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A Brief Description of Dunnek

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Phonology

      Stops
        unvoiced   p         t        k      q   '
        voiced     b         d        g      g!
      Affricates
        u.                   ts  ch
        v.                   dz  j
      Fricatives
        u.            f  th  s   sh          x   h
      Nasals       m         n
      Liquids                l
                             r
      Glides       w             y

There are three vowels: a, i, o, which also come in long versions: aa, ii, oo.

Lexicon

Dunnek is based on bi- and trilateral roots. Nouns, adjectives and verbs are derived from these roots by specific vowelling patterns. Nouns may be further derived by addition of affixes, with or without vowelling changes. Compounding as such is unknown in Dunnek, although many fixed phrases do the duty of compounds. Some examples of word-formation from roots are:


     Root           Word

     BTK            batak 'to read'
                    bitaak 'the book'
                    mabtak 'the reader' 
                    tibtaak 'reading'
     WW             waawat 'the temple'
     TM             taam 'the pig'
                    tma 'the barley'
     PR             kippar 'copper'
                    'aapor 'red'
     KWY            kawoy 'to pump, to propel'
                    sakiwyo 'the pump'

Plurals are very complicated in Dunnek, being formed by vowelling changes, suffixation, or a combination of the two, in unpredictable ways. Plurals must simply be learned along with their singular counterparts. Some examples:

     Singular                 Plural

     bitaak 'book'            bitiiyik
     yma 'day'                yaamaat  
     waawat 'temple'           waayawat
     sakiwyo 'pump'           sakiwyoot
     shajoomii 'rye'          'ishjoomii

Morphology

Dunnek nouns are used in one of three cases: nominative, construct and oblique. The nominative case is used for the subject and object of the verb, and with certain prepositions usually to express location. The construct case is used to form noun-noun compounds to express all manner of coordinate relationships such as possession, origin, composition, and the like: bitka fiiq 'the man's book', hinchra saniiq 'iron box', raasa darj 'headache'. The oblique case is used with prepositions and to form adverbs. Both construct and oblique cases are formed from singular and plural nouns by modification of the final vowel or consonant of the word. Examples:

           'woman'    'man'   'lawcourt'   'lute'   'rye'   
     Nom:  biloosh    fiiq    kinbin       targ     shajoomii

     Cons: bilsho     fiiqi   kinbini      tarx     shajoomi

     Obl:  biloox     fiik    kinbiy       tarx     shajoomii

Adjectives are technically a type of noun in Dunnek. As such, they can be used independently as substantives and as predicates in equational sentences: honiis 'the happy one', fiiq honiis 'The man is happy'. When used attributively, they are placed in the construct case as the first term of a noun-noun compound: honiish fiiq 'The happy man'. They do not form plurals except when used as substantives: honiisaat 'the happy ones'.

Verbs are used in periphrastic formations with a preverb that conveys information about the person and number of subject and object and about tense and aspect. The verb proper follows the preverb. It is placed in different voices by internal vowelling changes and different modes by affixation. Some examples:

                batak  'read'
                biitak 'be read'
                baatik 'read again and again'
                shabatak 'begin to read'
                moobatak 'be able to read'

The preverb indicates subject and object by simulfixes around a central consonant. There is not a simple one-to-one correspondance between the affixes and the persons; the suffix -ii, for example, can refer to either 1st or 2nd person, depending on the prefix paired with it. The central consonant indicates the aspect of the verb, indicative, interrogative, etc., and the tense of the verb. There are only two tenses, imperfect and perfect. Perfect is indicated by geminating (doubling) the central consonant. Examples:

                jadii batak bitaak 'I read (imp) the book.'
                jaddii  "     "    'I read (prf) the book.'
                'idaa   "     "    'You read the book.'
                'ig!aa  "     "    'Are you reading the book?'

Syntax

The syntax of the sentence is relatively fixed and is preverb-subject-verb-object-the rest: thado fiiq batak bitaak baa najl 'The man reads the book in the house (lit.: he-does-it the- man read the-book in the-house)'. With equational or existential sentences, the verb can be omitted: 'ig!aa mamloth 'Are you a student? (lit.: you-do?-0 student)', dag!ii bitiiyik hankaa 'Are there books here? (lit: they-do?-0 the-books here)'. In the simple declarative equational sentence, even the preverb can be omitted: biloosh honiis 'The woman is happy (lit: the-woman the-happy-one)', jago mamloth 'I am a student (lit.: I the-student)', bitiiyik hankaa 'There are books here (lit.: books here)'.

Sentences of any complexity can be negated by prefacing the pattern with the word bi'aa: bi'aa jago mamloth 'I am not a student', bi'aa bitiiyik hankaa 'There are no books here.'

Questions can be asked using the interrogative form of the preverb, or an interrogative pronoun or adverb:

   'ig!aa mamloth  ' Are you a student?'
   bi'aa thag!o fiiq mamloth 'Isn't the man a student?'
   chiip tilka fiiq 'Who is that man?'
   'iddaa manaak 'Where were you?'

Independent sentences can be combined with the conjunction 'og!. This is usually rendered in the dictionary as 'and', but its range of meanings is actually much broader, and it serves as a general-purpose coordinating conjunction: jaddii batak og! thaddo gavidz 'I read and/while he spoke.'

Dependent sentences may be formed with the conjunction hag! 'that', which has the effect of making a verbal phrase the object of another verb. Sometimes the conjunction is paired with a preposition. This conjunction also sees use as the marker of discourse and reported speech:

   jadii kar hag! thado fiiq hadi' 'I want the man to go.'
   jaddii raj yik hag thaddo fiiq gavidz 'I went because the man spoke.'
   jaddii gavidz hag! jadii raj safaa 'I said I would go.'

Relative phrases are formed by a two-part construction. The topic of the relative is marked with the adjective 'alii, and the phrase relating to the topic is placed at the end of the sentence preceded by the conjunction liidza. The relative phrase must include a noun or pronoun relating to the topic word and explicating its relationship to the other words in the clause: thado 'ali fiiq raj dzii najw liidza thado kanish jaka xaa' 'The man who knows my father is coming to the house (Lit.: he-does-0 which-man comes to house that he-does-him know my father).'

Sentence order may be modified for emphasis by a process known as clefting. The word to be emphasized is placed at the head of the sentence in the nominative case, and its proper place in the sentence occupied by the independent pronoun corresponding to it, in the case proper to its role in the sentence: fiiq thado xaa' kanish tha'i 'As for the man, Father knows him (lit: the-man he-do-him father know him)', 'aapro najl jadii raj baa tho'i 'As for the red house, I'm going to it. (lit: red the- house I-do-0 go to-it).' This is especially common in speech with relative clauses, where the listener might otherwise forget the word marked as topic before reaching the relative phrase at the end: 'ali fiiq jaddii gavidz tha'i liidza thado kanish xaa' 'As for the man who knows Father, I see him (lit: which-man I-do-him see him who he-does-him know father)'.

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