The Getriš Language Reference Guide

In-universe, Getriš is written in the Lumaha Script. In this guide and dictionary, the Standard Romanization is used. Here is a table with every glyph, its romanization and pronounciation. Notice:

• Consonants are pronounced /Xaː/, /aˈXaː/ in the recordings.
• Vowels are pronounced in their long and short variants (allophones) in the recordings.

The Lumaha script, when handwritten, has the letters of each word directly touching. A space between words is therefore when the letters do not touch. The handwritten glyphs look approximately like this (click on the image for a larger preview):

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If you don't have access to š, ž, ň, ö and/or ü, you can use these unambiguous alternatives before resorting to crimes against humanity:

• š: sch
• ž: zh
• ň: nq
• ö: oy
• ü: uy

Getriš words are stressed usually on the first syllable. An exception to this is when there is a glottal stop (/ʔ/) at the start of the second syllable, in which case the second syllable is stressed instead.

Glottal stops are inserted inbetween same vowels, and some vowel pairs that do not form diphthongs. For example, aa is pronounced /aʔa/. The following vowel combinations form diphthongs:

• ae (/a͜e/)
• ao (/a͜o/)
• au (/a͜ʊ/)
• ei (/ɜ͜ɪ/)
• oi (/ɔ͜ɪ/)
• ou (/ɔ͜u/)
• ua (/wa/)
• ue (/we/)
• uo (/wo/)
• uö (/wø/)
• uu (/wu/) (only immediately following k or g)
• öi (/œ͜ɪ/)
• öü (/œ͜ʏ/)
• üi (/ʏ͜ɪ/)

If you have difficulty pronouncing a uvular trill (/ʀ/), you can substitute it for an alveolar flap (/ɾ/) or alveolar trill (/r/), or even a velar fricative (/x/).

Basic sentences are formed in the order VSO (Verb-Subject-Object).
Take the verb marin: (to) read,
the pronoun pi: I
and the noun maeri: book

marin pi maeri

This sentence can then be translated as: I read a book.

Adjectives (and possessives) are placed in front of the term they are referring to:
Take the adjective luka: good
and the noun maeri: book

luka maeri

This term means: good book.

If the subject is omitted, it can be inferred from context. Usually this is a personal pronoun (most commonly I), or referring to the last clause, in which case using the demonstrative pronoun a is more common.

Nouns (as well as pronouns) are optionally* declensed in Getriš. There are 5 cases in Getriš: Nominative, Accusative, Dative, Themative and Possessive; as well as 3 Numeri: Nemular, Singular and Plural.

Which cases should be used with which verbs is also stated in the lexicon, as there are exceptions. (dat.: for) in a definition means that a dative object should be translated as an object of the preposition for.

Declension tables for each noun can be found in the lexicon as well, in general they follow this table:

Vowels in parentheses are inserted if the stem doesn't end in a vowel. Nouns ending in -i omit it in most forms.

Nominative

The Nominative case is the case of nouns as they stand in the dictionary and is used for nouns that fulfill the role of the subject in a sentence. For example: in the sentence I read a book, I is the subject.

Accusative

The Accusative case is the case used for direct objects. For example: in the sentence I read a book, a book is the direct object.

Dative

The Dative case is the case used for indirect objects. For example: in the sentence I give you a book, you is the indirect object.

Themative

The Themative case is the case used for objects of the preposition about. For example: in the sentence I talk about books, about books can be translated with a themative case.

This case can also be used as a stand-in for the concepts related to something, or adjectivically.

Possessive

The Possessive case is used to mark possession or affiliation. For example: in the sentence I like my book, my is in the possessive case.

Nemular

The Nemular Number fulfills the role of the quantifiers no and none. For example: in the sentence I have no books, no books can be translated as book in nemular number.

Singular

The Singular Number describes nouns of which there is up to a single one. In Getriš, as opposed to English, this includes numbers between 0 and 1.

Plural

The Plural Number is used for nouns of which there are multiple (more than 1).

There are a few types of pronoun in Getriš: Personal Pronouns, Demonstrative Pronouns and Indefinite Pronouns. They usually have the same declension space as nouns; indefnite pronouns do not have different numbers.

