Lutta

General Information
The Lutta Language (natively Lua-ǂHera [lɯʔə ǂʰerə]) is a Luttan language spoken by the Lua-Hushen.

Vowels

 * /e/:æ~e~ɪ
 * /u/:ɨ~ɯ~ɯ̽
 * /a/:ə~ä~ɑ̽

Phonotactics
CV(N)

/N/ is a nasal homorganic to the following consonant. It is not found before clicks.

The following CV syllables don't occur: /ne/, /ŋe/, /tu/, /du/, /cu/, /ɟu/, /se/, /ze/, /ɬe/, /le/, /wu/, /!e/, /!ʰe/, /ᵑ!ˀe/, /ǁʰe/, or /ᵑǁˀe/

The following consonants may be geminated between vowels: /n/, /ŋ/, /t/, /c/, /k/, /ts/, /tɕ/, /s/, /ɕ/, /ɹ/, and /l/

Nouns
Lutta has no grammatical gender, case, number, or definiteness. However, nouns can take many derivational affixes, and new nouns are frequently coined. For example, some common collectivizing suffixes are -n!a and -jawe found in hushen!a "a lot of people/people in general" and qarajawe "a lot of kids/kids in general".

Verbs
Verbs are conjugated for voice, mood, tense, formality, and placement.

Formality
There are two methods of making respectful verbforms. The first is suppletively, as in !an!a "to click" > !uǂella or rura "to copulate, mate" > watcunrha. The second is with the infix -zeC, placed as the penultimate syllable, where C geminates the following consonant, if possible, and disappears.
 * qattesa "to cut, split" > qattezessa
 * caqa "to eat" > cazeqqa
 * fyela "to say" > fyezella
 * eǁula "to jump, hop" > eǁuzella

This infix is strangely effected by consonants that arose do to their proximity to certain vowels. In effect, it becomes -Vze[ʔ], where V is the original vowel which was deleted.
 * rha "to be" > rhazea
 * fya "to do" > fyezea
 * udja "to wiggle, shake" > udjuzea
 * xungya "to swim" > xungyezea

There is also the ultrarespectful infix, -nasse. For verbs with suppletive respectful forms, it is applied to the suppletive respectful form. There are few irregulars, including: rha "to be" > rhazea, rhanassea
 * qattesa > qattenassesa
 * fya > fyenassea
 * rura > watcunnasserha