Dundulanyä
Dundulanyä | |
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dundulanyä ḫamfafa | |
Pronunciation | [dundulɐnjɛ ħɐmɸɐɸɐ] |
Created by | Lili21 |
Date | Dec 2021 |
Setting | Eventoa |
Ethnicity | Dundulanyä; Neo-Dundulanyä |
Native speakers | 1,946,000,000 (4140) |
East Mandabudi (areal)
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Early form | Pre-Dundulanyä
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Standard form | Modern Standard Dundulanyä
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Official status | |
Official language in | Confederation of the United Dundulanyä Republics |
Dundulanyä [dundulɐnjɛ], natively known as dundulanyä ḫamfafa[1] [dundulɐnjɛ ħɐmɸɐɸɐ], is the most spoken language on the planet Eventoa (Dun.: Lelḫajāṃrya). It is the official language of the Confederation of the United Dundulanyä Republics, which makes it the main lingua franca across the two southern hemisphere continents, Lusaṃrīte - where it originated - and Jūhma.
Dundulanyä itself has a long history, being first attested about 2400 years before the present in the areas of Central Lusaṃrīte, where the Dundulanyä civilization first developed; through successive empires and religious proselytism, people and language spread across many areas of the continent - most notably Dundulanyä-ifying the north shore of the Inland Seas by the end of Classical Lusaṃrītene Antiquity. As the dominant civilization of Lusaṃrīte, the Dundulanyä spread their language to become the main lingua franca of trade and culture in most of the continent and in eastern Jūhma; the massive demographical changes brought by the epidemics that were the result of increased contact with the civilizations of the northern hemisphere effectively enabled the Dundulanyä culture to spread in areas where formerly other civilizations were dominant. By the modern and contemporary eras, a more standardized version of classical Dundulanyä remained the lingua franca among multiple peoples across Lusaṃrīte and Jūhma, and the situation remained more or less the same after the collapse of the Fifth Dundulanyä Empire and through the Three Leagues Period.
Today, Dundulanyä is the official language of the Confederation of the United Dundulanyä Republics (laḫlurayäh dundulanyäɂi lileṣkorukṣarte śūsmurdibeṣarān), the multicultural political entity that is dominant throughout Lusaṃrīte and Jūhma; the standard language is a heavily standardized version of the classical language, with many of the less regular forms having fallen out of use after one millennium of being essentially a L2 for the totality of its speakers; high style language and creative usage, however, still uses forms that have fallen out of use in the everyday language. Dundulanyä, along with any of the regional languages of the Confederation, is the main language for its 1,9 billion inhabitants, a number to which should be added a substantial amount of foreign users in virtually all other countries in Lusaṃrīte and Jūhma.
Both the language and the setting are still under construction: see the External history section on this page for more.
Internal history
The relationship of Dundulanyä to other languages is poorly understood, given the limited attestations of neighboring languages contemporary to archaic Dundulanyä. It is classified as an East Mandabudi language, an areal grouping that includes Dundulanyä and some ancient - and scarcely attested - languages of that area based on some criteria that have been found, such as Austronesian-type alignment, a possessive system like the one of Dundulanyä itself, a duodecimal number system, and heavily inflected nouns, that are not found in the most thoroughly attested languages of that era, the neighboring West Mandabudi and Dailishi languages.
Phonology
Dundulanyä has a moderately large, but asymmetrical, vowel inventory with six short and four long vowels, along with two diphthongs and two consonants (short and long versions of the same one) that can fill the syllable nucleus.
Front | Central | Back | |
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Close | i iː | u uː | |
Close-mid | e eː | o~ɔ | |
Open-mid | ɛ | ||
Open | ɐ äː | ||
Diphthongs | aɪ̯ | aʊ̯ | |
Syllabic consonants | ʀ̩ ʀ̩ː |
The consonant inventory is more complex, with a pattern of “soft” and “hard” consonants traditionally recognized by classical Dundulanyä grammarians, not on a phonetic basis but starting from their relationship inside Dundulanyä morphology. In most cases, the difference is based on aspiration.
Dundulanyä has, among many points of articulations, a series of linguolabial consonants, which are common in its geographical area (in most of northern and central Lūsaṃrīte) but are otherwise extremely rare on Eventoa.
→ PoA ↓ Manner |
Labials | Linguolabials | Dentals | Retroflexes | Palatals | Velars | Laryngeals | ||||||||
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Soft | Hard | Soft | Hard | Soft | Hard | Soft | Hard | Soft | Hard | Soft | Hard | Soft | Hard | ||
Nasals | m | n̼ | n | ɳ | ɲ | ŋ1 | |||||||||
Stops | Unvoiced | p | pʰ2 | t̼ | t̼ʰ | t̪ | t̪ʰ | ʈ | ʈʰ | c͡ɕ | c͡ɕʰ | k | kʰ | ʔ | |
Voiced | b | bʱ | d̼ | d̼ʱ | d̪ | d̪ʱ | ɖ3 | ɖʱ3 | ɟ͡ʑ | ɟ͡ʑʱ | ɡ~ɣ | ɡʱ | ɢ4 | ||
Fricatives | ɸ~f | s | ʂ | ɕ | ɦ | ħ | |||||||||
Approximants | ʋ | ɹ̼ | l | j | ʀ |
Table notes:
- ṅ /ŋ/ is phonemic only in the name of the corresponding letter and, diachronically, through saṃdhi in simplifications of /N/ + velar stop clusters; such instances are, however, to be considered phonemic as the original form is only apparent either throughout the declension or in different styles, see e.g. ṣṭhīṭaṅ "yesterday", tataṅ "today" (← ṣṭhīṭaṅga, tataṅga, used in the declension of the nominal forms except for the direct singular).
- The /pʰ/ phoneme is marginal; it has a separate letter in the script, but as a phoneme it is only found in the name of the letter itself, in a few words of onomatopoeic origin, and as the result of saṃdhi (from the clusters -p h- or -p ḫ-); the vast majority of contemporary speakers merge it with /ɸ~f/.
- /ɖ/ and /ɖʱ/ are generally represented by the stop realizations, however, in the contemporary spoken language, except when adjacent to another consonant they are most commonly realized as any of [ɽ(ʱ) ɭ(ʱ) ɻ(ʱ)] depending on the geographical origin of the speaker, realizations which are influenced by the historical development of Classical Dundulanyä /ɖ ɖʱ/ in the modern vernaculars.