The standard personal pronouns are pi, ti and hi, for first, second and third person respectively, but there are more to choose from. Since Getriš isn't gendered, there are a few more third person pronouns like itou or lili to use, primarily in writing. Noun Affixes can also be used to differentiate further. There are also more first and second person pronouns, used in informal speech.

The demonstrative pronouns are raei (this) and džaei (that). Their stems (rae and džae) can be used adjectivically to refer to nouns (rae maeri translates to this book). džaei is much closer in meaning to the german jener

The indefinite pronouns are luhie (everything), luhaň (nothing), mii (something), mi (general you), vi (self), šama (both), gama (like both but for 3).
Note that as opposed to English, an attribute regarding an indefinite pronoun will be placed in front: something good is translated as luka mii.

Verbs are conjugated in Getriš. They have 3 moods: Indicative, Hypothetive (Subjunctive) and Imperative, as well as 7 tenses: Present, Past, Future, Pre-Past, Post-Past, Pre-Future and Post-Future. The Pre- and Post- tenses are mainly used in subclauses to signify a temporal relationship, e.g. Before I read a book, I went outside. would have read in Post-Past, and went in Past. The Indicative mood is for statements: I read a book, the subjunctive mood is for hypotheticals: I would read a book and the imperative mood is for commands: Read a book!. The general conjugation table is as follows:

The dictionary form of verbs is the present indicative.

The imperative future conveys a certainty of the fulfillment of the command, e.g. You will do this!. The imperative past invokes regret.

Verbs in Getriš can take a number of suffixes to alter their meaning; Most importantly ži, the question suffix, and fe, the passivity suffix.

Adjectives are modifier words that refer to nouns. They do not have agreement, but several degrees of comparison:

Their dictionary form is the positive. The negative is like adding not in front. The comparative is used to relate 2 objects: The book is better than the ball. The comparative construction in Getriš has the following syntax:
mön maeri lukagua va ebek.
Here, va takes the function of than. In non-comparatives, it takes the function of as instead:
mön maeri luka va ebek.
would be translated as The book is as good as the ball.

Adverbs are modifier words that can appear at any point in a clause, also in front of the verb. They add information and do not flex.

Adverbs can be formed from adjectives using the conjunction ju in front.

Words used in greetings, atomic phrases and boolean replies are classified as exclamations. They stand alone as a clause. These are the most important ones:

• lei: yes, yea
• rin: no, nay
• hai: yes (as response to negative)
• taeho: hello
• rišo: goodbye
• ňan: sorry

In Getriš, question words are conjunctions. Conjunctions always analogously have both the meaning of what and that. When asking a single word question, the question suffix ži is added to the conjunction. Otherwise the question suffix is placed after the verb (Syntax: Qw + VSO).

The most common question words are:

• konju: Who/What (Nominative)
• kon: Whom/What (Accusative)
• jegu: Where (Local)
• ju: How (Modal)
• žiku: When (Temporal)
• vahju: Why (Causal)

Colloquially, when not understanding something, there are alternative exclamations that can replace a grammatically correct question:

• koi: What? (informal)
• hee: What? (acoustic)
• nui: What? (semantic)

Prepositions are words that stand in front of a phrase that they refer to. Together with that phrase they form an adverbial phrase. on, in and with are common prepositions.

Operators on the other hand stand inbetween 2 phrases and act as conjunctions, but do not form subclauses. and, or and plus are common operators.

Opposed to german/(sometimes english?), noun phrases are not declensed after prepositions.

Getriš uses a dozenal number system (base 12). The 12 digits are

• rinva: zero
• loiva: one
• šiva: two
• gaja: three
• teira: four
• prima: five
• kala: six
• žoula: seven
• dama: eight
• zula: nine
• tensja: ten
• parta: eleven

The number twelve is translated as riefa, after which numbers are formed concatenatively:

• riefloiva: thirteen
• riefšiva: fourteen
• ...

Until 24, which is translated as šivöa. The ö infix is equivalent to the -ty suffix in english. Leaving out the -a adjective ending and continuing concatenatively as before yields the next 120 numbers.

• šivöloiva: twenty-five
• ...

