A language, Rihalle Kaafi

[Travis B.]

I got the conlanging bug again, and came up with an idea for a language. The very first thing I thought of was the vowel system, which is:

/æ ɑ i u/ <e a i u>, which is [æ ɑ i u] in stressed syllables and [ɐ ɐ e o] in unstressed syllables (except before /q qʼ χ ʁ/, where they are [ɑ ɑ e o] regardless of stress).
/æː ɑː iː uː/ <ee aa ii uu>, which is [æː ɑː iː uː] in stressed syllables (except before /q qʼ χ ʁ/, where they are [ɑː ɑː eː oː]) and [æ ɑ i u] in unstressed syllables (except before /q qʼ χ ʁ/, where they are [ɑ ɑ e o]).

Front vowels and /j/ palatalize preceding consonants until the previous vowel even when reduced.

The syllable structure is CV(ː)(C)(C) except that initial syllables can lack initial consonants.

Note however that /æj ɑw æːj ɑːw/ before {C,#} are realized as [ɛː ɔː ɛːj ɔːw] in stressed syllables and [ɛ ɔ ɛj ɔw] in unstressed syllables.

The consonant system is:

/m n/ [m n*~ɲ**~ŋ***~ɴ***] <m n>
/b d (dz)/ [b*~β+ d*~ð+~dz**~z**+ (dz~dʒ**)] <b d (dz)>
/t (ts) k q/ [t~ts** (ts~tʃ**) c**~k k**~q] <t (ts) k q>
/tʼ (tsʼ) kʼ qʼ/ [tʼ~tsʼ** (tsʼ~tʃʼ**) cʼ**~kʼ kʼ**~qʼ] <t' (ts') k' q'>
/f s χ h/ [ɸ+~f* s~ʃ** x**~χ ç**~h~ħ*] <f s x h>
/z ʁ/ [z~ʒ** ɣ**~ʁ] <z g>
/r l/ [ɾ+~r* l~ʎ**]<r l>
/w j/ [w j] <w y>

* This allophone is preferred when geminate and not palatalized.
** This is a palatalized allophone.
*** [ŋ] only occurs before velar consonants, and [ɴ] only occurs before uvular consonants.
+ This allophone occurs intervocalically.

Note that allophonic affrication of /t/ and /d/ is suppressed before another consonant.

/dz ts tsʼ/ are not present in the standard variety and have merged with /z s s/ in it.

Geminates are freely permitted for all consonants.

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

The only restrictions on consonant clusters is that /h/ cannot occur as the second element in a coda and ejectives cannot be alongside another stop in a coda.

As for morphosyntax...

The default word order is VSO, but vocatives go initially, topicalization can move phrases before the verb complex, any word order can be found in poetic language, and agreement clitics can occur before the verb depending on things such as tense and aspect.

There are three numbers, singular, dual, and plural. However, the dual is only marked on pronouns, agreement clitics, and demonstratives; otherwise the plural is substituted for it.

There are four genders, comprised of any combination of masculine versus feminine and animate versus inanimate.

There are four cases, the direct (which is unmarked), the ergative, the accusative, and the genitive, and two states, absolute (which is unmarked) and construct. Adjectives agree with their heads in case, number, gender, and state. Possessed nouns and their adjectives are put into construct state.

Adjectives and possessors typically follow nouns, while determiners (yes, this terminology is particular to IE, but I am taking it to lump demonstratives and pronominal possessors together) and numbers precede them. However, some adjectives can precede nouns, and sometimes can possessors, especially in poetic language.

There are two simple tenses, past and present, and three simple aspects, perfective, imperfective, and stative. Note that perfective aspect is unmarked in the past and imperfective aspect is unmarked in the present (perfective aspect in the present is used primarily for implying the future and performatives).

There are five basic moods, indicative, conditional, subjunctive, jussive, and imperative. Note that the imperative is only used with second person subjects; otherwise the jussive is substituted. Unlike in some languages, the subjunctive is primarily used to express counterfactual statements.

The verb is marked for affirmative versus negative/prohibitive. Note that negative marking on non-imperative and non-jussive verbs is marked distinctively from the prohibitive on such verbs.

The verb is marked for indirectivity, i.e. when something is not known directly but rather is heard or read second-hand. (Yes I like putting this in my languages.)

