Baranxeï (now with causatives!)

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Baranxeï (now with causatives!)

Post by MisterBernie »

I think it's time to introduce Baranxeï to this crowd's scrutiny.

1. [url=ttp://zbb.spinnwebe.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=38205]Phonology[/url]
2. History of Baranxe'i
3. Grammar
3.1. On Gender
3.2. Nouns and Adjectives
3.2.1.1 Noun and adjective declension
3.2.1.2 Example declensions
3.2.1.3 Adjectives
3.3. Pronouns and demonstratives
3.3.1 Personal pronouns and demonstratives
3.3.2 Interrogative and relative pronouns
3.4. Verbs
3.4.1 Verbal conjugation
3.4.2 Verbal derivation
3.4.2.1. Causatives
4 Adpositions
5 Negation
---

Let's start it off with phonology

Vowels

i /i/ - ī /y/
e /e/ - ē /ɛ/
o /o/
u /u/
a /ɑ/ - ā /ɒ/

In a stressed position, the vowels appear long. In the word-final syllable, they are generally in a reduced form [ɪ, y̆, ə, ə, ɤ, ɯ, ɐ, ɒ̆]. What exactly substitutes a word-final syllable is somewhat irregular, though; some clitics take over the role of last syllable, whereas others don’t affect the vocalic quality in the final syllable of the stem.

[y, ɛ, ɒ] derive from historical [i:, e:, ɑ:] and still function as 'long' variants of [i, e, ɑ] in sandhi. Thus, a lengthened [ɑ] appears as [ɒ], for example, lākan horse [‘lɒ:kɐn] > acc sg *lākann > lākā̃n [‘lɒ:kɒ̃n].

Nasalisation is a peripheral feature of Baranxeï. It exists in the standard language, both in citation forms (hãmī I [hɑ̃:my̆]) and triggered (śap building [ʃɑ:p], accusative śãmp [ʃɑ̃:mp]), but most dialects and subsequently, colloquial variants, have lost nasalisation.

The native, true diphthongs are:
ai [ɑɪ] – au [ɑʊ] – ei [eɪ] – ēi [ɛɪ] – oi [oɪ]

Combinations of i+vowel are pronounced as [j]V, and often just written as j+Vowel.
Combinations of u+vowel are pronounced as [w]V.
An exception are the plural endings of vocalic stems. The official writing is <-aja, -ija, -īja, -oja, -uja>, where the j is often dropped, but pronunciation remains [ɑjɐ, ijɐ, yjɐ, ojɐ, ujɐ].

Between two other vowels, /u/ appears as /β/, written <v> (realisation varies). /i/ appears as [j], written <j>.

A hiatus between two vowels is marked with <'> and is generally pronounced with an intervening [ʔ]. Thus, <Baranxe'i> ['bɑ:rɑnxeʔɪ].

Consonants

First of all, there are the main series:
p /p/ - b /b/ - f /ɸ/ - v /β/ - m /m/
t /t/ - d /d/ - þ /θ/ - ð /ð/ - n /n/
s /s/ - z /z/ - ś /ʃ/ - ź /ʒ/ - ñ /ɲ/
k /k/ - g /g/ - x /x/ - ġ /ɣ/ - ŋ /ŋ/

They are complemented by the ‘other’ consonants:
r /r/ - l /l/ - j /j/ - h /h/

In addition, there are the semi-native affricates <ts, dz, tś, dź> /ts tʃ dz dʒ/. They occur in words loaned from the Southern dialect group, where the original alveolar series shifted to these sounds instead of the /s ʃ z ʒ/ of the Northern dialect on which the standard is mainly based.

Furthermore, a number of sounds are reasonably common thanks to loans, although they are not considered fully 'native'. These include initial preaspirated stops (written <hp, ht, hk>) and initial [tⁿ] (pm- and kŋ- get simplified to m- and ŋ-, however).

Allophonic variants and sandhi developments mostly occur when two consonants stand in a cluster; the voiced/unvoiced distinction, for example, persists both intervocalically and in coda.

/h/ is [h] initially, [ɦ] between two vowels and [x] before another consonant.

/β/ only is [β] in careful, formal diction. Realisation in most colloquial variants (and dialects) varies considerably, but is often [v]. The Western dialects have an intervocalic [w].

/m/ and /n/ assimilate before labials and dentals in a cluster only in the coda. Thus, śap > acc sg śãmp [ʃɑ̃:mp], acc du śãnpu [ʃɑ̃:n.pɯ]. But ruk dream > acc sg rũŋk [rũ:ŋk], acc du rũŋku [rũ:ŋkɯ]. This is usually indicated in writing, with the exception of the superlative prefix an-.

/ɣ/ is realized as [ɣ] or [ʁ], depending on the speaker’s dialect and the sound’s environment. It shifts to [w] before another consonant. Especially in old words (as opposed to adhoc derivations), this is also indicated in writing, for example ma mother + -ġte honorific > mauta [‘mɑʊtɐ] someone else's mother.

Any combination of [k, ŋ] + sibilant results in [kʃ]. Thus, older lauksa to weave > modern laukśa, udāsa to sing > *udās-k-u > udākśu song, kazna to cook > *kaz-k-u > kakśu meal, dish.

Standard Baranxeï has no long or geminated consonants, any doubled consonants lead to compensatory lengthening of the preceding vowel (thus pir pass [pi:r] > dat sg *pi-r-r > pīr [py:r]).


Stress

For monosyllabic words, there are two options: they can be clitics, in which case their vowels are always in its reduced form. -ðu your is [ðɯ].
Free monosyllabics invariably have a long vowel. tne a root vegetable is [tⁿe:].


