Taamangku

Taamangku [ˈta:ˌmaŋku] is the language of the Taamamma (sg Taama). ‘’’’’More about the Taamamma to come’’’’’

ˌˈŋɣʃʧ

Phonology

Consonant Inventory

p	t	ch /ʧ/	k
b	d
	s	sh /ʃ/
v	z		gh /ɣ/
m	n		ng /ŋ/
w	l	j

Voiceless obstruents and nasals can be geminated. Gemination can be lexical, but is more often a result of morphology.

Allophony to come

Vowel Inventory

Short Vowels:

i		u
e		o
	a

Long Vowels:

ee /e:/		oo /o:/
	aa /a:/

Syllable Structure

Syllable structure in Taamangku is CV(:)(C). CV syllables are light, while CV:, CVC and CV:C syllables are heavy (there is no separate superheavy category).

Long vowels do not appear in word-final syllables, unless they are the only stressed syllable in the word: ˈCV:(C) or CV.ˈCV:(C).

Prosody

Words in Taamangku have left-to-right iambic stress, i.e., possible feet are (ˈH), (LˈH), and (LˈL). Final syllables are unstressed unless they are the only stressable syllable in the word: . The first stressed syllable is primary, while other stresses are secondary.

The minimal word is CV(:)C, i.e., there are no CV(:) words. Monosyllabic words are uncommon in Taamangku; disyllabic and trisyllabic words are by far the most common. Words of four syllables are longer are possible due to morphology but aren't as frequent.

Acoustic correlates of stress and intonation to come

Morphology

Nominal Morphology

Proclitics

Nouns' syntactic roles are marked by proclitics. These proclitics distinguish subjects and objects; the thematic role of subject and object depends on the verb.

The proclitics are also different depending on whether the noun precedes or follows the verb. Pre-verbal arguments are either topicalized or focused. Post-verbal arguments are often comments (in the topic/comment structure) or else generic/weakly referential. While topics and foci both precede the verb, they sit in different positions in the syntax. See the soon-to-be-filled-in Syntax section.

	Pre-verbal	Post-verbal
Subject	kuN=	liV=
Object	vaT=	paN=

All other nouns (i.e., neither subjects or objects) are marked with the proclitic [eV=], except in certain syntactic and phonological environments. To be described soon

The proclitic-final segments {N, V, T} could be thought of as morphophonemes. Their realization depends on the following segment, i.e., the beginning of the noun it attaches to. Here's how the final segments of the proclitics are realized:

- N becomes a homorganic nasal before plosives; [n] before a vowel; geminates following nasals; and is zero before fricatives and glides.

- V voices a following voiceless obstruent (/ʧ k ʃ/ -> [z ɣ z]); becomes [j] before a vowel; and is otherwise zero.

- T geminates following voiceless obstruents and nasals; geminates and devoices following voiced plosives; becomes [d] before a vowel; and is zero before voiced fricatives and glides.

Here's a few paradigms to illustrate:

/taama/ 'warrior, Taamangku endonym'

	Pre-verbal	Post-verbal
Subject	kun=taama	li=daama
Object	vat=taama	pan=taama
Other	e=daama

/sedaam/ 'terror bird'

	Pre-verbal	Post-verbal
Subject	ku=sedaam	li=zedaam
Object	vas=sedaam	pa=sedaam
Other	e=zedaam

/lezik/ 'cooking utensil' (generalized)

	Pre-verbal	Post-verbal
Subject	ku=lezik	li=lezik
Object	va=lezik	pa=lezik
Other	e=lezik

Pluralization

Several dozen animate nouns have separate plural forms. Other nouns do not distinguish plurality. Some example animate nouns with singular and plural forms are below:

	Singular	Plutal
person	pena	penaan
Taama person	taama	taamamma
terror bird	sedaam	sedaamam
sage	emis	emimmi
infant	sazap	sazappap
emissary	liliiba	liliibampa
nun	nena	nenaan