Entegwa

This is the page about the Entegwa language. This language is part of the Yárima Bantu language group. This language has most in common in terms of vocabulary and some grammatical features with Entesi but it also has some aspects in common with Fangwa although this influence is less prevalent.The word order is SOV but it is head initial. One particular aspect that sets Entegwa apart from Entesi is the verb conjugation: Entegwa uses a pronoun prefix and a tense suffix whereas Entesi uses only suffixes, its is not clear if the Entegwa verb conjugation developed independently or if it developed form Entesi. The Entegwa expanded their territory to the south engulfing much of the lands where the Nashari and Zandi people, the languages of these peoples were also Yarima Bantu languages albeit from different branches these 2 languages went extinct but they left their mark in the southern dialects of Entegwa that emerged after the conquest of their lands by the Entegwa and Qolape. The Qolape language has also influenced the Entegwa language like also the Oseroa, the Fangwezi also the Fangwa languages all had some influence on the Entegwa language making the Entegwa language a special mix of all Yarima Bantu languages.

This is the first description of the language:

Pronouns
inzé = I

inú = you (sing)

iná = he/sh

itú = we

ivú = you (plural)

ivá = they

The pronouns also have short versions like in Entesi: nze = I, u = you, a = he/she, tu = we, vu = you (plur), va = they

The first person plural doesn't distinguish between inclusive and exclusive like Entesi and is in this respect more like Fangwa.

Verbs
In Entegwa all verbs end with the suffix  gu  like in the verb vona gu  = to see. The conjugation has 4 tenses (present, recent and remote past, future) and 3 aspects (perfect, past habitual and progressive continuous)

Tenses
nze vona ya  = I see (present)

nze vona di  = I saw (past)

nze vona la  = I will see (future)

Aspects
nze vona me  = I have seen (perfect)

nze vona ga  = I used to see (habitual past)

nze vona re  = I am seeing (progressive)

This system is elaborate but not all the conjugations are used in everyday speech, the progressive is being expressed as being 'in the act' of doing something: nze  nwe vona = I am seeing (lit: I am in the act of seeing). The progressive also has a past form in everyday speech: nze nwe vona di  = I was seeing (lit: I was in the act of seeing). The perfect can also be expressed though a construction: nze maya vona = I have seen ( maya  is the short form of the present tense of the verb  maza gu = to finish (the full form is '' mazaya.  There is also a past tense form: nze  madi vona = I had seen ( madi  is the short form of  mazadi '' (the full past tense form).

A special feature of Entegwa is that the third person prefix is not mandatory if there is a human subject at the beginning of the sentence, e.g.:

romemo a vonaya/romemo vonaya = the man sees

But when you put the class suffix in front of the verb it becomes a relative sentence: romemo movonaya = the man that sees.

Numbers
The Entegwa language is a language that used a base 5 but added numerals borrowed from other languages to keep the words used for higher numbers relatively simple. The main sources for borrowing words for numerals are Oseroa and Entesi.

1) mohe 2) bede 3) tasu 4) nyei 5) tonu 6) tonu no mohe 7) tonu no bede 8) tonu no taso 9) tonu no nyei 10) koma 100) gime 1000) gale 1000.000) fugo 

The numbers from 11 to 19 are formed in a similar way to Entesi : first comes the lesser numeral + 10

mohe no koma = 11 (lit: 1+10); bede no koma = 12; tasu no koma = 13;  nyei no koma = 14; tonu no koma = 15; mohe no tonu no koma (short form*: montonu no koma) = 16; bede no tonu no koma (short form*: bentonu no koma) = 17; taso no tonu no koma (short form*: tantonu no koma) = 18; nyei no tonu no koma (short form* : nyentonu no koma) = 19 (*the short forms are used in used in everyday speech)

The numbers between 10 and 50 are: koma bede = 20; koma taso = 30; koma nyei = 40; koma tonu = 50

The number for 60 was borrowed from Oseroa: konshande because the native form  koma tonu no koma  is too long and a bit confusing. But Oseroa uses base 6 to count and  Entegwa  uses base 10, so for that reason the numbers for 70, 80, 90 were borrowed from Entesi: somboma = 70; nonoma = 80; kendoma = 90.

The old constructions for 60 to 90 are still used in special ocasions, referring to people that reach a certain age as a sign of respect.