Disyllabics usually carry stress on the first syllable, except for bare interrogative pronouns and some interjections.


Trisyllabics gets interesting. Mostly, either the first or second syllable can be stressed; an exception are compounds of the sequence disyllabic + monosyllabic, and adverbs, which are formed by adding -ú to the adjective root.

If there is one heavy vowel ([y, ɛ, ɒ]) or a diphthong, this syllable gets the stress. (harēŋa hailstorm [hɑˈɾɛːŋɐ], māneśa firstborn [ˈmɒːneʃɐ]).

If all three syllables contain light vowels with different qualities, the penultimate gets the stress. (namuki plea [nɑˈmu:kɪ]).

If two subsequent syllables contain a vowel of the same quality (using the underlying phoneme, not the actual phone), the stress shifts to the first syllable. Thus, inakā experienced (anim) [iˈnɑːkɒ̆] and inaki experienced (masc) [iˈnɑːkɪ], but inaka experienced (fem) [ˈiːnɑkɐ].

Compounds generally keep their stress.

--

Up next: either a short overview of its history, or diving headfirst into nominal morphology.

Edited to add some clarifications according to Drydic Guy's suggestions.
Last edited by MisterBernie on Sat Nov 26, 2011 1:43 pm, edited 13 times in total.
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Re: Baranxeï

Post by Astraios »

This looks fun. :) (Not a very constructive comment, but yeah.)

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Re: Baranxeï

Post by Drydic »

Haven't looked at any of your other stuff about this, but one thing stands out after a quick lookover: the diaresis in Baranxeï. It's not covered in the phonology.
MisterBernie wrote: i /i/ - ī /y/
e /e/ - ē /ɛ/
o /o/
u /u/
a /ɑ/ - ā /ɒ/

In a stressed position, the vowels appear long. In the word-final syllable, they are generally in a reduced form [ɪ, y̆, ə, ə, ɤ, ɯ, ɐ, ɒ̆]. What exactly substitutes a word-final syllable is somewhat irregular, though; some clitics take over the role of last syllable, whereas others don’t affect the vocalic quality in the final syllable of the stem.

[y, ɛ, ɒ] derive from historical [i:, e:, ɑ:] and still function as 'long' variants of [i, e, ɑ] in sandhi. Thus, a lengthened [ɑ] appears as [ɒ], for example, lākan horse [‘lɒ:kɐn] > acc sg *lākann > lākā̃n [‘lɒ:kɒ̃n].
Good, good. I'm a bit skeptical about the i: > y, o > ɤ and u > ɯ changes, but it is an interesting idea. I may in fact be demolishing my skepticism about them at this very moment. I do like e: > ɛ, an interesting reversal of the norm. Sidetrack on that: was it perchance *e: > *ø > *œ > ɛ?
Nasalisation is a peripheral feature of Baranxeï. It exists in the standard language, both in citation forms (hãmī I [hɑ̃:my̆]) and triggered (śap building [ʃɑ:p], accusative śãmp [ʃɑ̃:mp]), but most dialects and subsequently, colloquial variants, have lost nasalisation.
Just fine, only question I have is when nasalization is lost are the nasal consonants lost as well?
Combinations of i+vowel are pronounced as [j]V, and often just written as j+Vowel.
Combinations of u+vowel are pronounced as [w]V.
An exception are the plural endings of vocalic stems. The official writing is <-aja, -ija, -īja, -oja, -uja>, where the j is often dropped, but pronunciation remains [ɑjɐ, ijɐ, yjɐ, ojɐ, ujɐ].
So they end up being written (outside of formal settings) -aa, -ia, -oa, -ua? Nice touch, even if those sequences appear elsewhere.
Between two other vowels, /u/ appears as /β/, written <v> (realisation varies). /i/ appears as [j], written <j>.
Does the realization vary phonetically, ie (picking random plausible ones here) [β ʋ w ʙ], or in some other way? Scratch that, you explained it in the consonant section. Also I'm pretty sure you mean [β] there, as you're pretty good at keeping // [] <> seperate.

Furthermore, a number of sounds are reasonably common thanks to loans, although they are not considered fully 'native'. These include initial preaspirated stops (written <hp, ht, hk>) and initial [tⁿ] (pm- and kŋ- get simplified to m- and ŋ-, however).
I like it. I am definitely a fan of having a few oddities in a language, and the affricates and these qualify quite well.
Any combination of [k, ŋ] + sibilant results in [kʃ]. Thus, older lauksa to weave > modern laukśa, udāsa to sing > *udās-k-u > udākśu song, kazna to cook > *kaz-k-u > kakśu meal, dish.
Nice touch.
For monosyllabic words, there are two options: they can be clitics, in which case their vowels are always short. -ðu your is [ðɯ].
Free monosyllabics invariably have a long vowel. tne a root vegetable is [tⁿe:].
<nitpick> You have reduced in the vowel section but short here. I'd suggest having reduced throughout.</nitpick> As you said earlier, [tⁿ] is a borrowing (partly-nativized); is it [tⁿe:] in the original, or is the length the result of the Baranxeï stress? Just a thought, not actually criticizing.

