DICTIONARY
| ãk | then |
| ãp | negative rhetorical question particle |
| bâo | to attack |
| bý | to argue (dat. = ‘argue with X’) |
| hqoi | to flee (from sth.) |
| hyao | him/her.nom/acc |
| hyaosỳ | him/her.dat |
| hyaosèi | them.dat |
| gyôung | care, concern |
| khãt . . . qhài | when (surrounds a clause) |
| khe | afraid |
| khesze | scared |
| Miny | dative of ‘Min’ (proper name) |
| ḿ | perfect pre-verbal particle (‘has done something’ |
| mó | idea, concept, argument |
| mòi | plural of mó |
| ng | sentence-finalquestion marker |
| ńg | with (i.e. using) |
| ngâ | I.nom/acc |
| ngádi | my (genitive) |
| ó | with (in the company of) |
| phoehk | big (intensifier) |
| phoehk thû | ignoramus (lit. big stupid egg) |
| qài | almost |
| qang | to join, to connect |
| sãp | to scream |
| thû | stupid (literally ‘egg’) |
| thúbài | plural nominative of thû |
| Túdity | dative of ‘Túdi’ (proper name) |
| vẽihk | recently |
| ví | to go |
| vôi | about |
| xa A xa B | A and B |
| zrôe | you.nom/acc (singular) |
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GRAMMAR
Dâo Kóng is a tonal, strongly head-final language. Adjectives, prepositions, and other phrases come before head nouns. Adverbs, adverb phrases, and so on come before head verbs. The word order is SOV.
Dâo Kóng is primarily analytic and isolating. No verb conjugation exists.
The only exception is on nouns, which mark the nominative-accusative, genitive, locative, and dative cases, along with plurals. Marking is accomplished by a bizarre variety of tonal shifts, final consonant changes, vowel modifications, and syllabic modifications which are inherited from Taodkionh declension. However, in this relay, all declension is given in the Dictionary.
Possessive constructions are indicated via the genitive. Genitive nouns come before the possessed item:
- phoési qhuipao
- girl-GEN-SG dress-NOM-SG
- ‘the girl’s dress’
Tense is not marked, but verb particles can mark aspect, as well as mood and negativity. The sentence-final particle ng marks a question.
Dâo Kóng is strongly subject-dropping, and understood subjects may be dropped at will, especially personal pronouns. In questions, word order remains the same, but a final ng is added.
Furthermore, the copula may be dropped: Ngâ phoe ‘I girl’ is a perfectly acceptable way of saying “I am a girl.”
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