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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"