Mgben

Natively known as: mgbe /mg͡be/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
e mụ moze nust ge kehet e nte ge ọha yax amp mabi
Pronunciation: /e mʊ̙ ˈmoze nust ge ˈkeɦet e nte ge ˈɔ̙ɦa jax amp ˈmabi/
Mgben word order: and he stood holding hat his and turned his face wet to the wind

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b c d f g gʷ g͡b j k kʷ l m n p s t v w x z ŋʷ ɣ ɦ ɲ ɹ ʃ ʒ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m		n		ɲ	ŋʷ
Stop	b p		d t		c	k g kʷ gʷ
Fricative		f v	s z	ʒ ʃ		ɣ x	ɦ
Approximant			ɹ		j
Lateral approximant			l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Stop	g͡b
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: a e i o u ɔ̙ ɪ̙ ʊ̙

	Front	Back
High	i	u
Near-high	ɪ̙	ʊ̙
High-mid	e	o
Low-mid		ɔ̙
Low	a

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

Pronunciation	Spelling
tʃ	ch
ɡ͡b	gb
ɣ	gh
ɡʷ	gw
ɦ	h
ɪ̙	ị
j	y
dʒ	j
kʷ	kw
ŋʷ	nw
ɲ	ny
ɔ̙	ọ
ɹ	r
ʊ̙	ụ

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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
Definite	If ends with vowel: Suffix -du Else: Suffix -udu nigbidu /ˈnig͡bidu/ the dog	If ends with vowel: Suffix -w Else: Suffix -iw nigbiw /ˈnig͡biw/ the dogs
Indefinite	If ends with vowel: Suffix -d Else: Suffix -ed nigbid /ˈnig͡bid/ a dog	If ends with vowel: Suffix -l Else: Suffix -il nigbil /ˈnig͡bil/ some dogs

Articles

Mgben encodes definite article ‘the’, and indefinite article ‘a’ in noun affixes. See Noun section.

Pronouns

	Nominative	Accusative
1st singular	ma /ma/ I	fo /fo/ me
2nd singular	bi /bi/ you	da /da/ you
3rd singular masc	mụ /mʊ̙/ he, it (masc)	mas /mas/ his, it (masc)
3rd singular fem	na /na/ she, it (fem)	no /no/ her, it (fem)
1st plural	jat /dʒat/ we	nị /nɪ̙/ us
2nd plural	thọf /tɦɔ̙f/ you all	ke /ke/ you all
3rd plural	ye /je/ they	mịk /mɪ̙k/ them

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	nin /nin/ my
2nd singular	be /be/ your
3rd singular masc	ge /ge/ his
3rd singular fem	nip /nip/ her
1st plural	ọff /ɔ̙ff/ our
2nd plural	e /e/ your (pl)
3rd plural	ọ /ɔ̙/ their

Verbs

	Singular	Plural
Present	If ends with vowel: Suffix -s Else: Suffix -ɪ̙s gbas /g͡bas/ (I/you/he/she/it) learn(s)	Suffix -u gbau /ˈg͡bau/ (we/you all/they) learn
Past	Suffix -ʊ̙ gbaụ /ˈg͡baʊ̙/ (I/you/he/she/it) learned	Suffix -a gbaa /ˈg͡baa/ (we/you all/they) learned
Future	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ɣt Else: Suffix -aɣt gbaght /g͡baɣt/ (I/you/he/she/it) will learn	If ends with vowel: Suffix -sa Else: Suffix -ɪ̙sa gbasa /ˈg͡basa/ (we/you all/they) will 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.
Mgben uses an affix for the perfect aspect:

Perfect

If ends with vowel: Suffix -d Else: Suffix -ɔ̙d gbad /g͡bad/ have learned

Numbers

Mgben has a base-12 number system:
1 - hụ
2 - temp
3 - me
4 - mọmy
5 - ma
6 - mụt
7 - mu
8 - as
9 - mụ
10 - mụts
11 - nda
12 - nko
144 - dezi
1728 - magbụ

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -mp
Else: Suffix -ump
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -s
Else: Suffix -es
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -p
Else: Suffix -ap
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -t
Else: Suffix -at
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -s
Else: Suffix -es
Noun to verb = Suffix -a
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -nd
Else: Suffix -end
Tending to = Suffix -and
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -n
Else: Suffix -an
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Suffix -os
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Suffix -ɔ̙
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -zi
Else: Suffix -azi
Diminutive = Suffix -a
Augmentative = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ɦa
Else: Suffix -oɦa

Dictionary

3111 Words.