🌅 Kut bero mi…

⬤ Keras Saryan

☝ First of all…

🥳 OUT NOW! 🥳

⏭️ And now…

👨‍🏫 The talk

• 🖼️ Showcase of a new language using a short story
  • 🏛️ Something akin to an Aesop’s Fable
• 🔬 Discussion of some of the features in the text
  • 🔁 Mostly synchrony but some diachrony here and there

• Still very much “work in progress”

• And the story is certainly not high literature but hopefully serves its purpose

• Hopefully by the end of this talk you’ll have most of the information needed to pick the text apart and understand what’s going on grammatically – at least in theory

🎯 Aims for the language

• 🍃 Look like a naturalistic language (well, at least if you squint…)
• 🗣️ Very small phonemic inventory but a lots of allophony
• 🗃️ Some sort of non-sex-based classification of nouns
• ⛓️ Use clause chaining and switch reference
• 📖 Be able to translate my story

🌄 Language background

• 📛 The language is Anderiva [ˌãⁿdɛɾɪˈβa]
  • 👄 ande ‘sure, true, right’ + dziva ‘mouth, speech, language’
• 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Speakers are, for all intents and purposes, humans
• 🌳 Who live in a hilly humid subtropical forested area

📖 The story

Kut bero mi, kukh buva tukte ukh isa ukh kaok, ukh kuva jikka guk mumba dakha aptot, munde tukhop kuf usagghao ia ka ik, ukh unde, ukh guk ippacchii. Unga gao ia ka orishe, isa ukh jikka ala ak ikpo ia ifun ia pin gafushe, kuulava unga dzighdo ia tsif mi ip tukhufot, unngu ala tubvare, ala dakha mi u tae ka aptashin.

’One morning, a little boy saw his father, who was carrying a machete and two baskets going to the crop field to harvest cassava and ran to join him. When they got to the field, the father cut the stems off the plants with the machete and together they pulled the roots up from the earth, removed the tubers and carried them home in the baskets.’

Tae pu, unga unngu ala duure, ala gudde, ala tukkore, ala insashin. Deye, unga munde ala tua u kuddere, ala dzikho mi aun taanashin. Ala taakhunashe, unga ala ufunde tan buktore, ala buva chifinu tan ngambare, ala piishin.

’At home, they washed, peeled, cut and grated the tubers. Next, they soaked the cassava in water and dried it in the sun. Once it had dried, they pounded it to flour and formed it into small pancakes which they fried.’

Doio mima, unga punggana mi guk munde chifinu ala dzishin. Isa ukh guk tukte ukh tsisek ka ighot, unga bavap tuppe andat maa ighaf dunga mi dunambana.

’That evening, they ate the cassava pancakes with their family. The boy and his father smiled at each other, knowing that hard work tastes the best.’

• I’m sure people can tell me about everything that’s wrong with the way the cassava was processed in the story… ((Jake))

🗣️ Phonetics and phonology

• Despite being part of my initial desiderata for the language, I’m not actually going to talk to you too much about the phonology of the language but nevertheless here’s a very quick info dump

💀 Proto-language phonemic inventory

	Labial	Coronal	Dorsal
Nasal	m	n
Plosive	p b	t d	k ɡ
Fricative		s	x
Glide	w		j

	Front		Back
High	i		u
Mid	e	ə	o
Low		a

• Though the aim was to end up with a minimal phonemic inventory, the proto-language had a slightly larger phonemic inventory and much smaller allophonic inventory

• 12 consonants, 6 vowels, basically CVC

• I don’t have the time to run you through all of the sound changes

  • But suffice it to say there have been various sound changes

  • Which have both multiplied the phonetic inventory and led to a lot of reanalysis

  • A lot of which is hinted at in the modern phonological process I’ll touch on shortly

🧮 Modern phonemic inventory

	Labial	Coronal	Dorsal
Voiceless	p	t	k
Voiced	b	d	ɡ

🔗 Various heterosyllabic clusters

♊ Including identical consonants

🐕 All occur in onset and coda

	Front		Back
High	i ĩ		u ũ
Low		a ã

🎏 Vowel–vowel sequences permitted

🧑‍🧑 Including identical (→ long) vowels

👃 But only oral–oral or nasal–nasal

🎶️ Prosody

• ✳️ Word- and phrase-level considerations
  • 🔰 The first syllable in each (content) word takes a stress
  • 🏁 The last syllable of each intonational phrase receives extra prominence
  • 📈 Medial intonational phrases typically show a rising (or level) pitch
  • 📉 Final intonational phrases a falling pitch

