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".

Pronouns
The free standing pronoun is used just like any other noun (except that it cannot be modified by adjectives or clauses). When a free standing form of the pronoun is used it indicates that the pronoun is the topic of the sentence.

goo uri ngwano: I drink water (I is topic, rather than someone else) as opposed to uuri zangwano: I drink water (not oil or something else)

The posessive adjective is like any other adjective and agrees with the noun it possesses.

loduha likubenge: our speech

nigain ivwe: my dog

uri wihwe: your water

The posessive suffixes are used for inalienably posessed nouns, like family members or body parts.

oweza: my mother

nubucama: your (plural) fathers

zhiginkuba: our feet.

Loduha does not have proper third person pronouns, instead, the demonstratives in -fe are used.

zayafe: her/him

nuunfe: them

niinfe: it (class 3 object, usually an animal)

Interrogative and indefinite pronouns
The interrogative and indefinite pronouns are formed off of the same "de/do/dife" stem as the relative pronouns. However, their usage differs. Like the demonstratives they are suffixed with "fe" when being used as a noun and remain in their isolated form as adjectives

depwa: someone/no one (class 1) dishepwa:something/nothing (class 5) etc...

In a positive sentence, depwa means someone/ something. (depwa is usually used as the generic word for someone and dimpwa as the generic word for something. The other class variations are typically only used as modifiers)

zakaddo dimwafe: I saw something

zapikadde dimwafe: I didn't see anything

These words can also be used in an adjective like manner. In this case they are placed after the noun they described

nigeen depwa mbaco: some dog bit me.

The pwa words are never used as adjectives in negative sentences, instead, the numeral gwana (none/zero) is used

nigeen depwa bira pimbace*: No dog has ever bitten me (incorrect).

nigeen gwana  bira pimbace: No dog has ever bitten me (correct).

demyoi: anyone (class 1) dimmyoi: anything (class 7) etc...

dena: who? (class 1)  do: what? (class 10) etc...

Reflexive and reciprocal pronouns
zii: self, selves (used for reflexive actions). E zii: his own, her own, my own, etc... (indicates posessions of the subject of sentence)

dari: eachother (used for reciprocal actions) e.g: myaguto ava dari: they talked with eachother/ they talked amongst themselves

Direct-Inverse vowel change
In a direct sentence, the subject is higher on the animacy heirarchy than the object

inigen ngwano uri: The dog drinks water.

However, if the subject is lower on the animacy heirarchy than the object, then the sentence is in inverse form, and both the subject and the object have their final vowel changed to the inverse form.

mbaco nigeen okwa: The dog bites the man.

Since the first person pronoun is the very highest on the animacy hierarchy, an inverse sentence with no stated object will often be interpreted to have  a first person object (depending on context).

nigeen mbaco: The dog bit (me).

In an isolated question, the object of an objectless inverse sentence will often be interpreted as second person

ona nigeen mbaco?: Did the dog bite (you)?

The ommited object can be other things depending on the context as well.

oku nigen nkunavati maboppu nigeen mbaco: Even though the man set the dog free the dog still bit (him).

When both subject and object are the same animacy level, typically the topic is interpreted as the subject in the direct and object in the inverse.

umono owocezh avwe ozang: My friend loves her husband.

owozyang ocayazh avwe umono: My friend's husband loves her. *c stands for syllables with a coda.

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.

Adjectives
Adjectives are similar to verbs in that they conjugate and can function both as predicates and adnominals. However, unlike verbs, they must agree with what they modify in noun class.

Prepositions

 * mabo is the opposite of cika, and is used when something is better or greater than expected, e.g.

owozang zaya mabo yimi edawan belo: he's been to three countries (that's allot)

as opposed to owozang zaya ris mi edawan belo: he's only been to three countries

Particle e
The particle e is used to mean "of". It is used for genitive relationships but is not usually used to show ownership (though it can be). loduha e nuku: the speech of men kove e tos: lotus flower (flower of lotus plant)

First article of the declaration human rights
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Haas e unukumai  linvunee lopazo ba loshuukawi bansaara oo. Lopuza ba  lonyagakawi ava dari kida e nuvya paznu ugwanyung.