User:IlL/Spare pages 1/45
IlL/Spare pages 1/45 (Kiengem-Nkahn or colloquially Kieng-Nkahn) is one of the major languages of Bjeheond.
ßan, eir, buhz, jåhnß, ßeng, zkühnt, ntöü, nuot, ngiat, zråht [san, eir, ɓuːc, jɔːⁿs, ˈseŋ, ckyːⁿt, ⁿdøy, nuət, ŋiat, crɔːt]
wint = negative
nkelei Piontels tur Boyels. = I speak of love and hate.
Idea
A "Sinospheric Finnish", or "Chinese with cases"
Phonology
Orthography
Consonants
| Labial | Alveolar | Medial | Velar | Lab.vel. | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m /m/ | n /n/ | ń /ɲ/ | ng /ŋ/ | |||
| Plosive | voiceless | p /p/ | t /t/ | z /c/ | k /k/ | qu /kʷ/ | |
| prenasalized | mp /ᵐb/ | nt /ⁿd/ | ńz /ᶮɟ/ | nk /ᵑg/ | nqu /ᵑgʷ/ | ||
| voiced | b /b/ | d /d/ | ɟ /ɟ/ | g /g/ | |||
| Fricative | plain | f /f~v/ | ß /s~z/ þ /θ~ð/ |
s /ç~ʝ/ | h /h/ | ||
| prenasalized | mf /ᵐv/ | nß /ⁿz/ | |||||
| Liquid | r /r/; l /l/ | ŕ /ɹ/ | |||||
| Approximant | j /j/ | w /w/ | |||||
- Notes
- Voiceless plosives are not aspirated.
- /ᵐb ⁿd ᶮɟ ᵑg/ devoice to [ᵐp ⁿt ᶮc ᵑk] word-finally.
- /b d ɟ/ are often realized as implosives.
- The fricatives ß s g are voiced intervocalically.
- Gemination is phonemic.
Vowels
Tei has short and long versions of the following monophthongs (except for /ə/ which only occurs in unstressed syllables). Long vowels are marked with a following h.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i /i/ | ü /y/ | u /u/ |
| Close-mid | e /e/ | ö /ø/ | o /o/ |
| Mid | (e /ə/) | ||
| Open-mid | ä /ɛ/ | å /ɔ/ | |
| Open | a /a/ |
Diphthongs: ai au ei öü ou ia ie io iu üö uo
Prosody
Stress
Most of the time, the stress falls on the first syllable. Exceptions are verb prefixes and sesquisyllables.
Intonation
Phonotactics
The syllable structure is (C)(C)V(C)s, where V can be a vowel or a diphthong.
Morphophonology
Morphology
Nouns
| Nominative | Nßäht | |
|---|---|---|
| Genitive | Nßähtem | |
| Illative | Nßähter | |
| Inessive | Nßähtel | |
| Elative | Nßähtels | |
| Allative/Dative | Nßähtene | |
| Adessive | Nßähten | |
| Ablative | Nßähtens | |
| Instrumental/Comitative | Nßähtemp | |
| Essive | Nßähtezz | |
| Translative | Nßähtenk | |
| Abessive | Nßähtmakk | |
Plurals are formed with nto-, so: Ntonßäht (trees), Ntonßähtem (of trees), ...
Old Tei used -er as an accusative and -el for both the illative and inessive.
Article
The equivalent of the definite article in Tei is a classifier (as in Hmong), but it's placed after the noun and carries the case marker. The noun before a classifier is prescriptively in the genitive case, but it's often dropped.
- Nßäht koþem (presc. and in older Tei Nßähtem koþem) 'of the tree'
- Nßähtem 'of a tree'
Pronouns
| Pronouns | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | ||
| 1 | nkohz | tahs | |
| 2 | mei | wäll | |
| 3 | mpa (animate), mpi (inanimate) | ||
Case suffixes attach to nkuo-, tah-, mei-, and wäh- respectively: nkuom Mpahng = my hand nkuols = from me; about me
Verbs
Subject affixes
| Subject affixes | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | ||
| 1 | nke- | te- | |
| 2 | en- | le- | |
| 3 | - | ||
These are really clitic forms of pronouns. So for example "nkelei" has the same connotation as "nkohz lei", but "nkohz nkelei" is emphatic, like saying "Myself, I speak".
Verbs otherwise don't inflect.
Action nouns are formed with the suffix -(e)me, from the genitive clitic followed by an eroded form of ion (to do). For example: Leime = speaking
=Derivational morphology
Syntax
The unmarked word order in Tei is SVO. Due to the influence of Tsjoen, Modern Tei is quite strict about it (though objects could be fronted for emphasis).
Serial verbs are also common in Tei; all verbs but the last in a serial verb chain are in the ablative.
Mpa fiuntens lei = He came and spoke.