The Language Creator
– from linguistic questionnaire to grammar, lexicon and texts.

A Grammar of Nifama

Introduction

Scope and Purpose

This grammar provides a systematic description of the Nifama language (the 1069th 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 Nifama.

Typological Profile

It has has no interesting typological features.

Phonology

Phoneme Inventory

Consonants

Nifama has a moderately small consonant inventory, comprising 17 phonemes.

It has a complete absence of affricates, a strongly reduced sibilant system and an unusually restricted set of labial consonants.

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

labialalveolarlateralpalatalvelarglottal
stopb d t k ɡ
nasalm n ɲ ŋ
trill/tap/flapr
fricativef s h
approximantw l j

Vowels

Nifama has 6 vowel qualities. This places it within the broadly common range of mid-sized vowel inventories. The vowel chart shows the full set of contrasts employed in the language’s phonology.

It has a strongly reduced vowel system in unstressed syllables.

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

frontcentralback
closei u
mide ə o
opena

Stress and Tones

Nifama has neither phonemic stress nor lexical tone. Prosodic prominence and pitch variation are determined by pragmatic and discourse factors rather than by lexical contrasts.

Phonological Processes

Vowel Harmony

Vowel harmony does not exist in this language.

Writing System

Introduction

Nifama is an unwritten language. For that reason, all examples in this grammar are given exclusively in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), which offers a precise and widely recognised means of recording its sounds.

Orthography

Nifamais an unwritten language, so it does not make any sense to discuss its orthography.

Word Classes and Morphology

Number and Gender

Number

Nifama does not have grammatical number.

Gender

Nifama does not have genders or noun classes.

The Nominal Phrase

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

[jobə ləki teŋəjə mo mə ŋu ru sənenəfə, hi sotə]

jobə
woman ləki
COMIT teŋəjə
knife mo
catch mə
PAST ŋu
yon ru
three sənenəfə
mouse hi
RELPRON sotə
blind

“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 a proclitic (placed initially), expressing case. a clitic expressing case, comprising wə ‘DAT’, kə ‘INS’, sə ‘VOC’, tə ‘ALL’, bə ‘LOC’, nə ‘ABL’ and jə ‘PART’.

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

The Noun

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

The Adjective

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

Numerals

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

Determiners

The determiner in Nifama stands alone without any prefixes or suffixes attached to it.

Pronouns

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

In Nifama, both subject and object pronouns are dropped unless they are stressed. Here is an example where neither of the pronouns are stressed:

[ləɡo]

ləɡo
love

“He (the boy) loves her (the girl).”

 (2)

But here, the word corresponding to he is stressed:

[ma ləɡo]

ma
3 ləɡo
love

“He loves her.”

 (3)

And here, it is the one translated as her that is stressed:

[ləɡo ma]

ləɡo
love ma
3

“He loves her.”

 (4)

Proper Nouns

[ɲədaləsə fəderə məwaŋəbə]

ɲədaləsə
Nyadalasa fəderə
hate məwaŋəbə
Mawangaba

“Nyadalasa hates Mawangaba.”

 (5)

Possession

[lalə fəlanəfə]

lalə
boy fəlanəfə
apple

“the boy’s apple”

 (6)

[ma fəlanəfə]

ma
3 fəlanəfə
apple

“his (the boy’s) apple”

 (7)

[fu fəlanəfə]

fu
1excl fəlanəfə
apple

“my apple”

 (8)

[dəfenədə damə təŋiŋə mə bu ɡərafəɲə bafə]

dəfenədə
hunter damə
daughter təŋiŋə
kiss mə
PAST bu
2 ɡərafəɲə
neighbour bafə
son

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

 (9)

Derivation

Nifama has no derivational processes.

[wəfaɡədə]

wəfaɡədə
lamb

“a lamb”

 (10)

Note how none show up here:

[nu mə ɲəde mə jəbe wəfaɡədə, hi ti]

nu
want mə
PAST ɲəde
have mə
PAST jəbe
COMP wəfaɡədə
lamb hi
RELPRON ti
little

“She wanted to have a little lamb.”

 (11)

Compounding

Verbs

Inflectional Categories

The verbal phrase clitics in Nifama fall into two categories, proclitics and enclitics: first, a clitic expressing mode, comprising fə ‘imperative’, ɡə ‘conditional’ and ɲə ‘optative’; second, a clitic expressing ta, comprising mə ‘PAST’; third, a clitic expressing voice, comprising hə ‘passive’; and finally, fourth, a clitic expressing negation, comprising nəwə ‘NEG’.

In addition, the verb is structured like this: the root followed by an optional suffix expressing question, comprising -ɲəfə ‘Q’.

[ləɡo]

ləɡo
love

“I love you.”

 (12)

Adverbs Minor Classes

Adpositions

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

[ri wiməŋə kawə]

ri
in wiməŋə
table kawə
surface

“on the table”

 (13)

[ɡi məkodəwə wobə]

ɡi
to məkodəwə
box wobə
inside

“into the box”

 (14)

[ləki fu]

ləki
COMIT fu
1excl

“with me”

 (15)

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.

Nifama employs Subject–Verb–Object (SVO) as its basic word order. The subject is followed by the verb, with the object occurring in post-verbal position. This ordering is widely attested across the world’s languages.

