a rough sketch of Kur
From: | azathoth500 <azathoth500@...> |
Date: | Monday, December 6, 2004, 23:41 |
Lately I've been working on a family of languages related to my other
two conlangs, Igur (http://z500.8m.net/conlangs/igur/index.html) and
Noth. This family, which I've named Nazya, is tonal, unlike the Teq
family (both developed from a protolanguage with monosyllabic roots).
The first language in the Nazya family is Zat. This grammar is for its
immediate descendent, Kur. The high tone is marked by an acute accent,
the low tone by a grave accent, and nasalized vowels by a tilde. "y"
is pronounced /i\/, and "j" is pronounced /j/. This grammar also has
some unicode for Y-grave and A-acute-tilde (high tone nasal A). Sorry
if the tables I made are messed up. I made them in notepad with tabs.
word order: VOS
The Nazya branch split off early, before the development of noun
classes. It also retained the regular first and second person
pronouns, while the Teq branch used the demonstrative pronouns. It
also developed tones and some consonant clusters.
pronouns
nom acc dat gen loc abl ins ill trm
I hè hèk hèn hí hìd gè am swè hùd
you hàt hàsk haz has had ga bàt swàt hàd
this zi zik zin ziya zìd zìg zim adzi zo
that sli slik slin sliya slìd slíg slíd asli slo
that ti tik tin sa sìd tìg mi asti tos
-----
These dzu zu zem iz zo oz zum zem zi
Those slim slu slum sle sti slog smu sem si
verbs
infinitive: wu + stem + y
stative: Je + stem
aorist: Hi + stem w/ ablauted vowel (i > e > a, u > o > a)
wukeky "to taste" > hikak- "tasted"
Note: Aorist is an aspect and does not denote the passage of time,
only the completion of an action
participle: stem + juk (following vowel) or suk (following consonant):
wukeky "to taste" > keksuk "tasted"
applicative: ku(common patient)/ki(neuter patient) + conjugated verb
wuzíblỳy "to sleep" zús "on" zíplỳk "bed, mat"
zíblỳzu zíplỳkid zús hè sleep-1st bed-LOC on I
kizíblỳzu zíplỳkuk hè zús APP-sleep-1st bed-ACC I on
must: uk + nonpast
(yes, the stative and applicative forms are inspired by recent
conversations on the list. I thought they'd make for relatively exotic
forms compared to Igur and Noth)
irregular verbs (more to come)
Wusay "to be"
non-past
hè wã́ dzu tetsú
hàt wùt slim tetsísly
zi tsèk
sli tsès
ti tsès
regular verbs
Wuhàty "to see"
non-past
hè gì-hàt dzu hàt-iz
hàt hàt-tù slim hàt-id
sli di-hàt
ti hàt-tu
zi hàt-za
nouns
2 genders, arbitrarily named common and neuter
back vowel roots: common
front vowel roots: neuter
neuter
singular plural
nominative m(a)- -u
accusative -uk -uwa
dative -un -ud
genitive -ja -dzu
locative -id -zu
ablative -ga -og
instrumental -mem -wa
illative -z -ed
terminative -uz -oi
common
singular plural
nominative -an -om
accusative -ak -u
dative -en -em
genitive -ja -es
locative -id -zi
ablative -ga -og
instrumental -m -mu
illative -sm -sem
terminative -od -oi
some cases have weak forms with related functions:
weak nominative -> predicate nominative
weak genitive -> appositive
Weak declensions are formed by a voicing of the initial consonant, or
prefixing with h- and nasalizing the first vowel if it begins with a
vowel.
Some example sentences, with equivalents in Igur and Noth:
Tell my brother Sila, that he must find the pot
Kur: Zútù Silun dhiblyja hí, ukzùtu geblyuk.
Igur: Zügit Nusilni, goi gyüva dhi ifkyüzl cuk.
Noth: Zigit Silnan dhyoidkno, makyoidit dos dho dwi gyoidka.
My name is Sila.
Kur: Tsèk blathan hí Zilan.
Igur: Suvath sic Nusila tai.
Noth: Vöthso shis Silna tan.
Don't go to that room.
Kur: Hũ̀ deslytù tukod ti.
Igur: Dakyügli li gu ivit.
Noth: Do ivit kyoidal ti.
Some cognates (all listed in nominative case):
Hũ̀, with Igur "gu" and Noth "do"
Blath-an, with Igur "su-vath" and Noth "vöth-so"
Ma-dhibly, with Igur "nu-dhyüv" and Noth "dhyoid-no"
Ma-gebly, with Igur "gyüv" and Noth "gyoid-wa"