Phonology
Consonants
| Bilabial | Dental | Alveolar | Post Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal |
Plosive | p b | t d | | | | k g | ʔ |
Nasal | m | n | | | | | |
Fricative | | | s z | ʃ | | ɣ | h |
Lateral Fricative | | ɬ | | | | | |
Approximant | | | | | j | | |
Lateral Approximant | | l | | | | | |
Affricate | | tɬ dɮ | | | | | |
Vowels
>>>
| Front | Back | Diphthongs |
Close | i | u | uj |
Close-Mid | e | | ej |
Open | a | | 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 above the vowel and by a bar in native orthography.
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
Romanization
Most sounds are represented with the IPA equivalent except for a few mentioned here.
IPA | Romanization |
ʔ | ' |
ɬ | lh |
tɬ | tl |
dɮ | dl |
j | y |
Other Orthographies
- Tlatá Logography
- Súdu Syllabary
Morphology
Verbs
Pronominal Prefixes
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 | | | |
Dual | | | |
Plural | | | |
Third Person
Number | Prefix | 'Ináwah Example | English |
Singular | | | |
Dual | | | |
Plural | | | |
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. |
Intensified Negation | ba+ba-, … | babakemu | I definitely don't walk. |
Nouns
Postpositions
Conjunctions
Interfixes
Syntax
Word Order
SOV
Noun Phrase
- Noun + Postposition
- Noun + Adjective Phrase
Verb Phrase
Sentence Phrase
Dependent Clauses
Sample Texts