⚙️️ Consonantal processes

• 🫠 Lenition
  • /p, t, k/ → [ɸ, s, x~ɕ] / V _ V
  • /b, d, ɡ/ → [β, ɾ~ɭ, ɣ~j] / V _
• 🥛 Liquid allophony
  • /d/ → [ɾ] / {V_f _ {V, #}, V _ V_f}
  • /d/ → [ɭ] / {V_nf _ {V_nf, #}}
• 💔 Voiced geminate affrication
  • /bb, ɡɡ/ → [bβ, ɡɣ]

• 🍦 Palatalisation
  • /t, d/ → [ts, dz] / _ V_h+f
  • /k, ɡ/ → [tɕ, dʑ] / _ V_f
• 🥸 (Pre)nasalisation
  • /b, d, ɡ/ → [m, n, ŋ~ɲ] / _ Ṽ
  • /b, d, ɡ/ → [ᵐb, ⁿd, ᵑɡ~ᶮdʑ] / Ṽ _
• 🫁 Final devoicing
  • /b, d, ɡ/ → [p~ɸ, t, k~x]

• Various phonological rules, which as you can imagine, closely mirror many of the sound changes, as I said

• Most of these interact and in some way

⚙️️ Vocalic processes

• 😤 Nasal spreading
  • /V/ → [Ṽ] / {Ṽ , Ṽ}
• 🪢 Like vowel coalescence
  • /V_iV_i/ → [V_iː]

• ☺️ Unstressed vowel reduction
  • /i, ĩ, u, ũ, a, ã/_-stress → [ɪ, ɪ̃, ʊ, ʊ̃, ə ə̃]
• ⏬ High vowel lowering
  • /i, u/ → [ɛ, ɔ] / { _ (C) #, _ {u, i, j, ɾ, ɭ}}

🔊 Modern allophonic inventory

	Bilabial	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar
Nasal	m	n		ɲ	ŋ
Plosive	pː p b ᵐb	tː t dː d ⁿd			kː k ɡ ᵑɡ
Affricate	bβ	tsː ts dzː dz ⁿdz		tɕː tɕ dʑː dʑ ᶮdʑ	ɡɣ
Fricative	ɸ β	s z		ɕ	x ɣ
Liquid/Glide		ɾ	ɭ	j	(w)

	Front		Back
High	i ĩ		u ũ
Near-high	ɪ ɪ̃		ʊ ʊ̃
Mid	ɛ	ə ə̃	ɔ
Low		a ã

• 25–30–40 surface consonants depending on if you count geminates, pre-nasalised stop and so on separately

• 8 oral vowel qualities, 6 nasal vowel qualities

🔡 Modern romanisation

	Bilabial	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar
Nasal	m	n		ny	ng
Plosive	pp p b mb	tt t dd d nd			kk k g ngg
Affricate	bv	tts ts ddz dz ndz		cch ch jj j nj	ggh
Fricative	f v	s z		sh	kh gh
Liquid/Glide		r	l	y (i/e)	(u/o)

	Front		Back
High	i i(n/m)		u u(n/m)
Near-high	i i(n/m)		u u(n/m)
Mid	e	a a(n/m)	o
Low		a a(n/m)

• Romanisation basically follows word-level surface forms

• Nasal vowels don’t necessarily occur with nasal onsets

• But nasal onsets always occur with a following nasal vowel

• Basically, whenever you see a nasal written in coda position, the preceding vowel is nasalised

• And, whenever you see a nasal written in onset position, the following vowel is nasalised

🧐 Morphosyntax

🏗️ Constituent order and headedness

Kut bero mi, kukh buva tukte ukh isa ukh kaok, ukh kuva jikka guk mumba dakha aptot, munde tukhop kuf usagghao ia ka ik, ukh unde, ukh guk ippacchii. Unga gao ia ka orishe, isa ukh jikka ala ak ikpo ia ifun ia pin gafushe, kuulava unga dzighdo ia tsif mi ip tukhufot, unngu ala tubvare, ala dakha mi u tae ka aptashin.

Tae pu, unga unngu ala duure, ala gudde, ala tukkore, ala insashin. Deye, unga munde ala tua u kuddere, ala dzikho mi aun taanashin. Ala taakhunashe, unga ala ufunde tan buktore, ala buva chifinu tan ngambare, ala piishin.

