Amkhong

Natively known as: amkhong /ˈɒmkʰɔng/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
shawn o za nya o bint shawn yock o lac jall bot tshet
Pronunciation: /ʃɒwn ɔ zɒ ɲɒ ɔ bint ʃɒwn jɔǀk ɔ lɒǀ ʤɒll bɔt ʧʼɛt/
Avermound word order: and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b d g k l m n p q r s t v w

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Velar	Uvular
Nasal	m		n
Stop	p b		t d	k g	q
Fricative		v	s
Trill			r
Lateral approximant			l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: a e i o u

	Front	Back
High	i	u
High-mid	e	o
Low	a

Syllable structure: Custom defined ?
Stress pattern: Penultimate — stress is on the second last syllable ?
Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
bʱ	bh
ᵑǀʱ	ngc
ᵑǃʱ	ngq
ᵑǂʱ	ngx
ɲʧʼ	ntsh
ʧʼ	tsh
ᶢǃʱ	gq
ᶢǂʱ	gx
ᶢǀʱ	gc
ᵑǂ	nx
ǂʰ	xh
ᵑǃ	nq
kʰ	kh
ǃʰ	qh
ǃ	q
ǂ	x
ŋk	nk
ᵑǀ	nc
ǀʰ	ch
ǀ	c
ɮ	dl
j	y
ɲʤ	nj
ʤ	j
ɲ	ny
ɦ	hh
ɬ	hl
pʰ	ph
ʃ	sh
tʰ	th
ʦʼ	ts
ɒ	a
ɛ	e
ɔ	o

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Grammar

Main word order: Subject Verb Object (Prepositional phrase). “Mary opened the door with a key” turns into Mary opened the door with a key.
Adjective order: Adjectives are positioned before the noun.
Adposition: prepositions ?

Nouns

Singular	No affix ull /ull/ dog
Plural	Reduplicate last part of last syllable ullull /ˈullull/ dogs

Articles

Definite	ey /ɛj/ the
Indefinite	ya /jɒ/ a, some

Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Used for languages: ‘The English’

Uses of indefinite article that differ from English:

• Not used for non-specific countable nouns: non-specific means ‘I am looking for a (any) girl in a red dress’, whereas specific means ‘I am looking for a (particular) girl in a red dress’

Pronouns

1st singular	tu /tu/ I, me, mine
2nd singular	chun /ǀʰun/ you, yours
3rd singular masc	o /ɔ/ he, him, his, it (masc), its (masc)
3rd singular fem	gin /gin/ she, her, hers, it (fem), its (fem)
1st plural	mfagh /mfɒgh/ we, us, ours
2nd plural	phan /pʰɒn/ you all, yours (pl)
3rd plural	mnya /mɲɒ/ they, them, theirs

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	tu /tu/ my
2nd singular	chun /ǀʰun/ your
3rd singular masc	o /ɔ/ his
3rd singular fem	gin /gin/ her
1st plural	mfagh /mfɒgh/ our
2nd plural	phan /pʰɒn/ your (pl)
3rd plural	mnya /mɲɒ/ their

Verbs

Present	No affix ill /ill/ learn
Past	If starts with vowel: Prefix ɛl- Else: Prefix ɛli- elill /ˈɛlill/ learned
Future	Prefix ɛ- eill /ˈɛill/ will learn

Imperfective aspect

The ‘imperfective’ aspect refers to ongoing actions, such as I am learning and habitual actions, such as I learn (something new every day).
Avermound uses an affix for imperfective:

Imperfective

Prefix ɔ- oill /ˈɔill/ learns/is learning

Numbers

Avermound has a base-10 number system:
1 - et
2 - uwn
3 - ga
4 - bhu
5 - bif
6 - su
7 - let
8 - ngqel
9 - mnyagh
10 - sung
100 - ndluff
1000 - lwi

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If starts with vowel: Prefix s-
Else: Prefix sɛ-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix ɒ-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix nǂ-
Else: Prefix nǂi-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix kɒ-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If starts with vowel: Prefix nɬ-
Else: Prefix nɬɔ-
Noun to verb = If starts with vowel: Prefix ǃ-
Else: Prefix ǃu-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix ɛ-
Tending to = Prefix ɛ-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix mbɛ-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If starts with vowel: Prefix uw-
Else: Prefix uwɔ-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ɒkw-
Else: Prefix ɒkwu-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ᵑǃ̤-
Else: Prefix ᵑǃ̤ɒ-
Diminutive = Prefix ɛ-
Augmentative = If starts with vowel: Prefix b̤-
Else: Prefix b̤ɔ-

Dictionary

3051 Words.

Spoken by

• Avermound