144 is translated as tarita, 1728 as garita, 20736 as parita and 248832 as tagarita

To form numbers in this range take ever digit individually (1s are omitted): 123456 (base 12) is tagaritšivparitgajgaritteirtaritprimökala

The numbers 12^6 to 12^39 are, in 12^3 (3-digit group) distance, formed by taking the onset of the digit and appending the suffix -uina. 12^39 though is rieina, after which 12^42 is riefluina. No one wants to continue this pattern beyond its current definition.

To give a final example, here is the number 123456789AB0: taritšivögajšuina-teirtaritprimökalluina-žoultagaritdamparitzulgarit-tensjtaritpartöa (hyphens for small screens)

Usually these clusters don't only look bad, but are also hard to pronounce. So the adjective -a ending is free to be inserted anywhere.

Numbers act as adjectives grammatically. If they should act as a noun (if referring to digits as a thing for example), replace the final a with i.

To make the inverse of a number, use ur as suffix instead of a

To say rational numbers/fractions, say (numerator) (inverse of denominator)-en, e.g. gaja primuren is three fifths.

To make the negative of a number, say rim (number), e.g. rim zula is -9

To use a number as an ordinal instead of a cardinal, place it after the noun it refers to, e.g. sepe prima is the fifth car (Since this is technically ambiguous, in writing the numeral is underlined and in speech there is a pause after)

SI-prefixes are replaced by unit suffixes instead; 10 kilograms would be syntatically replaced by 10 gram-kilos.

Adverbial Constructions

Adverbial constructions are composed of a conjunction or preposition and a noun phrase. In a sentence they take the role of an adverbial phrase. For example:
lüpal hain pen jegu amsi
translates to Again, we're at the bridge. at the bridge is an adverbial construction of locality. In this sentence, jegu amsi would literally be translated as where the bridge is, but semantically at is more appropriate. All conjunctions can be translated with a primitive subclause like this but should be translated with an equivalent preposition in english.

Relative Clauses

A relative clause is a clause defining a noun phrase further by using a subclause. In Getriš, relative clauses are introduced using the conjunction nju. For example:
maeri nju marin pi
translates to the book, that I read or the book, which I read. A relative clause without a noun phrase it refers to is a subject clause (below).

Subject and Object Clauses

Subject clauses substitute the subject of a sentence with a subclause and Object clauses substitute the object. They're introduced by nju and kon respectively. For example:
rugjin nju marin
Which can be translated as who reads knows but in english is probably more accurately said as Those, who read, know.

An object sentence is common in indirect speech:
heitum hi kon marin hi maerim
translates to They said, that they read a book. In english this is commonly shorted to They said they read a book.

Subclauses

Additionally to noun phrases, conjunctions can also attach to full clauses in which case they form subclauses. The different conjunctions then determine the relation the subclause has to the main clause (causal, local, temporal, etc.)

Infinitive Constructions

The conjunction fu together with a verb constitutes an infinitive construction. It substitutes an object, with the meaning of the action of the verb. It can also take adverbial specification.
seruitum pi fu akuin jehie
translates to I forgot to clean everywhere.

Appositions

Appositions are non-clause constructions that give more detail to a noun phrase, commonly used on names to add titles or a description.Zel, the good person, reads a bookcan be translated as
marin zel, luka ske, maerim.
This is just a change of word order. Objects in the sentence must be excplicitly declensed.

Modal verbs are auxiliary verbs that modify another verb. They take a clause as object without an infinitive construction. Common modal verbs are can, may, might, must, shall

The passive voice flips the subject and direct object's roles in the clause. To instead take the role of the indirect object, a direct object must be given or the preposition taeu used on the subject. In Getriš the syntax stays the same, the passivity is indicated by the suffix fe on the predicate. Compare:
trugin pi tim: I expect youtruginfe pi šju ti: I'm being expected by you

A few common phrases use the passive: nestrinfe, lit. to be called, is the default way to say My name is ..., as in I'm being called ....
mudinfe, lit. to be happened, is used in the question How are you?, as What's being happened?, because it implies that whomever you're asking is causing the events.

