Language scratchpad/Altlangs/Donsilan languages


 * For details on the Donsilan languages not derived from real-life languages, see ../../Donsilan languages.

This subarticle lists the Donsilan languages derived, directly or indirectly, from real-life languages.

Unnamed language
As-yet unnamed, this language is derived from the Indo-European languages.

Disclaimer: This is not a proper reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European (PIE), but rather a conlang derived from PIE.

Phonology
Under some circumstances, the laryngeals h2 and h3 are preserved. The former is retained as /x/ (&lt;h&gt;), while the latter merges with /g/ word-finally and before a consonant, and becomes /v/ word-initially and next to h1.

Outcome of Proto-Indo-European consonants:

Vowels and diphthongs
The language has a simple five-vowel system (/a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/), and each vowel may either be short or long. All non-high vowels (/a/, /e/, /o/) form diphthongs with both /j/ and /w/ (giving /ai̯/, /ei̯/, /oi̯/, /au̯/, /eu̯/, /ou̯/) and occur in short and long variants. In addition, there are two diphthongs /iu̯/ and /ui̯/, which only have short variants.

Consonants
The language has the following consonants:


 * The phoneme /r/ may either be realised as a trill ([r]) or a simple tap ([ɾ]).
 * [ŋ] is an allophone of /m/ and /n/ before velar consonants.
 * [ɣ] is an intervocalic allophone of /g/.
 * [d͡z] occurs in free variation with [z], with both representing /z/.
 * [d͡ʑ] occurs in free variation with [ʑ], with both representing /ʑ/.

Writing system
The writing system used is an abugida that preserves the consonantal root nature of the language. Consonants have separate symbols (transliterated as uppercase letters), while the vowels /a/, /e/ and /o/ are denoted using diacritics (transliterated as &lt;a&gt;, &lt;e&gt; and &lt;o&gt;). "Hiatus" has its own symbol, transliterated as &lt;'&gt;. Long vowels can be denoted by adding the corresponding consonant letter (&lt;H&gt; for /a/, &lt;E&gt; for /e/, &lt;V&gt; for /o/, &lt;I&gt; for /i/, &lt;U&gt; for /u/), but /aː/, /eː/ and /oː/ also have their own dedicated diacritics. Note that the phonetic transcription used in this article does not accurately represent the writing system (e.g. &lt;S&gt; normally represents /s/, but before a vowel, it represents /x/ after &lt;R&gt;, &lt;U&gt; and &lt;I&gt;, and /ɕ/ after &lt;K&gt;, &lt;Q&gt;, &lt;Þ&gt;, &lt;Ð&gt;, &lt;G&gt;, &lt;C&gt;, &lt;Ž&gt;, &lt;X&gt; and &lt;W&gt;).

The writing system has 25 letters in common use, listed in the correspondence table above. They, as well as additional archaic letters, are arranged below:

The 48 letters listed above come from another Donsilan language; this language only uses 25 of those letters (although very old texts may use the additional sibilants, the dento-labial stops and the uvular stops). The sibilants, despite being pronounced in a coronal position, are classed as dorsal consonants for historical reasons.

Transliteration examples
Note that these are straight transliterations; they are not modified to fit the language's grammar, and are only here to demonstrate the structure of the writing system.

The following is a straight transliteration of Schleicher's fable:

HoUIS EeÞUo'eS-Qe


 * HeUeI EIoSMeI HULENeH Ne EeST, So EeÞUoMS DeRÞT. So CREUM UoŽoM UeŽeD; So MeÐHM FoRoM; So ZŽeMoNM HōÞU FeReD. HoUIS EeÞUoIFIoS UeUKeD: "ZŽeMoNM SPeÞIoH EeÞUoMS-Qe HeÐeTI, ÞēR MoI HaXNUToR". EeÞUo'eS TU UeUKoND: "ÞLUZI, HoUeI! ToD SPeÞIoMeS, NSMeI HaXNUToR ÞēR: ZŽeMō, PoTIS, Sē HeUIeS HULENeH WeRMoM UeSTRoM UePT, HeUIFIoS TU HULENeH Ne EeSTI". ToD ÞeÞLUUōS HoUIS HeÐRoM FUGeD.

