ | ay | ey | ba'dɛɡbej | best | ||
| /a, ə/ | ah, uh | a | ma'kɪtəɡ | of the king | ||
| /aj/ | i | ay | kaj'tən | 7 cm | ||
| /o, ɔ/ | oh, o, oa | o | o'bɛs | lava | ||
| /oj/ | oy | oy | ri'sojba | squid | ||
| /u, ʊ/ | oo, u | u | ku'nɛt | surface | kʊt | four |
Atlantean's phonetic inventory includes a vowel system with the above five phoneme
Phoneme
In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
s, a system common to many languages, such as Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
. Most vowels have two prominent allophonic
Allophone
In phonology, an allophone is one of a set of multiple possible spoken sounds used to pronounce a single phoneme. For example, and are allophones for the phoneme in the English language...
realizations, depending on whether it occurs in a stressed or unstressed syllable. Vowels in stressed syllables tend to be tense
Tenseness
In phonology, tenseness is a particular vowel quality that is phonemically contrastive in many languages, including English. It has also occasionally been used to describe contrasts in consonants. Unlike most distinctive features, the feature [tense] can be interpreted only relatively, that is, in...
, and likewise unstressed ones tend to be more lax. Thus, for example, /i/ is realized as i or ɪ in stressed and unstressed syllables, respectively. Likewise, /e/ is realized as e or ɛ, and so on. There are three diphthongs.
Consonants
| Bilabial Bilabial consonant In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:... |
Alveolar Alveolar consonant Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth... |
Alveolo- palatal Alveolo-palatal consonant In phonetics, alveolo-palatal consonants are palatalized postalveolar sounds, usually fricatives and affricates, articulated with the blade of the tongue behind the alveolar ridge, and the body of the tongue raised toward the palate... |
Palatal Palatal consonant Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate... |
Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... |
Labiovelar Labial-velar consonant Labial–velar consonants are doubly articulated at the velum and the lips. They are sometimes called "labiovelar consonants", a term that can also refer to labialized velars, such as and the approximant .... |
|
| Plosive | p b | t d | k ɡ | |||
| Nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... |
m | n | ||||
| Fricative Fricative consonant Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or... |
s | ʃ | x | |||
| Approximant Approximant consonant Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough or with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a turbulent airstream, and vowels, which produce no... |
j | w | ||||
| Trill Trill consonant In phonetics, a trill is a consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the place of articulation. Standard Spanish <rr> as in perro is an alveolar trill, while in Parisian French it is almost always uvular.... |
r | |||||
| Lateral | l |
Where symbols occur in pairs, the left represents the voiceless consonant and the right represents the voiced consonant.
Notes:
Phonology
Aside from the stressed-syllable-based vowel system, the only other example of phonology found in the entire language may be expressed as:0 -> [m,n] in the context of [i,o/e]_-Person/Aspect Suffix
/bernot-o-ik/
/bernot-o-mik/
[bernot-o-mik]
n -> [k,t] in the context of _ [i,o]
/bernot-e-ik/
/bernot-e-nik/
/bernot-e-kik/
[bernot-e-kik]
Word order
Atlantean has a very strict Subject-Object-Verb word order. There is never any deviation from the pattern. Adjectives and Genitive Nouns go after the nouns which they modify, post-positions go after the nouns or clauses which they modify, and modals go after the verbs which they modify and subsequently take all agglutinative suffixes. However, adverbs go before their verbs. Last of all are the interrogative particles.The given order of all parts of speech and particles is as follows in both an interrogative and declarative
Declarative
Declarative may refer to:* Declarative learning, acquiring information that one can speak about* Declarative memory, one of two types of long term human memory* Declarative programming, a computer programming programming paradigm...
