Re: Gbwia, my language (LONG!)

 Hi all,
=20
 As I announced yesterday, I would like to introduce my conlang (one of
 them), named Gbw=EC=E0.
 But first I will start introducing myself a little. When I was told abou=
t
 this list, I just plunged into it without introduction (I didn't know
about
 nettiquette or care for etiquette).
 I'm 30 years, I've studied Amerindian languages, married with a boy of 1=
6
 months. It is easy to explain how a got acquainted with conlanging: I me=
t
 Boudewijn and Irina Rempt (not married in those days).
=20
 Here is my conlang. It is inspired by African tone languages. Yesterday =
I
 panicked when I wanted to translate the Magical Tree story, because I
found
 out that the grammar wasn't logical or consistent [BTW, how do you
 translate so quickly?? A good translation takes so much of my time ;-( ].
 Still, I present it because I'm stuck. I hope you can help me out, maybe
 your opinions will help me further.
=20
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 Gbw=EC=E0
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 Phonology
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 Consonants
  Voiceless
 p      t               k       kp (little ingressive) 1        ' 2
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  Prenasalised
 mb     nd      ny      ng
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  Voiced
 gb
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  Clicks
 @ 3    c       x       q
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 Nasals
 m      n   (used with low fequency: in loanwords only?)
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 Fricatives (may get voiced after nasal)
        s       sh
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  Laterals (voiced and voiceless resp.)
        l       hl
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 Approximants
 w      y
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 Notes:
 1  Allophones: k/i,e -> tS, c
 2 Glottal stop is only used to distinguish two equal vowels: =F9hlel=E8'=
=E8  'he
 sees him'
 3 @ can be pronounced as a bilabial click or as a labial-dental click.
BTW,
 has anybody a suggestion for a better symbol?
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 Vowels
 i, e, a, o, u.
 All vowels can occur in low, high and falling tone.
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 Diphtongs
 Gbw=EC=E0 has no diphtongs (yet)
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 Tone
 All languages use tone. Some languages have phonologically contrastive
tone
 and/or word stress, some do not ( e.g. French, Polish). I make a
 distinction between stress languages (e.g. Dutch, Spanish), pitch-accent
 languages (e.g. Yucatec Maya) and tone languages.
=20
 Regarding Tone languages I make a distinction between contour tone syste=
ms
 (e.g. Chinese and many other Southeast Asian languages) and register ton=
e
 systems (e.g. African and Amerindian languages). regarding register tone
 systems I make a distinction between systems that have:
 no downdrift or downstep
 downdrift, but no downstep (e.g. Hausa)
 downdrift and downstep (e.g. Igbo)
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 Gbw=EC=E0 belongs to the last category.
 Gbw=EC=E0 has two tones: H(igh) and L(ow). High tone is not indicated, l=
ow
tone
 is indicated with a grave (`). There is downdrift and downstep. Downstep
is
 annotated by an aigu (') on the vowel (like in "xi=F3" [//i1o2].
 A high tone on the end of a sentence is usually falling. If the tone is
not
 falling, than a macron or trema is written above the vowel: #m=E0t=F6. I=
n some
 words falling tones occur too without any cause (two equal vowels with H=
-L
 colliding). To indicate this, a ^ is written over the vowel.
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 Syllable structure
 (m)(C)(w)V(')(V)
 CVC is not allowed, except when final V disappears for syntactic reason.
If
 that consonant is a voiceless stop, than that stop is pronounced
 unreleased.
 Note: I'm still doubting here. Should the minimal structure be CV (as I
 originally had) or just V ( I accidentally made some syllables beginning
 with a vowel)?
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 Grammar
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 Gbw=EC=E0 is inflecting a little. Both nouns and verbs can take affixes =
and
 reduplication. Verbs can be active or stative, static verbs equalling ou=
r
 adjectives most of the time.
 Gbw=EC=E0 has a split-ergative construction.=20
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 Nouns
 Cases
 Nouns concord with the actants of the verb.
