Kamanuk

LANGUAGE FAMILY: QILDABIC
# SPEAKERS / WORLD RANKING: 50K / #72
SPOKEN IN: Ald Cyngric - 50K
PERIOD OF USE:
SCRIPT USED:
PARENT LANGUAGE:

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"...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind..."
Translation: ghekʷ i hom dlhobü dik vüdl ghekʷ sümizdl dik rersim qhüni va dlhömüm
Pronunciation: ghekʷ i hɔm tlhɔˈwu tik vutl ghekʷ suˈmiztl tik rerˈsim qhuˈni va tlhɵˈmum

Kamanuk word order: and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: /b c d f g h j k kʷ l m n p q r s t tʰ v w x z ɬ ɮ ʃ ʔ ʦʰ ʧ ʧʰ/

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	m		n
Stop	p b		t tʰ d		c	k kʷ g	q	ʔ
Affricate			ʦʰ	ʧ ʧʰ
Fricative		f v	s z	ʃ		x		h
Approximant					j
Trill			r
Lateral fricative			ɬ ɮ
Lateral approximant			l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: /a e i u ɔ ɵ ʊ/

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Near-high			ʊ
High-mid	e	ɵ
Low-mid			ɔ
Low	a

Syllable structure: Custom defined
Stress pattern: Ultimate — stress is on the last syllable
Word initial consonants: b, ch, d, gh, h, j, k, kh, l, m, n, ng, p, q, qh, r, s, t, tlh, v, w
Mid-word consonants: ff, gt, gts, gtʰ, gʧ, j, m, mg, mn, ms, mt, mʧ, n, nʦʰ, rs, rsg, rt, rtɮ, rw, rʃ, rʦʰ, s, sg, sn, sr, ss, stʰ, sɮ, tg, tw, tɮ, tʰg, tʰɮ, w, ws, wtʰ, wx, wɮ, wʃ, wʦʰ, wʧʰɮ, ɮs, ɮt
Word final consonants: ch, cz, h, hl, ht, j, k, kʷ, l, m, n, nt, p, ql, s, t, tl, ts, tz, tɬ, tʃ, w, ztl, ʃ, ʔ
Phonological changes (in order of application):

• i → ∅ / a_

Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
w	b
t	d / !_ʰ
tʰ	t
ʧʰ	ch
ʧ	ch
ʦʰ	c
ʦ	c
kʰ	k
ɮ	l
ʃ	sh
ɔ	o
ɵ	ö
pʰ	p
u	ü
ʊ	u
j	y
ʲ	∅

Grammar

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

Nouns

	Animate	Inanimate
Singular	If starts with vowel: Prefix tlh- Else: Prefix tlhʊ- dlhulo /tlhʊˈlɔ/	Prefix ɔ- ovadl /ɔˈvatl/
Plural	Prefix ghʊ- ghulo /ghʊˈlɔ/	If starts with vowel: Prefix t- Else: Prefix ti- divadl /tiˈvatl/

Articles

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	dlho /tlhɔ/ the	ro /rɔ/ a
Plural	ka /ka/ the	vam /vam/ some

Pronouns

1st singular	di /ti/ I, me, mine
2nd singular	ru /rʊ/ you, yours
3rd singular	i /i/ he, she, him, her, his, hers, it, its
1st plural	ngi /ngi/ we, us, ours
2nd plural	bo /wɔ/ you all, yours (pl)
3rd plural	ghaʔ /ghaʔ/ they, them, theirs

Possessive determiners

1st singular	dlhedsh /tlhetʃ/ my
2nd singular	dlho /tlhɔ/ your
3rd singular	dik /tik/ his, her, its
1st plural	ghühl /ghuhl/ our
2nd plural	dlha /tlha/ your (pl)
3rd plural	ro /rɔ/ their

Verbs

	Present	Past	Future
1st singular	Prefix we- bedlhasa /wetlhaˈsa/ (I) learn	Prefix gha- ghadlhasa /ghatlhaˈsa/ (I) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix w- Else: Prefix we- bedlhasa /wetlhaˈsa/ (I) will learn
2nd singular	If starts with vowel: Prefix t- Else: Prefix ta- dadlhasa /tatlhaˈsa/ (you) learn	Prefix e- edlhasa /etlhaˈsa/ (you) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix v- Else: Prefix va- vadlhasa /vatlhaˈsa/ (you) will learn
3rd singular	If starts with vowel: Prefix gh- Else: Prefix ghɔ- ghodlhasa /ghɔtlhaˈsa/ (he/she/it) learns	If starts with vowel: Prefix tlh- Else: Prefix tlhu- dlhüdlhasa /tlhutlhaˈsa/ (he/she/it) learned	Prefix i- idlhasa /itlhaˈsa/ (he/she/it) will learn
1st plural	If starts with vowel: Prefix r- Else: Prefix rʊ- rudlhasa /rʊtlhaˈsa/ (we) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix gh- Else: Prefix ghe- ghedlhasa /ghetlhaˈsa/ (we) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix t- Else: Prefix ti- didlhasa /titlhaˈsa/ (we) will learn
2nd plural	Prefix wi- bidlhasa /witlhaˈsa/ (you all) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix w- Else: Prefix wɔ- bodlhasa /wɔtlhaˈsa/ (you all) learned	Prefix ghi- ghidlhasa /ghitlhaˈsa/ (you all) will learn
3rd plural	Prefix wɵ- bödlhasa /wɵtlhaˈsa/ (they) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix tlh- Else: Prefix tlhi- dlhidlhasa /tlhitlhaˈsa/ (they) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix p- Else: Prefix pi- pidlhasa /pitlhaˈsa/ (they) will learn

Numbers

Kamanuk has a base-20 number system:
1 - süd
2 - dlhödl
3 - ghids
4 - bun
5 - dlhi
6 - du
7 - dlhü
8 - dlha
9 - qim
10 - ngids
11 - dlhossüdz
12 - sab
13 - dlhömidl
14 - böldim
15 - bonokʷ
16 - ghasi
17 - vümcha
18 - losömöd
19 - chöi
20 - böy
21 - süd ghekʷ böy “one and twenty”
400 - dich “fourhundred”
401 - dich süd “fourhundred one”
800 - dlhödl dich “two fourhundred”
8000 - bödl “eightthousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Prefix u-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix gh- Else: Prefix ghu-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix ɔ-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix ʊ-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Prefix u-
Noun to verb = Prefix u-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix gh- Else: Prefix ghʊ-
Tending to = If starts with vowel: Prefix tlh- Else: Prefix tlhi-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix tlh- Else: Prefix tlhi-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If starts with vowel: Prefix v- Else: Prefix vi-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Prefix ɵ-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If starts with vowel: Prefix t- Else: Prefix ti-
Diminutive = If starts with vowel: Prefix tlh- Else: Prefix tlhe-
Augmentative = If starts with vowel: Prefix ng- Else: Prefix ngi-

Dictionary

4446 Words.