LONG: Latest Wenetaic Stuff
| From: | Paul Bennett <paul.bennett@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Monday, October 25, 1999, 16:00 |
|---|
Well, I'd like to say "you asked for it, folks..." but the true anwser =
is "not
enough of y'all tried to stop me..." <G>, and here is the latest greate=
st
Wenetaic. It's not "finished", but it's "improved".
/*
Not all examples (especially those at the end) are "fixed" to conform
with the new grammar yet. All examples that have been "dotted" are
guaranteed to be fixed, some or none of the others may have been.
Having bought Trasks Dictionary of Grammatical Terms (Initial
reaction: "ohhhhh .... my .... gosh!"), I'm going to start relexing
this description as and when I find "official" terms to replace my
home-grown gibberish.
Main Headings are preceded by two blank lines, subheadings are preceede=
d
by ">".
Meta-notes are surrounded by "C-style blockquotes" (</*> and <*/>)
I've just realised that tone is a much more significant feature than I'=
d
anticipated, especially in relative clauses. More research is required=
.
Is this lang incorporating, polysynthetic or agglutinative?
By combining Trask 1993 and Daniels & Bright 1996, I think I may have
fixed a lot of the phonetic descriptions, which can only be a good thin=
g!
Fixed Pitch required throughout for proper readability.
All comments welcome.
*/
Phonology
Phonological terms are as classified by native speakers, rather than
being "close" phonetic descriptions. They suffice to describe the
phonemes used, and are only mentioned in this document (outside this
section) in the /*as yet nonexistent*/ section on "Etymology, and Sound=
Change Rules".
Orthographic ASCII-IPA
Front Mid Back Fr Md Bk
Plosive p t k p t k
Aspirate ph th kh p_h t_h k_h
Nasal m n ng m n N
Sibilant s s' c s S tS
Liquid w r y w 4 j
Open i e a
Closed u =EB o
L Open ii ee aa
L Closed uu =EB=EB oo
/4/ is something like /t/, /d/, /r/ and /l/ all rolled into one.
Several English dialects use this consonant between unstressed vowels
as an allophone of /t/ and /d/.
The "native" Wewnet alphabetical order can be seen by reading the grid
above in row-by-row order, except it begins with the Plosive and
Aspirate rows interleaved, ie it starts "p, ph, t, th, k, kh, m, n ..."=
Terms in the lexicon are listed in this order.
Within the lexicon, bracketed parts of roots are listed in the order
they would appear if the brackets were not present, regardless of the
spelling of any particular form of the root. For example the lexicon
pairs the(kha), thekhu and sungi, su(ng=EB) occur in that order.
>Vowels
Doubled vowels are Long, marked (L) in the table above. Here is /* a g=
uess at
*/ a list of appropriate IPA values.
i smallcap-i
e turned-smallcap-3
a turned-a
u turned-smallcap-omega
=EB schwa
o turned-script-a
/* The above description of the vowels is a guesstimate from someone
who has never officially studied phonetics. Audio files of the whole
phoneme inventory _WILL_ be posted on the Web, I promise. */
>Digraphs
These are alternate symbols for the digraphs
s' s-acute
ng n-hook
>Consonant Clusters
Two rules are present which seem to make most consonant clusters
pronounceable. /* These are thanks to comments made by Nik Taylor on
the CONLANG mailing list about clusters like /et_hke/ being hard to
pronounce */
1. Post-stop nasals are realised as voiced stops at their original
POA, ie {etnge} -> [etge]
2. Pre-stop aspirated consonants are realised as fricatives near
their original POA, ie {ethke} -> [eTke]
The actual fricatives they become are:
{ph} -> [f]
{th} -> [T]
{kh} -> [C](SAMPA) the sound in German "ich"
These rules apply (in that order) when going from {...} to [...], ie
{ethnge} -> [eTge]
These are the only circumstances where the abovementioned phones are
produced. Where the cluster is still "awkward" a minimal euphonic [@]
is inserted.
