Jaadi

LANGUAGE FAMILY: ISHADIC
# SPEAKERS / WORLD RANKING: 8M / #5
SPOKEN IN: Ek Jad - 3.5M / Najamur - 2.5M / Sassam - 2M
PERIOD OF USE:
SCRIPT USED:
PARENT LANGUAGE:

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"...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind..."
Translation: twe ji ji kohtë zë wongkib twe tsizë zyë ji hundëz yë hwadow
Pronunciation: twɛ ʤi ʤi ˈkohtɘ zɘ ˈwoŋkib twɛ ˈtsizɘ zjɘ ʤi ˈhundɘz jɘ ˈhwadow

Jaadi word order: and he his hat holding stood and the wind to his wet face turned

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: /b d h j k m n p s t w z ŋ ɡ ʤ ʧ/

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m	n			ŋ
Stop	p b	t d			k ɡ
Affricate			ʧ ʤ
Fricative		s z				h
Approximant				j

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: /a i o u ɘ ɛ/

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
High-mid		ɘ	o
Low-mid	ɛ
Low	a

Syllable structure: Custom defined
Stress pattern: Initial — stress is on the first syllable
Word initial consonants: bw, d, dj, dw, h, hw, j, k, kj, n, nw, pj, pw, s, sw, ts, tw, w, z, zj, zm, zw, ŋw, ɡ, ɡj, ɡw, ʤ, ʤd, ʧ
Mid-word consonants: b, bd, bm, bs, bt, d, db, dm, ds, dt, dw, h, hb, hd, hj, ht, j, jb, jj, jk, jm, jt, jɡ, k, kd, km, ks, kw, m, mb, md, mh, mj, mn, mp, mw, mɡ, mʧ, n, nd, nh, nk, np, nw, nʤ, nʧ, p, pj, pm, pp, ps, pt, s, sb, sd, sh, sk, sm, sn, sp, ss, sw, t, tn, tp, ts, tt, tw, tʤ, tʧ, w, wd, ws, wt, ww, z, zj, zt, zw, ŋ, ŋb, ŋk, ŋp, ɡ, ɡd, ɡn, ɡs, ɡt, ɡw, ɡʤ, ɡʧ, ʤ, ʤm, ʤt, ʧ, ʧɡ
Word final consonants: N/A
Phonological changes (in order of application):

• k → ∅ / V_V
• w → ∅ / _w
• a → ɛ / {t,n}_#
• ks → ʃ / V_V
• n → m / #_
• s → h / _i

Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ɛ	e
ɘ	ë
j	y
ɡ	g
ŋ	ng
ʧ	ch
ʤ	j

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 two 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).

Ergative	Prefix ɘ- ëzwap /ˈɘzwap/ doɡ (doinɡ the verb to somethinɡ)
Absolutive	No affix zwap /zwap/ doɡ (doinɡ the verb, but not to somethinɡ)

Singular	No affix zwap /zwap/ doɡ
Plural	If starts with vowel: Prefix sw- Else: Prefix swo- swozwap /ˈswozwap/ doɡs

Articles

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	tsiw /tsiw/ the	swo /swo/ a
Plural	pya /pja/ the	jdeb /ʤdɛb/ some

Pronouns

	Ergative	Absolutive
1st singular	haj /haʤ/ I	di /di/ me, I
2nd singular	zyë /zjɘ/ you	e /ɛ/ you
3rd singular masc	ji /ʤi/ he, it	bwi /bwi/ him, it
3rd singular fem	ë /ɘ/ she, it	dyi /dji/ her, it
1st plural	nep /nɛp/ we	up /up/ us, we
2nd plural	ni /ni/ you all	gë /ɡɘ/ you all
3rd plural	huz /huz/ they	zwoch /zwoʧ/ them, they

Possessive determiners

1st singular	haj /haʤ/ my
2nd singular	zyë /zjɘ/ your
3rd singular masc	ji /ʤi/ his
3rd singular fem	ë /ɘ/ her
1st plural	nep /nɛp/ our
2nd plural	ni /ni/ your (pl)
3rd plural	huz /huz/ their

Verbs

	Present	Past	Future
1st singular	Prefix ɘ- ëkidtig /ˈɘkidtiɡ/ (I) learn	Prefix djɛ- dyekidtig /ˈdjɛkidtiɡ/ (I) learned	Prefix ka- kakidtig /ˈkakidtiɡ/ (I) will learn
2nd singular	If starts with vowel: Prefix ʧ- Else: Prefix ʧu- chukidtig /ˈʧukidtiɡ/ (you) learn	Prefix dwi- dwikidtig /ˈdwikidtiɡ/ (you) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix pw- Else: Prefix pwɛ- pwekidtig /ˈpwɛkidtiɡ/ (you) will learn
3rd singular	Prefix ʤɛ- jekidtig /ˈʤɛkidtiɡ/ (he/she/it) learns	Prefix o- okidtig /ˈokidtiɡ/ (he/she/it) learned	Prefix u- ukidtig /ˈukidtiɡ/ (he/she/it) will learn
1st plural	If starts with vowel: Prefix kj- Else: Prefix kji- kyikidtig /ˈkjikidtiɡ/ (we) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix w- Else: Prefix wo- wokidtig /ˈwokidtiɡ/ (we) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix ts- Else: Prefix tso- tsokidtig /ˈtsokidtiɡ/ (we) will learn
2nd plural	Prefix a- akidtig /ˈakidtiɡ/ (you all) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix zw- Else: Prefix zwo- zwokidtig /ˈzwokidtiɡ/ (you all) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix ʤ- Else: Prefix ʤɛ- jekidtig /ˈʤɛkidtiɡ/ (you all) will learn
3rd plural	Prefix i- ikidtig /ˈikidtiɡ/ (they) learn	Prefix nɛ- nekidtig /ˈnɛkidtiɡ/ (they) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix ɡw- Else: Prefix ɡwu- gwukidtig /ˈɡwukidtiɡ/ (they) will learn

Perfect aspect
The perfect aspect in English is exemplified in ‘I have read this book’, which expresses an event that took place before the time spoken but which has an effect on or is in some way still relevant to the present.
Jaadi uses an affix for the perfect aspect:

Perfect

Prefix hu- hukidtig /ˈhukidtiɡ/ have learned

Numbers

Jaadi has a base-10 number system:
1 - huz
2 - gëb
3 - u
4 - jdetwa
5 - gap
6 - ato
7 - hën
8 - hëbam
9 - yubeyuj
10 - gyo
11 - gyohuz “ten-one”
100 - somchim “hundred”
101 - somchim huz “hundred one”
200 - gëb somchim
1000 - yuni “thousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If starts with vowel: Prefix zj- Else: Prefix zjɘ-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix kji-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ɡw- Else: Prefix ɡwu-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix kj- Else: Prefix kji-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Prefix i-
Noun to verb = If starts with vowel: Prefix ʤd- Else: Prefix ʤdɛ-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix ɛ-
Tending to = Prefix i-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix i-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Prefix ni-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ɡ- Else: Prefix ɡa-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Prefix di-
Diminutive = Prefix so-
Augmentative = Prefix o-

Dictionary

4413 Words.