Náŋifi Fasúxa

Have mercy; I'm rusty on wiki editing. This is just an initial infodump.

Náŋifi Fasúxa (the Common Language) is the native language of the Pínaax (the People).

The phonology is relatively simple, with 9 consonants (p,t,k,m,n,ŋ,f,s,x). There are 3 basic vowels. which may be short or long (a,i,u; aa, ii, uu). There are also six diphthongs (ai [aj], au [aw], iu [ju], ia [ja], ui [wi], ua [wa]. The acute accent on a vowel indicates stress and a rising pitch; the unmarked vowels have a falling pitch.

A peculiarity of Náŋifi Fasúxa is the ability of the syllables in its three-syllable roots to flip form CV to VC depending on the use of the root in the sentence.

Nouns: Nouns indicate gender and grammatical number. The masculine singular retains all the syllables as CV; plurality is indicated by flipping the final syllable, femininity by flipping the medial syllable. Nouns are accented on the initial syllable. Thus:

pínaxa [pi.na.xa] man

pínaax [pi.na:x] men

pianxa [pjan.xa] woman

pianax [pja.nax] women

Adjectives: Adjectives are similar to nouns, and agree with the noun they modify in gender and number (the exceptions are the possessive pronouns). Adjectives are accented on the medial syllable and follow the nouns they modify. Thus:

pínaxa kuŋáti [pi.na.xa ku.ŋa.ti] man

pínaax kuŋáit [pi.na:x ku.ŋajt] men

pianxa kuáŋti [pjan.xa kwaŋ.ti] woman

pianax kuáŋit [pja.nax kwaŋ.ti] women