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A Grammar of Nedu

Introduction

Scope and Purpose

This grammar provides a systematic description of the Nedu language (the 156th 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 Nedu.

Typological Profile

It has the typologically rare OSV basic word order and postpositions.

Phonology

Phoneme Inventory

Consonants

Nedu has a moderately large consonant inventory, with 29 phonemes.

It has a modest (but clearly contrastive) set of labialised consonants, a noticeable presence of pharyngealised phonemes and a modest set of implosive stops.

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

labialalveolarphar. alveolarpostalveolarlateralpalatalvelarlab. velarglottal
stopp b d t dˤ tˤ k ɡ kʷ ɡʷ
nasalm n nˤ ɲ ŋ ŋʷ
fricativef s sˤ ʃ h
approximantw l j
affricatet͡ʃ
implosiveɓ ɗ ɗˤ

Vowels

Nedu has 7 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 occasional ghost vowels that surface only weakly.

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

frontcentralback
closei u
mide o
opena

Stress and Tones

Nedu 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

Nedu 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/б /b/б̱ /ɓ/в /w/
г /h/д /d/д̱ /ɗ/е /e/
и /i/к /k/л /l/м /m/
н /n/о /o/п /p/с /s/
т /t/у /u/ф /f/ч /t͡ʃ/
ш /ʃ/ј /j/њ /ɲ/ґ /ɡ/
ӈ /ŋ/

Multi-letter combinations such as digraphs

ай /ai/аў /au/д̱ъ /ɗˤ/
дъ /dˤ/кв /kʷ/нъ /nˤ/
съ /sˤ/тъ /tˤ/ґв /ɡʷ/
ӈв /ŋʷ/

Word Classes and Morphology

Number and Gender

Number

Nedu does not have grammatical number.

Gender

Nedu has the following genders:

Gender fem – for instance: бапу ‘apple’, д̱ъеви ‘bark’, даме ‘faeces’, десо ‘north’, дъењу ‘grass’, кенъе ‘forest’, кипо ‘sun’, маўју ‘sea’, нъета ‘moon’, сепу ‘leaf’, собе ‘wife’, съаўбе ‘fire’, тъид̱ъе ‘girl’, чало ‘earth’, шайфи ‘wheat’, шудъа ‘flower’, јаўфу ‘fog’, њиб̱у ‘hand’, ґад̱ъи ‘anus’, ґваґе ‘manner’.

Gender masc – for instance: ване ‘hair’, ваўґва ‘God’, гаўде ‘dog’, д̱уле ‘father’, дъиӈво ‘son’, каби ‘ash’, квитъи ‘husband’, мего ‘skin’, мисъи ‘snake’, напи ‘cat’, нива ‘breath’, сасъо ‘name’, сесъо ‘fat’, таґви ‘dust’, тъува ‘head’, фами ‘human being’, чаје ‘leg’, њеди ‘people’, ґвасе ‘fight’, ґвосу ‘ear’.

Gender neut – for instance: байдъи ‘city’, бати ‘binoculars’, дъеґво ‘neck’, куґу ‘net’, масе ‘machine’, наде ‘foot’, нъаки ‘year’, тасъе ‘day’, това ‘night’, тъаӈа ‘tower’, тъусъи ‘teacher’, фаша ‘guts’, фаўґви ‘house’, чиґа ‘bone’, чуд̱о ‘wing’, шаўти ‘south’, јуб̱а ‘bed’, њану ‘feather’, њеӈи ‘knife’, њипе ‘rope’.

The Nominal Phrase

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

Јаўфи дъай тъаўтъа соӈу јасу њеӈи Съе б̱о коди.

[jaufi dˤai tˤautˤa soŋu jasu ɲeŋi sˤe ɓo kodi]

j-
NOM au
yon -fi
masc dˤai
three tˤautˤa
mouse s-
imperative oŋu
blind jasu
woman ɲeŋi
knife sˤe
COMIT ɓo
PAST k-
indicative odi
catch

“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 possessor. a clitic expressing possessor, comprising де /de/ ‘1incl.sing’, ба /ba/ ‘1excl.sing’, ка /ka/ ‘2.sing’, но /no/ ‘3.sing.masc’, дъо /dˤo/ ‘3.sing.fem’, го /ho/ ‘3.sing.neut’, ӈва /ŋʷa/ ‘1incl.plur’, нъо /nˤo/ ‘1excl.plur’, да /da/ ‘2.plur’, съа /sˤa/ ‘3.plur.masc’, се /se/ ‘3.plur.fem’ and д̱ъе /ɗˤe/ ‘3.plur.neut’.

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 Nedu.

The Noun

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

The noun displays the following derivational morphology: two suffixes, namely -нъо /-nˤo/ ‘little’ and -ви /-wi/ ‘big’

The Adjective

In Nedu, the adjective has the following structure: the root followed by an obligatory suffix expressing number, comprising -у /-u/ ‘sing’ and -о /-o/ ‘plur’.