Without vowels:

HUIS EÞU'S-Q


 * HUI EISMI HULENH N EST, S EÞUMS DRÞT. S CREUM UŽM UŽD; S MÐHM FRM; S ZŽMNM HVÞU FRD. HUIS EÞUIFIS UUKD: "ZŽMNM SPÞIH EÞUMS-Q HÐTI, ÞER MI HXNUTR". EÞU'S TU UUKND: "ÞLUZI, HUI! TD SPÞIMS, NSMI HXNUTR ÞER: ZŽMV, PTIS, SE HUIS HULENH WRMM USTRM UPT, HUIFIS TU HULENH N ESTI". TD ÞÞLUUVS HUIS HÐRM FUGD.

Transcribed:

Owis Eþwois-ke


 * Awei ejosmei hulenah ne est, so eþwons derþt. So gurum woðom weðed; so meðam forom; so čemonum ōþu fered. Owis eþwoivjos weuked: "Čemonum spečoh eþwons-ke aðedi, þēr moi agnutor". Eþwois tu weukond: "Þluði, owei! Tod spečomes, unsmei agnutor þēr: čemō, potis, sē aujes hulenah bermom westrom wept, awivjos tu hulenah ne esti". Tod þeþlowōs owis aðrom fuged.

The following is a straight transliteration of The king and the god:

VRēÐS DeIUoS-Qe


 * VRēÐS EeST; So NPUTLoS. VRēÐS SUVNUM ULNETo. ToSIo ŽeUToRM PRēÞST: "SUVNUS MoI ÐNEIeTōD!" ŽeUTōR ToM VRēÐM UeUKeD: "EIaÐeSUo DeIUoM UeRUNoM". UPo VRēÐS DeIUoM UeRUNoM SeSoLe NU DeIUoM EIaÐeTo. "ÞLUZI MoI, PHTeR UeRUNe!" DeIUoS UeRUNoS DIUeS KMTa CeHT. "QID UēLESI?" "SUVNUM UēLEMI." "ToD EeSTU", UeUKeD LeUKoS DeIUoS UeRUNoS. NU VReÐS PoTNIH SUVNUM ÐeÐoNEe.

Without vowels:

VREÐS DIUS-Q


 * VREÐS EST; S NPUTLS. VREÐS SUVNUM ULNET. TSI ŽUTRM PREÞST: "SUVNUS MI ÐNEITVD!" ŽUTVR TM VREÐM UUKD: "EIÐSU DIUM URUNM". UP VREÐS DIUM URUNM SSL NU DIUM EIÐT. "ÞLUZI MI, PHTR URUN!" DIUS URUNS DIUS KMT CHT. "QID UELESI?" "SUVNUM UELEMI." "TD ESTU", UUKD LUKS DIUS URUNS. NU VRÐS PTNIH SUVNUM ÐÐNE.

Transcribed:

Orēks deiwos-ke


 * Orēks est; so umputlos. Orēks sūnum ulneto. Tošo þeutorum prēkšt: "Sūnus moi ðnejetōd!" Þeutōr tom orēðum weuked: "Ejaðeswo deiwom Werunom". Upo orēks deiwom Werunom sesole nu deiwom ejaðeto. "Þluði moi, pater Werune!" Deiwos Werunos diwes kunta gāt. "Kid wēlesi?" "Sūnum wēlemi." "Tod estu", weuked leukos deiwos Werunos. Nu oreks potnih sūnum ðeðone.

Nouns
In general, nouns decline for nine cases and three numbers.

The declension of thematic stems (o-stems and ā-stems) are fairly simple, but athematic stems have considerably more complex declension, often involving ablaut. In general, athematic stems have four principal parts:
 * Nominative singular
 * Genitive singular
 * Locative singular
 * Nominative plural

The nominative plural represents the ablaut grade of the strong cases (nominative, vocative, accusative), while the genitive singular represents the ablaut grade of the weak cases (genitive, ablative, dative, locative, instrumental, allative). The locative singular typically takes the ablaut of the weak cases, but some nouns have it take the ablaut grade of the strong cases, or a unique ablaut grade. The ablaut grade of the nominative singular is typically identical to that of its corresponding plural; however, some nouns show a lengthened grade in the singular, representing Szemerényi's law or analogical changes. Note that for neuter nouns, the vocative and accusative are always identical to their corresponding nominative forms.

