User:Masako/nkala
kamalo
phonology
consonants
- nasals: /m n ɲ/ m n ny
- plosives: /p t k kʷ/ p t k kw
- affricates: /t͡ɬ/ tl
- continuants: /l h~ɦ/ l h
- semivowels: /j w/ y w
All plosives, except the glottal stop, can be prenasalized: /ᵐp ⁿt ᵑk ᵑkʷ/.
vowels
Kamalo only uses three vowels; /a e o/, occasionally they contrast for length. ā ē ō
phonotactics
morphology
Kamalo is an agglutinative and polysynthetic language that makes extensive use of compounding, incorporation and derivation. That is, it can add many different prefixes and suffixes to a root until very long words are formed, and a single word can constitute an entire sentence.
nouns
pronouns
| singular | dual | plural | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | wa- | pwa- | kwa- |
| 2 | ne- | (m)pe- | (n)ke- |
| 3 | (h)o- | po- | ko- |
possession
Possession is marked by the nominal suffix -o and a pronominal prefix attached to a stem.
- kwamalo - 1pl-speak-NOM - our word
- tlayemo - MASC-eat-NOM - his food
- popato - 3du-be.aware-NOM - their awareness
- wanyako - 1s-burn-NOM - my fire
noun modifiers
- he- - color of ~
- ye- - feminine; female [FEM]
- tla- - masculine; male [MASC]
- -o - marks noun; nominalizer [NOM]
number
Nouns are marked for various quantities:
- pa- - dual; pair of; both [DU]
- ka- - plural [PL]
- te- - few; little [quantity]
- ma- - many; much
- mo- - group; collection; mass of
- mwa- - all; every
- no- - one; a
- yo- - piece of
verbs
The kamalo verb is quite complex and inflects for many grammatical categories. The verb is composed of a root, prefixes, and suffixes. The prefixes indicate the person of the subject, and person and number of the object and indirect object, whereas the suffixes indicate tense, aspect, mood and possession.
- wakoyemapotla
- wa-ko-yem-ap-otl-a
- 1sg-3pl-eat-CAUS-DES-NPST
- "I want to feed them"
verb modifiers
- -a - active; present tense [ACT]
- -at- - augmentative; large [AUG]
- -atl- - tentative; possible [TENT]
- -e - past tense; perfective [PST]
- -ok- - negative [NEG]
| non-past | past | nominalizer | |
|---|---|---|---|
| - | mal-a to speak; be talking |
mal-e to have spoken; talked |
mal-o language; speech |
| -at- | mal-at-a to explain; speak at length |
mal-at-e to have spoken a long while ago |
mal-at-o lecture; presentation |
particles
- ma - interrogative particle [INT]; "is it that"
- used to form questions of all types
- oka - "no"
- used as a negative response to polar questions
- we - "but" / "or"
- used in conjunctions, and in contrasts
syntax
roots
- t- - be; exist; copula [COP]
- n- - see; know; be aware; look
- mak- - love; affection; romance
- nyak- - burn; fire
- yem- - food; eat; sustenance; drink
samples
- wanemaka - 1-2-love-ACT - I love you.
- koyematloka - 3-eat-TENT-NEG-ACT - He might not eat.
- ma newane - INT 2-1-see-PST - Did you see me?
wordgen seed
C=ptkqmnfhwylx V=aeo
q|kw f|ny x|tl wo|wa
