Ramaidora

LANGUAGE FAMILY: SAU-SERIB
# SPEAKERS / WORLD RANKING: 50K / #74
SPOKEN IN: Mador - 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: mɛ̈cch ahɽɛ̈ʈe ko ahʈym ø̃ ɳer mɛ̈cch ahpẽm ø̃ enøib zogssh nɛs mɛ̈ʈe
Pronunciation: mɛ̈ʧʰ ahˈɽɛ̈ʈe ko ˈahʈym ø̃ ɳer mɛ̈ʧʰ ˈahpẽm ø̃ ˈenøiw zogʃ nɛs ˈmɛ̈ʈe

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

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: /b bʼ d dʼ f g gʼ j k kʰ l m n p pʰ q r s t tʰ w wʲ x xʲ z ɖ ɖʼ ɣ ɮ ɮʲ ɳ ɽ ɽʼ ʃ ʃʰ ʈ ʈʰ ʋ ʒ ʒʼ ʦ ʦʰ ʧ ʧʰ/

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Uvular
Nasal	m		n		ɳ
Stop	p pʰ b bʼ		t tʰ d dʼ		ʈ ʈʰ ɖ ɖʼ		k kʰ g gʼ	q
Affricate			ʦ ʦʰ	ʧ ʧʰ
Fricative		f	s z	ʃ ʃʰ ʒ ʒʼ			x xʲ ɣ
Approximant		ʋ				j
Tap					ɽ ɽʼ
Trill			r
Lateral fricative			ɮ ɮʲ
Lateral approximant			l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w wʲ

Vowel inventory: /e ẽ ĩ o u y ỹ øi ø̃ ɑ ɛ ɛ̈ ʌ/
Diphthongs: øi

	Front	Back
High	ĩ y ỹ	u
High-mid	e ẽ ø̃	o
Low-mid	ɛ̈ ɛ	ʌ
Low		ɑ

Syllable structure: Custom defined
Stress pattern: No fixed stress
Word initial consonants: b, bʼ, d, dʒ, dʒʼ, dʼ, f, g, gʼ, j, k, kʰ, l, m, n, p, pʰ, q, r, s, t, tʃ, tʃʰ, tʰ, x, z, ɖ, ɖʼ, ɣ, ɳ, ɽ, ɽʼ, ʃ, ʈ, ʈʰ, ʋ, ʒ
Mid-word consonants: b, bʼ, d, dʒ, dʒʼ, dʼ, f, g, gʼ, j, k, kʰ, l, m, n, p, pʰ, q, r, s, t, tʃ, tʃʰ, tʰ, x, z, ɖ, ɖʼ, ɣ, ɳ, ɽ, ɽʼ, ʃ, ʈ, ʈʰ, ʋ, ʒ
Word final consonants: b, g, gtʰ, gʃ, gʦʰ, gʧ, gʧʰ, kʰ, kʰtʰ, m, mʧ, n, nt, nx, r, rt, rtʰ, rʧʰ, s, stʰ, t, tʰ, w, ws, wʧʰ, wʲ, x, xʲ, ɮ, ɮs, ɮtʰ, ɮʧ, ɮʲ, ʃ, ʦ, ʦʰ, ʧ, ʧʰ
Phonological changes (in order of application):

• ʧ → ʦ / _[+front]
• w → ∅ / _o

Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
w	b
t	d / !_ʰ
tʰ	t
ʧʰ	cch
ʧ	cch
ʦʰ	c
ʦ	c
kʰ	k
ɮ	l
ʃ	ssh
ɔ	o
ɵ	ö
pʰ	p
u	ü
ʊ	u
j	y
ʲ	∅

Grammar

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

Nouns

Nouns have two cases:

• Nominative is the doer of a verb: dog bites man.
• Accusative is the done-to of a verb: man bites dog.

Nominative

	Animate	Inanimate
Singular	If starts with vowel: Prefix ɳ- Else: Prefix ɳe- ɳeɳøib /ˈɳeɳøiw/	If ends with vowel: Suffix -n Else: Suffix -øin ʈøimøin /ʈøiˈmøin/
Plural	Prefix e- eɳøib /ˈeɳøiw/	If ends with vowel: Suffix -m Else: Suffix -ẽm ʈøimẽm /ˈʈøimẽm/

Accusative

	Animate	Inanimate
Singular	If ends with vowel: Suffix -m Else: Suffix -øim ɳøibøim /ˈɳøiwøim/	Suffix -ɛ̈ ʈøimɛ̈ /ʈøiˈmɛ̈/
Plural	Prefix y- yɳøib /ˈyɳøiw/	If starts with vowel: Prefix m- Else: Prefix my- myʈøim /ˈmyʈøim/

Articles

Ramaidora has no definite article ‘the’, or indefinite article ‘a’.

Pronouns

	Nominative	Accusative
1st singular	des /tes/ I	ɳyt /ɳytʰ/ me
2nd singular	dʼĩ /dʼĩ/ you (masc)	my /my/ you
3rd singular masc	ko /ko/ he, it	ne /ne/ him, it
3rd singular fem	ʒɛb /ʒɛb/ she, it	pĩm /pĩm/ her, it
1st plural	me /me/ we	e /e/ us
2nd plural	ʈyd /ʈyt/ you all	by /by/ you all
3rd plural	ü /u/ they	pɛl /pɛɮʲ/ them

Possessive determiners

1st singular	mɛ̈m /mɛ̈m/ my
2nd singular	em /em/ your
3rd singular masc	ø̃ /ø̃/ his
3rd singular fem	mo /mo/ her
1st plural	üs /us/ our
2nd plural	pɛ̈m /pɛ̈m/ your (pl)
3rd plural	mor /mor/ their

Verbs

	Present	Past
1st person	No affix ahʈʰøin /ˈahʈʰøin/ (I/we) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix m- Else: Prefix me- mahʈʰøin /ˈmahʈʰøin/ (I/we) learned
2nd person	Prefix sẽ- sẽahʈʰøin /sẽˈahʈʰøin/ (you/you all) learn	If ends with vowel: Suffix -m Else: Suffix -em ahʈʰøinem /ahˈʈʰøinem/ (you/you all) learned
3rd person	No affix ahʈʰøin /ˈahʈʰøin/ (he/she/it/they) learn	Suffix -ẽm ahʈʰøinẽm /ahˈʈʰøinẽm/ (he/she/it/they) learned

Ramaidora uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: nø̃ - nø̃ ahʈʰøin /nø̃ ˈahʈʰøin/ 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).
Ramaidora uses an affix for imperfective:

Imperfective

Prefix ny- nyahʈʰøin /nyahˈʈʰøin/ learns/is learning

Numbers

Ramaidora has a base-10 number system:
1 - ʈʰe
2 - mem
3 - ɛ̈b
4 - ʈym
5 - ned
6 - nỹ
7 - dsshü
8 - øi
9 - ɽɛ̈r
10 - ny
11 - ny mɛ̈cch ʈʰe “ten and one”
100 - dsshɛ̈m “hundred”
101 - dsshɛ̈m ʈʰe “hundred one”
200 - mem dsshɛ̈m
1000 - müm “thousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Suffix -e
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -w Else: Suffix -ø̃w
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix mu-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix kỹ-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Suffix -y
Noun to verb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -wʲ Else: Suffix -uwʲ
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix u-
Tending to = Prefix tʃɛ̈-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -y
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Suffix -ĩ
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -w Else: Suffix -øiw
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Prefix tʃu-
Diminutive = If starts with vowel: Prefix tʃ- Else: Prefix tʃu-
Augmentative = Prefix øi-

Dictionary

4410 Words.