Njoian

Natively known as: njo /ndʒʱɔ/

  ...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
meff a kon kale lah ange meff leff lah ali leshubi seh kwesa
Pronunciation: /mɛff a kʼɔn ˈkʼalɛ lah ˈaŋɛ mɛff lɛff lah ˈali lɛˈʃuɓi sɛh ˈkʼwɛsa/
Njoian word order: and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind  

Spelling & Phonology

  Consonant inventory: bʱ d dʱ f gʱ h j k kʰ kʼ l lʷ m mᵏ mᵑ mᶢ n pʰ pʼ s sʼ t tʰ tʼ v vʷ w z ŋ ǀ ǀʱ ɓ ɦ ɬ ɮ ʃ ʃʼ ʒʱ ᵏǀ ᵑǀ ᵑǀʱ ᶢǀʱ ⁿɫ ⁿɮ  

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m mᵏ mᵑ mᶢ			n			ŋ
Stop	pʰ pʼ bʱ			d tʼ t tʰ dʱ			kʼ kʰ gʱ k
Implosive	ɓ
Fricative		f v vʷ		s sʼ z	ʒʱ ʃ ʃʼ			ɦ h
Approximant						j
Lateral fricative				ɬ ⁿɮ ɮ
Lateral approximant				l lʷ
Click			ᵏǀ ᵑǀ ǀ ǀʱ ᵑǀʱ ᶢǀʱ

  Co-articulated phonemes  

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar	Velarized alveolar
Approximant	w
Lateral approximant		ⁿɫ

  Vowel inventory: a i u ɔ ɛ  

	Front	Back
High	i	u
Low-mid	ɛ	ɔ
Low	a

  Syllable structure: Custom defined ?
Stress pattern: Penultimate — stress is on the second last syllable ?   Spelling rules:  

Pronunciation	Spelling
dvʷ	dvw
ⁿɮ	ndl
ᵑǀʱ	ngc
ⁿɫ	nhl
bʱ	bh
ɮ	dl
ᶢǀʱ	gc
ɦ	hh
kɬ	kl
ɬ	hl
kʰ	kh
lʷ	lw
ᵑǀ	nc
ŋ	ng
pʰ	ph
tʃʼ	tj
ʃ	sh
tʰ	th
tsʼ	ts
vʷ	vw
ɛ	e
ɔ	o
ɓ	b
ᵏǀ	c
dʱ	d
gʱ	g
j	y
dʒʱ	j
kʼ	k
pʼ	p
tʼ	t

 

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Grammar

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

Nouns

  Nouns form plural with separate plural word:

Plural

Particle before the noun: lɛ - le mo /lɛ mɔ/ dogs

 

Articles

 

Definite	so /sɔ/ the
Indefinite	la /la/ a, some

  Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Definite article can be omitted: ‘I am going to supermarket’
• Not used for mass (uncountable) nouns: ‘Walking in the mud’ would always translate to ‘Walking in mud’.
• Used for personal names in third person: ‘The Maria has left for school’

  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

 

1st singular	ngan /ŋan/ I, me, mine
2nd singular	tung /tʼuŋ/ you, yours
3rd singular	a /a/ he, him, his, she, her, hers, it, its
1st plural	u /u/ we, us, ours
2nd plural	ku /kʼu/ you all, yours (pl)
3rd plural	ngih /ŋih/ they, them, theirs

 

Possessive determiners

 

	Possessive
1st singular	li /li/ my
2nd singular	lin /lin/ your
3rd singular	lah /lah/ his, her, its
1st plural	le /lɛ/ our
2nd plural	ko /kʼɔ/ your (pl)
3rd plural	mhli /mɬi/ their

 

Verbs

 

Singular	Prefix ŋi- ngiken /ˈŋikʼɛn/ (I/you/he/she/it) learn
Plural	If starts with vowel: Prefix kʼ- Else: Prefix kʼɛ- keken /ˈkʼɛkʼɛn/ (we/you all/they) learn

  Njoian uses a standalone particle word for past tense:

Past	Particle before the verb: laff - laff ken /laff kʼɛn/ learned

  Njoian uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: kʼah - kah ken /kʼah kʼɛn/ will learn

 

Numbers

  Njoian has a base-12 number system:   1 - mhle
2 - oh
3 - ngaff
4 - ong
5 - weff
6 - ke
7 - kwongah
8 - ngekhuh
9 - nuff
10 - mbu
11 - kah
12 - eng
144 - lenge
1728 - ngehlimeng
 

Derivational morphology

  Adjective → adverb = Prefix ɔ-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix si-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix kʼ-
Else: Prefix kʼa-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ŋ-
Else: Prefix ŋi-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Prefix ɛ-
Noun to verb = If starts with vowel: Prefix ŋ-
Else: Prefix ŋɛ-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix mɓi-
Tending to = If starts with vowel: Prefix ɓ-
Else: Prefix ɓa-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix i-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ndʒʱ-
Else: Prefix ndʒʱɛ-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If starts with vowel: Prefix s-
Else: Prefix sa-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Prefix nkʼɛ-
Diminutive = Prefix u-
Augmentative = Prefix ɛ-