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A Grammar of Naganga

Introduction

Scope and Purpose

This grammar provides a systematic description of the Naganga language (the 1056th one produced by the Language Creator), outlining its sound system, word formation and syntactic structure, with the aim of presenting a coherent account of the language as an integrated whole. Attention has been paid to both regular patterns and minor irregularities, as these together define the internal balance of the language.

The grammar is accompanied by a bilingual dictionary and a collection of illustrative texts, offering material for further study and comparison. The examples have been selected to demonstrate typical constructions and to give a sense of the language in extended use. The description is intended as a reference work for linguists and language enthusiasts alike, and as a foundation for any future research, teaching or creative adaptation of Naganga.

Typological Profile

It has a complete lack of sibilant consonants, ergative case marking, i.e., the object of a transitive verb is marked the same as the subject of an intransitive one, and postpositions.

Phonology

Phoneme Inventory

Consonants

Naganga has a moderately small consonant inventory, comprising 16 phonemes.

It has a complete absence of affricates, a complete absence of palatal consonants, something which is a rare occurrence indeed, as well as a complete lack of sibilant consonants, a strikingly small set of lateral and rhotic consonants and a modest (but clearly contrastive) set of labialised consonants.

The table below presents the full inventory of consonant phonemes in Naganga. The chart lists all places and manners of articulation attested in the language.

labialalveolarretroflexvelarlab. velarglottal
stopp t ʈ k kʷ ʔ
nasalm n ɳ ŋ ŋʷ
trill/tap/flapɽ
fricativef h
approximantw

Vowels

Naganga has 10 vowel qualities, forming a relatively large inventory. The system distinguishes several vowel categories, as indicated in the chart, offering a wide range of vocalic contrasts.

It has a modest but genuine inventory of nasal vowels, a full range of vowel qualities even in reduced syllables, occasional ghost vowels that surface only weakly and front rounded vowels (these are cross-linguistically relatively uncommon, but occur in a number of well-known languages, including French, German, Turkish and Mandarin).

The table below presents the full inventory of vowel phonemes in Naganga. The system comprises the distinct vowel qualities listed in the chart.

front unroundedfront roundedcentralback
closei y u
mide ø ə̃ o
opena

Stress and Tones

Naganga has phonemic stress but no lexical tone. Stress consistently falls on the first vowel of the root, and no contrastive tonal distinctions are made.

Phonological Processes

Vowel Harmony

The language employs vowel harmony. To be specific, the following vowels change to match the first vowel of the root: /u/ becomes /y/, /o/ becomes /ø/.

Writing System

Introduction

Naganga is normally written using the Cyrillic alphabet, a script with a long and varied history across Eastern Europe and northern Asia. In this grammar, phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) are also used to give an unambiguous representation of sound.

The conventions adopted here follow standard Cyrillic practice for the language where that exists; where they do not, the IPA transcription should be taken as authoritative.

Orthography

Here are the various components of the orthography:

Simple letters

а /a/в /w/г /h/е /e/
и /i/к /k/м /m/н /n/
н̇ /ɳ/о /o/п /p/р̇ /ɽ/
т /t/т̇ /ʈ/у /u/ф /f/
ѧ /ə̃/ү /y/ӈ /ŋ/ӏ /ʔ/
ө /ø/

Multi-letter combinations such as digraphs

аа /aː/ай /ai/аў /au/
ее /eː/ии /iː/кв /kʷ/
оо /oː/уу /uː/үү /yː/
ӈв /ŋʷ/әән /ə̃ː/өө /øː/

Word Classes and Morphology

Number and Gender

Number

Naganga does not have grammatical number.

Gender

Naganga has the following genders:

Gender masc – for instance: ге ‘language’, гит̇апе ‘forest’, кафайко ‘mouse’, квавова ‘feather’, кваў ‘boy’, квир̇ин̇е ‘God’, кии ‘moon’, накүпа ‘lamb’, пуукə̃ ‘book’, пәән ‘land’, р̇уфеене ‘hunter’, т̇инона ‘bank’, фе ‘son’, фин̇еер̇а ‘mammal’, фѧ ‘animal’, фөө ‘man’, ӈви ‘fish’, ӈу ‘leaf’, ӏан̇аату ‘tiger’, ӏанааӈи ‘bark’.

