Draikonik
Draikonik is the language of Dragons. It is my attempt at a romance language. I only got so far with it before I moved on, the saying above is probably the most Ive done to it. The numbering system is probaby the coolest thing I did with this language. I liked the idea of a none base 10 number system. It was a good start at conlanging but I feel I can do much better.
The Phonology is relatively small with 13 consonants and 5 vowels.
Vowels
a /a/ as in father
e /e/ as in pet
i /i/ as in pit
o /o/ as in boat
u /u/ as in blue
Diphthongs
au /A/ as in saw - open back rounded
ei /E/
as in see - open-mid front unrounded
ie //as
in pie
ai //as
in say
Consonants
| Voiced | Unvoiced | |
| Stops | b d g | t k |
| Fricative | v | f s h |
| Nasal | m n | |
| Liguid | l r |
These are pronounced
as in English but the /r/ is trilled as in Spanish.
Syllable Structure
The basic syllable structure is (C) V (C). With certain morphemes restricted as follows:- /f/ may not begin a syllable
- /v/ may not end a syllable
- /br/ /tr/ /dr/ and /str/ may only begin a syllable.
- /nd/ /rk/ /rg/ /ln/ /rt/ may only end a syllable
Most root words are made up of one, two, or three syllables. There are times that some of these rules will be broken but they are rare.
Morphology
Ancient Draikonik is an agglutinative polysynthetic language. It is made up of a series of roots and affixs. Several root + affix morphemes form stems in themselves.
onn
on + en
build + opposite
" destroy"
Ancient Draikonik uses primarly suffixes with a few prefixes. It is dominantly head marking.
Nouns
Most Nouns are formed from a bare stem, adding an affix or compounding. Nouns can serve as heads of noun phrases, subjects and objects of clauses, and topics of texts. Structuraly nouns are marked for Case and Number.
Simple nouns
are simple words; for example, kiden book or dehon
shield
Compound nouns are made up of more than one part, dehon shield
+ kar wind = dehonkar = windshield
| Singular | Plural | |
| Nominative | -a | -as |
| Accusative | -um | -urum |
| Dative | -os | -orum |
| Genitive | -us | -ibus |
| Vocative | -em | -es |
| Ablative | -is | -ies |
Verbs
The verbs inflect
for tense, aspect and mood. The order in which verbs are conjugated
is root + aspect + mood + tense.
| Perfective | Complete Action | -im |
| Imprefective | Incomplete Action | -er |
| Imp-Habitual | Action continues over time | -erg |
| Imp-Progressive | Action is happening at this time | -an |
| Inceptive | Express a beginning of a situation | -ad |
| Cessative | Indicates a situation is ending | -ut |
| Punctual | Instantaneous action | -el |
| Perdurative | Situation lasts for a long period of time | -uk |
| Intentional | Action is intentional | -of |
| Infinitive | -i |
| Imperative | -o |
| Indicative | -u |
| Subjunctive | -e |
| Negative | ne- net- |
| Present | --- |
| Relative Present | -lai |
| Past | -tai |
| Far Past | -dai |
| Future | -va |
| Far Future | -vo |
Modifiers
Modifiers
or Adjectives are words used in a noun phrase to specify some property
of the head noun of the phrase, which they follow. Adjectives
are lexicalized as verbs. Nouns may be used as adjectives
with the prefix 'te' and no other affix.
Adverbs
Adverbs are
a distinct class of almost invariable words. They can't be conjugated,
and they show no agreement with other parts of the sentence. They
usually modify verbs, not other adverbs, and they tend to describe actions
and to modify action verbs, or state-changing verbs, not stative or
adjectival
verbs.
Numerals
Numerals do not fall under any of the above classes of words, they are not conjugated like nouns, verbs, adjectives or adverbs.
| Cardinal | Ordinal | Multiples | Power | |
| 1 | sin | sinamu | ||
| 2 | dund | dundamu | dau- | tota |
| 3 | rain | rainamu | ra- | rida |
| 4 | kund | kundamu | ko- | gama |
| 5 | kin | kinamu | kie- | gura |
| 6 | sain | sainamu | sa- | sida |
| 7 | vin | vinamu | vie- | vura |
| 8 | sund | sundamu | sau- | leda |
| 9 | hain | hainamu | ha- | hida |
| 10 | tund | tundamu | to- | dera |
| 11 | nin | ninamu | ni- | mega |
| 12 | dain | dainamu |
13 to 23
are formed by adding the smaller number to the larger one as a suffix
with an 'o' between them.
eg. 15 = 12 (dain) + o + 3 (rain) = dainorain, 21
= 12 (dain) + o + 8 (sund) =dainosund
Multiples are formed using the multiple prefix, daudain = 24 hadain = 120
The Power
is used to show powers of 12, thus tota = 144 = 12 to power
of 2, gama = 20736 = 12 to power of 4
Powers may be multipled again by adding the prefixes.
kogura = 995328 = 4 x (12 to power of 5)
With the combinations above here's a couple of examples.
1,348,651
= kiegura kiegama kietota viedain sain
15,509,201,000 = rahida tovura viedain sund
145 = tota sin
Syntax
Draikonik is a verb final nominative/accusative language. SV and AV form tight constituents. In transitive clauses P precedes A and V, but if there is any other constituent, call it X, it must occur after P. Thus the orders are PXAV and XSV.
'The book Mary read'
Modifiers will always follow the word they are describing. Adverbs will always proceed the verb they are describing