Basics of Draconi
Sounds: Draconic, the language of the dracons, is a bastardized form of Cyraxian with additives of Common and Ancient Aelyrian: common words from the tongue spoken in their environment freely percolate into Draconic, though these additives should not be counted as different dialects - at least not for another few hundred patterns.
In terms of sound Draconic is not afraid of stringing together series' of consonants and vowels which may seem impossible to pronounce for a human tongue. Yet as a general remark, it is clear for one that vowels cannot stand beside other vowels as occurs in other languages: dyphthongs such as 'ae' or 'ei' or 'ou' do not exist in Draconic. Rather, sounds - vowels or consonants - can be strung together in terms of
duration of sound. Thus 'ii' is pronounced the same as 'i', but for twice as long as a single 'i' would be pronounced. A corolary to this is that, as oppose to such languages as Common, the pronunciation of vowels does not change. Thus the difference between 'o' and 'oo' is not one of quality, but of quantity: they sound the same, just for different periods of time.
S's can also appear double, and this too is governed by the duration of the sound rather than its pronunciation. Single s's sound almost like z's; double s's are the written form of a hiss, and triple s's are a drawn-out hiss. No other consonants can appear thus multiplied.
Draconic can be classified as a loosely inflected language: all words are identified by their endings, then by their placement in the sentence. This means that when trying to read a sentence in Draconic, one must first look at the ending of the word to see what is the basic function the word, and secondly look at the placement of the word in the sentence to narrow down that
basic function into its
particular function within the specific sentence.
Nouns
Nouns: These are your basic garden-variety words for things, objects, and names. In Draconic nouns come in three forms:
nominative,
dative, and
accusative.
The
nominative is the simple form of a noun and is used for the subject in sentences.
For example: A
dracon is not a human. The
human and the
dracon disagreed.
He was eaten.
The
dative is used for indirect objects and objects of prepositions.
For example: The human gave a toothache to the
dracon. The dracon complained to
his mother. The dracon ran away from
home and sailed down the
river.
The
accusative is used for the direct object in sentences.
For example: The dracon saw a
tree.. The tree swore an
oath to the dracon. The dracon burnt the
tree and ate the
leaves.
Nouns can also be
singular or
plural.
Singular means that there is only one person or object.
Plural means that there is more than one person or object.
Draconic nouns can be either
gendered (first declension) or
ungendered (second declension).
Gendered nouns include just that: males and females of different species, titles, gendered positions, etc.
Ungendered nouns encompass all other nouns - and this group is, consequently, much larger than the first.
Gendered (First) Declension
Endings:
nominative sg.: --
dative sg.: -i
accusative sg.: --
nominative pl.: -(e)st*
dative pl.: -(e)sti
accusative pl.: -(e)st
Example: les = human
nominative sg.: les
dative sg.: lesi
accusative sg.: les
nominative pl.: lesst
dative pl.: lessti
accusative pl.: lesst
* Note: the 'e' is used between all consonants except sibilants (s, soft c) and the ending. Thus, since the word 'les' ends with an s, it does not place the 'e' between les-st
Ungendered (Second) Declension
Endings:
nominative sg.: --
dative sg.: -a
accusative sg.: -(s)*
nominative pl.: -(e)sta
dative pl.: -(e)staa
accusative pl.: -(e)stas
Example: ka = mind
nominative sg.: ka
dative sg.: kaa
accusative singular: kas
nominative pl.: kasta
dative pl.: kastaa
accusative pl.: kastas
* Note: this 's' ending can be omitted in cases where the word can be clearly perceived as accusative though sentence word-order. It must be used in places where the case would be doubtful; otherwise, there is a 50-50 chance of it being ommitted.
Basics
Linear Mode