- The /ɢ/ q phoneme is represented here by its most accepted contemporary pronunciation, as there is some debate about its prevailing quality in Classical Dundulanyä. It is also the phoneme which realization varies the most throughout the Dundulanyä-speaking world, often having different realizations depending on the position in the word, or often merging with other phonemes - generally with one of /g/, /k/ or /ʔ/.
In the standard pronunciation (as well as in the entire North Shore, in and around the city of Līlah, and elsewhere in most of Northern and Western Lusaṃrīte), it is [ɢ] word-initially and syllable-initially, and a fricative (either uvular [χ]-[ʁ] or velar [x]-[ɣ]) in coda, voiceless before voiceless consonants and voiced otherwise.
With the partial exception of /ħ/, words may only end in soft consonants and/or clusters of an approximant followed by a single soft stop or fricative. In the romanization, some apparent exceptions may be seen due to saṃdhi in words followed by clitics, such as in logh va "I don't go" [lɔɡʱʋɐ].
Saṃdhi
Saṃdhi in Dundulanyä is usually internal saṃdhi only.
(to be expanded, only an unordered list for now)
- plosive + ḫ → geminated and aspirated plosive, e.g. śud-ḫana → śuddhana "rule"; nisakh-ḫamfa → nisakkhamfa "conlang"; cf. the change happening with the corresponding soft consonant h, where the preceding plosive gains aspiration, but is not geminated.
Morphology
Dundulanyä is a highly inflected language with a synthetic morphology. Five parts of speech are traditionally distinguished: nouns, verbs, pronouns and correlatives, numerals, and particles.
Dundulanyä inflectional morphology is almost entirely suffixing, save for a system of apophony (ablaut) and a marginal number of inflectional prefixes, mostly in verbs. Derivational morphology, on the other hand, employs up to four different strategies: suffixes, prefixes, and to a lesser extent circumfixes and infixes, or the combination of more or them, as well as eventually ablaut on top of that.
Ablaut
Dundulanyä is characterized by a complex system of vowel alternations that was inherited from its proto-language. There are, depending on definition, either nine or twelve ablaut patterns, which Dundulanyä verbal roots may belong to, in addition to those that do not undergo ablaut. The overwhelming majority of Dundulanyä verbal roots are monosyllabic, and the few bi- or polysyllabic ones are all non-ablauting.
Nominal examples:
- a/zero root: bhaṭuṣa (bhaṭ-uṣ-) "expansion": ABS bhaṭuṣa, ERG bhaṭuṣis, DAT abḍhoṣak, LOC abḍhoṣā, LOC.PL abḍhauṣän
- e/i root: dehuṣa (deh-uṣ-) "usage": ABS dehuṣa, ERG dehuṣis, DAT dihoṣak, LOC dihoṣā, LOC.PL dihauṣän
- a/zero root, synchronically irregular: hāṅka (haf-n-ka- < *śǝ́f-ṇ-ko-) "socket": ABS hāṅka, ERG hāṅkis, DAT iṣfaṅkak, LOC iṣfaṅkā, LOC.PL iṣfāṅkän
A substantial part of nouns in Dundulanyä is derived from verbal roots, and these may have ablaut patterns throughout their declension as in the examples above, or the derivational suffix may require the root to be in a certain ablaut grade (which is then a fixed stem throughout the declension). However, as a general rule, the majority of nouns relating to flora, fauna, and many elements of the natural world are not formed from verbal roots and do not show ablaut.
Dundulanyä roots belong to one out of nine classes (eight ablaut classes or non-ablauting):
Class | Zero grade | Middle grade | Higher grade |
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0 | no ablaut | ||
I | ∅ | a | ā |
II | i ī (CV- roots) |
e | ai |
III | u ū (CV- roots) |
o | au |
IV | ṛ | ar | ār |
V | i | ä | ē |
VI | ya | i | ī |
VII | va | u | ū |
VIII | ra | ṛ | ṝ |
The majority of roots belongs to either the 0 class, or to classes II to IV. Other classes are much rarer, with VI and especially IX being the least common overall. Many class I roots have a sonorant such as l, m or n (rarely other nasals), continuing formations parallel to class IV in reconstructed Pre-Dundulanyä. Class I roots may, due to their shape, be further simplified in the zero-grade; see haf-, zero-grade iṣf- "to insert, fill" or rañj-, zero-grade ṛj- "to name, identify"; some others have a short vowel in the zero-grade and a long vowel in the (identical) middle- and higher-grade forms, as with sākh- (zero-grade sakh-, higher-grade sākh-) "to prepare"[2].
Some class VI and VII roots may have consonant changes caused by saṃdhi; furthermore, there are a few irregular class II and III roots which have a long vowel in the zero grade form even if they are not of CV shape; see e.g. lobh- "to write" with the long zero grade lūbh-. Class III roots with the -vo- sequence in the middle grade (citation form) reduce it to -ū- in any case in the zero grade, as in tvorg- "to fear" with the zero grade tūrg-.
Nouns (rāñjiḫi)
The Dundulanyä noun (rañjiḫe, pl. rāñjiḫi) is highly inflected - it declines for:
- Three numbers (smuḍai):
- Singular (emibundīra smuḍa)
- Dual (rirändīra smuḍa)
- Plural (tailindīra smuḍa)
- Nine cases (dirūṃrūkṣāri):
- Direct (... dirūṃrūkṣah)
- Vocative (ṛjadīra dirūṃrūkṣah)
- Ergative
- Accusative
- Dative
- Ablative
- Locative (tadyapadīra dirūṃrūkṣah)
- Essive
- Instrumental
There are a few nouns which lack number; a few are singularia tantum and lack a plural (e.g. tambīya "lips"), other ones are plural only - most notably including all ethnicities, whose singular form is analytical, made by using the bound form (see below) to the word lila (person), e.g. dundulanyä lila (a Dundulanyä).
The consensus among linguists is that Dundulanyä does not have grammatical gender or noun classes; however, it should be noted that natural gender is shown on some nouns referring to humans, and furthermore there are some verbs that have a complementary distribution - most notably the existential "to be" - where one verb can only be used for inanimate subjects and another only for animate ones; in a few cases, the animate "class" is also split between humans and non-humans. None of this, however, is reflected in morphology.
