Phonology edit
Vowels edit
| Front | Central | Back | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| long | short | long | short | long | short | |
| Close | i (i) | í (ɪ) | u (u) | ú (ʊ) | ||
| Mid | e (ɛ) | ô (ə ~ ʌ) | o (ɔ) | |||
| Open | â (æ) | a (ɑ) | ||||
| Diphthongs | ei (eɪ) ai (aɪ) oi (ɔɪ) au (aʊ) ou (oʊ) | |||||
Consonants edit
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | p b (p b) | t d (t d) | k g (k g) | |
| Affricate | ts (t͡s) | |||
| Fricative | s z (s z) | gy (ɣ) | ||
| Nasal | m (m) | n (n) | ng (ŋ) | |
| Approximant | r l (ɹ l) | y (j) | w (w) |
Phonotactics edit
Syllables can take the following forms:
- V
- CV
- NSV
- SwV
where V = vowel, C = consonant, N = the nasal vowels /m n/, and S = a stop or the consonants /s z ts/. Stress, which can be marked with the acute accent, always falls on the penultimate syllable of the core word except in the case of ô, where it will fall on the following one.
In instances where an impermissable cross-syllable consonant cluster may form an intersyllabic -e- is added; hiatus occurs in the case of vowel clusters.
Nouns edit
Nouns are inflected for plurality, case, and augmentative/diminutive: case|noun|dim/aug|plurality. For example: bangómbonyosə 'by the small cities'.
Noun classes edit
Ngudu has eight noun classes.
class semantics prefix example translation 1 the supernatural, abstractions, power o-/ng-/ngu- ngudundo spirit 2 people, animals m-/mo- mtulu pest 3 plants, edible things mb-/mbi- mbimbə mushroom 4 hard things, geographical features i-/s-/so- songu river 5 soft things w-/wa- waturu water 6 made objects mz-/mzo- mzogo knife 7 collective things e-/ng-/ngo- ngombo city 8 miscellany nd-/ndə- ndəmədaku crown
Animal parts prepared for food fall into class 3, not class 2 (monbo 'fish' vs mbinbo 'fish flesh'). Class 7 nouns are known as collective nouns and are not inherently plural (for example, ngotwi 'forest' is derived from mbitwi 'tree'). Loanwords usually fall into class 8 despite their appropriateness in other categories, (hence ndəmədaku 'crown' rather than mzom?daku from Roan 'medac' of the same meaning).
Cases edit
Ngudu has a simple case system:
case suffix nominative Ø accusative tsa- locative ta- proximative ba-
Other affixes edit
Plurals are simply with the suffix -sə. Ngudu also features the augmentative -zu and the diminutive -nyo.
Verbs edit
Ngudu verbs carry a number of inflections, ordered as person|tense|aspect|mood|verb. For example, the English phrase "I always thought" can be translated as: mi|des|pu|so|zolo, midespuzolo (1.PST.CONT.IND.think).
Moods edit
| Mood | Infix |
|---|---|
| Indicative | -so- |
| Energetic | -ogo- |
| Dubitative | -mtse- |
| Interrogative | -ku- |
| Imperative | -Ø- |
Aspect edit
| Aspect | Infix |
|---|---|
| Continuous | -pu- |
| Perfective | -wə- |
| Imperfective | -nya- |
| Frequentative | -le- |
| Continuous | -nti- |
| Prospective | -raz- |
| Terminative | -isu- |
| Continuative | -gəb- |
Tense edit
| Tense | Infix |
|---|---|
| Distant past | -des- |
| Recent past | -to- |
| Present | -Ø- |
| Near future | -tur- |
| Distant future | -tutur- |
Person edit
Ngudu has a rather extensive system of personal prefixes which inflect for the class of the noun which is being modified as well as paucal plurality and "ordinary" plurality. Fortunately, the singular prefixes are identical to the noun classes to which they refer while paucal with simple vowel shifts, generally towards the back, while plurals were formed with shifts towards the closed front, accompanied by devoicing.
| 1st | 2nd | Class 1 | Class 2 | Class 3 | Class 4 | Class 5 | Class 6 | Class 7 | Class 8 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | mi- | yu- | o- | mbo- | mbi- | i- | wa- | mzo- | ngo- | ndə- |
| Paucal | usə- | tu- | a- | mba- | mbə- | ə- | wu- | mza- | nga- | nda- |
| Plural | usi- | ti- | u- | mpi- | mpe- | e- | wə- | msə- | nkə- | nti- |
Other types of pronouns edit
Intensive pronouns can be formed by combining the relevant prefix with the suffix -yo (oyo, mboyo, etc).
Motion verbs edit
Verbs describing motion are inflected based on where they occur relative to the speaker based on Cartesian coordinates whereby x, y, z are conceptualized as right, up, and forward, respectively, while -x, -y, -z are their inverses. In addition, these verbs can also inflect for motion such as oscillation and circulation. Plural-only inflections exist for convergence, division, and scattering.