User:IlL/Spare pages 1/45

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Kieng/Lexicon
Kieng/Swadesh list

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/ /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

Nßäht 'tree'
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.