Likubenge loduha

Vowels
Romanization listed below IPA in tables.

Phonotactics
All consonants may occur at the onset of a syllable except /ʔ/ and /ŋ/. All possible onsets may be prenasalized (unless they are already nasal consonants), this is indicated by a preceding n. /nt/, /nj/, and /n!/ are all permitted. All consonants in an onset may be followed by a /j/ or /w/. /fj/, /ǂʰw/, and /!j/ are all permitted (though /jw/ and /wj/ are not. All stops and fricatives may be geminated except /ʔ/. Gemination is indicated by writing the letter of a consonant twice, /t:/ is written tt. Geminate consonants may occur in onsets. Onsets are not required for syllables. The rime of a syllable consists of a single vowel, long or short. All syllables must have rimes. There are no diphthongs. The coda of a syllable may be /s/, /ʃ/, /n/, /m/, /ŋ/, /f/, or /ʔ/. There may be only one consonant in the coda. The coda of a syllable triggers centralization of the vowel. /a/ becomes /ə/, /i/ becomes /ɪ/, e becomes /ɛ/, o becomes /ɔ/, and u becomes /ʊ/. Long vowels become centralized diphthongs, /i:/ becomes /iɪ/, /o:/ becomes /oɔ/, etc. A syllable final /ʔ/ will geminate any following stop, /kəʔpa/ would become /kəp:a/. When an /a/ or /a:/ is followed by an /i/, it combines into /e/ and when followed by an /u/ it combines into /o/. Before /e/ and /o/, it is elided. /a/ will sometimes elide before /i/ and /u/ as well. such situations will be clarified in the grammar. Thus, /kapa: ini/ becomes /kapeni/ and /kapa unu/ becomes /kaponu/. /kapa ene/ would become kapene and kapa ono would become /kapono/. Two vowels always coalesce into one long vowel. /kapa ana/ and /kapa: ana/ would both become /kapa:na/ /i/ becomes /j/ before another vowel and /i:/ becomes /ij/ before another vowel in most situations. However, they may also simply elided. Thus /kapi ana/ would become /kapyana/. /u/ and /u:/ become /w/ and /uw/ in the same fashion. /o/ and /o:/ becomes /ow/ and /o:w/ before other vowels, though they may sometimes be elided instead /e/ and /e:/ become /ej/ and /e:j/ before vowels, though they may sometimes be elided instead. Orthographic ambiguities A syllable final /n/ is written as n' whenever it is followed by a consonant, to make it clear that it is part of the preceding syllable and not a prenasalized part of the following syllable. Thus, kantu would be pronounced /ka-ntu/ but kan'tu would be pronounced /kən-tu/

Nouns
There are 17 noun classes. Nearly every part of the sentence except the adverb agrees with the class of its associated noun. Class 1:

Class 1 is used mostly for animate human nouns, such as oku: person. It is also used for all names

Class 2: Class 2 forms the plural of all class 1 nouns and class 8 nouns that refer to people of a certain profession. Examples: nuku: people nubilha: leaders

Class 3: Class 3 is the class used for animals, certain foreign loanwords,  and most complex machinery: Eamples: nihoigi: computer nizawa: deer

Class 4: Class 4 forms the plurals of class 3 nouns. It is one of the least common classes, some speakers preffering to use class 9 to form plurals of these nouns instead. Examples: kuhoigi: computers kuzawa: deer (plural)

Class 5 is an oddball class, used for some tools, body parts, inanimate objects, and several artefacts of nature. Examples: shigin: foot shicaas: pot

Class 6: Class 6 forms the plural of class 5 nouns, and also holds several exclusively plural nouns within it. Examples: zhigin: feet zhigono: hair (always plural)

Class 7: Class 7 is used for most plants and a variety of inanimate objects, in addition to most loanwords. The class prefix varies and often influences the consonant following it. tools. Examples: nram: tree kodo (fegodo): hammock(s)

Class 8 is used for certain professions, shops and markets, and various inanimate objects. When a class 8 noun refers to a person, it takes a class 2 plural, otherwise, the plural is class 9. Examples: ebilha: leader, chief egabi: blacksmith, blacksmithery etwa: bowl

Class 9 is used as the plural for class 8, class 7, and occasionally class 3, and typically the plural for foreign nouns. Examples: fegodo: hammocks fetwa: bowls fezawa: deer (rather than kuzawa)

Class 10 is used for most uncountable nouns. It is also used to form the names of substances derived from a countable noun. Examples: uri: water uram: wood

Class 11 is used for most abstract nouns. Many class 11 nouns are derived from nouns. Examples: lokaro: sight lonkyaro: sensation

Class 12 is used to form the infinitive of a verb and is used often in specific syntactical constructions.

Relative pronouns
The relative pronouns consist of a prefix and a "d" suffix which agrees with the noun it describes nigain eede uri ngwano: the dog who drinks water

uri yado ngwano: water which is drunk

fegodo myedife kobitenno: The hammocks we sat in

egabi hode zaqiiyo: The blacksmithery I am going to

etwa chide hungwano: The bowl you drink with

nigain avade zasaado: the dog I ran with

loko ibezllo kobibelo: the place from which we came

waa, loko hode kobiqiiyomo: oh, the places we'll go

Demonstratives
The demonstrative by itself means "that". It can come before or after the noun it modifies. It agrees in noun class with what it modfies.

ode zaya: that woman.

The demonstrative followed by gi means "this".

niingi nigain: this dog.

The demonstrative followed by ma means "that by you".

oku zayama: that person by you.

The demonstrative followed by "fe" stands by itself as a noun. Adjectives and other parts of speech agree with the demonstrative as they would with a regular noun of the same class.

enefe: that (class 8 noun)

enefe yigweze: that dry one (class 8 noun. Notice how gweze takes the class 8 adjective prefix to agree with "ene".

Predicative
The predicative form forms the argument of the main clause

ngwano uri so nigain : The dog drinks water

The volitional and irrealis forms of the verb are also predicative

Atributive
The attributive is used to describe nouns which are the subject of the verb. Unlike true adjectives, the attributive does not take noun class agreement with the noun it describes and must come before the noun it describes.

uri so ngwanu nigain ledion belomo: The dog which drinks water will come here.