-ah

• -a, (Urban) -è

Compare dialectal Balinese -a (demonstrative suffix) and Makasar -a (definite marker).

• IPA^(key): /a(h)/
  • IPA^(key): [ah]
  • IPA^(key): [a]
  • (Urban) IPA^(key): [ɛ]

-ah

1. used to mark definiteness

   Synonym: -nya

   atepah ― the roof

   tetungkedah ― the stick

   leliatanah ― it seems that...

This suffix is found sporadically, mostly in rural villages but also sometimes in the urban core. In varieties that have it, it is in allomorphy with definite marker -nya (not to be confused with possessive -nya), which is typically used after vowels.^[1]

• IPA^(key): /aʔ/

-ah

1. Turns an interrogative pronoun into an unspecified pronoun. Equivalent to "some-" in "somewhere" and "something".

This suffix shortens the long vowel on all pronouns except for tleh, which it combines with irregularly.

• IPA^(key): /ˈah/ [ˈah]

-ah

1. (nonstandard) alternative form of -lah
   • 2014 May 5, @emmmmmmyyylia, Twitter‎^[1] (post), archived from the original on 7-2-2026:

     Pls lah janganah mintak yg pelik pelik

     Please don't ask for anything weird.

From Proto-Kuki-Chin *ʔaʔ (locative marker).

-ah

1. Locative case suffix.

   ‎thubuai (“case”) + ‎-ah → ‎thubuaiah (“in the case”)

   ‎Mizoram + ‎-ah → ‎Mizoramah (“in Mizoram”)

   ‎English August + ‎-ah → ‎August-ah (“in August”)

• This suffix is spelled with a hyphen after foreign words but with no hyphen after native words.

• IPA^(key): [-à(h)]

-ah

1. Used to form diminutive nouns.

• Follows the possessive suffix, which is realised as a high tone on the preceding syllable:

  ‎mbeh (“knife”) + ‎-ah → ‎mbehah (“little knife”)

  ‎sembehé (“my knife”) + ‎-ah → ‎sembéhah (“my little knife”)

• Keren Rice (1989), A Grammar of Slave, Berlin, West Germany: Mouton de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 241