YANC: An as-yet unnamed consonant-root language

Here's a little sketch I made one day while bored in class. I haven't
had time to really sit down and think it through, so any comments on its
consistency are much appreciated (or if anything I've written doesn't
make sense). It's an agglutinating consonant-root language. I decided
not to go merely with tri-consonant roots, because it strikes me as
quite limiting. I'm planning, however, on making the majority of the
non-basic roots (i.e. "to be", "to go", etc.) tri-consonantal.

As above, it's agglutinating, with nominal OSV typology. I'll get to the
cool stuff (circumfixes) later on in this message.

The phonology:

Stops: p t d k g q ?
Frics: f T D s z S Z X g" h h"
Nasals: m n N n"
Apprx: w l * j r"

g" - voiced uvular fric. (IPA turned capital R)
h" - voiced glottal fric. (IPA hooktop h)
n" - velar nasal (IPA capital N)
r" - uvular trill (IPA capital R)

Vowels:

i i: I I:       U U: u u:
e e:                 o o:
E E:            @    O O:
a a:                    A A:

As you can see, all vowels are differentiated by length.

The orthography:

The consonants that are represented as unadorned normal Latin characters
in IPA are the same (p t d k g q f s z h m n w l j *). The others:

/?/ - {'}
/T/ = {c}
/D/ = {zc}
/S/ = {x}
/Z/ = {zx}
/X/ = {kk}
/g"/ = {gg}
/h"/ = {hh}
/N/ = {n'g}
/n"/ = {n'q}
/r"/ = {rr}

The vowels are written as in IPA, with fronting or raising (as
appropriate) represented by an acute. Long vowels are just two of the
same vowel next to each other. So:

í íí    i ii    ú úú u uu
é éé                    ó óó
e ee                    o oo
á áá                    a aa

Schwa is an ê (e-circumflex), and does not differentiate length.

I'm quite sure that my diacritics won't come through on anyone else's
computer, but trust me, those are diaeriseis.

So far I've only got three roots:

?n - "being"
drs - "writing"
lZf - "speaking"

?n is irregular, even for the two-consonant roots. The verb forms by
taking E in the singular and e: in the plural (person in indicated in
the circumfix (see below)).

sg: ?En, pl: ?e:n

The present circumfix is {g- -null}. Before a glottal stop, a short
schwa is introduced between the {g} of the present circumfix and the /?/
for ease of pronunciation. Person is indicated on the final part of the
fix (which, for ?n, are still irregular):

singular:       1P -E: 2P -A:   3P -A?o:
plural: 1P -a: 2P -Oso: 3P u?u:

Conjugation of the verb "to be" present tense:

1PS: g@?EnE:    gê'enee
2PS: g@?EnA:    gê'enaa
3PS: g@?EnA?o:  gê'ena'óó
1PP: g@?e:nE:   gê'éénáá
2PP: g@?e:nA:   gê'éénosóó
3PP: g@?e:nA?o: gê'éénu'uu

Regular verb-roots inflect:

sg: Ci:CuC              di:*us  li:Zuf
pl: CiCCo:              di*so:  liZfo:

Regular person inflections:

sing. & plur. 1P -o: 2P -E 3P -e:

the {g} of the present circumfix absorbs the voicing characteristics of
the first consonant in the verb, and becomes an affricate or
simultaneous articulation with the first consonant. Glottal stops are
introduced into the plurals to separate root vowel from inflection. "to write":

1PS: gdi:*uso:  gdíírusóó
2PS: gdi:*usE   gdííruse
3PS: gdi:*use:  gdííruséé
1PP: gdi*so:?o: gdírsóó'óó
2PP: gdi*so:?E  gdírsóó'e
3PP: gdi*so:?e: gdírsóó'éé

Regular present participles form in ACCi:oC (no glottal stop between i:
and o):

Ad*i:os AlZi:of

So to say "I am speaking" (the most complex sentence I can say so far):

gAlZi:ofEnE:

morphological breakdown:        g -     alZi:of -       EnE:
                                        PRES    speaking        be-1PS
galzxííófenee

Whaddaya think?

--
Daniel Seriff
microtonal@sericap.com
http://members.tripod.com/microtonal

Si iterum insanum me appelles, oculum alterum tuum edem.