Dushtoo

The Dushtoo language is is an Indo-European language which has existed for over three thousand years in one form or another. Originally spoken by the Daytar tribes of ancient Daytanistan, it was heavily influenced by the corrupted Greek dialect spoken by the Ashtoo tribes which settled Daytanistan in the second century AD, and subsequently by Farsi and Arabic, brought to Daytanistan a thousand years later by the Zirkshe tribes.

Alphabet

Dushtoo has no native alphabet, although since the Straw Hat Revolution the government of Daytanistan has standardised the use of the Latin alphabet for writing Dushtoo, for the simple expedient that it was cheaper to import typewriters which used the Latin alphabet. Prior to that time, the Greek alphabet and Arabic alphabet were both used almost equally as much for writing in Dushtoo. In these alphabets, Dushtoo is spelt Δυϸτω (Greek), and ذوستو (Arabic).

Grammar

Nouns

Number and Gender

In Dushtoo nouns have number (i.e. singular or plural) just as English nouns do. They also have gender like English nouns, maculine, feminine and neuter, but whereas most non-personal nouns have a neuter gender in English, in Dushtoo they have two genders - neuter and either masculine or feminine. The only nouns which truly have a neuter gender, as opposed to those which can simply be referred to in the neuter gender, refer to body parts, clothing, intangibles, and inanimate possessions. These nouns can take the gender of their owner in sentences in which their owner is present, but are otherwise neuter.

Cases and Declensions

Dushtoo is a largely uninflected language. There is a base case, and an accusative case (for direct object forms of nouns). The ends of nouns, pronouns, and adjectives vary according to the case they are in as well as according to their number and gender according to a number of declensions. There are four standard singular base case endings which the vast majority of nouns, pronouns and adjectives have - nouns with other endings are called irregular nouns. To decline a noun, this singular base case ending is removed from the stem and replaced with the appropriate ending for the desired case. The tables below show the four regular declensions with an example noun. Adjectives and pronouns are declined according to the same pattern.

First Declension

Second Declension

Third Declension

Note that there are five base case singular endings in the third declension. The examples only have one of these endings. The full ending occurs in each declension of the noun, however, and can simply be replaced with any of the endings in this declension to follow the patterns in the table. For instance, the word dimankrat (democrat) is a singular masculine noun in its base case. The singular accusative case of this noun would be dimankrata - the "at" replaces the "r" in all of the endings given in the table for this noun.

Fourth Declension

Note that there are three base case singular endings in the fourth declension. The examples only have one of these endings. The full ending occurs in each declension of the noun, however, and can simply be replaced with any of the endings in this declension to follow the patterns in the table, much like in the third declension.

The Definite Article

The form the definite article takes is dependent on the case and gender of the noun in question:

Personal Names

Personal names in modern Dushtoo are never declined - they have only one form. This was not the case in ancient Dushtoo, but declined personal names disappear from what little Dushtoo literature exists from that era around the time of the Zirkshe migration.

Pronouns

Personal Pronouns

Personal pronouns have the gender of the person being referred to. The personal pronouns for the first and second person are declined accordingly in the appropriate pattern of the fourth declension - the singular base case forms are egoo (I, we) and so (you) respectively. The third person personal pronoun is declined according to the first declension - the singular base case form is autan (self/him/her).

Possessive Pronouns

Possessive pronouns replace the ending for the noun being possessed when it is declined, to that nouns with a possessive pronoun take the form (stem)(pronoun). The table below demonstrates the possessive pronoun. Note that the gender is still the gender of the noun, not of the possessor.

My

Our

Your (singular and plural you)

His / Her / Its / One's

Their

Reflexive Pronouns

There is no neuter declension of myself/ourselves, yourself/yourselves provided because a person always has gender. While there is a neuter form of himself/herself/itself/themselves, it is important to realise that the neuter form refers exclusively to things and animals, never to people. A group of mixed gender is referred to by the masculine form of the third person plural reflexive pronoun - only a group of females alone with no males may be referred to by the feminine form. A woman saying ourselves referring to a group of which she is a part which includes a man will use the masculine emaytoon.

Myself, ourselves

Yourself, yourselves

Himself, herself, itself, themselves

Reciprocal Pronoun

The reciprocal pronoun (each other/one another) is always plural. It has a neuter gender, but can take the gender of the noun, although it need not do so. Its base case plural form is allalai, and it is declined according to the second declension, meaning that the accusative case plural forms are allales (masculine), allaloos (neuter), and allalas (feminine).

Interrogative and Indefinite Pronoun

Adjectives

Turning Nouns into Adjectives

Most nouns can be turned into adjectives were appropriate. Their ending is removed, leaving just the noun's stem. To this stem, the ending appended depends on the case of the noun to which the adjective is being applied. The adjective itself is always neuter gender, taking the gender of the noun to which it applies.

For example, wise man would be formed by taking the noun for wisdom (sofa), and turning it into an adjective for man (ander). Since ander is a third declension noun, sofa would become sofwo, and thus wise man would be sofwo ander. Likewise, democratic republic is formed by taking the noun for democrat (dimankrat) and turning it into an adjective for the first declension noun ripooblykan (republic), giving us dimankratan ripooblykan.

Comparison of adjectives

The comparative is formed by adding teran to either singular form or teron to either plural form of the neuter gender form of the adjective. For example, the wise man (sofwo ander) in a previous example becomes the sofwoteran ander (wiser man).

The superlative is formed by adding tatan to either singular form or taton to either plural form of the neuter gender form of the adjective. For example, the wise man (sofwo ander) above becomes the sofwotatan ander (wisest man) around when all the other wise men leave the room.