Gender fem – for instance: катан̇и ‘breath’, мə̃ːни ‘money’, манүүр̇у ‘box’, мооква ‘knife’, мунүн̇а ‘restaurant’, мө ‘friend’, наӈөва ‘library’, р̇ун̇ако ‘salt’, т̇үүн̇у ‘speech’, фə̃кууфə̃ ‘school’, фаў ‘road’, финүүки ‘binoculars’, фит̇ə̃ːвə̃ ‘teacher’, фо ‘child’, фѧӏайга ‘net’, фәәнва ‘manner’, ӈвай ‘bed’, ӈваман̇и ‘wheat’, ӈвофүфи ‘breast’, ӏаӈвоӈи ‘plain’.

Gender neut – for instance: ва ‘hair’, ве ‘time’, ви ‘nose’, витито ‘river’, вѧвүму ‘student’, гее ‘sky’, гу ‘stone’, кегүти ‘grass’, коӏопа ‘stick’, нии ‘night’, паа ‘bone’, р̇аа ‘name’, т̇апопѧ ‘ice’, т̇итөве ‘fat’, т̇у ‘eye’, т̇ү ‘skin’, фаа ‘tongue’, фии ‘hand’, ӈвии ‘leg’, ӏатаўму ‘wing’.

The Nominal Phrase

Nominal phrases in Naganga can be exemplified by the following example:

Ӈвө мооква фугии ӏо кафайко ӈөөпе никви гѧ ӏи ки вѧ.

[ŋʷø ˈmoːkʷa fuˈhiː ˈʔo kaˈfaiko ˈŋøːpe ˈnikʷi hə̃ ʔi ki wə̃]

ŋʷø
woman ˈmoːkʷa
knife fuˈhiː
COMIT ˈʔo
three kaˈfaiko
mouse ˈŋøːpe
blind n-
ABS ˈi
yon -kʷi
masc hə̃
plur ʔi
catch ki
PAST wə̃
3.sing.fem.SUBJ

“The woman with the knife caught those three blind mice.”

 (1)

In the following, we shall look at the various components in more details.

There is one type of clitic in the nominal phrase, namely an enclitic (placed finally), expressing number. a clitic expressing number, comprising гѧ /hə#/ ‘plur’.

The morphology of the elements of the nominal phrase, i.e., nouns, adjectives, numerals and pronouns, is described below, as is the way that possession is expressed in Naganga.

The Noun

The noun in Naganga stands alone without any prefixes or suffixes attached to it.

The noun displays the following derivational morphology: two suffixes, namely -р̇и /-ɽi/ ‘little’ and -ӏа /-ʔa/ ‘big’

The Adjective

The adjective in Naganga stands alone without any prefixes or suffixes attached to it.

Numerals

The numeral in Naganga stands alone without any prefixes or suffixes attached to it.

Determiners

In Naganga, the determiner has the following structure: first, an obligatory prefix expressing case, comprising н- /n-/ ‘ABS’, ф- /f-/ ‘ERG’, п- /p-/ ‘DAT’, кв- /kʷ-/ ‘INS’, н̇- /ɳ-/ ‘VOC’, г- /h-/ ‘ALL’, в- /w-/ ‘LOC’, т- /t-/ ‘ABL’ and м- /m-/ ‘PART’; second, the root; and finally, third, an obligatory suffix expressing gender, comprising -кви /-kʷi/ ‘masc’, -не /-ne/ ‘fem’ and -ги /-hi/ ‘neut’.

Pronouns

The pronoun in Naganga stands alone without any prefixes or suffixes attached to it.

In Naganga, subject pronouns (but not object pronouns ones) are dropped unless they are stressed. Here is an example where neither of the pronouns are stressed:

Фуу каў.

[ˈfuː kau]

ˈfuː
3.sing.fem kau
love

“He (the boy) loves her (the girl).”

 (2)

But here, the word corresponding to he (i.e., the subject) is stressed:

Р̇у фуу каў.

[ˈɽu ˈfuː kau]

ˈɽu
3.sing.masc ˈfuː
3.sing.fem kau
love

“He loves her.”

 (3)

Proper Nouns

Ӏѧтуфа Н̇акокво квипофо.

[ʔə̃ˈtufa ɳaˈkokʷo kʷiˈpofo]

ʔə̃ˈtufa
Atufa ɳaˈkokʷo
Nakoko kʷiˈpofo
hate

“Atufa hates Nakoko.”

