The Language of Vhaklush
The Language of Vhaklush
….. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog …..
Translation: thujhu dhabhu chudhinh phunhilh chithajh bhuwhu bhinh
Pronunciation: /thujˈhu dhabˈhu chudˈhinh phunˈhilh chitˈhajh bhuwˈhu bhinh/
Consonant inventory: bh ch dh fh gh hh jh kh lh mh nh ph rh sh th vh wh xh zh
Vowel inventory: a i u
Front Back
High i u
Low a
Syllable structure refers to how many consonants are permitted to appear on either side of the
vowel. A syllable structure of (C)V means the syllable must have one vowel and an optional
consonant at the beginning. It permits patterns such as tito, raleo, ala. Languages with this
kind of simple structure include Swahili and Fijian. A syllable structure such as (C)(C)
(C)V(C)(C) would allow more complex words such as strips, trainers. Most European
languages have more complex structures.
Stress pattern refers to which syllable in a word gets emphasis. English does not have a fixed
stress pattern; the stress can fall on any syllable: VIGorous (first), emPLOYment (second to
last), hoTEL (last). Most of the world’s major languages have no fixed pattern, however
some do. Finnish words have stress on the first syllable. Greek is second to last syllable.
Persian has it on the last syllable.
IPA uses the ˈ symbol before the syllable to represent primary stress. The word siho /si
ˈho/ would be pronounced siHO.
Grammar
Main word order: Subject (Prepositional phrase) Object Verb. “Mary opened the door with
a key” turns into Mary with a key the door opened.
Adjective order: Adjectives are positioned before the noun.
Adposition: postpositions
Adpositions are words that express spatial or temporal relations (in, on, under, towards,
before) or mark various semantic roles (of, for). When adpositions come before the noun
phrase they are called prepositions, i.e. in English: on the table. If they come after the noun
phrase they are called postpositions. Languages that use postpositions include Chinese and
Turkish.
Nouns
No affix
Nominativ bhuwhu /bhuwˈhu/
e
dog (doing the verb)
dogʼs
Suffix -i
bhuwhui /bhuwhuˈi/
Dative
to dog
Definite Indefinite
Noaffix Suffix-inh
bhuwhu /bhuwˈhu/ bhuwhuinh /bhuwhuˈinh/
Singular
some dogs
the dogs
Articles
Vhaklhush encodes definite article ‘the’, and indefinite article ‘a’ in noun affixes. See Noun
section.
Possessive determiners
Possessive
dhi /dhi/
1st singular
my
bhurh /bhurh/
2nd singular
your
ghu /ghu/
3rd singular masc
his
whi /whi/
3rd singular fem
her
u /u/
1st plural
our
chirh /chirh/
2nd plural
your (pl)
Pronouns
Verbs
Future
Suffix-u
uphau /uphaˈu/
1st person
Suffix-ulh
uphaulh /uphaˈulh/
2nd person
Suffix-ujh
uphaujh /uphaˈujh/
3rd person
learned
Numbers
1 - gharh
2-a
3 - tharh
4 - thu
5 - ilh
6 - dhurh
7 - chunh
8 - chiwh
9 - chanh
10 - chuchu
100 - chimhilh
1000 - thilh
Derivational morphology
adj. adjective | adv. adverb | art. article | conj. conjunction | det. determiner | interj. interjectio
n | n. noun | num. numeral | prep. preposition | pron. pronoun | v. verb
dhajha /dhajˈha/ n. bowl, cup, mug dhalh /dhalh/ adj. new, fresh