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 Nominative/Ergative (or M-case)
 Nouns that correspond with actants that govern prefixes in the verb take
 the prefix m-. That is, in complete aspect, the m- case is ergative.
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 Accusative/Absolutive (or downstep-case)
 Nouns that are objects or intransitive subjects in noncompletive aspect
 take a zero high prefix. Thus, if the preceding syllable is low nothing
 happens, if the preceding syllable is high, downstep occurs (indicated b=
y
 an acute).
 E.g.: sh=ECa qw=ED [Si1a5!wi4]
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 Oblique
 Nouns in an oblique case get a 'marked' consonant. Marked in the sense
that
 the first consonant of the root gets ejective (p', t', k', @', c', x', q=
',
 s', sh', l',(hl>)tl') or implosive (mb', nd', ng', gb'). /kp/ may be
 ejective or implosive. There is a lot of dialectal variant concerning th=
e
 markedness. Some dialects lack the ejectives/implosives, some make all
 consonants ejective/implosive.
 The semantics of nouns in oblique case is very broad. It means most of t=
he
 time indirect object, 'concerning' or 'in'. A more specific case can add=
ed
 to the noun phrase like  q=E8, kp=E8, gw=EC or nd=EC, to name just the m=
ost used
 ones.
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 Other cases that govern the oblique case:
 q=E8
 This case is used for:
 location in something
 movement into something
 instrument
 ! NB: most of the time q=E8 is omitted! Thus the oblique case becomes th=
e q=E8
 case.=20
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 kp=E8
 This case is used for:
 location on periphery
 vague location (in the neighborhood of)
 movement towards the outside of something (against, to)
 active agent (by)
 route (via)
 re, concerning (I'm sorry, I can only come up with the Interlingua 're'
for
 this case)
 reason, motive (because, for)
 price (for)
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 Furtheron, some verbs govern le automatically like mba ' to look at',
qond=F9
 'to have recollection of' and xehlo 'to aks for'.
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 gw=EC
 This case indicates a removal in the broadest sense of the word: origin,
 cause, reason, startingpoint, second element of a comparison etc..
 Some verbs and adjectives govern gw=EC, like gb=E0nd=EC 'to forget'.
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 nd=EC
 This case indicates companionship by persons (together with) and serves =
as
 a comitative. Some verbs govern nd=EC. E.g. xesh=EC=E0 mqohl=E0 gb'a nd=EC=
 'the man
 is angry with his mother.'
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 Lesser used cases are:
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 =E0ndi 'on top of'
        'on the ground'
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 cw=E2  'towards', 'in the direction of'
        'to his house'
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 bweu   'through',' via'
        'you have fallen through your mouth' -> 'you have a loose tongue'
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 pw=EC=EC       'until' , 'as' (function)
        'we shall appoint him as our leader'
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 in=E0  'like'
        'it is as hard as rock'
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 nwa=F4 'before' (in time)
        'for my father'
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 tw=FB  'after' (in time)
        'after that', 'afterwards'
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 ng=E0nya       'while' =20
        'meanwhile'
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 @ang=E8        'not sooner than'
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 mu=FB  'without'
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 Other cases consisting of q=E8 plus other element:
 q=E8c=E8       'until tot aan'
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 q=E8@=E0c=E2   'for (the sake of)'
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 ng=F2nd=EA     'under'
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 q=E8 + nouns
 -kp'weq=E8             'behind'
 g'wouq=E8              'on top of'
 mb'undeq=E8    'in the middle of'
 mb'uq=F2q=E8           'within'
 -s'wolandeq=E8 'before' (location)
 k'wumuq=E8     'besides'
 kp'ixiq=E8             'close to'
 d'we=F9q=E8            'behind'
 hl'uq=E8               'under'
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 Personal Pronouns
        sg      pl
 1.     t=E4    ti=E2
 2.     t=FC    ti=EA
 3.     hl=EB   hl=EE
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 Deictic elements
 this   @i
 that   @a
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 here   kp=E8@i
 there  pk=E8@a
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 Verbs
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 Dependent pronouns are inflected with prefixes an suffixes.=20
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 Prefixes
 1.     =E0-
 2.     =EC-
 3.     =F9- + last high tone of root becomes low, or in case of low tone: l=
ow
 tone vowel disappears.
