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New Language - Tacakta

From:Joseph Fatula <fatula3@...>
Date:Thursday, December 5, 2002, 22:45
After the enthusiastic responses I got from posting on Altsag Venchet
(thanks everybody!), I've decided to post a summary of one of the other
languages I've got going, Tácakta.  Like Altsag Venchet, this language has a
history of its own, and has neighboring languages it has borrowed from.

Tácakta is a mostly inflectional language, VSO in structure, modifiers
before what they modify.

Consonants
------------
voiced stops: b, d, g
voiceless stops: p, t, k
aspirated stops: ph, th, kh
approximants: r, l
nasals: m, n
fricatives: f, s
affricates: ps, c, x  -  /ps/, /ts/, /ks/

Vowels
--------
a, e, i, o, u

An umlaut indicates a long vowel: ä.
An acute accent indicates a stressed vowel: á.
A circumflex indicates a vowel that is both long and stressed: â.

Consonants may cluster many different ways, as may vowels.  Stress is on the
penultimate syllable.


Nouns
-------
All nouns belong to a particular gender, or are generic.  In addition, they
are either strong or weak, there being three categories of strong nouns.

--- Gender ---
Earthly nouns are those things that are inanimate or natural items.
Alive nouns are animals, humans, things that move and breathe.
Divine nouns are deities, the heavens, and gifts of the gods.
Abstract concepts belong to one of these three genders, or are "generic",
which is essentially a separate gender.

--- Case ---
vocative
nominative
accusative
genitive
ingeminate - This is the one I mentioned a few days ago for the object of
the first verb and the subject of the second.  For example, "me" in: He
wants me to run away.
dative

--- Declension ---
The inflection of a noun is dependant on its gender, number, and declension.
In the singular, all nouns use the same forms.
Strong1 nouns use the strong declension for genitive singular and generic
plural.
Strong2 nouns use the strong declension for the vocative singular and
ingeminate singular.
Strong3 nouns always use the strong declension.
Weak nouns always use the weak declension.

Below, -:a means add -a and lengthen the preceding vowel (if immediately
preceding or separated by a consonant).  Similarly, '-a means stress the
penultimate then add -a.  Strong declensions are on the left, weak on the
right.

--- Singular
vocative  -:a/-a
nominative  -
accusative  -n/-un
genitive  -tia/-ia
ingeminate  -:es/-es
dative  -'pta/-'apta

--- Generic Plural
vocative  (no generic vocative)
nominative  -ti/-i
accusative  -tin/-in
genitive  -titia/-itia
ingeminate  -teis/-eis
dative  -'tipta/-'ipta

--- Earthly Plural
vocative  -nta/-ana
nominative  -'nta/-an
accusative  -ntun/-anun
genitive  -ntia/-antia
ingeminate  -ntes/-anes
dative  -'ntapta/-'anapta

--- Alive Plural
vocative  -ra/-ora
nominative  -r/-or
accusative  -run/-orun
genitive  -rtia/-ortia
ingeminate  -res/-ores
dative  -'rapta/-'orapta

--- Divine Plural
vocative  -la/-ila
nominative  -'la/-ila
accusative  -lun/-ilun
genitive  -ltia/-iltia
ingeminate  -les/-iles
dative  -'lapta/-'ilapta

For example, ánapka "word" is in the alive gender, weak declension.  Its
root form is anapk-, used in all but the nominative singular.

--- singular
anapka
ánapka
anapkun
anapkia
anapkes
anápkapta

--- plural
anapkora
anapkor
anapkorun
anapkortia
anapkores
anápkorapta


Verbs
------

--- Conjugation ---
Verbs are divided up into similar categories as nouns.
Strong1 and 2 use the strong conjugation for the indicative future.
Strong3 are always strong.
Weak verbs are always weak.

--- Indicative
present  -
past  -teir/-etei
future  -:da/-äda

--- Subjunctive
present  -n/-an
past  -nteir/-anteir
future  -nda/-anada

--- Necessitative
present  -il
past  -ilteir
future  -iläda


Adjectives
----------
Adjectives take similar endings to nouns to indicate what case and gender
they are in.  I'm still figuring out all of the adjective endings.


That's about it for now.  I don't have any specific questions for you, just
interested in what you guys think about this language.

Thanks for reading this over.

Joe Fatula