 (4)

Possession

кваў ӈвар̇окво

[kʷau ŋʷaˈɽokʷo]

kʷau
boy ŋʷaˈɽokʷo
apple

“the boy’s apple”

 (5)
р̇у ӈвар̇окво

[ˈɽu ŋʷaˈɽokʷo]

ˈɽu
3.sing.masc ŋʷaˈɽokʷo
apple

“his (the boy’s) apple”

 (6)
ӈвоо ӈвар̇окво

[ˈŋʷoː ŋʷaˈɽokʷo]

ˈŋʷoː
1excl.sing ŋʷaˈɽokʷo
apple

“my apple”

 (7)
Р̇уфеене ту квии мемеӏу фе квөвүүна ки вѧ.

[ɽuˈfeːne tu ˈkʷiː meˈmeʔu fe kʷøˈwyːna ki wə̃]

ɽuˈfeːne
hunter tu
daughter ˈkʷiː
2.sing meˈmeʔu
neighbour fe
son kʷoˈwyːna
kiss ki
PAST wə̃
3.sing.fem.SUBJ

“The hunter’s daughter kissed your neighbour’s son.”

 (8)

Derivation

Naganga has a few derivational processes. To illustrate this, let us start with a simple noun phrase:

накүпа

[naˈkypa]

naˈkypa
lamb

“a lamb”

 (9)

In the following, the word for little becomes an affix attached to lamb:

накүпар̇и

[naˈkypaɽi]

naˈkypa
lamb -ɽi
little

“a little lamb”

 (10)

Compounding

Verbs

Inflectional Categories

All verbal phrase clitics in Naganga are enclitics (placed finally), and there are six types: first, a clitic expressing ta, comprising ки /ki/ ‘PAST’; second, a clitic expressing mode, comprising ӈва /ŋʷa/ ‘imperative’, тѧ /tə#/ ‘conditional’ and р̇ѧ /ɽə#/ ‘optative’; third, a clitic expressing voice, comprising ӈво /ŋʷo/ ‘passive’; fourth, a clitic expressing negation, comprising кѧ /kə#/ ‘NEG’; fifth, a clitic expressing subj, comprising мо /mo/ ‘1incl.sing’, мѧ /mə#/ ‘1excl.sing’, во /wo/ ‘2.sing’, вѧ /wə#/ ‘3.sing.fem’, ӈвѧ /ŋʷə#/ ‘3.sing.neut’, ӈи /ŋi/ ‘1incl.plur’, ӈо /ŋo/ ‘1excl.plur’, ӈѧ /ŋə#/ ‘2.plur’, н̇и /ɳi/ ‘3.plur.masc’, н̇у /ɳu/ ‘3.plur.fem’ and н̇о /ɳo/ ‘3.plur.neut’; and finally, sixth, a clitic expressing question, comprising н̇а /ɳa/ ‘Q’.

The verb itself does not have any prefixes or suffixes attached to it.

The verb displays the following derivational morphology: two suffixes, namely -ви /-wi/ ‘begin’ and -па /-pa/ ‘stop’

Квии каў мѧ.

[ˈkʷiː kau mə̃]

ˈkʷiː
2.sing kau
love mə̃
1excl.sing.SUBJ

“I love you.”

 (11)

Adverbs Minor Classes

Adpositions

There is one type of clitic in the adpositional phrase, namely an enclitic (placed finally), expressing root.

гифа пее

[ˈhifa ˈpeː]

ˈhifa
table ˈpeː
in_surface

“on the table”

 (12)
манүүр̇ү кее

[maˈnyːɽy ˈkeː]

maˈnyːɽu
box ˈkeː
to_inside

“into the box”

 (13)
ӈвоо фугии

[ˈŋʷoː fuˈhiː]

ˈŋʷoː
1excl.sing fuˈhiː
COMIT

“with me”

 (14)

Syntax

Basic Clause Structure

Constituent Order

Constituent order describes the typical arrangement of the subject (S), verb (V) and object (O) in simple declarative clauses. It is a fundamental parameter in grammatical description and forms one of the clearest ways of characterising the overall structure of a language’s clause system.

Naganga has basic Subject–Object–Verb (SOV) word order. The subject precedes the object, and the verb appears at the end of the clause. This is one of the most frequent patterns cross-linguistically.