statement (a little redundant in order to use the whole sentence):
| Word | Example | English Gloss |
|---|---|---|
| Adverbs of Time, Manner, Location | Log | What |
| Time, Manner, Location Adverbial Nouns | darim | time |
| Instrumental Cased Nouns | shayod.esh | using.hands |
| Adverbs | ser | just |
| Adjectives | gwis.in | our |
| Nominative Cased Nouns | weydagosen | Visitors |
| Post-positional Objects/ Oblique Cased Nouns | keylob.tem | (in) the chamber |
| Adjectives | ta.mil | royal |
| Possessive Pronouns | tug.in | his |
| Post-position | net | in |
| Dative/Oblique Cased Nouns | makit.tem | The King |
| Genitive Cased Nouns of Relation | Adlantis.ag | of Atlantis |
| Post-Positions | gom | to |
| Accusative Cased Nouns | neshing.mok.en.tem | great contrivances |
| Adverb | gawid.in | joyfully |
| Verb with Modal Verb | bernot | to bring |
| Modal Verb [stem.mood.tense/aspect.person/number] | bog.o.mkem | we will be able |
| Interrogative Particle | du | eh Eh Eh is a spoken interjection in English, Armenian, Japanese, French, Italian, Greek, Spanish, Portuguese and Catalan that is similar in meaning to "Excuse me," "Please repeat that" or "huh?" It is also commonly used as a method for inciting an answer, as in "It's nice here, eh?" It is occasionally... ? (North Central American English North Central American English North–Central American English is used to refer to a dialect of American English. The region is also known as Upper Midwest among some linguists. It is also sometimes called the Minnesota Accent or Great Lakes Accent. It is widely spoken in the Upper Midwest and the northern portion of the... / Canadian English Canadian English Canadian English is the variety of English spoken in Canada. English is the first language, or "mother tongue", of approximately 24 million Canadians , and more than 28 million are fluent in the language... ) |
| Final Explanation | ||
| At what time will we visitors be able to use our very hands to joyfully give our great contrivances to the King of Atlantis in his Royal Chamber? |
There are two given variations on the simple sentence order involving sentence connectors, also called connective particles. These are grammatical particles whose particular roles seen here occurs in Native American languages, among other languages. These Atlantean sentence connectors relate two clauses in a logical yet idiomatic manner which produces a complete thought in the same way that the equally complicated English sentence does.
English doesn't use sentence connectors in the following ways, however:
| Clause or Particle | Example | English Gloss |
|---|---|---|
| Initial Clause | "Wil.tem neb gamos.e.tot..." | "He sees this city..." |
| Sentence connector 1 | deg | (roughly) "for" |
| Modifying Clause | duwer.en tirid. | all foreigners. |
| Final Explanation | ||
| No outsiders may see the city and live. More literally, " 'He Who Doth the City See...' is meant for ALL foreigners.' |
| Clause or Particle | Example | English Gloss |
|---|---|---|
| Initial Clause | Tab.top, lud.en neb.et kwam gesu bog.e.kem | Father, we cannot help these people |
| Sentence connector 1 | deg | (roughly) "and yet" |
| Modifying Clause | yasek.en gesu.go.ntoh. | they will help the Royalty. |
| Final Explanation | ||
| Father, these people may be able to help us. More literally, "Father, we can't help these people and yet they will help us, the King and Princess." |
| Clause or Particle | Example | English Gloss |
|---|---|---|
| Descriptive Clause | Ketak.en.tem obes.ag sapoh.e.kik | I view the lava whales |
| Sentence connector 2 | yos | (roughly) "then" |
| Action Clause | lat nar badeg.bey tikud.e.tot dap? | where is the best place? |
| Final Explanation | ||
| Where is the best place from which to view the lava whales? |
Grammatical cases
| Number | Name | Suffix | Example | English Gloss |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nominative Nominative case The nominative case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or the predicate noun or predicate adjective, as opposed to its object or other verb arguments... |
no suffix | yob | crystal |
| 2 | Oblique Oblique case An oblique case in linguistics is a noun case of synthetic languages that is used generally when a noun is the object of a verb or a preposition... |
-tem | yobtem | the crystal give, in the crystal, to the crystal, etc. |
| 3 | Genitive Genitive case In grammar, genitive is the grammatical case that marks a noun as modifying another noun... |
-ag | yobag | of the crystal |
| 4 | Vocative Vocative case The vocative case is the case used for a noun identifying the person being addressed and/or occasionally the determiners of that noun. A vocative expression is an expression of direct address, wherein the identity of the party being spoken to is set forth expressly within a sentence... |
-top | Yobtop | O Crystal! |
| 5 | Instrumental Instrumental case The instrumental case is a grammatical case used to indicate that a noun is the instrument or means by or with which the subject achieves or accomplishes an action... |
-esh | yobesh | using crystal |
| 6 | Unknown 1 | -kup | yobkup | (something) crystal |
| 7 | Unknown 2 | -nuh | yobnuh | (something) crystal |
Notes:
Other suffixes
| Grammatical Function | Suffix | Example | English Gloss |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plural | -en | yoben | crystals |
| Augmentative | -mok | Yobmok | The Great Crystal |
Nouns are marked as plural with the suffix -en. Case suffixes never precede the -en plural suffix. "-Mok" occurs after it.
