Nyi̊ggan

Natively known as: nyi̊gga /ɲɨˈgːa/

  ...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
kna shhu wwo dya nnoko dya kna snowi̊ dya ttia betse dwo ngongi̊
Pronunciation: /kna ɬːu wːo dja nːoˈko dja kna snoˈwɨ dja tːiˈa betˈse dwo ngonˈgɨ/
Nyi̊ggan word order: and stood holding hat his he and turned his face wet to the wind  

Spelling & Phonology

  Consonant inventory: b bː d g gː j jː k m n nː p pː s sː t tː w wː ŋ ɬ ɬː ɲ ɲː ʔ ʔː  

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m	n nː	ɲ ɲː	ŋ
Stop	p pː b bː	t tː d		k g gː	ʔ ʔː
Fricative		s sː
Approximant			j jː
Lateral fricative		ɬ ɬː

  Co-articulated phonemes  

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w wː

  Vowel inventory: a e i o u ɨ  

	Front	Central	Back
High	i	ɨ	u
High-mid	e		o
Low	a

  Syllable structure: (C)(C)V
Stress pattern: Second — stress is on the second syllable   Spelling rules:  

Pronunciation	Spelling
ʔ	ʻ
ɨ	i̊
j	y
ŋ	ng
ɬ	sh
ɲ	ny
Cː	CC

 

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Grammar

  Main word order: Verb Object (Prepositional phrase) Subject. “Mary opened the door with a key” turns into Opened the door with a key Mary.
Adjective order: Adjectives are positioned after the noun.
Adposition: prepositions  

Nouns

  Nouns have two cases:

• Nominative is the doer of a verb: dog bites man.
• Accusative is the done-to of a verb: man bites dog.

Nominative	No affix shatnyi̊ /ɬatˈɲɨ/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	Prefix ɲːa- nyːashatnyi̊ /ɲːaˈɬatɲɨ/ (verb done to) dog

 

Singular	No affix shatnyi̊ /ɬatˈɲɨ/ dog
Plural	Reduplicate first part of first syllable shashatnyi̊ /ɬaˈɬatɲɨ/ dogs

 

Articles

 

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	nya /nja/ the	si̊ /sɨ/ a
Plural	ppi̊ /pːɨ/ the	twi̊ /twɨ/ some

  Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Definite article can be omitted: ‘I am going to supermarket’

  Uses of indefinite article that differ from English:

• Not used for non-specific mass (uncountable) nouns: non-specific means ‘Would you like some (any) tea?’ whereas specific means ‘Some tea (a specific amount) fell off the truck’

 

Pronouns

 

	Nominative	Accusative
1st singular	mu /mu/ I	pi̊ /pɨ/ me
2nd singular	ngu /ngu/ you	kmi /kmi/ you
3rd singular masc	dya /dja/ he, it	swi̊ /swɨ/ him, it
3rd singular fem	nyːo /ɲːo/ she, it	si /si/ her, it
1st plural	si̊ /sɨ/ we	sni̊ /snɨ/ us
2nd plural	ʻːe /ʔːe/ you all	kso /kso/ you all
3rd plural	kni /kni/ they	i̊ /ɨ/ them

 

Possessive determiners

 

1st singular	mu /mu/ my
2nd singular	ngu /ngu/ your
3rd singular masc	dya /dja/ his
3rd singular fem	nyːo /ɲːo/ her
1st plural	si̊ /sɨ/ our
2nd plural	ʻːe /ʔːe/ your (pl)
3rd plural	kni /kni/ their

 

Verbs

 

Present	No affix snaki̊ /snaˈkɨ/ learn
Past	Prefix dji- dyisnaki̊ /djisˈnakɨ/ learned
Remote past	Prefix swɨ- swi̊snaki̊ /swɨsˈnakɨ/ learned (long ago)
Future	Prefix me- mesnaki̊ /mesˈnakɨ/ will learn

 

Imperfective aspect

  The ‘imperfective’ aspect refers to ongoing actions, such as I am learning and habitual actions, such as I learn (something new every day).
Nyi̊ggan uses a standalone particle word for imperfective:  

Imperfective

Particle before the verb: mdɨ - mdi̊ snaki̊ /mdɨ snaˈkɨ/ learns/is learning

 

Numbers

  Nyi̊ggan has a base-10 number system:   1 - ʻːi
2 - ggawmu
3 - tti
4 - swowpi̊
5 - bwineyo
6 - mya
7 - nni̊
8 - nyːusgi̊
9 - yanta
10 - nga
Hundred - dyu
Thousand - pyumda  

Derivational morphology

  Adjective → adverb = Suffix -mgi
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Suffix -gbɨ
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix ma-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Suffix -mo
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Suffix -gːa
Noun to verb = Suffix -ʔːu
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Suffix -tːa
Tending to = Prefix jːe-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -nko
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Prefix pjɨ-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Prefix tɨ-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Suffix -ntu
Diminutive = Prefix knu-
Augmentative = Suffix -ne