Up next: either a short overview of its history, or diving headfirst into nominal morphology.
Hopefully I notice when this comes around! Really well done overall. If I didn't comment, it looked fine.
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Re: Baranxeï

Post by MisterBernie »

Ah yes, the diaresis.
Baranxeï has a hypothetical con!script (which would be actual if I didn't suck at coming up with scripts), in which a hiatus between two vowels is marked by somethin that actually looks very much like <'> and in proper transliteration is marked as such. Thus, Baranxeï should be <Baranxe'i>, with Baranxeï (and other tremata) being a leftover from older times.
So, <Baranxeï> is properly <Baranxe'i> is ['bɑ:rɑnxeʔɪ]. A hiatus is rare enough that I forgot about it.
Drydic Guy wrote:Good, good. I'm a bit skeptical about the i: > y, o > ɤ and u > ɯ changes, but it is an interesting idea. I may in fact be demolishing my skepticism about them at this very moment. I do like e: > ɛ, an interesting reversal of the norm. Sidetrack on that: was it perchance *e: > *ø > *œ > ɛ?
I could've been a bit clearer above, as there are actual a number of different phases going on.

1) the original development for [i:], [e:], [ɑ:], which is to be rounded when stressed and following a labial. From there, it spreads to long, stressed vowels in other positions. I actually like your idea for [ɛ] better than mine (which is "the standard dialect was weird"); as a side note, the majority of dialects do pronounce <ē> as [ø], just the former prestige dialect doesn't.

2) in a different phase, [o] merged with into [o], and [o:] merged with [u:] into [u:]. The development of [o] > [ɤ] and > [ɯ] in unstressed, syllable-final position is a later result of unstressed reduction.

(The actual vowel developments are a bit more complicated because I came up with most of Baranxeï before thinking about the proto-language because when are vowel changes easy and simply; another source for [ɒ] are old [ɑo], [ɑu] (with [ɑo:], [ɑu:] > [ɑʊ]); and [y] can be the result of a merged and umlauted [uɪ].)

ETA2: A further clarification: the modern stress-length system developed after this. So for <lākan> horse and <Baranxi> name of a deity, we have:
pre-Old ['lɑ:kɑn] > Old ['lɑ:kɑn] > Middle ['lɒ:kɑn] > Modern [‘lɒ:kɐn]
pre-Old ['bɑrɑnkʰi:] > Old ['bɑrɑnxi:] > Middle ['bɑrɑnxɪ] > Modern ['bɑ:rɑnxɪ]
with the vowel change being a marker for the switch from Old to Middle Baranxeï, whereas the modern stress > (phonetic, nor 'historical') lengthening stands at the beginning of the modern period.

Just fine, only question I have is when nasalization is lost are the nasal consonants lost as well?

No, so [ʃɑ:p] would still contrast with [ʃɑ:mp]. I haven't ruled out introducing at least one dialect where nasal consonants do get lost, though.


So they end up being written (outside of formal settings) -aa, -ia, -oa, -ua? Nice touch, even if those sequences appear elsewhere.

Indeed. Well, <-aa> does not, but <-ia, -oa, -ua> do.


As you said earlier, [tⁿ] is a borrowing (partly-nativized); is it [tⁿe:] in the original, or is the length the result of the Baranxeï stress? Just a thought, not actually criticizing.

Unfortunately, the phonology of the source language is not yet worked out fully to give a definite answer to this. But in general, Standard Baranxeï demands a long vowel in a non-clitic monosyllabic, so a theoretical borrowing of bin and bean would both produce <bin> [bi:n].


Hopefully I notice when this comes around! Really well done overall. If I didn't comment, it looked fine.
This looks fun. :) (Not a very constructive comment, but yeah.

:D


ETA:
Also I'm pretty sure you mean [β] there, as you're pretty good at keeping // [] <> seperate.

Well, the intention is that intervocalic /u/ behaves identical to the phoneme /β/, which means that its actual phonetic value can be not [β].
I guess it would be [β] for the standard dialect, but generalised to include others /β/?
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Re: Baranxeï

Post by Drydic »

MisterBernie wrote:ETA:
Also I'm pretty sure you mean [β] there, as you're pretty good at keeping // [] <> seperate.
Well, the intention is that intervocalic /u/ behaves identical to the phoneme /β/, which means that its actual phonetic value can be not [β].
I guess it would be [β] for the standard dialect, but generalised to include others /β/?
Ah. I guess say something like 'original intervocalic -u̯-, -i̯- in the standard dialect merged with /β/ /j/ and are written as such' maybe (I'm assuming the same situation for *i̯)?
Ah yes, the diaresis.
Baranxeï has a hypothetical con!script (which would be actual if I didn't suck at coming up with scripts), in which a hiatus between two vowels is marked by somethin that actually looks very much like <'> and in proper transliteration is marked as such. Thus, Baranxeï should be <Baranxe'i>, with Baranxeï (and other tremata) being a leftover from older times.
So, <Baranxeï> is properly <Baranxe'i> is ['bɑ:rɑnxeʔɪ]. A hiatus is rare enough that I forgot about it.
You mean...it is an actual diaresis? As in, it actually breaks up a potential diphthong?! THE WORLD IS AT AN END! REPENT YE, SINNERS, FOR THE DAY OF JUDGEMENT IS COME!
Drydic Guy wrote:Good, good. I'm a bit skeptical about the i: > y, o > ɤ and u > ɯ changes, but it is an interesting idea. I may in fact be demolishing my skepticism about them at this very moment. I do like e: > ɛ, an interesting reversal of the norm. Sidetrack on that: was it perchance *e: > *ø > *œ > ɛ?
I could've been a bit clearer above, as there are actual a number of different phases going on.