Both core arguments of a verb are agreed with by agreement clitics, except that the subject has no agreement clitic in the imperative. Agreement clitics normally go before the verb in the affirmative present imperfective and stative and otherwise after the verb.

Verb arguments are normally in direct case. Ergative case is used when an inanimate argument is the subject, and accusative case is used when an animate argument is the object.

Genitive case on the possessor combined with construct state on the possessed noun and its adjectives is used to express non-pronominal possession and compounding.

Pronominal possession is expressed with special determiners.

[Travis B.]

Pronouns!

The personal pronouns are:

	Ind.	Subj. agreement	Obj. agreement	Poss.
1st sg.	naa	na	ni	nu
2nd m. sg.	maa	ma	mi	mu
2nd f. sg.	maah	me	mi	muh
3rd m. an. sg.	tii	ti	ta	tu
3rd f. an. sg.	suuh	su	sa	suh
3rd m. inan. sg.	baa	ba	be	be
3rd f. inan. sg.	kaa	ka	ka	ka
1st du.	naata	nat	nit	nut
2nd m. du.	maata	mat	mit	mut
2nd f. du.	maahta	met	mit	muht
3rd m. an. du.	tiita	tit	tat	tut
3rd f. an. du.	suuhta	sut	sat	suht
3rd m. inan. du.	baata	bat	bet	bet
3rd f. inan. du.	kaata	kat	kat	kat
1st pl.	waa	wa	wi	wu
2nd m. pl.	daay	day	diy	duy
2nd f. pl.	daaht	det	dit	duht
3rd m. an. pl.	geey	gey	gay	guy
3rd f. an. pl.	laaht	lat	lat	luht
3rd m. inan. pl.	haay	hay	hay	hay
3rd f. inan. pl.	gaa	ga	ga	ga

(Note that "object agreement" clitics are also attached before prepositions to make conjugated prepositions.)

[Travis B.]

Verbs

There are two fundamental classes of verbs, dynamic verbs and stative verbs.

Verb stems are generally monosyllabic or disyllabic.

Dynamic verbs distinguish perfective and imperfective aspects and have separate stems for them. Note that the relationship between the two stems is typically in the form of ablaut, but for some verbs can be suppletive. They also have a separate stem for the imperative.

Static verbs are only in, well, stative aspect and have only two stems, one primary one and one for the imperative.

The verb has the following structure, from left to right:

• yi- for negative verbs, ki- for prohibitive verbs (except in colloquial central dialects, where the separate prohibitive has been lost and replaced with the negative)
• ta- for present-tense perfective verbs (except when imperative, where there is no distinction between perfective and imperfective)
• he- for the conditional (except in colloquial eastern dialects, where the conditional is liable to be replaced with the subjunctive)
• Reduplication of the onset and nucleus of the first syllable of the stem to express iteration (in colloquial eastern dialects if this is preceded by a vowel the reduplicated stem vowel is liable to be lost, with only the initial consonant being geminated)
• The verb stem
• -t(a) for reflexive/reciprocal voice (in western dialects after a consonant this is -at)
• -d(e) for causative voice (in western dialects after a consonant this is -ed
• -i (replaces a preceding short vowel unless it belongs to a monosyllabic stem, -yi after a long vowel or a final vowel of a monosyllabic stem) for passive voice
• -n for the subjunctive, -m for the jussive
• -w (-u finally after CC) for past-tense imperfective verbs and stative verbs
• -a (-ya after a vowel) for indirective verbs (in central dialects this is replaced by -e, -ye after a vowel)

Note that the reflexive/reciprocal can also go after the causative, to indicate making oneself do something.

[Travis B.]

Nouns and adjectives

Degree is marked with

• -es (dialectally -ets) for comparative adjectives and nouns derived from them
• -inna for superlative adjectives and nouns derived from them
• -q'aa for elative adjectives and nouns derived from them

Gender is marked with

• -h(a) for feminine animate nouns and adjectives

Case is marked with:

• -a for ergative nouns and adjectives ending in consonants; ergative nouns and adjectives ending in short vowels have the short vowels lengthened, and ergative nouns and adjectives ending in long vowels are unmarked
• -(i)n for accusative nouns and adjectives
• -i for genitive nouns and adjectives ending in consonants and polysyllabic genitive nouns and adjectives ending in short vowels (where the original final short vowels are lost), -yi for genitive nouns and adjectives ending in long vowels and monosyllabic genitive nouns and adjectives ending in short vowels

Direct case is unmarked.

