Rendej language

Rendej Tlakkur (/ʈæⁿdætʂ tɬɒkxʼu˞/), or simply Rendej is a language used by the residents of Bi·rrendi, where it is the sole official language.

Phonology

consonants

	labial/dental	alveolar	retroflex	palatal	velar
nasal	m̥ m	n		ɲ̊ ɲ
stop	p b mb	t d nd	ʈ	c ɟ
fricative	θ	s ɬ	ʂ		x
affricate	pɸ	tɬ	tʂ		kx
ejective stop	pʼ	tʼ	ʈʼ	cʼ
ejective affricate	pɸʼ	tɬʼ	tʂʼ		kxʼ

Nasals and fricatives can be geminated when a final consonant precedes an identical initial, or when preceded or succeeded by a geminating affix, when this happens to a stop or an affricate they become an ejective and may lose voicing. If a geminating affix neighbors a vowel a single, non geminated /x/ is added where gemination would occur.

vowels

	front	back
close	i(˞)	ɯ(˞) u(˞)
open	æ(˞)	ɒ(˞)

Rendej exhibits vowel harmony, meaning words in Rendej can only contain either only rounded (in bold) or unrounded vowels. All five of the vowels may be rhoticized.

Orthography

Natively Rendej uses a syllabary composed of 51 consonant-vowel pairs as well as a gemination sign, which is referred to as Rendej Haffur. The syllabary does not distinguish between final consonants and open syllables (final consonants use the vowel of the proceeding sign, for example dux is written as TU-XU), nor does it distinguish voiced, unvoiced and prenasalized consonants, it also merges rhotic and non-rhotic vowels, as well as u and û and e and a.

TEMPORARY chart, replace w asset asap

	-A	-I	-U		-A	-I	-U
M-				L-
N-				X-
Ny-				H-
P-				F-
T-				Tl-
R-				J-
C-				K-
Th-				∅-
S-				2*

Due to the vague and inaccurate nature of this orthography OoU media should use the following romanization scheme.

romanized	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h	i	j	k	l	m	n	p	r	s	t	u	û	x
IPA	ɒ	b	c	d	æ	pf	ɟ	x	i	tʂ	kx	ɬ	m	n	p	ʈ	s	t	ɯ, u	u	ʂ

Including these digraphs:

	ar	er	ir	mb	mh	nd	nh	ny	tl	th	ur	ûr
	ɒ˞	æ˞	i˞	mb	m̥	nd	ɲ̊	ɲ	tɬ	θ	ɯ˞	u˞

Additionally, the middle dot (·) is used to break apart digraphs, for example Birrendi would be pronounced /bi˞ʈæⁿdi/.

Grammar

Verbs

verbs in Rendej are conjugated based on person, number and tense. The infinitive forms of verbs always end in -l, and verbs can be formed by adding -el/-al to a noun or adjective.

conjugation of rounded and unrounded verbs

abal - to eat		present	habitual	past	future	gnomic	ijjul - to run		present	habitual	past	future	gnomic
1st person	singular	aba	aballar	abalmba	kûaba	abal	1st person	singular	ijju	ijjuller	ijjulmbe	kijju	ijjul
	plural	ababu·r	ababullar	abalbuppa	kûabab	abalbu·r		plural	ijjubi·r	ijjubiller	ijjulbippe	kijjub	ijjulbi·r
2nd person	singular	abat	abatar	abalmbat	kûabat	abalat	2nd person	singular	ijjut	ijjuter	ijjulmbet	kijjut	ijjulet
	plural	abatta	abattar	abalmbatta	kûabatta	abalatta		plural	ijjutte	ijjutter	ijjulmbette	kijjutte	ijjulette
3rd person	singular	abala	abalar	abalmba	kûabala	aballa	3rd person	singular	ijjule	ijjuler	ijjulmbe	kijjute	ijjulle
	plural	ababulla	ababullar	abalbuppa	kûabab	abalbulla		plural	ijjubille	ijjubiller	ijjulbippe	kijjub	ijjulbilla

Sentences in Rendej Tlakkur are typically VSO, but can be in any order. The verb "til" - "to be" does not conjugate based on person on number and it's tense conjugation is irregular.

til - to be		present	habitual	past	future	gnomic
1st/2nd/3rd person	singular/plural	ti	tlir	timb	kit	til

The prefix mheu-/mhau- is can be attached to the verb to form yes/no questions. It is typically attached to the start of the verb but is instead infixed between the ki-/kû syllable and the noun proper in the future tense.

Nouns

Nouns are declined based on case. The prefix bi2-/bû2- forms the plural forms of nouns, while the prefix ki2-/kû2- is used for uncountably large but distinct groups of objects, for example a particular group of people, the sand on one beach, or the water in one dish.

declination of some rendej nouns

		nominative	genitive	dative	ablative	allative	privative
rounded	closed	gam - tree	a-gam	accam	gamaj	gammuj	gamun
	open	haffur - writing	a-haffur	ahhaffur	hafaj	haffuj	haffurhun
unrounded	closed	gim - person	a-gim	uccim	gimej	gimmij	gimin
	open	rendi - field	a-rendi	u·rrendi	rendej	rettij	rendihin

Deverbal nouns

Several suffixes can be used to form nouns based on verbs, they replace the -l ending of the verb (geminating ones also remove the vowel preceding -l, unless the verb is monosyllabic, where it used the dummy h)

• -2Vr - forms instrumentative nouns (cook-stove)
• -lab/-leb - forms object nouns (cook - food)
• -rûm/-rim - forms occupational nouns (cook - cook)
• -ndû/ndi - forms location nouns (cook - kitchen)
• -2Vs - forms discipline nouns (cook - cooking)
• -2Vrrûm/-2Vrrim - forms mastery nouns (cook - chef)

These suffixes are also used to form questions, using the verb thel, for example theleb - what, the·rim - who or thendi - where. Other questions are formed by prefixing existing nouns with the theu-/thau- prefix, such as thaumarlab - when. Theu by itself simply means how.

Pronouns

	nom	gen	dat	abl	all	priv
1st person	la	ala	al	laj	laju	lun
2nd person	kis	ekis	ekki	kej	keji	kin
3rd person	fir	efir	effir	fej	ferji	firhin

Adjectives

Any nouns and verbs can be prefixed between the particles be- -u/ ba- -û, to create an adjective or adverb. All adjectives and adverbs end in -u/-û however not all words that end in -u/-û are adjectives. Comparative nouns are formed with nde-/nda instead, while superlatives are formed with ette-/atta-.

Numbers

	cardinal	ordinal
1	au	atlu
2	dar	datlu
3	ili	ilitlu
4	xa	xatlu
5	ût	ûtlu
6	in	intlu
7	ine	intle
8	in·de	intled
9	inli	intlul
10	inxe	intlex
11	inut	intlut
12	darun	darutle
13	darun na au	darutle na au
24	attarun	attarutle
36	ilidarun	ilidarutle
144	uma	umatle
145	uman au	umatle na au
156	uman darun	umatle na darun