Qofallish

Natively known as: qofall /ˈǃɔfɒll/

  ...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
b̤i ca nji du nxa mdlef b̤i phass nxa b̤ant kwi mzi zung
Pronunciation: /b̤i ǀɒ ɲʤi du nǂɒ mɮɛf b̤i pʰɒss nǂɒ b̤ɒnt kwi mzi zung/
Qofallish word order: and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind  

Spelling & Phonology

  Consonant inventory: b bʱ d f g h j k kʰ l m n p pʰ r s t tʰ v w z ŋ ǀ ǀʰ ǂ ǂʰ ǃ ǃʰ ɦ ɬ ɮ ɲ ʃ ʤ ʦʼ ʧʼ ᵑǀ ᵑǀʱ ᵑǂʱ ᵑǃ ᵑǃʱ ᶢǀʱ ᶢǃʱ  

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m			n		ɲ	ŋ
Stop	b pʰ bʱ p			d tʰ t			k g kʰ
Affricate				ʦʼ	ʤ ʧʼ
Fricative		f v		s z	ʃ			h ɦ
Approximant						j
Trill				r
Lateral fricative				ɬ ɮ
Lateral approximant				l
Click			ǀ ᵑǀ ǀʰ ᶢǀʱ ᵑǀʱ	ǃʰ ǃ ᵑǃʱ ᵑǃ ᶢǃʱ		ǂ ǂʰ ᵑǂʱ

  Co-articulated phonemes  

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

  Vowel inventory: i u ɒ ɔ ɛ  

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

  Syllable structure: Custom defined ?
Stress pattern: Initial — stress is on the first syllable ?   Spelling rules:  

Pronunciation	Spelling
bʱ	bh
ᵑǀʱ	ngc
ᵑǃʱ	ngq
ᵑǂʱ	ngx
ɲʧʼ	ntsh
ʧʼ	tsh
ᶢǃʱ	gq
ᶢǂʱ	gx
ᶢǀʱ	gc
ᵑǂ	nx
ǂʰ	xh
ᵑǃ	nq
kʰ	kh
ǃʰ	qh
ǃ	q
ǂ	x
ŋk	nk
ᵑǀ	nc
ǀʰ	ch
ǀ	c
ɮ	dl
j	y
ɲʤ	nj
ʤ	j
ɲ	ny
ɦ	hh
ɬ	hl
pʰ	ph
ʃ	sh
tʰ	th
ʦʼ	ts
ɒ	a
ɛ	e
ɔ	o

 

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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

 

Singular	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ff Else: Suffix -ɒff wuff /wuff/ dog
Plural	No affix wu /wu/ dogs

 

Articles

  Qofallish has no definite article ‘the’, or indefinite article ‘a’.
 

Pronouns

 

1st singular	hi /hi/ I, me, mine
2nd singular	njang /ɲʤɒng/ you, yours
3rd singular masc	ca /ǀɒ/ he, him, his, it (masc), its (masc)
3rd singular fem	ndel /ndɛl/ she, her, hers, it (fem), its (fem)
1st plural	hlif /ɬif/ we, us, ours
2nd plural	bo /bɔ/ you all, yours (pl)
3rd plural	khwi /kʰwi/ they, them, theirs

 

Possessive determiners

 

	Possessive
1st singular	ha /hɒ/ my
2nd singular	ka /kɒ/ your
3rd singular masc	nxa /nǂɒ/ his
3rd singular fem	zwu /zwu/ her
1st plural	mlol /mlɔl/ our
2nd plural	so /sɔ/ your (pl)
3rd plural	si /si/ their

 

Verbs

 

1st singular	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ǀk Else: Suffix -ɛǀk xhaffeck /ˈǂʰɒffɛǀk/ (I) learn
2nd singular	If ends with vowel: Suffix -mpɒ Else: Suffix -impɒ xhaffimpa /ˈǂʰɒffimpɒ/ (you) learn
3rd singular	Suffix -ɒ xhaffa /ˈǂʰɒffɒ/ (he/she/it) learns
1st plural	If ends with vowel: Suffix -zwɔ Else: Suffix -ɒzwɔ xhaffazwo /ˈǂʰɒffɒzwɔ/ (we) learn
2nd plural	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ng Else: Suffix -ɛng xhaffeng /ˈǂʰɒffɛng/ (you all) learn
3rd plural	Suffix -ɛ xhaffe /ˈǂʰɒffɛ/ (they) learn

  Qofallish uses a standalone particle word for past tense:

Past	Particle before the verb: ntɒ - nta xhaff /ntɒ ǂʰɒff/ learned

  Qofallish uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: ndɔ - ndo xhaff /ndɔ ǂʰɒff/ will learn

 

Numbers

  Qofallish has a base-10 number system:   1 - nyu
2 - kunt
3 - ngi
4 - tseff
5 - ndlof
6 - b̤u
7 - ning
8 - lapu
9 - pi
10 - vay
100 - mpiff
1000 - ndantfectrer
 

Derivational morphology

  Adjective → adverb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ǀk
Else: Suffix -ɒǀk
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Suffix -ɔ
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -bɒ
Else: Suffix -ubɒ
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Suffix -ɔgh
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ss
Else: Suffix -iss
Noun to verb = Suffix -ɛt
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -j
Else: Suffix -ij
Tending to = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ɲɒ
Else: Suffix -uɲɒ
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -wn
Else: Suffix -ɔwn
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Suffix -uǀ
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -mgɒ
Else: Suffix -ɔmgɒ
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ɲʧʼɒ
Else: Suffix -uɲʧʼɒ
Diminutive = Suffix -i
Augmentative = Suffix -iǀk