Lutta

General Information
The Lutta Language (natively Lua-ǂHera [lɯʔə ǂʰerə]) is a Luttan language spoken by the Lua-Hushen, the largest group of Luttish people who live on the western steppe inland of the central sea of Aetho.

Pulmonic Consonants
n, ny/ngy, ng, t, d, c, j, q, 0, ts, dz, tc, dj, s, z, sh, zh, x, h, f, fy, rh, l, y, ly, w, r
 * /n/, /ŋ/, /s/, /z/, /ɬ/, and /l/ become palatal consonants before /e/.
 * /t/, /d/, /c/, and /ɟ/ become the corresponding affricate before /u/.

Clicks
Due to Aethos not possessing a uvula, all clicks are pronounced with the back articulation in the pharynx. !, ǁ, ǂ, !h, ǁh, ǂh, n!, nǁ, nǂ

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 syllable /wu/ doesn't occur.
 * The post-alveolar and lateral clicks don't occur before /e/.
 * The following consonants may be geminated between vowels: /n/, /ŋ/, /t/, /c/, /k/, /s/, /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.

Tense
present, future, past

Mood
realis, irrealis

Voice
active, passive, causative, causative passive

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 -zheC, placed as the penultimate syllable, where C geminates the following consonant, if possible, or becomes a glottal stop.
 * qattesa "to cut, split" > qattezhessa
 * caqa "to eat" > cazheqqa
 * fyela "to say" > fyezhella
 * eǁula "to jump, hop" > eǁuzhella
 * fyea "to do" > fyezhea
 * udjua "to wiggle, shake" > udjuzhea
 * xungyea "to swim" > xungyezhea

There is also the ultrarespectful infix, -nasshe. For verbs with suppletive respectful forms, it is applied to the suppletive respectful form. There are few irregulars, including: rha "to be" > zhea, rhanasshea
 * qattesa > qattenasshesa
 * fyea > fyenasshea
 * rura > watcunnassherha

Placement
close, far