Dalkaisk Grammar

Below will be a general overview of Dalkaisk guidelines for syntax, grammar rules, verb conjugation, prepositions/postpositions, common prefixes/suffixes, and other related grammar rules to form complex sentences in Dalkaisk.

Overview

• Dalkaisk uses Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) sentence structure like English. This means that a basic sentence would be structured like "He sees her."
• Alternatively, Object-Subject-Verb (OSV) can also be used for stylistic or emphatic purposes, such as "Land, he saw."
• There are no definite or indefinite articles in Dalkaisk (i.e. the/a/an). If specificity or generality is needed in a sentence (AKA if 'the' or 'a' is needed,), the Dalkaisk words for 'that' (kjem) and 'one' (an) are used.

Pronunciation

Letter	IPA	Ex.	Letter	IPA	Ex.	Letter	IPA	Ex.
A	/a/	laama	B	/b/	bee	Ch	/t͡ʃ/	cheese
D	/d/	dog	E	/e/	end	F	/f/	for
G	/g/	give	Kh	/x/	hen	I	/i/	seem
J	/j/	yes	K	/k/	kin	L	/l/	less
M	/m/	mess	N	/n/	nor	O	/o/	lore
P	/p/	path	R	/ɾ/	party*	S	/s/	sell
T	/t/	tell	U	/u/	food	V	/v/	veer
Z	/z/	zen	Ts	/t͡s/	cats	Zh	/ʒ/	vision
Dzh	/dʒ/	jail	Aj	/aʲ/	hi	Ej	/eʲ/	hey
Ij	/iʲ/	heel	Oj	/oʲ/	soy	Uj	/uʲ/	bababooey
Sh	/ʃ/	shoe

*flapped r, in American English, the t sound is reduced in party, and sounds like an r.

• The letter i at the end of words is reduced to /ɪ/, is.
• Stress is on the second syllable if it is 2 syllables, and on the second to last syllable if it is more than 2 syllables.
• The word ij "and" in Dalkaisk is pronounced as /jɪ/ (ji) after words that end in j.
• The word ij can also be pronounced as /i/ (i) as a more casual pronunciation, or can be reduced to /ɪ/ when speaking quickly.

Common Phrases

English	Dalkaisk	Phonetically
Hello	Priva	Pree-vah
Welcome	Lestale	Leh-stall-lyeh
Please	Popresheke / Popra	Po-preh-sheh-kyeh / Po-prah
Thank you	Khula	Hoo-lah
You're welcome	Pretjesej	Preh-tye-say
Yes	Saj	Sai
No	Pjo	Pyo
Where are you?	Jevjar jetejlajm? / Vjartej?	Yeh-vyar yeh-tey-lime / Vyar-tey
I don't know	Pjo lavevaj /Pjolav	Pyo lah-veh-vai / Pyo-lahv
Of course	Guvanaj	Goo-vah-nai
I speak Dalkaisk	Bajevaj Dalkajsk.	Bah-jeh-vai Dahl-kaisk
My Dalkaisk is bad	Vjin Dalkajsk je tsij	Vyin Dahl-kaisk yeh tsye
Do you speak English?	Bajetej Anglesk (lajm)?	Bye-yeh-tey On-glesk (lime)?

Pronouns

Personal (I, he, they)

	Singular	Plural
1st Person	vaj	vanaj/vajsk*
2nd Person	tej	tajsk
3rd Person	ren	renaj

*Vanaj includes the speaker and the listener (inclusive we), while Vajsk only includes the speaker (exclusive we).

Possessive (My, his, their)

	Singular	Plural
1st Person	vjin	vanaje/vasin*
2nd Person	tujen**	tasejn
3rd Person	ranen	renaje

*Vanaje includes the speaker and the listener (inclusive our), while Vasin only includes the speaker (exclusive our).

*Tujen is written as -taj when written in suffix form.

Demonstrative (this, that)

	Singular	Plural	Singular (EN)	Plural (EN)
Proximal	kev	kevan	this	these
Medial*	kjemtaj**	kjantaj**	that by you	those by you
Distal	kjem	kjeman	that	those

*Medial describes objects near the second person, in contrast to the dual nature of English's 'this' and 'that.'

**Originally dialectal, but increasingly growing in usage.

Usage Notes

• For aesthetic or emphatic reasons, pronouns before a word can also be attached as a suffix to the root word.
• Most pronouns are the same in suffix form (e.g. Vaj oleve, Olevevaj 'I appear'), but for tujen, It is -taj in its suffix form (e.g. tujen pju, pjutaj 'Your water').
• Suffix form pronouns almost always come after any verb or noun inflections. For example, 'he had been needing' would normally be 'ren holje najeret,' but would be changed to 'holje najaretren'
• The exception in suffix form pronouns being added last is that -lajm, or the question marker always comes last in a word.

Noun

Noun Inflections

The main noun inflections decline based on number and prepositional phrasing (i.e to-, at-, from-).

The noun inflections are as follows:

Number Affixes:

Plurals are formed in nouns based on a mostly regular system, with exceptions for common nouns. Multiple systems are used depending on the ending of the root word.

• -v, plural marker, only when root word ends with -a and -o
• -z, plural marker, only when root word ends with -i
• -n, plural marker, only when root word ends with -e and -u
• -av, plural marker, only when root word ends with a consonant

Certain common use words with consonant endings have an -ets ending. This includes shtajets, denizets, helisets, vojets, ledets, and murets (days, brothers, noses, lives. doors, words).

Preprepositional Affixes:

To express prepositions such as to, from, and at, prefixes are used rather than separate words.

• av-, to (the/a) #
• lo-, by (the/a) #, (when attached onto a noun starting in a vowel, a /β/ "v" sound is usually included when spoken, loajtse, "by the end" sounds more like lovajtse)
• on-, in (the/a) #
• je-, at (the/a) #
• in-, from (the/a) #
• por-, with (the/a) #
• jaj-, on (the/a) #
• las-, about (the/a) #
• evo-, among (the/a) #, (see lo#)
• -tsi, of (the/a) #, attached after a noun as a stylistic choice or a redundancy reducer, (from tsi # tsi #, to tsi # #tsi)

Postpositional Affixes:

• -naj, for (the/a) #

Order of noun affixes go: Preposition + Root + Plural + Postposition (Suffix)

Verbs

Verb Inflections

• -re, Past Tense
• -(s)ejn, Future Tense
• -te, Continuous Tense, (reduced to -t after the past tense marker)
• holje #, Perfect Tense, (i.e had #, have #, etc.)
• #lajm, Interrogative tense, (Question markers at the end of words, optional to reduce spoken confusion, always last in the order of suffixes.)
• -jen, Habitual Tense, (Informal, dialectal)

Order of verb suffixes go: Past/Fut. + Cont./Hab. + Int.

Word Patterns

General Patterns

• -a, ja, Possible suffix for Nouns
• -je, -e, Common suffixes for Verbs

• -ij / -esk, Common suffixes for Adjectives

Derivational Patterns

• -isej / -isam*, Adjectives → Adverb

* -isam is much rarer, and only present in some common adjectives.