1) the original development for [i:], [e:], [ɑ:], which is to be rounded when stressed and following a labial. From there, it spreads to long, stressed vowels in other positions. I actually like your idea for [ɛ] better than mine (which is "the standard dialect was weird"); as a side note, the majority of dialects do pronounce <ē> as [ø], just the former prestige dialect doesn't.
Ok, that makes a lot of sense and works. My skepticism was from fear of their being 'lol maek wierd chanjiz' nooblanging.
2) in a different phase, [o] merged with into [o], and [o:] merged with [u:] into [u:]. The development of [o] > [ɤ] and > [ɯ] in unstressed, syllable-final position is a later result of unstressed reduction.
So modern ~[ɯ] is from what? [u:], which then delengthened (as is suggested by "[ɑo:], [ɑu:] > [ɑʊ]")?
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Re: Baranxeï

Post by MisterBernie »

Drydic Guy wrote:I guess it would be [β] for the standard dialect, but generalised to include others /β/?
Ah. I guess say something like 'original intervocalic -u̯-, -i̯- in the standard dialect merged with /β/ /j/ and are written as such' maybe (I'm assuming the same situation for *i̯)?[/quote]
That sounds logical. (The "it makes sense in my head" is one of my biggest problems.)
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Now that would be a justification for being raptured!
My skepticism was from fear of their being 'lol maek wierd chanjiz' nooblanging.
That's what it may have started out as, but I'm persistent and will make it make sense, whether it wants to or not :D
So modern ~[ɯ] is from what? [u:], which then delengthened (as is suggested by "[ɑo:], [ɑu:] > [ɑʊ]")?

[ɯ] is from a third process, in which all unstressed final vowels get reduced (think vowel reduction in Germanic languages). I guess it should probably be ... oh god, vowels and diacritics... what would be [ə] moving towards [ɯ]?
If it makes sense, <uśasu> is /u'ʃɑsu/, and realized as [u'ʃɑ:sɯ].
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Re: Baranxeï

Post by Drydic »

MisterBernie wrote:
So modern ~[ɯ] is from what? [u:], which then delengthened (as is suggested by "[ɑo:], [ɑu:] > [ɑʊ]")?

[ɯ] is from a third process, in which all unstressed final vowels get reduced (think vowel reduction in Germanic languages).
If it makes sense, <uśasu> is /u'ʃɑsu/, and realized as [u'ʃɑ:sɯ].

Sorry, I just included [ɯ] in there as part of the phoneme u. You had said that *o and *u had merged to o, so I wondered where u came from, and theorized the <[u:], which then delengthened (as is suggested by "[ɑo:], [ɑu:] > [ɑʊ]")>.

I guess it should probably be ... oh god, vowels and diacritics... what would be [ə] moving towards [ɯ]?

A bit off topic and estoteric, but in this case I'd probably use [ɯ̽], that is turned-m with an x above (the symbol for mid-centralization).
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Re: Baranxeï

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Drydic Guy wrote:Sorry, I just included [ɯ] in there as part of the phoneme u. You had said that *o and *u had merged to o, so I wondered where u came from, and theorized the <[u:], which then delengthened (as is suggested by "[ɑo:], [ɑu:] > [ɑʊ]")>.
Oh, right. Reading comprehension, I has it. Basically, yes. The other source for modern is *[o:].
So, basically:
*o *u > o
*o: *u: > u
The length variation is due to the modern stress-length system.
So for modern /o/:
Old Baranxeï: coma ['tsomɑ] > Modern Baranxei soma ['so:mɐ] marriage
Old Baranxeï: uta ['utɑ] > Modern Baranxeï ota ['o:tɐ] nature

For modern /u/
Old Baranxeï: kōna ['ko:nɑ] > Modern Baranxei kuna ['ku:nɐ] give birth, beget
Old Baranxeï: kūna ['ku:nɑ] > Modern Baranxeï kuna ['ku:nɐ] speak, say, talk
Old Baranxeï: dʰūmar- [‘dʱūmɑr-] > Modern Baranxei ðumara ['ðu:mɑrɐ] you (f), ðumari [ðu’mɑ:rɪ] you (m)
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Re: Baranxeï

Post by MisterBernie »

Given how I actually have to refer to the various dialects reasonably often in the upcoming grammar, let's continue with a historical bit, which also allows me to show off my mad MS Paint skills.

A Concise History of Baranxeï

In Which A Short Overview Is Given of the History, and Rough Developments of the Baranxeï Language
Where A Comparison to the other Languages of the Aketamsey Grouping Is Heeded
With Collourd Mapfe OF QUALITY FUPERIOR!

The Akētamse'i Languages

Baranxe'i belongs to the Akētamse'i branch of the Meleiyan (spellings vary) languages (for purposes of fast typing, I'll be lazy and refer to them as Aketamsei from here on). The Aketamsei languages include the Baranxe'i-Asvāneica-Máñḷ dialect continuum (with those three languages being the three standard languages drawing from the continuum), as well as Vereti and its dialects and Amarin and its dialects.

The beginnings of the language(s) lies in the establishment of the Five Marches (ayīrakētṃcei̯eḥ) by the Ilatemaian Empire to protect its western borders against incursions by the nomadic and semi-nomadic tribal federations of Talitre.
Let's visualise this with the help of a little map, yes?

Image

Yes.
The orange area indicated the main origin of the settlers of the west. The date for this would be ~700 BCE (no concalendar because that is math-y and maths = evil).
The area settled had been annexed earlier from settled Talitran tribes and was heavily depopulated as a result of a convenient epidemic and the war, making it relatively easy for the new settlers.
The five marches ultimately gave rise to the five "march languages":
Bʱēre-t-akētṃce, the March of Bʱēre, also covered territory ceded by the city state of Shanna (mainly its dependency Vērja) and thus had a different subtrate than the other marches. For the first century or two of its development, the Aketamsei-speaking area was non-contiguous with the others, and although it shares some later developments especially with Baranxe'i, modern Vereti is highly divergent from the other languages.
Āmār-t-akētṃce, the March of Āmār, similarly lies on mainly non-Talitran territory, which accounts for the different influences on its language (coupled with its non-contiguous-ness). Later developments brought Amarin closer to Máñḷ, especially in regards to their shared vowel harmony.

