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)

Prenasalized consonants

• In Kala, almost every consonant can be prenasalized, but primarily the plosives /p/, /t/ and /k/ can be analyzed as prenasalized,

while most other instances could be easily analyzed as cases of syllabic /n/ or /m/.

• mb /mp~mb/

Example: mpaka /ˈmpa.ka/ - n - boundary / border / line

• nt /nt~nd/

Example: ntama /ˈnta.ma/ - n - calf (a young cow or bull)

• nk /ŋk~ŋɡ/

Example: nkapa /ˈŋka.pa/ - n - alcohol / grog

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.

Nouns

Gender

• In general, nouns do not indicate their gender. To distinguish the sexes, one can use the adjectival endings -ta and -na.

Example : nikata "a male dog", nikana "a female dog".

Articles

• There is only one article in Kala, ke. It is used primarily as a "noun marker".

• It is ambi-definite, meaning it can be either definite or indefinite. The distinction is made through context.

Example : kama "village", ke kama "the/a village", ke kama'a "the villages"

Example : inahi "snack", ke inahi "the/a snack", ke inahim "the snacks"

Number

• Nouns are either singular, plural or collective.

• Concrete nouns are pluralized by suffixing -m.

Examples : kono - stone > konom - stones | naka - woman > nakam - women

• When the last syllable of a word contains an m, the plural is marked by reduplicating the final vowel.

Examples : kama - village > kama'a - villages | teyemi - phrase > teyemi'i - phrases

• Collective (plural) nouns are marked by prefixing tli-.

Examples : tsaka - house > tlitsaka - neighborhood | yama - mountain > tliyama - mountain range

• Nouns need not be marked plural if a number is used to show quantity.

Example : sahi - color > sahim - colors > sahi ya'o - five color(s)

• Adjectives do not show plural agreement. However, when an adjective is used nominally, it can be pluralized.

Example : nyeli - pink > nyelim - (the) pink (ones)

Pronouns

• Kala generally distinguishes four persons, the fourth person indicating abstract and inanimate nouns – both in the singular and plural numbers.

There is also a distinction between inclusive (I/we and you) and exclusive (we but not you) forms of the first person plural.

	Nominative	Accusative	Possessive	Reflexive	Reciprocal
1S	na	ena	nayo	na'i
2S	ta	eta	tayo	ta'i
3S	ha	eha	hayo	ha'i
4S	tla	etla	tlayo	tla'i
1P	nam	enam	namyo	nami	nanku
1P (EXCL)	na'am	ena'am	na'amyo	na'ami	na'anku
2P	tam	etam	tamyo	tami	tanku
3P	kam	ekam	kamyo	kami	kanku
4P	tlam	etlam	tlamyo	tlami	tlanku

Verbs

	English	Kala
Present Tense	I go. / I am going.	na yala
Past Tense	I went.	na yalaye
Future Tense	I will go.	na yalatli
Imperative mood	Go!	kya yala
Conditional mood	I may go.	iya na yala
1P (EXCL)	na'am	ena'am
2P	tam	etam
3P	kam	ekam
4P	tlam	etlam