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, zühnt, ntöü, nuot, ngiat, råht [san, eir, ɓuːc, jɔːⁿs, ˈseŋ, cyːⁿt, ⁿdøy, nuət, ŋiat, rɔːt]
wint = negative
nkelei Piontels tur Bojels. = 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.
Vowels
Kieng 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 Kieng used -er as an accusative and -el for both the illative and inessive.
Article
The equivalent of the definite article in Kieng 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 Kieng 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 Kieng is SVO. Due to the influence of Tsjoen, Modern Kieng is quite strict about it (though objects could be fronted for emphasis).
Serial verbs are also common in Kieng; all verbs but the last in a serial verb chain are in the ablative.
Mpa fiuntens lei = He came and spoke.