Root Formation
There are four different syllable structures for roots, refered to as
minimal, reduced, regular and extended. The following should serve as
an explanation of their formation.
Basic root (conceptually) : C1 V1 C2 V2
NS: The same
NP: C1 V1 C1 C2 V2
VI: C1 V1 C2 C1 V2
VC: C1 V1 C2 V1 C1 V2
For minimal roots, C2 and V2 are omitted from the NS form, and C2 is
omitted in the NP form. The Lexicon form is always "C1V1(C2V2)"
Reduced roots work in essentially the same way as Regular roots, except=
the initial C1 is ommited. The Lexicon form is always "V1C2V2(C1)"
Regular roots are as above. The Lexicon form is always "C1V1C2V2"
Extended roots follow the same pattern, except non-initial C1 is
replaced by a "C3". The Lexicon form is C1V1C2V2(C3)
>Basic Paradigm /*There's a touch of Arabic in here, but it started
life as a PIE e-stem vs o-stem thing*/
NS NP VI VC LX
Minimal so sosu sorsu sorosu so(ru)
Reduced ame arme amre amare ame(r)
Regular taki tatki takti takati taki
Extended moru motru mortu morotu moru(t)
NS - Noun Singular
NP - Noun Plural
VI - Verb Instant (or complete)
VC - Verb Continous
LX - The way the root is presented in the lexicon.
Affixes and Word Order
>Words have a basic structure of
Root+Particle+Flexion+Suffix
where
a. The root may be omitted. Words that do not contain a root are also
sometimes referred to as "immediate"s, as they have an immediate (i.e.
direct) effect on the semantics of a sentence without "going via a root=
".
b. Several particles may be used in one word.
c. Flexion indicates the Gender of the root (if it's a noun), or of the=
agent of the root (if it's a verb)
d. The relative or subordinate clauses that refer to a word will "break=
"
the word, and are inserted between the root and the particle. When thi=
s
happens the structure becomes:
Root1+Flexion1 Root2+Particle2+Flexion2 Particle1+Flexion1
If Word1 would normally take no particle, the "neutral particle" of a-
(plus flexion) is used as a kind of "resumptive pronoun".
e. Suffixes are "flat", ie they take no other modifiers, eg "-khe" whic=
h
marks the meaning "and". They always come right at the end of a word.
>Particles have a basic structure of
Flexion+Position+Case
where
a. Flexion is in agreement with what the Particle refers to, not
necessarily the root of this word.
b. Position shows where in real or conceptual space the meaning takes
place (in relation to the Flexion).
c. Case is a syllable such as "ta" (attributive), or "ru" (locational).=
d. Any (or all) of the three parts of a Particle may be omitted if not
required.
Flexion /* originally based on Elamite, but they've lost a lot of the
ambiguity in classification */
Flexions are used to represent either or both of the person and/or
gender of a word. They are also referred to as Genders. Where the
mark .g<x>. (ie .g1. .g2.) occurs (often in interlinears) it refers
to a flexion, the number used refers to the position of the gender
in the following list.
1 Speaker -m-
2 Adressee -s-
3 Human -t-
4 Animal -r-
5 Inanimate -p-
6 Abstract -k-
In effect, there's a two-way branching going on, where one leg of the
branch leads to a Flexion, the other leads to another branch. Each
level of the tree represents a state of Animacy/Person that is more and=
more similar to the Speaker.
?-Abstract (k)
\
(Concrete)--Inanimate (p)
\
(Animate)--Animal (r)
\
(Human)--Somebody Else (t)
\
(Me & You)--You (s)
\
Me (m)
E.g., moru.p is "a corpse", moru.k is "a death", moru.t.s'e.k is "his
death", mortu.k is the infinitive "to die", and morotu.s is "you are
dying".
In word-final or word-initial position, the flexion -k- may be elided
in colloquial speech. In medial position, it is always used.
