User:Preppep/sandbox/Ngudu

=Phonology=

Phonotactics
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= Nouns are inflected for plurality, case, and augmentative/diminutive: case|noun|dim/aug|plurality. For example: bangómbonyosə 'by the small cities'.

Noun classes
Ngudu has eight noun classes.


 * {| class=wikitable

!class!!semantics!!prefix!!example!!translation !1 !2 !3 !4 !5 !6 !7 !8
 * the supernatural, abstractions, power
 * o-/ng-/ngu-
 * ngudundo
 * spirit
 * people, animals
 * m-/mo-
 * mtulu
 * pest
 * plants, edible things
 * mb-/mbi-
 * mbimbə
 * mushroom
 * hard things, geographical features
 * i-/s-/so-
 * songu
 * river
 * soft things
 * w-/wa-
 * waturu
 * water
 * made objects
 * mz-/mzo-
 * mzogo
 * knife
 * collective things
 * e-/ng-/ngo-
 * ngombo
 * city
 * 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
Ngudu has a simple case system:


 * {| class=wikitable

!case!!suffix !nominative !accusative !locative !proximative
 * Ø
 * tsa-
 * ta-
 * ba-
 * }
 * }

Other affixes
Plurals are simply with the suffix -sə. Ngudu also features the augmentative -zu and the diminutive -nyo.

=Verbs=

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 (think).

Person
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.

Other types of pronouns
Intensive pronouns can be formed by combining the relevant prefix with the suffix -yo (oyo, mboyo, etc).

Motion verbs
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.