Plural number is marked with:

• -ya for masculine nouns and adjectives
• -tu for feminine animate nouns and adjectives

State is marked with:

• -e for construct state nouns and adjectives ending in consonants; with monosyllabic construct state nouns and adjectives ending in vowels the affix is -ye, and with polysyllabic construct state nouns and adjectives ending in vowels the final vowel is replaced with -e (note that construct state is combined with ergative case nouns and adjectives ending in consonants and genitive case nouns and adjectives which would have ended in genitive -i or -yi (excluding the ergative or genitive affix) by replacing ergative -a and genitive -i with -e and genitive -yi with -ye and in the case of ergative case nouns and adjectives ending in vowels by attaching -ye, with the masculine plural as -ee, and the feminine animate plural as -te)

Absolute state is unmarked.

[Zju]

not a lot of time to read, but I like the pattern of vowel reduction

[Travis B.]

Demonstratives

	Ind.	Dep.	Poss.
Prox. m. anim. sg.	saa	sa	si
Prox. f. anim. sg.	saah	sah	sih
Prox. inan. sg.	see	se	si
Med. m. anim. sg.	t'ee	t'e	t'i
Med. f. anim. sg.	t'eeh	t'eh	t'ih
Med. inan. sg.	t'ee	t'e	t'i
Dist. m. anim. sg.	qaa	qa	qi
Dist. f. anim. sg.	qaah	qah	qih
Dist. inan. sg.	qee	qe	qi
Prox. m. anim. du.	saata	sat	sit
Prox. f. anim. du.	saahta	saht	siht
Prox. inan. du.	seeta	set	sit
Med. m. anim. du.	t'eeta	t'et	t'it
Med. f. anim. du.	t'eehta	t'eht	t'iht
Med. inan. du.	t'eeta	t'et	t'it
Dist. m. anim. du.	qaata	qat	qit
Dist. f. anim. du.	qaahta	qaht	qiht
Dist. inan. du.	qeeta	qet	qit
Prox. m. anim. pl.	yuuy	yuy	yiy
Prox. f. anim. pl.	yuuht	yuht	yiht
Prox m. inan. pl	yeey	yey	yiy
Prox. f. inan. pl.	yee	ye	yi
Med. m. anim. pl.	giiy	giy	gay
Med. f. anim. pl.	giiht	giht	gaht
Med. m. inan. pl.	guuy	guy	gay
Med. f. inan. pl.	guu	gu	ga
Dist. m. anim. pl.	zaay	zay	zuy
Dist. f. anim. pl.	zaaht	zaht	zuht
Dist. m. inan. pl.	ziiy	ziy	zuy
Dist. f. inan. pl.	zii	zi	zu

In the classical language the following differ:

	Ind.	Dep.	Poss.
Med. m. anim. pl.	ghiiy	ghiy	ghay
Med. f. anim. pl.	ghiiht	ghiht	ghaht
Med. m. inan. pl.	ghuuy	ghuy	ghay
Med. f. inan. pl.	ghuu	ghu	gha

[Travis B.]

Adpositions

When taking nominal arguments, all adpositions are prepositions.

Note, however, that adpositions do not take independent pronouns as arguments -- rather they become postpositions and the object agreement forms of personal pronouns and the dependent forms of demonstratives are prefixed to them.

Adpositions take animate arguments in accusative case and inanimate arguments in direct case.

	Form
dative	se
benefactive	wak, colloquial (especially eastern) wa
instrumental	med
comitative	hey, non-standard eastern saw, extreme eastern ts'aw
illative	kaa
inessive	daw
elative	lay
allative	in, western yin
adessive	yed, colloquial (especially central) ye
ablative	ray
translative	ente, western yene
essive	hi
exessive	may

In the classical language and conservative forms of the modern language, the dative, benefactive, and comitative expect an animate argument, normally taking direct case with them, and take ergative case with inanimate arguments.