Doio mima, unga punggana mi guk munde chifinu ala dzishin. Isa ukh guk tukte ukh tsisek ka ighot, unga bavap tuppe andat maa ighaf dunga mi dunambana.

• Yellow = subject, green = direct object, red = main verb

• The language has been SOV from proto to modern

• It is predominantly head-final but, as we’ll see, there are a few things that do follow head nouns.

• The language has been SOV from proto to modern

• It is predominantly head-final but, as we’ll see, there are a few things that do follow head nouns.

🍱️ Noun class

👨‍👩	I	humans
🧅	II	food and drink, some man-made objects, some plants and animals
️🌳	III	some plants and animals, other natural objects, some natural forces
👜	IV	assorted other

• So I knew I want a noun class system and here it is

• Nouns fall into one of four classes

• All nouns in class IV are grammatically inanimate even if semantically animate

🍱️ Noun class

Kut bero mi, kukh buva tukte ukh isa ukh kaok, ukh kuva jikka guk mumba dakha aptot, munde tukhop kuf usagghao ia ka ik, ukh unde, ukh guk ippacchii. Unga gao ia ka orishe, isa ukh jikka ala ak ikpo ia ifun ia pin gafushe, kuulava unga dzighdo ia tsif mi ip tukhufot, unngu ala tubvare, ala dakha mi u tae ka aptashin.

Tae pu, unga unngu ala duure, ala gudde, ala tukkore, ala insashin. Deye, unga munde ala tua u kuddere, ala dzikho mi aun taanashin. Ala taakhunashe, unga ala ufunde tan buktore, ala buva chifinu tan ngambare, ala piishin.

Doio mima, unga punggana mi guk munde chifinu ala dzishin. Isa ukh guk tukte ukh tsisek ka ighot, unga bavap tuppe andat maa ighaf dunga mi dunambana.

🍱️ Noun class

• 🗃️ The class of a given nominal form is not necessarily fixed
• 🔁 A change in class can lead to a change in meaning
  • 🍠 unngu → II ‘tuber’, III ‘tumour’
  • 💧 tua → II ‘(drinking) water’, III ‘water (e.g. for washing)’, IV ‘body of water’
  • 🥞 chifinu → IV ‘something flattened’, II ‘pancake’

• This is not necessarily as flexible or extensive as a derivational technique as in some languages

• But it’s one tool for expanding vocabulary beyond pure polysemy

➕ Nominal number marking

• 👯 Singular unmarked but animate nouns (well, noun phrases) marked for plural
  • 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Human plural:
    • 👦 Nasalisation of final vowel, e.g. tukte ‘boy’ → tuktsin ‘boys’
    • 🚸 Or suffixation of a nasal vowel, e.g. olok ‘child’ → olukhun ‘children’
  • 🐈 Non-human plural:
    • 🐶 Suffixation of -ka, -kha, e.g. tsinje ‘dog’ → tsinjikha ‘dogs’

• We don’t actually have any plural nouns in the text but I should probably tell you about it anyway

• H.PL ultimately from *ɡana ‘group, band, party, troop’

• NH.PL ultimately from *kappa ‘herd, pack, flock’

🫵 Personal pronouns

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1(excl)	ga	—	but
1incl	—	nyi	jima
2	in	—	imma

🫵 Personal pronouns

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1(excl)	ga	—	but
1incl	—	nyi	jima
2	in	—	imma
3i	ukh	—	unga
3ii	ala	—	alakha
3iii	ia	—	iakha
3iv	mi	—	—

🫵 Personal pronouns

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1(excl)	ga	—	but
1incl	—	nyi	jima
2	in	—	imma
3i	ukh	—	unga
3ii	ala	—	alakha
3iii	ia	—	iakha
3iv	mi	—	—

🫵️ Personal pronouns

Kut bero mi, kukh buva tukte ukh isa ukh kaok, ukh kuva jikka guk mumba dakha aptot, munde tukhop kuf usagghao ia ka ik, ukh unde, ukh guk ippacchii. Unga gao ia ka orishe, isa ukh jikka ala ak ikpo ia ifun ia pin gafushe, kuulava unga dzighdo ia tsif mi ip tukhufot, unngu ala tubvare, ala dakha mi u tae ka aptashin.

Tae pu, unga unngu ala duure, ala gudde, ala tukkore, ala insashin. Deye, unga munde ala tua u kuddere, ala dzikho mi aun taanashin. Ala taakhunashe, unga ala ufunde tan buktore, ala buva chifinu tan ngambare, ala piishin.

