Ldon
Ldon (native pronunciation: /ldo̞n/, English pronunciation: /lədɒn/ luh-DON) is a language spoken in Ldonjama.
Numbers: mal seb znu ldoś uan kwo edam slac huk toź
Introduction
Phonology
p t k b d v s z ś ź h c ć m n w l j a e i o u /p t k b d v s z ɕ ʑ h ts tɕ m n w l j a e i o u/
Orthography
Consonants
Vowels
Prosody
Stress
Intonation
Phonotactics
The acceptable initial consonant clusters are lp, lb, lt, ld, lk, sm, sn, sw, sj, zm, zn, zv, zj, tm, kn, pn, tw, kw and dw.
Hiatus is allowed, e.g. hoap = oblique I form of hoc 'son'
Morphophonology
Consonant gradation
Ldon has a process of consonant gradation which works with certain suffixes, as in Finnish. The rules are:
- p -> w
- b, m -> l
- t -> z
- d, n, ć -> ź
- k -> c
- c disappears
- ź, z -> j
- s -> l
Morphology
Ldon nouns come in four cases: direct, oblique I, oblique II and vocative. Nouns do not have a plural.
- Both subjects and objects of transitive verbs are in the direct case. When used with locative prepositions, it implies location.
- The oblique I case is used for subjects of intransitive verbs. When used with locative prepositions, it implies motion towards an object. It is marked with -(a)p and may cause stem vowel changes.
- The oblique II case is used with non-locative prepositions. When used with locative prepositions, it implies motion away from an object. It has practically merged with the vocative in the modern language.
- The vocative case is marked with -a.
Examples: znam (field); oblique I form znalap; oblique II/vocative znama
swelek (rainbow; the final k is from *-tk); oblique I form swelecap, oblique II/vocative form sweleka
hulu (mite); oblique I hulup, oblique II hulua
Ldon verbs inflect for pluractionality.