Yagupian

As seen in

Natively known as: yǎgǔp /jɑˈgʉp/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
beh za bäd tsiyza bi yǎa beh gawdza ädz bäd mäb chuts he[alt]
Pronunciation: /beh ʒa bəd ʦijˈʒa bi jɑˈa beh gɔdˈʒa əʣ bəd məb ʧuʦ he/
Yagupian word order: and he his hat holding stood and the wind to his wet face turned[/alt]

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b d g h j k l m m͡b p q r t w ç ŋ ŋ͡g ɢ ʁ ʃ ʎ ʒ ʝ ʣ ʤ ʦ ʧ χ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	m				ŋ
Stop	p b	t d			k g	q ɢ
Affricate		ʦ ʣ	ʧ ʤ
Fricative			ʃ ʒ	ç ʝ		χ ʁ	h
Approximant				j
Trill		r
Lateral approximant		l		ʎ

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: a e i o u ɑ ɔ ə ʉ

	Front	Central	Back
High	i	ʉ	u
High-mid	e		o
Mid		ə
Low-mid			ɔ
Low	a		ɑ

Syllable structure: (C)V(C)
Stress pattern: Second — stress is on the second syllable
Word initial consonants: b g h j m m͡b q t w ç ŋ ŋ͡g ʁ ʒ ʝ ʦ ʧ χ
Mid-word consonants: b bj bl br bʁ bʃ d dd dj dm dr dt dw dʒ dʤ g gd gh gk gl gm gr gʒ h hb hd hj hl hr ht hw j jb jd jm jt jʎ jʒ k kd kh kk kl km kr kw kʁ kʃ l lg lk ll lm lr lw lʤ m mg mh mj mt mʃ mʒ m͡b p pj pl pm pp pr pw pʃ q qt r rb rg rh rj rp rr rw rʃ rʒ rʧ t tb td tg tl tm tp tr tç tʁ tʤ w wl ww ç çl ŋ ŋg ŋj ŋk ŋl ŋm ŋp ŋt ŋʝ ŋ͡g ɢ ʁ ʁb ʁg ʁk ʁl ʁw ʁç ʁʃ ʁʒ ʃ ʃb ʃh ʃk ʃl ʃm ʃp ʃr ʎ ʎʎ ʒ ʒb ʒd ʒj ʒl ʒm ʝ ʝj ʣ ʤ ʤl ʤm ʤr ʦ ʦl ʦç ʧ ʧg ʧm χ
Word final consonants: b d g h k m m͡b p q t w ç ŋ ŋ͡g ɢ ʁ ʃ ʎ ʝ ʣ ʤ ʦ ʧ χ
Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ɔ	aw
ɑ	ǎ
ə	ä
ʉ	ǔ
j	y
ʃ	sh
ŋ	ng
ʒ	z
ʤ	j
ʣ	dz
ʦ	ts
ʧ	ch
χ	kh
ɢ	ĝ
ʝ	ŷ
ʁ	r̂
ʎ	y̌
ç	sĥ

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Grammar

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

Nouns

Nouns have seven 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.
• Dative is the recipient of something: man gives ball to dog.
• Locative is the location of something: man goes to town.
• Ablative is movement away from something: man walks from town.
• Instrumental is the use of something: man writes with (using) pen.

Nominative	No affix gejlǔ /geˈʤlʉ/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	Suffix -o gejlǔo /geˈʤlʉo/ (verb done to) dog
Genitive	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʤ Else: Suffix -ɔʤ gejlǔj /geˈʤlʉʤ/ dogʼs
Dative	If ends with vowel: Suffix -b Else: Suffix -ʉb gejlǔb /geˈʤlʉb/ to (the/a) dog
Locative	Suffix -i gejlǔi /geˈʤlʉi/ near/at/by (the/a) dog
Ablative	If ends with vowel: Suffix -m Else: Suffix -im gejlǔm /geˈʤlʉm/ from (the/a) dog
Instrumental	If ends with vowel: Suffix -h Else: Suffix -eh gejlǔh /geˈʤlʉh/ with/using (the/a) dog

Singular	No affix gejlǔ /geˈʤlʉ/ dog
Plural	If ends with vowel: Suffix -χ Else: Suffix -iχ gejlǔkh /geˈʤlʉχ/ dogs

