Denna Dēg

**Denna Dēg** ("our language"), or **Dēg** ("language"), is the language spoken by the Minūna.

Dēg is a fusional analytic language, having few morphemes in a word, but treating morphemes very inflectionally.

## Phonology

 Nasal

Note: t is an allophone of d in clusters with other aspirated consonants.

 Mid
 Open

All phonemes can appear long/geminate.

## Grammar

### Noun morphology

In Dēg, nouns decline for case and number; there is no grammatical gender.

 Genitive
 Temporal

The numbers are singular, plural and collective, the last of which can also designate an inherent dual.

As an example, one may see the declension of the word šasu "goat":

 Genitive
 Temporal

Note: an alternation between -nna and -m in Genitive vs Temporal is common among nouns in Dēg.

### Pronouns

Denna Dēg has a set of personal pronouns for 3 persons, 3 cases and 2 numbers. The temporal pronoun can express the time someone or something arrived, or the general time frame of their life or existence.

Furthermore, there is a set of demonstrative pronouns, distinguishing two degrees of proximity.

### Verb morphology

Verbs in Dēg inflect for the following categories:

* perfective
* imperfective
 Voice:
* active
* passive
 Subordination
* indicative
 Polarity

Note that infinitives act as nouns, and therefore decline by case and number like nouns. On the other hand, both finite verbs and infinitives may inflect for mood and polarity. A precative can act as imperative when used in the second person, while a negative precative can act as vetitive.

### Typology

Standard word order is SVO, in both main and subordinate clauses. In passive voice phrases, the patient is the subject, so precedes the verb.

Dēg has postpositions, which almost exclusively modify nouns in Nomisolutive case.

Possessors, in genitive, precede the possessed, and adjectives and determiners precede the noun they modify, while relative sentences succeed it. Adverb position is relatively free, most commonly they either directly succeed the verb or are placed at the end of sentences.

While subordinate clauses are possible in Denna Dēg, whenever possible infinitives are used instead. Infinitives are combined with genitive constructions to indicate the subject or object of the verb as its "possessor" or "possessed". As an example, one may see the adverbial phrase "when a traveller wearing a warm cloak was drinking", which would be translated as

`warm cloak.GEN wear.INF.GEN traveller.GEN drink.INF.TEM`
 ālu ikā reddunna molgīa relgum

lit. "at [the time of] a warm cloak's wearing's traveller's drinking"

## Dialects

Denna Dēg has a dialect, spoken by the Southern tribes, commonly called by analogy Dīāl Dēg, though they themselves identify their language as just Denna Dēg. Its notable feature are the flattening of rising diphthongs and the assimilation of /l/ to following consonants, even across word boundaries. Grammatically, it differs from Standard Dēg in that the patient of a passive verb succeeds it.

Notably, the name of the Dēmmōdū comes from dēm mōdū < \*dēl mōdū, meaning "bright sea" in this dialect, loaned as a single word due to the consonant assimilation. Its equivalent in Standard Dēg would be Dīāl Mōdō.