| Aminabi | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type | Isolating | ||||||||||||
| Alignment | Ergative | ||||||||||||
| Head direction | Initial | ||||||||||||
| Tonal | Yes | ||||||||||||
| Declensions | Yes | ||||||||||||
| Conjugations | Yes | ||||||||||||
| Genders | 4 | ||||||||||||
| Nouns decline according to... | |||||||||||||
| Case | Number | ||||||||||||
| Definiteness | Gender | ||||||||||||
| Verbs conjugate according to... | |||||||||||||
| Voice | Mood | ||||||||||||
| Person | Number | ||||||||||||
| Tense | Aspect | ||||||||||||
| Meta-information | |||||||||||||
| Progress | 0% | ||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| Creator | Pat5005 | ||||||||||||
Introduction[]
This language is an experiement to help me, the creator, Pat5005, learn/teach myself ergativity, tone, and complex gender classification within a simple language with an incredibly simple phonology. All consonants are voiced, so the theory is that the entirety of a sentence/word would include the vibration of vocal chords. There are 11 consonants and 3 vowels, a total of 14 sounds and letters.
Phonology[]
Consonants[]
| Bilabial | Labio-dental | Alveolar | Post-alveolar | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ||||
| Plosive | b | d | g | ʔ | ||
| Fricative | v | z | ʒ | |||
| Flap or tap | ɾ | |||||
| Lateral app. | l |
Vowels[]
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| High | i | |
| High-mid | o | |
| Low | a |
All vowels are always the same length.
Phonotactics[]
Writing System[]
| Letter | a | m | i | n | b | d | g | q | v | z | j | r | l | o |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sound | /a/ | /m/ | /i/ | /n/ | /b/ | /d/ | /g/ | /ʔ/ | /v/ | /z/ | /ʒ/ | /ɾ/ | /l/ | /o/ |
Grammar[]
Nouns[]
All nouns but one begin with a-. This noun, closest in definition to that of "breath," begins with an i- and is "ira" pronounced /,i.ɾa/.
Noun Gender[]
So there are technically 4 genders: in, out, left, & right. However, the native speakers of Aminabi evolved with the understanding that there are iniherently 5 ways Source energy expresses itself throughout Creation, and these include: Masculine Formless, Feminine Formless, Formed Masculine, Formed Feminine, and Etheric Androgyne. This 5th expression, they believe, is not only the combination of all 4 previous expressions, but also their total absense. Thus, the 4 genders are also given a 5th gender: sppherical nouns. When thenative speakers of Aminabi bagan naming things, they intuitively gave sperical names an entirely different gender: the very absense of gender.
Thus, when marking gender in Aminabi, the tone of the word is what changes.
Verbs[]
Syntax[]
Lexicon[]
A[]
apple/sphere: aba
B[]
breath/air/motion/rhythm: ira
C[]
cup/chalice: aga
E[]
earth/ground/rock/stone: ama
F[]
fire (see tree)
friend/equal/sibling: ara
L[]
light/line: ada
love/attraction/gravity: ala
P[]
person/body/group: aza
pet/animal friend: aja
S[]
spirit: aqa
sun/star: ana
T[]
tree/fire: ava