Nabongbong

LANGUAGE FAMILY: ALABAG
# SPEAKERS / WORLD RANKING: 50K / #73
SPOKEN IN: Jobaykal - 50K
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: pemqilusva gi abpikenbapo ovberapo ma zesimlar pemqilusva urpo ma belkikilbe zikilion aspembare zakollar
Pronunciation: ˌpemqiˈlusva gi abˌpikenˈbapo ˌovbeˈrapo ma zeˈsimlar ˌpemqiˈlusva ˈurpo ma ˌbelkiˈkilbe ˌzikiˈlion ˌaspemˈbare zaˈkollar

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

Spelling & Phonology

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

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Velar	Uvular
Nasal	m		n
Stop	p b			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
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 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 after 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 kekapi /keˈkapi/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	Suffix -ig kekapiig /ˌkekaˈpiig/ (verb done to) dog
Genitive	If starts with vowel: Prefix s- Else: Prefix si- sikekapi /ˌsikeˈkapi/ dogʼs
Dative	If ends with vowel: Suffix -s Else: Suffix -es kekapis /keˈkapis/ to (the/a) dog

	Animate	Inanimate
Singular	If ends with vowel: Suffix -g Else: Suffix -ag zaruionag /zaˌruiˈonag/	Suffix -a zorulara /ˌzoruˈlara/
Plural	Prefix i- izaruion /iˌzaruˈion/	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ng Else: Suffix -ang zorularang /ˌzoruˈlarang/

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 valapobsinpo /vaˌlapobˈsinpo/ learn
Past	Suffix -ang valapobsinpoang /ˌvalaˌpobsinˈpoang/ learned
Remote past	If ends with vowel: Suffix -m Else: Suffix -im valapobsinpom /vaˌlapobˈsinpom/ learned (long ago)
Future	If starts with vowel: Prefix d- Else: Prefix da- davalapobsinpo /ˌdavaˌlapobˈsinpo/ 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.
Nabongbong uses an affix for the perfect aspect:

Perfect

If ends with vowel: Suffix -n Else: Suffix -yn valapobsinpon /vaˌlapobˈsinpon/ have learned

Numbers

Nabongbong has a base-10 number system:
1 - pe
2 - zavunlar
3 - zerumel
4 - zibalmel
5 - babokabe
6 - bareapur
7 - baeb
8 - abka
9 - bokeagqo
10 - kinbam
20 - pemqilusva
21 - pemqilusva pe “twenty and one”
400 - pe ev “one fourhundred”
401 - pe ev pe “one fourhundred one”
800 - zavunlar ev “two fourhundred”
8000 - pe eqramralbe “one eightthousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Prefix muo-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Suffix -ang
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 -im
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix e-
Tending to = If ends with vowel: Suffix -n Else: Suffix -em
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -d Else: Suffix -ag
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 -ang
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -rd Else: Suffix -uru
Diminutive = If ends with vowel: Suffix -k Else: Suffix -ig
Augmentative = Prefix i-

Dictionary

4435 Words.