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Sister language to Zitwbata

From:Joe <joe@...>
Date:Sunday, March 17, 2002, 13:42
Ok, I've decided to give Zitwbata a sister language, tentatively called
North Zitubian, or Impalian.  Zitwbata has an odd system of consonantal
roots, the vowels defining

a) Case (in nouns)
b) Number (also in nouns)
c) Tense (in verbs)

I'll put up a grammatical sketch of zitwbata again some time.  But onto it's
sister language.

There are, in this case(no pun intended), 6 cases,

Nominative
Accusative
Genitive
Dative
Instrumental
Vocative

Now, the Zitwbata consonantal root system is not usable in this case,
instead it is an agglutinating language (not polysynthetic).  Suffixes
define the case and number, as follows:

Case:

Nominative (-i)
Accusative (-o)
Dative (-a)
Genitive (-i)
Instrumental (-u)
Vocative (-y)

Number is added afterwards:

Singular (-s)
Dual (-d)
Plural (-m)

Tense is inflected on the verb by means of a suffix:

past (-i)
Present (-o)
Future (-e)

I have a tree would be:

kogitso        hadis        edros
have.PST   1s.NOM   tree.ACC.s
/kogits@u hadIs Edros/

contrasted with Zitwbata:

kagoc       ahwt          itwr
have.PST  1s.NOM  tree.ACC.s
/kagotS ahyt ityr/

The Phonology:
                     Stop Fricative Approximant
                     v uv   v     uv   v              uv

Glottal                            h
Uvular
Velar              g k           K
Palatal                                   j
Aleovelar       t    d     (s)  s    r
Dental                             T
Labiodental                      f
Bilabial            p   b         P

K, T, and P are not the 'official' transliteration, but the net friendly
one.  After a voiced consonant, /s/ changes to /z/, but stays as {s}. for
aesthetic reasons.


i - /I/ or /i/ at end of words
e - /E/ or /e/ at end of words
o - /o/ or /@u/ at end of words
a - /a/
u - /U/ or /u/ at end of words
y - /y/


Other grammar:

All other grammar is applied by means of a prefix, and propostions are small
words, ending in /o/

epobi          hadis        habos              abobodsus
make.PST   1s.NOM inanim.ACC.s   brick.INS.s
I made it with a brick
/epobi hadIs habos ab@bodzus/