New Language: Ano~'him (ACTUAL) Vair long

Hello again, all. Last you saw of me, I'd been working on a rather blah IE style
lang. Ish. Thingy. Right. Moving on, I've descided to begin work upon a rather
stranger language, that is my first experiment with case and tone.

The phonology is: (in CXS)
CONSONANTS:
Fricatives:
/f/ /v/ /T/ /s/ /z/ /S/ /Z/ /h/

Plosives:
/p/ /b/ /t_d/ /t/ /d/ /?/

Approximates:
/P/ /j/ /H/

Lateral approximates:
/l/ /L/

Rhotics:
/r/ /4/

Nasals:
/m/ /n/ /J/ /N/

VOWELS:
Singles:
/i/ /I/ /i\/ /E/ /&/ /a/ /6/ /@/ /u/ /U/ /u\/ /O/

Diphthongs:
/ia/ /ai/ /E@/ /ii\/ /aU/ /U@/ /uu\/ /O6/

The tones are high, mid, low, rising, and falling.

Phonotactics:

Tone indicates what I call 'mood' on verbs and case on nouns.
Vowels after a nasal are nasalized. This is not distinctive.
/h/ cannot be word final, /t_d/ cannot be word initial
/?/ only appears before initial vowels

Stress is distinctive. With verbs and adverbs, stress falls on the first syllable.
With nouns, it falls on last of penultimate syllable.

Note: I use pipes to indicate orthography. Is this correct?

|a| is [&] initial, [6] unstressed, [a] else
|e| is [@] unstressed, [E] else
|i| is [I] initial, [i\] unstressed, [i] else
|u| is [U] initial, [u\] unstressed, [u] else

Available syllable structures are CV, VC, VCC, CVC, CVCC
CV and VC are used only for grammatical particles.

Orthography:

Fricatives:
/f/ |f| /v/ |v| /T/ |c| /s/ |s| /z/ |z| /S/ |j| /Z/ |jh| /h/ |h|

Plosives:
/p/ |p| /b/ |b| /t_d/ |th| /t/ |t| /d/ |d|

Approximates:
/P/ |w| /j/ |wh| /H/ |y|

Lateral approximates:
/l/ |l| /L/ |lh|

Rhotics:
/4/ |r| /r/ |rh|

Nasals:
/m/ |m| /n/ |n| /J/ |nh| /N/ |ng|

Tones are indicated by diacritics.
High is an acute, low is grave, rising is macron, falling is a hachek.

Now, on to grammar.

It is a free order language (my first!) due to the cases, though it is generally SVO
It has four grammatical genders: sentient being, non-sentient being, 'thing' (ie
non-sentient, non-living object), and ideas. Each is indicated by the first
vowel in the first syllable of the word.

|-i-| indicates sentient being
|-u-| indicates non sentient being
|-a-| indicates thing
|-o-| indicates ideas

Cases are indicated by a suffix. All of my cases were borrowed (read stolen) from a
prominent Slaviconlang (if you recognize it, cookies at you, if not, you should
to join Slaviconlang *plugplug*)

The cases are:
Nominative: /-OT/ This indicates the subject of a sentence.
Vocative: /-O_HT/ This is for addressing people or objects.
Accusative: /-O_LT/ This indicates the object of a sentence.
Dative: /-O_RT/ This indicates the indirect object of a sentence.
Instrumentive: /-O_FT/ This indicates instrument or means.
Genitive: /-a_HT/ This indicates possession
Locative: /-aT/ This indicates where lative nouns are to go.
Benefactive: /-a_LT/ This indicates the recipient, or the one who takes benefit of an action
Commutative: /-a_RT/ This indicates accompaniment
Elative: /-i_HT/ This indicates movement out of a location
Illative: /-iT/ This indicates movement into a location
Ablative: /-i_LT/ This indicates movement away from a location
Allative: /-i_RT/ This indicates movement toward a location

Plurality is expressed by changing /T/ to /t_d/ on the case marker.

There are only pronouns for first and second person. For third person pronouns, one
uses demonstratives. First person plural has both inclusive and exclusive
forms. Second person pronouns are marked for gender.

Pronouns:

1sg: |uf| /?Uf/
1pl inc: |pe| /pE/
1pl exc: |to| /tO/
2sg: |s-| /s-/ (Vowel marks grammatical gender)
2pl: |j-| /S-/ (Vowel marks grammatical gender)

Cases are determined by tone:

mid = nom, high = voc, low = acc, rising = dat, falling = inst.

Others are indicated by the tone and the voicing of the consonant

mid, voiced = gen, high voiced = ben, low voiced = com

Demonstratives have a two way distance distinction, and they express speaker listener
orientation, and gender distinction. Vowels indicate gender. To pluralize,
voice the last consonant.

Near speaker sg - |rh-t| /r-t/
Far from speaker sg - |r-t| /4-t/
Near listener sg - |l-t| /l-t/
Far from listener sg - |lh-t| /L-t/
Near both sg - |w-t| /P-t/
Far from both - |wh-t| /j-t/

Now, onto verbs. There are only three verbs: To be, to do, and to go. There are
five base tenses: Far past, near past, present, near future, and far future.
They are suffixed onto the verb.

Fpast: |uu| /uu\/
Npast: |ue| /U@/
Present: |oa| /O6/
Nfuture: |ia| /ia/
Ffuture: |ii| /ii\/

 There are also 'complicated' tenses: constant, finished action, gerund,
abiliative (can do) desirative (want to), imperative (have to) and infinitive.
They are suffixed onto the verb.

Constant: |ijh| /iZ/ This is used only with infinitive verbs, is after the inf. marker.
Finished action: |ujh| /uZ/ This is used with either far or near past tense
Gerund: |ojh| /OZ/ This is used with the second of a pair of verbs, the first
indicating time. The verbs are always the same.
Abilative: |ij| /iS/ This can be used with any tense, same rules as gerund.
Desirative: |uj| /uS/ This can only be used with past and present tenses,same rules as gerund.
Imperative: |oj| /OS/ This can be used with any tense, same rules as gerund.
Infinitive: |us| /us/

 The four moods are statement, interrogative, command, and refutive. These are
represented by tones. High tone is statement, low tone is interrogative, rising
tone is command, falling is refutative.

Verbs mutate for person, and are highly irregular. All examples are in infinitive.

To go mutations: (d = demonstrative)

1sg: |hawus| /h6Pus/
1pl inc: |awhus| /?&jus/
1pl exc: |hawhus| /h6jus/
2sg: |alus| /?&lus/
2pl: |alhus| /?&Lus/
Dsg: |arus| /?&4us/
Dpl: |arhus| /?&rus/

To do mutations:

1sg: |jacus| /S6Tus/
1pl inc: |athus| /?&t_dus/
1pl exc: |jathus| /S6t_dus/
2sg: |sacus| /s6Tus/
2pl: |sathus| /s6t_dus/
dsg: |zacus| /z6Tus/
dpl: |zathus| /z6t_dus/

To be mutations:

1sg:|ponhu~s| /pOJu~s/
1pl inc:|ongu~s| /?ONu~s/
1pl exc:|pongu~s| /pONu~s/
2sg: |fonu~s| /fOnu~s/
2pl: |fonhu~s| /fOJu~s/
dsg: |vomus| /vOmu~s/
dpl: |vonu~s| /vOnu~s/


Any opinions? Likey? Dislikey? I apologize for the regularity, but Ano~'him is just beginning.

-The (apologetic) Sock



		
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