abstract noun — A noun that's not concrete; it's not tied to the physical world or labeled with a possessive form every time you use it.

accent — The stress or emphasis that you place on a particular vowel or syllable of the word, sometimes noted with an accent mark, as in tuhúy "to rain."

adjective — A word like "large" or "young" that modifies or qualifies a noun.

adverb — A word that modifies the action of the verb in some way, such as "walk slowly," "live well," "get up early," "never say 'die'."

adverbial expression — An expression that functions like an adverb even if none of its parts are adverbs. Two adverbial expressions with kice are the Samala equivalent of the English adverbs "almost" and "nearly."

adverbial particle — A particle — a short word that doesn't take prefixes or suffixes and can't stand by itself — that modifies the action of the verb in some way, such as t'ini "still, yet."

ambiguity — The possibility of more than one interpretation or reading of a phrase or sentence.

ambiguous — Having more than one possible interpretation or reading.

article — A word that lets you know the next word or so is a noun; in English it can be the definite article "the" or the indefinite article "a" or "an."

aspirated — Meaning that a consonant is followed by a puff of breath, such as p, which is aspirated p.

aspiration — A puff of breath that may follow certain consonants, written with a raised h as in p. In Inezreño aspiration makes a difference in the meaning of words, such as p ' "to dip up" versus p "to play walnut dice."

aspiration, inherent — Aspiration that's always part of the word, not as a result of some sound rule creating it, as in o "to be good."

asterisk — The asterisk * in front of an incorrect word tells you that this is not the way to pronounce it or put the parts together. For example, *saha is an incorrect pronunication of sa "tooth."

barred I — A vowel halfway between Samala i and u, written with an "I" with a bar through it as . The closest approximation in English is the "oo" of "took."

borrowing — The process of taking a word from one language and using it in another, and also the word in question — Samala katu "cat" is a borrowing from Spanish "gato."

CV — A sequence of Consonant plus Vowel, in reduplications such as kokó'"father."

CVC — A sequence of Consonant Vowel Consonant, in reduplications such as šokšok "to wrinkle" and aqlamlam "to chew."

causative — Causing or making the action or condition of the verb to occur, marked by the prefix su-; the causative of atk "to get well" is satk "to cure."

closed syllable — A syllable that ends in with a consonant, including glottal stop; the consonant closes the syllable. The second syllable is closed in nowon "to stand," and both are closed in kexpe "I sing."

collective — An object or substance taken as the collective sum of its parts, such xasxas "beach" as the collective form of xas "sand."

consonant — A sound other than a vowel, involving some degree of closing down the airflow through your mouth, such as t, s, or n.

consonant cluster — A sequence of two or more consonants, either inherently part of the word, such as the xp of expe "to sing," or as a result of adding a prefix or suffix, such as the sk of s–kot "it breaks."

contraction — When two words are run together into something shorter and easier to pronounce, such as "don't" for "do not."

default — This is what you get (by default) if you don't make some other choice first or if no other condition applies first. The default position for the accent on Samala words is the second syllable from the end, as in lukúmel "to go straight."

default accent condition — The last of five accent conditions, telling you that if no other condition applies, then by default the accent goes on the second syllable from the end of the word.

deglottalization — When a glottalized sound loses its glottalization or a glottal stop at the end of a root is dropped when you add a suffix that starts with a consonant, as in s–tišik–waš štišikwaš "he recognized it."

demonstrative — A word that points to an object, making a distinction of "this" nearby and "that" further away.

demonstrative pronoun — A demonstrative pointing to "this" nearby and "that" further away which can stand in place of a noun — you could shorten "I see this page" to a pronoun form "I see this."

derivation — The process of turning a word from a verb into a noun or vice versa, usually done in Samala with suffixes such as –i to mean "having or characterized by the noun," as in nuyi "to be soiled, dirty" from nuy "dirt, grime."

derivative — A word that is made from or derived from a simpler and more basic word; for example o "to be wet" is a derivative of o "water" plus –i "having or characterized by."

devoicing — When you whisper, shutting down the vibration of the vocal cords.

direct object — The noun that tells you who or what the action is directed toward, who or what the subject of the verb is acting on, as in "I saw the dog."

double consonant — A sequence of two identical consonants, as in k–kuti "I see," which become one aspirated consonant — kuti.

dual — When the number of the verb subject is exactly two, marked in Samala by i-.

echo vowel — When a word ends with a vowel and glottal stop and it comes at the end of the phrase, the echo vowel is the same as the vowel before the glottal stop, but it's whispered and faint, as in yaa for ya "arrow." Such an echo vowel isn't written.

final — Last in the word; koko "father" has a final glottal stop.

first person — The person(s) speaking — "I" or "we" in English.

fricative — A set of sounds where you close down the flow of air so much that there's friction, such as s, , and h.

fronting — The process of switching a noun from its usual place after the verb and moving it to the front of the sentence for emphasis.

