Jananalabag* (Old Alabag)

LANGUAGE FAMILY: ALABAG
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: a fe ge tieupu moga fipi a lifaupu tu ge masute lavuupu ugi
Pronunciation: a fe ge tiˈeuˌpu ˈmoga fiˈpi a ˈlifaˌupu tu ge ˈmasute laˈvuuˌpu ˈugi
Jananalabag word order: and he his hat holding stood and the wind to his wet face turned

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: /f g l m n p s t v/

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Velar
Nasal	m		n
Stop	p		t	g
Fricative		f v	s
Lateral approximant			l

Vowel inventory: /a aː à e i ì o u uː/

	Front	Back
High	i ì	u uː
High-mid	e	o
Low	a aː à

Syllable structure: Custom defined
Stress pattern: No fixed stress
Word initial consonants: f, g, l, m, n, p, s, t, v
Mid-word consonants: f, g, l, m, n, p, s, t, v
Word final consonants: N/A
Phonological changes (in order of application):

• a → æ / i(C)_
• i → u / uC_
• [+nasal] → ∅ / _{p,t,
• {n,l} → [+palatal] / _C
• l → n / #_
• a → i / iC_
• o → u / _#
• [+nasal] → h / _[+stop]
• e → i / #_
• e → i / _#
• o → ∅ / _u

Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
V₁ː	V₁̄

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 three cases:

• Nominative is the doer of a verb: dog bites man.
• Accusative is the done-to of a verb: man bites dog.
• Genitive is the possessor of something: dog’s tail hits man.

Singular

	Masculine	Feminine
Nominative	No affix leluuupu /ˈleluˌuupu/ man (when doing the verb)	No affix noapa /ˈnoapa/ woman (when doing the verb)
Accusative	Prefix lo- loleluuupu /ˈloleˌluuupu/ (verb done to) man	Prefix fe- fenoapa /ˈfenoˌapa/ (verb done to) woman
Genitive	Prefix mo- moleluuupu /ˈmoleˌluuupu/ manʼs	Prefix ma- manoapa /ˈmanoˌapa/ womanʼs

Plural

	Masculine	Feminine
Nominative	Prefix la- laleluuupu /ˈlaleˌluuupu/ men (when doing the verb)	Prefix te- tenoapa /teˈnoaˌpa/ women (when doing the verb)
Accusative	Prefix le- leleluuupu /leˈleluˌuupu/ (verb done to) men	Prefix ni- ninoapa /ˈninoˌapa/ (verb done to) women
Genitive	Prefix sa- saleluuupu /ˈsaleˌluuupu/ menʼs	Prefix vu- vunoapa /ˈvunoˌapa/ womenʼs

Articles

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	a /a/ the	te /te/ a
Plural	la /la/ the	nu /nu/ some

Pronouns

	Nominative	Accusative	Genitive
1st singular	li /li/ I	fi /fi/ me	lu /lu/ mine
2nd singular	ma /ma/ you (masc)	ti /ti/ you	to /to/ yours
3rd singular masc	fe /fe/ he, it	te /te/ him, it	ge /ge/ his, its
3rd singular fem	le /le/ she, it	a /a/ her, it	tu /tu/ hers, its
1st plural	ta /ta/ we	la /la/ us	u /u/ ours
2nd plural	ni /ni/ you all	sa /sa/ you all	po /po/ yours (pl)
3rd plural masc	vu /vu/ they (masc)	nu /nu/ them (masc)	fa /fa/ theirs (masc)
3rd plural fem	e /e/ they (fem)	i /i/ them (fem)	mo /mo/ theirs (fem)

Possessive determiners

1st singular	lu /lu/ my
2nd singular	to /to/ your
3rd singular masc	ge /ge/ his
3rd singular fem	tu /tu/ her
1st plural	u /u/ our
2nd plural	po /po/ your (pl)
3rd plural masc	fa /fa/ their (masc)
3rd plural fem	mo /mo/ their (fem)

Verbs

	Singular	Plural
Present	Prefix nu- nulutu /ˈnulutu/ (I/you/he/she) learns	Prefix la- lalutu /ˈlalutu/ (we/they) learn
Past	Prefix lo- lolutu /ˈlolutu/ (I/you/he/she) learned	Prefix te- telutu /ˈtelutu/ (we/they) learned
Remote past	Prefix po- polutu /ˈpolutu/ (I/you/he/she) learned (long ago)	Prefix sa- salutu /ˈsalutu/ (we/they) learned (long ago)

Jananalabag uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: sa - sa lutu /sa ˈlutu/ 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).
Jananalabag uses an affix for imperfective:

Imperfective

Prefix ta- talutu /taˈlutu/ learns/is learning

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.
Jananalabag uses an affix for the perfect aspect:

Perfect

Prefix sa- salutu /saˈlutu/ have learned

Numbers

Jananalabag has a base-20 number system:
1 - vo
2 - gu
3 - mu
4 - no
5 - enu
6 - ta
7 - li
8 - to
9 - a
10 - lo
11 - nusoge
12 - anose
13 - latota
14 - anofu
15 - elosu
16 - tavu
17 - pūgona
18 - posu
19 - sanola
20 - epu
21 - epuvo “twenty-one”
400 - vo manoga “one fourhundred”
401 - vo manoga vo “one fourhundred one”
800 - gu manoga “two fourhundred”
8000 - vo tatu “one eightthousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Prefix te-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix te-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix mo-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix te-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Prefix sa-
Noun to verb = Prefix ti-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix sa-
Tending to = Prefix no-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix ti-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Prefix ta-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Prefix so-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Prefix sa-
Diminutive = Prefix lu-
Augmentative = Prefix le-

Dictionary

4457 Words.