Dundulanyä nouns are complex, due to the existence of multiple declension patterns. They are primarily categorized by whether they refer to nouns that undergo ablaut or not; secondarily, they are categorized by their stem type.
Ablauting declensions are all unproductive (although some of the derivational suffixes that form ablauting nouns are still productive) and include the following ones:
- Root nouns
- -e declension
- -a declension
- Zero-ending nouns with vowel suffixes (-u, -i, -ṛ).
Except for root nouns, ablauting nouns are formed by a root and a suffix, and ablaut alternates between them. Many such suffixes are derivational and productive, but some are no longer productive and limited to a small number of terms (such as -in- forming certain male kinship terms). In a few cases, the suffix may actually be an infix, such as the (non-productive) one in the word lorbhe "stele", ultimately from the root lobh- "to write" (cf. direct singular lorbhe but locative singular lūrabhob, dative plural lūrābhumi).
Non-ablauting declensions are the following ones:
- -e declension (first consonant stem declension)
- Zero-ending nouns with stems ending in liquids (-l or -r), nasals (-m or -n) or the glottal stop (-h) (second consonant stem declension). Nouns belonging to this declension have a prop vowel -a- in their citation form; nouns with other vowels belong to the first consonant stem declension (and end in -e in their citation form), cf. second declension glūḫam (glūḫ-(a)m-) vs. first declension kämbune "berry" (kämbun-). This is because liquids and nasals could be syllabic in Dundulanyä's ancestor language, but among them only r/ṛ remains as a consonant/vowel pair in Dundulanyä itself.
- Nouns with vowel-final stems.
- The extremely common -a declension is a particular case, as it behaves in some forms like a consonant stem declension, and like a vowel stem in others. Both for ablauting and non-ablauting declensions, -a and -e declensions most likely marked some kind of noun class distinction in the proto-language, which has been lost in the evolution of what became Dundulanyä.
Bound forms
Dundulanyä nouns have a further, non-case form, which is called the bound form (avraḍūrūkṣah, pl. avraḍūrūkṣāri) by native grammarians. For nouns whose stems end in vowels, it is usually identical to the direct case; for other nouns, it is usually the endingless stem (with some exceptions). It is used when the noun is the predicate of a copular verb; when the noun is the possessor (a form syntactically reminescent of the Afroasiatic construct state); to mark the argument governed by a positional verb; and when governed by many adpositions.
In the name of the language, dundulanyä ḫamfafa, for example, dundulanyä is a bound form that however has the same form as the direct, due to the noun having a stem ending in a vowel. Some more examples of bound forms:
- imut naviṣyaɂe "the teacher's book", imut being the bound form of imute "teacher", and naviṣya "book" being marked with the 3SG possessive ɂe.
- nūrī dvārmaɂe "the child's room", nūrī being the bound form of nūrya "child".
- tätebu ū līv "my home is a flat", where līv, bound form of līve "apartment", is part of a copular structure.
- līv yudaya "3SG stands in the flat", where the positional verb yu-de- "to stand inside" requires its argument līve to be in the bound form līv.
- tūrgib sure "without fear", where the postposition sure "without" forces the noun tūrgibe to assume its bound form tūrgib.
Declension tables
The first and second ablauting declensions have the same ablaut patterns, but slightly different endings; the first ablauting declension has the same endings as the (non-ablauting) first consonant stem declension, while the second the same endings as non-ablauting -a nouns (with the exception of locative singular and the singular and plural bound forms).
Root ablaut nouns have the same ablaut pattern as -i, -u, -ṛ nouns, but the endings are directly added to the root, triggering the appropriate saṃdhi changes.
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Ablauting nouns ending in -i, -u, -ṛ are mainly distinguished by having different ablaut patterns from other ablauting nouns. -ṛ nouns are extremely rare, and only three such nouns figure among the general usage vocabulary: khaikṛ (II) "goose", gāṃsṛ "passage, ford" (I, with the synchronically irregular zero grade gas-), and mētṛ (V) "vessel, pot, cooking pot".
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- Morphemically mṛj-ai-yäh, with regular saṃdhi.
- The form in -ṛt is from Classical Dundulanyä and is preferred in formal usage, especially in writing; the form in -aṭ, taken from the corresponding non-ablauting paradigm, is however more commonly used.
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- Morphemically buney-, as the vocative of -a nouns is the stem without the final -a; as per regular saṃdhi, syllable-final ey becomes ī.
The following declensions - -i, -u, -o, -e, -ä have their final vowel as part of the stem, and it is regularly kept throughout the declension. -e stems are therefore different from the consonant stems (which end in -e in their citation form), but are a very small number of nouns, mainly proper nouns (as are, furthermore, nearly all -o stems).
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Dundulanyä nouns generally do not end in long vowels; the few exceptions that do (generally of onomatopoeic or baby talk origin) are treated as irregular nouns. The most common nouns ending in long vowels are certainly amamū "mother" and atabū (or batū) "father", which (due to regular saṃdhi) have ūv before vocalic endings (e.g. ergative plural amamūvām), but an irregular direct plural in -ūv-i, i.e. amamūvi, atabūvi, batūvi.
The -ṛ declension diverges from those ending in other vowels in various forms, such as the direct singular, where nouns end in -ah (-ar, reduced to the corresponding soft consonant) instead of the simple vowel -ṛ; their lemma form is in fact identical in shape to -ah nouns, although adding particles reveals the true nature of the final consonant (cf. ñältah, ñältahbu "sister, my sister"; śuthah, śutharbu "husband, my husband"; ñältahin śutharin "either [the] sister or [the] husband"):
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Table notes:
- The underlying form of the final consonant of the direct and vocative singular, as well as singular and plural bound forms, is -r.
