Nthihi

Natively known as: nthih /ntʰih/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
wa suh lax maki ka chami wa aka ka odze ndilas e pazu
Pronunciation: /wa suh lax maˈki ka t͡ʃaˈmi wa aˈka ka oɗˈzɛ nɗiˈlas ɛ paˈzu/
Nthihi word order: and he stood holding hat his and turned his face wet to the wind

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: d͡ʒ f g h j k kʰ l m n p pʰ r s t tʰ t͡s t͡ʃ t͡ʃʰ v w x z ŋ ɓ ɗ ɲ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m		n		ɲ	ŋ
Stop	p pʰ		tʰ t			k kʰ g
Implosive	ɓ		ɗ
Affricate				t͡ʃ t͡ʃʰ d͡ʒ
Fricative		f v	z s			x	h
Approximant					j
Trill			r
Lateral approximant			l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: a i o u uː ɛ

	Front	Back
High	i	u uː
High-mid		o
Low-mid	ɛ
Low	a

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

Pronunciation	Spelling
iː	ii
uː	uu
aː	aa
ɛː	ee
ɛ	e
ɲ	ny
ŋ	ng
pʰ	ph
tʰ	th
kʰ	kh
ɓ	b
ɗ	d
t͡s	ts
t͡ʃʰ	tch
t͡ʃ	ch
d͡z	dz
j	y
d͡ʒ	j
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

Singular	If starts with vowel: Prefix aɗ- Else: Prefix aɗi- adinguh /aˈɗiŋuh/ dog
Plural	If starts with vowel: Prefix k- Else: Prefix ka- kanguh /kaˈŋuh/ dogs

Articles

Definite	e /ɛ/ the
Indefinite	za /za/ a, some

Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Used to talk about countable nouns in general: English’s ‘I like cats’ would translate to ‘I like the cats’
• Used for personal names in third person: ‘The Maria has left for school’
• Used for languages: ‘The English’
• Used with place names: ‘The London’

Uses of indefinite article that differ from English:

• Not used for non-specific countable nouns: non-specific means ‘I am looking for a (any) girl in a red dress’, whereas specific means ‘I am looking for a (particular) girl in a red dress’

Pronouns

1st singular	dza /ɗza/ I, me, mine
2nd singular	kwi /kwi/ you, yours
3rd singular masc	suh /suh/ he, him, his, it (masc), its (masc)
3rd singular fem	le /lɛ/ she, her, hers, it (fem), its (fem)
1st plural inclusive	zah /zah/ we (including you), us (including you), ours (including you)
1st plural exclusive	ndo /nɗo/ we (excluding you), us (excluding you), ours (excluding you)
2nd plural	mme /mmɛ/ you all, yours (pl)
3rd plural	pas /pas/ they, them, theirs

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	we /wɛ/ my
2nd singular	mwah /mwah/ your
3rd singular masc	ka /ka/ his
3rd singular fem	mwu /mwu/ her
1st plural inclusive	ex /ɛx/ our (including you)
1st plural exclusive	a /a/ our (excluding you)
2nd plural	pa /pa/ your (pl)
3rd plural	chas /t͡ʃas/ their

Verbs

	Present	Past
1st singular	Prefix i- imiti /iˈmiti/ (I) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix k- Else: Prefix ki- kimiti /kiˈmiti/ (I) learned
2nd singular	If starts with vowel: Prefix ɛt͡s- Else: Prefix ɛt͡su- etsumiti /ɛt͡sˈumiˌti/ (you) learn	Prefix o- omiti /oˈmiti/ (you) learned
3rd singular	If starts with vowel: Prefix l- Else: Prefix li- limiti /liˈmiti/ (he/she/it) learns	If starts with vowel: Prefix w- Else: Prefix wu- wumiti /wuˈmiti/ (he/she/it) learned
1st plural inclusive	If starts with vowel: Prefix ŋ- Else: Prefix ŋo- ngomiti /ŋoˈmiti/ (we (including you)) learn	Prefix a- amiti /aˈmiti/ (we (including you)) learned
1st plural exclusive	Prefix ma- mamiti /maˈmiti/ (we (excluding you)) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix t͡ʃ- Else: Prefix t͡ʃa- chamiti /t͡ʃaˈmiti/ (we (excluding you)) learned
2nd plural	Prefix ntʰi- nthimiti /ntʰiˈmiti/ (you all) learn	Prefix mwu- mwumiti /mwuˈmiti/ (you all) learned
3rd plural	If starts with vowel: Prefix an- Else: Prefix ana- anamiti /aˈnamiˌti/ (they) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix mpw- Else: Prefix mpwi- mpwimiti /mpwiˈmiti/ (they) learned

Nthihi uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: oh - oh miti /oh miˈti/ will learn

Progressive aspect

The ‘progressive’ aspect refers to actions that are happening at the time of speaking, such as I am learning.
Nthihi uses a standalone particle word for progressive:

Progressive

Particle before the verb: ka - ka miti /ka miˈti/ be learning

Habitual aspect

The ‘habitual’ aspect refers to actions that happen habitually, such as I learn (something new every day), as opposed to actions that happen once (I learned something).
Nthihi uses a standalone particle word for habitual:

Habitual

Particle before the verb: nɗix - ndix miti /nɗix miˈti/ learn (often, habitually)

Numbers

Nthihi has a base-12 number system:
1 - me
2 - ngi
3 - mi
4 - ku
5 - o
6 - mma
7 - ndah
8 - wis
9 - zi
10 - bweh
11 - se
12 - kus
144 - ses
1728 - sapi

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Prefix i-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix kwa-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix aɗz-
Else: Prefix aɗzɛ-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix wi-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If starts with vowel: Prefix amz-
Else: Prefix amzu-
Noun to verb = If starts with vowel: Prefix m-
Else: Prefix mi-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix ntʰi-
Tending to = Prefix i-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix z-
Else: Prefix za-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Prefix ɛ-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Prefix t͡ʃi-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Prefix ɛ-
Diminutive = Prefix ka-
Augmentative = Prefix nɗɛ-

Dictionary

3085 Words.