Raepʰano - the Apʰɯron language
Posted: Fri Nov 30, 2018 4:50 pm
I haven't managed to make the NaNoWriMo target this year. I had quite a few other things to do, and got behind in my postings, also I was never quite sure how to interpret the NaNoWriMo metric for a conlang. However, I'm going on with this after the competition finishes, and do some texts in ?upata and Č'iramṳ. Meanwhile, here's a basic intro to the third language, Raepʰano.
Phonology
Stops: p t k
Aspirate stops: pʰ tʰ kʰ
Fricatives: s š h
Nasals: m n
Aspirate nasals: mʰ nʰ
Liquids: r l
Vowels: i e a o ɤ u ɯ
Phonotactics
‣ Raepʰano tolerates several dipthongs: ae, ao, uɯ and oɤ. Word- final consonants are rare, except for s and n.
‣ l is clear initially, thick finally. r is a flap.
‣ ps, ts and ks are common clusters. They could be described as a third stop series.
‣ Voiced consonants are not used.
Major features
‣ Raepʰano is a fusional SVO language derived from an agglutinating VSO ancestor.
‣ The verb endings derive from serial verbs and other syntactic constructions - for example mīs "have" (perfect, then aorist) γodž, "come" (future) seld, "want" (optative) kor, "that" (subjunctive) and ?īfa "egg" (nominaliser).
‣ Masculine - Feminine and neuter gender distinctions - with a twist. Grammatical gender depends partly on sex and partly on which species are present in discourse.
If you are a Munkee you will be referred to as masculine or feminine depending on whom you are with. There is no evidence that this causes anyone any embarrassment. It seems that the speakers of Raepʰano want to make proximate and obviate distinctions but have to do the best with the grammar they have got. It is also possible that the original Munkee language did mark proximate/obviate and this usage is a survival of that.
‣ Raepʰano is an active-stative language, with agentive and patientive voice. They derive respectively from the subject and object pronouns in the protolanguage.
‣ Certain instransitive verbs like misona "sit" are exclusively agentive, while others like herasuna "sleep" are patientive only. The fluid verbs are especially interesting. Tolfuna "see" can be either, but when it is agentive it means "look". The same is true of all the other sensory verbs, including touch and taste - distinctions English does not make.
Certain verbs of the emotions use the agentive - patientive distinction in a different way. Strong feelings are put in the agentive, milder in the patientive. Example 1 is a case in point.
‣ Without conjunctions, the subjunctive mood acts as a disjunctive. Example 1 shows this too.
Examples
emʰaeso šoko, raokʰoa emiko
love-1s-AG 2s-PAT hate-SUBJUNCT-3s 1s-PAT
"I love her (but) she hates me."
emʰaese šuno, raoptoɤ emuno
love-1s-PAT 2s-GEN hate-SUBJUNCT-3s 1s-GEN
"I like her (but) she dislikes me."
Širapo hesoa šalao pepsora
Čiramasabo be-3s ground-NOM mirror-reflection
"Čira̤̤bo is a land of contrasts."
kao tunakon kʰoɤ mantoa konsapa
DEF-neuter golem not eat-3s human-pl
"The golem does not eat humans."
Phonology
Stops: p t k
Aspirate stops: pʰ tʰ kʰ
Fricatives: s š h
Nasals: m n
Aspirate nasals: mʰ nʰ
Liquids: r l
Vowels: i e a o ɤ u ɯ
Phonotactics
‣ Raepʰano tolerates several dipthongs: ae, ao, uɯ and oɤ. Word- final consonants are rare, except for s and n.
‣ l is clear initially, thick finally. r is a flap.
‣ ps, ts and ks are common clusters. They could be described as a third stop series.
‣ Voiced consonants are not used.
Major features
‣ Raepʰano is a fusional SVO language derived from an agglutinating VSO ancestor.
‣ The verb endings derive from serial verbs and other syntactic constructions - for example mīs "have" (perfect, then aorist) γodž, "come" (future) seld, "want" (optative) kor, "that" (subjunctive) and ?īfa "egg" (nominaliser).
‣ Masculine - Feminine and neuter gender distinctions - with a twist. Grammatical gender depends partly on sex and partly on which species are present in discourse.
If you are a Munkee you will be referred to as masculine or feminine depending on whom you are with. There is no evidence that this causes anyone any embarrassment. It seems that the speakers of Raepʰano want to make proximate and obviate distinctions but have to do the best with the grammar they have got. It is also possible that the original Munkee language did mark proximate/obviate and this usage is a survival of that.
‣ Raepʰano is an active-stative language, with agentive and patientive voice. They derive respectively from the subject and object pronouns in the protolanguage.
‣ Certain instransitive verbs like misona "sit" are exclusively agentive, while others like herasuna "sleep" are patientive only. The fluid verbs are especially interesting. Tolfuna "see" can be either, but when it is agentive it means "look". The same is true of all the other sensory verbs, including touch and taste - distinctions English does not make.
Certain verbs of the emotions use the agentive - patientive distinction in a different way. Strong feelings are put in the agentive, milder in the patientive. Example 1 is a case in point.
‣ Without conjunctions, the subjunctive mood acts as a disjunctive. Example 1 shows this too.
Examples
emʰaeso šoko, raokʰoa emiko
love-1s-AG 2s-PAT hate-SUBJUNCT-3s 1s-PAT
"I love her (but) she hates me."
emʰaese šuno, raoptoɤ emuno
love-1s-PAT 2s-GEN hate-SUBJUNCT-3s 1s-GEN
"I like her (but) she dislikes me."
Širapo hesoa šalao pepsora
Čiramasabo be-3s ground-NOM mirror-reflection
"Čira̤̤bo is a land of contrasts."
kao tunakon kʰoɤ mantoa konsapa
DEF-neuter golem not eat-3s human-pl
"The golem does not eat humans."