(what the h*ck is a scratchpad)
ka'ekala is spoken in the lorradine islands, which were created for a nationstates country several years ago (e: 14 years ago??? holy shit). the country's aesthetic is "tropical paradise pastiche" and i always sort of figured the language would basically sound like a polynesian language. well a couple of years ago i started working on it, and in the past month or so have finally made some progress beyond the phonology and orthography, including some good work this morning on noun phrases. so i'll use this thread to post thoughts and updates
the main influence is polynesian (specifically hawaiian, which i have an introductory textbook for), but also luiseño so it isn't just a complete hawaiian clone (luiseño is the traditional native language of the area i grew up in, and is also specifically helpful in being a mostly SOV model i can use to get some perspective outside of hawaiian, which is VSO). other influences taken from various sources. this is all a work in progress. do not taunt happy fun ball
Ka'ekala sketchbook
Re: Ka'ekala sketchbook
phonology
consonants: /p t k ʔ s l r j w m n ŋ/
primary stress is phonemic but only semi-predictable. (although writing this out reminds me i haven't made any minimal pairs yet for stress yet!) basically:
the native writing system was created in the 19th century and refined in the 20th. it's fundamentally a syllabary, with an acute-like diacritic for long vowels and separate glyphs for initial /s/ before a consonant and final /m n ŋ/. i've been thinking about changing those glyphs, as well as the second element in diphthongs, into diacritics rather than separate "top-level" glyphs, but i lost my font creator program crack so it'll have to wait. the romanization uses macrons for long vowels and <ng ' y> for /ŋ ʔ j/; everything else is written with its ipa value
consonants: /p t k ʔ s l r j w m n ŋ/
- /p t k ʔ s/ are often [b d g h z] intervocalically
- /r/ is always trilled word-initially after a pause, always [ɾ] in the cluster /sr/; in free variation elsewhere
- /w/ has "hard" (fricative) and "soft" (approximant) realizations ([β w] in northeastern dialects, [v ʋ] in southwestern dialects)
- pronounced hard ([β] or [v]): when deliberately enunciating; at onset of syllable with primary stress; at onset of syllable with secondary stress (usually); more common than soft pronunciation in non-stressed word initials
- pronounced soft ([v] or [ʋ]): in cluster /sw/
- in free variation otherwise
- short: /a e i o u/
- long: /aː eː iː oː uː/
- diphthongs: /ai ei oi ui au eu iu ou aːi eːi oːi uːi aːu eːu iːu oːu/
primary stress is phonemic but only semi-predictable. (although writing this out reminds me i haven't made any minimal pairs yet for stress yet!) basically:
- if one of the final two syllables has a long vowel and/or diphthong, that syllable receives stress; if they both do, the penultimate syllable is stressed
- if neither of the last two syllables has a long vowel or diphthong, but one of the two syllables begins with /ʔ/, the stress falls on the syllable before the /ʔ/, unless the /ʔ/ is the first sound in a two-syllable word in which case the first syllable is stressed
- if neither of the last two syllables has a long vowel, a diphthong, or a /ʔ/, but the word ends in a final nasal, the last syllable is stressed
the native writing system was created in the 19th century and refined in the 20th. it's fundamentally a syllabary, with an acute-like diacritic for long vowels and separate glyphs for initial /s/ before a consonant and final /m n ŋ/. i've been thinking about changing those glyphs, as well as the second element in diphthongs, into diacritics rather than separate "top-level" glyphs, but i lost my font creator program crack so it'll have to wait. the romanization uses macrons for long vowels and <ng ' y> for /ŋ ʔ j/; everything else is written with its ipa value
Re: Ka'ekala sketchbook
nominal morphology
ka'ekala has three "genders" or noun classes: sentient, animate, and inanimate
sometimes reduplication can also act as a sort of plural (kind of) (in a way); i will write about that later
personal pronouns
haven't gotten these figured out yet. but i do know i want the demonstratives to have a three-way split like hawaiian (where the equivalent of "this" refers to something within the speaker's reach, but the equivalent of "that" is split into two words, one referring to something out of the speaker's reach but in the listener's reach, and the other referring to something out of reach of both the speaker and the listener), and the so-called correlatives (someone/something, no one/nothing, etc.) to have the same sentient/animate/inanimate distinction as nouns and the personal pronouns