The declensional classes are as follows: The endings listed above do not apply to all nouns within a class (although the thematic stems are fully regular). The h-derivative declensions (ā-stem and h-stem, as well as h-derivative versions of the i-stem and u-stem classes) do not have a nominative singular ending, with the effect that most end in -h or -a (the typical realisations of word-final &lt;H&gt;), instead of -s.
 * o-stem (thematic, end in -os (common) or -om (neuter) in nom. sg.)
 * ā-stem (thematic, end in -ah (common) in nom. sg.)
 * i-stem (athematic, end in -is (common) or -i (neuter) in nom. sg.)
 * u-stem (athematic, end in -us (common) or -u (neuter) in nom. sg.)
 * n-stem (athematic, end in -ō (common) or -n (neuter) in nom. sg.)
 * r-stem (athematic, end in -r (common) in nom. sg.)
 * s-stem (athematic, end in -s in nom. sg.)
 * h-stem (athematic, end in -a (common) in nom. sg.)
 * heteroclitic stem (athematic, end in -r/-l in nom. sg.)
 * consonant stem (athematic, end in -s (common) or - (neuter) in nom. sg.)

The following table lists the possible ablaut paradigms:
 * 1 The /o/ is epenthetic. It may be replaced with /e/, or omitted entirely.
 * 2 For i-stems and u-stems, the /e/ in the suffix is dropped in the weak cases if the ending begins with (but not consists entirely of) a consonant or consists of a single laryngeal. For other athematic classes, it is the /e/ in the ending (if it exists) that is dropped (this /e/ is also dropped in the dative singular).
 * 3 The /e/ in the ending is the result of Sievers' law, which dictates that /e/ is inserted before an &lt;I&gt; if it is itself preceded by a consonant cluster and followed by a vowel. This /e/ has been generalised to the u-stems, giving -ewes (-eUeS) instead of the expected *-wes (*-UeS), as well as the other i-stems.
 * 4 This form shows the effect of Szemerényi's law.

There is one ablaut paradigm not listed above that is represented by a handful of words. This ablaut paradigm is the hysterodynamic paradigm (or keššar-type, after the Hittite word), and is only found in a few nominals and a single nominal class:
 * þwegatar (ZUeGHTRS, "daughter", feminine)
 * þesar (ŽeSRS, "hand", feminine)
 * era (EeRH, "border", feminine)
 * meðas (MeÐHS, "large", masculine adjective)
 * h-derivative u-stems (typically feminine)

This class resembles the holokinetic inflection, except that there are two strong patterns: e-Ø-Ø for the nominative (and vocative), and Ø-e-Ø for the accusative (not including the dual). The accusative singular forms of the words listed above are:
 * þugaterum (ZUGHTeRM)
 * þserum (ŽSeRM)
 * erām (EReHM)
 * unðām (MÐeHM)

General endings
Note that the locative dual retains /s/ after /u/; this is because it is derived from the genitive dual, which does retain /s/ as it is in a word-final position.

The neuter endings for the nominative, vocative and accusative are as follows:

Collectives (which take neuter singular agreement) have a special ending -a (-H) in the nominative, vocative and accusative, but otherwise take normal endings. They do not have dual and plural forms, as they are a class of mass nouns.

o-stems
Neuter declension:

i-stems
Neuter declension:

H-derivative declension:

u-stems
Neuter declension:

H-derivative declension:

n-stems
Amphikinetic declension:

Amphikinetic neuter declension:

Hysterokinetic declension:

Proterokinetic neuter declension:

Adjectives
In general, there are two declensional classes of adjectives: thematic and athematic. The thematic declension is the only productive declension, with athematic adjectives being few in number outside of participles.