glottal stop — A catch in the throat from closure of the "glottis," the vocal cords, written in Samala with an apostrophe as .

glottalized — Meaning that a consonant is pronounced with an accompanying glottal stop, such as kor m.

glottalization — When some consonant is pronounced with a simultaneous glottal stop, giving it a popping or clicking sound. Written as before or after the consonant.

glottalization, inherent — Glottalization that's always part of the word, not as a result of some sound rule creating it, as in kot "to break."

idiomatic — Having a meaning that's different from the sum of the parts; "getting someone's goat" doesn't usually have anything to do with goats.

idiomatic reduplication — When the reduplicated form of the word has a different meaning than what you'd expect from the combination of the word plus reduplication, such as s–amn "its/his body" when reduplicated as samsamn meaning "naked."

indefinite subject — A third-person subject marked with s–am–; it avoids specifying a number singular, dual or plural and refers to some indefinite "they." It can also be translated with an English passive expression.

indirect object — The noun that tells you who or what benefits from the action of the verb, as in "hand it to me" or "he gives John a book."

inherent aspiration — Aspiration that's always part of the word, not as a result of some sound rule creating it, as in o "to be good."

inherent glottalization — Glottalization that's always part of the word, not as a result of some sound rule creating it, as in kot "to break."

inherent reduplication — Reduplication that always shows up with a particular word; okok "to wrinkle" never shows up as ok by itself.

internal reduplication — A form of reduplication that shows up in the middle of the word, such as pototon "to fall apart."

intransitive — When a verb refers to a condition or action that only the subject is involved in, with no object. For example, nan "to go" and we "to be asleep" are intransitive verbs in Samala.

initial — A sound that comes at the beginning of the word, or a word that comes at the beginning of the phrase or sentence.

liquid — A set of sounds that flow with no friction, perhaps just a humming sound, such as w, y, m, n, and l.

loan word — A word taken from one language and used in another language; for example Spanish "caballo" shows up as the Samala loan kawayu "horse."

middle prefixes — Prefixes that are sandwiched between the outer prefixes (which end with the number markers iš– and iy–) and the verb root. The causative marker su- is an example of a middle prefix.

minimal pair — A pair of words that mean two different things and differ only by one sound, such as nono "grandfather" versus nono "a lot."

modifier — A word that modifies a noun, such as  waha "many," or describes the action of the verb in some way, such as "look now," "live well," "get up early," "never say 'die."

non-initial — A sound that comes anywhere except at the beginning of a word, or a word that comes anywhere except at the beginning of the phrase or sentence — hi is a particle that introduces many words in non-initial position, such as nouns, verbs and adverbs.

non-singular — The dual and plural lumped together as "two or more," as in object suffixes or the suffix -wun.

noun — A word that stands for a "person, place or thing," actually any creature, plant, object, substance, or concept.

number — How many something is — with verb subjects Samala sometimes distinguishes three numbers with singular, dual and plural, otherwise it distinguishes singular and plural.

number marker — One of the prefixes that tell you number is dual or plural for the subject of the verb or the possessor of the noun.

object — Who or what the action of the verb is directed to, as in "I see the dog."

object noun — A noun that spells out who or what the object of the verb is, the person or thing that the action of the verb is directed toward.

object suffix — A suffix you add to the verb to indicate who or what the object of the verb is; it's in the form of a pronoun such as "me," "us," or "them."

offglide — A w or y that follows a full vowel, gliding off from the vowel to a sound that's halfway between a consonant and a vowel, such as aw and oy.

open syllable — A syllable that ends in a vowel. Both syllables are open in kimi "to repeat, do again."

outer prefixes — Any of the prefixes that come first in the sequence of prefixes that you can add to the verb root, including future no- and person and number markers.

output form — The word or phrase as you actually say it after you've applied various sound rules, indicated with an arrow; with k-kuti nokuti "I'll see," nokuti is the output form.

paired nouns — Two nouns that are strung together for a more thorough description of what you're talking about, so that the second noun tells you what the first noun is like or what it's made of, etc., as in ma k–su–wayan ha taya "my abalone earring."

part of speech — A type of word depending on how it fits into the sentence; noun, verb and adjective are major parts of speech; particle is a major part of speech in Samala.

particle — A short word that isn't a noun or verb, doesn't take any prefixes or suffixes, and can't stand by itself without some other word in the phrase.

passive — An English expression that turns the verb around to make the object into the subject and skips or plays down the original subject. "A canoe was built by two men" is the passive version of "two men built a canoe."

person — A distinction of into first person — the person speaking; second person — the person being spoken to, and third person — the person being spoken about.

person marker — One of the verb prefixes that tell you what person the subject of the sentence is, such as k– for "I" in kalpat "I run".

place noun — A noun that tells where the action takes place. For example, "the valley" is used as a place noun in "I live in the valley." In Samala "in" and "at" and "on" are often implied rather than spelled out.

plural — When the number of the verb subject is three or more, marked in Samala by iy–, and otherwise when number is two or more.

