Kamman

Natively known as: kamma /ˈkɐmmɐ/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
tan yoo todha ku yiin feyyi tan ku tindaa pansu se xoo gu
Pronunciation: /tɐn joː ˈtɔᶑɐ kʊ jiːn ˈfɛjjɪ tɐn kʊ ˈtɪndɑː ˈpɐnsʊ sɛ tʼoː gʊ/
Kamman word order: and he stood hat his holding and his face wet turned the wind to

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b d f g h j k kʼ l m n p pʼ r s t tʼ w z ɲ ʃ ʃʼ ʒ ʔ ᶑ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m		n			ɲ
Stop	b p pʼ		t d tʼ				k kʼ g	ʔ
Implosive					ᶑ
Fricative		f	s z	ʒ ʃʼ ʃ				h
Approximant						j
Trill			r
Lateral approximant			l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: eː iː oː uː ɐ ɑː ɔ ɛ ɪ ʊ

	Front	Central	Back
High	iː		uː
Near-high	ɪ		ʊ
High-mid	eː		oː
Low-mid	ɛ		ɔ
Near-low		ɐ
Low			ɑː

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

Pronunciation	Spelling
tʃʼ	c
tʃ	ch
ʔ	'
j	y
dʒ	j
pʼ	ph
tʼ	x
kʼ	q
ᶑ	dh
ʃ	sh
ɲ	ny
ɪ	i
iː	ii
ʊ	u
uː	uu
ɛ	e
eː	ee
ɔ	o
oː	oo
ɐ	a
ɑː	aa

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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 after the noun.
Adposition: postpositions ?

Nouns

Nouns have four 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.

Nominative	If ends with vowel: Suffix -n Else: Suffix -ɑːn susaan /ˈsʊsɑːn/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	Suffix -ɐ susa /ˈsʊsɐ/ (verb done to) dog
Genitive	If ends with vowel: Suffix -n Else: Suffix -iːn susiin /ˈsʊsiːn/ dogʼs
Dative	If ends with vowel: Suffix -n Else: Suffix -uːn susuun /ˈsʊsuːn/ to dog

	Masculine	Feminine
Singular	If ends with vowel: Suffix -n Else: Suffix -ɑːn mafun /ˈmɐfʊn/ boy	If ends with vowel: Suffix -n Else: Suffix -ɔn jandon /ˈdʒɐndɔn/ girl
Plural	Suffix -ɑːs mafuaas /ˈmɐfʊɑːs/ boys	Suffix -ɐn jandoan /ˈdʒɐndɔɐn/ girls

Articles

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	faa /fɑː/ the	guu /guː/ a
Plural	jaf /dʒɐf/ the	aa /ɑː/ some

Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Definite article can be omitted: ‘I am going to supermarket’
• Used to talk about countable nouns in general: English’s ‘I like cats’ would translate to ‘I like the cats’
• Used with place names: ‘The London’

Pronouns

	Nominative	Accusative	Genitive	Dative
1st singular	i /ɪ/ I	qi /kʼɪ/ me	ma /mɐ/ mine	mu /mʊ/ to me
2nd singular	dhi /ᶑɪ/ you	yu /jʊ/ you	dhaf /ᶑɐf/ yours	koo /koː/ to you
3rd singular masc	yoo /joː/ he, it (masc)	niin /niːn/ his, it (masc)	ki /kɪ/ his, its (masc)	dha /ᶑɐ/ to his, to it (masc)
3rd singular fem	xii /tʼiː/ she, it (fem)	bo /bɔ/ her, it (fem)	haa /hɑː/ hers, its (fem)	ha /hɐ/ to her, to it (fem)
1st plural	ti /tɪ/ we	yii /jiː/ us	gaa /gɑː/ ours	qa /kʼɐ/ to us
2nd plural	ka /kɐ/ you all	waa /wɑː/ you all	gan /gɐn/ yours (pl)	ga /gɐ/ to you all
3rd plural masc	nuu /nuː/ they (masc)	u /ʊ/ them (masc)	moo /moː/ theirs (masc)	kuf /kʊf/ to them (masc)
3rd plural fem	wi /wɪ/ they (fem)	hon /hɔn/ them (fem)	neen /neːn/ theirs (fem)	tun /tʊn/ to them (fem)

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	ka /kɐ/ my
2nd singular	san /sɐn/ your
3rd singular masc	ku /kʊ/ his
3rd singular fem	jee /dʒeː/ her
1st plural	hi /hɪ/ our
2nd plural	fan /fɐn/ your (pl)
3rd plural masc	kaa /kɑː/ their (masc)
3rd plural fem	taa /tɑː/ their (fem)

Verbs

Future

If ends with vowel: Suffix -fɔ Else: Suffix -ʊfɔ tiqafo /ˈtɪkʼɐfɔ/ will learn

Kamman uses a standalone particle word for past tense:

Past	Particle before the verb: nɐ - na tiqa /nɐ ˈtɪkʼɐ/ 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).
Kamman uses an affix for imperfective:

Imperfective

If ends with vowel: Suffix -n Else: Suffix -iːn tiqan /ˈtɪkʼɐn/ learn

Numbers

Kamman has a base-12 number system:
1 - ba
2 - ki
3 - jee
4 - li
5 - bu
6 - ben
7 - no
8 - buu
9 - jaa
10 - qaa
11 - an
12 - wi
144 - qajjaa
1728 - din

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ᶑeː
Else: Suffix -ɐᶑeː
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -f
Else: Suffix -iːf
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -f
Else: Suffix -eːf
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -n
Else: Suffix -ɐn
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Suffix -ɐ
Noun to verb = Suffix -ɑː
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -gʊ
Else: Suffix -ɪgʊ
Tending to = Suffix -oː
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -ɔn
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -f
Else: Suffix -oːf
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -n
Else: Suffix -ɐn
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -n
Else: Suffix -ɛn
Diminutive = If ends with vowel: Suffix -n
Else: Suffix -ʊn
Augmentative = If ends with vowel: Suffix -bɑː
Else: Suffix -eːbɑː

Dictionary

3152 Words.