Grammatical cases
| Number | Name | Suffix | Example | English Gloss |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nominative | no suffix | kag | I |
| 2 | Accusative | -it | kagit | me, whom was (sent), etc. |
| 3 | Dative | -ib | kagib | (to) me |
| 4 | Genitive | -in | kagin | my ( my heart, karod kagin) |
| 5 | Unknown | -is | kagis | not translated |
Notes:
Verbs
Verbs are inflected with two suffixes, one for tense/aspect and the next for person/number.Tense/aspect suffixes
| Number | Name | Suffix | Example | English Gloss |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Simple Present Tense | -e | bernot.e.kik | I bring |
| 2 | Present Perfect Tense | -le | bernot.le.kik | you have brought |
| 3 | Present Obligatory Tense | -se | bernot.se.kik | I am obliged to bring |
| 4 | Simple Past Tense | -i | bernot.i.mik | I brought |
| 5 | Immediate Past Tense | -ib | bernot.ib.mik | I just brought |
| 6 | Past Perfect Tense | -li | bernot.li.mik | I had brought |
| 7 | Simple Future Tense | -o | bernot.o.mik | I will bring |
| 8 | Future Possible Tense | -go | bernot.go.mik | I may bring |
| 9 | Future Perfect Tense | -lo | bernot.lo.mik | I will have brought |
| 10 | Future Obligatory Tense | -so | bernot.so.mik | I will be obliged to bring |
| -e | sapoh.i.mik (SJ:10) | I viewed | sapoh.e.kik (ST) | I view | ||||
| -le | yube.in/yugeb.le.tot (IS) | strangly/he is being strange | panneb.le.nen (IS) | you are knowing | peren.le.mot (DVD:MURAL) | Untranslated. | pasil.le.tot (IS) | it is being sufficient |
| -se | kaber (SJ:789) | warn! | kaber.se.kem | we are obliged to warn | ||||
| -i | es.e.tot (ST) | it is | es.i.mot (SJ:10) | it will be | ||||
| -ib | bernot.li.mik (IS) | I had brought | bernot.ib.mik (IS) | I just brought | ||||
| -li | bernot.ib.mik (IS) | I just brought | bernot.li.mik (IS) | I had brought | ||||
| -o | komtib.lo.nen (SJ:5) | you will have found | komtib.o.nen (SJ:5) | you will find | ||||
| -go | satib.yoh (IS) | move along! | satib.go.ntoh (SJ:89) | they may move along | gesu.go.ntoh (IS) | they may help | ||
| -lo | komtib.o.nen (SJ:5) | you will find | komtib.lo.nen (SJ:5) | you will have found | ||||
| -so | komtib.lo.nen (IS) | you will have found | komtib.so.nen (SJ:5) | you will be obliged to find |
Mood suffixes
| Number | Name | Suffix | Example | English Gloss |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Imperative Mood Singular | no suffix | (Tok.it) Bernot! | Bring (it, you)! |
| 2 | Imperative Mood Plural | -yoh | (Tok.it) Bernot.yoh! | Bring (it, y'all Y'all Y'all is a contraction of the words "you" and "all". It is used as a plural second-person pronoun. Commonly believed to have originated in the Southern United States, it is primarily associated with Southern American English, African-American Vernacular English, and some dialects of the Western... )! |
| 3 | Passive Mood | -esh | (Im.tem shib.an) bernot.esh.ib.mik. | I just was brought (something). |
| 4 | Infinitive | -e | bernot.e | to bring |
| Number | Name | Suffix | Example | English Gloss | Example | English Gloss | Example | English Gloss | Example | English Gloss |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| no suffix | nageb.o.ntoh (SJ:789) | they will enter | Nageb.yoh (ST) | Enter, y'all! | Nageb! | Enter! | ||||
| -yoh | gamos.i.mik (DVD:TRAVEL) | I saw | Gamos.yoh! (DVD:MURAL) | May ye behold! | gamos.e (DVD:MURAL) | to see | Beket! (ST) | You're begged! | Beket.yoh! (ST) | Y'all are begged! |
| -esh | pag.en (ST) | you (are) thanked (short form) | pag.esh.e.nen (ST) | you are thanked | dodl.esh.mik (DVD:MURAL) | Untranslated. | kobden.en/hobd.esh.e.tot (IS) | command / he has doomed | ||
| -e | wegen.os/wegen.e (IS) | traveler/to travel | wegen.os/wegen.e (IS) | traveler/to travel | gamos.yoh (DVD:MURAL) | May ye behold! | gamos.e (DVD:MURAL) | to see | gobeg.en/gobeg.e | arms/to be an arm |
Person/number suffixes
| Person | Number | Familiarity | Independent Pronoun | Suffix | English Gloss |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Singular | - | kag | -ik | I |
| 2nd | Singular | - | moh | -en | you |
| 3rd | Singular | - | tug tuh tok | -ot | he she it |
| 1st | Plural | - | gwis | -kem | we |
| 2nd | Plural | Unfamiliar | gebr | -eh | you-all (unfamiliar) |
| 2nd | Plural | Familiar | gabr | -eh | you-all (familiar) |
| 3rd | Plural | - | sob | -toh | they |