Ūnǂàma

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Shemtov
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Ūnǂàma

Post by Shemtov »

Ūnǂàma is a distant relative of Eroki Gǂama, spoken on an island of the coast of the island where the latter is spoken.
/p pʰ ⁿp t tʰ ⁿt t͡ɬ t͡ɬʰ t͡ɕ t͡ɕʰ ⁿt͡ɕ k kʰ ⁿk ʔ/ <p ph mp t th nt ʎ ʎh c ch nc k kh nk q>
/m n ɲ ŋ/ <m n nh ñ>
/s ɬ ɕ h/ <s hl sc h>
/ɾ/ <r>
/w l j/ <w l j>

/ʘ ʘʰ ⁿʘ ǀ ǀʰ ⁿǀ ǀˀ ǃ ǃʰ ⁿǃ ǃˀ ǂ ǂʰ ⁿǂ ǂˀ/ <ʘ ʘh nʘ ǀ ǀh nǀ ǀq ǃ ǃh nǃ ǃq ǂ ǂh nǂ ǂq>

/i u ɛ ɔ a/ <i u e o a>
/i: y: u: ɯ: e: o: ɛ: ɔ: a:/ <ī y ū ǔ é ó ē ō ā
/ɔʊ ɛɪ əu əi/ <ou ei au ai>

/˧ ˩/ <V V̀>
Except /e:˩ o:˩/ <ê ô>


Phonotactics: (C)V

Nouns part 1:
Nouns have 13 genders, which are numbered, and are shown by prefixes that also show number singular and plural.
Gender I: Humans. Hayiǂhe "Woman" !qóyiǂhe "Women"
Gender II: sealife. Khutỳmpi "whale" Satỳmpi "whales"
Gender III Birds. Tiʘhūwei "albatross" Kèʘhuwei "albatrosses"
Gender IV Mammals and insects. !àqithu "rat" Weqithu "rats"
Gender V Augmentation of genders I-IV. !hǔqithu "Large rat" Hutafi "Large rats"
Gender VI Diminuation of genders I-IV. Chiyiǂhe "Girl" Hiyiǂhe "Girls"
Gender VII Plants, fungi and lichen. Pèpelakha "Flower" ʘā̀pelakha "Flowers"
Gender VIII Natural features. Phehouli "Water Pool" Phāhouli "Water Pools"
Gender IX Instruments Scokha!huké "arrowhead" Cokha!huké ",arrowheads"
Gender X Augmentation of Genders VIii-X. ǂhuhouli "Lake" Kī̀houli "PLR of above"
Gender XI Dimunative of Genders VIii-X. Lihouli "Collection of water after a rain" Lēhouli "Collections of water after a rain"
Gender XII Spiritual concepts: ǀīyiǂhe "Female Spirit" Nǀìyiǂhe "Female spirits"
Gender XIII Abstracts . Ūnǂàma "Language of the Tribe"
Last edited by Shemtov on 08 Jun 2018 07:58, edited 3 times in total.
Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.
-JRR Tolkien
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Re: Ūnǂàma

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The cases are where we see a big difference between Eroki Gǂama and Ūnǂàma (Both are relatively conservative in the class-system).
Case in Ūnǂàma is the same for all classes and does not mark for plural.
We will use Hayiǂhe "woman" as an example:
Nominative Hayiǂhe
Accusative Hayiǂheñei
Genitive: Hayiǂheso
Instrumental Hayiǂhescó
Dative: Hayiǂheli
Comatative Hayiǂhepou
Locative: Hayiǂheʘhe
Lative Hayiǂhenǀô
Ablative Hayiǂhemi


The noun must take the definite marker before the case ending if definite: <The>
Hayiǂhethe
"The Woman"

Hayiǂhetheli
"To the Woman"

Nouns cannot be possesed; for this they need a genitive pronoun. Pronouns will be the next post.
Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.
-JRR Tolkien
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Re: Ūnǂàma

