Anbirese

Tumaka (thoumaca /tʰumaka/) is a minority Talmic language descended from Tigol, inspired by Welsh, Korean and Romani. It is notable for its relatively conservative verb system.

Phonology

Consonants

• c g ch ŋ /k g kʰ ŋ/
• t d th n /t d tʰ n/
• ç j çh /ts dz tsʰ/
• p b ph m /p b pʰ m/
• f fh s sh (s̉) (s̃) h /f v~fʰ s z~sʰ ç ɕ h/
• r l i /r l j/

At word-final position, the voicing distinction in unaspirated plosives is lost, and unaspirated plosives are unreleased.

Vowels

i u ou e y a o /i ɨ u e ə a o/

Stress

Stress is always initial.

Morphology

Mutations

Tumaka has no mutation; instead, former feminine nouns often begin in an aspirated consonant. (cf. Eevo, where former feminine nouns begin in different consonants than former masculine nouns.)

Nouns

Nouns only have two states (absolute and construct) and two numbers (singular and plural). The usual affixes are:

• plural absolute: -(e)r
• singular construct: -(e)th
• plural construct: -(e)ph

e.g. cuther 'flower', cuthrer 'flowers'; cufna 'woman', cufnar 'women'.

Verbs

Tumaka verbs have two tenses (nonpast and past) and two aspects (imperfective and perfective). The imperfective-perfective distinction is characterized by allomorphy inherited from Old Eevo. As in Slavic languages, the perfective form is often derived by adding a prefix, which causes the verb to take the conjunct form. Most Tumacan verbs thus have two principal parts: imperfective and perfective.

An example of the aspect allomorphy:

• 'to tell': imperfective boŋi, perfective simŋi
• 'to eat': imperfective cay, perfective iŋcû

The old subject/TAM suffixes have been lost and tense is marked by prefixes.