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

Diphthongs

falling
[aI~aI:]	akai	'red'	[aU~aU:]	tao	'the Tao'
[uj]	avui	'today'	[uw]	duu	'he/she is carrying'
	rising
[ja]	iaia	'grandma'	[wa]	quatre	'four'
[jɛ]	veiem	'we see'

Consonants

	Labial	Dental		Palatal	Velar		Glottal
		central	lateral		plain	labial
Nasal	m (m)	n (n)		ɲ (ny)
Plosive	p~b (p)	t~ (t)			k~g (k)	kʷ~gʷ (ku)	ʔ (')
Fricative		s (s)		ʃ (s)
Affricate		ts (ts)	tɬ (tl)	tʃ (ts)
Approximant			l (l)	j (y)		w (u)

Writing System

See: Moya

Word Order

Sentence

• Basic word order is SOV.

-

• (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.