Doio mima, unga punggana mi guk munde chifinu ala dzishin. Isa ukh guk tukte ukh tsisek ka ighot, unga bavap tuppe andat maa ighaf dunga mi dunambana.

• The eagle-eyed among you will notice that it looks like I’ve not tagged all instances and this is for the following reason…

🏷️ Personal pronouns as definite articles

Kut bero mi, kukh buva tukte ukh isa ukh kaok, ukh kuva jikka guk mumba dakha aptot, munde tukhop kuf usagghao ia ka ik, ukh unde, ukh guk ippacchii. Unga gao ia ka orishe, isa ukh jikka ala ak ikpo ia ifun ia pin gafushe, kuulava unga dzighdo ia tsif mi ip tukhufot, unngu ala tubvare, ala dakha mi u tae ka aptashin.

Tae pu, unga unngu ala duure, ala gudde, ala tukkore, ala insashin. Deye, unga munde ala tua u kuddere, ala dzikho mi aun taanashin. Ala taakhunashe, unga ala ufunde tan buktore, ala buva chifinu tan ngambare, ala piishin.

Doio mima, unga punggana mi guk munde chifinu ala dzishin. Isa ukh guk tukte ukh tsisek ka ighot, unga bavap tuppe andat maa ighaf dunga mi dunambana.

➕ Nominal number marking (again)

• 📌 The plural suffix occurs only on the final element of a noun phrase
  • 👦 tukte ukh ‘the boy’ → tukte unga ‘the boys’ (*tuktsin unga)
  • 🐷 gue ala ‘the pig’ → gue alakha ‘the pigs’ (*goikha alakha)
  • 🐶 tsinje ia ‘the dog’ → tsinje iakha ‘the dogs’ (*tsinjikha iakha)

🔢 Numerals, quantifers and classifiers

• Number is unmarked with numerals and quantifiers, which precede the noun
• Though they do not agree for noun class, they do take a suffixed sortal classifier
  • 👦 kuukh tukte ‘one boy’, muuk/tusuukh tukte ‘two/many boys’
  • 🌅 kuut bero ‘one morning’, muut/tusuut bero ‘two/many mornings’
  • 🧺 kuuva dakha ‘one basket’, mumba/tusuva dakha ‘two/many baskets’
  • 🍠 kuun unngu ‘one tuber’, mu/tusun unngu ‘two/many tubers’

• Another situation where the plural suffixes don’t show up when you might expect them is with numerals and quantifers

1️⃣ Singular indefinite articles

• 🩳 Shortened forms of kuu- ‘one’ are used as singular indefinite articles
  • 👦 kuukh tukte ‘one boy’ → kukh tukte ‘a boy’
  • 🌅 kuut bero ‘one morning’ → kut bero ‘a morning’
  • 🧺 kuuva dakha ‘one basket’ → kuva dakha ‘a basket’
  • 🍠 kuun unngu ‘one tuber’ → kun unngu ‘a tuber’
• 👇 Can combine with the definite article to express specificity
  • 👦 kukh tukte ‘a boy, any boy’ → kukh tukte ukh ‘a certain boy’

• As well as definite articles, there are singular indefinite articles, and all these are is the numeral ‘one’ but with a short rather than long vowel

• But, one notable thing about these is that they can combine with the definite article to express specifity

👉 Demonstratives

• 🔭 Demonstratives distinguish three levels of distance: proximal, medial, distal
  • 👦 tukte oye ‘this boy’, tukte ukkot ‘that boy’, tukte oyima ‘that boy’
  • 🐷 gue are ‘this pig’, gue akkot ‘that pig’, gue arima ‘that pig’
  • 🐶 tsinje ii ‘this dog’, tsinje ikhot ‘that dog’, tsinje iima ‘that dog’

• Demonstratives are based on articles and so come after rather than before the noun

  • Proximal: in the possession of or within easy reach of either speaker and listener

  • Medial: not in the possession of or within easy reach of either speaker and listener but still within reasonable range of some sense

  • Distal: far from both speaker and listener but out of reasonable range of the senses

