Beneventi/Phoenician

Natively known as: fəniːscə /fəˈniːʃə/

  ...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
buo cu dogne bo cu oligno buo bua cu iso ubra nuabalco gri
Pronunciation: /bwo ku ˈdɔɲe bɔ ku oˈliɲo bwo bwa ku ˈisɔ ˈubra nwaˈbalkɔ gri/
Fenician word order: and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face the wind to  

Spelling & Phonology

  Consonant inventory: b d f g j k l m n p r s t v w z ɲ ʃ ʎ ʣ ʤ ʦ ʧ  

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal	m		n		ɲ
Stop	p b		t d			k g
Affricate			ʦ ʣ	ʧ ʤ
Fricative		f v	s z	ʃ
Approximant					j
Trill			r
Lateral approximant			l		ʎ

  Co-articulated phonemes  

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

  Vowel inventory: a e i o u ɔ ɛ  

	Front	Back
High	i	u
High-mid	e	o
Low-mid	ɛ	ɔ
Low	a

  Syllable structure: Custom defined ?
Stress pattern: Penultimate — stress is on the second last syllable ?   Spelling rules:  

Pronunciation	Spelling
kw	qu
w	u
z	s
ʃ	sc
tʦ	zz
ʦ	z
k	c / !_{i,e,ɛ}
ʧ	ci / !_{i,e,ɛ}
ʧ	c
ʤ	gi / !_{i,e,ɛ}
ʤ	g
k	ch
ʎʎ	gli
ɲ	gn
ɛ	e
ɔ	o
j	i

 

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Grammar

  Main word order: Subject Verb Object (Prepositional phrase). “Mary opened the door with a key” turns into Mary opened the door with a key.
Adjective order: Adjectives are positioned before the noun.
Adposition: postpositions ?  

Nouns

  Nouns form plural with separate plural word:

Plural

Particle before the noun: o - o nuno /o ˈnuno/ dogs

 

Articles

  Fenician has no definite article ‘the’, or indefinite article ‘a’.
 

Pronouns

 

	Nominative	Accusative
1st singular	a /a/ I	sco /ʃo/ me
2nd singular	quo /kwɔ/ you	mu /mu/ you
3rd singular masc	cu /ku/ he, it (masc)	fe /fe/ his, it (masc)
3rd singular fem	pio /pjɔ/ she, it (fem)	me /me/ her, it (fem)
1st plural	fri /fri/ we	buo /bwo/ us
2nd plural	do /dɔ/ you all	squo /skwɔ/ you all
3rd plural	ci /ʧi/ they	si /si/ them

 

Possessive determiners

 

	Possessive
1st singular	a /a/ my
2nd singular	quo /kwɔ/ your
3rd singular masc	cu /ku/ his
3rd singular fem	pio /pjɔ/ her
1st plural	fri /fri/ our
2nd plural	do /dɔ/ your (pl)
3rd plural	ci /ʧi/ their

 

Verbs

 

	Future
1st person	Suffix -sɔ attogneso /ˌattɔˈɲesɔ/ (I/we) will learn
2nd person	Suffix -ssi attognessi /ˌattɔˈɲessi/ (you/you all) will learn
3rd person	Suffix -bre attognebre /ˌattɔˈɲebre/ (he/she/it/they) will learn

  Fenician uses a standalone particle word for past tense:

Past	Particle before the verb: nwa - nua attogne /nwa atˈtɔɲe/ learned

 

Numbers

  Fenician has a base-20 number system:   1 - pra
2 - so
3 - ciu
4 - i
5 - vi
6 - scu
7 - truro
8 - gru
9 - gozzi
10 - ve
11 - te
12 - co
13 - proppe
14 - spo
15 - edʣe
16 - va
17 - fregni
18 - ca
19 - sa
20 - groo
400 - fui
8000 - nuo
 

Derivational morphology

  Adjective → adverb = Suffix -ni
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Suffix -kke
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Suffix -rɔ
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Suffix -kkje
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Suffix -te
Noun to verb = Suffix -ʃʃa
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Suffix -dʣi
Tending to = Suffix -dje
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -mi
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Suffix -stra
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Suffix -zu
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Suffix -pre
Diminutive = Suffix -ro
Augmentative = Suffix -ʎʎa