Gomal*

LANGUAGE FAMILY: KANNAI
PERIOD OF USE:
SCRIPT USED:
PARENT LANGUAGE:
DESCENDANT LANGUAGES:

---

"...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind..."
Translation: phur chyo chyhi tibep sashalknoy ahornoy phur hanaep bro chyhi ake huep khotnoy
Pronunciation: phur co chi ˈtibep ˈsashalknoj ˈahornoj phur ˈhanaep bro chi ˈake ˈhuep ˈkhotnoj
Gomal word order: and he his hat holding stood and the wind to his wet face turned

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: /b c d f g h hʼ j k l m n p q r rʼ s t tʼ v w z/

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	m		n
Stop	p b		t tʼ d	c	k g	q
Fricative		f v	s z				h hʼ
Approximant				j
Trill			r rʼ
Lateral approximant			l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: /a e i o u y/

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

Syllable structure: Custom defined
Stress pattern: Initial — stress is on the first syllable
Word initial consonants: b, br, c, ch, d, g, h, j, k, kh, l, m, n, nh, p, ph, q, r, s, sh, t, w, z
Mid-word consonants: b, bh, c, chch, chh, d, fr, g, h, hn, ht, j, k, l, lm, ln, lt, m, mm, n, nd, nk, np, ns, nw, pn, pt, qb, r, rn, rp, rrʼp, rz, s, sh, sk, sl, ss, st, t, td, thʼp, tl, tm, tʼd, v, w, z, zh
Word final consonants: b, chh, f, g, ghz, h, j, k, kh, l, lk, m, n, nd, p, r, sh, sl, t, th, w
Phonological changes (in order of application):

• j → d / #_
• j → w / _o
• a → ∅ / #_m
• s → z / V_V
• b → m / #_Vn
• i → ∅ / a_

Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
y	û
j	y
c	chy

Grammar

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

Nouns

Nouns have six cases:

• Ergative is the doer of a verb, when the verb is done to something: dog bites man.
• Absolutive is used in two scenarios: the doer of a verb when not done to something (dog bites), and the done-to of a verb (man bites dog).
• Genitive is the possessor of something: dog’s tail hits man.
• Dative is the recipeint of something: man gives ball to dog.
• Locative is the location of something: man goes to town.
• Ablative is movement away from something: man walks from town.

Ergative	Prefix a- akoup /ˈakoup/ dog (doing the verb to something)
Absolutive	No affix koup /ˈkoup/ dog (doing the verb, but not to something)
Genitive	If starts with vowel: Prefix b- Else: Prefix ba- bakoup /ˈbakoup/ dogʼs
Dative	If starts with vowel: Prefix sh- Else: Prefix shi- shikoup /ˈshikoup/ to (the/a) dog
Locative	If starts with vowel: Prefix p- Else: Prefix pa- pakoup /ˈpakoup/ near/at/by (the/a) dog
Ablative	If starts with vowel: Prefix k- Else: Prefix ka- kakoup /ˈkakoup/ from (the/a) dog

	Masculine	Feminine
Singular	No affix loep /ˈloep/ man	No affix zarup /ˈzarup/ woman
Plural	Prefix e- eloep /ˈeloep/ men	Prefix a- azarup /ˈazarup/ women

Articles

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	kat /kat/ the	kho /kho/ a
Plural	net /net/ the	lo /lo/ some

Pronouns

	Ergative	Absolutive	Genitive	Dative	Locative	Ablative
1st singular	ba /ba/ I	lu /lu/ me, I	ye /je/ mine	gen /gen/ to me	kar /kar/ at me	kan /kan/ from me
2nd singular	a /a/ you	ha /ha/ you	ra /ra/ yours	ni /ni/ to you	de /de/ at you	hi /hi/ from you
3rd singular masc	chyo /co/ he, it	yeghz /jeghz/ him, it	chyhi /chi/ his, its	ka /ka/ to him, at it	ta /ta/ at him, at it	zam /zam/ from him, from it
3rd singular fem	meh /meh/ she, it	min /min/ her, it	ker /ker/ hers, its	ner /ner/ to her, at it	kish /kish/ at her, at it	bro /bro/ from her, from it
1st plural	ke /ke/ we	al /al/ us, we	ne /ne/ ours	zar /zar/ to us	pûchyhh /pychh/ at us	sand /sand/ from us
2nd plural	walk /walk/ you all	ki /ki/ you all	lo /lo/ yours (pl)	me /me/ to you all	i /i/ at you all	kho /kho/ from you all
3rd plural masc	rar /rar/ they (masc)	mey /mej/ them (masc), they (masc)	ger /ger/ theirs (masc)	ak /ak/ to them (masc)	mo /mo/ at them (masc)	melk /melk/ from them (masc)
3rd plural fem	kal /kal/ they (fem)	pu /pu/ them (fem), they (fem)	ar /ar/ theirs (fem)	pûk /pyk/ to them (fem)	mil /mil/ at them (fem)	mu /mu/ from them (fem)

Possessive determiners

1st singular	ye /je/ my
2nd singular	ra /ra/ your
3rd singular masc	chyhi /chi/ his
3rd singular fem	ker /ker/ her
1st plural	ne /ne/ our
2nd plural	lo /lo/ your (pl)
3rd plural masc	ger /ger/ their (masc)
3rd plural fem	ar /ar/ their (fem)

Verbs

Future

Prefix a- ameknoy /ˈameknoj/ will learn

Gomal uses a standalone particle word for past tense:

Past	Particle before the verb: ba - ba meknoy /ba ˈmeknoj/ learned

Numbers

Gomal has a base-10 number system:
1 - ka
2 - ar
3 - ba
4 - ti
5 - wa
6 - ge
7 - mer
8 - shi
9 - ware
10 - hal
11 - halka “ten-one”
100 - phu “hundred”
101 - phu phur ka “hundred and one”
200 - ar phu
1000 - mûzhir “thousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Prefix a-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix w- Else: Prefix wa-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix mo-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix w- Else: Prefix wa-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If starts with vowel: Prefix n- Else: Prefix ne-
Noun to verb = Prefix lo-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix mu-
Tending to = If starts with vowel: Prefix p- Else: Prefix py-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix co-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Prefix a-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If starts with vowel: Prefix s- Else: Prefix sa-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Prefix ha-
Diminutive = Prefix ki-
Augmentative = Prefix ge-

Dictionary

4454 Words.