Yiwe

Natively known as: yiːweː /ˈjiːweː/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
ɓu jiː ʄuːs wiː suez ɣaː ɓu wiː ɗus wan daː wus ɗeɗ
Pronunciation: /ɓu ʤiː ʄuːs wiː ˈsuez ɣaː ɓu wiː ɗus wan daː wus ɗeɗ/
Yiːweːian word order: and he stood his hat holding and his wet face turned the wind to   Purely a spoken language

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b d j k m n p s t w z ɓ ɗ ɣ ʄ ʤ ʧ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal	m	n
Stop	p b	t d			k
Implosive	ɓ	ɗ		ʄ
Affricate			ʧ ʤ
Fricative		s z			ɣ
Approximant				j

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: a aː e eː i iː o oː u uː

	Front	Back
High	i iː	u uː
High-mid	e eː	o oː
Low	a aː

Syllable structure: (C)V(C) ?
Stress pattern: Penultimate — stress is on the second last syllable ?
Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
bʱ	bh
ᵑǀʱ	ngc
ᵑǃʱ	ngq
ᵑǂʱ	ngx
ɲʧʼ	ntsh
ʧʼ	tsh
ᶢǃʱ	gq
ᶢǂʱ	gx
ᶢǀʱ	gc
ᵑǂ	nx
ǂʰ	xh
ᵑǃ	nq
kʰ	kh
ǃʰ	qh
ǃ	q
ǂ	x
ŋk	nk
ᵑǀ	nc
ǀʰ	ch
ǀ	c
ɮ	dl
j	y
ɲʤ	nj
ʤ	j
ɲ	ny
ɦ	hh
ɬ	hl
pʰ	ph
ʃ	sh
tʰ	th
ʦʼ	ts
ɒ	a
ɛ	e
ɔ	o

---

Grammar

Main word order: Subject Object Verb (Prepositional phrase). “Mary opened the door with a key” turns into Mary the door opened with a key.
Adjective order: Adjectives are positioned before the noun.
Adposition: postpositions ?

Nouns

Nouns have two cases:

• Ergative is the doer of a verb, when the verb is done to something: dog bites man.
• Absolutive is used in two scenarios: the doer of a verb when not done to something (dog bites), and the done-to of a verb (man bites dog).

	Ergative	Absolutive
Singular	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ɓuː Else: Suffix -oːɓuː teɗoːɓuː /teˈɗoːɓuː/ dog (doing a transitive verb)	No affix teɗ /teɗ/ dog (doing an intransitive verb)
Plural	Suffix -ob teɗob /ˈteɗob/ dogs (doing a transitive verb)	If ends with vowel: Suffix -b Else: Suffix -uːb teɗuːb /ˈteɗuːb/ dogs (doing an intransitive verb)

Articles

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	yeː /jeː/ the	jaː /ʤaː/ a
Plural	ɗuː /ɗuː/ the	ʧuːz /ʧuːz/ some

Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Used for languages: ‘The English’

Uses of indefinite article that differ from English:

• Not used for non-specific countable nouns: non-specific means ‘I am looking for a (any) girl in a red dress’, whereas specific means ‘I am looking for a (particular) girl in a red dress’
• Not used for non-specific mass (uncountable) nouns: non-specific means ‘Would you like some (any) tea?’ whereas specific means ‘Some tea (a specific amount) fell off the truck’

Pronouns

	Ergative	Absolutive
1st singular	ɗe /ɗe/ I	de /de/ me
2nd singular	si /si/ you	ɓuːb /ɓuːb/ you
3rd singular masc	jiː /ʤiː/ he, it (masc)	ɓuː /ɓuː/ his, it (masc)
3rd singular fem	ɗi /ɗi/ she, it (fem)	zik /zik/ her, it (fem)
1st plural	ɗeɓ /ɗeɓ/ we	yeːʄ /jeːʄ/ us
2nd plural	buː /buː/ you all	woːz /woːz/ you all
3rd plural	yoːs /joːs/ they	wu /wu/ them

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	yoː /joː/ my
2nd singular	ɗi /ɗi/ your
3rd singular masc	wiː /wiː/ his
3rd singular fem	ɗiː /ɗiː/ her
1st plural	ɓu /ɓu/ our
2nd plural	ɓiː /ɓiː/ your (pl)
3rd plural	ɣa /ɣa/ their

Verbs

	Present	Past	Future
1st person	Suffix -uː ɗeːjuː /ˈɗeːʤuː/ (I/we) learn	Suffix -ep ɗeːjep /ˈɗeːʤep/ (I/we) learned	Suffix -on ɗeːjon /ˈɗeːʤon/ (I/we) will learn
2nd person	If ends with vowel: Suffix -kjaː Else: Suffix -aːkjaː ɗeːjaːkyaː /ɗeːˈʤaːkjaː/ (you/you all) learn	Suffix -i ɗeːji /ˈɗeːʤi/ (you/you all) learned	Suffix -u ɗeːju /ˈɗeːʤu/ (you/you all) will learn
3rd person	Suffix -oːb ɗeːjoːb /ˈɗeːʤoːb/ (he/she/it/they) learn(s)	If ends with vowel: Suffix -nkuː Else: Suffix -eːnkuː ɗeːjeːnkuː /ɗeːˈʤeːnkuː/ (he/she/it/they) learned	If ends with vowel: Suffix -p Else: Suffix -up ɗeːjup /ˈɗeːʤup/ (he/she/it/they) will learn

Numbers

Yiːweːian has a base-10 number system:
1 - yak
2 - zuːʄ
3 - ɗun
4 - zeːɓ
5 - ɣe
6 - wuːw
7 - yiː
8 - siːɓ
9 - ɗeː
10 - daj
100 - ʧaʄ
1000 - ɗiuː

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Suffix -aː
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Suffix -eː
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -nka
Else: Suffix -inka
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -k
Else: Suffix -eːk
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Suffix -oː
Noun to verb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -z
Else: Suffix -oːz
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Suffix -uʤ
Tending to = Suffix -uɗ
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -n
Else: Suffix -aːn
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Suffix -iː
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʄ
Else: Suffix -oʄ
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Suffix -eːk
Diminutive = Suffix -oː
Augmentative = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ɗ
Else: Suffix -uːɗ

Dictionary

3032 Words.

Spoken by

• Genzinese