Hek'a

[Travis B.]

This is a new conlang which I will be scratchpading, because my previous one failed to be sufficiently interesting for me to do much more work on for now.

The language is centered around noun classes, which is marked on verbs to indicate their arguments and on nouns to indicate their possessors. Furthermore, there will be 1st and 2nd person argument markers that take the place of noun class markers on the verb. This is used to mark arguments, so word order is free to mark topicality.

For starters, to get it over with, here is the phoneme inventory (and orthography):

Consonants:

	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	m	n
Voiced plosive	b	d dz ⟨d j⟩		g
Implosive	ɓ ⟨b'⟩	ɗ ⟨d'⟩
Aspirated plosive	pʰ ⟨p⟩	tʰ tsʰ ⟨t c⟩		kʰ ⟨k⟩	qʰ ⟨q⟩
Glottalized plosive	pʼ ⟨p'⟩	tʼ tsʼ ⟨t' c'⟩		kʼ ⟨k'⟩	qʼ ⟨q'⟩	ʔ ⟨'/∅⟩
Voiced fricative		z		ɣ ⟨h⟩
Voiceless fricative	f	s			χ ⟨x⟩
Liquids		r l
Semivowels	w		j ⟨y⟩

Note that /ʔ/ is omitted orthographically initially, but is written as ⟨'⟩ between vowels.

Vowels:

Short:

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid		ə ⟨e⟩
Open		a

Long:

	Front	Central	Back
Close	iː ⟨ii⟩		uː ⟨uu⟩
Mid
Open		aː ⟨aa⟩

Syllable structure is simple: All syllables are either CV, CVC, or CVː, with consonant geminates being permitted between syllables when the preceding vowel is short.

Stress falls on the leftmost heaviest syllable of the last three syllables of a word.

Okay, getting on to nominal morphology:

Nouns take the following template:

stem-number (pl. -ye)-(possessor class/number)

Nouns are not marked for case and do not take adpositions. However, they can be possess relational nouns, which take many of the roles of adpositions.

A preliminary list of noun classes are as follows (forms before slashes are after short vowels, otherwise forms after slashes are found):

Class	Sg. marker	Pl. marker	Description
1	hu	la	First person
2	w/wi	wu	Second person
3	n/ne	da	Male humans
4	t/ta	muu	Female humans
5	r/re	n/ni	Higher animals/younger humans/insulting
6	pa	q'a	Lower animals/living things/insulting
7	c/ce	n/na	Flat things
8	m/ma	t'u	Bulky/round things
9	ja	bii	Long/tall things
10	ri	ra	Edible things
11	we	xa	Water, fire, weather, other natural phenomena
12	l/le	lu	Places
13	ga	b'e	Assorted things
14	h/he	haa	Verbal nouns

Verbal morphology is a bit more complex. Finite verbs have the following template:

stem-(voice)-(aspect)-(tense)-absolutive class/number-(ergative class/number)-(causative class/number)-[oblique type marker-oblique class/number]

The voice markers are:

Voice	Marker
active	∅
antipassive	ya
causative	maa
reflexive	te
reciprocal	ci

The aspect markers are:

Aspect	Marker
imperfective	∅
habitual	re
retrospective	ka
prospective	ni
perfective	ha

The tense markers are:

Tense	Marker
non-past	∅
past	m(e)

The oblique markers are:

Oblique	Marker
dative	d(e)
instrumental	s(e)
comitative	ki
locative	d'u
allative	n(u)
ablative	(a)w

[Pabappa]

I like it. So you mention that some of the noun classes can be used for insults ... when this happens, do you take a stem and switch the prefix, or are there wholly separate roots that go into those classes? e.g. if the word for boy is /nepula/, would /papula/ be a boy you dont care for?

____
edit: ah, i should have read the post more thoroughly. tbh, I was going to ask why you needed both a plural affix and separate singular and plural forms for the classifiers, but i figured it was deliberate redundancy like many IE languages have.

[Kuchigakatai]

I like it. So you mention that some of the noun classes can be used for insults ... when this happens, do you take a stem and switch the prefix, or are there wholly separate roots that go into those classes? e.g. if the word for boy is /nepula/, would /papula/ be a boy you dont care for?