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 These prefixes also occur on nouns referencing the possessor. As verbal
 prefixes they signal agreement with the transitive agent and with
 intransitive subjects in noncompletive aspects. In the completive aspect
 intransitive subjects are marked by suffixes (see below), resulting in a
 split-ergative verb-agreement system.
 The system is ergative in the completive aspect where transitive agents
are
 marked by prefixes and intransitive subjects and transitive objects by
 suffixes. The system in nominative in the noncompletive aspect where
 subjects are marked by prefixes and objects are marked by suffixes. =20
=20
 Suffixes
 1. -(x)=E8
 2. -(c)=E0
 3. -0
 The brackets indicate that the consonants are used when the stem of the
 noun ends in a vowel, i.e. when the 3rd person prefix is used.
 Besides the above mentioned function, these dependent pronouns are
suffixed
 to adjectives and nouns in stative constructions: gb=E2-x=E8   'I have bee=
n
 hungry'
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 Examples:
 hlwo-x=E8                      'I have slept'  (or: Ta hlwo-x=E8, or: ta hlwo)
 sleep-1
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 =E0-hlwo       'I am sleeping' (or: m-ta =E0-hlwo, or m-ta hlwo)
 1-sleep
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 =F9-hlel'-=E0  'He is seeing you' / 'He has seen you'  (or: m-hle (=F9-)h=
lel'-(=E0)
t=E4)
 3-see-2
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 I'm still figuring out if I want to use this rule: If (pro)noun is used,
 the afffix(es) is (are) optional.
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 Plurality
 Plurality is indicated by the following optional suffixes (they tend not
to
 be used):
 1. -=E2
 2. -=EA
 3.     -=EE /-=E2
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 Both prefixed and suffixed actants can be put in plural with these
 suffixes. If there is any ambiguity, independent pronouns are used to
 clarify.
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 Tense, mood and aspect
 Tense is not morphologically marked, but lexically (with words like
 'yesterday', 'in the past' etc)
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 aspect
 Completive and noncompletive are indicated by the way the verbs are
 conjugated (see above).
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 Itterative is indicated by reduplication of the last syllable of the roo=
t.
 Gba-gb=E2-x=E8 'I had been hungry all the time'
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 Unexpectedness/non-control: ejective (voiceless) / implosive (voiced).
 gb'=E2q=ECx=E8         'Suddenly I got hungry'
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 The major auxiliary verbs to do, to have and to be.
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 pos    neg
 gba    mba     to be (intr)
 wa     ndwa    to have (bitr)
 kpe    nge     to do/to make(tr)
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 Negation
 Negation can only be done by using the auxiliary verb
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 gb=E2x=E8              'I've been hungry'
 gb=E2 mbax=E8  'I haven't been hungry'
 =E0gb=E2               'I 'm hungry'
 gb=E2 =E0mba   'I'm not hungry'
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 Syntax
 Subordination
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 relative clauses
 The following relative clauses are encircled by clitics indicating the
 subordination=20
=20
 'That' s=E9 + mi       {NB always downstep!}
 qohl=E0        s=E9    =E0-hlel=E8-0           mi
 man    SUB     1-see-3         SUB
 'The man that I see.'
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 'If'   co + co
 co     =EC-c=F2        gbi     @a      co,     =EC-gbi sha     kpwi=E0
 if     2-can   know    this    if,     2-know  too     much
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 other subordinations still need to be done
 other things like comparison also need to be done
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 Gbw=EC=E0 text
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 Wiw=E0hlel=E8kp=E8
 M-wiw=E0hlel=E8kp=E8 =F9-ndop' ik=F2t=F2 q'w=EA q=E8 ngwaw=E8-=EE qw=F2s=
e wiw=E0-=EE  =F9-hlel=E8-hl=EAl'.