Positionals
-a- Near
-o- Far
-u- Apparent
-=EB- Obscure
-e- Probable/Believed
-i- Improbable/Disbelieved
The positional -a- is used when no positional is required (thanks to
context, or for cases where position is irrelevant), and is elided in
non-formal texts (both verbal and written). If any other positional
used is completely obvious from context, it too may be elided in
colloquial texts.
Note:- except when they occur as positionals, vowels are not normally
elided.
Cases (used in forming particles)
>Gene(ra)tive (these all take the -a- Positional, almost always elided)=
s'e - possessive (normal genetive, something which is possessed)
ya - trapping (an habitual or essential possession)
pa - familial (technically used for a family member, also extended to
very close friends. When used to or of people and things outside the
previous definition, it implies a sense of "solidarity" or
"cameraderie").
tuu - partative (a section of an uncountable substance, or made of
something)
ce - component (a distinguishable, seperate part of an object, or
member of a countable group)
so - produced (that which is made by something)
nu - productive (that which forms something)
>Attributive
ta - absolute attributive (used to form similes, metaphors, and so
forth)
re - relative attributive (marks the noun which is being compared
=
against. "x y-arek" means "as x as y", "x y-orek" means "x-er than y")
/* the above is misleading gibberish, please see below */
The relative attributive <re> takes the -k- gender as agent, and
attaches to the attribute to form the superlative.
Examples of Attributives:
(ap) makhetap - (it is) big
(ap) makhetap Yonutrek - (it is) as big as John
(ap) makhetap Yonutorek - (it is) bigger than John
(ap) makhekrep - (it is) the biggest of its kind
(ap) makheprep - (it is) about average size compared to an anaphoric se=
t
(ap) makheporep - (it is) the biggest of an anaphoric set
/* "Ar makhertar Yonutcerorek" could be used as a very personal complim=
ent,
though one that would probably cause mixed emotions <GGG> */
>Essive /*provisional term, the first term from Trask that I used*/
taa - Essive
Wenetaic is essentially zero-copula; <taa> is used to make some forms
that take copula in other languages and that aren't marked in any
other way in Wenetaic. In the translation of the English <being tired,=
he slept> (meaning <he slept because he was tired>), <being tired>
is formed using the essive, and could be translated back to english as
<the tired (one) slept>. The essive marks forms sometimes translated
by verbal nouns and nominal verbs, or by adjective/adverbial
constructions. The essive is also used to form group nouns from plural=
nouns, for example <mamnu.r> (the men) vs <mamnu.taa.r> (men in general=
).
>Tense
ng=EB=EB - past tense
ngoo - future tense
When combined with positionals, the following specific meanings result:=
ang=EB=EB, angoo - as in English "recent past", "near future".
ong=EB=EB, ongoo - as in English "ancient past", "distant future".
=EBng=EB=EB, =EBngoo - "mythical" past, "prophetic" future
ung=EB=EB, ungoo - "obvious", "well known" past and future
eng=EB=EB, engoo - something like "IMHO", or "IIRC"
ing=EB=EB, ingoo - yet to be fully deciphered, often used when describ=
ing
enemy propoganda and non-orthodox religious beliefs
Tenses can be compounded infinitely, each tense mark being taken as
reletive to its antecedent. For example <takti.m.yi.t.=EB.ng=EB=EB.t.a=
.ngoo.t>
{VI.{G1.ACC}.{G3.OBS.PAST}.{G3.NEAR.FUT}.G3} means literally "in the ne=
ar
future of the mythical past, he touches me", but translates as "in the
mythical past, he was about to touch me".
