Otomodaino is a constructed language devised throughout 2015 by the Otomodainoä (Otomodaino speakers). This page is the main resource for those who wish to understand what it's all about.
etorrizaj i ĉu paižo ono cu linio otomodaino
welcome to this page about the otomodaino language
Otomodaino is a constructed language devised throughout 2015 by the Otomodainoä (Otomodaino speakers). This page is the main resource for those who wish to understand what it's all about.
The Otomodaino alphabet consists of thirty letters which are as follows:
| Aa | Ää | Bb | Cc | Ĉĉ |
| Dd | Ee | Éé | Ff | Gg |
| Hh | Ii | Jj | Kk | Ll |
| Mm | Nn | Oo | Pp | |
| Rr | Ss | Tt | Uu | Vv |
| Ww | Xx | Yy | Zz | Žž |
Please note 'Q' and 'W' only appear in loanwords.
Most letters in Otomodaino make the same sound all the time, though not all. This will be expanded upon later.
| Labial | Dental/Alveolar | Post-alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | b p | t d | k g | q | |||
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ||||
| Flap | ɹ ɺ | ||||||
| Fricative | f v | s z | ʃ ʒ | h | |||
| Approximant | l | j |
| Affricates | t͡s | t͡ʃ | d͡z | d͡ʒ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Continuants | w |
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | ʊ | u |
| Close-mid | ɪ | ə | o |
| Open-mid | ɛ | ||
| Open | a | ɒ |
All of that is pretty technical, so here's how to pronounce each letter properly:
Please note also that there are some other minor pronunciation rules to be aware of:
Some notes on spelling: 'q' and 'w' are only used in loanwords. Otomodaino words will use 'k' for both /k/ and /q/, as they are interchangeable. Otomodaino words also tend to replace 'w' with a 'ui' in native words. Please note also that Otomodaino lacks the sounds /θ/ (as in things) and /ð/ (as in these). These are replaced, when spelling non-Otomodaino words in Otomodaino, as 'ss' and 'vv' respectively. Furthermore, the letter 'c' in Otomodaino is never used to represent /k/ as it sometimes is in English. Thus, words like 'cat' would be spelled 'kat' in Otomodaino.
As Otomodaino spelling is completely phonetic, it is necessary to spell and pronounce your name slightly differently in Otomodaino to fit. Please note also that names which end in a consonant will have an 'o' appended in many situations. For instance, the name 'Catherine' in English becomes Kassärin in Otomodaino, and the name 'Hannah' becomes Hanä in Otomodaino.
Other than the aforementioned notes on double consonants in loanwords, actual double consonants are very rare in Otomodaino, with the exception of 'rr'. When this is present in a word, it can be trilled/rolled as in Spanish 'perrito'.
Please also note that Otomodaino is usually written completely in lowercase, though exceptions are sometimes made for capitalizing names.
Otomodaino grammar is pretty simple. Word order is mostly the same as in English, which is called SVO order. The first item in the sentence is the person who is doing the action, the second item is the action they're doing, and the third item is the thing they're doing it to.
Consider the following sentence:
cu sezo ka cu rano.
Because 'cu sezo' (the girl) comes first, we know that it is the girl that is doing the action. Next is 'ka' - the verb meaning to love. Now we know it's the girl that's loving something. Finally, we have 'cu rano', the dog. Now we know that it's the dog that's being loved. So, the full sentence has the meaning of 'the girl loves the dog'. Clearly, Otomodaino word order is very similar to English word order. This applies in nearly every sentence, with very few exceptions. So, Otomodaino is easy for English speakers to understand!
Here's another example:
cu sezo har, "hag," cu rano-rro.
Again, we have cu sezo first in the sentence, which indicates that it is the girl that's doing something. Next we have har, the verb 'to say', followed by the word hag (hello). This means we know that the girl has said 'hello'. The next word, however, contains new grammar. Let's examine it a bit closer.
It consists of two parts: rano and rro. We know that rano means 'dog', but what's that rro for? The Otomodaino language loves to use prefixes and suffixes to indicate different grammatical functions - this is a common example. This suffix rro indicates that cu rano is involved with the action of the verb, but isn't the person that the verb is being done to - that is to say, in our example, the girl isn't saying the dog! Instead, this suffix is often best translated as 'to X'. Indeed in this case, we can translate this most effectively as 'to the dog'. So, our full sentence is 'The girl says, 'Hello,' to the dog.'
For the benefit of the reader, suffixes and prefixes have been separated from other parts of the word with hyphens '-'. In normal Otomodaino, these are not used.
Consider this sentence:
cu sezo-ä ka cu rano.
What's that -ä for? The answer is pretty simple - it makes the noun plural, just like -s does in English! It always goes on the very end of the noun after any other suffixes. cu sezo means 'the girl'; cu sezo-ä means 'the girls'! That's all there is to it.
Please be aware that -ä comes after any other suffixes on a noun - 'to the dogs' is translated as rano-rro-ä, not rano-ä-rro, which is ungrammatical.