 Shu ng'waw=E8, =F9-lwa=F2  hlw=E8obe ng=E0nya, =F9-mba-mb' ng'w=E1w=E8 k=
p=E8 a=F3 q'wuco
c'=F2gbi
 q=E8 kp'ac=E8 kp=E8.
 =D9-gbwa=F2kpo a=F3 =F9-lw=E8oqo =F9-hlwaada-=E2  a=F3 =F9-xwuu-=E2, a=F3=
 =F9-dwi=E0  dwa=F2 kp=E8
kwumu.
 M-w=F9asho =F9-kwi-kwi  c'wi kp=E8, a=F3 =F9-hlel=E8 hla gbe =F9-hlw=F9i=
q=F2:  "Lwa@=E0,
 ndwandw=E8. Gb=F4,  hl'w=E8obe x'w=E0d=E8 kp=E8 gbe =F9-gba kp'ixi, a=F3=
 =EC-nge=20
 w=F9=E1sh=F2 hlel=E8 gbe =F9-gba q'oqe?"
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 Wiw=E0-hlel=E8-kp=E8
 star-look-agent
 "The Astronomer"
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 M-wiw=E0hlel=E8kp=E8   =F9-ndop'       ik=F2t=F2       q'w=EA  q=E8    ngwaw=E8-=EE    qw=F2s=
e
 m-starlooker   3-use_to        go_out  past    loc     night-pl        during=20
=20
 wiw=E0-=EE             =F9-hlel=E8-hl=EAl'
 stars          3-observe (=3Dsee intensively)
 "An astronomer used to go out at night to observe the stars."
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 Shu    ng'waw=E8(q=E8),        =F9-lwa=F2              hlw=E8obe       ng=E0nya,       =F9-mba-mb'
 One    evening (in),   3-wander                suburb  while,  3-look_intens.
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 ng'w=E1w=E8    kp=E8   a=F3    q'wuco-0        c'=F2gbi        q=E8    kp'ac=E8        kp=E8.
 sky    loc     and     fall-noncntrl-3 well    in      accidently kp=E8.
 "One evening, as he wandered through the suburbs observing the starts
 intensively, he fell accidentally into a well."
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=20
=20
 =D9-gbwa=F2kpo a=F3    =F9-lw=E8oqo    =F9-hlwaada-=E2         a=F3    =F9-xwuu-=E2,=20
 3-lament               and     3-bewail        3-sore-pl               and     3-bruise-pl,
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 a=F3   =F9-dwi=E0      dwa=F2 kp=E8    kwumu.
 and    3-cry   help for        loudly.
 "While he lamented and bewailed his sores and bruises, and cried loudly
for
 help."
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=20
=20
 M-w=F9asho     =F9-kwi-kwi             c'wi    kp=E8,=20
 m-neighbor     3-run(walk_intens)      well    towards,
=20
 a=F3   3-hlel=E8       hla     gbe     =F9-hlw=F9iq=F2:        "lwa@=E0-0, ndwandw=E8."
 and    3-see   say     what    3-happen:       "Hark-imp, mister.
 "A neighbor ran to the well, and learning what had happened said: "Hark
ye,
 mister."
=20
=20
=20
 Gb=F4, hl'w=E8obe x'w=E0d=E8 kp=E8 gbe =F9-gba kp'ixi (q=E8), a=F3 =EC-=
nge=20
 why,   strive  pry     in      what    is-3nc  heaven  (loc),  and     2-do_neg
=20
 w=F9=E1sh=F2   hlel=E8 gbe     =F9-gba q'oqe   (q=E8)?
 Manage see     what    3-is    earth   (loc)?".
 "Why, in striving to pry into what is in heaven, do you not manage to se=
e
 what is on earth?".
=20
=20
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 Gbw=EC=E0 culture
 Some background to understand the Gbwia culture.
