User:Masako/nkala

sounds

consonants

	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	p	t		k	(ʔ)
Affricate		ts~tʃ
Fricative		s~ʃ
Nasal	m	n
Approximant		l (t͡ɬ)	j	w

vowels

	Short		Long
	Front	Back	Front	Back
Close	i	u	iː	uː
Open	ɑ ~ ə		aː

nouns

Nouns can be marked for gender, number, size, and in several other ways.

pronouns

Pronouns

	Subject	Object
1SG	wa-	mwa-
2SG	ni-	ni-
3SG	∅	(m)pu-
1DU	pwá-	twá-
2DU	pí-	(n)tí-
3DU	ú-	tú-
1PL	kwa-	skwa-
2PL	(n)ki-	ski-
3PL	ku-	sku-

verbs

• Pronominal prefix - VERB STEM - tense/aspect-modal

tenses

There are three tenses...nonpast, past, and distant past.

wanuyá	wa-nuy-á	1S-eat-NPST	I eat.
ninuyí	ni-nuy-í	2S-eat-PST	You ate.
pwánuyayí	pwá-nuy-ayí	1DU-eat-DPST	We (two) ate long ago.

other modifiers

Various moods (or modals), aspects, and syntactic markers are used to add nuance and subtlety.

-ank- negative [NEG]	skumatankí	sku-mat-ank-í	3PL-kill-NEG-PST	They were not killed.
-iy- obligation [OBG]	walakiyá	wa-lak-iy-á	1SG-go-OBG-NPST	I should go
-úy- ability [ABIL]	tumúyá	tum-úy-á	attend-ABIL-NPST	She/he is able to attend.

lexicon

These are listed by stem, and do not distinguish nominal and verbal meanings or usages.

• kál - say; tongue; voice; language; talk
• káw - love; desire; dear; care
• kay - earth; ground; land
• kúp - show; evident; witness
• (t)lak - go; move; mobile
• mat - cut; kill; knife
• nak - season; suit; opportune
• nuy - eat; nourish; bread
• pun - vegetable; herb green
• (t)sat - meet; contact
• tan - limit; wall; city
• tum - serve; tend; attend
• túy - advise; prompt; urge

examples

speak

• kál - speak
• wakálá - I speak   
• nikálí - you spoke
• wakálutlá - I may speak to him
• pukálámí - did he speak to someone else?
• nikálí - you had spoken
• inikálí - you were spoken to
• nikál! - speak to me!
• kálúna - made to speak
• nimpukálí - you were speaking to him
• únyikálanká - they are not speaking to each other
• kálanyá - and he keeps on speaking

break

• put - break
• puputí - it broke
• puputásá - it’s beginning to break
• wampuputí - I broke it
• mwaputúní - he made me break it
• puputanyá - it is broken again