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* n-ixuɛ̃ [ ˩ / ˩ \ ˩ ] “the Ɔxwahɛ of

* Ixuɛ̃”. It occurs also in a

* reduplicated form: nene [ ˥ ˦ ]

* which probably is more em-

* phatic, e.g. n-ɔʋ̃a [ ˥ (4-1) ] “the man

* (spoken of)”, nen-ɔʋ̃a [ ˥ ˦ (3-1) ] “that

* very man”. If a noun is re-

* peated with the ne placed be-

* tween the two repetitions, the

* meaning of the noun is aug-

* mented by the notion “big”, or

* “real, main, principal”, e.g.

* imazɛ y-ɔʋ̃a n-ɔʋ̃a-ɽe, amaw-

* uwɛ [ ˥ ˥ ˥ ˩ ˩ ˥ / ˩ ˥ ˩ \ ˩ ] (wɛ [ / ]) I do

* not mind a big (i.e. important)

* man, how much less you;

* inwina n-inwina‿inwina nɛ na

* [ ˩ ˩ ˩ \ ˩ ˩ ˥ ˩ ˥ / ˩ ] something like

* “this is a good job of work I

* did for him”. When preceding

* nouns expressing time like ɛdɛ

* [ ˩ ˥ ] “day”, ɛɣɛ [ ˩ ˩ ] “time”,

* ukpo [ ˩ ˥ ] “year”, it conveys

* the idea of “ago”, e.g. n-ɛdɛ

* [ \ ˥ ] or [ ˥ ˦ ] “in the old time”,

* “in the old days”, as in

* ɛkpo n-ɛdɛ ot-uwa na‿iherh-ũkpɔ̃

* [ ˥ ˥ ˦ ˧ ˩ ˥ / ˩ ˥ ˥ ˥ ˩ ] “in the old times

* your age-group did not yet wear

* cloth” (to a young boy); fur-

* ther: n-ukpo [ \ ˩ ] “last year”

* (cf. ukpo na [ ˩ ˥ ˩ ] or n-ukpo na

* “this year”), with the forms

* n-ɛkp-ia [ ˥ (4-1) ‿ / ] “two years ago”,

* lit. “three-years ago”, as the

* current year is included in

* the calculation, n-ɛkp-enɛ [ ˥ ˦ ˧ ]

* “three (lit. four) years ago”,

* n-ɛkp-isɛ̃ [ ˥ ˦ ˧ ] “four (lit. five)

* years ago”, etc.; v. n-ɛv- [ ˥ ],

* ɛɣɛ [ ˩ ˩ ], ɛdɛ [ ˩ ˥ ], nodɛ [ \ ˩ ].

* Finally, ne is often used in front

* of the ordinal numbers, e.g. in

* n-okao [ ˥ ˩ ] “the first”, n-ogieva

* [ ˥ ˩ ˩ ] “the second”, etc. which

* can also (without the exception