Articles

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	qi /qi/ the	r̂a /ʁa/ a
Plural	gäsĥ /gəç/ the	yi /ji/ 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 personal names in third person: ‘The Maria has left for school’

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

	1st singular	2nd singular	3rd singular masc	3rd singular fem	1st plural	2nd plural	3rd plural
Nominative	häp /həp/ I	r̂e /ʁe/ you	za /ʒa/ he, it	bi /bi/ she, it	sĥǎ /çɑ/ we	r̂i /ʁi/ you all	ba /ba/ they
Accusative	sĥaw /çɔ/ me	ǎ /ɑ/ you	khaw /χɔ/ him, it	m͡baw /m͡bɔ/ her, it	wawsĥ /wɔç/ us	tsa /ʦa/ you all	hi /hi/ them
Genitive	ŷiĝ /ʝiɢ/ mine	ng͡gi /ŋ͡gi/ yours	bäd /bəd/ his, its	ge /ge/ hers, its	hǎ /hɑ/ ours	mǎ /mɑ/ yours (pl)	bog /bog/ theirs
Dative	te /te/ to me	gǎ /gɑ/ to you	zǎts /ʒɑʦ/ to him, at it	ta /ta/ to her, at it	ha /ha/ to us	sĥub /çub/ to you all	che /ʧe/ to them
Locative	tsek /ʦek/ at me	yak /jak/ at you	hoĝ /hoɢ/ at him, at it	m͡be /m͡be/ at her, at it	yǎ /jɑ/ at us	sĥa /ça/ at you all	hǎts /hɑʦ/ at them
Ablative	ng͡gaŷ /ŋ͡gaʝ/ from me	hu /hu/ from you	qa /qa/ from him, from it	tso /ʦo/ from her, from it	m͡bap /m͡bap/ from us	qäg /qəg/ from you all	o /o/ from them
Instrumental	go /go/ with/using me	ya /ja/ with/using you	ǎk /ɑk/ with/using him/it	qi /qi/ with/using her/it	ŷe /ʝe/ with/using us	bo /bo/ with/using you all	aw /ɔ/ with/using them

Possessive determiners

1st singular	ŷiĝ /ʝiɢ/ my
2nd singular	ng͡gi /ŋ͡gi/ your
3rd singular masc	bäd /bəd/ his
3rd singular fem	ge /ge/ her
1st plural	hǎ /hɑ/ our
2nd plural	mǎ /mɑ/ your (pl)
3rd plural	bog /bog/ their

Verbs

Future

Suffix -ɔq bashmiawq /baʃˈmiɔq/ will learn

Yǎgǔpian uses a standalone particle word for past tense:

Past	Particle before the verb: ʦɔ - tsaw bashmi /ʦɔ baʃˈmi/ learned

Imperfective aspect

The ‘imperfective’ aspect refers to ongoing actions, such as I am learning and habitual actions, such as I learn (something new every day).
Yǎgǔpian uses an affix for imperfective:

Imperfective

Suffix -ɑ bashmiǎ /baʃˈmiɑ/ learns/is learning

Numbers

Yǎgǔpian has a base-10 number system:
1 - hä
2 - yi
3 - sĥidzaw
4 - tsa
5 - tä
6 - tǎ
7 - gihu
8 - ots
9 - i
10 - qingmupu
11 - qingmupu beh hä “ten and one”
100 - hä madz “one hundred”
101 - hä madz beh hä “one hundred and one”
200 - yi madz
1000 - hä ŷe “one thousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -q
Else: Suffix -əq
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʣ
Else: Suffix -iʣ
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -p
Else: Suffix -ap
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Suffix -a
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Suffix -o
Noun to verb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -χ
Else: Suffix -aχ
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Suffix -ʉh
Tending to = Suffix -um
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -ə
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -q
Else: Suffix -iq
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ŋ͡g
Else: Suffix -aŋ͡g
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʝ
Else: Suffix -eʝ
Diminutive = If ends with vowel: Suffix -q
Else: Suffix -ɑq
Augmentative = If ends with vowel: Suffix -t
Else: Suffix -ət

Dictionary

4565 Words.

Common Female Names

Butsla /bʉˈʦlɑ/
Hangga /haŋ͡gˈə/
Khirkat /χiʁˈkat/

Common Male Names

Yashalomb /ʝəˈçɑlom͡b/
Mbak /m͡bək/
Yahlo /jəˈhlo/