Khekhan

Natively known as: khekha /ˈkʰekʰa/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
ngu ka nyana ngile khe eo ngu ngaka khe buna bulani ngo mhloku
Pronunciation: /ᵑgu ka ˈᶮdʒana ˈᵑgile kʰe ˈeo ᵑgu ˈᵑgaka kʰe ˈɓuna ˈɓulani ᵑgo ˈmɬoku/
Khekhan word order: and he stood holding hat his and turned his face wet to the wind

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b̥ d d̥ f g j k kʰ l m mᵑ mᶢ n pʰ s t tʰ v w xʰ z ǀ ǃ ɓ ɦ ɬ ɬʰ ɮ ɲ ʃʰ ʃʼ ʒ ᵏǀ ᵏǀʰ ᵏǃ ᵐb ᵐpʰ ᵑg ᵑk ᵑǀ ᵑǃ ᶢǀ ᶬv ᶮd ⁿd ⁿt ⁿɮ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m mᵑ mᶢ			n		ɲ
Stop	pʰ ᵐb ᵐpʰ b̥			ᶮd tʰ d ⁿd d̥ t ⁿt			ᵑg k kʰ g ᵑk
Implosive	ɓ
Fricative		f v ᶬv		s z	ʒ ʃʰ ʃʼ		xʰ	ɦ
Approximant						j
Lateral fricative				ɬ ⁿɮ ɮ ɬʰ
Lateral approximant				l
Click			ᵏǀ ᶢǀ ǀ ᵏǀʰ ᵑǀ	ᵏǃ ǃ ᵑǃ

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: a e i o u

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

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

Pronunciation	Spelling
ᵏǀʰ	ch
ᵏǀ	c
ᵏǃ	q
ᶢǀ	gc
ᶢǃ	gq
ᵑǀ	nc
ᵑǃ	nq
tɬʰ	tlh
tʃʰ	tjh
kxʰ	kgh
pʰ	ph
tʰ	th
kʰ	kh
b̥	bh
ᵐp	mp
ⁿt	nt
ᵑk	nk
ᵐb	mb
ᶬv	mv
ⁿd	nd
ᵑɡ	ng
ɲ	ny
tʃʼ	tj
ᶮdʒ	nj
ɬ	hl
x	rh
ɮ	dl
ɓ	b
j	y
d̥ʒ	j
ɦ	h

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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	Plural
Masculine	Prefix ᵑga- nganyumbu /ˈᵑgaᶮdʒuᵐbu/ boy	Prefix li- linyumbu /ˈliᶮdʒuᵐbu/ boys
Feminine	Prefix ɓe- bengangi /ˈɓeᵑgaᵑgi/ girl	Prefix ᶮdʒe- nyengangi /ˈᶮdʒeᵑgaᵑgi/ girls
Neuter	Prefix na- nalukhe /ˈnalukʰe/ dog	Prefix ᵑge- ngelukhe /ˈᵑgelukʰe/ dogs

Articles

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	ka /ka/ the	ko /ko/ a
Plural	a /a/ the	be /ɓe/ some

Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Not used for mass (uncountable) nouns: ‘Walking in the mud’ would always translate to ‘Walking in mud’.
• Used for personal names in third person: ‘The Maria has left for school’
• Used with place names: ‘The London’

Pronouns

1st singular	a /a/ I, me, mine
2nd singular	nga /ᵑga/ you, yours
3rd singular masc	ka /ka/ he, him, his,
3rd singular fem	bi /ɓi/ she, her, hers,
3rd singular neuter	ke /ke/ it (neut), its (neut)
1st plural inclusive	za /za/ we (including you), us (including you), ours (including you)
1st plural exclusive	ngu /ᵑgu/ we (excluding you), us (excluding you), ours (excluding you)
2nd plural	e /e/ you all, yours (pl)
3rd plural masc	be /ɓe/ they (masc), them (masc), theirs (masc)
3rd plural fem	no /no/ they (fem), them (fem), theirs (fem)
3rd plural neuter	mhla /mɬa/ they (neut), them (neut), theirs (neut)

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	kha /kʰa/ my
2nd singular	kho /kʰo/ your
3rd singular masc	khe /kʰe/ his
3rd singular fem	kwu /kwu/ her
3rd singular neuter	ka /ka/ his, her, its (neut)
1st plural inclusive	ni /ni/ our (including you)
1st plural exclusive	bu /ɓu/ our (excluding you)
2nd plural	nge /ᵑge/ your (pl)
3rd plural masc	nye /ᶮdʒe/ their (masc)
3rd plural fem	ngu /ᵑgu/ their (fem)
3rd plural neuter	na /na/ their (neut)

Verbs

Present	Prefix se- sebebu /ˈseɓeɓu/ learn
Past	Prefix ᵑgi- ngibebu /ˈᵑgiɓeɓu/ learned

Khekhan uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: kʰu - khu bebu /kʰu ˈɓeɓu/ will learn

Numbers

Khekhan has a base-12 number system:
1 - nge
2 - le
3 - mhla
4 - ni
5 - ngi
6 - mhle
7 - ngome
8 - ngeka
9 - la
10 - zo
11 - beno
12 - ake
144 - longi
1728 - ngunzo

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Prefix ɓi-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix za-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix ɓe-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix ka-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Prefix ᵑgo-
Noun to verb = Prefix ᵑge-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix sa-
Tending to = Prefix ɓa-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix ɓa-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Prefix na-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Prefix kwe-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Prefix ne-
Diminutive = Prefix kʰo-
Augmentative = Prefix ju-

Dictionary

3098 Words.