Nyenya'a

Well here is a little bit of rather premilinary information on Nyenya'a,
my newest language, based mostly on Tundra Nenets and Japanese.

Phonology

Vowels

a E i o u

[u] after a palatalised consonant or [S] becomes [y]
[i] after a vowel becomes [I], though it stays more or less a separate
vowel. Technically there are no diphthongs, but in practice (especially in
rapid speech), they do exist.

Consonants

p t      k ?
b d
w s S
    j ts x
m n      N
  l
  r

p b m t d n l r x can be palatalised
[?] becomes [q] before a consonant.

Syllable structure is CV. The only consonant that can be syllable-final is
[?]

Nyenya'a is written in a modified form of Hiragana.

Miscellaneous Bits of Morphology

Nyenya'a has classifiers, like Japanese:

animals: [xiki]
books, etc: [satsu]
paiks: [soku]
buildings: [kE?]
levels, floors, etc: [kaI]
times, occasions: [soNu]
people: [ni?]
flat objects: [maI]
cylindrical objects: [lapi]
bizarrely shaped objects: [ma?E]
spirits, gods: [kamE]

Particles or Cases:

Whether these are particles or in fact cases is not yet clear:

Topic: wa
Subject: Na
Accusative: ?o
Genitive: no
Dative: ni
Locative: na
Allative: e
Ablative: da
Comitative: sa
Instrumental: jE
Interrogative: ko

Verbs

This is a lot like Japanese:

                                to go           to be
Present: -dEma                  minadEma        oma
Present negative: -nai          minanai         onai
Past: -dEmata                   minadEmata      odEmata
Passive: -rE-                   minarEdEma      orEdEma
Causative: -sE-                 minasEdEma      osEdEma
Imperative: -ka                 minaka          oka
Desiderative: -taI              minataI         otaI
Conditional: -rEba              minarEba        orEba
Continuative: -mEba             minamEba        omEba
Frequentative: -rENa            minarENa        orENa
Habitual: -SEti                 minaSEti        oSEti
Momentanteous: -xali            minaxali        oxali
Diminutive: -jEtE?              minajEtE?       ojEtE?
Inchoative: -la?                minala?         ola?
Reflexive: -wa?a                minawa?a        owa?a
Infinitive: -ru                 minaru          oru
Nominaliser: -koto              minakoto        okoto

Numerals:

1       Nopo
2       sid^ja
3       n^jaxa
4       t^jEtu
5       samaNa
6       ma?a
7       si?iwa
8       sidE
9       xasuju?
10      ju?

Personal Pronouns:

        Informal        Formal
1psg    orE             mana
2       omaI            pida
3       ke?             xaru
1ppl    orEta?          manata?
2       omaIta?         pidata
3       keqta?          xaruta?

And An Example:

mana-Na         n^jEn^ja?a-no-xilE-?o           jarinaI
I-SUBJECT       Nyenya'a-GEN-language-ACC       speak-PRES NEG
I don't speak [the] Nyenya'a language.

----ferko

"Nature and Nature's Law lay hid in night; God said, "Let Tesla be" and
all was light." - B.A. Behrend at AIEE Conference, May 18, 1917

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