Singularia and pluralia tantum
Pluralia tantum in Dundulanyä include the following nouns or categories of words:
- many collective nouns:
- sūmi "hair", kāraṇḍhai "guts", rälsi "limbs", padagṇyauṣi "sons and daughters", gauṃsiḫi "cutlery", lampai "dishes, dishware"
- things that are heterogeneous in form but considered as a single entity:
- katanai "clutter", dūḍhvi "banquet, buffet"; frāṇagi (a type of sandals made from straw rope), kuntilatiri "streaming"[5], läjñyai "magic", ucururai "savings", rudhmai "resin", ḍotvi "fat", prāvṛḍḍi "controller"
- certain actions and processes that involve multiple people:
- vāb̃nīyai "elections", viṣlāviḫi "protest, riot", lipmūyai "traffic jam", kardātatalavibi "hide-and-seek" (sometimes also found as dual)
- nouns denoting certain time spans, festivals, or holidays:
- saṃlallai "afternoon", Bhaitrāvāṣri (the most important Yunyalīlti festivity); Kūlḫanari (a winter festival of Kenengyry origin)
- some locations, including large delimited areas, as well as many toponyms:
- ābābi "square", cadātāyi "tropics"
- Mūnnakṣalti, Anābāndirai
- all ethnonyms:
- dundulanyä "Dundulanyä", ṣurṭāgi "Skyrdegan(s)", tayubeśī "Toyubeshians", laḫābī "Laḫobs"
A few nouns do not have a singular, but can have a dual and a plural form. Their citation form is usually the dual:
- maihādhūve "parents", kardātatalavibive "hide-and-seek" (most commonly a plurale tantum)
Counted among pluralia tantum are certain words which are not defective in number, but whose plural forms have an additional meaning alongside the one of the singular form, like in the following examples:
- hamvilti "nursery" (hamvilte "cradle"), īskāvidai "playground" (īskāvida "swing"), utofi "clothes" (utofe "cloth"), garaṇai "clock, watch" (garaṇa "hour"), anutū "universe" (anutu "space, invisible sky")
Irregular vocatives
A few very common words (mostly kinship terms) have irregular vocative forms:
- ñältah "(male's) sister" — ñäli or ñäl
- glūḫam "(female's) brother" — galū or glū
- kālike "(female's) younger sister" — kāl or kālli or kalli
- praśke "(male's) older brother" — pāśi
- amamū "mother" — mā or māmu
- atabū or batū "father" — bā or bābu
Irregular nouns
A few Dundulanyä nouns are irregular (outside of the few vocatives in the section above). Most of them are suppletive in the plural, or have irregular stems:
- As mentioned above, a few irregular nouns end in long vowels; the most common ones are amamū "mother", atabū and batū (both "father"). These behave mostly as -u stem nouns and have, due to regular saṃdhi, ūv- before vocalic endings, except for having an irregular direct, vocative and bound form plural in -ūvi (amamūvi, atabūvi, batūvi).
- huline "woman" has the suppletive plural hulūni (regularly declined).
- svo, the most common honorific, is most commonly used as an indeclinable adpositive title before the noun it refers to; however, it may used as a standalone noun, in which case it behaves as an -o stem noun except before vocalic endings, where it has the stem svom- instead of the expected *svav-; the irregular behaviour is due to it being a shortening of the original honorific svomardam, already found in both full and shortened forms in Classical Dundulanyä.
- irāḍe "animal (including humans)" is a consonant stem noun in the singular and dual, but declines as an -a stem noun in the plural, i.e. direct pl. irāḍai.
Use of the plural
Dundulanyä sometimes uses the singular in contexts where English uses the plural:
- Nouns are always singular after numerals (except, optionally, rirä (two), which they can also be dual after), sora (some), grāṇa (any), idu (no), idūṣam (no other), taili (many, much), didya (more), kaili (most), and ṣubha (few, little).
- After yaiva, the difference in the noun's number expresses a distinction much like the one between English "every" and "all": yaiva täte "every house", yaiva täti "all houses".
- When referring to existence or availability of something, that something is always singular, e.g. the essive sg. of nikoṅka "chair" in dvārma nikūvaṅkī taisa "there are chairs in the room". It may be plural if topicalized, but the overall meaning of the sentence changes - e.g. nikauṅkai mä dvārma taisa "the chairs are in the room".
- When referring to a single person, häɂli (hand), meśiḫe (eye), and p̃agu (ear), and often also junai (foot) (more rarely for nādah (leg) and m̃ukar̃e (arm)) are typically singular and not dual - e.g. nanāt miśeḫi meśūh "I see it with my eyes" (lit. "with my eye"). In fact, they might be translated as "a person's hands/eyes/ears", given that dual forms are often used to mean e.g. "both hands of two people" and the plural ones for e.g. "many people's hands".
- junēlte (indoor slippers), rapūda ((thick) shoes), mähṣa (boots), and all types of shoes are also used in the singular to refer to a pair of them. The main exception is frāṇagi (straw rope sandals), which is a plurale tantum.
Duals and plurals of given names have the meaning of an associative plural, i.e. Kālomīyayi "Kālomīye and people in/of her group".
Pronouns (śidrāñjiḫi)
Personal pronouns
Correlatives
Dundulanyä has a fairly regular system of correlatives, distinguishing ten types (proximal, medial, distal, interrogative, negative, assertive existential, elective existential, universal, positive alternative, and negative alternative) in twelve categories (attributive, thing, person, [person or thing] owner of, time, place, destination, origin, way, reason, quality, quantity).