plural marker — A way of marking nouns as plural, either with reduplication or the suffix –u'n.

possessed noun — A noun that has one of the usual possessive markers, such as k– for "my" or s– for "his/her." It often shows up in a phrase with a possessor noun — the possessed noun in the phrase "the man's father" is "father."

possessive — Referring to who owns the noun or stands in some relation to it, such as "my" or "his."

possessive marker — In Samala, one of the prefixes that tell you who owns or possesses the noun, such as p- for "your" in ma pwop "your son."

possessive phrase — Two nouns together, with one the possessor and the other the possessed, as in ma sap ha wot "the house of the chief."

possessor noun — A noun that tells you who or what possesses or stands in some relation to the possessed noun; the possessor noun in the phrase "the man's father" is "the man."

prefix — A part of the word that comes before the root, such as "unwind." There are outer and middle prefixes, which line up in front of the verb root in order.

prefixed material — Al the kinds of prefixes that show up with inherently reduplicated roots sometimes with a reasonably clear meaning as well as items that seem to show up a few times with no particular common meaning.

process — A pattern that you follow in putting words together; for example, CVC reduplication is a process that you perform on nouns to make plurals, while with inherently reduplicated words you're not doing anything to the word, the reduplication just is.

productive — When you can use a process like reduplication or various prefixes and suffixes like ini– or –wun with lots of different roots; they have a clear meaning and you can use them with many different words.

pronoun — A word that stands for (pro-) a noun; object pronouns in English include "me," "you," "him," "her," "it," "us," and "them."

quantifier — Tells you something about how many or how much you're dealing with. One of the most common Samala quantifiers is yila "all, every, everything."

question word — A word that asks a question that requires an answer more specific than "yes" or "no," such as kune "who."

reduplication — When you repeat part or all of a word, reduplicating various sound sequences such as okok "to wrinkle" or wuluwul "lobster."

reduplication, inherent — Reduplication that always shows up with a particular word; okok "to wrinkle" never shows up as ok by itself.

relative form — A form of the verb that's equivalent to a relative phrase; it straddles the boundary between noun and verb. Relative forms are marked with the relative prefix  al-. Also called a "what" form.

relative phrase — A phrase that relates back to the noun it follows, such as "the man who passed by" or "the arrow that went straight."

relative prefix — The prefix  al-, which tells you the following verb is a relative form, as in ma–al–nan manan "one who goes."

root — The core of the word, the foundation that all other parts are added to.

second person — The person or persons being spoken to — "you" or "you all" in English.

sibilant — A sound with a hissing or whistling quality, in Samala s, c, and .

sibilant harmony — Having all the sibilants in a word match, all being either "hissing" s and c or "hushing" and .

singular — When the number is one, for example "child" as opposed to "children," or "I" as opposed to "we."

specialization — When a general meaning is narrowed down to something more specific; su–wayan in the sense of "earring" is a specialization of su–wayan, "to cause to hang."

stop — A set of sounds where you completely shut off the flow of air through your mouth for a moment, such as p, t, and k.

stuck-in sound — A sound that sound rules stick in to keep two vowels apart or to keep certain consonants apart.

subject — Who or what is doing the action that the verb describes, as in "she is running" or "my grandfather is old."

subject noun — A noun that spells out who or what the subject of the verb is. The subject is the person or thing that is doing or being whatever action or condition the verb describes.

subject-object ambiguity — When a sentence has a third-person verb (marked with s-) and you could read a noun in this sentence as either subject or object of the verb.

suffix — A piece of the word that comes after the root, adding information or modifying the root in some way. Suffixes in English include the -s of "houses" and the -ed of "waited."

syllable — The peaks or pulses of the flow of speech, always including a vowel and usually including one or more consonants. "Wait" is one syllable and "waiting" is two.

third person — The person(s) being spoken about — "he," "she," "it," and "they" in English.

time noun — A noun that tells you when the action takes place, such as "three years" in "he's been there three years."

transitive — When a verb refers to an action directed toward some person or thing as the object. For example, kuti "to see" and uqal "to open" are transitive verbs whose action is directed toward some object that you can spell out.

underlying form — The basic form of the word, its foundation; hyphens set off the various parts that make up the word;  no–k–iy–kuti  is the underlying form of nokikuti "we'll see."

VC — A sequence of Vowel Consonant in reduplications such as osos "heel."

verb — A word that stands for an action or condition — "to run" or "to be."

verbless sentence — A sentence that doesn't have the verb "to be" or any other verb; the verb "to be" is implied but not spelled out, as in suku heki "what [is] that?"

vowel — A set of sounds that include a, e, i, , o and u in Samala. You can draw them out; they carry the pitch and loudness of your voice.

"what" form — A form of the verb with the prefix  al–, meaning "one who is or does" what the verb describes, as in ma–al–nan manan "one who goes," or "what one does," as in  ma–k–al–ip "what I say." Also called a "relative phrase."