possession
i'll go into more detail when i post about nominal syntax but possession is indicated with a set of possessive prefixes attached to the noun, which agree with the possessor rather than the possessee. these correspond pretty straightforwardly with the personal pronouns:
ka'ekala has three "genders" or noun classes: sentient, animate, and inanimate
- sentient nouns are people or people-like entities (gods, ghosts, aliens). nouns referring to a body of people (committee, crowd, congregation, government, company, audience) are also sentient. for cultural reasons the sun and moon are also classified as sentient as well. inanimate nouns may be "converted" to sentient for poetic effect (e.g. "fate smiles upon us"), and in stories with talking animals these become sentient as well
- animate nouns are things that move: animals, vehicles, fire, water and any other liquids, bodies of water, wind, rain, snow, clouds, stars, the heart, and the lungs (no other body parts). any machine or device that moves under its own power or has (visible) parts that move without directly being touched or manipulated is also classed as animate (so e.g. a typewriter is animate, because the hammers are moving without you touching them directly, but a pair of scissors is not animate because you are physically moving both of the components yourself). because clocks and watches traditionally have moving hands, they are classified as animate even if they're digital (though other displays are not). units of time (minute, year, etc.) are also classified as animate
- inanimate nouns are everything else, including things that are alive but don't move such as plants or algae. verbal nouns and abstract concepts are also classified as inanimate
More: show
personal pronouns
- 'an: 1sg ("I")
- āna: 1du incl ("thou and I")
- ānau: 1pl incl ("ye and I")
- āne: 1pl excl ("me and him/her/all of them but not you")
- le'u: 2sg
- lēwa: 2pl
- teka: 3sg sentient
- teno: 3sg animate
- tero: 3sg inanimate
- tēkau: 3pl sentient
- tēnai: 3pl animate
- tērai: 3pl inanimate
haven't gotten these figured out yet. but i do know i want the demonstratives to have a three-way split like hawaiian (where the equivalent of "this" refers to something within the speaker's reach, but the equivalent of "that" is split into two words, one referring to something out of the speaker's reach but in the listener's reach, and the other referring to something out of reach of both the speaker and the listener), and the so-called correlatives (someone/something, no one/nothing, etc.) to have the same sentient/animate/inanimate distinction as nouns and the personal pronouns
possession
i'll go into more detail when i post about nominal syntax but possession is indicated with a set of possessive prefixes attached to the noun, which agree with the possessor rather than the possessee. these correspond pretty straightforwardly with the personal pronouns:
pronoun | 'an | āna | ānau | āne | le'u | lēwa | teka | teno | tero | tēkau | tēnai | tērai |
possessive prefix | 'alu- | nalu- | naulu- | nelu- | 'ulu- | walu- | kalu- | nolu- | rolu- | kaulu- | nailu- | railu- |
Re: Ka'ekala sketchbook
nominal syntax
sentence-level noun phrase
idk if there's a "correct" term for this but what i mean is "top-level" noun phrases, that aren't embedded in some other phrase. they are constructed as follows:
one thing to note with all of this is that plurality is optional to indicate, and if it is indicated with a number word the noun cannot carry a plural suffix
embedded noun phrases
the measure word and possessor noun are embedded noun phrases, which are structured the same as the basic noun phrase except without the case particle. in practice, though demonstratives and other pronouns are common enough in an embedded phrase's determiner slot, articles are generally omitted if they would be the same as the article in the main phrase, and even when they differ they are still frequently left out of the embedded phrase if not necessary for clarity or emphasis. and of course embedded noun phrases can themselves contain embedded noun phrases
examples:
mo 'ong rīse tereng 'alukōri kalumalī'e māna
OBJ the six fruit my-father his-banana black
(I see) my father's six black bananas
li pom katam meika kōla tasi
SUBJ.INTR INDEF.SPEC two plant white flower
