Sinti

Natively known as: Sinti /sinˈti/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
ti yuja do dou mi shombo ti kwirsi mi iyku doka lo mbemba
Pronunciation: /ti juˈʒa do doˈu mi shomˈbo ti kwiɹˈsi mi ijˈku doˈka ɬo mbemˈba/
Sinti word order: and stood he holding hat his and turned his face wet to the wind

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: /b d f g h j k m mb n nd s t v w z ŋg ɓ ɗ ɥ ɬ ɹ ʃ ʄ ʒ ʣ ʦ/

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Labio-velar	Glottal
Nasal	m		n
Prenasalized stop	mb		nd			ŋg
Stop	b		t d			k g
Implosive	ɓ		ɗ		ʄ
Affricate			ʦ ʣ
Fricative		f v	s z	ʃ ʒ				h
Approximant			ɹ		j		w
Lateral fricative			ɬ

Vowel inventory: /a e i o u/

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

Syllable structure: (C)(C)V
Stress pattern: Ultimate — stress is on the last syllable
Word initial consonants: b, d, f, fɹ, g, h, j, k, kv, kw, m, mb, mb, n, nd, s, sb, sf, sh, sk, sn, st, t, v, w, z, ŋg, ɓ, ɗ, ɥ, ɬ, ɹ, ʃ, ʃz, ʃɹ, ʄ, ʒ, ʣ, ʦ, ʦz
Mid-word consonants: b, bd, bt, d, f, fɹ, g, gm, h, j, jk, k, kn, m, mb, n, nd, ns, nt, nv, s, st, t, tg, tk, ts, tw, v, w, z, ɓ, ɗ, ɥ, ɬ, ɹ, ɹm, ɹn, ɹs, ʃ, ʄ, ʒ, ʣ, ʦ
Word final consonants: N/A Phonological rules (in order of application):

• b→p / #_
• d→Ø / _#
• N→n / _#
• N→w / S_S

Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
j	y
ŋ	ng
ɓ	b
ɗ	ď
ɬ	l
ɹ	r
ʃ	sh
ʒ	j
ʣ	dz
ʦ	ts

Grammar

Main word order: Verb-Subject-Object-Oblique. "Mary opened the door with a key" turns into Opened Mary the door with a key.
Adjective order: Adjectives are positioned after the noun.
Adposition: prepositions

Noun

Singular	No affix kwiďa /kwiˈɗa/
Plural	Prefix ne- nekwiďa /nekwiˈɗa/

Nouns have two cases:
Ergative is the doer of a verb: dog bites man
The ergative affix only appears if there is an absolutive in the sentence
Absolutive is the done-to of a verb: man bites dog
Absolutives are always no affix

Ergative	Prefix ne- nekwiďa /nekwiˈɗa/
Absolutive	No affix kwiďa /kwiˈɗa/

Articles

Sinti has no definite article ‘the’, or indefinite article ‘a’.

Pronouns

	Ergative	Absolutive
1st singular	nda /nda/ I	sti /sti/ me
2nd singular	we /we/ you	le /ɬe/ you
3rd singular masc	do /do/ he, it	ri /ɹi/ him, it
3rd singular fem	fe /fe/ she, it	ne /ne/ her, it
1st plural	ti /ti/ we	shi /ʃi/ us
2nd plural	u /u/ you (all)	ɥi /ɥi/ you (all)
3rd plural	lo /ɬo/ they	mbi /mbi/ them

Possessive determiners

1st singular	a /a/ my
2nd singular	shre /ʃɹe/ your
3rd singular masc	mi /mi/ his, its
3rd singular fem	yu /ju/ her, its
1st plural	ɥi /ɥi/ our
2nd plural	nda /nda/ your
3rd plural	i /i/ their

Verbs

Present	No affix mbelu /mbeˈɬu/
Past	Prefix zi- zimbelu /zimbeˈɬu/
Future	Prefix ba- bambelu /bambeˈɬu/

Imperfective aspect

The ‘imperfective’ aspect refers to ongoing actions, such as I am studying, and habitual actions, such as I study (every night). It is indicated with the word:

Imperfect particle

fe /fe/ imperfect particle

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Prefix ɥi-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix ɥi-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix mi-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix mbi-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Prefix si-
Noun → verb (to create [noun]) = Prefix sho-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix do-
Verb → adjective (likely to do [verb]) = Prefix ba-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix ɓu-
Verb → noun that verb physically produces (e.g. build → building) = Prefix sfu-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Prefix we-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Prefix ba-
Diminutive = Prefix sno-
Augmentative = Prefix nda-

Dictionary

4330 Words.