Handy Language

"Raj that, you interloper!"   "I don't give a Taj, you violator!" "Will you two put a sock in it?  We got business..."   "Hey, di Bocco, stuff you."    

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Natively known as: Ngela /ˈᵑgela/

  ...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind... la û ettu komch tû merru la mul tû ndatsâmʻ pit âl laʻoprâ Pronunciation: /la ɨ etˈtu komʧ tɨ ˈmerru la mul tɨ ˈⁿdatsəmʔ pit əl ˈlaʔoprə/ Handy word order: and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind  

Spelling & Phonology

  Consonant inventory: /h j k l m n p r s t w ŋ ɸ ʔ ʦ ʧ β ᵐb ᵑg ⁿd/

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m	n			ŋ
Stop	p ᵐb	t ⁿd			k ᵑg	ʔ
Affricate		ʦ	ʧ
Fricative	ɸ β	s				h
Approximant				j
Trill		r
Lateral approximant		l

  Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

  Vowel inventory: /a ã e ẽ i ĩ o u ũ ə ɨ ɨ̃/

	Front	Central	Back
High	i ĩ	ɨ ɨ̃	u ũ
High-mid	e ẽ		o
Mid		ə
Low	a ã

  Syllable structure: Custom defined Stress pattern: No fixed stress Word initial consonants: h, j, k, l, m, p, s, t, w, ɸ, ʦ, β, ᵐb, ᵑg, ⁿd Mid-word consonants: h, hj, hl, hm, ht, j, jl, jm, jn, jr, js, k, kk, kt, kw, kʦ, l, lh, lk, lm, m, mj, mn, mʔ, mʦ, n, nj, nk, nn, nr, nt, nw, nʦ, p, pm, pn, pp, pr, ps, pʧ, r, rh, rk, rn, rr, rt, s, sj, sk, sm, sn, sp, sr, sʔ, t, tj, tk, tl, tn, tp, ts, tt, tw, tʔ, w, wk, wl, ws, wt, wβ, ŋ, ŋh, ŋk, ŋl, ŋm, ŋn, ŋp, ŋr, ŋs, ŋʦ, ɸ, ʔ, ʔm, ʔn, ʦ, ʦl, ʦr, ʦs, ʧ, ʧm, β, βl, ᵐb, ᵑg, ⁿd Word final consonants: h, js, k, l, lk, lt, lʧ, mp, mʔ, mʧ, n, nk, nw, nʦ, nʧ, p, r, rm, rr, rt, rʧ, s, sk, t, wm, wʔ, ŋ, ŋk, ŋt, ɸ, ʦ, ʧ, β, ᵐb, ᵑg, ⁿd   Phonological changes (in order of application):  

• j → d / #_
• ʦ → s / _{h,i,j}
• ʧ → s / _C

  Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ⁿd	nd
ᵑg	ng
ᵐb	mb
ʦ	ts
ʔ	ʻ
ə	â
ɨ	û
β	b
ɸ	f
j	y
ʧ	ch
ŋ	ng

 

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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 before the noun. Adposition: prepositions  

Nouns

	Masculine	Feminine
Definite	If ends with vowel: Suffix -mʔ Else: Suffix -əmʔ ihâmʻ /ˈihəmʔ/	Suffix -as muas /ˈmuas/
Indefinite	Suffix -a iha /ˈiha/	If ends with vowel: Suffix -wʔ Else: Suffix -ẽwʔ muwʻ /muwʔ/

 

Articles

  Handy encodes definite article ‘the’, and indefinite article ‘a’ in noun affixes. See Noun section.  

Pronouns

1st singular	larr /larr/ I, me, mine
2nd singular	wẽ /wẽ/ you, yours
3rd singular masc	û /ɨ/ he, him, his, it, its
3rd singular fem	ndã /ⁿdã/ she, her, hers, it, its
1st plural	mbẽ /ᵐbẽ/ we, us, ours
2nd plural	yilt /jilt/ you all, yours (pl)
3rd plural masc	ndu /ⁿdu/ they (masc), them (masc), theirs (masc)
3rd plural fem	nde /ⁿde/ they (fem), them (fem), theirs (fem)

 

Possessive determiners

1st singular	hẽ /hẽ/ my
2nd singular	mu /mu/ your
3rd singular masc	tû /tɨ/ his
3rd singular fem	kamʻ /kamʔ/ her
1st plural	ndi /ⁿdi/ our
2nd plural	hânts /hənʦ/ your (pl)
3rd plural masc	kẽ /kẽ/ their (masc)
3rd plural fem	ngã /ᵑgã/ their (fem)

 

Verbs

Present	No affix ndati /ˈⁿdati/ learn
Past	Suffix -ɨs ndatiûs /ⁿdaˈtiɨs/ learned

  Handy uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: ⁿde - nde ndati /ⁿde ⁿdaˈti/ 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).   Handy uses an affix for imperfective:

Imperfective

If ends with vowel: Suffix -mp Else: Suffix -ɨ̃mp ndatimp /ˈⁿdatimp/ 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.   Handy uses an affix for the perfect aspect:

Perfect

If ends with vowel: Suffix -ᵐb Else: Suffix -aᵐb ndatimb /ˈⁿdatiᵐb/ have learned

 

Numbers

  Handy has a base-20 number system:   1 - tsurr 2 - bũb 3 - yib 4 - ngã 5 - yi 6 - ndĩ 7 - tû 8 - antsũpsĩ 9 - mûp 10 - lala 11 - feynẽngâ 12 - asû 13 - hâku 14 - kâchû̃ 15 - hû̃nts 16 - mer 17 - bũyleng 18 - sũmya 19 - âmĩ 20 - kẽt 21 - kẽttsurr “twenty-one” 400 - kapa “fourhundred” 401 - kapa la tsurr “fourhundred and one” 800 - bũb kapa “two fourhundred” 8000 - lumb “eightthousand”  

Derivational morphology

  Adjective → adverb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ⁿd Else: Suffix -iⁿd Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -r Else: Suffix -ir Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Suffix -i Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -p Else: Suffix -ap Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -t Else: Suffix -at Noun to verb = Suffix -ũmp Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Suffix -iʧ Tending to = Suffix -ɨp Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -ɨ̃ⁿd Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -rm Else: Suffix -ĩrm One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ᵐb Else: Suffix -aᵐb Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Suffix -ɨk Diminutive = Suffix -ũŋt Augmentative = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ᵑg Else: Suffix -eᵑg