Bgapian

Introduction

Modern Netagin (nðoḡin [ləˈðogin]) is the modern descendant of Classical Netagin. It is a prestige language in Talma, and is currently the most spoken Talman language.

Numbers

1-12: ħaŋic böḏ hez tüŋ mikoś fazim ʔaŋbon kacăḏ xuȝos rifü þaḇiŋ śḏüȝ zorüx

Phonology

Consonants

Modern Netagin lost Classical Netagin gemination, and gained new consonant contrasts as a result.

		Labial	Alveolar	Lateral	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Glottal
Nasal		m /m/	n /n~l/			ŋ /ŋ/
Plosive	tenuis	b /p/	d /t/			g /k/			ʔ /ʔ/
	voiced	ḇ /b/	ḏ /d/			ḡ /g/
	aspirated	p /pʰ/	t /tʰ/			k /kʰ/
Affricate			c /ts/	ć /tɬ/
Spirant	voiceless	f /f/	þ /θ/			x /x/
	voiced	v /v/	ð /ð/
Nonspirant	voiceless		s /s/	ś /ɬ/				ħ /ħ/	h /h/
	voiced		z /z/
Approximant			r /ɹ/		y /j/		ȝ /ʁ~ʕ/

• /pʰ/ is found in loans and words derived from loans.
• /d/ is often a tap [ɾ] before a vowel.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i /i/	ü /y/	u /u/
Mid	e /e/	ö /ø/	o /o/
Open		a /a/

/y, ø/ are actually more accurately transcribed as /ʉ, ɵ/.

Morphology

Modern Netagin morphology is simpler than Classical Netagin. Verbs are simpler than nouns.

Nouns

Much of Classical Netagin noun morphology is preserved: nouns inflect for number and absolute and construct states, and may take possessive suffixes. Nouns have three principal parts: absolute singular, absolute plural and construct singular.

Adjectives

Adjectives in -in decline as follows:

nðoḡin 'Netagin'

	Singulative	Plurative
Masculine	nðoḡin	nðoḡino
Feminine	nðoḡiye	nðoḡiḇ

Verbs

Similar to Scottish Gaelic and Welsh, in using analytic constructions with auxiliaries and verbal nouns instead of conjugated verbs.

There are only two tenses: past and non-past.

Modern Netagin has an unusual form of split-ergativity in that ergativity marks tense in transitive clauses: When an ergative preposition is used, the clause is in the past tense; otherwise, it is in the non-past tense. This came about via the conflation of two prepositions să- 'in, at' and se3þe 'after' in an older split-ergative system. For intransitive clauses, the past tense is marked by an ergative preposition used on the subject, even though the subject is not syntactically ergative. Hence, Modern Netagin does not have genuine split-ergativity but rather a tensed pronoun system like Wolof.

Non-past

Se ʔaḏnaʔe rȝun ʔaxd.

PRED cook.VN vegetables NPST.1SG

I am cooking vegetables.

Past

Se ʔaḏnaʔe rȝun yix.

PRED cook.VN vegetables PST.1SG

I cooked vegetables.

Syntax

Unlike Classical Netagin, Modern Netagin is a VOS, split-ergative language.