/* It strikes me that, as tenses may take independant flexions, Wenetai=
c
may well work nicely as a lang for time-travellers. Hmmm... Now I thi=
nk
about it, this actually ties in well with other features of the lang...=
*/
>Location /*long and complex history, basically inspired by hearing abo=
ut a
similar feature in some North American natlangs*/
yi - directional (roughly equivalent to Dative Case)
ru - locational (roughly equivalent to Accusative Case)
These combine with Positionals in obvious ways, except for -e- and -i-,=
about
which more research is required. Available informants (and attested te=
xts) show
these forms to be very rare, and give a large range of inconsistent mea=
nings to
them.
>Truth Value /* check the CONLANG list archives towards the end of 1998=
for a
list of contributors, meng=EB=EBmakh=EBk this thread ran and ran */
khu - definately true
kh=EB - seemingly/probably/partly true
y=EB - indeterminate truth/falsehood
th=EB - seemingly/probably/partly false
thu - definately false
Positionals are used with the above to show evidentiality, ie how/why o=
ne
knows/thinks that this is the truth value.
akhu, akh=EB, etc - personal experience
okhu, okh=EB, etc - reported experience, imparted knowledge
ukhu, ukh=EB, etc - deduced from plentiful evidence
=EBkhu, =EBkh=EB, etc - implied from scant evidence
ekhu, ekh=EB, etc - taken on faith, generally accepted
ikhu, ikh=EB, etc - generally accepted, but disputed "here & now"
>Volitional - /*thanks for insipration to Sally Caves, Matt Pearson and=
Larry
Schelin, all on the CONLANG list*/
w=EB - deals with the desire to do/be something in various ways
aw=EB - want to
ow=EB - fail to
uw=EB - appear to
=EBw=EB - pretend not to / secretively
ew=EB - "because it's the right/expected/honorable thing to do"
iw=EB - "for no particular/discernable reason", spontaneously
Interrogatives /*inspiration from E-o and the Japanese particle <ka>*/
These prefix the sentances, clauses or words to which they apply, or fo=
rm words
for simple questions by taking flexion.
ke - "yes-no" questions. ("ket?" means "is it him?")
kha - "yes-no" questions, where one is soliciting an affirmative respon=
se.
kii - WH-questions. ("kiit?" means "which of them?")
Affirmative/Negative
Evidentials are used to form standard affirmative/negative responses. =
These can
be combined with or replaced by restating the word about which the ques=
tion was
asked, with <-ne> to show the negative.
The word <yaa> is used to give a kind of "grudging" agreement, or an ag=
reement
where the respondent has no pertinent evidence to form an opinion.
The particle <ru> is used when forming pronouns used to point out the a=
nswer to
a <kii> question.
Suffixes - are used almost exactly the same way as if they were prepose=
d to
their associated word in English.
/*main sources are the Latin and PIE natlangs*/
-ne Not
-khe And
-ra Additive Or (x yra zra =3D one or more of x y z)
-co Exlusive Or (x yco zco =3D exactly one of x y z)
(w xco yra zco =3D w (x yra)co zco =3D one or both of x y or one of w z=
)
(w xra yco zra =3D w (x yco)ra zra)
Pronomials
Pronouns are formed as particles specifying the pronomial function.
Relative Clauses
/* This section is an expansion and clarification (hopefully) of the st=
atements
made under "Word Order". They are culled from a response to a request =
by
Mathias Lassailly about this subject on the CONLANG mailing list. Math=
ias'
original questions are quoted with ">".*/
There are a number of caveats, most notably, that some of the nouns inv=
olved
have been given "incorrect" genders in order to better illustrate the e=
ffects in
play.
> rel. subject:
> "The dog that saw the cat was large."
kuni.t kato.r phithphe.r.yi.t a.t makhme.t
dog.g3 cat.g4 see.g4.DAT.g3 0.g3 be-big.g3
> rel. object:
> "The dog saw the cat that killed the mouse."
kuni.t kato.r musi.p mortu.p.ru.r a.r a.t phithphe.r.yi.t
dog.g3 cat.g4 mouse.g5 kill.g5.ACC.g4 0.g4 0.g3 see.g4.DAT.g3
> nested:
> "The dog that saw the cat that killed the mouse that was large drank
> from the river that John put the poison in."