This leaves us with the area that gave rise to the BAM-continuum, which is what's important for this thread.
Rānakʲu-t-akētṃce, the March of the Disease Bringer (no, seriously), named so for its marshes and endemic malaria, gave rise to the dialects which are grouped under the dach of Baranxe'i, in particular the Northern Baranxe'i group.
Acʰūan-t-akētṃce, the March of Wine, which at least in name is the originator of Asvāneica, although its northern third (or two thirds, depending on definition) make up the southern dialects of Baranxe'i.
Āonkc-akētṃce, the Southern March, where apart from Asvāneica, Máñḷ developed.
These three form the core of Proto-Aketamsei, and share many innovations, such as the complete loss of the aspiration-*palatalisation distinction of pre-PA and their general shift towards fricatives, and the acquiring of a shitload of Talitran loanwords.
The following centuries see a weak differentiation between the various dialects, resulting in what is termed pre-Old Baranxe'i, pre-Old Asvāneica, etc. The phonological development is hyper-conservative so far, and the differentiation mainly concern lexical developments for now (for example, PA often offers the choice between a simple root and an augmented root, e.g. simple pʲil vs augmented pʲeil star; daughter languages usually adopt only one form of the root, cf Baranxe'i feilu star, feilēna shine vs Asvāneica fir, firīṇa).

One of the biggest divergent features is the development of the original alveolar series (t, tʰ, tʲ / d, dʱ, dʲ). Northern pre-Old Baranxe'i has [t~s, tʰ~sʰ / d~z, dʱ~zʱ], southern pre-Old Baranxe'i has [ts, tsʰ; dz, dzʱ], whereas pre-Old Asvāneica has [c, ts / ɟ, dz] (the others only have their modern results fixed right now, so their pre-Old status is somewhat up in the air).

Old Baranxe'i
Fast forward to the 1st century CE, and the Ilatemaian Empire is crumbling.
The Disease March and Southern March both start campaigns for their independence and quickly win it, ushering in the proper Old X period. They begin to write in their own language for the first time (having previously used the Ancient Ilatemaian language). The territory of this first Baranxtuan state covers the earlier Disease March, and also large parts of the Wine March. Its political and cultural center lies in ɢʱṇd, whose dialect becomes the basis for Classical Old Baranxe'i (although the endonym for their language was kūnuir the language, and whether they would feel any kinship with the modern state of Baranxtu or its language and inhabitants is up for debate). COB becomes important later on as a source of many educated loans into whatever the current state of language is.
COB preserves an older state where many aspirated stops remain unshifted, whereas the dialects of the later stage of Old Baranxe'i have all shifted them to some fricatives or affricates. The only exception are the dental stops, which already appears as [þ, ð] in COB. Importantly, the dialect of ɢʱṇd falls into the North dialects (which is a Northern dialect), whereas modern Baranxe'i is mostly based on a Central dialect (whose classification is a bit difficult, more on that later).

Baranxe'i during this period also absorbs even more Talitran loanwords than the southern parts of the BAM continuum. The south borders generally nomadic territory with little interaction with Talitrans, whereas the Baranxe'i areas border permanently settled territory. These words are the source of modern [tⁿ]-, and a large source for [xp]-, [xt]- and [xk]-.

The end of the Baranxe'i kingdom comes with a disastrous war against the Atamian kingdom, which leads to a short period of vassalage and the long-term loss of huge swathes of northeastern territory, the utter destruction of ɢʱṇd, and great social and political upheavals (at least in part caused by a huge influx of northern refugees in the southern parts) which leads to the next phase.

Middle Baranxe'i
The Great Vowel Change of Baranxe'i is the single biggest phonological marker. It starts in the south and spreads northwards, although it doesn't reach the northernmost dialects (whose speakers live under Atamian rule) until much, much later, when many of the vowels to which it could've applied have gone through their separate changes.

The next few centuries, Baranxtu (the name slowly emerges during this time after the shift of capital from lost ɢʱṇd to Baranxiź, site of a cult temple to Baranxi, a euphemistically deformed and/or syncretistic Middle Baranxe'i version of older Rānakʲu) remains a small player and is eclipsed in prestige both by the Atamian empire and the emerging kingdom of Máñalle in the south (the former South March). The early Middle Baranxe'i period is marked by a lot of loans taken from Middle Máñḷ.

Around 1000 CE, fortunes shift for Baranxtu, as it acquires large western territories (again from the Talitran tribes, who just won't get a break).
This situation is important, as it precedes a huge expansion of the Baranxe'i-speaking areas, and also the emergence of a new formalised Baranxe'i.
Image
The Northern group forms a unity on phonological grounds; they share developments not found in the south and vice versa (although many southern shifts would spread northwards later on).
The Central dialect, however, is a bit of an odd one out. Regarding grammar, vocabulary and syntax, it is much closer to the southern variants. As it forms the basis of Modern Standard Baranxe'i, this is an important fact. For example, Northern and Eastern dialects generally show a genitive versus partitive distinction (modern times approximately kunsi-tu vs kunsi-i, with considerable variation of the realisation of the suffixes); they share this with Vereti (modern koons-t vs kouns-i. On the other hand, a genitive-partitive merger is not only found in the Central and Southern dialects of Baranxe'i (kunsi-tu), but also Asvāneica (modern kōñci-t, with -i being used for consonant stems kōñ-i) and Amarin (køyṃdź-e). Máñḷ has two cases, too, but with switched suffixes (genitive kønn-i, partitive køn-d).

