Grammar of the D'ni Language
The grammar of the D'ni language is incomplete, but enough exists to actually speak and write what words are known in a correct fashion.
This document only serves to place what cannot be directly translated into English in a organized manner as well as give a fairly good reference on the grammar of D'ni. Note, though, this isn't a lesson on how to write in D'ni, even though you can use this document that way. Note also, that I probably have some things wrong.
Word Order and Punctuation
Verb Tenses and Persons
Pronouns, Objective Case
Possessive Forms
Articles and Plural Nouns
Prepositions
Changing Parts of Speech
Indicating To What Extent
Properties of Prepositions, Articles, and Conjunctions
Basically, all words are generally written in lower-case since there seem to be no upper case D'ni characters. Adjectives come after the nouns they modify (i.e. bishtah pahrah, great tunnel). In some special words, though, the adjective comes before the noun, i.e. gahro-hevtee, mighty words. Compound nouns have appeared too: telooknahvah, Surveyors' Guildmaster. End punctuation comes at the beginnings of sentences, rather than at the end. The period is a . character.
Verb tenses are indicated by a prefix on the root of the verb -- the infinitive is not the base, as it is in most languages, rather, it is indicated by the first person conjugation. Conjugations are represented by suffixes. The following suffixes are the verb persons:
< None > -- First person singular (I)
em - em -- Second person singular (you)
en - en -- Third person singular (he/she/it)
et - et -- First person plural (we)
tE - tee -- Second person plural (you/"you all")
Et - eet -- Third person plural (they)
If you wish to use the infinitive, it is created by prefixing b' onto the verb root.
Example: b'rEs; b'rees, to eat
rees - I eat
reesem - You eat
reesen - He/She/It eats
reeset - We eat
reestee - You all eat
reeseet - They eat
To make a verb a command, place the suffix ah (a) onto the very end of the root. For example, reesemah.
Unfortunately, there are no known subjective case pronouns, so there is some difficulty in discerning what is being talked about in the third person. Hopefully, RAWA will eventually clue us in as to what they are. (If they even exist...)
Now, for the tense prefixes:
Ko - ko -- past tense
Kol - kol -- past perfect tense
KoDo - kodo -- past progressive tense
le - le -- perfect (completed) tense
Do - do -- progressive tense
bo - bo -- future tense
boKo - boko -- future perfect tense
boDol - bodol -- future perfect progressive tense
boDo - bodo -- future progressive tense
Note how the more complex tenses are built out of the smaller component tenses.
For an example, let us go back to b'rees, to eat:
korees - I ate
kolrees - I had eaten
kodohrees - I was eating
lerees - I have eaten
dorees - I am eating
borees - I will eat
bokorees - I will have eaten
bodolrees - I will have been eating
bodorees - I will be eating
These are the objective case pronouns. There are only four confirmed pronouns, however, zoo, shehm, shemtee, and seht. The rest is speculation.
zU - zoo -- me
Sem - shem -- you
Sen - shen -- him/her/it
set - set -- us
SemtE - shemtee -- you (plural form)
Est - eest -- them
An additional note: The word ah is, on occasion, prefixed onto or placed ahead of the direct object of the verb. This word apparently does not translate. It seems to merely indicate that the direct object is acted upon by the verb.
Forming the possessive of a noun is as simple as tacking a suffix onto the end of the particular noun. All of these suffixes have been confirmed except for the second person plural, which must be similar, or, merely the same as the second person singular.
O - oy -- my/mine
om - om -- your/yours
on - on -- his/hers/its
ot - ot -- our/ours
(?) - (?) -- your/yours (Plural)
os - os -- their/theirs
The three articles, a, an, and the, are represented in the D'ni language by two words that also serve as prefixes:
re - re -- the
erT - erth -- a/an
The plural of a noun is formed by placing the suffix -tee (tE) at the end of the noun; for example, hev is a single word, while hevtee is multiple words. Note that the objective case pronoun shemtee is simply the plural of shem.