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The Verb system is much more conservative then Eroki Gǂama.
The verb is templitic, being agent-tense-object-root.
It must be noted that for Class I concord, the class is split into two subclasses: Masculine and Feminine. The Feminine concord markers are Yei (sing) and Mi (PLR), but this is optional.
The tense markers are Past Present and Future:
Present:∅/ju
Past: pàǀo
Future: nǂyma
The present is unmarked for Intransitive verbs
Tiʘhūwei tipàǀohethe
"An Albatross fell"

Chiyiǂhethe chinǂymaphóle
"The girl will be sleeping"

Chiyiǂhethe chiphóle
"The girl is sleeping"

ǀīyiǂhe hiyiǂhetheñei ǀījuhikhūcò!qó
"A female spirit is harming the girls"

Hayiǂhethe phehoulitheǀô hapàǀoʘqoʎêky. Phehoulitheǀô yeipàǀohethe.
"The woman went to the water hole. She fell in.
Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.
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Re: Ūnǂàma

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The Copula is irregular, having two stems, one for the past, one for non-past (<ntàcei>and <nǀàscī>, respectively), which takes the class marker of the predicate, and occurs between the two nouns, instead of the regular SOV word order. Neither noun takes case.
!àqithuthe nǀàscī !hǔqithu
"The rat is large" [Lit. "The rat is a large rat."]

The Verbal noun is formed by the prefix Ū attached to the root
Ūʘqoʎêky
"Going"

Aspect and mood are formed with Auxillary Verbs. The Copula serves as an AUX meaning PERF. The non-past in this construction has a future meaning. The word order in this case is NOM NOM.CLASS-AUX (DAT) ACC/(nouns in any other case) VERB-NOM

So:
Hayiǂhethe hantàcei phehoulitheǀô ūʘqoʎêky
"The woman has gone to the watering hole"

ǀīyiǂhe ǀīnǀàscī hiyiǂhetheñei ūkhūcò!qó
"A female spirit will have harmed the girls."
Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.
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Re: Ūnǂàma

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The Subjunctive:
The Subjunctive is formed by the auxillary verb ǂqàhlé, which in its non-aux use means "To make".
The subjunctive mood, when unmarked, means that the subject should do something:
Hayiǂhethe phehoulitheǀô hapàǀoǂqàhlé ūʘqoʎêky
"The woman should have gone to the water-hole"

If the verbal noun is in the intrumental, proceeded by another clause in the indicative, it means "for the purpose of":
Hayiǂhethe scokǔpoñei hapàǀosconkakho phehoulitheǀô hapàǀoǂqàhlé ūʘqoʎêkyscó
"The woman took a bucket in order to go to the water hole"

If the clause is proceeded by <yecora> and is followed by a clause in the indicative, it is the protasis of a conditional sentence:
Yecora hayiǂhethe phehoulitheǀô hapàǀoǂqàhlé ūʘqoʎêky, yeintàcei ūhethe
"If the woman went to the water hole, she would have fallen in"
Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.
-JRR Tolkien
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Re: Ūnǂàma

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The progessive aspect is rarely used in the modern language, being only used for emphasis in the present tense, and for traditional oral religious mythic/historic epics (Mpoumiso Ūmāmari). Its aux. verb is "Hāǂò" "To exist":
Hayiǂhethe phehoulitheǀô hahāǂò ūʘqoʎêky
"The woman is going to the watering hole."

The Optative mood is used for hopes and wishes.
Hayiǂhethe phehoulitheǀô hapàǀohāǂho ūʘqoʎêky
"I hope the woman went to the watering hole"

!qóyiǂhethe phehoulitheǀô !qónǂymahāǂho ūʘqoʎêky
"May the women go to the watering hole!"

Ūnǂymahāǂho ūmāmari
"Let it be said!"
(This is a ritual statement said by the entire community before a Mpoumiso Ūmāmari is recited)
Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.
-JRR Tolkien
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