Lilunga

LANGUAGE FAMILY: ALABAG
# SPEAKERS / WORLD RANKING: 100K / #62
SPOKEN IN: Masatoyahi - 100K
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: na gi ma vent ngamito ngangapa na bumik nell ma mihúlot pori ngatung
Pronunciation: na gi ma vent ngaˈmito nganˈgapa na ˈbumik nell ma miˈhylot ˈpori ˈngatung

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

Spelling & Phonology

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

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m		n
Stop	p b		t d	k g
Fricative		v	s		h
Trill			r
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: Penultimate — stress is on the second last syllable
Word initial consonants: b, d, g, h, k, l, m, mg, n, ng, p, r, s, t, v
Mid-word consonants: b, d, g, gh, gl, gp, gr, gs, gt, gtr, h, k, l, m, mp, mpl, n, nd, ng, nl, ns, nt, p, pm, r, rt, rv, s, sk, t, tb, tt, v, w
Word final consonants: N/A
Phonological changes (in order of application):

• i → ɐ / _m
• v → u / V_V
• w → ∅ / _o
• [+nasal] → ŋ / _#
• l → ɾ / V_V
• s → ʤ / {i,u}_V
• n → l / #_
• h → ʔ / #_
• h → ∅ / V_V
• s → h / V_V
• l → j / #_iC

Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
y	ú

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 four 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.
• Dative is the recipeint of something: man gives ball to dog.

Nominative	No affix mipúg /ˈmipyg/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	Suffix -ig mipúgig /miˈpygig/ (verb done to) dog
Genitive	If starts with vowel: Prefix s- Else: Prefix si- simipúg /siˈmipyg/ dogʼs
Dative	If ends with vowel: Suffix -s Else: Suffix -es mipúges /miˈpyges/ to (the/a) dog

	Animate	Inanimate
Singular	If ends with vowel: Suffix -g Else: Suffix -ag nútag /ˈnytag/	Suffix -a kaga /ˈkaga/
Plural	Prefix i- inút /ˈinyt/	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ng Else: Suffix -ang kagang /ˈkagang/

Articles

Definite	gi /gi/ the
Indefinite	sird /sird/ a, some

Pronouns

	Nominative	Accusative	Genitive	Dative
1st singular	mgú /mgy/ I	nig /nig/ me	mes /mes/ mine	sang /sang/ to me
2nd singular	nek /nek/ you (masc)	ked /ked/ you	mo /mo/ yours	kung /kung/ to you
3rd singular masc	gi /gi/ he, it	ka /ka/ him, it	mi /mi/ his, its	an /an/ to him, at it
3rd singular fem	a /a/ she, it	kú /ky/ her, it	ill /ill/ hers, its	na /na/ to her, at it
1st plural	bú /by/ we	nid /nid/ us	dang /dang/ ours	ni /ni/ to us
2nd plural	holl /holl/ you all	pong /pong/ you all	búk /byk/ yours (pl)	tud /tud/ to you all
3rd plural	ngin /ngin/ they	ho /ho/ them	nga /nga/ theirs	si /si/ to them

Possessive determiners

1st singular	deng /deng/ my
2nd singular	da /da/ your
3rd singular masc	ma /ma/ his
3rd singular fem	gi /gi/ her
1st plural	na /na/ our
2nd plural	tun /tun/ your (pl)
3rd plural	dant /dant/ their

Verbs

Present	No affix ngaat /ˈngaat/ learn
Past	Suffix -ang ngaatang /ngaˈatang/ learned
Remote past	If ends with vowel: Suffix -m Else: Suffix -im ngaatim /ngaˈatim/ learned (long ago)
Future	If starts with vowel: Prefix d- Else: Prefix da- dangaat /danˈgaat/ 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.
Lilunga uses an affix for the perfect aspect:

Perfect

If ends with vowel: Suffix -n Else: Suffix -yn ngaatún /ngaˈatyn/ have learned

Numbers

Lilunga has a base-20 number system:
1 - veng
2 - awn
3 - ro
4 - ka
5 - búg
6 - hi
7 - laba
8 - nú
9 - nging
10 - ang
11 - sokan
12 - lalan
13 - kekepet
14 - nonúg
15 - nginúgren
16 - sagsúk
17 - mumad
18 - sapún
19 - nogreno
20 - nolis
21 - nolis na veng “twenty and one”
400 - veng podant “one fourhundred”
401 - veng podant veng “one fourhundred one”
800 - awn podant “two fourhundred”
8000 - veng mú “one eightthousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Prefix mu-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Suffix -ong
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix u-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Suffix -o
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -l Else: Suffix -ol
Noun to verb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -n Else: Suffix -in
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix e-
Tending to = If ends with vowel: Suffix -n Else: Suffix -en
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -d Else: Suffix -ad
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If starts with vowel: Prefix n- Else: Prefix no-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ng Else: Suffix -ong
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -rd Else: Suffix -urd
Diminutive = If ends with vowel: Suffix -k Else: Suffix -ik
Augmentative = Prefix i-

Dictionary

4438 Words.