Numerals

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

Determiners

In Nedu, the determiner has the following structure: first, an obligatory prefix expressing case, comprising ј- /j-/ ‘NOM’, к- /k-/ ‘GEN’, н- /n-/ ‘DAT’, съ- /sˤ-/ ‘INS’, б- /b-/ ‘VOC’, д- /d-/ ‘ALL’, ӈ- /ŋ-/ ‘LOC’, м- /m-/ ‘ABL’ and д̱ъ- /ɗˤ-/ ‘PART’; second, the root; and finally, third, an obligatory suffix expressing gender, comprising -фи /-fi/ ‘masc’, -по /-po/ ‘fem’ and -бу /-bu/ ‘neut’.

Pronouns

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

Дъиша б̱о каўсъу ґво кудъе.

[dˤiʃa ɓo kausˤu ɡʷo kudˤe]

dˤiʃa
tiger ɓo
PAST k-
indicative ausˤu
kill ɡʷo
because k-
indicative udˤe
happy

“Because the two of us [not including the listener] killed the tiger, we [including the listener] are all now happy.”

 (2)

Here is an example where neither of the pronouns are stressed:

Бо кикве.

[bo kikʷe]

bo
3.sing.fem k-
indicative ikʷe
love

“He (the boy) loves her (the girl).”

 (3)

But here, the word corresponding to he is stressed:

Бо тъай кикве.

[bo tˤai kikʷe]

bo
3.sing.fem tˤai
3.sing.masc k-
indicative ikʷe
love

“He loves her.”

 (4)

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

Бо кикве.

[bo kikʷe]

bo
3.sing.fem k-
indicative ikʷe
love

“He loves her.”

 (5)

Proper Nouns

Јокви Бунъа кайми.

[jokʷi bunˤa kaimi]

jokʷi
Yoki bunˤa
Buna k-
indicative aimi
hate

“Buna hates Yoki.”

 (6)

Possession

тъайшо бапу но

[tˤaiʃo bapu no]

tˤaiʃo
boy bapu
apple no
3.sing.masc.POSS

“the boy’s apple”

 (7)
тъай бапу но

[tˤai bapu no]

tˤai
3.sing.masc bapu
apple no
3.sing.masc.POSS

“his (the boy’s) apple”

 (8)
бапу ба

[bapu ba]

bapu
apple ba
1excl.sing.POSS

“my apple”

 (9)
Дъид̱ъа ка дъиӈво го кеки ӈвайси но б̱о каўдо.

[dˤiɗˤa ka dˤiŋʷo ho keki ŋʷaisi no ɓo kaudo]

dˤiɗˤa
neighbour ka
2.sing.POSS dˤiŋʷo
son ho
3.sing.neut.POSS keki
hunter ŋʷaisi
daughter no
3.sing.masc.POSS ɓo
PAST k-
indicative audo
kiss

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

 (10)

Derivation

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

дъефи

[dˤefi]

dˤefi
lamb

“a lamb”

 (11)

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

дъефинъо

[dˤefinˤo]

dˤefi
lamb -nˤo
little

“a little lamb”

 (12)

Compounding

Verbs

Inflectional Categories

The verbal phrase clitics in Nedu fall into two categories, proclitics and enclitics: first, a clitic expressing voice, comprising нъо /nˤo/ ‘passive’; second, a clitic expressing ta, comprising б̱о /ɓo/ ‘PAST’; third, a clitic expressing negation, comprising му /mu/ ‘NEG’; and finally, fourth, a clitic expressing question, comprising ӈо /ŋo/ ‘Q’.

In addition, the verb is structured like this: an obligatory prefix expressing mode, comprising к- /k-/ ‘indicative’, с- /s-/ ‘imperative’, т- /t-/ ‘conditional’ and н- /n-/ ‘optative’ followed by the root.

The verb displays the following derivational morphology: two suffixes, namely -бо /-bo/ ‘begin’ and -кве /-kʷe/ ‘stop’

Да кикве.

[da kikʷe]

da
2.sing k-
indicative ikʷe
love

“I love you.”

 (13)

Adverbs Minor Classes

Adpositions

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

топи бинъи б̱аў

[topi binˤi ɓau]

topi
table binˤi
surface ɓau
in

“on the table”

 (14)
шиша ӈуд̱ъа ју

[ʃiʃa ŋuɗˤa ju]

ʃiʃa
box ŋuɗˤa
inside ju
to

“into the box”

 (15)
д̱у Съе

[ɗu sˤe]

ɗu
1excl.sing sˤe
COMIT

“with me”

 (16)

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.

Nedu adopts Object–Subject–Verb (OSV) as its unmarked word order. The object precedes the subject, and the verb appears clause-finally. OSV is a rare ordering pattern but is attested in a small number of languages.

