Nyosangeyish

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Nyosangeyish (natively Nyosangé'g or jığo Nyosangé'g) is a conlang by CellularAutomaton. As his first conlang, there are inevitably things he dislikes about it, although it is at the time of writing under a week old.

Phonology

labial dental palatal velar
nasal m n̪ <n> ɲ <ny> ŋ <ng>
stop p b t̪ d̪ <t d> t̠͡ʃ d̠͡ʒ <c j> k g
fricative f s ʃ <ş> h
approximant w l̪ <l> j <y> (ɰ) <ğ>
tap ɾ <r>


front central back
close i ɯ u <ı u>
mid ᴇ <é> ə <e> ꭥ <o>
open ᴀ <a>

Morphology

Nyosangeyish is an analytic language, with verb tense and aspect being expressed with adverbs, and noun cases expressed with postpositions (which can become clitics, as in a=g "my" or ngedlo=f "at night".) The main exceptions to this are some derivational morphology, as well as verb mood, which is expressed with a suffix (fonşow-ec "accidentally see", akı céjug-u "smell that!"). Verb voice is also expressed with a suffix, which allows the speaker to modify word order.

Syntax

While normally SOV, Nyosangeyish can switch to OSV with the right verb suffix. Adjectives and adverbs come after the word they modify, but unusually for a head-initial language, adpositions are post- instead of pre-.

The Cat and the Bird

Maye fe céfod icégğu'm dıjun ag lejiğ nofé oyeny.
cat and bird persimmon=ACC tree ABL eat ATR want
A cat and a bird both wanted to eat persimmons from a tree.
Céfod feyefdıjun mu aweng fe icégğu mu lejiğ.
bird treetop ACC fly and persimmon ACC eat
The bird flew to the top of the tree and ate all the persimmons.
Maye fonşow hefyet fe buju mu ngıre.
cat see IPFV and anger ACC go
Seeing this, the cat became angry.
"Ngi a ngi aweng," mu tiğ ngége, "yo mu lejiğem hetıtajığ!"
if 1sg if fly ACC 3sg say 2sg ACC eat-COND instead
"If I could fly," it said, "I would eat you instead!"
Déğé-héj yişiny şoduğ dıjun-pisre'g ice.
just.then mouse large bush=ABL run
Just then a large mouse darted out from a bush.
Céfod ığuş, jél maye tiğ mu rağol déğé.
bird attack but cat 3sg ACC catch now
The bird lunged for it, but the cat had already caught it.