The following examples illustrate the basic, unmarked, constituent order in Naganga.

Н̇ефуну р̇уфеене туу ки.

[ɳeˈfunu ɽuˈfeːne tuː ki]

ɳeˈfunu
jaguar ɽuˈfeːne
hunter tuː
kill ki
PAST

“The jaguar killed the hunter.”

 (15)
Кванайфи р̇уфеене ту р̇ии та ки.

[kʷaˈnaifi ɽuˈfeːne tu ɽiː ta ki]

kʷaˈnaifi
lion ɽuˈfeːne
hunter tu
daughter ɽiː
dog ta
eat ki
PAST

“The lion ate the hunter’s daughter’s dog.”

 (16)

The language has a fixed constituent order, and major phrases normally appear in a predictable position in the clause. Movement for discourse reasons is highly restricted: topics and foci are expressed not by rearranging elements, but through dedicated constructions such as clefts, focus clauses or topic–comment frames. Constituents remain continuous, and both the relative order of phrases and the internal structure of each phrase are stable. As a result, significant deviations from the basic word order are ungrammatical, and discourse structure is managed through these specialised constructions rather than through word-order variation.

Noun Phrases

Structure and Order

The internal structure of noun phrases in Naganga reveals typologically significant preferences in the ordering of nominal constituents. This includes the position of adjectives, numerals, and possessors relative to the noun, each of which can offer clues to the overall headedness of the language.

Possessive constructions are head-final: the possessor precedes the possessed noun. For example, Naganga expresses “the child’s toy” with the equivalent of “child toy”. This ordering is found in many SOV and postpositional languages and aligns with a broader tendency towards modifier-first structures.

квии фе мө пуукə̃

[ˈkʷiː fe mø puːkə̃]

ˈkʷiː
2.sing fe
son mø
friend puːkə̃
book

“your son’s friend’s book”

 (17)

Case Marking

Naganga uses ergative–absolutive case marking. The subject of an intransitive verb and the object of a transitive verb are treated alike and take the absolutive case, while the subject of a transitive verb is marked with the ergative case. From the point of view of such a system, this is a perfectly natural way to organise the clause: the absolutive marks the participant most directly involved in the event or state, while the ergative marks the additional participant that causes or controls a transitive event.

Пи тай.

[pi tai]

pi
cat tai
sleep

“The cat is sleeping.”

 (18)
Пи т̇оо.

[pi ʈoː]

pi
cat ʈoː
run

“The cat is running.”

 (19)
Пи кафайко мар̇аўпи.

[pi kaˈfaiko maˈɽaupi]

pi
cat kaˈfaiko
mouse maˈɽaupi
chase

“The cat is chasing the mouse.”

 (20)
Пи кафайко ӏи ки.

[pi kaˈfaiko ʔi ki]

pi
cat kaˈfaiko
mouse ʔi
catch ki
PAST

“The cat caught the mouse.”

 (21)

Conjunctions

Here is an example of a conjunction.

Р̇уфеене н̇ефуну гѧ кү ӏан̇аату гѧ кү кванайфи гѧ туу ки.

[ɽuˈfeːne ɳeˈfunu hə̃ ˈky ʔaˈɳaːtu hə̃ ˈky kʷaˈnaifi hə̃ tuː ki]

ɽuˈfeːne
hunter ɳeˈfunu
jaguar hə̃
plur ˈky
and ʔaˈɳaːtu
tiger hə̃
plur ˈky
and kʷaˈnaifi
lion hə̃
plur tuː
kill ki
PAST

“The hunter killed the jaguars, the tigers and the lions.”

 (22)

Modifiers and Determiners

The ordering of demonstratives, articles (if present), and other modifiers in Naganga provides further insight into the structure of the noun phrase. These elements frequently exhibit fixed positions and may reveal whether the language favours head-initial or head-final patterns.

Complex Sentences

Relative Clauses

Naganga forms relative clauses by placing them before the noun they modify. The modifier takes the form of a finite clause that precedes the head noun without any relative pronoun. The clause shows ordinary clausal structure, with the role of the head noun recoverable from the syntactic position inside the clause.

To illustrate how relative clauses work, let us begin with a simple sentence:

Пи квапөни ки мѧ.

