Yakɛmɔian

Natively known as: yakɛmɔ /jaˈkɛmɔ/

  ...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
sha so leŋŋ shiŋ sho miote sha mlɛŋ sho hiŋ bemɛ mɛŋ nodu
Pronunciation: /sha so leŋŋ shiŋ sho miˈote sha mlɛŋ sho hiŋ beˈmɛ mɛŋ noˈdu/
Yakɛmɔian word order: and he stood holding hat his and turned his face wet to the wind  

Spelling & Phonology

  Consonant inventory: b c d d͡ʒ f g h j k l m n p r s t w x ŋ  

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m		n			ŋ
Stop	b p		t d		c	k g
Affricate				d͡ʒ
Fricative		f	s			x	h
Approximant					j
Trill			r
Lateral approximant			l

  Co-articulated phonemes  

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

  Vowel inventory: a e i o u ɔ ɛ  

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

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

Pronunciation	Spelling
j	y
d͡ʒ	j

 

---

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 after the noun.
Adposition: prepositions ?  

Nouns

 

Singular	If ends with vowel: Suffix -m Else: Suffix -em kweŋem /kweˈŋem/ dog
Plural	If ends with vowel: Suffix -si Else: Suffix -osi kweŋosi /kweˈŋosi/ dogs

 

Articles

 

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	nal /nal/ the	no /no/ a
Plural	kaŋ /kaŋ/ the	naŋ /naŋ/ some

  Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• 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’
• Used for languages: ‘The English’
• Used with place names: ‘The London’

 

Pronouns

 

1st singular	yɛŋ /jɛŋ/ I, me, mine
2nd singular	yil /jil/ you, yours
3rd singular masc	so /so/ he, him, his, it (masc), its (masc)
3rd singular fem	ha /ha/ she, her, hers, it (fem), its (fem)
1st plural	ŋmeŋ /ŋmeŋ/ we, us, ours
2nd plural	dɔ /dɔ/ you all, yours (pl)
3rd plural	boŋ /boŋ/ they, them, theirs

 

Possessive determiners

 

	Possessive
1st singular	nyɔŋ /njɔŋ/ my
2nd singular	me /me/ your
3rd singular masc	sho /sho/ his
3rd singular fem	no /no/ her
1st plural	jɔŋ /d͡ʒɔŋ/ our
2nd plural	ne /ne/ your (pl)
3rd plural	yeŋ /jeŋ/ their

 

Verbs

 

	Present	Past
1st singular	Suffix -ɔ shoŋɔ /shoˈŋɔ/ (I) learn	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ŋŋ Else: Suffix -iŋŋ shoŋiŋŋ /shoˈŋiŋŋ/ (I) learned
2nd singular	Suffix -oŋŋ shoŋoŋŋ /shoˈŋoŋŋ/ (you) learn	If ends with vowel: Suffix -tsɔ Else: Suffix -ɛtsɔ shoŋɛtsɔ /shoˈŋɛtsɔ/ (you) learned
3rd singular	Suffix -ɛŋ shoŋɛŋ /shoˈŋɛŋ/ (he/she/it) learns	Suffix -iŋ shoŋiŋ /shoˈŋiŋ/ (he/she/it) learned
1st plural	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ŋmɛ Else: Suffix -iŋmɛ shoŋiŋmɛ /shoˈŋiŋmɛ/ (we) learn	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ŋŋ Else: Suffix -ɔŋŋ shoŋɔŋŋ /shoˈŋɔŋŋ/ (we) learned
2nd plural	Suffix -uŋ shoŋuŋ /shoˈŋuŋ/ (you all) learn	If ends with vowel: Suffix -h Else: Suffix -ih shoŋih /shoˈŋih/ (you all) learned
3rd plural	Suffix -ɔŋ shoŋɔŋ /shoˈŋɔŋ/ (they) learn	If ends with vowel: Suffix -she Else: Suffix -ɛshe shoŋɛshe /shoˈŋɛshe/ (they) learned

  Yakɛmɔian uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: neŋ - neŋ shoŋ /neŋ shoŋ/ will learn

 

Progressive aspect

  The ‘progressive’ aspect refers to actions that are happening at the time of speaking, such as I am learning.
Yakɛmɔian uses a standalone particle word for progressive:  

Progressive

Particle before the verb: ki - ki shoŋ /ki shoŋ/ be learning

 

Habitual aspect

  The ‘habitual’ aspect refers to actions that happen habitually, such as I learn (something new every day), as opposed to actions that happen once (I learned something).
Yakɛmɔian uses a standalone particle word for habitual:

Habitual

Particle before the verb: laŋ - laŋ shoŋ /laŋ shoŋ/ learn (often, habitually)

 

Numbers

  Yakɛmɔian has a base-12 number system:   1 - li
2 - she
3 - kwrɛ
4 - mlo
5 - ya
6 - ŋmaŋŋ
7 - jɔyo
8 - bɛx
9 - mɛ
10 - tseŋŋ
11 - ɛŋ
12 - ma
144 - kɔfema
1728 - mlɔheŋŋ
 

Derivational morphology

  Adjective → adverb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ŋ
Else: Suffix -iŋ
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Suffix -iŋ
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Suffix -ɛŋŋ
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ŋ
Else: Suffix -iŋ
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Suffix -ɔ
Noun to verb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ŋ
Else: Suffix -ɛŋ
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -m
Else: Suffix -im
Tending to = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ŋ
Else: Suffix -iŋ
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -em
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ŋ
Else: Suffix -eŋ
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Suffix -ɛŋŋ
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -da
Else: Suffix -ada
Diminutive = Suffix -ɔ
Augmentative = If ends with vowel: Suffix -n
Else: Suffix -in