Dwarven

Legend

Natively known as: mǎlyouf /ˈmɑːljaʊ̯f/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind... bu doû maj shû nârde chib bu bǔr shû mâsh zoi wîk goushe[alt] Pronunciation: /buː doʊ̯ mæʤ ʃʊ ˈnərde ʧiːb buː bʌr ʃʊ məʃ zɔɪ̯ wɪk ˈgaʊ̯ʃe/ Dwarven word order: and stood holding his hat he and turned his wet face to the wind [/alt]

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b d f g h j k l m n p q r s t v w x z ŋ ʃ ʤ ʧ θ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	m			n			ŋ
Stop	p b			t d			k g	q
Affricate					ʧ ʤ
Fricative		f v	θ	s z	ʃ		x		h
Approximant						j
Trill				r
Lateral approximant				l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: aɪ̯ aʊ̯ e eɪ̯ iː juː o oʊ̯ uː æ ɑː ɔɪ̯ ɔː ə ɪ ɪə̯ ʊ ʌ Diphthongs: aɪ̯ aʊ̯ eɪ̯ juː oʊ̯ ɔɪ̯ ɪə̯

	Front	Central	Back
High	iː		uː
Near-high	ɪ		ʊ
High-mid	e		o
Mid		ə
Low-mid			ʌ ɔː
Near-low	æ
Low			ɑː

Syllable structure: (C)V(C) Stress pattern: advanced Word initial consonants: b d f g j l m n p q r t v w z ʃ ʧ θ Mid-word consonants: b bb bn br bt bw bʤ d db dg dm dw dx f ff fm fn fp ft fx g gb gj gk gm gn gr gv gx gz gʃ gʤ gʧ h hb hj hk hl hr hv j jd jf jg jn jr js jt jv jz k kd kj kk km kr kt kw kʧ l lb ld lf lg lh lj lk ll ls lt lv lz m mb mf mh mj mk mn mr ms mt mz mʃ mʤ mʧ n nd nf ng nj nm nt nv nw nʃ nʤ p pf pk pp pz pʃ pʧ q qq qt r rd rg rj rk rl rn rx rz rʧ s sb sd sg sl sr ss st sv t tf tg tp tr ts tv tw tx tz tʧ v vb vg vl vm vn w wd wl wp ww wx wʤ x xd xg xh xm xn xr xv xw xz z zb zk zn zp zv zw ŋ ŋb ŋr ŋt ŋz ŋθ ʃ ʃb ʃk ʃl ʃʧ ʤ ʤl ʤm ʧ ʧg ʧn θ θj θl Word final consonants: b d f g k l n p q r t v w x z ŋ ʃ ʤ θ Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
aɪ̯	ie
aʊ̯	ou
eɪ̯	ay
iː	i
uː	u
æ	a
ɔɪ̯	oi
ɔː	aw
ɪə̯	ia
ɪ	î
ə	â
ʊ	û
ɑː	ǎ
ʌ	ǔ
j	y
x	kh
ŋ	ng
ʃ	sh
ʤ	j
ʧ	ch
θ	th
V₁ː	V₁V₁
◌̯

Grammar

Main word order: Verb Object (Prepositional phrase) Subject. “Mary opened the door with a key” turns into Opened the door with a key Mary. Adjective order: Adjectives are positioned before the noun. Adposition: prepositions

Nouns

Nouns have three cases:

Nominative is the doer of a verb: dog bites man.
Accusative is the done-to of a verb: man bites dog.
Genitive is the possessor of something: dog’s tail hits man.

Nouns form plural with separate plural word:

Plural	Particle before the noun: gɪx - gîkh pûwkho /gɪx ˈpʊwxo/ dogs

Nominative	No affix pûwkho /ˈpʊwxo/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	If starts with vowel: Prefix ʃ- Else: Prefix ʃæ- shapûwkho /ˈʃæpʊwxo/ (verb done to) dog
Genitive	Prefix ʊ- ûpûwkho /ˈʊpʊwxo/ dogʼs

Articles

Dwarven has no definite article ‘the’, or indefinite article ‘a’.

