Revision as of 08:17, 20 September 2016

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

subject

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1st	wa-	pwá-	kwa-
2nd	ni-	pí-	(n)ki-
3rd	∅	ú-	ku-

object

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1st	mwa-	twá-	skwa-
2nd	mi-	(n)tí-	ski-
3rd	(m)pu-	tú-	sku-

verbs

Pronominal prefix - VERB STEM - tense/aspect-modal

tenses

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

-á - non-past [NPST]

wanuyá

wa-nuy-á

1S-eat-NPST

I eat.

-í - past [PST]

ninuyí

ni-nuy-í

2S-eat-PST

You ate.

-ayí - distant past [DSPT]

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

@@ Line 80: / Line 80: @@
 == pronouns ==
+=== subject ===
 {| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center; width: 200px;"
-|+Pronouns
 !
-!'''Subject'''
+! Singular
-!'''Object'''
+! Dual
+! Plural
 |-align=center
-!<small>'''1SG'''</small>
+! 1st
-| '''wa-''' || '''mwa-'''
+| '''wa'''-
+| '''pwá'''-
+| '''kwa'''-
 |-align=center
-!<small>'''2SG'''</small>
+! 2nd
-| '''ni-''' || '''ni-'''
+| '''ni'''-
+| '''pí'''-
+| '''(n)ki'''-
 |-align=center
-!<small>'''3SG'''</small>
+! 3rd
-| '''∅''' || '''(m)pu-'''
+| '''∅'''
-|-align=center
+| '''ú'''-
-!<small>'''1DU'''</small>
+| '''ku'''-
-| '''pwá-''' || '''twá-'''
+|}
-|-align=center
-!<small>'''2DU'''</small>
+=== object ===
-| '''pí-''' || '''(n)tí-'''
-|-align=center
+{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center; width: 200px;"
-!<small>'''3DU'''</small>
+!
-| '''ú-''' || '''tú-'''
+! Singular
+! Dual
+! Plural
 |-align=center
-!<small>'''1PL'''</small>
+! 1st
-| '''kwa-''' || '''skwa-'''
+| '''mwa'''-
+| '''twá'''-
+| '''skwa'''-
 |-align=center
-!<small>'''2PL'''</small>
+! 2nd
-| '''(n)ki-''' || '''ski-'''
+| '''mi'''-
+| '''(n)tí'''-
+| '''ski'''-
 |-align=center
-!<small>'''3PL'''</small>
+! 3rd
-| '''ku-''' || '''sku-'''
+| '''(m)pu'''-
+| '''tú'''-
+| '''sku'''-
 |}

User:Masako/nkala: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 08:17, 20 September 2016

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