In the classical language, the distinction between the illative and allative, the inessive and adessive, and the elative and ablative did not exist, and the following forms were largely found instead:

	Form
allative	in
locative	eastern and central yed, western daw
ablative	lay

[Travis B.]

Relational nouns

On top of adpositions, locatives are expressed with relational nouns. Many relational nouns are etymologically related to body parts.

	Form	Etymology
'over' (m. inan.)	lin	'hair'
'over' (m. inan., western, extreme eastern)	mall	'sky'
'top' (m. anim.)	xaar, classical xhaar	'head'
'front' (f. inan.)	qaw	n/a
'back' (f. inan.)	eert, western yeert	'back'
'center', 'middle' (f. anim.)	mih	'heart'
'around' (m. anim.)	fawr, colloquial (especially central) quur	'stomach'
'right' (m. inan.)	k'uust	n/a
'left' (m. inan.)	haqq	n/a
'bottom' (m. inan.)	yig, colloquial eastern ig	'buttocks'
'below' (f. inan.)	nann	'ground'
'before' (m. inan.)	aam	n/a
'after' (f. inan.)	eer, western yeer	'back', loss of -t

[Travis B.]

Prefixing to vowel-initial syllables

Prefixing a vowel-final affix or clitic to a vowel-initial syllable is resolved by inserting a prosthetic semivowel, -y- for following front vowels, and -w- for following back vowels. Any other hiatuses that may occur that are otherwise unresolved are resolved similarly.

[Travis B.]

Relative clauses

Relative clauses go after nouns. They use relative pronouns, which when used for core arguments replace normal agreement clitics.

The relative pronouns are:

	Ind.	Subj. agreement	Obj. agreement	Poss.
Rel. m. an. sg.	k'aa	k'a	k'i	k'u
Rel. f. an. sg.	k'aah	k'e	k'i	k'uh
Rel. inan. sg.	k'ee	k'e	k'i	k'u
Rel. m. an. du.	k'aata	k'at	k'it	k'ut
Rel. f. an. du.	k'aahta	k'et	k'it	k'uht
Rel. inan. du.	k'eeta	k'et	k'it	k'ut
Rel. m. an. pl.	saay	say	siy	suy
Rel. f. an. pl.	saaht	set	sit	suht
Rel. m. inan. pl.	seey	sey	siy	suy
Rel. f. inan. pl.	see	se	si	su

In western and extreme eastern dialects, the plural forms are:

	Ind.	Subj. agreement	Obj. agreement	Poss.
Rel. m. an. pl.	tsaay	tsay	tsiy	tsuy
Rel. f. an. pl.	tsaaht	tset	tsit	tsuht
Rel. m. inan. pl.	tseey	tsey	tsiy	tsuy
Rel. f. inan. pl.	tsee	tse	tsi	tsu

[Travis B.]

Nominalization

There are a number of assorted nominalization prefixes for deriving nouns from verbs and adjectives. The gender of the resulting nouns is normally determined by the nominalization prefix except that prefixes creating masculine animate nouns may be combined with -h(a) to derive feminine animate nouns. Note that nominalizers deriving nouns from verbs can have negative and voice affixes attached to the verb prior to attaching the nominalizer.

	Form
Process, state noun from imperfective or stative verbs (m. inan.)	wa-
General noun from perfective verbs (f. inan.)	fa-
Action, result noun from perfective verbs (m. inan.)	xa-, conservatively xaa-
Object noun from perfective verbs (m. inan.)	ri-
Agent noun from imperfective verbs (m. anim.)	ree-
Locative noun from imperfective verbs (f. inan.)	kay-
State, quality noun from adjectives (m. inan.)	qaw-, colloquial central qaa-
Person noun from adjectives (m. anim.)	kin-
State noun from adjectives (f. inan.)	ita-, western yita-
Of-type noun from adjectives (f. inan.)	t'e-, western ts'e-

[Travis B.]

Adjectivization

There are a number of prefixes for deriving adjectives from verbs and nouns:

	Form
General adjective from noun	ha-
Similarity adjective from noun (English -like)	ye-
Participle from verb	i-, western hi-
Ability from verb	du-

Note that participles are marked for aspect, voice, and tense.

[Travis B.]