Nouns have the template "stem (+ plural suffix) (+ possessor suffix)". So *pula 'boy' would be pula 'boy', pulaye 'boys', pulahu 'my boy', pulayet(a) 'her boys', etc.

I really like that Travis chose to go in another direction than Bantu. Classes are not marked as part of nouns, and relational nouns have the opposite relationship of the stereotype ("table of top" instead of "top of table")—that's definitely one unusual way to get around not having adpositions...

[Travis B.]

I like it. So you mention that some of the noun classes can be used for insults ... when this happens, do you take a stem and switch the prefix, or are there wholly separate roots that go into those classes? e.g. if the word for boy is /nepula/, would /papula/ be a boy you dont care for?

Nouns have the template "stem (+ plural suffix) (+ possessor suffix)". So *pula 'boy' would be pula 'boy', pulaye 'boys', pulahu 'my boy', pulayet(a) 'her boys', etc.

I really like that Travis chose to go in another direction than Bantu. Classes are not marked as part of nouns, and relational nouns have the opposite relationship of the stereotype ("table of top" instead of "top of table")—that's definitely one unusual way to get around not having adpositions...

I think you either misread that or I miswrote that - the possession with relational nouns is conventional, i.e. the relational noun is possessed by its referent. But yes, nouns do not mark their own noun class.

Note that "insulting" usages do not change the noun, just the noun class used to refer to them. Note however that one can use them to refer to oneself (i.e. calling oneself "your slave" in class 6) to show deference.

[Xwtek]

I wonder why do you consider the first person and the second person as a noun class?

[Travis B.]

I wonder why do you consider the first person and the second person as a noun class?

They are not noun classes per se, but they function similarly in that they are marked in the same places as noun classes, i.e. on verbs as arguments and on nouns as possessors, and they are combined with number.

[Travis B.]

As for adjectives, which I have not mentioned so far, they are highly verb-like, forming relative clauses with the nouns they describe, with the exception that they can only be of imperfective aspect when in the active voice and the only other voice they can form is the causative voice, where then they behave like normal causative verbs. Note that adjectives can take multiple arguments like other verbs.

The word order of relative clauses is O V S, and the overall word order is S O V, unless O is topicalized, outside of relative clauses. The word order of nouns and their posessors is posessor-possessum. In auxiliary verb-main verb constructions, the word order is Main Aux.

Verbs can be nominalized in a variety of fashions. All nominalized verbs are not marked for tense and can only be marked for imperfective or perfective aspect. Nominalized verbs do not have ordinary verb argument markers but rather have a nominalization marker in their place, after which (for some kinds of nominalizations) a plural marker may be placed, and any argument is marked as a possessor after that.

[Travis B.]

The nominalization markers are:

Nominalization	Marker
agent	t(e)
patient	n(e)
recipient	re
instrument	(i)m
location	laa
gerund	me

[Travis B.]

Optional vowels in affixes take the following basic rules: Optional vowels at the ends of morphemes are only present if the preceding morpheme ended in something other than a short vowel. Optional vowels at the starts of morphemes are present unless the preceding morpheme ended in a vowel. These rules are applied starting at the beginning of a word and then to the end of the word.

[Travis B.]

There is the following affix on end of a finite verb in a clause which serves as a complementizer, in effect allowing a clause to be treated as a class 14 noun within the outside clause:

Function	Morpheme
complementizer	ka

There are the following impersonal verbs whose sole argument is a clause with a complementizer which serve an array of modal functions:

Function	Verb
negative	ye
prohibitive	sa
ability	ca
possibility	nin
obligation	du
necessity	waa

[Travis B.]

There are some adverbs, which directly precede a given verb that they modify :

Meaning	Adverb
back	k'i
again	zu
now	he
yesterday	nay
today	le
tomorrow, in the morning	saw
in the afternoon	qat
in the evening	caa
at night	xan

[Travis B.]

Juu padb'eka yeh liye qaw waheb'ewedne.
sky.11 count-13P-COMP NEG-14S thing.13-P humankind.3 provide-13P-11S-DAT-3S

Juu k'i hingadwe mega li qaw ragadne yeh.
sky.11 back pay-13S-DAT-11S any-13S thing.13 humankind.3 exist-13S-DAT-3S NEG-14S

[Travis B.]