Thematic
This declension originates from the pronominal declension, and has completely displaced the original thematic declension.

Cardinal numbers

 * 1: oinos; EoINoS; sēm; SeMS
 * 2: dwō; DUoE
 * 3: treis; TReIeS
 * 4: ketwores; QeTUoReS
 * 5: penke; PeNQe
 * 6: weks (wekš-V-); ''UeÞS
 * 7: septum; SePTM
 * 8: ostōu; ''VoÞToEU
 * 9: eneun; ENeUN
 * 10: deþum DeÞMT
 * 11: sundeþum SMDeÞMT
 * 12: dwideþum DUIDeÞMT
 * 13: trideþum TRIDeÞMT
 * 14: keturdeþum KeTURDeÞMT
 * 15: penkedeþum PeNQeDeÞMT
 * 16: weksdeþum UeÞSDeÞMT
 * 17: septundeþum SePTMDeÞMT
 * 18: ostodeþum VoÞToDeÞMT
 * 19: eneundeþum ENeUNDeÞMT
 * 20: ewīþuntī; DUIDÞMTIE
 * 30: trīþonta; TRIDÞoMTH
 * 40: ketureþonta; QeTURDÞoMTH
 * 50: penkēþonta; PeNQeDÞoMTH
 * 60: wekšeþonta; UeÞSDÞoMTH
 * 70: septumeþonta; SePTMDÞoMTH
 * 80: ostōþonta; VoÞToDÞoMTH
 * 90: eneuneþonta; ENeUNDÞoMTH
 * 100: (sun)þuntom; (SM)ÞMToM
 * 200: dwiþuntoi; DUIÞMToIE
 * 300: triþuntah; TRIÞMTeH
 * 400: keturþuntah; QeTURÞMTeH
 * 500: penkeþuntah; PeNQeÞMTeH
 * 600: weksþuntah; UeÞSÞMTeH
 * 700: septunþuntah; SePTMÞMTeH
 * 800: ostoþuntah; VoÞToÞMTeH
 * 900: eneunþuntah; ENeUNÞMTeH
 * 1000: sunðeslom; SMŽeSLoM
 * 2000: dwiðesloi; DUIŽeSLoIE
 * 3000: triðeslah; TRIŽeSLeH
 * 4000: keturðeslah; QeTURŽeSLeH
 * 5000: penkeðeslah; PeNQeŽeSLeH
 * 6000: weksðeslah; UeÞSŽeSLeH
 * 7000: septunðeslah; SePTMŽeSLeH
 * 8000: ostoðeslah; VoÞToŽeSLeH
 * 9000: eneunðeslah; ENeUNŽeSLeH
 * 10000: tūsþonti; TUHSÞoNTI

The numeral oinos declines as a thematic adjective:

The numeral sēm declines as follows:

The numeral dwō only has dual forms, and declines as follows:

The numerals treis and ketwores have special feminine forms. Their declensions are listed below:

The numeral treis inflects as an amphikinetic i-stem with stem TR-I, with the slight anomaly that the genitive is trijōm instead of the expected *trejōm; this is a consequence of the syllable being word-initial. The numeral ketwores inflects as a holokinetic consonant stem with stem Q-TU-R.

(A side note: I believe that the accent of the nominative, vocative and accusative feminine forms of *tréyes is unreconstructible because no attested language preserved the original feminine stem. While both Celtic and Indo-Iranian suggest a stem *tisr-, this may have been simplified from an older holokinetic paradigm whose nominative and accusative forms began with **teysor-, as opposed to the oblique *tisr-. Regardless, this is just my rambling, so don't pay any attention to it.)

The numerals from 5 (penke) to 19 (eneundeþum) do not decline for gender, nor do they have separate accusative forms. The declensions for the numerals from 5 to 10 (deþum) are listed below:

The numerals from 11 (sundeþum) to 19 decline identically to deþum. These numerals also have a special collective form -deþunt (spelt identically), which has the following declension:

The numerals from 20 (ewīþuntī) onwards are (neuter) nouns, not determiners, and require the noun to be quantified to be in the genitive plural. As such, they decline as if they were nouns themselves. The decades have the following declension:

Note the ablaut between the dual and the plural forms.

