Proto-Nnadū language

Agglutinative with inflectional and isolative features.

Consonants
[p t c cᵝ k kᵝ] /p t c cw k kw/ [pʼ tʼ cʼ cʼᵝ kʼ] kʼᵝ /p̕ t̕ c̕ cw̕ k̕ kw̕/ [b d ɟ ɟᵝ g gᵝ] /b d ġ ġw g gw/ [ɓ ɗ ʄ ʄᵝ ɠ ɠᵝ] /b̕ d̕ ġ̕ ġw̕ g̕ gw̕/ [s sʼ x xᵝ] /s s̕ h hw/ [m n ɲ ŋ] /m n ṇ ŋ/ [l ʎ ʟ] /l ḷ ł/ [j β̝] /j w/

Vowels
a - tenuis short vowel ã - nasalized short vowel a̤ - breathy short vowel aː - long vowel

[iː ĩː i̤ː] /ii įį ịị/ [ɨː ɨ̃ː ɨ̤ː] /uu ųų ụụ/ [uː ũː ṳː] /oo ǫǫ ọọ/ [ɪ̈ ɪ̃̈ ɪ̤̈] /u ų ụ/ [ʊ ʊ̃ ʊ̤] /o ǫ ọ/ [e ẽ e̤] /i į ị/ [ə ə̃ ə̤] /a ą ạ/ [aː ãː a̤ː] /aa ąą ạạ/

Phonotactics
(C)(C)V(R)(C)

Accent
Grammaticalized tonal pitch accent. Three stress-tones: rising (I), falling (II), rising-falling (III).


 * I - noun/verb stress (á : aá)
 * II - adjectival/participial stress (à : aà)
 * III - adverbial stress (â : aâ)


 * Nouns, nominal adjectives, non-deverbal adverbs - first syllable stress
 * Verbs, participles (with deverbal adverbs) - last syllable stress

Nouns

 * tripartite and three-way patient alignment
 * possessor (preffixal).

Morphemic order:

[Definiteness] + [Case + Possessor + Root + Root extension + (Gender + Number) + Tense]

Nominal tense
Tense is obligatory marked on subject or object of sentence (depending on subject marking).

Verbs

 * pronominal persons before verb.
 * subjective persons cliticized to objectives.

Morphemic order:

''[Object + Subject] + [Evidentiality] + [Polarity + Mood + Root + Root extension + Voice + Aspect + (Gender + Number)] ''

Pronouns

 * tense marker
 * gender stems with number cliticization.

Personal pronouns
Objective personal pronouns are pre-cliticized to subjectives.

Objectives
Objectives of the 1.-2. persons have their own stems.

Word order

 * OSV (Object - Subject - Verb)