'Ináwah

'Ináwah
Ináwah
Pronunciation	[ʔi.ˈná.wah]
Created by	Iancgil
Writing system	Tlatá Logography

Introduction

'Ináwah [ʔi.ˈná.wah] is the language spoken by the people of 'Iná, the 'Inábe. It is an agglutinative tonal language inspired largely by the indigenous languages of the Americas such as Sioux, Navajo, Cherokee, Mohowk, Apache, and Mayan.

Phonology

Consonants

		Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Post Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	voicless	p /p/	t /t/				k /k/	' /ʔ/
	voiced	b /b/	d /d/				g /g/
Nasal		m /m/	n /n/
Fricative	voiceless			s /s/	sh /ʃ/			h /h/
	voiced			z /z/			gh /ɣ/
Lateral Fricative			lh /ɬ/
Approximant						y /j/
Lateral Approximant				l /l/
Affricate	voiceless			tl /tɬ/
	voiced			dl /dɮ/

Vowels

	Front	Back	Diphthongs
Close	i /i/	u /u/	uy /uj/
Close-Mid	e /e/		ey /ej/
Open	a /a/		ay /aj/

Tones

'Ináwah technically only has two tones (high and neutral), but adjacent, identical vowels with contrasting tones may produce rising or falling tones with long vowel length in lax speech. A high tone is the marked tone and is denoted in romanization by an acute acent.

Examples:
niʔí > nǐː
nasúʔubá > nasûːubá

Phonotactics

Allowed Syllables

• CV(h,j)
• ʔ(syllabic nasal)

Phonological Rules

• nasal > ʔ + syllabic / $_$
• j > i / V_$
• g > ɣ / V$_

Stress

• High tones always get primary stress.
• If there is a word with all identical tones, the ultimate syllable receives primary stress.
• In the event that there are varying tones, the last high tone receives the primary stress.

Orthography

The main orthography of 'Ináwah is the Tlatá logography, but later 'Inábe created and used the Súdu syllabary often along with Tlatá.

Tlatá Logography

The Tlatá Logography is the primary writing system used for 'Ináwah.

Morphology

Verbs

Verbs play a large role in 'Ináwah and can often compose the entire sentence.They are marked for negation, person, number, tense, and mood/mode.

Structure of the Verb

(negation) + (nominal prefix) + [stem] + (tense) + (mood)

Pronominal Prefixes

Pronominal prefixes are required for all verbs that are not infinitives. First Person

Number	Prefix	'Ináwah Example	English
Singular	pe-	pemu	I walk.
Dual Inclusive	peyé-	peyému	We both walk.
Dual Exclusive	ipeyé-	ipeyému	We both walk, but not you.
Plural Inclusive	té-	tému	We all walk.
Plural Exclusive	ité-	itému	We all walk, but not you

Second Person

Number	Prefix	'Ináwah Example	English
Singular	wa-	wamu	You walk.
Dual	wayé-	wayému	You both walk.
Plural	'iwa-	iwamu	You all walk.

Third Person

Number	Prefix	'Ináwah Example	English
Singular	ma-	mamu	He, she, it walks.
Dual	mayé-	mayému	They both walk.
Plural	'ima-	imamu	They all walk.

Tense

Tense	Suffix	'Ináwah Example	English
Present	n/a	pemu	I walk.
Imperfect	-shú	pemushú	I was walking/I would walk (before).
Simple Past	-she	pemushe	I walked/I had walked.
Progressive	-weh	pemuweh	I am walking.
Near Future	-hu	pemuhu	I am about to walk.
Future	-tlí	pemutlí	I will walk.

Negation

Negation	Prefix	'Ináwah Example	English
Simple Negation	ba-	bakemu	I don't walk.
Double Negation	'úba-, ba'úba-, 'úba'úba-, …	'úbakemu	I don't not walk.
Reduplication Negation	ba+ba-, …	babakemu	I definitely don't walk.

Mood and Mode

Mood/Mode	Suffix	'Ináwah Example	English
Indicative	n/a	wamu	You walk.
Interrogative	-su	wamushesu	Did you walk?
Imperative	-'alé	wamu'alé	You must/should walk. (command)
Jussive	-sú'é	'imamusú'é	They must/should walk. (command)
Potential	-bu	pemubu	I could walk.
Hypothetical	-wi	wamushewi	If you could have walked...
Possibility	-ga	wamuga	You might walk.
Opative	-'ubá	wamu'ubá	You want/wish to walk.

Nouns

Structure of the Noun

(nominal prefix) + [stem] + (derivational morpheme) + (case suffix)

Case

'Ináwah noun case is designated solely by syntax. The prenominal prefix attached to the verb is often used as a way to help designate the subject and so there can be some flexibility in word order, but usually only in verse and poetry.

Pronouns

'Ináwah pronouns are formed by using pronominal prefixes attached to the noun "be" meaning "person" or "self". If the subject is a pronoun it is omitted since the prenominal prefix attached to the verb is required. In the case that the verb is reflexive, a pronoun will be used and will be understood as the object and not the subject of the sentence.

Number	Prefix	'Ináwah Example	English
Singlular	pe-	pebe	I
Dual Inclusive	peyé-	peyébe	We both
Dual Exclusive	ipeyé-	ipeyébe	We both, but not you
Plural Inclusive	té-	tébe	We all
Plural Exclusive	ité-	itébe	We all, but not you

Second Person

Number	Prefix	'Ináwah Example	English
Singular	wa-	wabe	You
Dual	wayé-	wayébe	You both
Plural	iwa-	iwabe	You all

Third Person

Number	Prefix	'Ináwah Example	English
Singular	ma-	mabe	He, she, it
Dual	mayé-	mayébe	They both
Plural	ima-	imabe	They all

Postpositions

Postposition	'Ináwah Example	English
sa'á	shali sa'á	in the dwelling
'uni	shali 'uni	outside the dwelling
té	shali té	of the dwelling
lhú	wabe lhú	with you
se	shali se	at the dwelling
gí	'éwa gí	with a hand, by means of a hand
la	suné la	as/like a cat
hí	shali hí	to the dwelling

Conjunctions

• nasha - that, so, in order to
• su'í - and

Syntax

Word Order

SOV

Noun Phrase

• Noun + Postposition
• Noun + Adjective Phrase

Sample Texts

Ídu yáwah té masi lahás ma'ú té.
The knowledge of the Creator is the most noble.

Shéna wayadú'í'alé nasha kikí wayadú'í.
You must receive pain to receive benefit.