The numeral þuntom declines as a neuter o-stem:

The numeral -ðeslom declines identically to eþuntom.

The numeral tūsþonti declines as a neuter i-stem:

Ordinal numbers

 * 1st: promos; PRVMoS
 * 2nd: dwiteros; DUITeRoS
 * 3rd: tritos; TRIToS
 * 4th: keturtos; QeTURToS
 * 5th: penktos; PeNQToS
 * 6th: wekstos; UeÞSToS
 * 7th: septmos; SePTMoS
 * 8th: ostōwos; VoÞToEUoS
 * 9th: eneunos; ENeUNoS
 * 10th: deþmos; DeÞMoS
 * 20th: ewīþuntmos; DUIDÞMTMoS
 * 30th: trīþontmos; TRIDÞoMTMoS
 * 100th: (sum)eþuntomos; (SM)DÞMToMoS
 * 1000th: sunðeslomos; SMŽeSLoMoS
 * 10000th: tūseþontimos; TUHSDÞoNTIMoS

Adverbial numbers

 * 1: summēle; SMMeELe
 * 2: dwis; DUIS
 * 3: tris; TRIS
 * 4: keturis; QeTURIS
 * 5: penkeis; PeNQeIS
 * 6: wekšis; UeÞSIS
 * 7: septmis; SePTMIS
 * 8: ostōwis; VoÞToEUIS
 * 9: eneunis; ENeUNIS
 * 10: deþmis; DeÞMIS
 * 20: ewīþuntis; DUIDÞMTIS
 * 30: trīþontis; TRIDÞoMTIS
 * 100: (sum)eþuntois; (SM)DÞMToIS
 * 1000: sunðeslois; SMŽeSLoIS
 * 10000: tūseþontīs; TUHSDÞoNTIIS

Demonstratives
Anaphoric demonstrative:

The other demonstratives are:
 * Proximal: þos (ÞoS), þah (ÞeH), þod (ÞoD)
 * Medial: so (So), sah (SeH), tod (ToD)
 * Distal: enos (HeNoS), enah (HeNeH), enod (HeNoD)

The proximal and distal demonstratives decline identically to thematic adjectives. The medial demonstrative has special nominative/vocative forms for the masculine and feminine singular, but otherwise declines as a thematic adjective with stem t-.

Verbs
Verbs are easily the most complex part of speech in the language. In general, there are five sets of endings, which may either come in primary, secondary or imperative forms.

The following lists the active thematic set:

The following lists the active athematic set:

There are forms that can represent either dual or plural subjects. They are distinguished by their -n- infix (although in the second person, this becomes -r in the secondary), and are primarily used where it is not known whether two individuals or more are performing the action. These forms only exist in the active and the mediopassive imperative (which is derived from the active), the other mediopassive endings and the perfect endings lack forms that can represent either dual or plural subjects; these use the plural forms in this role.

The following lists the mediopassive thematic set:

The following lists the mediopassive athematic set: The primary mediopassive endings typically end in -r (-R), but other endings may be used: In the past, these agreed with the benefactive (i.e. the one whom the action benefits), but over the millennia, -r (and to a lesser extent, -ð), both originally second person singular and plural respectively, became general politeness markers, and later became a nearly inseparable part of the ending. The first person plural has special forms when combined with -ð: The endings beginning with -H- change the adjacent /o/ to /a/ (thus forming a long /aː/ with the -am and -ar endings, and a final -ah with the -h ending; in all three cases the vowel is written &lt;e&gt;). For the first person plural, this actually affects the /o/ directly following the clusivity marker, and changes the vowel to /e/, resulting in the following: While -i normally forms a diphthong, in the first person plural it replaces the final -u, forming -woði and -moði.
 * -m (-M)
 * -am (-HM)
 * -ar (-HR)
 * -h (-H)
 * -ð (-Z)
 * -i (-I)
 * Inclusive: -wossa (-UoSZH)
 * Exclusive: -mossa (-MoSZH)
 * Inclusive: -weðuh (-UeZHUH)
 * Exclusive: -meðuh (-UeZHUH)

The use of the ending -m and -am (historically representing the first person singular/plural and dual, respectively) is nowadays considered rude, while -i and -h (third person plural and dual, respectively) are limited to informal, non-polite speech. The ending -ar never evolved into a politeness marker, due to the highly marked nature of the dual, especially when combined with the second person, and is now archaic. The lack of an ending (historically representing the third person singular) is limited to the secondary endings.