👉 Demonstratives

• ➕ For animate nouns, they inflect for plurality
  • 👦 tukte ngai ‘these boys’, tukte ngakhot ‘those boys’, tukte ngaima ‘those boys’
  • 🐷 gue akhe ‘these pigs’, gue akhot ‘those pigs’, gue arima ‘those pigs’
  • 🐶 tsinje ikhe ‘these dogs’, tsinje ikhot ‘those dogs’, tsinje ikhaima ‘those dogs’
• 🙈 Demonstratives can also take the non-visibile prefix tu- (⇜ tasu- ‘to hide’):
  • 🍠 unngu akkot ‘that [visible] tuber’, unngu tukkot ‘that [non-visible] tuber’

• Non-visible prefix is derived from a very crushed preposed relative clause

• Non-visible prefix is only available for concrete nouns

  • doio mima ‘that evening’ (*doio tumima)

🏇 Postpositions

Kut bero mi, kukh buva tukte ukh isa ukh kaok, ukh kuva jikka guk mumba dakha aptot, munde tukhop kuf usagghao ia ka ik, ukh unde, ukh guk ippacchii. Unga gao ia ka orishe, isa ukh jikka ala ak ikpo ia ifun ia pin gafushe, kuulava unga dzighdo ia tsif mi ip tukhufot, unngu ala tubvare, ala dakha mi u tae ka aptashin.

Tae pu, unga unngu ala duure, ala gudde, ala tukkore, ala insashin. Deye, unga munde ala tua u kuddere, ala dzikho mi aun taanashin. Ala taakhunashe, unga ala ufunde tan buktore, ala buva chifinu tan ngambare, ala piishin.

Doio mima, unga punggana mi guk munde chifinu ala dzishin. Isa ukh guk tukte ukh tsisek ka ighot, unga bavap tuppe andat maa ighaf dunga mi dunambana.

🏇 Postpositions

• 🏃 gao ia ka ‘to the field’
• 🫴 jikka ala ak ‘with the machete’
• 👨‍🤝‍👩 punggana mi guk ‘with the family’
• 🚩 tae pu ‘at home’
• 🗳️ dakha mi u ‘in the basket’
• 🌥️ dzikho mi aun ‘in the sun’

• ⇜ kau- ‘to see’
• ⇜ akha- ‘to take’
• ⇜ gusak- ‘to follow’
• ⇜ pukho ‘hip’
• ⇜ ue ‘belly’
• ⇜ ama ‘shadow’

• Postpositions rather than prepositions

• Note the funny etymological oxymoron of “under the sun” meaning “in the sun’s shade”

⛓️ Clause chaining

• 🔗 As with coordination, any number of clauses of equal status can be combined and clauses are not embedded within one another
• 🏁 Mostly found in verb-final languages
• 🤏 But “medial” verbs take reduced marking; only the “final” verb gets full marking
• 📰 Useful for organising a narrative: a structural version of paragraphs

🎚️ Switch reference

• 🪧 Signals whether the arguments (usually subjects) of a given clause and the one following it are the same or different
• ⛓️ Often co-occurs with clause chaining
• 🪢 Can also be bound up with e.g. temporal meanings
• 🌏 Found in various languages of Papunesia and the Americas (also elsewhere)

📄 Clause chaining and switch reference in Anderiva

• 🎚️ Medial verbs inflected only for same/different subject and relative ordering

	Sequential	Simultaneous
Same subject (SS)	-re, -de	-ot, -t
Different subject (DS)	-she, -ashe	-k, -ak

📄 Clause chaining and switch reference in Anderiva

• 🖇️ Subjects stated with DS, even if just a pronoun, but not repeated with SS
  • DS: Tukte ukh unyishe, isa ukh bamushii. ‘The boy ran and then his father fell.’
  • SS: Tukte ukh unde, bamushii. ‘The boy ran and then fell.’
• 💕 Objects typically repeated, usually as a pronoun, with both SS/DS
  • DS: Tukte ukh munde golok, isa ukh ala tukkuu. ‘The boy peels cassava and his father chops it.’
  • SS: Tukte ukh munde golot, ala tukkuu. ‘The boy peels and chops cassava.’

📄 Clause chaining and switch reference in Anderiva

Kut bero mi, kukh buva tukte ukh isa ukh kaok, ukh kuva jikka guk mumba dakha aptot, munde tukhop kuf usagghao ia ka ik, ukh unde, ukh guk ippacchii. Unga gao ia ka orishe, isa ukh jikka ala ak ikpo ia ifun ia pin gafushe, kuulava unga dzighdo ia tsif mi ip tukhufot, unngu ala tubvare, ala dakha mi u tae ka aptashin.

