Holy Tongue Ngaafaa: The Order Tongue

Natively known as: ngaafaa /ˈᵑgaːfaː/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
haa mii iilaa suu fomuu apu haa suu tohee oohiipaa ku lakho fo
Pronunciation: /haː miː ˈiːlaː suː ˈfomuː ˈapu haː suː ˈtoheː oːˈhiːpaː ku ˈlaxo fo/
N̂gaafaan word order: and he stood his hat holding and his wet face turned the wind to

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: f h k l m p r s t w x ç ŋ ᵐb ᵑg ⁿd

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m				ŋ
Stop	p ᵐb		t ⁿd		k ᵑg
Fricative		f	s	ç	x	h
Trill			r
Lateral approximant			l

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	uː u
High-mid	e eː	o oː
Low	aː a

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

Pronunciation	Spelling
ŋ	ng
ⁿd	nd
ᵑg	n̂g
ᵐb	mb
ç	sh
x	kh
Vː	VV

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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 seven 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).
• Genitive is the possessor of something: dog’s tail hits man.
• Dative is the recipient of something: man gives ball to dog.
• Locative is the location of something: man is in town.
• Ablative is movement away from something: man walks from town.
• Instrumental is the use of something: man writes with (using) pen.

Ergative	Prefix haː- haaapi /haːˈapi/ dog (doing a transitive verb)
Absolutive	Prefix mi- miapi /miˈapi/ dog (doing an intransitive verb)
Genitive	Prefix siː- siiapi /siːˈapi/ dogʼs
Dative	Prefix ⁿde- ndeapi /ⁿdeˈapi/ to dog
Locative	Prefix ᵑgo- n̂goapi /ᵑgoˈapi/ near/at/by dog
Ablative	Prefix pu- puapi /puˈapi/ from dog
Instrumental	Prefix se- seapi /seˈapi/ with/using dog

Singular	Prefix ᵐbaː- mbaaapi /ᵐbaːˈapi/ dog
Plural	Prefix ti- tiapi /tiˈapi/ dogs

Articles

Definite	fo /fo/ the
Indefinite	pu /pu/ a, some

Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Used to talk about countable nouns in general: English’s ‘I like cats’ would translate to ‘I like the cats’
• Used for languages: ‘The English’
• Used with place names: ‘The London’

Uses of indefinite article that differ from English:

• 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

	1st singular	2nd singular	3rd singular	1st plural	2nd plural	3rd plural
Ergative	see /seː/ I	i /i/ you	mii /miː/ he, she, it	u /u/ we	ndii /ⁿdiː/ you all	paa /paː/ they
Absolutive	n̂gee /ᵑgeː/ me	ki /ki/ you	o /o/ his, her, it	so /so/ us	ee /eː/ you all	sii /siː/ them
Genitive	mboo /ᵐboː/ mine	tu /tu/ yours	mi /mi/ his, hers, its	sa /sa/ ours	mba /ᵐba/ yours (pl)	n̂gaa /ᵑgaː/ theirs
Dative	khu /xu/ to me	pe /pe/ to you	mo /mo/ to his, to her, to it	ndee /ⁿdeː/ to us	me /me/ to you all	mee /meː/ to them
Locative	ii /iː/ to me	mu /mu/ to you	mbe /ᵐbe/ to his, to her, to it	lii /liː/ to us	lo /lo/ to you all	li /li/ to them
Ablative	fo /fo/ from me	uu /uː/ from you	mbuu /ᵐbuː/ from his, from her, from it	fee /feː/ from us	aa /aː/ from you all	maa /maː/ from them
Instrumental	kaa /kaː/ with/using me	si /si/ with/using you	pii /piː/ with/using his, with/using her, with/using it	fi /fi/ with/using us	ta /ta/ with/using you all	khaa /xaː/ with/using them

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	n̂go /ᵑgo/ my
2nd singular	muu /muː/ your
3rd singular	suu /suː/ his, her, its
1st plural	po /po/ our
2nd plural	mi /mi/ your (pl)
3rd plural	kii /kiː/ their

Verbs

	Present	Past
1st person	Prefix siː- siiaakaa /siːˈaːkaː/ (I/we) learn	Prefix ka- kaaakaa /kaˈaːkaː/ (I/we) learned
2nd person	Prefix pe- peaakaa /peˈaːkaː/ (you/you all) learn	Prefix lo- loaakaa /loˈaːkaː/ (you/you all) learned
3rd person	Prefix la- laaakaa /laˈaːkaː/ (he/she/it/they) learn(s)	Prefix soː- sooaakaa /soːˈaːkaː/ (he/she/it/they) learned

N̂gaafaan uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: mo - mo aakaa /mo ˈaːkaː/ will learn

Perfect aspect

The perfect aspect in English is exemplified in ‘I have read this book’, which expresses an event that took place before the time spoken but which has an effect on or is in some way still relevant to the present.
N̂gaafaan uses an affix for the perfect aspect:

Perfect

Prefix miː- miiaakaa /miːˈaːkaː/ have learned

Numbers

N̂gaafaan has a base-10 number system:
1 - ta
2 - khi
3 - mo
4 - ko
5 - mii
6 - la
7 - n̂ga
8 - tiise
9 - anga
10 - maawaa
100 - piri
1000 - n̂gu

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Prefix xi-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix hu-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix se-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix ti-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Prefix xo-
Noun to verb = Prefix ᵐbiː-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix hi-
Tending to = Prefix fi-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix pi-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Prefix me-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Prefix lo-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Prefix ᵐbo-
Diminutive = Prefix mu-
Augmentative = Prefix soː-

As Above So Below As Within So Without Logo by Khali A. Crawford

Grandmaster SixPathsSage

Khali Crawford

   

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Dictionary

3070 Words.