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

[kəlafəwə nəni mə dəfenədə]

kəlafəwə
jaguar nəni
kill mə
PAST dəfenədə
hunter

“The jaguar killed the hunter.”

 (16)

[fəɡoŋəsə ɲəta mə dəfenədə damə bibə]

fəɡoŋəsə
lion ɲəta
eat mə
PAST dəfenədə
hunter damə
daughter bibə
dog

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

 (17)

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 Nifama 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, Nifama 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.

[bu bafə ɡusə rewə]

bu
2 bafə
son ɡusə
friend rewə
book

“your son’s friend’s book”

 (18)

Case Marking

Nifama does not use case marking to distinguish the core participants of the clause. There is therefore no regular nominative, accusative, ergative, active or stative marking on subjects and objects. Instead, the roles of the participants are identified by other means, cf. the examples below.

[namə mi]

namə
cat mi
sleep

“The cat is sleeping.”

 (19)

[namə bi]

namə
cat bi
run

“The cat is running.”

 (20)

[namə məbidə sənenəfə]

namə
cat məbidə
chase sənenəfə
mouse

“The cat is chasing the mouse.”

 (21)

[namə mo mə sənenəfə]

namə
cat mo
catch mə
PAST sənenəfə
mouse

“The cat caught the mouse.”

 (22)

Conjunctions

Here is an example of a conjunction.

[dəfenədə nəni mə kəlafəwə so dəlaləŋə so fəɡoŋəsə]

dəfenədə
hunter nəni
kill mə
PAST kəlafəwə
jaguar so
and dəlaləŋə
tiger so
and fəɡoŋəsə
lion

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

 (23)

Modifiers and Determiners

The ordering of demonstratives, articles (if present), and other modifiers in Nifama 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

Nifama forms relative clauses by placing the relative clause after the noun it modifies. The clause follows the internal word order of ordinary finite clauses. A dedicated relativising marker introduces the clause and identifies the relationship between the head noun and its role inside the relative clause.

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

[jəfanə mə namə]

jəfanə
pat mə
PAST namə
cat

“I patted the cat.”

 (24)

We can now add a relative clause modifying the noun:

[jəfanə mə namə, hi mo mə sənenəfə]

jəfanə
pat mə
PAST namə
cat hi
RELPRON mo
catch mə
PAST sənenəfə
mouse

“I patted the cat that caught the mouse.”

 (25)

Relative clauses may themselves contain other relative clauses:

[jəfanə mə namə, hi mo mə sənenəfə, hi ɲəta mə təmohələ]

jəfanə
pat mə
PAST namə
cat hi
RELPRON mo
catch mə
PAST sənenəfə
mouse hi
RELPRON ɲəta
eat mə
PAST təmohələ
cheese

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

 (26)

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

[jəfanə mə namə, hi mo mə sənenəfə, hi ɲəta mə təmohələ, hi ra mə fu]

jəfanə
pat mə
PAST namə
cat hi
RELPRON mo
catch mə
PAST sənenəfə
mouse hi
RELPRON ɲəta
eat mə
PAST təmohələ
cheese hi
RELPRON ra
buy mə
PAST fu
1excl

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

 (27)

Complementation Strategies

Nifama introduces complement clauses with a dedicated complementiser, similar to English that. The complementiser appears at the beginning of the embedded clause and signals that the clause functions as a syntactic argument. The embedded clause is fully finite and displays the same tense, aspect and agreement patterns as independent clauses.

The following example illustrate how complement clauses function:

[lalə həno mə sidə fəlanəfə jəbe jəkedə mə ŋəleɲəsə]

lalə
boy həno
give mə
PAST sidə
girl fəlanəfə
apple jəbe
COMP jəkedə
surprise mə
PAST ŋəleɲəsə
teacher

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

 (28)

Quotes

Nifama expresses quoted or reported speech without a dedicated quotative particle. Quotations appear as ordinary clauses, distinguished only by the surrounding syntactic context or by the use of verbs of speaking.

Here is an example of how quotations are expressed:

[lalə jəde mə sidə fu ləɡo bu jəbe]

lalə
boy jəde
tell mə
PAST sidə
girl fu
1excl ləɡo
love bu
2 jəbe
COMP

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

 (29)

How to cite this grammar

Language Creator. 2026. A Grammar of Nifama. Generated by the Language Creator, version 0.92, on 4 August 2026. https://languagecreator.org/grammar/1B0E7

In BibTeX format:

@misc{LC-1B0E7,
  year         = 2026,
  author       = {{Language Creator}},
  title        = {A Grammar of {Nifama}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://languagecreator.org/grammar/1B0E7}},
  note         = {Generated by the Language Creator, version 0.92, on 4 August 2026}
}

Supplementary Materials

A collection of illustrative texts and a bilingual dictionary (English–Nifama / Nifama–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/1B0E7

Behind the scenes, the Language Creator stores the generated language in a JSON-based format known as ELD. The corresponding ELD file may be downloaded, edited as required, and reuploaded in order to regenerate the grammar, dictionary and texts.

To revisit the questionnaire settings used to generate this language, .

Language creation took 0.03 seconds; writing the grammar 0.05 seconds.