Ndzuian

Natively known as: ndzu /nd͡zu/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
swa tu likunaw fe a ehlup swa n'wend a swanes swond ki nan'wi
Pronunciation: /sʷa tu ˈlikunaw fɛ a ˈɛɬup sʷa ŋʷɛnd a ˈsʷanɛs sʷɔnd ki ˈnaŋʷi/
Ndzuian word order: and he stood holding hat his and turned his face wet to the wind

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b bʲ d dʲ dˡ d͡z d͡zʱ d͡ʒʱ f g gʷ h j k kʰ kʷ l m mʱ n nʱ nʷ nʼ p p̪͡f r rʱ s sʰ sʷ t tʷ tˡ t͡s t͡ʃʰ w ŋʷ ɦʷ ɬ ɲ ʃ β

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m mʱ		n nʼ nʱ nʷ		ɲ	ŋʷ
Stop	b bʲ p		t tʷ dˡ tˡ d dʲ			k g kʰ kʷ gʷ
Affricate		p̪͡f	d͡z d͡zʱ	t͡ʃʰ d͡ʒʱ
Fricative	β	f	sʷ s sʰ	ʃ			h ɦʷ
Approximant					j
Trill			r rʱ
Lateral fricative			ɬ
Lateral approximant			l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: a i u ɔ ɛ

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

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

Pronunciation	Spelling
d͡zʱ	dzh
ŋʷ	n'w
tsʰ	tsh
tsʷ	tsw
bʲ	by
t͡ʃʰ	ch
dˡ	dl
dʲ	dy
d͡z	dz
ɡʷ	gw
ɬ	hl
ɦʷ	hw
d͡ʒʱ	jh
kʰ	kh
kʷ	kw
mʱ	mh
nʱ	nh
nʷ	nw
ɲ	ny
p̪͡f	pf
rʱ	rh
sʷ	sw
tˡ	tl
t͡s	ts
tʷ	tw
ɛ	e
ɔ	o
β	v
ʃ	x
j	y

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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	If starts with vowel: Prefix amb- Else: Prefix ambu- ambuhlep /ˈambuɬɛp/ boy	Prefix ha- hahlep /ˈhaɬɛp/ boys
Feminine	If starts with vowel: Prefix nt͡ʃʰ- Else: Prefix nt͡ʃʰa- ncholi /ˈnt͡ʃʰɔli/ girl	If starts with vowel: Prefix l- Else: Prefix lɛ- loli /ˈlɔli/ girls
Neuter	If starts with vowel: Prefix l- Else: Prefix la- lada /ˈlada/ dog	If starts with vowel: Prefix w- Else: Prefix wa- wada /ˈwada/ dogs

Articles

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	fi /fi/ the	na /na/ a
Plural	ow /ɔw/ the	ka /ka/ some

Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Definite article can be omitted: ‘I am going to supermarket’
• Used for languages: ‘The English’

Pronouns

1st singular	ha /ha/ I, me, mine
2nd singular	i /i/ you, yours
3rd singular masc	tu /tu/ he, him, his,
3rd singular fem	ndles /ndˡɛs/ she, her, hers,
3rd singular neuter	ye /jɛ/ it (neut), its (neut)
1st plural inclusive	swunt /sʷunt/ we (including you), us (including you), ours (including you)
1st plural exclusive	a /a/ we (excluding you), us (excluding you), ours (excluding you)
2nd plural	ew /ɛw/ you all, yours (pl)
3rd plural masc	xep /ʃɛp/ they (masc), them (masc), theirs (masc)
3rd plural fem	en /ɛn/ they (fem), them (fem), theirs (fem)
3rd plural neuter	va /βa/ they (neut), them (neut), theirs (neut)

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	und /und/ my
2nd singular	yew /jɛw/ your
3rd singular masc	a /a/ his
3rd singular fem	vaw /βaw/ her
3rd singular neuter	ntsaw /nt͡saw/ his, her, its (neut)
1st plural inclusive	nont /nɔnt/ our (including you)
1st plural exclusive	swe /sʷɛ/ our (excluding you)
2nd plural	ke /kɛ/ your (pl)
3rd plural masc	op /ɔp/ their (masc)
3rd plural fem	li /li/ their (fem)
3rd plural neuter	swi /sʷi/ their (neut)

Verbs

Ndzuian uses a standalone particle word for past tense:

Past	Particle before the verb: a - a ngatawes /a ˈngatawɛs/ learned

Ndzuian uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: ʃuh - xuh ngatawes /ʃuh ˈngatawɛs/ 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).
Ndzuian uses a standalone particle word for imperfective:

Imperfective

Particle before the verb: hun - hun ngatawes /hun ˈngatawɛs/ learn

Numbers

Ndzuian has a base-12 number system:
1 - lup
2 - ke
3 - nent
4 - bund
5 - ndzu
6 - yu
7 - li
8 - lenun
9 - mand
10 - swent
11 - nen
12 - swi
144 - ntan
1728 - uya

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If starts with vowel: Prefix un-
Else: Prefix uni-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix r-
Else: Prefix ra-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix tʷ-
Else: Prefix tʷɔ-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix nɔ-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Prefix a-
Noun to verb = If starts with vowel: Prefix ʃ-
Else: Prefix ʃa-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix m-
Else: Prefix ma-
Tending to = Prefix a-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix t͡ʃʰ-
Else: Prefix t͡ʃʰa-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If starts with vowel: Prefix nʼw-
Else: Prefix nʼwi-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ng-
Else: Prefix ngɛ-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Prefix a-
Diminutive = If starts with vowel: Prefix isʷ-
Else: Prefix isʷa-
Augmentative = Prefix tˡa-

Dictionary

3129 Words.