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

Кеки нима б̱о каўсъу.

[keki nima ɓo kausˤu]

keki
hunter nima
jaguar ɓo
PAST k-
indicative ausˤu
kill

“The jaguar killed the hunter.”

 (17)
Кеки ӈвайси но гаўде дъо вата б̱о каўдъа.

[keki ŋʷaisi no haude dˤo wata ɓo kaudˤa]

keki
hunter ŋʷaisi
daughter no
3.sing.masc.POSS haude
dog dˤo
3.sing.fem.POSS wata
lion ɓo
PAST k-
indicative audˤa
eat

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

 (18)

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 Nedu 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, Nedu 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.

дъиӈво ка јаси но д̱ъайну го

[dˤiŋʷo ka jasi no ɗˤainu ho]

dˤiŋʷo
son ka
2.sing.POSS jasi
friend no
3.sing.masc.POSS ɗˤainu
book ho
3.sing.neut.POSS

“your son’s friend’s book”

 (19)

Conjunctions

Here is an example of a conjunction.

Нима ча дъиша ча вата кеки б̱о каўсъу.

[nima t͡ʃa dˤiʃa t͡ʃa wata keki ɓo kausˤu]

nima
jaguar t͡ʃa
and dˤiʃa
tiger t͡ʃa
and wata
lion keki
hunter ɓo
PAST k-
indicative ausˤu
kill

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

 (20)

Modifiers and Determiners

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

Nedu forms relative clauses by using a head-internal strategy. The head noun appears inside the clause itself, occupying its regular syntactic position. The entire clause functions as a modifier, and its external syntactic behaviour is identical to that of a noun-modifying phrase.

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

Напи б̱о кид̱е.

[napi ɓo kiɗe]

napi
cat ɓo
PAST k-
indicative iɗe
pat

“I patted the cat.”

 (21)

We can now add a relative clause modifying the noun:

Тъаўтъа напи б̱о коди б̱о кид̱е.

[tˤautˤa napi ɓo kodi ɓo kiɗe]

tˤautˤa
mouse napi
cat ɓo
PAST k-
indicative odi
catch ɓo
PAST k-
indicative iɗe
pat

“I patted the cat that caught the mouse.”

 (22)

Relative clauses may themselves contain other relative clauses:

Нъусъи тъаўтъа б̱о каўдъа напи б̱о коди б̱о кид̱е.

[nˤusˤi tˤautˤa ɓo kaudˤa napi ɓo kodi ɓo kiɗe]

nˤusˤi
cheese tˤautˤa
mouse ɓo
PAST k-
indicative audˤa
eat napi
cat ɓo
PAST k-
indicative odi
catch ɓo
PAST k-
indicative iɗe
pat

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

 (23)

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

Нъусъи д̱у б̱о кунъе тъаўтъа б̱о каўдъа напи б̱о коди б̱о кид̱е.

[nˤusˤi ɗu ɓo kunˤe tˤautˤa ɓo kaudˤa napi ɓo kodi ɓo kiɗe]

nˤusˤi
cheese ɗu
1excl.sing ɓo
PAST k-
indicative unˤe
buy tˤautˤa
mouse ɓo
PAST k-
indicative audˤa
eat napi
cat ɓo
PAST k-
indicative odi
catch ɓo
PAST k-
indicative iɗe
pat

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

 (24)

Complementation Strategies

Nedu marks complement clauses with subordinating verbal morphology. The embedded verb is fully finite and carries a subordinating suffix that identifies the clause as a complement. No structural changes occur within the clause apart from this verbal marking.

The following example illustrate how complement clauses function:

Тъусъи бапу тъид̱ъе тъайшо б̱о кубу б̱о киӈво.

[tˤusˤi bapu tˤiɗˤe tˤaiʃo ɓo kubu ɓo kiŋʷo]

tˤusˤi
teacher bapu
apple tˤiɗˤe
girl tˤaiʃo
boy ɓo
PAST k-
indicative ubu
give ɓo
PAST k-
indicative iŋʷo
surprise

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

 (25)

Quotes

Here is an example of how quotations are expressed:

Miscellaneous

Supplementary Materials

A collection of illustrative texts and a bilingual dictionary (English–Nedu / Nedu–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/3DGKZ

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.

How to cite this grammar:

Language Creator. 2026. A Grammar of Nedu. Generated by the Language Creator, version 0.90, on 22 May 2026. https://languagecreator.org/grammar/3DGKZ

In BibTeX format:

@misc{LC-3DGKZ,
  year         = 2026,
  author       = {{Language Creator}},
  title        = {A Grammar of {Nedu}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://languagecreator.org/grammar/3DGKZ}},
  note         = {Generated by the Language Creator, version 0.90, on 22 May 2026}
}

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