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 6 nouns that refer to people of a certain profession. Examples: nuku: people nubilha: leader

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 some tools. Examples: muriam: tree mukodo: hammock