Around 1500 CE, the development of a new stress-length system beings in the Central dialects. This marks the beginning of

Modern Baranxe'i
Loaning now mainly takes place from COB, often to replace earlier Atamian or Máñḷ loans (Talitran loans often remain untouched as a) they are present in COB, as well, and b) they often have gone too native to notice).

The development of the modern standard is slow and the language largely remains written only. Its phonology is largely based on the dialect of Baranxiź, its vocabulary is thoroughly mixed, but leans heavily on COB and Religious Baranxe'i (a separate register that survives until the modern period as a separate quasi-dialect with archaic phonology, arcane grammar and antiquated vocabulary), although the merchant lingua franca supplies many words, as well.
The 18t century CE sees the standard becoming more and more modernised and brought closer to the spoken standard of Baranxiź.

Ultimately, the Modern Standard loosely reflects the status of the 1820s. Things like the loss of nasalisation mentioned above didn't hit the Central dialects until the late 19th century CE.

Many other shifts in "Modern" Baranxe'i haven't actually influenced the standard, or are limited to certain dialects (one marker for Eastern-ness is [þ] > [t], which took place in the Modern period), and the various dialects of the Baranxe'i continuum are not fully mutually intelligible nowadays. This has lead to the (partial) adoption of Modern Standard Baranxe'i as a second language for most modern Baranxe'i-speakers.

There are also the settler dialects, which nowadays account for more than half of Baranxe'i native speakers. They have their own sub-classifications, but as these settler dialects had little influence on the standard language, I'll leave them for another time.
Here's a map of the modern distribution:

Image

Do note that the southernmost dialect is a Northern one, and the northernmost a Southern one.

Having said all that, next up, nominal morphology! Yay!
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Re: Baranxeï

Post by roninbodhisattva »

This is really cool, the latest post that is, and I'mma comment on it later more thoroughly...but a quick question:

Máñḷ

Is that a click at the end?

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Re: Baranxeï

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roninbodhisattva wrote:Is that a click at the end?
No, it's a syllabic /l/, that is, it's ['mɑɲ:l̩].
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Re: Baranxeï

Post by roninbodhisattva »

MisterBernie wrote:
roninbodhisattva wrote:Is that a click at the end?
No, it's a syllabic /l/, that is, it's ['mɑɲ:l̩].
AHA! My brain took the underdot and extended it to the <l> above yielding a line for the click. Oops.

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Re: Baranxeï

Post by Astraios »

You've succeeded in making me feel like all my languages are super incomplete. :cry: I can only repeat roninbodhisattva and say this is really cool!

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Re: Baranxeï

Post by MisterBernie »

roninbodhisattva wrote:AHA! My brain took the underdot and extended it to the <l> above yielding a line for the click. Oops.
It is a bit unclear... I was thinking about using something more noticeable myself (especially as diacritics are sometimes barely visible in Word), but if I used a ring, for example, someone would surely think I meant some obscure voiceless lateral ;)
Astraios wrote:You've succeeded in making me feel like all my languages are super incomplete. :cry: I can only repeat roninbodhisattva and say this is really cool!
Aw, shanks! Also, *hands tissue and tea*
Maybe I should point out that a lot of the above is the result of "how can I mask the n00bish aspects of this?" The dialects as they are right now are the result of justifying the inconsistencies of the Standard language, for example. Hey, if German can have unshifted Hafen harbour (instead of *Haben) from Low German, Baranxe'i can have dźad hair (instead of *źad) from Southern dialects ;)
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Re: Baranxeï

Post by Astraios »

MisterBernie wrote:*hands tissue and tea*
Mm, a perfect breakfast. Anyways, carry on with your n00bmasking :)

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Re: Baranxeï

Post by roninbodhisattva »

MisterBernie wrote:It is a bit unclear... I was thinking about using something more noticeable myself (especially as diacritics are sometimes barely visible in Word), but if I used a ring, for example, someone would surely think I meant some obscure voiceless lateral
Is there any reason you need the diacritic? Couldn't it just be Mãñl? Or is the syllabic /l/ contrastive with non-syllabic /l/ in word final position and you need to disambiguate?

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of diacritics when they're absolutely not needed, so I'd say ditch it.

Also, would it be possible to get a description of the "Great Vowel Change"?

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Re: Baranxeï

Post by MisterBernie »

roninbodhisattva wrote:Is there any reason you need the diacritic? Couldn't it just be Mãñl? Or is the syllabic /l/ contrastive with non-syllabic /l/ in word final position and you need to disambiguate?
As it stands right now, no. It's a leftover from the time I was studying Sanskrit, although afair, it doesn't contrast, either, but it's justified by making a distinction between vowel diacritic l and regular l. I'll get back to you on that when I do a rehaul of ['mɑɲ:l̩] ;).

Also, would it be possible to get a description of the "Great Vowel Change"?
It refers to the rounding of long, stressed [i e ɑ]
i: > y
e: > (*ø > *œ > ) ɛ
ɑ: > ɒ


the contraction of the short diphthongs
ui > y
ei > e: > (*ø > *œ > ) ɛ
ɑi > ɛ
ɑo, ɑu > ɒ


the o/u merger-thingy
o, u > o
o:, u: > u(:)


and the shortening of long diphthongs:
ei: > ei
ɑi: > ɑi
ɑo:, ɑu: > ɑu


There's also some final short vowel apocope process, which is partially responsible for the modern gender system, although I haven't worked the details quite out yet.
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Re: Baranxeï

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Grammar - On Gender

General bit
Baranxe'i has a somewhat complicated gender system. As its marking is (semi-)obligatory on both nouns/adjectives and verbs, I'm going to post some general stuff on it first before diving in.