Verbification

There are a number of prefixes for deriving verbs from adjectives and nouns:

	Pfv.	Ipfv./stat.	Imp.
Resultative from adjective	q'a-	q'e-	aq'a-
Predicative from adjective	n/a	da-	uda-
Activity from adjective	bii-	bee-	abi-
Resultative from noun	huu-	hii-	ahu-
Predicative from noun	n/a	wu-	awu-
Activity from noun	la-	le-	ula

[Travis B.]

Copula

Instead of predicative adjectival and nominal copulas, prefixes are attached to adjectives and noun phrases which derive stative verbs from them, as seen above.

There is an existential copula, which is an intransitive verb with the form:

	Pfv.	Ipfv.	Imp.
Existential copula	ya	ye	aya

[Man in Space]

Copula

Instead of predicative adjectival and nominal copulas, prefixes are attached to adjectives and noun phrases which derive stative verbs from them, as seen above.

There is an existential copula, which is an intransitive verb with the form:

	Pfv.	Ipfv.	Imp.
Existential copula	ya	ye	aya

For some reason, I just really like this. It’s quite euphonic.

[Glenn]

Your speed of creation has far outpaced my comment, but I have one question that came to mind:

- You describe the verb structure from left to right; does the description of the noun structure follow suit? For example, is gender marked before case, and case before number, or do the affixes follow a different order?

Overall, it looks quite interesting so far. I look forward to seeing some sample sentences, once the language gets to that point.

[Travis B.]

Your speed of creation has far outpaced my comment, but I have one question that came to mind:

- You describe the verb structure from left to right; does the description of the noun structure follow suit? For example, is gender marked before case, and case before number, or do the affixes follow a different order?

Yes, it is also in order from left to right.

Overall, it looks quite interesting so far. I look forward to seeing some sample sentences, once the language gets to that point.

I have created a couple example sentences so far in the conlang fluency thread.

[Glenn]

- You describe the verb structure from left to right; does the description of the noun structure follow suit? For example, is gender marked before case, and case before number, or do the affixes follow a different order?

Yes, it is also in order from left to right.

Thank you for the clarification.

I have created a couple example sentences so far in the conlang fluency thread.

Thank you! I will check them out.

[Travis B.]

Negation

Yi- may be attached to not only verbs (except when imperative) but also adjectives and adpositions to negate them.

Coalescence

Identical short vowel phonemes right after one another are coalesced into the corresponding long vowel phonemes rather than having /j/ or /w/ inserted between them.

[Travis B.]

Subordination

Subordinate clauses are marked by prefixing the verb with the complementizer clitic nu (for subjects) or ni (for objects or when genitive) and then using it a core argument, the object of an adposition, or the possessor of a noun. The complementizer clitic must come first, before any agreement clitics. Note that subordinate clauses must come after their parent clause, no matter whether they are the parent clause's direct object, subject, the object of an adposition, or the possessor of a noun.

Also note that any adposition that they are the object of or possessed noun must come immediately before them (except that a possessed noun may have adjectives and adverbs in between).

No agreement clitic is used with subordinate clauses.

Impersonal verbs

Impersonal verbs are verbs that have no subject. They may have an object, and will take an object agreement clitic for them without taking a subject agreement clitic.

Impersonal verbs do not have an imperative.

Modals

Modals are often expressed with impersonal verbs taking a subordinate clause as their direct object. The impersonal modals are stative. However, some modals are expressed as having a subject and a subordinate clause as their direct object.

	Pfv.	ipfv./stat.	Imp.	Impersonal?
Possibility	n/a	geh	n/a	yes
Desire ('want')	kuu	kii	aku	no
Desirability ('should')	n/a	sawa, non-standard eastern saa	n/a	yes
Obligation	n/a	wiit	n/a	yes
Necessity ('must')	n/a	heyya	n/a	yes
Necessity ('need')	t'aan	t'een	at'an	no
Apparent	maay, colloquial may	meey, colloquial mey	umay	no
Doubt	luune	liine	aluun	no
Agreement	q'aaw	q'eew	uq'aw	no
Retrospective	n/a	te	n/a	yes
Prospective	n/a	lawr	n/a	yes
Inchoative	suut'	siit'	asut'	yes
Cessative	zay, western dzay	zey, western dzey	azay, western adzay	yes