Pronouns

	Nominative	Accusative	Genitive
1st singular	loûf /loʊ̯f/ I	nǔr /nʌr/ me	nuw /nuːw/ mine
2nd singular	de /de/ you	choût /ʧoʊ̯t/ you	she /ʃe/ yours
3rd singular masc	chib /ʧiːb/ he, it	shǎ /ʃɑː/ him, it	fî /fɪ/ his, its
3rd singular fem	sho /ʃo/ she, it	ǔp /ʌp/ her, it	tǔth /tʌθ/ hers, its
1st plural inclusive	mu /muː/ we (including you)	fîj /fɪʤ/ us (including you)	moiq /mɔɪ̯q/ ours (including you)
1st plural exclusive	we /we/ we (excluding you)	po /po/ us (excluding you)	gie /gaɪ̯/ ours (excluding you)
2nd plural	chia /ʧɪə̯/ you all	bia /bɪə̯/ you all	thouz /θaʊ̯z/ yours (pl)
3rd plural	bâ /bə/ they	fow /fow/ them	shû /ʃʊ/ theirs

Possessive determiners

1st singular	tû /tʊ/ my
2nd singular	fyu /fjuː/ your
3rd singular masc	shû /ʃʊ/ his
3rd singular fem	mi /miː/ her
1st plural inclusive	nia /nɪə̯/ our (including you)
1st plural exclusive	fu /fuː/ our (excluding you)
2nd plural	shoûw /ʃoʊ̯w/ your (pl)
3rd plural	bî /bɪ/ their

Verbs

Present	No affix nâk /nək/ learn
Past	Prefix nuː- nunâk /ˈnuːnək/ learned
Remote past	If starts with vowel: Prefix f- Else: Prefix fæ- fanâk /ˈfænək/ learned (long ago)

Dwarven uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future	Particle before the verb: bæk - bak nâk /bæk nək/ will learn

Imperfective aspect

The ‘imperfective’ aspect refers to ongoing actions, such as I am learning and habitual actions, such as I learn (something new every day). Dwarven uses a standalone particle word for imperfective:

Imperfective	Particle before the verb: zeɪ̯ - zay nâk /zeɪ̯ nək/ learns/is learning

Numbers

Dwarven has a base-20 number system: 1 - la 2 - qîp 3 - dǔ 4 - gǔsh 5 - shǔwwîg 6 - lap 7 - dâ 8 - zak 9 - mî 10 - mâ 11 - newa 12 - raw 13 - dîkhwî 14 - shǎkhoû 15 - tîpfe 16 - tâj 17 - chiaj 18 - qokh 19 - moûju 20 - qiaru 21 - la bu qiaru “one and twenty” 400 - la thia “one fourhundred” 401 - la thia bu la “one fourhundred and one” 800 - qîp thia “two fourhundred” 8000 - la zûv “one eightthousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If starts with vowel: Prefix d- Else: Prefix deɪ̯- Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix f- Else: Prefix fjuː- Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix oʊ̯- Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix gaɪ̯- Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If starts with vowel: Prefix t- Else: Prefix tjuː- Noun to verb = If starts with vowel: Prefix d- Else: Prefix dʌ- Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix f- Else: Prefix fɔː- Tending to = If starts with vowel: Prefix p- Else: Prefix pæ- Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix ʊ- Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If starts with vowel: Prefix t- Else: Prefix tɔː- One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Prefix oʊ̯- Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If starts with vowel: Prefix j- Else: Prefix jə- Diminutive = Prefix ə- Augmentative = Prefix be-

Written Form

The text is written typically in a counter clockwise pattern but can be adjusted to fit more sounds in, as long as you can in essence read it left to right.

You can use this IPA reader to hear words outloud English to Dwarven Translator

Dictionary

4551 Words.