The primary distinction is between animate and inanimate. This distinction is obligatorily marked in both the standard language and virtually all dialects.

However, there is also a further distinction between animate common, animate masculine and animate feminine. This distinction has been lost in most dialects, and as a consequence is not mandatory anymore when using Standard Baranxe'i, although formal registers still make heavy use of it.

Consonantal stems can be either animate or inanimate, although most are in the inanimate category.

Vocalic stems ending in -a (and more rarely -e/-ē) are feminine. Verbs invariable use -a- to mark the feminine.

Vocalic stems ending in -i are masculine. Verbs also use -i- exclusively.

Vocalic stems ending in (mostly nouns) or (mostly adjectives) are common. Verbs use -ē-.

Vocalic stems ending in -o or -u are inanimate. Verbs use -o- in the active and -u- in the passive.

History bit
In pre-Old Baranxe'i, only animate and inanimate existed. These were inherent features of a noun and not marked on the stem. Nouns could variously end in a vowel or a consonant. There was, however, a feature to mark natural sex where needed, namely the male suffix -īḥ and the female suffix -āḥ (the <ḥ> represents a fricative of unknown value which was later lost and which I totally haven't stolen from PIE).
For example:
p-OB kijamne [ki‘dɑmnə] - creature, being, animate
> kijamnīḥ [ki‘dɑmni:H] - male creature
> kijamnāḥ [ki‘dɑmnɑ:H] - female creature
vs
p-OB ēkʰā [e:kʰɑ:] - skin inanimate
vs
p-OB markʰī ['mɑrkʰi:] - fire inanimate
vs
p-OB cʰape ['tʰɑpə] - building, inanimate

The shift from pre-Old Baranxe'i to Old Baranxe'i saw apocope of unstressed vowels in final, open syllables, and shortening of final long vowels.
This leaves us with forms such as:
OB hijamn [hi'zɑmn̩] ~ animate
> hijamni [hi'zɑmni] ~ animate + male
> hijamna [hi'zɑmnɑ] ~ animate + female
vs
OB ēkʰa ['e:xɑ] ~ inanimate
vs
OB markʰi ['mɑrxi] ~ inanimate
vs
OB cʰap ['sʰɑp] ~ inanimate

The vast majority of non-sex marked nouns are now, however, consonant stems, and most stems that end in vowels receive this vowel due to sex-marking. This prevalence of sex marking leads to originally inanimate nouns (and animate nouns without a sex) being conflated with sex-marked animate nouns, and the emergence of a masculine and a feminine gender, which spreads to verbs (where the original animate/inanimate markers -ē- vs -u-/-ū- were preserved alone) by analogy.
This process is pretty much finished only by the Middle Baranxe'i stage, where we now find:
MB izãm [i'zɑ̃m] - animate common
> izãmi [i'zɑ̃mi] - animate masculine
> izãma [i'zɑ̃mɑ] - animate feminine
and
MB ēxa ['ɛ:xɑ] - animate feminine
and
MB marxi ['mɑrxi] - animate masculine
vs
MB śap [ʃɑp] - inanimate
This is also pretty much the state found in Standard Baranxe'i.
Most dialects (except for Eastern) have since lost the f/m distinction again in favour of a return to one animate gender (although the historical processes have left many originally inanimate nouns in the animate category). The only exception are the Northern dialects, which generally kept the old system (although actual gender distinction is minimal).

For completeness' sake, the modern dictionary forms:
ModB izãm, izam ['i:zɑ̃m, 'i:zɑm] or izãmī, izamī [i'zɑ̃:my̆, izɑ:my̆] (common)
> ModB izãmi, izami [i'zɑ̃:mɪ, i'zɑ:mɪ] (m)
> ModB izãma, izama ['i:zɑ̃mɐ, 'i:zɑmɐ] (f)
and
ModB ēxē ['ɛːxɛ̆] (f)
and
ModB marxi ['mɑ:rxɪ] (m)
vs
ModB śap [ʃɑ:p] (inanim)

Conclusion bit
To elaborate on the present situation:
The masculine-feminine-common-inanimate distinction persists among nouns to some extent. Adjectives usually agree in those four categories, but in casual speech and writing, masculine, feminine and common nouns will use the common verb suffixes.
Making a gender distinction in pronouns is almost wholly obsolete. Using either hãma or hãmi in speech (instead of hãmī and its dialectal variants) will sounds approximately as saying "I, a woman" or "I, a man" - accurate, but stilted and strange.

So, formal Baranxe'i (think legalese):
marxi marxibis - a fire (m) burns (m)
alē'i marxibis - a man (m) burns/is burnt (m)
īna marxibas - a woman (f) burns/is burnt (f)
hãm(a/i) marxib(a/i)s - I (f/m) burn/am burnt (f/m)
lākan marxibes - a horse (anim) burns/is burnt (anim)
śap marxibos - a building (inanim) burns/is burnt (inanim)

Casual Standard Baranxe'i:
marxi marxibes - a fire (m) burns (anim)
alē'i marxibes - a man (m) burns/is burnt (anim)
īna marxibes - a woman (f) burns/is burnt (anim)
hãmī marxibes - I (anim) burn/am burnt (anim)
lākan marxibes - a horse (anim) burns/is burnt (anim)
śap marxibos - a building (inanim) burns/is burnt (inanim)


Next probably nouns. I hope. Unless I do a history bit on number.