The verb 'to be' in Otomodaino, like in many other languages, is slightly irregular in several ways, which are important to discuss before moving to actual conversations. The word representing 'am', 'are' and 'is' in Otomodaino is og. However, sometimes this is contracted to 'g on the end of a noun in informal speech. Furthermore, in certain phrases, a sentence with og can have a slightly different word order, which will be explained below.
Consider the sentence:
cu sezo og letzaj.
This sentence follows all the rules we've learnt so far - first the subject, then the verb, then the adjective. This sentence translates as 'the girl is cute'. Pretty simple so far. But the following is also valid:
cu sezo'g letzaj.
In this second sentence, og has been contracted into 'g. This is for ease of pronunciation, and occurs mainly in informal speech. But there are more irregularities; the following sentence is also grammatical:
cu sezo letzaj ej
Clearly the word order is different here. We have a subject, cu sezo, then an adjective, then a verb. In sentences of the form 'noun is adjective' such as this one, it is permitted to move og to the end of the sentence. When we do this, we also must change its spelling to ej. Please note that this can ONLY occur in sentences of this format, containing one noun, one adjective, and og. For instance, cu sezo letzaj u zezaj ej is not grammatical, because it contains more than one adjective. The correct way to express that meaning would be cu sezo'g letzaj u zezaj. This ej-form is most common in colloquial speech between friends.
Some languages do what is called 'conjugation', which means changing the form of the verb depending on the number of people who are doing the action, whether I'm doing the action, or you're doing the action, or someone else is. Otomodaino does not do this. Consider the following table, showing the verb 'to be' in English, French and Otomodaino.
| English | French | Otomodaino |
|---|---|---|
| I am | Je suis | Nin og |
| You are | Tu es | Yin og |
| He is | Il est | Tin og |
| We are | Nous sommes | Ninä og |
| You are | Vous êtes | Yinä og |
| They are | Ils sont | Tinä og |
Finally, we know enough basic grammar to be able to begin to look at a simple conversation. Here's a conversation between Naomi and Anya:
Naomi: hag!
Anya: hag! yiné datzo'g alatré?
Naomi: nin'g Naomi! u yiné?
Anya: nin'g Anya! ahorba, Naomitzan!
Naomi: ahorba, Anyatzan! yin zaj e'tré?
Anya: bis, nin'g zaj! u yin?
Naomi: uzaj nin'g zaj! aa, kur!
Anya: kur!
In this dialogue, Anya asks Naomi what her name is. Then, they ask each other how they are. Finally, they say goodbye, and leave. There's a lot of new grammar here, so we'll need to pick it apart line by line.
In line 1, Naomi simply says 'Hello'.
In line 2, Anya says 'Hello', then asks Naomi a very important question...
yiné datzo'g alatré?
The above is the Otomodaino phrase for asking someone's name. The first word yiné consists of two parts: the pronoun yin 'you', and the suffix -é. This suffix is used only on pronouns, and we use it to indicate possession - the noun which follows is owned by the pronoun we stick this é onto. Thus, the datzo (name) belongs to yin - in English, 'your name'. Next, we have the verb 'to be', in the 'g form.
Finally, we have a complicated question word - alatré. This word means 'what', and it consists of two parts: ala and tré. tré is a question marker - it goes immediately after the verb, and, when on its own, turns a sentence into a 'yes/no' question. When it's with a specific question word, in this case ala, it makes the question more complex. ala means 'what', though it never appears without tré. So, the word alatré has the function of asking 'what?'.
| yiné | datzo | 'g | alatré? |
| your | name | is | what? |
Thus, 'what is your name?'
Next, Naomi gives her name. nin'g Naomi! This simply means 'I am Naomi.' An alternative response could be niné datzo'g Naomi (lit. my name is Naomi). Then, she asks Anya for hers: u yiné? This also is simple to understand: 'and yours?' Naomi does not need to say a full sentence 'and your name is?' because it is obvious from the context that she is asking for Anya's name.
ahorba, Naomitzan!It's polite to say ahorba, which is Otomodaino for 'nice to meet you!'. Anya then refers to Naomi as Naomitzan. -tzan is part of a set of three suffixes that are used with friends' names in Otomodaino to show closeness and liking. They are -tzein for males, -tzan for females, and -tzon which can be used for anyone regardless of gender. These suffixes should only be used with friends or colleagues (in an informal setting), but not for elders, those significantly younger than you, or family members. If in doubt, don't use them.
yin zaj e'tré?
Here, Naomi asks if Anya is well. This sentence looks daunting but is actually fairly simple to understand. It uses the sentence structure from before: the 'noun adjective eg' structure. This time, however, we use the question marker tré to make this sentence into a yes/no question. Thus, this sentence is the question form of 'you are well' -- 'are you well?' or more commonly in English 'how are you?' We contract ej into e' before tré for ease of pronunciation.
Now, you should be able to understand the whole conversation, using this grammar and the words in the box above.