Inich Nenen

The Inich Nenen language (i-nich nenen 'this language of ours') is a fluid-S language.

Phonology

Consonants

	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal	m	n	ɲ
Stop	p	t	tʃ	k
Fricative	f	s	ʃ ~ x
Liquid	w	r	j
Lateral		l

• /w j k x/ are written u i c ch.
• /tʃ/ is written ce or ci, as appropriate (inceuch /intʃux/ 'nose.pl'). Similarly, /ɲ/ is ne or ni (ineus /iɲeus ~ iɲus/ 'to taste sweet')

Vowels

Monophthongs

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Mid	e	ə	o
Low		a

• /ə/ is written ao.

Diphthongs

	Front	Central	Back
Mid	ei eu	əi əu	oi
Low		ai au

• /əi əu/ are written aoi aou.

Syllable structure

The maximal syllable is CCVC. Initial clusters are limited to the following options:

• Nasal + stop
• Obstruent + liquid
• Any single consonant + /w j/

Allophony

• Stops voice between two voiced sounds: asipmom [asibmom] 'guild', nentin [nendin] 'to celebrate', prite [pride] 'smallpox'.
• /n k x/ palatalize to [ɲ tʃ ʃ] before front vowels and /j/: chis [ʃis] 'thumb', enceus [endʒeus ~ endʒus] 'penance', enen [eɲen] 'camel.pl'.
• Following a palatal consonant, the distinction between u and eu is neutralized; in this environment these phonemes are in free variation.

Morphosyntax

Pronouns

Personal pronouns

	1SG	1DU	1PL		2SG	2DU	2PL	3SG	3DU	3PL
			incl	excl
NOM	sien	siaoinca	siaoien	siaoiecris	liri	litlao	litluris	lao	laocao	laocris
ABS	cochuen	cochuaoinca	cochuenen	cochuaoicris	ceunci	ceuclao	ceucluris	coche	concao	cochecris
POSS	nen	nencao	nenen	necris	sui	suao	suris	iao	icao	iaocris
DAT	ien	iaoinca	iaoien	iaoiecris	aiti	aitlao	aitluris	ao	aocao	aocris
ACC	onuen	onuaoinca	onuaoien	onuaoicris	ori	otlao	orluris	one	oncao	onecris

Nouns

The noun template

The noun complex in Inich Nenen is simple in theory but complicated by morphophonetic processes:

-2	-1	±0	+1
case	possessum	root	plural

Case

Nouns have one of five cases: Nominative, absolutive, possessor, dative, and accusative.

NOM	before consonants	li-
	before vowels	si-
ABS	before /m/ and /x/	ceunS-¹
	before liquids	caoch-
	before obstruents	ceun-
	before vowels and /n/	ceunt-
POSS		Ø-
DAT	before vowels	<e>-²
	before consonants	a-
ACC	before /r/	ot-
	before /l/	aon-³
	before vowels	ond-
	else	on-³

1. The prefix ceunS- causes a following consonant to fortite, the sequence becoming a prenasalized stop.
2. Overrides following vowel, replacing it with e.
3. A following ph, s, ch, or l is deleted.

Possession

The possession marker, the sole possible inhabitant of slot -1, almost invariably surfaces as -i-. This -i- lowers to -e- immediately following another instance of i.

i- 'poss' + chich 'arrow' > ichich 'arrow (possessed)' (e.g. ichich iao 'his arrow')