Tae pu, unga unngu ala duure, ala gudde, ala tukkore, ala insashin. Deye, unga munde ala tua u kuddere, ala dzikho mi aun taanashin. Ala taakhunashe, unga ala ufunde tan buktore, ala buva chifinu tan ngambare, ala piishin.

Doio mima, unga punggana mi guk munde chifinu ala dzishin. Isa ukh guk tukte ukh tsisek ka ighot, unga bavap tuppe andat maa ighaf dunga mi dunambana.

• Red (-re, -de) – SS SEQ
• Yellow (-t) – SS SIMUL
• Green (-she) – DS SEQ
• Cyan (-k) – DS SIMUL
• Magenta – final verbs (on which more shortly)

🦋 Evolving clause chaining and switch reference

• ⛓️‍💥 Verbs originally took no marking and clauses were joined with conjunctions, which were then reanalysed as switch reference suffixes
  • *deɡe ‘and, then’ > -re, -de ‘ss.seq’
  • *sutu ‘while’ (< ‘moment’) > -ot, -t ‘ss.simul’
  • *akak ‘but’ > -k, -ak ‘ds.simul’
  • *akak deɡe ‘but then’ > -she, -ashe ‘ds.seq’
• 🔁 Final verbs then developed their full range of inflection

🏃 Final verbs: tense and aspect

• ⏺️ “Present” (unmarked): tukte ukh kauu ‘the boy sees’
• ⏳ Imperfect -van-, -ban-: tukte ukh kauvanuu ‘the boy was seeing’
• ⌛ Preterite -shi-, -chi-: tukte ukh kaushii ‘the boy saw’
• 🔮 Future -lu-, -ru-, -alu-, -eru-, -olu-: tukte ukh kaoluu ‘the boy will see’

• In contrast to medial verbs, final verbs are fully inflected

• Imperfect from ‘to hold (= habitual)’

• Preterite from ‘to finish’

• Future from ‘to come’

🏃 Final verbs: person and number

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1(excl)	-kh, -k	—	-ot, -t
1incl	—	-nyi	-yima, -jima
2	-in	—	-imma
3i	-i, -u, -uu	—	-n, -an, -in-, -un
3ii	-la, -ra, -ala	—	-i, -e
3iii	-i, -e	—	-i, -e
3iv	-mi	—	—

• Person and number ⇜ postposed pronouns

• The syncretism with the singular for 3III and the plurals for 3II and 3III is not a historical accident

  • The nominal plural markers for 3II and 3III were singular class III nouns

🏃 Final verbs: modality

• 💭 Modality, including evidentiality, often expressed by post-verbal particles
  • 🤔 Possibility: iikh ⇜ isekh ‘I think’
  • 👂 Reportative: nyii ⇜ ‘they say’
    • 🐢 Quotative: jiishii ‘(s)he/they said’
• 🔨 Alongside other constructions
  • unga munde tukkun ‘they chop cassava’
  • → unga munde tukko kufot maana ‘they must chop cassava’

• The last example is more literally something like ‘they have/hold cassava chopping debt’

🥞 Munde chifinu

🥞 Munde chifinu

Kut bero mi, kukh buva tukte ukh isa ukh kaok, ukh kuva jikka guk mumba dakha aptot, munde tukhop kuf usagghao ia ka ik, ukh unde, ukh guk ippacchii. Unga gao ia ka orishe, isa ukh jikka ala ak ikpo ia ifun ia pin gafushe, kuulava unga dzighdo ia tsif mi ip tukhufot, unngu ala tubvare, ala dakha mi u tae ka aptashin.

Tae pu, unga unngu ala duure, ala gudde, ala tukkore, ala insashin. Deye, unga munde ala tua u kuddere, ala dzikho mi aun taanashin. Ala taakhunashe, unga ala ufunde tan buktore, ala buva chifinu tan ngambare, ala piishin.

Doio mima, unga punggana mi guk munde chifinu ala dzishin. Isa ukh guk tukte ukh tsisek ka ighot, unga bavap tuppe andat maa ighaf dunga mi dunambana.

• Don’t worry, I’m not going to read the story out again

• But hopefully you now have at least some idea of the grammar contained within it

• And more importantly, I hope you enjoyed the ride

• The last thing for me to say is…

🙇 Tsibvo immami bikte chimi!

Thank you for listening!

[ˌtsibβɔ ˌĩmə̃ˈmĩ | ˌbiktɛ ˌtɕiˈmĩ ‖]

listening 2PL.POSS.3IV joy give.3IV

*tibbo xem-an bin bekte ke-bin