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
| Negation | Prefix | 'Ináwah Example | English |
|---|
| Simple Negation | | | |
| Double Negation | | | |
| Intensified Negation | | | |
Nouns
Postpositions
Conjunctions
Interfixes
Syntax
Word Order
SOV
Noun Phrase
- Noun + Postposition
- Noun + Adjective Phrase
Verb Phrase
Sentence Phrase
Dependent Clauses
Sample Texts