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Introduction

Phonology

Consonants

	labial	dental	palatal	velar	glottal
stops		/t/ t		/k/ k - /kʷ/ kw
nasals	/m/ m	/n/ n	/ɲ/ ny
approximants	/w/ w		/j/ y		/h~ɦ/ h

Stops

The stops /t/ and /k/ can be aspirated and are written as doubled consonants to indicate aspiration. Aspiration is phonemic and distinctive.

toma - /toma/ - "boil; cook; steam"
- ttoma - /tʰoma/ - "be viscous; dense; thick"

kaya - /kaja/ - "arrive; come [back]"
- kkaya - /kʰaja/ - "wash up and dress; prepare for the day"

Nasals

Each nasal consonant has a geminate counterpart, and gemination is lexically contrastive.

hanno - /ɦanːo/ - "opening; orifice; mouth"
- hano /ɦano/ "cane; staff"

nyoma - /ɲoma/ - "speak; talk; discuss"
- nnyoma /ɲːoma/ "weave; knit"

meka - /meka/ - "sleep; rest; relax"
- mmeka - /mːeka/ - "perspire; sweat"

Approximants

h - /ɦ/
w - /w/
y - /j/

Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	e	o
Open	a	o

There are only three phonemic vowels: /a e o/. They can be long or short and be one of three tones. Length can be lexical, but tone is strictly phonemic.

aàáeèéoòó

Tones

There are three phonemic tones, traditionally described as mid, high, and low; in transcription the mid tone is unmarked, and the high and low tones are indicated with acute and grave accents respectively.

	high	mid	low
front	é	e	è
central	á	a	à
back	ó	o	ò

Morphosyntax

anyomo is an agglutinative language, where words use suffix complexes for a variety of purposes with several morphemes strung together.

Pronouns

	Singular	Plural
1	o-	wà-
2	ko-	kwà-
3	∅	yà-

Aspect

imperfective

-a

perfective

-e

yàkaye - 3pl-arrive-PFV - They have arrived.
I've bought it.
We all went.
This morning I ate breakfast.

durative

-á

I'll read, and you listen.
We will do it, and you all watch.
Sit for a while. I'll be right back.
She likes to eat standing up.
Smiling, he said, "I'm sorry."

progressive

-ó

She is reading.
Mom is making a phone call.
Who is taking a shower in there?
The cleaning lady is cleaning our room right now.
Yesterday at 7pm, we were eating dinner.
I am working now. It's not convenient for me to leave.

Derivation

Nominalization

Lexicon

affixes

stems

nyom - speak; talk; converse; chat; discuss
h - walk; go (away); run; move (of vehicle); visit; leave

Phrases

Kalo