I had to break this down into its component parts to translate it, so I=
'll show
them here:
1) musip makhmep - the big mouse
2) kator 1 mortupyir ar - the cat that kills 1
3) kunit 2 phithpheryit at 4 phowpheprut - the dog that sees 2 drinks 4=
4) purop Yonus patopayis ap - the river that John poisons
kuni.t, kato.r musi.p makhme.p mortu.p.ru.r a.r phithphe.r.y=
i.t
dog.g3 cat.g4 mouse.g5 be-big.g5 kill.g5.ACC.g4 0.g4 see.g4.DAT.g=
3
a.t, puro.p, Yonu.s pato.p.a.yi.s a.p, phowphe.p.ru.t
0.g3 river.g5 John.g2 sickness.g5.near.DAT.g2 0.g5 eat/drink.g5.AC=
C.g3
> rel. indirect object:
> "The dog that John gave the ball to."
Technically, this is:
kuni.t para.t.yi.p Yonu.s inri.t.yi.s a.p (a.t)
dog.g3 ball.g3.DAT.g5 John.g2 move.g3.DAT.g2 0.g5 (0.g3)
Colloqiually, it would be:
kuni.t Yonu.s para.t.yi.s (a.t)
dog.g3 John.g2 ball.g3.DAT.g2 (0.g3)
The (0.g3) would only be included if this phrase was itself part of a R=
el. Cl.
> rel. oblique:
> "The mouse that the cat chewed on." or,
musi.p kato.r phowphe.p.ru.r (a.p)
mouse.g5 cat.g4 eat/drink.g5.ACC.g4 (0.g4)
> "The cat that the dog was bigger than."
kato.r kuni.t makhme.r.re.t (a.r)
cat.g4 dog.g3 be-big.g4.REL-ATT.g3 (0.g4)
> rel. posessor:
> "The dog saw the cat whose teeth were huge."
kuni.t kato.r thethni.r.ce.p makhme.ta.p a.r
dog.g3 cat.g4 teeth.g4.COMP.g5 be-big.EMPH-ATT.g5 0.g4
phithphe.r.yi.t
see.g4.DAT.g3
Examples
The best way to give a rough sketch is to demonstrate a few sample utte=
rences
tatki.s.ce.m.o.yi.s! - An imperetive meaning <get your hands off me!>
taki.m.o.yi.s! - The same (the meaning is more ambiguous), more colloqu=
ially and
urgently.
mekhe.s.s'e.p.tuu.p - some of your milk
mekhe.s.ya.p.tuu.p - (the same, to someone who's stock-in-trade was mil=
k)
mekhe.p.tuu.s.s'e.p - the [part of the milk] you own, ie "your portion =
of milk"
mekhep phow=EBrsop tuup - some of the cow's milk [2]
mekheptuus - you divide the milk (this shows a difference between bound=
and
unbound particles, ie bound particles imply a more "verb-like" function=
, unbound
particles also imply a relative, clarifying or modifying clause has bee=
n
inserted)
phosk=EBrsom - my words
phosk=EBrtaam - I (am) the speaker [3a]
(at) w=EBkurtat - he is like a wolf [3b]
as taktitngootng=EB=EBt - he was about to touch you [4]
as taktitng=EB=EBtngoot - he is about to have touched you [4]
mekhep phow=EBrsop tuup inripang=EB=EBpangoot - he is about to have tak=
en the cow's
milk
[1] Truth/Evidentiality forms do not imply any specific tense relation
[2] Note the final -p in _phow=EB.r-a.nu.p_, in this compound genetive,=
marking
agreement with lekhep, although this is the unmarked word-order for thi=
s type of
construction
[3] Parenthesised word not required. [3a] A comma could replace the (am=
)
[4] The forms _arus takti..._ can be used for explicitness or emphasis =
if needed
=
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