The following lists the perfect set:

Where the written forms have an "optional" &lt;e&gt;, it means that if the verb follows an amphikinetic paradigm, then the ending contains an /e/, otherwise it is omitted. (in the third person plural -st- froms, /e/ is added anyway if the stem ends in /s/, as geminates are forbidden in consonant clusters).

There are three aspect forms for each verb, which may or may not be related to each other (e.g. the copula has the forms es- [E-S], fū-/fuh- [F-UH] and awes- [HU-S] for its three aspect forms). The first form is the imperfective form, the second the perfective (aorist) form, and the third the stative (perfect) form. Each aspect form conjugates differently, and the stative form is unique in that it uses the perfect set in the indicative.

The following lists the conjugation tables for the copula:

Not listed are non-present forms (the past is formed with -few-/-fu-, while the future uses -fūje-).

The following lists the conjugation of linekti ("to leave behind"; stems LIN-Q, L-IQ, L-L-IQ): Note that the conversion of &lt;Q&gt; to &lt;K&gt; is an incidence of the boukólos rule, which in this case only affects orthography. Only with word-initial &lt;W&gt; does it actually cause a change in pronunciation (from /b/ to /h/, the realisation of word-initial &lt;X&gt;).

The following lists the conjugation of fereti ("to bear"; stems F-R, F-R-S, F-F-R):

This is an example of a regular thematic verb, with a sigmatic aorist (the only productive way of forming perfectives from imperfectives). The sigmatic aorist has an ē/e ablaut, which applies to the stem for athematic imperfectives and the thematic vowel for thematic imperfectives.

Many older verbs, both athematic and thematic, feature a reduplicated perfect (lelik- for L-IQ and fevr- for F-R, two of the verbs listed above). However, there is the suffixal stative -ējeti, which conjugates identically to a thematic active imperfective, despite its stative meaning, and is used where the verb stem cannot be reduplicated.

Syntax
A clause generally consists, at a minimum, of two components: a clause-introducing particle and a finite verb. The full structure of the clause is as follows:
 * Clause-initial particle (obligatory)
 * Nominative pronominal clitic (optional)
 * Dative pronominal clitic (optional)
 * Accusative pronominal clitic (optional)
 * Auxillary sentence particle (optional)
 * Subject noun phrase (optional)
 * Indirect object noun phrase (optional)
 * Direct object noun phrase (optional)
 * Adverbs (optional)
 * Verb (obligatory)

The clause-initial particle is one of nu- (NU-), so- (So-), to- (To-), and e- (Ee-). These serve to mark the beginning of a sentence. The unmarked clause-initial particle is so-, with nu- being used to emphasise a present, ongoing occurrence, and e- being used to emphasise an occurrence in the past. The particle to- marks subordinate clauses.

The nominative pronominal clitic is only found in the third person; no first or second person nominative pronominal clitics are found. This clitic agrees with the subject in number and gender:
 * -os- (-oS-): masculine singular
 * -ah- (-eH-): feminine singular
 * -ot- (-oT-): neuter singular
 * -ō- (-oV-): masculine dual
 * -ag- (-eHV-): feminine dual
 * -oi- (-oIE-): neuter dual
 * -ois- (-o'eS-): masculine plural
 * -ās- (-eHeS-): feminine plural
 * -ah- (-eH-): neuter plural