The same strategy was used for the multiples of 100 and 1000: the number for 200, 300, 400 and 500 are form using the native construction gime+numeral (2/3/4/5), the number for 600 was borrowed (with a sound change) from Oseroa, the numbers 700, 800, 900 were borrowed from ''Entesi. In the same way the numbers 2000, 3000, 4000 and 5000 are formed using the native method, the number 6000 was borrowed (with again a sound change) from Oseroa, and the numbers 7000, 8000, 9000 were borrowed from Entesi. ''

So gime bede = 200; gime tasu = 300; gime nyei = 400; gime tonu = 500; ginshande*  = 600 ( this form was coined from gime (100) and the Oseroa numeral for 6:  shande  ); somb ime  (borrowed from Entesi and the ending changed in analogy to  gime  {100}); nonime = 800; kendime = 900

gale bede = 2000; gale tasu = 3000; gale nyei = 4000; gale tonu = 5000;  galshande  = 6000 ( again this numeral was coined from gale and Oseroa  shande  (6); sombale = 7000; nonale = 8000; kendale = 9000.

fugo bede = 2000.000; fugo tasu = 3000.000; fugo nyei = 4000.000; fugo tonu = 5000.000;  fushande  = 6000.000 ( again borrowed from Oseroa with a sound change to fit the analogy of fugo ( 1000.000); sombugo = 7000.000; nonugo = 8000.000; kendugo = 9000.000 (borrowed from Entesi with a sound change to fit the analogy of the ending of fugo (1000.000).

Noun classes
Like all the other members of the Yárima Bantu-conlangs Entegwa also has a noun class system. Entegwa uses suffixes just like Entesi and this feature sets them apart from the other languages in this group like Fangwa, Oseroa and Fangwezi which all use prefixes.

The first class -mo/-va refers to humans, e.g, zhana mo  (lit. child- the {sing}) - zhana va  ( child- the {plur}) = the child - the children

The second class -ne/-de refers to animals/insects: enzha ne  - enzha de  = the dog - the dogs

The third class -mu/-mi refers to plants/fruits/vegetables, e.g. te mu  - te mi  = the tree - the trees

The fourth class -ge/-ve refers to inanimate objects/tools: tavo ge  - tavo ve  = the book - the books

The fifth class -ma refers to certain fluids, e.g. zhe ma  = the water

The sixth class refers also known as the verb class uses the suffix -go, e.g. vuga go  = to speak

The seventh class -vo/do denotes abstracts nouns: vona vo  - vona do  = the view/sight - the views/sights

The inessive noun class
Entegwa also han an inessive noun class that it shares with Entesi and Oseroa although the way that it is formed in Entegwa differs slightly.

Entegwa nemva = (a) house; nemvage = the house, nemvanwe = in a house (nwe is the inessive suffix); nemva nwe ge = in the house ( the inessive suffix goes before the noun class suffix). This differs from Entesi where the equivalent would be: nyomvákimoy (nyomva-ki-moy = house- noun class part-in), the noun class particle goes before the inessive particle.

Days of the week
The names of the days of the week are thought to derive from Fangwa since the correspondence is very obvious although it is thought to have come from the Fangwa that used to live in the North of the Fangwezi nation. The names of the week are:

gurialu = Sunday (the names of the days of the week are not written with capital letters as in English)

lunsalu = Monday

turalu = Tuesday

vugazhalu = Wednesday

yuwalu = Thursday

sohalu = Friday

jomalu = Saturday

The months of the year
Like the days of the week, the names of the months of the year bear a strong resemblance to the names in Fangwa, but unlike Fangwa the names are wirtten with small letters.

kwozi = January

rwami = February

nyowi = March

furisu = April

homboli = May

vyoli = June

yuvuri = July

shavu = August

tauru = September

dunosu = October

buvau = November

mvonzi = December

swobuvo = the week, mvezhi = month, ako = year

Vocabulary
Some of the vocabulary of Entegwa is also different to Entesi due to mainly the influence of Qolape and Oseroa. For example the word mburugi (pig) shows some clear influence of Qolape mborobe and is a less obvious cognate of Entesi ngorove although all these words have the same meaning. The Entegwa word is a clear example of metathesis since Oseroa has: ngulubi, Fangwa has nguruve and Fangwezi has ngurove alle these words meaning pig.

Although related to Entesi some of the vocabulary of Entegwa is also different like ngundo (cow), in Entesi it is ngomve

Sample text
romemo zhema (a)nuvaya = the man drinks water (man-human cl part. water-fluid cl. part (human cl)-drink-present tense)

Entegwashe tuvugaya = we speak Entegwa ( Entegwa-language class part. we-speak- present tense)