Adjectives can be derived from verbs as participles. The suffix la after the present tense conjugation makes a progressive participle:
marinla pi - the reading me
marinfela maeri - The book being read

The suffix uma is used to make the PPP (Passive Past Participle):
maruma maeri - The read book

The suffix ura is used to make the future passive participle:
marura maeri - The book that will be read

There are certain modal particles such as leu, pou, hau that can indicate a mood and act as filler words in a sentence. They are considered informal but can convey information about which parts of the sentiment are expected, or expected to be known.

Lone adjective construction

A lone adjective, or noun with suffix -ha, describes the state of the world, like in the sentence It's raining, translated as rikobiha (lit.: rain-existent)

Progressive, Imperfect and Perfect

Occasionality modifiers such as always, sometimes, occasionally, as well as probability of an action are conveyed through verb suffixes.
heinaňle pi
means I never speak. While aňle can be used as an adverb as well, this form is more common.

Since Getriš does not have words for the demonstrative pronouns starting with any-, or the word any, or determined or undetermined articles, this information is conveyed through context or the noun suffix sau, which fulfills the role of any. Other specificity markers include mae (some, some of, many), mi (all of, each), uloi (only, sole, single).

Direct speech enclosed in quotes „...“ substitutes an object.

Indirect speech can be conveyed roughly via a themative object, or more concretely with an object clause with kon

Enumerations in Getriš are separated by semicola (;) and substitute any part of speech with multiple. Since no parts of speech are in agreement, the rest of the clause is not affected by this. Affixes can be applied to the whole group with a hyphen and optionally enclosing parantheses. For clarity, in speech, a semicolon can be spoken as /ʏ/.

Concatenative

When forming a single unit of meaning, words can be concatenated to form a new word. Typically a common ending is then stripped (adjective -a, noun -i, verb -in). Loose Concatenation refers to 2 nouns, with space inbetween, that do not form a grammatical unit but a semantical one. This is common with materials, colors and shapes. Only the last noun of a loose concatenation has to be declensed, the others are treated as adjectives, even without the suffix.

Adjectivization

Adjectives can be formed by adding the suffix -a to another word, typically nouns or verbs. The meaning of it depends but is typically equivalent to adding -y to the english translation.

Nominalization

Nominalization from adjectives refers to the quality as a concept, e.g. da (warm), di (warmth). It's formed by replacing the adjective ending -a with the noun ending -i.

Nominalization from verbs can be achieved with different suffixes: -ai refers to the actor, -ie to the direct object, -spi to the process. Sometimes, the stem or the stem with the noun ending -i or -o also has a meaning (usually -ation).

Verbalization

Verbalization with the ending -in on a noun or adjective is usually equivalent to adding -ing in the english translation. In the case of adjectives it refers to the process of adjusting something towards that quality, e.g. da (warm), dain (to warm (up))

Colors in Getriš are not treated as adjectives but nouns, which makes them deserve this extra section. To say something has a certain color, you can use the possessive of the color (like in japanese), or loosely concatenate it. Making the color an adjective loosens its meaning. For example:
haoup ebek: red ball
haoupši ebek: red ball
haoupa ebek: reddish ball

Note in this section, that Getriš is not spoken on Earth. Their date and time system is a little different...

The current time is told by saying (hour)-un (minute)-von (second)-sae, e.g. rinva-un šivötensja-von dama-sae is 00:34:08

The current date is told by saying (year)-hek (month name) (day)-ek, e.g. šivödama-hek gajfur zula-ek is the 32.3.09

The reflexive suffix tu is used on personal pronouns to mean X ... Xself

For example: zaenin pitu - I like myself

The vocative is used to address people or a group of people. The suffix vo can be used on nouns and names to mean Dear ... (e.g. veleöhienvo - Dear passengers)

In Lumaha a comma is used to separate clauses, a semicolon to seperate items in enumerations and full stops/periods to separate sentences. Exclamation marks are used for informal sentences, insinuated shouting and orders, questions marks are used for formal sentences. Questions are not usually marked with more than the question suffix. The symbol for something unknown looks more like ᕠ. Direct speech is marked by just quotation marks „…“ and includes any punctuation according to normal rules. A typical example would be heitum hi „marin pi maeri.“., note that there are 2 periods.