language basics
sounds
vowels | front | central | back |
---|---|---|---|
close | i /i/ |
u /u/ 1 |
|
close-mid | e /e/ |
o /o/ |
|
open-mid | ú /ɞ/ |
ó /ɔ/ |
|
open | a /a/ |
consonants | bi-labial | labio-dental | dental | alveolar | post alveolar | retroflex | palatal | velar | glotal |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
plosive | p /p/ b /b/ |
t /t/ |
d /d/ |
k q /k/ or /g/ 2 |
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nasal | m /m/ |
n /n/ |
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tap | r /ɾ/ 3 |
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fricative | f /f/ or /v/ |
s /s/ z /z/ |
j /ʐ/ |
h /h/ |
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approximant | ŕ or r /ɹ/ |
y /j/ |
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lat. approx | l /l/ or /w/ 4 |
- when before other vowels or at the end of a word, becomes
/w/
- written as q before a, o, and ó
- is
/ɹ/
when at the end of aCVC
- is
/w/
when at the end of aCVC
syllables
- V - only as first or last syllable of word
- (C)CV(V)
- see CC rules
- second V can't be the same
- at end of a word, assume
(C)CVV
instead of(C)CV V
- CVC
- last C can only be l, s, n, r
- cannot appear before a CCV
CC rules
first | second |
---|---|
b d k | l r |
p | l r |
f | l r |
intonation
in words with
- 3 syllables or more
- verb or substantive - second last syllable
- adjective - third last
- 2 syllables - first
structure
a phrase can be
- (S)VO
- a verb is conjugated to the subject, so the subject can be omitted
- the object can optionally be in the accusative case
- gives emphasis on the object ("I saw her")
- (S)OV
- put el before the object
- if it's an indirect object, put "de" before it
- emphasis on the action ("I saw her")
adjectives
appear after the substantive, in order of most important to least important (subjective to speaker)
in the same way, an adverb comes after the verb
when an adjective is doubled (by concatenation, see word forms) it becomes a superlative
to refer to the adjective itself (instead of the word as a substantive or adjective) put the particle "se-" before
counting
when referring to multiple things, without specifying a number (i.e. "many ducks" instead of "two ducks") use eni ('many') as the first adjective
union pronouns are considered plural by default, and using eni is incorrect
word forms and compounds
some 'base' words can have different forms depending if they're used by themselves, or as part of a compound word, conjugating verbs or using other forms does not count as compounding
as an agglutination language, you can make new valid words by combining existing "dictionary" ones, although their meaning will be set part trough the context you use them and not be set in stone
when putting words together to form a compound, if two words don't have a particle form, they have a '
between them, i.e. not needed when at least one of the words has a particle form
two word compounds always have a '
though
romanization stuff
an apostrophe ('
) has the use of a hyphen in portuguese/english