two white flowers (are blooming in my garden)
ye 'alu'ukimu
SUBJ.TRANS my-dog
my dog (bit me)
ye 'ong 'alungupō
SUBJ.TRANS the my-axe
my axe (cut me)
mo kon lo'angū
OBJ IND.NON pineapple
(I love to eat) pineapple(s)
si neluseānu
VOC our.EXCL-chief
(Welcome,) chief
sentence-level noun phrase
idk if there's a "correct" term for this but what i mean is "top-level" noun phrases, that aren't embedded in some other phrase. they are constructed as follows:
- case particle (mandatory)
- ye: subject (transitive) -- indicates the subject of a transitive verb (dixon's A)
- li: subject (intransitive) -- indicates the subject of an intransitive or stative verb (dixon's S)
- mo: object -- indicates the object of a transitive verb (dixon's O)
- si: vocative -- used for direct address (god i love vocative case)
- determiner (mandatory for common nouns except in instances of vocative case or inalienable possession; NP can have a maximum of ONE determiner)
- articles
- 'ong: definite
- kon: indefinite nonspecific (i'm looking for a tall man [any tall man, because i'm starting a basketball team]), also used for generics ("the whale is actually not a fish but a mammal")
- pom: indefinite specific (i'm looking for a tall man [a particular tall man, who insulted my mother and ran away])
- demonstratives/other pronouns (i don't have these ready yet, but they'll be the same as the pronouns: "no" will be the same as "no one/nothing", "any" will be the same as "anyone, anything", etc.; demonstratives will make same three-way this/that distinction as pronouns; other pronouns will have sentient/animate/inanimate distinction)
- articles
- number (optional; can be numeral or "few, many, all" etc.; if head is pronoun, means e.g. "two of them, the six of you", etc.)
- measure word (mandatory if using number slot with inanimate nouns)
- adjectives (ordinal numbers precede descriptive adjectives)
- possessive
- possessive is a prefix on the noun, as described in the previous post
- if possessor is a noun (common or proper), the head noun still takes the appropriate possessive prefix but is immediately preceded by the possessor: Pīta kalupe'a (Peter's house)
- if a possessor noun is present, any adjectives are moved to follow the noun rather than precede it; they stay in the same order (ordinal numbers preceding descriptive adjectives)
- ka'ekala distinguishes alienable and inalienable possession. if the possession indicated is inalienable (meaning most personal relationships such familial relationships, romantic relationships, friends, coworkers, bosses, etc; pets; someone's residence, workplace, school; permanent or long-term ownership like a house or a car; etc.) then the slot of determiner is deleted. if the possession indicated is alienable (not falling into one of the above categories), the determiner slot remains as normal
- noun itself
one thing to note with all of this is that plurality is optional to indicate, and if it is indicated with a number word the noun cannot carry a plural suffix
embedded noun phrases
the measure word and possessor noun are embedded noun phrases, which are structured the same as the basic noun phrase except without the case particle. in practice, though demonstratives and other pronouns are common enough in an embedded phrase's determiner slot, articles are generally omitted if they would be the same as the article in the main phrase, and even when they differ they are still frequently left out of the embedded phrase if not necessary for clarity or emphasis. and of course embedded noun phrases can themselves contain embedded noun phrases
examples:
mo 'ong rīse tereng 'alukōri kalumalī'e māna
OBJ the six fruit my-father his-banana black
(I see) my father's six black bananas
li pom katam meika kōla tasi
SUBJ.INTR INDEF.SPEC two plant white flower
two white flowers (are blooming in my garden)
ye 'alu'ukimu
SUBJ.TRANS my-dog
my dog (bit me)
ye 'ong 'alungupō
SUBJ.TRANS the my-axe
my axe (cut me)
mo kon lo'angū
OBJ IND.NON pineapple
(I love to eat) pineapple(s)
si neluseānu
VOC our.EXCL-chief
(Welcome,) chief
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Re: Ka'ekala sketchbook
Great work
Is there a reason for not calling the measure words just numeral classifiers?
Is there a reason for not calling the measure words just numeral classifiers?
Re: Ka'ekala sketchbook
thank you!
i guess i'm not sure what the difference would beCreyeditor wrote: ↑Tue Mar 02, 2021 4:46 am Is there a reason for not calling the measure words just numeral classifiers?