Category ↓ / Type → | Proximal | Medial | Distal | Interrogative | Negative | Ass. exist. | Elect. exist. | Universal | Positive altern. | Negative altern. |
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Attributive | hine this |
hunu that (near you) |
āna that (over there) |
bena? which? |
idu no |
sora some |
grāṇa any |
yaiva every(thing) |
viṣam another, other |
idūṣam no other |
Thing | hiyome this one |
huyome that one (near you) |
āyome that one (over there) |
beyome? what?; which one? |
idume nothing |
sorame something |
grāṇame anything |
viṣāme something else |
idūṣāme nothing else | |
Person | hikana this one |
hukana that one (near you) |
ākana that one (over there) |
bekana? who? |
idona no one |
sorakna someone |
grākṇa anyone |
yāyukana everyone |
viṣkaṇa someone else |
idūṣkaṇa no one else |
Owner of1 | hirūm this one's |
hurūm that one's (near you) |
ārūm that one's (over there) |
berūm? whose? |
idurūm no one's |
sohrūm someone's |
grāṃrūm anyone's |
yāyurūm everyone's |
viṣrūm someone else's |
idūṣrūm no one else's |
Time | hivet now |
huvet then |
āvet then (remote) |
bevet? when? |
iduvet never |
sorvet sometime, somewhen |
grāmvet anytime, whenever |
yāyuvet always, everytime |
viṣvet sometime else |
idūṣvet never else |
Place | hiyo here |
huyo there |
āyo over there |
beyo? where? |
iduyo nowhere |
sorayo somewhere |
grāṇyo anywhere |
yaivyo everywhere |
viṣayo elsewhere |
idūṣayo nowhere else |
Destination | hiyāk hither |
huyāk thither |
āyāk thither (remote) |
beyāk? whither? |
idvāk nowhither |
sorayāk somewhither |
grāṇyāk anywhither |
yaivyāk everywhither |
viṣayāk elsewhither |
idūṣayāk nowhither else |
Source | hiyau hence |
huyau thence |
āyau thence (remote) |
beyau? whence? |
idvau nowhence |
sorayau somewhence |
grāṇyau anywhence |
yaivyau everywhence |
viṣayau elsewhence |
idūṣayau nowhence else |
Manner | hilīce thus, hereby |
hulīce thereby |
ālīce thereby; that other way |
belīce? how? |
idulīce no way |
soralīce somehow |
grāṃlīce anyhow |
yāyulīce everyway |
viṣlīce otherwise |
idūṣlīce no other way |
Reason | himena herefore |
humena therefore |
āmena therefore; for that other reason |
bemena? why? |
idumena for no reason |
soramena somewhy |
grāmena whyever, for any reason |
yāyumena for every reason |
viṣmena for another reason |
idūṣmena for no other reason |
Quality | hismā this kind |
husmā that kind |
āsmā that other kind |
besmā? which kind? |
idusmā no kind |
sorasmā some kind |
grāṃsmā any kind |
yāyusmā every kind |
viṣasmā another kind |
idūṣasmā no other kind |
Quantity | hiqna this much |
huqna that much |
āqna that much (remote) |
beqna? how much? |
iduqna none |
soraqna some of it |
grāqna any much |
yāyuqna all of it |
viṣaqna another quantity |
idūṣaqna no other quantity |
- The "owner of" correlatives are bound forms that mark possession, e.g. hirūm naviṣyaɂe "this [person]'s book", idurūm naviṣyaɂe "no one's book", berūm naviṣyaɂe? "whose book is this?" (lit. "who is the owner of [the] book?"). As such, they are always used together with a third-person (generally singular) possessive suffix.
THING, PERSON, QUALITY and QUANTITY correlatives decline for case; the proximal, medial and distal members of the THING (hiyome, huyome, āyome) and PERSON series (hikana, hukana, ākana) also decline for number.
The QUALITY and QUANTITY correlatives are generally only declined when used together with the bound form of another noun (e.g. m̃uk huqna "that much milk", nṛta idūṣasmā "no other kind of dream").
Note that Dundulanyä does not have wh-fronting: hine täte ninyukuvību lilīsa "in this house lives my maternal aunt" → hine täte bekanī lilīsa? "who lives in this house?"
Verbs (darūmmai)
Dundulanyä verbs are quite complex and generally formed in an agglutinative manner - even if there are fusional elements for what concerns tense, aspect, and subject agreement. The language has an Austronesian-type morphosyntactic alignment, and the argument the verb agrees with is controlled by a particular morpheme inside the verb complex. Due to the complex structure, a single verb form can often correspond to a more complex English sentence, as e.g. kujadumbhyaimyūsaded (I've been told that the two of you are bringing [it] again (on foot) from outside at my/our place for him/her), a form of the root dombh- (to bring on foot, with the hands), morphemically kuḍ-sa-dumbh-ya-emi-ū-sa-de=d.
The morpheme order of Dundulanyä verbs is the following; elements in bold are required, even if some of them may be zero morphemes:
(still unfinished)
Positional prefix | -sa- inverse deixis prefix |
Incorporated verbal root | Stem | Tense markers | Ablative motion marker | Evidential marker | Causative or applicative marker | Trigger/voice | Personal agreement | Dative agreement | Verb-final conjunctions |
Incorporated nominal root |
Verbs have four stems: present, past, perfect and frequentative; the latter two are always distinct, while non-ablauting roots have the same stems for the present and the past. These stems are used with different sets of personal agreement endings; different combinations of stems and endings are used to form a variety of tense-aspect combinations.
A few irregular verbs have suppletive stems, and a smaller number of verbs is defective, lacking one or more stems.
Root incorporation
Some verb roots may be used with either a verbal or a nominal incorporated root which comes right before the stem in the verb complex. Incorporated verb roots are always in zero-grade ablaut, while incorporated nominal roots are actually a closed class of prefixes etymologically related to certain nouns that broadly identify the object (usually the patient) of the verb.
Incorporated verb roots form root+root complexes where the incorporated root adds a dimension of meaning to the main one, such as with the root jūpūn- "to work in a hurry" from pūn- "to work" with the incorporated root jo- "to hurry", or nililobh- "to write down through brainstorming" from lobh- "to write" with nily- "to think".
Incorporated nominal roots include for example morphemes such as tan- for a long object (cf. taṇḍa "stick, cane") resulting in forms such as taṃlobh- "to affix; carve (on a stick, a post)", or ghar- for "wood" with forms such as ghahräś- "to debark" (räś- "to peel") or gharṇevy- "to carve wood" (nevy- "to shape").
The prefix yau- fills the incorporated nominal root slot, however it denotes repetition and patient plurality and is always used together with the agentive trigger, as shown in forms such as yaukṛsēne "I waited for all of them".
Similarly, the prefixes sya- (exhaustive), tra- (iterative) and cū- (excessive) fill the slot of the incorporated root. sya- is uncommon in the modern language, as it is often used as a synonym of yau-; the original difference being that it does not apply to transitive verbs only, and it does not imply a repeated or prolonged action. Cf. forms such as syanīyēne "I said it all", tranīyēne "I said it again", cūnīyēne "I said too much".
Inverse deixis and ablative motion
While apparently similar, the inverse deixis marker or cislocative (the -s(a)- prefix) and the ablative motion marker (the -y(a)- suffix) are distinct and, in fact, not mutually exclusive. While the ablative motion marker cannot be used without the positional prefix, the cislocative can.
