Nteh’áh

Nteh’áh, pronounced [ntẽ̤˩ʔã̤˥], is a Deep Dimensional language spoken somewhere in the ŋorld.

Phonology

Consonants

	Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Dorsal	Guttural
Nasal	m	n̪ ⟨nh⟩	n	ɲ ⟨ny⟩
Stop	p	t̪ ⟨th⟩	t	k ⟨k⟩	ʔ <’>
	b	d̪ ⟨d⟩	ɾ ⟨r⟩	g ⟨g⟩	ɢ ⟨gg⟩
Continuant	w	l̪ ⟨l⟩	s	j	h

• /k g/ are [c ɟ] after the front vowels /i e a/, and before /n̪ t̪ d̪ l̪ j/.
• /ɲ/ is [ŋ] after the back vowels /u o ɔ/, and before any consonant except /j/.
• /ɲɲ/ is [ŋŋ].
• /w j/ are [ɸ ç] before /t̪ t k s/.
• /l̪/ are [ɬ̪] before /t̪/, but [ɬ] before /t k s/.

Tones

Nteh’ah has 2 phonemic tones: high and low. They apply to entire syllables, not the individual vowels within them. Monosyllabic words do not have contrastive tone. Their phonetic tone adapts to that of surrounding words. Polysyllabic words must have both high tone(s) and low tone(s), not just one of them. Codal /ʔ/ and /ɢ/ give the preceding high vowel a falling tone. When this occurs, they may lenite to approximants [ʔ̞] and [ʁ̞]. Monosyllabic affixes do have contrastive tone, and polysyllabic affixes can be monotonal. High tones are romanized with an acute accent and low tones are not marked.

Vowels

	Front		Back
	Short	Long	Short	Long
High	i	iː ⟨ii⟩	u	uː ⟨uu⟩
Mid	e	eː ⟨ee⟩	o	oː ⟨oo⟩
Low	a	aː ⟨aa⟩	ɔ ⟨ǫ⟩	ɔː ⟨ǫǫ⟩

Syllabic Consonants
High Tone	ḿ	ń	ŋ́ ⟨ńy⟩
Low Tone	m̀	ǹ	ŋ̀ ⟨ǹy⟩

• /i(ː) u(ː)/ are always nasalized.
• /i u/ become [ɲ ŋ͡mʷ] if preceded by a vowel and followed by a consonant.
• Nasals /m n̪ n ɲ/ and /ʔ/ nasalize adjacent vowels.
• /h/ makes the voiced sounds in its syllable breathy, and is deleted if not preceded by a vowel.
• Vowels have retracted tongue root when adjacent to /ɢ/.
• /ŋ̍/ is [ɲ̍] adjacent to /n̪ t̪ d̪ l̪ j/.

Phonotactics

(C)(C)V(V,L,W)(C) - C: consonant, V: vowel, L: length, W: semivowel /w j/

Onset CC can only occur if the first C is /m n̪ n ɲ b w j/ second C is /t̪ t k ʔ b d̪ g ɢ/. L means either a lengthening of the previous vowel or a codal /s/.

• /n t d̪ g ɾ/ can only occur in onset positions.
• /p h/ can only occur in coda positions.
• Plosives cannot be geminated.

Lexicon

Words in Nteh’ah do not have a set part of speech. Their most basic form, known as the core, is modified through inflection, word order, or context in order to assume the role of a specific part of speech. Nouns retain their core form while other parts of speech tend to require a change. The English parts of speech in the vocabulary list do not change the fact that the Nteh’ah words are in their core form.

Vocabulary List

Separated into 3 lists to make use of space

List 1			List 2			List 3
Nteh’ah	English	Notes	Nteh’ah	English	Notes	Nteh’ah	English	Notes
tass	disaster		noe	death		’aŋké	laugh
maǫ	want		ián	rules		tó’u	habitat	also host
ikí	smart		tówi	rainbow		tó’o	guest
eeh	come into knowing		la’	bad		hai	love	familial, platonic, romantic
tajh	bus		amúu	dog		ńde	love	for a thing or quality
kóono	person		níni	easy		ómi	good
kóonu	humanity		nte	build		téhseeh	joke	including pranks
’aih	pain		sajh	creepy		nteh’áh	Nteh’áh culture
mbáki	north		o	give		btu	appreciate	also like
tonó	south
báha	east
íie	west