[pi kʷaˈpøni ki mə̃]

pi
cat kʷaˈpøni
pat ki
PAST mə̃
1excl.sing.SUBJ

“I patted the cat.”

 (23)

We can now add a relative clause modifying the noun:

Кафайко ӏи ки пи квапөни ки мѧ.

[kaˈfaiko ʔi ki pi kʷaˈpøni ki mə̃]

kaˈfaiko
mouse ʔi
catch ki
PAST pi
cat kʷaˈpøni
pat ki
PAST mə̃
1excl.sing.SUBJ

“I patted the cat that caught the mouse.”

 (24)

Relative clauses may themselves contain other relative clauses:

Воӈваар̇о та ки кафайко ӏи ки пи квапөни ки мѧ.

[woˈŋʷaːɽo ta ki kaˈfaiko ʔi ki pi kʷaˈpøni ki mə̃]

woˈŋʷaːɽo
cheese ta
eat ki
PAST kaˈfaiko
mouse ʔi
catch ki
PAST pi
cat kʷaˈpøni
pat ki
PAST mə̃
1excl.sing.SUBJ

“I patted the cat that caught the mouse that ate the cheese.”

 (25)

Finally, here is an example containing several layers of embedding:

Ӈвоо фа ки воӈваар̇о та ки кафайко ӏи ки пи квапөни ки мѧ.

[ˈŋʷoː fa ki woˈŋʷaːɽo ta ki kaˈfaiko ʔi ki pi kʷaˈpøni ki mə̃]

ˈŋʷoː
1excl.sing fa
buy ki
PAST woˈŋʷaːɽo
cheese ta
eat ki
PAST kaˈfaiko
mouse ʔi
catch ki
PAST pi
cat kʷaˈpøni
pat ki
PAST mə̃
1excl.sing.SUBJ

“I patted the cat that caught the mouse that ate the cheese that I bought.”

 (26)

Complementation Strategies

Naganga forms complement clauses by nominalising the embedded verb. The nominalised form lacks finite verbal categories and behaves as a noun phrase. Subjects of nominalised clauses occur in the genitive case, and the nominalised verb establishes the semantic content of the complement.

The following example illustrate how complement clauses function:

Кваў т̇ѧ ӈвар̇окво н̇аў ки фит̇ə̃ːвə̃ н̇омаар̇е ки ӈвѧ.

[kʷau ʈə̃ ŋʷaˈɽokʷo ɳau ki fiʈə̃ːwə̃ ɳoˈmaːɽe ki ŋʷə̃]

kʷau
boy ʈə̃
girl ŋʷaˈɽokʷo
apple ɳau
give ki
PAST fiʈə̃ːwə̃
teacher ɳoˈmaːɽe
surprise ki
PAST ŋʷə̃
3.sing.neut.SUBJ

“It surprised the teacher that the boy had given the girl an apple.”

 (27)

Quotes

Naganga employs a quotative particle to mark direct and indirect speech. The quotative follows the reported phrase and identifies the preceding expression as quoted or reported. The same construction is also used to express reported thoughts.

Here is an example of how quotations are expressed:

Кваў т̇ѧ ӈвоо квии каў р̇ү ки.

[kʷau ʈə̃ ˈŋʷoː ˈkʷiː kau ɽy ki]

kʷau
boy ʈə̃
girl ˈŋʷoː
1excl.sing ˈkʷiː
2.sing kau
love ɽy
tell ki
PAST

“The boy told the girl that he loved her.”

 (28)

How to cite this grammar

Language Creator. 2026. A Grammar of Naganga. Generated by the Language Creator, version 0.92, on 31 July 2026. https://languagecreator.org/grammar/18DCC

In BibTeX format:

@misc{LC-18DCC,
  year         = 2026,
  author       = {{Language Creator}},
  title        = {A Grammar of {Naganga}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://languagecreator.org/grammar/18DCC}},
  note         = {Generated by the Language Creator, version 0.92, on 31 July 2026}
}

Supplementary Materials

A collection of illustrative texts and a bilingual dictionary (English–Naganga / Naganga–English) accompany this grammar. The complete work – comprising the grammar, dictionary and texts – may also be downloaded in ODT or DOCX format.

Readers are encouraged to share observations or corrections via the feedback form. The present page may be accessed directly at:

https://languagecreator.org/grammar/18DCC

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