The cislocative prefix marks an action towards the deictic center (generally the speaker), marked as divergent from the default state which is action from the deictic center: see e.g. lonei (lon-ei) "you go (walk)" vs. cislocative salonei (sa-lon-ei) "you come (on foot)" for an example without a positional prefix; however it can also be used together with such prefix as in e.g. gālonei (gā-lon-ei) "you walk in" vs. gāslonei (gā-s(a)-lon-ei) "you come in (on foot)".
The ablative motion marker (which forces zero-grade ablaut on the present stem), on the other hand, inverts the direction marked by the positional/directional prefix, which is allative by default (i.e. to a place), making it ablative (i.e. from a place): gāmeśūh (gā-meś-ū-h) "I look inside" vs. gāmiśyūh (gā-miś-y-ū-h) "I look from the inside". The ablative marker is, due to how positional and motion verbs work in Dundulanyä, most commonly used and useful with transitive verbs, e.g. kuṇḍombhūsa (kuḍ-dombh-ū-sa) "you two bring outside" vs. kuṇḍumbhyūsa (kuḍ-dumbh-y-ū-sa) "you two bring from outside".
The cislocative and the ablative marker can, in fact, be used together, in forms such as kujadumbhyūsa (kuḍ-sa-dumbh-y-ū-sa) "you two bring [us] from outside", gāslunyei "you come (on foot) from the inside". See also the following sentences, using the ablative motion marker, and the distinctions implied by the presence or absence of the cislocative prefix:
- bunūgoba kujamiśyū "The thief is looking [at me/us] from the outside";
- bunūgoba jṛṣṇat kujamiśyū "The thief is looking at my backpack [which is near me/in the same room as me] from the outside";
- bunūgoba jṛṣṇat kuḍmiśyū "The thief is looking at my backpack from the outside [and I am not in the same room as my backpack]".
Stem and TAM formation
The four basic stems are formed as follows:
- The present stem is the root with the middle grade vowel;
- The past stem is the root with the zero grade vowel;
- For non-ablauting roots, the present and past stems are therefore identical.
- The perfect stem is the root with the zero grade vowel and an augment which is identical to the vowel of the root itself (shortened, if it is long) if the vowel is any of a, e, i, u; otherwise:
- if the stem vowel is o, ä, ṛ or ṝ, the augment is a;
- if the stem vowel is a diphthong, only the first element is taken as the augment.
- The frequentative stem is the root with the zero grade vowel plus the middle grade vowel as the augment, and adding -sā (with the appropriate saṃdhi changes). Again, there are some exceptions to the general augment rule:
- if the stem vowel is ṛ or ṝ, the augment is ā;
- otherwise, the same rules as the perfect augment apply.
Some affixes may force the stem vowel to be in a certain ablaut grade, such as the ablative motion marker shown in the previous section, which forces a present stem to have a zero grade vowel regardless.
As an example, the stems of meś- (II) "to see" are: present meś-, past miś-, perfect imiś-, frequentative emikṣā- (← e-miś-sā-). The non-ablauting root pūn- (to work) has present/past pūn-, perfect upūn-, frequentative upūṃsā-; mäly- (0) "to give" has present/past mäly-, perfect amäly-, frequentative amälisā-.
There are also tense markers which are added to the above stems to form the base for other TAM:
- the future formant is -iṣy- (or -ṣy- after vowels), added to the past stem (i.e. to the zero grade root);
- ...
The various tenses (more appropriately tense-aspect combinations) and moods are formed by the combination of the above stems and different terminations (which are listed in the dedicated section below):
- Present: present stem + present terminations
- Past: past stem + past terminations
- Perfect: perfect stem + perfect terminations
- Frequentative: frequentative stem + frequentative terminations
- Future: future "stem" + perfect terminations
- ...
Junyai
The forms called, in traditional Dundulanyä grammar, junyai (sg. junya, literally "shade, hue") are special stems (hence filling only the "stem" portion of the verb complex) which denote particular meanings, often corresponding to moods. There are five junyai: desiderative, necessitative, potential, permissive and intensive, formed as follows, through reduplication (with different ablaut grades in the stem and in the reduplication) and suffixes:
- Desiderative: zero-grade reduplication + middle-grade root + -s;
- Necessitative: middle-grade reduplication + zero-grade root + -sū;
- Potential: zero-grade reduplication + middle-grade root + -nā;
- Permissive: reduplication with the vowel ī (ū after non-nasal labials) + zero-grade root + -ūd;
- Intensive: reduplication with lengthened vowel + zero-grade root + -ī.
Examples with various roots:
- meś- (II) "to see": DES mi-meś-s- → mimekṣ-; NEC me-miś-sū- → memikṣū; POT mi-meś-nā- → mimeśñā-; PERM mī-miś-ūd → mīmiśūd-; INT mī-miś-ī- → mīmiśī-.
- śan- (I) "to breathe": DES ś-śan-s- → kṣaṃs- (rarely śaśaṃs-); NEC śa-śn-sū- → śaśñāsū-; POT ś-śan-nā- → kṣannā- (rarely śaśannā-); PERM śī-śn-ūd- → śīśñūd-; INT śā-śn-ī- → śāśñī-.
Causative, applicative and trigger (voice) markers
There are six possible trigger (voice) markers:
- -∅- patient trigger;
- -ū- (-e- in the past tense only) agent trigger;
- -ik- reflexive trigger;
- -ik-ū- (or -ik-e-), combination of agent and reflexive triggers, for the reciprocal voice;
- -mi- circumstantial (benefactive or instrumental) trigger;
- -īs- locative trigger;
- -bai- reason trigger.
The causative (-on- or -n-) and applicative (-im- or -m-) markers fill the slot preceding the trigger marker, but unlike the latter those markers are not mandatory.
Evidential markers
There are six evidential markers:
- -∅- direct knowledge;
- -ɂä- "first" inferential (trusted);
- -eb(i)- "second" inferential (doubtful);
- -ukiɂ(a)- assumptive;
- -emi- "first" reportative/hearsay (trusted);
- -enab(u)- "second" reportative/hearsay (doubtful).
Personal agreement
The following ones are the personal agreement endings for Dundulanyä verbs.
