Re: New Language

The last few days, I've been sketching out a new language, the Traders'
Language (kok Nak zox li"mbu).

Phonology
Stops
P  T  RT C  K
B  D  RD J  G
Nasal
M  N  RN NH N~
Fricatives
F  S  RS CH X
V  Z  RZ JH GH
Aproximates
W  R' RR' Y
Lat. Aproximates
   L  RL  LH

T, etc. are alveolar
R indicates retroflex (thus <rt> =3D /t,/) note: when two retroflex sound=
s
occur together, only the first is marked as retroflex, thus <rts> is
/t,s,/, the reason for this is that retroflex sounds are never followed
by alveolar sounds, so that /t,s/ would be impermissible.
R' is an apico-alveolar aproximate (or trill in some dialects), while
rr' is a retroflex aproximate (the apostrophe is to prevent <ar'ta> from
being misread as /at,a/, when it is /ar\a/
Ch may also be written =E7 (c-cedilla), my normal practice in writing.
N~ is usually written =D1 (n-tilde)
C, J, Nh, Ch, Jh, Y, and Lh are all palatal, <lh> and <nh> being taken
from Portuguese orthography.  Some dialects drop lateralness (is that a
word?), altho in those dialects, r' and rr' are both trills/taps,
retaining the distinction between r'/l and rr'/rl
In some dialects, velar sounds become palatal when followed or preceded
by front vowels, so that ko" becomes co"
Syllables are C(apr)V(C), and roots are usually monosyllabic

Vowels
i u"    i" u
 e o"   e" o
   a"   a

i" and e" are back unrounded vowels.
a =3D /A/
a" =3D /a/ or /&/

Vowel harmony is by backness

Stress is on the first syllable of nouns, and on the first syllable of
the root for verbs and pronouns

Nouns have two cases, nominative and oblique.  The oblique singular is
formed by taking back harmony (thus stems which are back to begin with
make no distinction).  The nominative plural is formed by taking front
harmony (thus stems which are front to begin with make no distinction),
and the oblique plural takes back harmony plus adds -u.

Cases are indicated by particles.  The following cases use the oblique
form of the noun:
Accusative: ne"
Genetive: zo
Dative: ve"
Benefactive: ne"
The following use the nominative form, and have seperate singular and
plural forms
Commitative: cho/cho"
Instrumental: fle"/fle
Passive agent: ga/ga"

These are combined with the following suffixes (where two forms given,
the second is used with front prefixes):
General (no meaning): -x
This: -n(ta)/-n(ta")
That near: -f(a)/-f(a")
That far: -vno/-vno"
The: -s

Each of these has a nominative form (second is plural) - these are the
original forms, the suffixes are shortened forms (with mutation, see
later)
General: kok/ko"x
This: mak/ma"x
That near: pinwa
That far: pinne
The: sol/so"l

Consonant mutation
In addition, there are two mutations that occur to final consonants.  In
writing, words may end in voiced consonants, however, final obstruents
are always devoiced, thus _ped_ is pronounced /pet/

Stops become fricatives in both nom. plural and obl. singular and plural
Voiced fricatives become approximates in the oblique plural (gh becomes
y), and no change in nom. plural and obl. singular, except that gh
becomes jh
Voiceless fricatives become voiced in the oblique plural, and are
unchanged in nom. plural and obl. singular
Nasals become nasal-stop sequences in oblique plural (m --> mb, etc.)

Verbs
Verbs are inflected as aspect-voice-verb
Aspect
Perfect: rla-
Habitual: ne-
Non-habitual: go-
Progressive: pa-
  (note: subject to vowel harmony)

Voice
Passive: li-
Reflexive: se-
Reciprocative: gho-

Pronouns use the case-prefixes given earlier (which assimilate in
backness to the pronoun), but have three forms
Subject forms (used for nominative, and, with the mutations given for
obl. plural, for commitative, instrumental, and passive agent)
            S        P
1st excl    va       ket
1st incl             vaf
2           de       ba
3 human     zo       zel
3 animate   pe       nak
3 inanimate la       cep

Dative/Genetive (used for dative and genetive)
            S        P
1st excl    waf      xe"s
1st incl             wavaf
2           zyu      vaf
3 human     r'u      r'e"l
3 animate   fyu      ndax
3 inanimate laf      che"f

Oblique (used for accusative and benefactive)
            S        P
1st excl    wak      xe"t(ka)
1st incl             wav(ak)
2           zek      vak
3 human     r'ok     r'e"l(ka)
3 animate   fek      ndax
3 inanimate lak      chep(ka)

Thus, _nak_ (language) is inflected as follows
     S          P
Nom  kok nak    ko"k na"x
Com  chox nak   cho"x na"x
Inst fle"x nak  flex na"x
PasA gax nak    ga"x na"x
Acc  ne"x nax   ne"k naxu
Gen  zox nax    zox naxu
Dat  ve"x nax   ve"x naxu
Ben  ne"x nax   ne"x naxu

On the other hand, _pek_ (person) is inflected as follows (minus case
particles)
     S     P
Nom  pek   pex
Obl  pe"x  pe"xu

In compound words, the following morphoponemic rules apply:
1. Regressive voicing (i.e., tg --> dg; dk --> tk)
2. Regressive retroflection (applies only to alveolar sounds), thus d+rn
becomes rdn (/d,n,/), while rd+n becomes dn (/dn/)
3. Regressive vowel harmony (thus, a front root followed by a back root
becomes back, and vice versa)
The first part of a compound is always the stressed part.

Syntax
Verb-second, adjectives follow the noun, other than that, I have nothing
so far

--=20
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