The prepositions are usually used as prefixes placed on the object of the preposition. They come in three forms: unattached, contracted and attached, and attached. An example follows this listing, which shows the full, uncontracted form of each preposition.
be - be -- to
fe - fe -- upon
ke - khe -- for
me - me -- out of, of
ne - ne -- around
te - te -- by/an/at/with
Now, for an example, let us use the word kor, book. Now, "upon the book" can be written four ways:
fe rekor
f'rekor
ferekor
frekor
I used to say that it didn't matter which way you wrote it in this particular case. As a matter of fact, this is a really bad example. However, I now think that (from some speculation on the Riven Lyst) that it really does.
The third representation would be incorrect. Why? Because, when written as "fe", it is no longer a prefix, it's a standalone word.
The first representation may be correct, but it hasn't been seen in actual use. It'd most likely be the "formal" usage.
The second and fourth representations -- these are more widely used. However, the fourth representation is what's seen most often. One could safely say that this is the "correct" way to write the phrase.
Also, the preposition is often not prefixed when the word does not have an article prefixed onto it.
The word of actually has three representations. The aforementioned te indicates cause and effect or position. Okh (ok) is a word that indicates possession. It can also be used as a suffix, but only when there isn't a modifier between the possessor and okh. Finally, there is tso (xo). This form of of indicates a property or characteristic of an object.
Changing a word from one part of speech to another requires the placement of a suffix on the word root.
For Verbs:
tav - tahv -- changes it to a noun
tan - tahn -- changes it to a personal noun
al - ahl -- creates the present participle, creating an adjective form
ij - ij -- creates the past participle, creating an adjective
For Nouns:
ex - ets -- changes it to an adjective
For Adjectives:
T - th -- changes it to a noun
S - sh -- changes it to an adverb
Note that when using -sh or -th that if the word that the suffix is to be applied to ends in a consonant, prefix an e onto the suffix.
Unlike in English, adverbs are not used to indicate "to what extent" that something is felt in D'ni. Rather, a "mathematical" expression is used instead. The formula is b' + a number. B' means to as indicated above. b'fa(b'fah) means "the least, " or, "to one." B'fahsee is the greatest extent, which means "to twenty-five."
These three types of words can do some pretty interesting things in relation to contracting, prefixing, etc. Here's a short discussion.
Prepositions
When placed in front of re (The), the contracted
prepositions (b', f', etc.) are usually attached to the
word. Therefore, "to the" becomes bre. Note
that there is no apostrophe between the prefix and re. Also,
tso is usually used on its own as a word, but in
specific cases it can be prefixed onto its object. Example: stofah
(Yes, I know that it is spelled wrong, but this is the only
example I have found where this appears).
Articles
Re can be used in different ways, as well. On the Cyan
site, you may have seen a word r'erem -- The Skill.
This shows that re can be contracted as well -- if it
is truly necessary to do so; it seems to be done if the word starts with e.
Plus, I have only seen it used that way a couple of times. Erth (A/An) can be separated from the
noun with an apostrophe or it can be left out.
Conjunctions
Gah is a very interesting word. It means "and, "
but in some D'ni writings it is used as a comma, prefixed onto
the word following it. Take the end of the text on the map that
describes the "Small and winged creature, " for
instance:
.rehevo kroen gahreesen gahederen....
The swarm moves [and] eats [and] sleeps...
Normally, in English, that sentence would be written "The swarm moves, eats, and sleeps...." Therefore, it can be said that there is no D'ni symbol for the comma, and gah replaces it.
It doesn't matter if gah is acting as a comma; it can be prefixed onto the word following it regardless. Also, it has been seen as a contracted prefix at times when it is in front of re -- gah re becomes gre.
Well, that's it for known D'ni grammar. Head on over to the dictionaries and check out some words that you can use in writing or speaking (if you really want to, that is).
General Grammar
Common Phrases
D'ni Number System
The D'ni Alphabet
Special Words
Guide to H-Removal
Back to the main dictionary page.
Alphabetic listing of words