Ndawsian

Natively known as: ndaws /ⁿdaws/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
tey u gangyi oka ruy tutews tey kwe ruy nduzu oi ka nkʼows
Pronunciation: /tɛj u gaˈŋji ɔˈka ruj tuˈtɛws tɛj kwɛ ruj ⁿduˈzu ɔi̯ ka nkʼɔws/
Ndawsian word order: and he stood holding hat his and turned his face wet to the wind

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b c d d͡ʒ f g gʼ h j jʼ k kʼ l m n nʼ p r s t t͡s t͡ʃ w wʼ x z ŋ ʃ ᵐp ᵐw ⁿd

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m		n nʼ			ŋ
Stop	b ᵐp p		t ⁿd d		c	k kʼ g gʼ
Affricate				t͡ʃ d͡ʒ
Fricative		f	z s	ʃ		x	h
Approximant					j jʼ
Trill			r
Lateral approximant			l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w wʼ ᵐw

Vowel inventory: a ai̯ i u ɔ ɔi̯ ɛ ɛi̯
Diphthongs: ai̯ ɔi̯ ɛi̯ ?

	Front	Back
High	i	u
Low-mid	ɛ	ɔ
Low	a

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

Pronunciation	Spelling
͡ʃ	ch
ɛi̯	ei
ɛ	e
j	y
d͡ʒ	j
ɲ	ny
ɔi̯	oi
ɔ	o
t͡s	ts
ai̯	ai
ɟ	gy
c	ky
ᵐp	mp
ᵐw	mw
ⁿd	nd
ŋ	ng
ʃ	sh

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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

Nouns form plural with separate plural word:

Plural

Particle before the noun: gi - gi nʼos /gi nʼɔs/ dogs

Definite	If starts with vowel: Prefix in- Else: Prefix ina- inanʼos /iˈnanʼɔs/ the dog
Indefinite	Prefix ɔ- onʼos /ɔˈnʼɔs/ a/some dog

Articles

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

Pronouns

1st singular	ngom /ŋɔm/ I, me, mine
2nd singular	ndax /ⁿdax/ you, yours
3rd singular masc	u /u/ he, him, his, it (masc), its (masc)
3rd singular fem	i /i/ she, her, hers, it (fem), its (fem)
1st plural	nah /nah/ we, us, ours
2nd plural	kyows /kjɔws/ you all, yours (pl)
3rd plural	o /ɔ/ they, them, theirs

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	mas /mas/ my
2nd singular	to /tɔ/ your
3rd singular masc	ruy /ruj/ his
3rd singular fem	kus /kus/ her
1st plural	rots /rɔt͡s/ our
2nd plural	hi /hi/ your (pl)
3rd plural	tu /tu/ their

Verbs

	Present	Past	Future
1st person	If starts with vowel: Prefix kw- Else: Prefix kwi- kwiyah /kwiˈjah/ (I/we) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix t- Else: Prefix tu- tuyah /tuˈjah/ (I/we) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix f- Else: Prefix fa- fayah /faˈjah/ (I/we) will learn
2nd person	Prefix u- uyah /uˈjah/ (you/you all) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix iⁿd- Else: Prefix iⁿdɔ- indoyah /iˈⁿdɔjah/ (you/you all) learned	Prefix a- ayah /aˈjah/ (you/you all) will learn
3rd person	Prefix i- iyah /iˈjah/ (he/she/it/they) learn(s)	If starts with vowel: Prefix k- Else: Prefix ki- kiyah /kiˈjah/ (he/she/it/they) learned	Prefix tɛ- teyah /tɛˈjah/ (he/she/it/they) will learn

Numbers

Ndawsian has a base-12 number system:
1 - nʼon
2 - ho
3 - ai
4 - tai
5 - no
6 - kux
7 - eru
8 - nkus
9 - o
10 - ndare
11 - bahu
12 - bwas
144 - nats
1728 - nto

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If starts with vowel: Prefix im-
Else: Prefix ima-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ⁿd-
Else: Prefix ⁿdu-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix unt-
Else: Prefix unti-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix ⁿdi-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Prefix bɔ-
Noun to verb = If starts with vowel: Prefix gw-
Else: Prefix gwa-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ɛg-
Else: Prefix ɛgɛ-
Tending to = Prefix u-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix n-
Else: Prefix nɔi̯-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Prefix a-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Prefix ku-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Prefix t͡ʃɔ-
Diminutive = If starts with vowel: Prefix k-
Else: Prefix ka-
Augmentative = If starts with vowel: Prefix n-
Else: Prefix nu-

Dictionary

3109 Words.