The other pronominal clitics have forms for all three persons. The first and second person clitics are listed in the pronouns section above, while the third person clitics are the following:
 * -om- (-oM-): masculine singular accusative
 * -ām- (-eHM-): feminine singular accusative
 * -ot- (-oT-): neuter singular accusative
 * -ō- (-oE-): masculine dual accusative
 * -ah- (-eHE-): feminine dual accusative
 * -oi- (-oIE-): neuter dual accusative
 * -ons- (-oMS-): masculine plural accusative
 * -āns- (-eHMS-): feminine plural accusative
 * -ah- (-eH-): neuter plural accusative
 * -sei- (-SeI-): singular dative
 * -ivām- (-IFeHM-): dual dative
 * -ivos- (-IFoS-): plural dative

The three auxillary sentence particles are -kom (-KoM), -som (-SoM) and -pot (-PoT). The particle -þom indicates a completed action, while -som indicates an action done together ("they run together" as opposed to "they run [in different directions]"). The particle -pot is an emphatic particle.

Note that the existence of a noun phrase representing an argument of the verb precludes the appearance of its corresponding pronominal clitic.

If the clause is "minimal" (i.e. only the clause-initial particle and the verb are present), then conventionally they are pronounced and written as if they are only one word (e.g. Nwedmi, NUeDMI, "I am eating now").

The maximal clause consists not only of a clause-initial particle, a verb and an auxillary sentence particle, but also a full complement of either pronominal clitics, noun phrases or some combination of both. The following example exhibits a maximal clause with pronominal clitics:
 * Eāmojotkom čes doveut.
 * Ee'eHMoIoTKoM ZŽIeS DVFeUT.
 * /e.aː.mo.jot.kom ˈt͡ɕes ˈdo.veu̯t/
 * E-ah-moi-ot-kom čes do-few-t.
 * Ee-eH-MoI-oT-KoM ZŽIeS DV-FeU-T.
 * PST.EMP-3s.FEM.NOM-1s.DAT-3s.NEUT.ACC-COMPL yesterday give.PFV-PST-3s
 * She already gave it to me yesterday.

In some cases (such as with interrogatives), the verb, an adverb, or one of the verb's arguments may be fronted to the leftmost position, replacing the clause-initial particle. This fronted component may be followed by a linking particle -ke (-Qe, "and"), which is in turn followed by the usual clitics (the clitics cannot occur without a linking element):
 * ... begnowes-kesom angim.
 * ... WeWNoUeS-QeSoM HeNWIM.
 * /ˈbeg.no.we.ke.som ˈaŋ.gim/
 * ... be~gn-owes=ke-som ang-im.
 * ... We~WN-oUeS=Qe-SoM HeNW-IM.
 * ... PFV~kill-1p.INCL-and-together snake-SG.ACC
 * ... and we kill the snake together.

Other linking particles include -we (-Ue, "or"), -neke (-NeQe, "nor", effectively ne + -ke) and -de (-De, "but"). Prohibitives use the linking particle -mē (-MeE) in conjunction with a fronted verb in the subjunctive.

One prominent class of verb-fronted clauses are imperatives. Syntactically, imperatives require the verb to be at the front of the sentence, and typically do not have any linking particles, meaning that no pronominal clitics may occur.

Family
Note that many Proto-Indo-European words for relatives do not have reflexes in this language; this is due to the vast differences between the old Donsilan culture and those of the Neolithic peoples of Eurasia. One aspect is that in this language there are no words describing relations by marriage (the words for husband and wife given below have a meaning closer to "lord" or "master").

Swadesh list
The principal parts listed are:
 * For nouns:
 * Nominative singular
 * Genitive singular
 * Locative singular
 * Nominative plural
 * Nominative collective (if applicable)
 * Genitive collective (if applicable)
 * For adjectives:
 * Masculine nominative singular
 * Masculine genitive singular
 * Masculine locative singular
 * Masculine nominative plural
 * Feminine nominative singular
 * Feminine genitive singular
 * For verbs:
 * Third person singular present indicative imperfective (mediopassive if deponent, active otherwise)
 * Third person plural present indicative imperfective (mediopassive if deponent, active otherwise)
 * Third person singular present indicative perfective (mediopassive if deponent, active otherwise)
 * Third person plural present indicative perfective (mediopassive if deponent, active otherwise)
 * Third person singular present indicative stative
 * Third person plural present indicative stative