User:Masako/nkala

Pronunciation

• Where ~ appears, it indicates free variation between phonemes.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i~i: (i)		u~u: (u)
Mid	e~e: (e)		o~o: (o)
Open		a~a: (a)

Diphthongs

falling

• [aɪ~aɪ:] - ai
• [aʊ~aʊ:] - ao

rising

• [wa~wa:] - ua
• [waɪ~waɪ:] - uai
• [ja~ja:] - ya
• [jaʊ~jaʊ:] - yao
• [je~je:] - ye
• [jo~jo:] - yo

Consonants

	Labial	Dental		Palatal	Velar		Glottal
		central	lateral		plain	labial
Nasal	m (m)	n (n)		ɲ (ny)
Plosive	p~b (p)	t~d (t)			k~g (k)	kʷ~gʷ (ku)	ʔ (')
Fricative		s (s)		ʃ (s)			h~ɦ (h)
Affricate		ts (ts)	tɬ (tl)	tʃ (ts)
Approximant			l~r (l)	j (y)		w (u)

Writing System

See: Moya

Word Order

Sentence

• Basic word order is SOV and is invariable.

-

• (subject) - (object) - (verb)

tlaka (ke) naka anya

man (TOP) woman see

The man sees the woman.

• (subject) - (verb)

nahi apuaye

girl sing.PAST

The girl sang. / The girl did sing.

• (subject) - (complement) - (verb)

ke ina manka a

TOP food cold COP

The food is cold.

• (subject) - (prepositional phrase) - (verb)

ke naka tsa'e kama yalaye

TOP woman through village walk.PAST

The woman walked through the village.

• (subject) - (prepositional phrase) - (object) - (verb)

na'eta itla omena yeta

1s.ACC.2s this apple give

I give to you this apple.

(In this case, the prepositional phrase is replaced by the pronominal construction.)

• (subject) - (prepositional phrase) - (verb)

ta kima poto tayo tse'ek

2s like photo 2s.POSS appear.NEG

You do not look like your photo.

Clauses

• In addition to phrases, some sentences contain clauses, which resemble smaller sentences nested within the larger sentence.

They can modify noun phrases, verb phrases, or the whole of the larger sentence.

-

• (subject) - (clause) - (prepositional phrase) - (verb)

tlaka ke ko asaye hina ka'e nuyoku yalaye

man CONJ live.PAST here to New York go.PAST

The man who lived here went to New York.

• (subject) - (clause) - (verb)

na ke ha aya a omu

1s CONJ 3s beautiful COP think

I think that she is beautiful.