Lomaenan

Natively known as: lomaena /ˈlomen/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
palo kanatahuka pakaila yaumai viŵa mafila palo i viŵa chona wanaika natahema iŵavya
Pronunciation: /plo knthuk pkiɽ ˈjumi viβ mfiɽ plo i viβ chon wnik nthem iβvʲ/
Lomaenan 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 gʷ h j k kʰ kʷ kʷʰ kʷᵐ kᵑ l m mʷ mʼ n nʲ nᵑ p pʰ pᵑ r s sʲ sᵑ t t͡ʃʰ v vʲ w wᵑ wⁿ x z zʲ ɗ ɣ ɽ ɽʲ ɽʷ ɽᵑ β ᵐb ᵐpʰ ᵑg ᵑgʷ ᵑkʰ ᵑkʷʰ ⁿd ⁿd͡ʒ ⁿtʰ ⁿt͡ʃʰ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m mʷ mʼ		n nᵑ nʲ
Stop	p b pʰ ᵐb pᵑ ᵐpʰ		d t ⁿd ⁿtʰ			c	k ᵑg kʷ g ᵑkʰ kʷᵐ gʷ ᵑgʷ ᵑkʷʰ kʰ kʷʰ kᵑ
Implosive			ɗ
Affricate				t͡ʃʰ ⁿt͡ʃʰ ⁿd͡ʒ
Fricative	β	v f vʲ	z s sʲ zʲ sᵑ				ɣ x	h
Approximant						j
Tap					ɽ ɽʲ ɽʷ ɽᵑ
Trill			r
Lateral approximant			l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w wᵑ wⁿ

Vowel inventory: a e i o u y

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

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

Pronunciation	Spelling
ᵑkʷʰ	nkhwa
kʷʰ	khwa
ᵑgʷ	ngwa
ᵐpʰ	mpha
ⁿtʰ	ntha
ⁿt͡ʃʰ	ncha
ᵑkʰ	nkha
mʷ	mwa
nʲ	nya
kʷ	kwa
pʰ	pha
t͡ʃʰ	cha
kʰ	kha
ᵐb	mba
ⁿd͡ʒ	nja
ⁿd	nda
ᵑg	nga
sʲ	ska
vʲ	vya
zʲ	zga
ɽʷ	lwa
ɽʲ	lya
ɣ	gha
m	ma
n	na
p	pa
t	ta
k	ka
ɗ	da
s	sa
z	za
β	ŵa
w	wa
ɽ	la
j	ya

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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 before the noun.
Adposition: prepositions ?

Nouns

Nouns have both a plural affix and ‘paucal’ affix for referring to a few of something.

Singular	If starts with vowel: Prefix pl- Else: Prefix plo- palochutaela /plocˈhuteɽ/ dog
Plural	Prefix pu- pauchutaela /pucˈhuteɽ/ dogs
Paucal	If starts with vowel: Prefix m- Else: Prefix mi- maichutaela /micˈhuteɽ/ few dogs

Articles

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	maika /mik/ the	panayai /pnji/ a
Plural	kay /ky/ the	ghai /ɣi/ some

Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Definite article can be omitted: ‘I am going to supermarket’
• 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 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	nakahu /nkhu/ I, me, mine
2nd singular	nado /ndo/ you, yours
3rd singular masc	kanatahuka /knthuk/ he, him, his, it (masc), its (masc)
3rd singular fem	nakahula /nkhuɽ/ she, her, hers, it (fem), its (fem)
1st plural	nakahe /nkhe/ we, us, ours
2nd plural	nai /ni/ you all, yours (pl)
3rd plural	le /le/ they, them, theirs

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	kalu /klu/ my
2nd singular	panayau /pnju/ your
3rd singular masc	viŵa /viβ/ his
3rd singular fem	lo /lo/ her
1st plural	le /le/ our
2nd plural	ghakao /ɣko/ your (pl)
3rd plural	ghanai /ɣni/ their

Verbs

	Present	Past	Future
1st person	Prefix pnju- panayaunada /ˈpnjunda/ (I/we) learn	Prefix nkhi- nakahinada /ˈnkhinda/ (I/we) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix pl- Else: Prefix plu- palunada /ˈplunda/ (I/we) will learn
2nd person	If starts with vowel: Prefix yng- Else: Prefix yngi- ynaginada /ynˈginda/ (you/you all) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix z- Else: Prefix zi- zainada /ˈzinda/ (you/you all) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix on- Else: Prefix one- onaenada /oˈnenda/ (you/you all) will learn
3rd person	Prefix no- naonada /ˈnonda/ (he/she/it/they) learn(s)	If starts with vowel: Prefix ul- Else: Prefix ule- ulenada /uˈlenda/ (he/she/it/they) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix nkh- Else: Prefix nkhu- nakahunada /ˈnkhunda/ (he/she/it/they) will learn

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).
Lomaenan uses an affix for imperfective:

Imperfective

If starts with vowel: Prefix k- Else: Prefix ku- kaunada /ˈkunda/ learn

Perfect aspect

The perfect aspect in English is exemplified in ‘I have read this book’, which expresses an event that took place before the time spoken but which has an effect on or is in some way still relevant to the present.
Lomaenan uses the word for ‘already’ vika for the perfect aspect.

Numbers

Lomaenan has a base-12 number system:
1 - zaela
2 - che
3 - e
4 - pali
5 - nataho
6 - pale
7 - mafozau
8 - paluta
9 - nauli
10 - wakaŵakai
11 - onagaŵa
12 - wawae
144 - kaenagepao
1728 - viri

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If starts with vowel: Prefix ᵑkʰm-
Else: Prefix ᵑkʰmu-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix ju-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix j-
Else: Prefix ju-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix i-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If starts with vowel: Prefix wpkt-
Else: Prefix wpkti-
Noun to verb = Prefix i-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix i-
Tending to = Prefix o-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix i-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If starts with vowel: Prefix jk-
Else: Prefix jke-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If starts with vowel: Prefix j-
Else: Prefix ji-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Prefix zo-
Diminutive = Prefix kwo-
Augmentative = If starts with vowel: Prefix wkm-
Else: Prefix wkme-

Dictionary

3118 Words.