Khombu

Khombu was created by Sectori over his spring vacation in March 2006. It is spoken in the nation of Khombu and is part of his Alternate Earth conworld.

Phonetics

Khombu is a phonetically simple language. It contains six plosives, six aspirates, three nasals, one fricative, three vowels, and five clicks. Clicks can appear as individual words or incorporated into many words

• Plosives: /p t k b d g/ p t k b d g
• Aspirates: /p_h t_h k_h b_h d_h g_h/ ph th kh bh dh gh
• Nasals: /m n N/ m n ng
• Fricative: /h/ h
• Vowels: /a o u/ a o u
• Clicks: /!\ I\ \I\ O\/ kx tx gx px

A word is as follows: (N)(P)(V)(C)(C)V(C)(C)(V)(C)

Broken down: Initial Syllable: (N)(P)V(C) Medial/Final Syllable(s): (C)V(C)

A word must have at least one medial syllable. A two syllable word may have an intial and final syllable, or a medial and final syllable. A three syllable word must have an initial, medial, and final syllable, etc. The only disallowed consonant clusters are those that combine a voiced plosive with an unvoiced plosive, and/or have an aspirate precede a plosive.

Beginning Grammar

Khombu is a grammatically basic language. There is no concept of tense, only of time (Yesterday I run=I ran). Generic words such as yesterday and tomorrow describe past and future tenses, while words like always form the habitual.

Sentences in Khombu are VSO, with the direct object always preceding the indirect object.

• Here is an example sentences:
• Phamku thu-px-ang kx a-tx-tu tx.

• Let's break this down:
• Phamku tu-px-ang is the verb phrase. Phamku is an adverb meaning tonight, and tu-px-ang means "to give".
• Kx and tx are pronouns. Kx is the first person pronoun, and tx is the second person pronoun. Since they have no modifiers, we can leave them as they are, but note the word between them. Since tx is at the end of the sentence it is the indirect object, so "to you".
• A-tx-tu means "deer". Since it comes between the subject and indirect object, it must be the direct object.
• So, the whole sentence means "tonight I will give deer to you", or the less awkward "tonight I will give you deer".

• Here's another one:
• Nam tx-ap kx tx.
• Nam tx-ap is the verb phrase. Nam means "not". Tx-ap means "to understand". You already know what kx and tx mean. So, the whole sentence means "I don't understand you".

Text

Px-o ongu mantan gha tx, khang Futozi bha ntombu tua px am-px-aka ta nambuo. Angkhap px o khopa bha haopa tua px khopu tha-nga-na nambuo: English, Spanish, French, Carune, Swahili, Zulu, German, Afrikaans, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Cantonese, Dutch, Swedish, Norweigian, Italian, Finnish, Xhosa, Sesotho, Wolof, Arabic, Polish, Turkish, Czech, Romanian, Common South Slavic, Russian, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Gujarati, Thai, Vietnamese, Mongolian, Dinka, Tagalog, Javanese, Maori, Hawaiian, Quechua, Hebrew, Portuguese, Lakhota, Cherokee, Inuktitut, Welsh, Irish, Scottish, Sanskrit, Gothic, Old English, Latin, Classical Greek, Proto-Indo-European, Coptic, Middle Chinese, Akkadian, Amharic, Hittite, Esperanto, Interlingua, Ido, Quenya, Sindarin, Klingon, Anas, Verdurian, Cervenian, 'Ukana'akau, Saonian, Qatama, Inote, Ttithue, Melannya, Fhey, Kxilt, Astian, Futozi Creole, Khombu. Ut bha px gha noph, nop bha hopha akh hopa. Akh angkompu tua px, kat-tx-a bha ntombu tua Futozi ampo nan puatha akh mogu tua gha px tua gha nambuo mba khapao ngko gha px.

Links

• Khombu lexicon
• Sectori's page