1SG | 2SG | 3SG | 1DU | 2DU | 3DU | 1PL | 2PL | 3PL | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Present | -(a)h | -i | -a/-∅ | -(a)ba | -(a)sa | -(a)ḍa | -em | -(a)ḫo | -āhai |
Frequentative | -u | -i | |||||||
Perfect | -am | -es | -a | -ra | -ri | -a | -ima | -iśa | -a |
Past | -(a)ne | -(a)he | -(a)de | -ren | -res | -rak | -ife | -ithe | -aki |
Subjunctive |
The forms with vowel in the present are used after a consonant; the 3SG form is therefore a zero-marker in many common forms such as after the agent trigger (cf. meśa "3SG is seen" and meśū "3SG sees").
Numerals (dhujāvāmi)
Dundulanyä is one of the few human Eventoan languages - together with the other ancient languages grouped as East Mandabudi languages, a few other languages scattered in southern Lusaṃrīte, and a handful of others around the world, as well as those which have had considerable influence by Dundulanyä itself - with a pure duodecimal numeral system.
Numbers (sg. dhujāvam, pl. dhujāvāmi) have six different forms: cardinal, ordinal, collective, distributive, adverbial/multiplicative, and fractionary. The numbers from 1 to 4 have separate adverbial multiplicative forms, while all other ones have an invariable form used both as adverbial and "adjectival" multiplicatives. Cardinals from 1 to Ɛ and their compounds decline for case (see below); collectives, multiplicatives, and fractionaries always decline, while ordinals are only declined if used as substantives, i.e. without an accompanying noun. Distributives do not decline.
All numeral roots in general usage are native, with the exception of zero, which is a learned borrowing from Kumãwawỹ ryrõ "nothing".
Digit12 | Base 10 | Cardinal | Ordinal | Collective | Distributive | Adv./Multiplicative | Fractionary |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
0 | 0 | raron | (raronesi) | — | (raroṅkoma) | (b̃āraron) | — |
1 | 1 | emibe emi |
rählälu | emibukoma | b̃āɂemibe (adv.) emibūśila |
rählälyāṭ | |
2 | 2 | rirä | hälinaike | rirätām | riräkoma | b̃ārirä (adv.) riräśila |
hälinaikyāṭ |
3 | 3 | kiṅka | kiṅkesi | kiṅkatām | kiṅkakoma | b̃ākiṅka (adv.) kiṅkośila |
kiṅkesyāṭ |
4 | 4 | nälte | nältaisi | nältitām | nältakoma | b̃ānälte (adv.) nältauśila |
nältaisyāṭ |
5 | 5 | śulka | śulkesi | śulkatām | śulkakoma | śulkośila | śulkesyāṭ |
6 | 6 | ūṃse | ūṃsaisi | ūṃstām | ūṃskoma | ūṃsauśila | ūṃsaisyāṭ |
7 | 7 | chīka | chīcesi | chīcätām | chīkkoma | chīkośila | chīcesyāṭ |
8 | 8 | mbula | mbulesi | mbultām | mbulkoma | mbulośila | mbulesyāṭ |
9 | 9 | ḍor̃a | ḍor̃esi | ḍor̃atām | ḍor̃akoma | ḍor̃ośila | ḍor̃esyāṭ |
ᘔ | 10 | tālda | tāldesi | tāldatām | tāldakoma | tāldośila | tāldesyāṭ |
Ɛ | 11 | ṣūḍan | ṣūṇḍisi | ṣūṇḍām | ṣūṇḍakoma | ṣūṇḍuśila | ṣūṇḍisyāṭ |
10 | 12 | mūmai | mūmaisi | mūmetām | mūmekoma | mūmāyuśila | mūmaisyāṭ |
11 | 13 | emibumūmä | emibumūmäsi | emibumūmätām | emibumūmäkoma | emibumūmäśila | emibumūmäsyāṭ |
12 | 14 | rirämūmä | rirämūmäsi | rirämūmätām | rirämūmäkoma | rirämūmäśila | rirämūmäsyāṭ |
13 | 15 | kiṅkhälī | kiṅkhälīsi | kiṅkhälītām | kiṅkhälīkoma | kiṅkhälīvśila | kiṅkhälīsyāṭ |
14 | 16 | mūmainälte | mūmainältaisi | mūmainältitām | mūmainältakoma | mūmainältauśila | mūmainältaisyāṭ |
15 | 17 | mūmaiśulka | mūmaiśulkesi | mūmaiśulkatām | mūmaiśulkakoma | mūmaiśulkośila | mūmaiśulkesyāṭ |
16 | 18 | mūmāyūṃse | mūmāyūṃsaisi | mūmāyūṃstām | mūmāyūṃskoma | mūmāyūṃsauśila | mūmāyūṃsaisyāṭ |
17 | 19 | mūmaichīka | mūmaichīcesi | mūmaichīcätām | mūmaichīkkoma | mūmaichīkośila | mūmaichīcesyāṭ |
18 | 20 | mūmaimbula | mūmaimbulesi | mūmaimbultām | mūmaimbulkoma | mūmaimbulośila | mūmaimbulesyāṭ |
19 | 21 | mūmaiḍor̃a | mūmaiḍor̃esi | mūmaiḍor̃atām | mūmaiḍor̃akoma | mūmaiḍor̃ośila | mūmaiḍor̃esyāṭ |
1ᘔ | 22 | mūmaitālda | mūmaitāldesi | mūmaitāldatām | mūmaitāldakoma | mūmaitāldośila | mūmaitāldesyāṭ |
1Ɛ | 23 | mūmaiṣūḍan | mūmaiṣūṇḍisi | mūmaiṣūṇḍām | mūmaiṣūṇḍakoma | mūmaiṣūṇḍuśila | mūmaiṣūṇḍisyāṭ |
20 | 24 | hälimūmai | hälimūmaisi | hälimūmetām | hälimūmekoma | hälimūmāyuśila | hälimūmaisyāṭ |
As for the two forms for the numeral "one", emi is used in disjunctive counting (count-ins or countdowns), while emibe is used elsewhere. Compounds always have the full form, i.e. forms such as *hälimūmāyemi do not exist, only hälimūmāyemibe.
Numbers from 2012 above are simply made by compounding teens and units with the appropriate saṃdhi changes, like 2112 (2510) hälimūmāyemibe, and then hälimūmairirä, hälimūmaikiṅka, and so on.
The other dozens are:
- 30 (3610) kiṅkamūmai
- 40 (4810) nältamūmai
- 50 (6010) śulkmūmai
- 60 (7210) ūṃsamūmai
- 70 (8410) chīcämūmai
- 80 (9610) mbulmūmai
- 90 (10810) ḍor̃mūmai
- ᘔ0 (12010) tāldamūmai
- Ɛ0 (13210) ṣūṇḍmūmai
- and 100 (14410) trāṣoḍa.
