Bamban

Natively known as: bamba /bamˈba/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
nand ko yab yegd' ya kabak nand tɛyimdo ya nis gis lo amad
Pronunciation: /nand ko jab jegdʔ ja kaˈbak nand tɛˈjimdo ja nis gis lo aˈmad/
Bamban word order: and he stood holding hat his and turned his face wet to the wind

Spelling & Phonology

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

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

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: a e i o u ɛ ɪ ʊ

	Front	Back
High	i	u
Near-high	ɪ	ʊ
High-mid	e	o
Low-mid	ɛ
Low	a

Syllable structure: Custom defined ?
Stress pattern: Second — stress is on the second syllable ?
Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ʔ	'
ɪ	ɩ
ʊ	ʋ
j	y

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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 after the noun.
Adposition: prepositions ?

Nouns

Singular	If ends with vowel: Suffix -r Else: Suffix -ur atur /aˈtur/ dog
Plural	If ends with vowel: Suffix -nga Else: Suffix -anga atanga /aˈtanga/ dogs

Articles

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

Pronouns

1st singular	ɛ /ɛ/ I, me, mine
2nd singular	nad /nad/ you, yours
3rd singular masc	ko /ko/ he, him, his, it (masc), its (masc)
3rd singular fem	ye /je/ she, her, hers, it (fem), its (fem)
1st plural	ya /ja/ we, us, ours
2nd plural	nim /nim/ you all, yours (pl)
3rd plural	pek /pek/ they, them, theirs

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	gɩ /gɪ/ my
2nd singular	nuk /nuk/ your
3rd singular masc	ya /ja/ his
3rd singular fem	ze /ze/ her
1st plural	li /li/ our
2nd plural	nem /nem/ your (pl)
3rd plural	megd /megd/ their

Verbs

Future

If ends with vowel: Suffix -d Else: Suffix -ed s'dared /sʔdaˈred/ will learn

Bamban uses a standalone particle word for past tense:

Past	Particle before the verb: za - za s'dar /za sʔdar/ 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).
Bamban uses a standalone particle word for imperfective:

Imperfective

Particle before the verb: a - a s'dar /a sʔdar/ learn

Numbers

Bamban has a base-12 number system:
1 - zi
2 - fe
3 - or
4 - yi
5 - li
6 - ne
7 - to
8 - kind
9 - mo
10 - fa
11 - nam
12 - ni
144 - alɛfe
1728 - fond

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -m
Else: Suffix -am
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -rka
Else: Suffix -arka
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -la
Else: Suffix -ola
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -k
Else: Suffix -ek
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -r
Else: Suffix -ar
Noun to verb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -bɛ
Else: Suffix -abɛ
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -k
Else: Suffix -ak
Tending to = Suffix -ak
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -rʔ
Else: Suffix -arʔ
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Suffix -o
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -m
Else: Suffix -em
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Suffix -am
Diminutive = If ends with vowel: Suffix -k
Else: Suffix -ak
Augmentative = Suffix -om

Dictionary

3095 Words.