=20
 Geographic location
 The Gbwia live on the eastern peninsula of my conworls. They must have
been
 there for a very long time. They have no myths of an other homeland othe=
r
 than their present homeland.
 The ground is arid, except for the fertil oasisses (?) and the central
part
 of the peninsula.
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 Male culture
 The culture is dominated by men. Men have political and control warfare,
 trade, justice . Women have some social power, for examle they choose
their
 husband, not the other way around.
 Gbwia society is organised in clans, ranging in seize from a couple of
 dozen to about three or four thousand. Men are extremely loyal to their
 clans. This is one of the reasons that a nation has never arisen; there =
is
 too must animosity among the clans on the subject of political power. Th=
e
 most important and biggest of all clans are the Ndw=E1ndwe (aso the word=
 for
 'sir, 'mister').
 There is a complex system of changing clans (except fr marrying, which i=
s
 quite straightforward: women change side).
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 Animals an agriculture
 The Gbwia live mainly of animals an herding. Some agriculture is done in
 the oases and Central Gbwia land.
=20
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 Trade
 Although not living in the central part of the continent, Gbwia clans ha=
ve
 a large influence in trading and caravans (see > contacts with D=FCzg=FC=
r
 (under construction)).
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=20
 No writing, but tokens
 Gbwia people have never evolved a writing system. Borrowing scripts wasn=
't
 a success either, since Gbwia peculiarities (especially the feature tone=
)
 are hard to incorporate into those scripts. The Gbwia relay almost
 completely on two other systems : the storytellers and the token counter=
s.
 The token counters are men that count amounts of good (for trade), taxes
 and other kind of economical stuff. Forgetting or making errors is a
 serious crime severely punished, sometimes even by death when done
 deliberately.
 To facilitate remembrance, tokens (made of clay or wood) are just to kee=
p
 track of the count. The counters have different shapes, each shape
 indicating the sort of goods, the size indicating the number of goods. T=
he
 counters are kept in special bags. Theft of these bags is almost as
serious
 a crime as the theft of the properties the tokens represent.
 Some forms have the same 'meaning' all over Gbwia territory. E.g. the co=
ne
 stands for goats, a cube stands for salt etc.. Some forms are very rare
and
 the meaning of it is only known to the token counter that designed the
 forms.
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 Pictures
 Some people suggest that the pictures of the Gbwia are a sort of writing.
 Indeed do the pictures have a (deeper) meaning, but most of the time it =
is
 used as decoration, although some records mention the use of magic by
means
 of these pictures.
 Every clan and town has a picture of its own. These can often been seen =
on
 the token-bags.
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 Story tellers
 Story tellers have a high social position. Their job is to tell stories:
 legends of the past, riddles, amusing stories on feasts and parties and
 chronicles, announcements and news for towns and courts.
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 Staffs and status
 Every man in Gbwia society has a staff when the come of age (at about 15
 years). They make it themselves. The staff indicates the clan and social
 status of the owner. The biggest staffs with most ornaments belong to th=
e
 most powerful and influential people.
 The staff is not just a property of the owner (a man keeps his  staff al
 his life), staffs can also be associated with social and political
 functions (mayor, policeman, godfather, spokesman of the tribe/clan) so
one
 person can have several staffs.
 Staffs are also connected with honor. Making a statement when you
wear/bear
 your staff or making a promise is taken very seriously. Breaking that
 promise makes you fall in social hierarchy.
 Sometimes a man tells something, suddenly puts down his 'personal' staff=
,
 taking up the mayor staff and declare something and after that change
 staffs again. He thus illustrates that he made the statement not on
 personal title (he may even hint to the fact that he himself dislikes th=
e
 decision) but as a mayor.=20
=20
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 Religion
 There are several gods the Gbwia worship. The Gbwia religion is in betwe=
en
 the worship of the forces of nature / shamanism and polytheism.
 The 'church' is highly organized and there are several functions within
the
 organization, each having different rights (e.g. to perform rituals) and
 privileges and different obligations.
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