copyright © 2026 Dennis Paul Himes
Darmisan is a mostly isolating language, with a VSO (verb-subject-object) sentence structure. Specifically:
verbal particles - verb - verbal modifiers - subject - object
Verbal modifiers can be adverbs or prepositional phrases. Both the subject and the object can be a pronoun or a noun with modifiers, which can be adjectives, prepositional phrases, or relative phrases. The definite article dre (inanimate) or drar (animate) and the negator go precede a noun. All other adjectives follow it, including numbers. (There is no indefinite article.) The interrogative particle skra (meaning "which"), and the particle pe, which indicates direct address, precede a noun.
Verbal modifiers are sometimes placed after the object. This is considered substandard by many speakers, though.
Verbs are not conjugated. They are optionally preceeded by particles which indicate tense, aspect, negation, and other qualities, many of which can be contracted when they follow each other. The usual order for these particles is [negator] [mood] [tense] [modal] [aspect], but this can be changed. For instance go se (often contracted to gos) means something was false in the past, but se go can be used instead, with the implication that it is or might be true in the present.
An infinitive/gerund is formed by appending -dar to a verb ending in a vowel, r, or n. For a verb ending in s, the s is changed to the syllable star. Note that the noun/infinitive indirect statement in English doesn't exist in Darmisan. So "Do you want somebody to help you?" would be shegos shtrandu shi us dir kras er shi, literally "Do you want somebody for the purpose they help you?".
There are four participles formed by suffixes. -fe (-e after s) for past passive, -zru for present passive, -zhaze for past active, -pre (inanimate) and -prer (animate) for present active.
Imperatives are indicated by using the imperative versions of the second person pronouns, ke and keke.
The passive voice is indicated by prepending zur- to the verb. If the (pro)noun which would be the subject in the active voice is indicated the preposition turin (inanimate) or turinir (animate) is used, equivalently to how "by" is used in English.
In English we can say, "Brer fed the cat and walked the dog". With its VSO word order, however, se ternishren tri fumeri Brer drar shiru tri drar garmi, "Did feed and walk Brer the cat and the dog", would mean that Brer both fed and walked the cat and fed and walked the dog. To preserve the intended meaning the conjunction atri is used to join the verbs, with the subject skipped in the second clause, so se ternishren Brer drar shiru atri fumeri drar garmi.
Nouns have two genders, inanimate and animate. Some adjectives, some pronouns, and some prepositions have two forms, corresponding to the two genders.
Noun plurals are irregular. There are common patterns, but each noun's plural must be memorized along with the noun.
Darmisan names have the form Clan Family [Second family] Given [Honorifics]. There are 31 clans. The second family name, which most people do not have, is usually used to subdivide a common family. The name "Gakrofeba" is used as a second family name for freed slaves (who take the clan and family names from their former masters). When a woman marries she takes her husband's family names, but keeps her clan name.
Nouns borrowed from other languages are modified to fit Darmisan phonology, usually with i inserted between syllables, and a at the end of words. Sounds which don't exist are replaced with similar sounds or dropped. Usually the native plural (subject to the same sound changes) is used for the Darmisan plural.
Apposition is indicated, as in English, by following a noun with another. This can be ambiguous, since objects immediately follow subjects in a sentence. To remove any ambiguity mi en kri/ker "which/who is", can be inserted between the nouns.
There are singular personal pronouns for first person, second person familiar, second person superior, second person imperative, third person inanimate, and third person animate. There are plural personal pronouns for first person exclusive, first person inclusive, second person familiar, second person superior, second person imperative, and third person.
The second person superior pronouns are not the same as the second person formal pronouns used in many languages. They're only used for people of higher social status. A stranger of the same social class would be addressed with the familiar form.
The comparatives are star "the same" var "more" and vaba "most". They are used with the preposition nar "as/than". So "brighter than the sun" would be var zradur nar drar drinir, from zradur "bright" and drar drinir "the sun".
vashren is a contraction of var shren, meaning "better".
Yes/no questions are formed by putting the particle shegos before the verb. A question asking if a noun or adjective is correct is formed by putting the particle shegos before the noun or adjective.
"Which?" is indicated by putting the particle skra before the noun. Putting skra before a third person pronoun is equivalent to "what?" or "who?", so en ferin skra ne means "What is this?"
Skrafrus is "when?" and skrar is "where?".
Relative phrases are formed by placing mi after the referent, followed by the clause with kri (inanimate) or ker (animate) replacing the referring noun/pronoun.
For example, from se "past", sporen "bring", ta "I", dre "the", tretu "hammer", fimir "need", and shi "you", you can form: se sporen ta dre tretu mi fimir shi kri, meaning "I brought the hammer which you need."
Purpose clauses are introduced with the conjuntion skur.
The conjunction memas can mean "since" or "if". If the dependent clause is marked with fin, it means "if", without an implication of whether the dependent clause is true. If the dependent clause is marked with strin, it means "if", with the implication that the dependent clause being possibly true is sufficient. If the dependent clause is marked with vrun, it means "if", with an implication that the dependent clause is false, i.e. it's a counterfactual.
For example:
kra skun ta memas shretisti means "I will stay here since it's
raining."
kra skun ta memas fin shretisti means "I will stay here if it's
raining."
kra skun ta memas strin shretisti means "I will stay because it
might rain."
kra skun ta memas vrun shretisti means "I would stay here if it were
raining."
The order of these clauses can be reversed with the construction skren memas. Skren usually means "there is/are", but here is better translated as "it's so that". So skren memas fin shretisti kra skun ta means "If it's raining I will stay here".
Counterfactuals with understood antecedents are expressed by putting sirne, "otherwise", after memas vrun. E.g. zhri kra skun ta memas vrun sirne means "I would have stayed here." Sometimes the vrun is left off in this case, e.g. zhri kra skun ta memas sirne.
A sentence may be used as a direct object or as the object of a preposition. In this case it's simply put where a noun would go.
Direct and indirect quotation both use sentential arguments. They are distinguished by the verb. A (say) and kru (shout) are used for direct quotation, while ashke (say that) and moste (imply) are used for indirect quotation, for instance. Multi-sentence quotations will usually be tagged with one of these verbs only on the first sentence.
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