House / building
ụnọ / ụlọ / ụyọ
ụnọ · High–Low
N/L/Y shared body
The structure of the script
How Ndebe Works
Build a syllable from its parts, read its tone, and see how the numbers fit together.
Syllables
Ńdébé represents syllables. In a consonant–vowel syllable, the stem and radical form the consonant body, and the vowel marker sits on the connecting branch above it. The marker tells you both the vowel and its tone.
There are 6 stems and 7 radicals. Their combinations make 42 consonant bodies. Nine vowels each have three tone forms: high, mid and low, giving 27 vowel markers.
Start with the stem for B
Add the radical for B
B body + vowel on top
Add high-tone a: bá
The dotted shapes are teaching placeholders: a tall rectangle for a stem, a small square for a radical, and a horizontal rectangle for a vowel. They show where a component belongs.
bá · high
ba · mid
bà · low
A vowel on its own
A vowel that forms its own syllable uses its standalone form. The extra dot beneath distinguishes it from a vowel attached to a consonant body.
Standalone high-tone a
The vowel above a consonant body
One word, different dialects
The same word can sound different across dialects and still mean exactly the same thing. Use a shared consonant body for the syllable that changes. For example, ụnọ, ụlọ and ụyọ all mean house or building: their alternating consonant uses the N/L/Y body.
A shared body belongs to a known correspondence in a word. It does not mean that its sounds can be exchanged in every word. Use a static body when the consonant stays the same across dialects, as in the hard G of ga, walk.
Each card writes the bold headword in Ńdébé and lists its related pronunciations. Where vowels differ, as in anị and ala, the written example keeps the headword’s vowels.
Face
iru / ihu
iru · High–High
R/H shared body
Market
afịa / ahịa
afịa · High throughout
F/H/SH shared body
Bush
ọfịa / ọhịa / ọshịa
ọfịa · High throughout
F/H/SH shared body
Head
ịsị / ịshị
ịsị · High–High
S/SH shared body
Working tone
Name
afa / aha
afa · High–Low
F/H/SH shared body
Water
mili / miri
mili · High–Mid
L/R shared body
Earth / ground
anị / ala / ana
anị · Low–Low
N/L/Y shared body
Walk
ga
ga · High
Static G body
War
agha / aya
agha · High–High
Y/GH shared body
Confusion / lawlessness
àghalā / àyalā
aghala · Low–High–Mid
Y/GH shared body
Final L uses the static-form fallback
Deceit
aghụ̀ghọ̀ / awụ̀wọ̀
aghụghọ · High–Low–Low
W/GH shared body
If you are unsure
Look the word up in several dictionaries. If you cannot establish its alternating forms, use the static form of the sound you use in your own pronunciation.
Find the tone too
The consonant is only part of the spelling. Choose the vowel’s tone as well. A dictionary’s step tone uses the Ńdébé Mid form. These examples use working citation tones; tone can change in a phrase.
The tone for ịsị is provisionally taken from a documented isi form. We will refine working examples as more evidence becomes available.
Tone changes meaning
The same consonants and vowels can make different words when their tones change. Here, keep a–kw–a and change only the tones. Listen for both tones when learning each word.
Crying
ákwá · High–High
Cloth
ákwà · High–Low
Egg
àkwá · Low–High
Bed / bridge
àkwà · Low–Low
These are citation forms from the dictionary. Tone can change when a word appears in a phrase.
N / M is Special
N/M can form a syllable without an accompanying vowel. This syllabic nasal carries its own tone and uses one of three standalone forms. It does not go on top of a consonant body like a vowel marker.
N/M · high
N/M · mid
N/M · low
The first form is a standalone high-tone N/M. The second is si: an S body with high-tone i. There is no extra vowel after the initial n.
These three N/M forms are additional to the 27 vowel markers. When n or m is the consonant of a consonant–vowel syllable, use the appropriate consonant body with its vowel above.
Numbers
Ńdébé numbers use base 20, with a sub-base of 5. There are 20 digits, from 0 to 19. Larger numbers use place value; each place to the left is worth twenty times the one beside it.
Twenty digits from a small set of forms
Within a digit, the body contributes 0–4 and a flag contributes 0, 5, 10 or 15. Adding a flag to the bodies for 1–4 gives 6–9, 11–14 and 16–19. The digits 5, 10 and 15 have a plain body with no extra units.
Flag: 5
Body: 1
Complete digit: 6
5 + 1 = 6
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
Place value beyond nineteen
The places are ones, twenties, four hundreds, eight thousands, and so on. Zero holds an empty place. The examples below give each value in decimal.
3 zero places
4 zero places
5 zero places
For addition, five body units become a flag worth five. Four such flags make twenty: carry one into the next place. Subtraction reverses these exchanges.
Fractions
The vigesimal point separates whole numbers from fractional places. To its right, the places are twentieths, four-hundredths, eight-thousandths, and so on.
Punctuation and elision
Use spaces or the interpunct word separator to separate words. Single and double quotation marks have opening and closing forms.
Nzobe marks vowel elision. In typed text, it comes after the stem and radical and before the surviving vowel. The font combines these into the appropriate form.
nà + ànị̀
n’ànị̀ · on the ground
The first a is swallowed. The second, surviving low-tone a carries the nzobe form, showing that it hides the earlier vowel. The final vowel is ị, the dot-below vowel, with low tone.
A full stop ends a sentence. The numeral markers have separate roles: the decimal marker has one low dot, and the vigesimal marker has two low stacked dots. When typing, Period after a numeral inserts the vigesimal marker; use the explicit Full stop control to end a sentence after a number.