Historical:
Dosem developed at about the same time as the establishment of the Dwarven tongue. Given that the exact
origins of Dosem are unknown, it is possible that the Dosem were an offshoot race of the Dwarves, or vice versa.
The two languages still share some common elements; the Dosem Mythos even makes mention of the relative ease
in which Gaelsam and the dwarves he met on his Walkabout were able to communicate. Currently, two main dialects
exist of the language.
Old Dosem is a very structurally formatted and rigid language. Most notably, it lacks any sort of common abbreviation, eg, "where's" as opposed to "where is". As such, many Dosem who learn Common often fail to adopt the concept of abbreviations, which can make their speech seem awkward. This dialect is often found around the Dark Forest and Loamburrow.
Comparatively speaking, Modern Dosem has embraced the world at large by adapting itself more towards the Common language conventions, including abbreviations and relaxing the form of their language. This comes about as a consternation of linquists everywhere, as now one has to carefully interpret the speaker and determine when he or she is slipping in and out of one dialect or the other. Of course, their prediliction for slipping into the Dosem tongue mid-sentence from another language is also equally annoying. This dialect is often found among those who have been walkabout for some time.
Sentences:
Sentence structure in Old Dosem generally follows along the form of:
(Verb) (Secondary Modifiers) (Secondary Subjects/Pronounce) (Primary Modifiers) (Primary Subject/Pronoun).
Missing from the Dosem lexicon is the concept of an "implied you." In Common, this concept allows a person to ask "Enjoying the weather?", with an implied "Are you" before the statement. Dosem people as such would ask "Are you enjoying the weather?" Occasionally a lesser-travelled Dosem will often translate the stricter Old Dosem behavior over into English, ie, "Are enjoying you the weather?"
In fact, the Dosem language's implied pronoun is "I", "me", or "myself." Presumably whenever a Dosem speaks, it is to discuss something pertinent to them only. New Dosem has adopted the Common "I" pronoun and appropriate verbiage for "myself" and "my", though usage is scattered.
Verbs and subject are integral to the sentence and cannot be dropped. Sentence fragmentation simply doesn't exist in Old Dosem, and only moderately so in Modern Dosem.
Pronouns:
Complicating the subject further is that there are multiple forms of pronouns depending on the
relation between the speaker and listener:
** - In early Dosem, a you-friendly subject could be added to a noun. This is where the Dosem get their name from, via the application of -em to their word "Dosa". Over time, Dosaem became 'bastardized' by the English translation of Dosem, and is now the generally accepted name of the race (though many will happily argue that it was all their idea in the first place and insist on recognizance.)
Editor's Note: The pronoun sets listed above for the most part were inspired by the similar structure of the German language.
Verb Tense:
Verb Tense in Dosem is typically determined by adding a letter to the end, determining on the tense:
Past Tense: Add the letter 'X' to the end. If the verb ends in e, an s is added before the x. In such cases, the s may or may not be silent and can depend on which dialect is being used. (eg "fahsesx" = "have slept" (faa-sex or faa-sesk))
Present Tense: No suffix is added and the word is used as listed.
Future Tense: Add the letter 'L' to the end. If the verb ends in vowel, an i is often added before the l. (eg, "fahseil" = "will sleep" (faa-seyl)).
Complicated/Uncomfortable Tenses: Despite this rigid form, a number of Dosem verbs sometimes run into unusual suffices when provided with a tense. "Jal" (to fly) would become "jall" (will fly) and "jalx" (have flown). In cases where pronunciation of a tense would differ in no way from normal pronunciation, there is no change. Thus, it can be somewhat difficult, out of context, to determine if a Dosem is talking about past, present, or future events.
Again, Modern Dosem accepts that there are some conventions that must be changed, and this is one of them. It has become acceptable to add a vowel between a double-consonant resulting from a tense suffice. Unfortunately, this practice is highly regionalized, so in one land you might hear "jalel", another "jalal", and in yet a third, "jalil" or "jalyl". Some even go so far as to do this in mannerisms similar to that of Common.
Also being adjusted in Modern Dosem are tenses that result in a word ending in "sex". It has been common observation that many people get uncomfortable when a Dosem begins talking about "sex" in Common when in fact they are often talking about anything but, such as sleeping. In Old Dosem, the past tense insists on the faa-sex pronunciation, while New Dosem allows for a pronunciation of faa-sesk. Again, this adaptation is often regional in nature.
Noun Plurality:
Typically indicated through the addition of "ke" to the end of the noun, though in some cases,
a "a" or "o" is inserted previous to the "ke".
Combining Linguistic Components:
Adjectives or other modifiers may be combined with the original word to create a new one.
For example, "kythe" can be matched with "por" as "por-kythe" or "porkythe". The combined word
in this case, being from "speaks with thoughts" and "dead", would be "speaks with the dead through
thought." In the written Dosem language, the dash is usually not omitted if the speaker is following
Old Dosem conventions; Modern Dosem often includes the dash to increase legibility and ease of
translation.
Cursing:
Cursing in Dosem is often limited, and typically involves invoking one of three words, referred
to comically by scholars as The Vulgar Trinity. These words consists of "weirse", "boalsha", and
"crudstunk". Allegedly there is a fourth vulgar word, but its use is so profoundly insulting and so
limited that even most linguists have not heard of it. In general though, Dosem far more prefer to
come up with more colorful insults (such as "Sit on your spear and rotate" or "Your momma wears
Ogre boots.") than involve the use of shock words.
Editor's note: As a side note, it IS possible in Dosem to construct an entire sentence out of almost nothing but swear words, ie "Wierse di weir boalsha."