Ipabi (ˈipabi)

Natively known as: ipabi /ˈipabi/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
mi ipi imo ke satu xu mi siri ke saru ifu mako li
Pronunciation: /mi ˈipi ˈimo ke ˈsatu xu mi ˈsiri ke ˈsaru ˈifu ˈmako li /
Ipabi word order: and stood holding his hat he and turned his wet face the wind to

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b d f g j k l m n p r s t v x z

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal	m		n
Stop	p b		t d		k g
Fricative		f v	s z		x
Approximant				j
Trill			r
Lateral approximant			l

Vowel inventory: a e i o u

	Front	Back
High	i	u
High-mid	e	o
Low	a

Syllable structure: (C)V ?
Stress pattern: Initial — stress is on the first syllable ?
Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ʋ	w
ʔ	ʻ
aː	ā
eː	ē
iː	ī
oː	ō
uː	ū
̯

---

Grammar

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

Nouns

Nouns have three cases:

• Nominative is the doer of a verb: dog bites man.
• Accusative is the done-to of a verb: man bites dog.
• Genitive is the possessor of something: dog’s tail hits man.

Nouns form plural with separate plural word:

Plural

Particle before the noun: su - su lope /su ˈlope/ dogs

Nominative	No affix lope /ˈlope/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	Prefix lu- lulope /ˈlulope/ (verb done to) dog
Genitive	Prefix ze- zelope /ˈzelope/ dogʼs

Definite	No affix lope /ˈlope/ the dog
Indefinite	Prefix si- silope /ˈsilope/ a/some dog

Articles

Ipabi encodes definite article ‘the’, and indefinite article ‘a’ in noun affixes. See Noun section.

Pronouns

	Nominative	Accusative	Genitive
1st singular	pi /pi/ I	li /li/ me	o /o/ mine
2nd singular	ni /ni/ you	vu /vu/ you	lo /lo/ yours
3rd singular masc	xu /xu/ he, it (masc)	ku /ku/ his, it (masc)	ke /ke/ his, its (masc)
3rd singular fem	no /no/ she, it (fem)	lu /lu/ her, it (fem)	i /i/ hers, its (fem)
1st plural	mo /mo/ we	du /du/ us	su /su/ ours
2nd plural	le /le/ you all	va /va/ you all	me /me/ yours (pl)
3rd plural	di /di/ they	pe /pe/ them	pu /pu/ theirs

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	mi /mi/ my
2nd singular	vu /vu/ your
3rd singular masc	ke /ke/ his
3rd singular fem	ni /ni/ her
1st plural	za /za/ our
2nd plural	a /a/ your (pl)
3rd plural	po /po/ their

Verbs

Present	No affix uzo /ˈuzo/ learn
Past	Prefix so- souzo /ˈsouzo/ learned
Future	Prefix vu- vuuzo /ˈvuuzo/ will learn

Progressive aspect

The ‘progressive’ aspect refers to actions that are happening at the time of speaking, such as I am learning.
Ipabi uses an affix for progressive:

Progressive

Prefix ki- kiuzo /ˈkiuzo/ is learning

Habitual aspect

The ‘habitual’ aspect refers to actions that happen habitually, such as I learn (something new every day), as opposed to actions that happen once (I learned something).
Ipabi uses a standalone particle word for habitual:

Habitual

Particle before the verb: se - se uzo /se ˈuzo/ learns

Numbers

Ipabi has a base-10 number system:
1 - ve
2 - le
3 - pu
4 - su
5 - di
6 - kiba
7 - lo
8 - se
9 - diju
10 - va
100 - pifi
1000 - kuxi

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Prefix ki-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix la-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix ze-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix su-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Prefix po-
Noun to verb = Prefix mi-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix mu-
Tending to = Prefix de-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix mo-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Prefix pa-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Prefix le-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Prefix mu-
Diminutive = Prefix va-
Augmentative = Prefix pe-

Dictionary

3064 Words.