1312 originally meant "one finger/three in the second [dozen]", where the -hälī part is a worn form of hälinaike.
Numbers from 10012 to ƐƐƐ12 are still compounds, e.g. trāṣoḍaimibe, trāṣoḍarirä, and so on.
The other dozenal hundreds are:
- 200 (28810) rirätrāṣoḍa
- 300 (43210) kiṅkatrāṣoḍa
- 400 (57610) nältitrāṣoḍa
- 500 (72010) śulkatrāṣoḍa
- 600 (86410) ūṃsitrāṣoḍa
- 700 (100810) chīcätrāṣoḍa
- 800 (115210) mbultrāṣoḍa
- 900 (129610) ḍor̃atrāṣoḍa
- ᘔ00 (144010) tāldatrāṣoḍa
- Ɛ00 (158410) ṣūḍantrāṣoḍa.
1.000 (172810) is śāyāja and numbers above are separate words, without saṃdhi, e.g. 1.001 śāyāja emibe, 6.2ᘔ9 (1078510) ūṃse śāyāja rirätrāṣoḍatāldamūmaiḍor̃a.
Note that 2.00012 may be either one of śāyājeve, rirä śāyāja - the most common one -, or (only emphatically) rirä śāyājeve.
The other divisions - numbers over ƐƐ.ƐƐƐ12 are based on groups of two digits: the two most commonly used ones in common speech are 1.00.000 (248.83210) - a raice - and 1.00.00.000 (35.831.80810) - a lallaraice.
The next two groups have their separate words, but are quantities rarely used in common speech: 1.00.00.00.000 (129) (5.159.780.35210) is a tūśvāna and 1.00.00.00.00.000 (1211) (743.008.370.68810) a lallatūśvāna.
Vocabulary
Colours
Dundulanyä people traditionally distinguish 13 basic colours (hīmba), with the notable presence of two heavily culturally significant ones: golden yellow and lilac:
Colour | Noun | Verb to be … |
Prototypical example |
---|---|---|---|
Black | śyūda | śyūdah | |
Blue, also dark green | kāmila | kāmilah | |
Brown | tūnya | tūnyah | |
Golden yellow | chlīm̃a | chlīm̃ah | |
Gray | nijam | nijmah | |
Green | bhāca | bhācah | |
Light yellow | khañja | khañjah | |
Lilac | kalya | kalyah | |
Orange | cände | cändah | |
Pink | kīlana | kīlanah | |
Red | ūnika | ūnikah | |
Violet, dark lilac | somye | somih | |
White | pāṇḍa | pāṇḍah |
Time
The Eventoan day is about 34.8 Earth hours long, and there is no uniform standard to divide it among the various parts of the planet. The Dundulanyä divide the day into 48 (4012) subdivisions called garaṇai (singular garaṇa), each one about 43.5 Earth minutes long. The day is, for timekeeping and time expressions, divided into eight periods, called TBD, of six garaṇai each.
Each garaṇa is divided into four timeframes called railai (singular raila) - about 10.8 Earth minutes - further divided into 30 (2612) units known as nartī (singular narti) - a little less than 22 Earth seconds each.
Nartī are divided into eight nīmaṣi (sg. nīmaṣe) - 2.72 Earth seconds - which are further divided into twelve idimaṣi (sg. idimaṣe) - 0.227 Earth seconds.
External history
Dundulanyä is a conlang project that I “officially” started in early December 2021 (coincidentally around the fifth anniversary since I started Chlouvānem), although it and its goals are, to a large extent, the conflation of multiple projects that I sporadically worked on for most of 2021:
- A long process of “refinement” of Chlouvānem – that happened offline, so it was never reflected in any edit on the wiki pages here – by eliminating or changing some quirks that had formed over time and that had brought me to a standstill in working on that conlang by late 2020. Ideas for the refinement started from nominal morphology but then they eventually snowballed to the point it was impossible to implement them without basically starting the conlang anew;
- A radical reboot of Tameï that was meant to give it an a priori language family in a slightly changed conworld setting (although still on an alternative Earth); this was the language I originally created the glottonym Dundulanyä for;
- Various unnamed sketchlangs, mostly attempts at Hurro-Urartian diachronic conlanging, that were the results of a general interest in Ancient Near Eastern languages as a side-effect of my work on Lifashian (my “conlang of choice” for most of 2021).
Dundulanyä is meant to be the first conlang for a sort of reboot of Calémere – Eventoa – as, much like in Chlouvānem itself, there had come to be quite a few things in and about Calémere that I wasn’t that sure of keeping, but changing them would have meant to change so many things about the conworld that depended on them. Eventoa, as of now (March 28, 2022) is a WIP conworld about which I'm still adding and discarding ideas nearly every time I work on it, so there’s little to be written about it – but it eventually will incorporate a few elements of Calémere. Dundulanyä will play a role in Eventoa vaguely similar to the one Chlouvānem had in Calémere, although unlike earlier conworld reboots I have decided not to trash everything away (hence why I chose a different name for Eventoa), keeping eight years’ worth of documentation about Calémere and five years’ worth about Chlouvānem intact.
Compared to Chlouvānem, Dundulanyä is going to tone down somewhat the Sanskrit and particularly the Lithuanian and Japanese influences, while being more influenced by PIE itself, Hurrian, Urartian, Elamite, Anatolian languages, Akkadian, and the languages of the Caucasus (particularly Adyghe).
Notes
- ^ Literally "Dundulanyä our-language", with a 1PL possessive; the stylistic variant dundulanyä ḫamfarān (lit. "Dundulanyä their-language") is sometimes found in neutral contexts.
- ^ More commonly used in the prefixed form ni-sākh- "to build, create, make".
- ^ In colloquial Dundulanyä, such nouns are often declined like -a nouns, given that their declensions are similar, the main difference being vowel lengthening in most forms.
- ^ The dual and plural of given names are used to mark a group of two (dual) or more (plural) people contextually identified by some kind of relationship to the person the name refers to; e.g. "X and friends; X and family; X and partner...".
- ^ The word latiri is the plural of latire (wave, ray), but the compound itself does not have a singular form.