Consonants

Notes:

• Post-alveolar [t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ, ɲ] are palatalized versions of their alveolar counterparts [t, d, n] and occur when following a diphthong ending in high front vowel [i]. The [i] has been deleted in some cases, resulting in new minimal pairs contrasting alveolar and post-alveolar variants. The extent of this sound change differs between speakers and Robinson and Haan only consider [d͡ʒ] to have become a fully separate phoneme.^[2] Because it is the result of a process limited the syllable coda, this new phoneme only occurs syllable-finally.
• In certain dialects /l/ is deleted following a diphthong ending in [i].^[2]
• /g/ occurs in syllable-initial position, but the only cases in which it does syllable-finally are onomatopoeic forms.^[2]
• /s/ only occurs syllable-finally in loanwords.^[2]
• /f/ never occurs in syllable-final position.^[2]

Vowels

Diphthongs are /ai/, /oi/, /eu/, /au/ and /ou/. Vowel sequences that begin with a lax mid vowel (i.e. /ɔ/ or /ɛ/) cannot be diphthongs and are always disyllabic.^[2]

Phonotactics

Adang syllable structure is (C)V(C). V can either be a monophthong or a diphthong. C can be almost any consonant. Exceptions are /f/, which never occurs in syllable final position, and /d͡ʒ/, which only ever occurs in final position. /s/ and /g/ only occur syllable-finally in specific categories of words (i.e. loanwords and onomatopoeic words, resp.).^[2]

Syntax

Clauses in Adang are predicate-final: intransitive verbal predicates have Subject-Verb order and transitive predicates follow Agent-Patient-Verb order. In ditransitive constructions the theme precedes the recipient.^[2] Adang has accusative alignment.^[4] Some sentence examples:

A nominal predicate also follows the subject (note that Adang does not use a copula):

Negation

A clause is negated by placing negator nanɛ or nɛnɛ after the predicate. Besides nanɛ there are two negative particles: ʔɛ and haʔai. ʔɛ is used to limit the scope of negator nanɛ by placing ʔɛ in front of the negated element.^[2] In this case nanɛ must still succeed the predicate:

Nanɛ may also be used on its own for rules or general prohibitions. Alternatively, ʔɛ at the end of a clause expresses a negative imperative (without nanɛ). Compare:

To make a negative imperative more polite add haʔai to the beginning of the sentence. Lastly, the verb aʔai negates existence or possession.

Questions

Adang question words are anɔ ‘who’, naba ‘what’, tarɔ ‘where’, tarɔni ‘how/why’ and den ‘how many/when’. They remain in situ.^[2] Depending on whether they replace a subject or an object they can be followed by the subject focus marker so or the object focus marker fe.

Yes–no questions are distinguished from declarative sentences by rising intonation on the last syllable.^[2]

Determiners and demonstratives

A demonstrative or the definite determiner ho is placed at the end of the noun phrase. The demonstrative paradigm shows a distinction between proximal (hɔʔɔ) and distal, and distal demonstratives further distinguish between location above the speaker (hɛtɔ), below the speaker (hɛpɔ) and level with the speaker (hɛmɔ).^[2]

Possession

Nouns are divided into three classes according to their behavior concerning possession:^[2] the first class must with occur possessive pronominal prefixes at all times (inalienable), the second never occurs with possessive pronominal prefixes and instead uses independent possessive pronouns (alienable), and the third only occurs with possessive pronominal prefixes when possessed. The prefix sets of the first and third classes are different. Next to the independent possessive pronouns of alienable nouns, Adang has a set of contrastive possessive pronouns. These may occur before or without alienable pronouns, and also together with possessive prefixes. They can also occur without a possessed noun.

Attributes

Adang uses intransitive verbs to modify nouns, as it has no separate word class of adjectives. In the noun phrase they may occur before or after the classifier (CLF in noun phrase template above). Locative or directional verbs also occur in this position (see Location and direction).

Classifiers

Classifiers occur between a noun and a number larger than one. They classify nouns by their size, shape and flexibility, but some nouns may take different classifiers to gain different interpretations. Out of the many Adang classifiers, paʔ is the most common and is used for many different kinds of objects.

Other examples include pir (used for small, round objects), beh (flat, flexible objects) and ʔafail (small, rigid objects).^[2]

Subject pronouns

Subject pronouns are used for the subjects of transitive or intransitive verbs. They can be used to refer to any animate subject, human or non-human. Only in very limited circumstances can they refer to inanimate subjects.^[2]

Object pronouns

An object pronoun indicates the object of a transitive verb. Some verbs do not use object pronouns, but use prefixes instead (see Object prefixes). Object pronouns and object prefixes cannot co-occur. Supi can precede third person ʔari to make clear that it had plural meaning.^[2]

Numbered pronouns

A numbered pronoun is used when a pronoun is modified by a number greater than one or the question word den (‘how many?’). It can be used for both subjects and objects, either on its own or following a regular subject pronoun or object pronoun.^[2]

Alone pronouns

Alone pronouns refer to a person or a group of people doing something on their own. They can refer to the subject or the object of a clause. If an alone pronoun refers to a subject it may co-index a preceding argument, but this is not necessary. If it indicates an object it has to occur together with an object pronoun.^[2]

Pronominal prefixes

Valency-increasing prefixes

Serial verb constructions

Serial verb constructions are very common in Adang.^[2] Serial verb constructions consist of multiple verbs combined into a single predicate, and share arguments and features such as aspect and negation. Symmetrical serial verb constructions consist solely of verbs from open classes, while an SVC is asymmetrical when it contains one verb from a closed class, which must precede the other verb(s). Symmetrical SVCs describe a sequence of events or the manner of an event.

Asymmetrical serial verb constructions have several different uses, which are detailed below.

Location and direction

Verbs are also used to indicate direction or location, often in serial verb constructions.^[2] They cannot be intransitive, as they must have a subject and a location argument.

The verb lɛ ‘to, towards’ also forms a part of directional and locational compound verbs, for instance talɛ ‘up on’ and adaŋlɛ ‘away from the speaker toward the mountain’.

Locative deictics in Adang are considered to be verbs, because they can occur in serial verb constructions and modify nouns.^[2] Locative deictics distinguish between proximal (ʔɔŋ ‘here’), distal above the speaker (tɔŋ ‘there (above)’), distal level with the speaker (mɔŋ ‘there (level)’) and distal below the speaker (pɔŋ ‘there (below)’). Deictics may stand alone as predicates. Examples: