Nakka
Language: Nakka [ˈnah.ka] (English: [ˈnækə], Spanish: [ˈnaka])
Family: Zeddian
Date I started working on it: 2018-10-06
Features
Some characteristics of interest.
- There are pausal forms, which means there are words that take a distinct shape before a pause, mostly involving stress shifts {Biblical Hebrew}.
- The tenses distinguished in negated verbs are not the same as those of positive (non-negated) verbs {Mandarin: bu4 and mei2 work differently from zai4, zhe, le}.
- Verbs distinguish number of the subject but not person {Spoken Arabic, Hebrew: participle VP heads}.
- "Be" and "have" are generally expressed through relational uninflected particles instead of verbs.
- There are nine demonstrative distinctions: proximal, polite proximal, (visible) distal, remote, pejorative distal, polite distal, abstract-hypothetical, memorial/admonitive {Latin American Spanish: aquel,ella}, and finally, mortual (used for the dead) {Halkomelem}.
- There are two series of indefinite pronouns or adverbs, depending on register. One series uses an unanalyzable root with affixes attached, and the other series uses recognizable roots, similar to English "every-time", "some-thing", "no-body". Indefinite adverbs (e.g. "in all cases") serve to express what English handles with indefinite determiners such as "every" {Classical Chinese: one possible analysis of 皆, 或, 莫}.
- There are particles that mark vocatives (different nuances of vocatives), and prepositions that allow moving subjects to the end of the sentence (in what is a largely SVO language).
- The writing system is logographic, combining features of Chinese, Sumerian/Akkadian and Ancient Egyptian.
Typological Overview
Presence of uncommon consonants: /t/ [t]~[θ], /q/ [q]~[χ].
Word packing: phonologically concatenative, there is exponence of case and number in nominals and pronouns, and also tense and polarity in verbs {Japanese}. In other words, in older typology this is a fusional language. There is mildly high flexivity, with several classes among both nominals and verbs.
Morphological nominal categories: case (direct, oblique), number (singular, plural), declension ("labial", "sibilant", "vocalic", named after the nature of the plural suffixes).
Morphological verbal categories: tense (present, future, past), aspect (perfective, imperfective), mood (realis, irrealis), case of subject (direct, oblique), number of subject (singular, plural, impersonal), conjugation (various). Valency derivations (causative, recipient applicative, reciprocal) are common but not productive, and have analytic equivalents. Some verbs can take direction affixes (towards, away) {Mandarin: 去, 來}.
Basic word order: SVO, determiner-noun, quantifier-noun, noun-adjective, possessed-possessor, noun-relative clause, preposition-noun-postposition.
Standard negation is expressed with a particle placed either before the verb or at the beginning of the sentence {Latin:
neque}. Polar questions are expressed through a sentence-initial particle {Standard Arabic:
hal, a-; Latin:
num, numquid, nonne}, and content questions are achieved with a question word placed before the verb (even when it's the object of the verb). Subordinate clauses use a subordinator or juxtaposition.
Phonology
Consonants:
/p~f t~θ tʃ~ʃ k~h q~χ/
/b d dʒ g/
/m n/
/s/
/z/
/r/
/l/
/w j ɥ/
Romanization notes: /tʃ/ <c>, /dʒ/ <j>, /j/ <y>, /ɥ/ <ÿ>.
/p t k q/ are spirantized into fricatives when found in syllable-final position. E.g. attu [ˈaθ.tu] 'hand', nukta [ˈnuh.ta] 'berry'.
Vowels:
/i y e a o u/
/ei ai oi ui/
/wa/
/i.e y.o e.a u.a/
Romanization notes: /y/ <ü>.
/wa/ is the only "rising diphthong" available {Cantonese:
kwa, gwa and for some speakers
kwo, gwo, are the only rising diphthongs}.
Syllabic structure: (C)(r,l,w)V(C).
Stress tends to fall on the second-to-last syllable, unless the last suffix pulls stress towards it. While it is not strictly predictable from the consonantal and vocalic segments alone, it is not indicated in romanization as it is not necessary to do so if one knows which few suffixes pull stress towards the end.
Writing
The writing system is logographic, using consonant signs as well {Ancient Egyptian: consonant signs}. The logogram inventory has roughly 700 items, and the use of consonant signs tends to reflect an older stage of the language.
In the romanization of the writing system, most logograms are represented with a three-letter abbreviation in uppercase, whereas consonant signs appear in lowercase corresponding to the system used for the phonology. /j/ and /ɥ/ are not distinguished in the consonant signs, so they both appear as <y>. (The romanization of the pronunciation does distinguish them as <y> vs. <ÿ>, as noted above.)
The system has an extra sign to mark vowel-initial words and hiatuses, which is represented with @ in romanization.
There exists an alphabetic system used to record the pronunciation of certain texts, particularly old poetry, but it is of minor use. The use of this system has allowed the retention of (an imperfect) knowledge of the older pronunciation of some words, and is therefore the source of literary pronunciations. It is also used in dictionaries to record current pronunciations. The pronunciations recorded in the alphabetic system vary from text to text (contemporary dictionaries do not agree with the signs used for old poetry a lot of the time, and different poems use different readings anyway), so I will not bother to provide these with some exceptions.
In romanization, if a word has more than two logograms, these are separated with a dot. E.g.
SRS.YLT reqmu 'leader' (the logogram is composed of
SRS sarsu 'person' and
YLT yalta 'head' {Sumerian, Akkadian: logograms can be compounded for their meaning}). Some logograms have a shortened form, and these have a one-letter or two-letter code, functioning as "radicals" for disambiguation of meaning {Chinese: radicals}. E.g.
MRK, the full logogram for mirki 'wing', has the shortened form
M, used in e.g.
NNS.M wadda 'to run' (cf.
NNS nansa 'to walk').
Nominal declension
Nouns and adjectives share the same inflectional declensions. The left column has the singular forms, and the right column has the plural forms.
There are three main declensions, identified by the kind of plural affix used: the labial declension, the sibilant declension, and the vocalic declension.
The labial declension
Most nouns belong to the labial declension, where the oblique singular is
-y -i (which then forms diphthongs often), and the plural suffixes are
-b -om (direct) and
-b -ob (oblique), spelled with the same consonant sign,
-b. The reason for the identical spelling is that -om was [õb] when the language started using consonant signs.
dwaba 'cooking pot'
DIR
DWB DWBb
DIR dwaba dwabom
OBL
DWBy DWBb
OBL dwabai dwabob
(Note: the old declension was [ˈdwa.ba dwa.baˈõb ˈdwa.bai dwa.baˈob].)
rapnu 'black'
DIR
KPN.Z KPNbZ
DIR rapnu rapnom
OBL
KPNyZ KPNbZ
OBL rapnui rapnob
(Note: the old declension was [ˈrap.nu rap.nuˈõb ˈrap.nui rap.nuˈob].)
These plural suffixes pull the stress towards them, but not in pausal position. This means that
DWBb Z.KPNb dwabom rapnom would be pronounced [dwaˈbom rafˈnom] when found at the beginning or the middle of a phonological group, but at the end of it, it would be [dwaˈbom ˈraf.nom].
The sibilant declension
A smaller number of nouns belongs to the the sibilant declension, particularly if they're the singulative forms of a certain collective noun. The oblique singular ends in an unstressed
-ys -is, and the plural suffixes are
-s -an (direct) and
-s -as (oblique). The direct plural is spelled thus because it represents an older [ãs] pronunciation (which then became [ans], and then [an]). The plural suffixes pull the stress towards them, unless they are in pausal position.
geka 'leaf'
DIR
GEK GEKs
DIR geka gekan
OBL
GEKys GEKs
OBL gekis gekas
(Note: the old declension was [ˈgeka geˈkãs ˈgekis geˈkas].)
malbu 'seed'
DIR
MRP.GK MRPsGK
DIR malbu malban
OBL
MRPysGK MRPsGK
OBL malbis malbas
(Note: the old declension was [ˈmal.bu mal.buˈãs ˈmal.bis mal.buˈas].)
The vocalic declension
Most words ending in -i or -y belong to this declension, with some members ending in -a. The singular oblique ending is an unstressed
-y -ui, the plural direct ending is
-y -Vya, and the plural oblique ending,
-@, varies in sound depending on the last vowel. The direct plural and oblique singular forms are not distinguished in writing. The plural suffixes pull the stress towards them, but as they are two syllables long, the second-to-last stress general rule is retained: [baˈdi.ja], [baˈdi.e], [dʒasˈty.o], [gadˈde.a].
badi 'wrinkle'
DIR
WDR.K WDRyK
DIR badi badiya
OBL
WDRyK WDR@K
OBL badui badie
(Note: the old declension was [ˈbau.di bauˈdĩya ˈbau.dwij bauˈdi.ə].)
jastü 'agreement'
DIR
NLD.C NLDyC
DIR jastü jastüya
OBL
NLDyC NLD@C
OBL jastui jastüo
(Note: the old declension was [ˈdʒas.ty dʒasˈtỹ.ja ˈdʒas.twij dʒasˈty.ə].)
gadda 'river'
DIR
GAD GADy
DIR gadda gaddaya
OBL
GADy GAD@
OBL gaddui gaddea
(Note: the old declension was [ˈgan.da ganˈdãya ˈgan.dwij ganˈde.ə].)