Locative relationships between different nouns are expressed through one noun being possessed by a relational noun which in turn is possessed by the location noun. It should be noted that up to two separate possessors can be marked on the same noun, and in this case, the possessing relational noun is marked last.

On the subject of relational nouns, here are some of them:

Relation (body part)	Stem	Class
front (front)	faa	9
back (back)	d'u	7
top (head)	gak	8
bottom (buttocks)	sih	8
surface (skin)	awa	7
inside (stomach)	ite	13
middle (heart)	t'uw	8

Note that relational nouns can be strung together to express more complex meanings, such as in:

Wera fik'e faama t'uwja racd'um.
window.7 house.8 front.9-8S middle.8-9S exist-7S-LOC-8S
"There is a window on the middle of the front of the house."

[Travis B.]

One note is that nominalized clauses referred to by impersonal verbs can take relativized argument, in a roundabout fashion. In these cases, there is no subject in the nominalized clause, and rather the verb therein agrees with a noun which the impersonal verb precedes, while the impersonal verb agrees with the nominalized clause.

Any argument of a verb may be relativized, simply omitting it and having an noun class/number marker for that argument which agrees with a noun following the verb (and not necessarily even immediately following it either).

[Travis B.]

Hek'a also has demonstratives, of the following form:

	Singular	Plural
Proximal	ku	kaw
Distal	yu	yit

These morphemes have the noun class/number marker of their referent suffixed to them in normal usage, and are agreed with by the noun class/number marker of their referent.

To disambiguate multiple nouns with the same noun class/number which are marked on the verb, when there is an ambiguity, normally the argument marked closer to the start of the verb is located closer to the start of the clause.

Nouns (other than first and second persons) referred to by verb agreement markers or nominal possession markers have to refer to some noun somewhere; demonstratives are used as placeholders to refer to otherwise omitted nouns.

Aside from the standalone usage of demonstratives, they may be used together with nouns by placing the demonstrative directly after the noun to which it refers.

[Travis B.]

Numbers are somewhat complex.

There are the following basic numbers:

Number	Stem
one	wal
two	het
five	naa
ten	lew
twenty	ru
hundred	ima
ten thousand	aq'e

Other numbers are built by adding numbers together with le "and" being placed between then, with greater numbers coming first, numbers greater than twenty being multiplied by placing their multipliers directly before them, "three" and "four" being formed with naa "five" being followed by gi "minus" and then by either het "two" or wal "one" respectively, "eight" and "nine" being formed with lew "ten" being followed by gi "minus" and then by either het "two" or wal "one" respectively, and "eighteen" and "nineteen" being formed with lew "ten" being followed by gi "minus" and then by either het "two" or wal "one" respectively.

For instance, 2019 is:

ru ima le ru gi wal
twenty hundred and twenty minus one

Numbers one and two, and numbers formed with wal "one" or het "two" as their final components agree with their referents, which if present in a clause come after them, with a postposed noun class/number marker. Other numbers are invariant.

When used as nouns, numbers either are the class/number of their referent, or are class 8 if they have no clear referent.

[Travis B.]

Copied to a later post.

[Travis B.]

Bumping this, because I might work on it more, even though bumping's really unnecessary.

[Travis B.]

Conjunctions in Hek'a are syntactically-speaking nouns which possess complementized clauses which precede them and which in turn are arguments to the main verb (which kind of argument they are depends on the particular conjunction).

Here are some conjunctions:

Conjunction	Stem	Class	Type
however	ley	13	ablative
before/in front of	faa	9	locative
after/behind	d'u	7	locative
when/at	mii	12	locative
for example	zu	8	instrumental
then	sew	9	allative
because	lune	13	comitative
instead of	cula	13	ablative

[Travis B.]

Comparative and superlative constructions without anything being compared to are formed with the following adverbs preceding the stative verbs in question:

Meaning	Adverb
comparative	ju
superlative	ci

When comparing with another noun, the noun being compared to follows the noun phrase containing ju and contains the following stative verb:

Meaning	Stative verb
comparing to	lak