Noun Morphology

Nouns in the Baiso language are inflected for number.^[2]

In order to inflect a noun for number, suffixes need to be added to the noun in question. The suffixes differ depending on whether it is singulative, paucal, or plural.^[2]

To make a noun singulative, one adds the suffixes -titi or -ti to the noun stem. ^[2] However, this alone does not indicate definiteness or indefiniteness. Heleeltiti, for instance, means both 'the woman' and 'a woman'. By additionally adding a specific demonstrative pronoun or koo, one can clearly indicate (in-)definiteness: heleeltiti hasse emette ('the woman came'.) or heleeltiti koo emette ('a woman came').^[2]

The plural is formed in a more complex way. Even though most commonly the plural is indicated by suffixes, other possibilities are reduplication, internal modification and vowel deletion.^[2]

Consonants

The consonants of the Baiso language have a lot in common with other (Lowland) East Cushitic languages. It has a consonant inventory of 28 consonants in total, which can be seen in the following table: ^[3][2]

Even though the consonant phonemes /p/, /h/, and /z/ appear in the table above, there is uncertainty about whether they really are part of the Baiso consonant inventory.^[2]

Generally, however, Baiso consonants can be separated into eight different categories according to their manner of articulation: plosive stops, implosive stops, ejectives, fricatives, affricates, nasals, liquids and glides/approximants. Additionally, they are categorized according to six different places of articulation: bilabial, labiodental, alveolar, palatal, velar, and glottal.^[2]

The nasal implosives /m"/ and /n"/ are specific to the Baiso language. They do not appear in any other Cushitic language.^[2]

Vowels

In regards to the vowel inventory, Baiso shares another similarity with most Cushitic languages. It has five short vowels and five contrastive long vowels, as can be seen in the table below.^[2]

Vowel length plays an important role in Baiso as it clearly distinguishes one word from another. For instance, while the word ken means 'five' in English, substituting the vowel /e/ with an /e:/ turns it into keen meaning 'leave!'.^[2]