---
ETA:
A map with gender-system isoglosses:
Image
animate-inanimate means those dialects which never acquired a prominent masculine/feminine distinction and thus keep genders as in pre-Old Baranxe'i. This are extends also to all Vereti dialects in the east (marxi and śap are inanimate).
c(ommon)-m(asculine)-f(eminine)-inanimate means those dialects that acquired and maintained the distinction. These are the fewest dialects in Baranxe'i, but include pretty much all Asvāneica dialects (marxi is masculine, śap is inanimate).
common-inanimate means those which had a prominent masculine-feminine distinction, but subsequently lost it again. Their gender assignment is different from pre-Old Baranxe'i, though (marxi is common, śap is inanimate).
Last edited by MisterBernie on Fri Jun 03, 2011 8:39 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Baranxeï

Post by MisterBernie »

So, apparently my body thinks that sleep is for losers, so I might as well finally start on nouns and adjectives.

Grammar - Nouns and Adjectives

With the gender thing out of the way, let's tackle the other two declension categories:

Number
Baranxe'i has a singular, dual, and a plural.

The use of the singular is pretty straightforward, but the dual offers some complications.
In very formal and Religious Baranxe'i, any reference to exactly two items is in the dual.
In spoken Standard Baranxe'i and most dialects, only natural pairs are in the dual, and only when they are in their natural state of two-ness.

Code: Select all

ðīrn    – ðīvarn   – aþrā ðīrna        – (haŋua) ðīrna
sg        du         pl                  pl
one arm – two arms – two (single) arms – (many) arms
What exactly constitutes natural pairs is a bit vague. It includes many anatomical terms (ðīrn > ðivarn arms; alma > almavu hands; dau > dāvu legs; minru > minruvu feet), certain kinship-and-relationship-ish terms (mapavu(ham) (my) parents, aþēn > aþēinu twin, īna > īnavu (lesbian) couple vs īnaja women) and certain fixed phrases (aðuti'aumu sun and moon).

The plural covers the rest, pretty much.


Case
Ah, the meat of it all. Baranxe'i has seven cases: nominative, accusative, dative; genitive, instrumental, adpositional, temporal.

Nominative, accusative and dative are mostly straightforward and Baranxe'i is a rather regular nominative-accusative language. They are present in all Baranxe'i dialects.

The genitive can be found in all dialects as well, although in the Northern and Eastern ones, it is complemented by a partitive. In the Standard Language and in dialects, the genitive is a possessive, a partitive and also a general dumping ground for case functions.

Code: Select all

hãm-i  beŋ-u-n        air-i-m
I-M    book-INAN-ACC  own-M-1.SG

hãm-i  ruvur-tu       air-i-m
I-M    money-GEN      own-M-1.SG
The instrumental is used for tools, means, manner by which a goal is achieved. It's also a secondary dumping ground, if it's not covered by adpositions or the genitive, it probably goes here.
It can also be part of compounds, for example somas-kīr (or somakśīr) in-laws, literally family-via-marriage.

The adpositional is used for (almost) all adpositions. As it is derived from old locatives, formal language can use a bare adpositional as a (very vague) locative.
The exceptions for adpositions are those which are relatively new coinages and still derive obviously from other parts of speech, such as varanú regarding, concering, which is an adverbial participle to varna see, watch, observe and usually still demands the accusative.

The temporal is the least common case, and translates roughly as "at the time of, when". For example, anarmē in the time of gods. Few dialects use it productively, and in most is relegated to a few expressions.


How it all comes together
In general, you take the case ending and add it after the last vowel of the stem (the genitive and temporal are exceptions in that they always suffix to the stem).
This means that vocalic stems are mostly suffixing, whereas consonantal stems are mostly infixing.
Originally, the case endings were the same for all three possible sets of stems (vowel, simple consonant, consonant cluster), but centuries of sandhi and analogy have led to slightly different endings.

The suffixes for the vocalic stems, where V is the final vowel of the stem:

Code: Select all

	                Singular	Dual	          Plural
Nominative	      -	       -Vvi / -Vvu      -V(j)a
Accusative         -Vn	     -Vni / -Vnu      -Vŋ
Dative             -Vr	     -Vri / -Vru      -Vl
Genitive           -Vtu	    -Vtvu            -tvV
Instrumental       -Vs	     -Vśvi / -Vśvu    -Vś
Adpositional       -Vf	     -V̄vi / -V̄vu    -Vx
Temporal           -Vmē	    -Vvimē / -Vvumē  -V(j)amē
The two forms of the dual stem are one of the few occurances of vowel harmony in (written) Baranxe'i. Front vowels take the affixes in -i, back vowels those in -u.
So īna woman becomes īnavu, but alē'i man becomes alē'ivi.
And because the code splits them, the adpositional dual forms are -V̄vi / -V̄vu, that is, the vowel gets lengthened.

The infixes for the simple consonants stems, where V ist the final vowel and C the coda:

Code: Select all

	                Singular	Dual	    Plural
Nominative	      -	       -VuCu      -VCa
Accusative         -ṼṃC	    -ṼnCu      -VŋC
Dative             -VrC	    -VrCu      -VlC
Genitive           -VCtu      -VCtu      -VCtu
Instrumental       -VsC	    -VśCu      -VśC
Adpositional       -VuC	    -VġCu      -VġC
Temporal           -VCmē	   -VCumē     -VCmē
The dual stems split their affix (what would that be? a half-infixing circumfix?), with the dual marker -u- going to the end of the stem. In the accusative sg and plural, the vowel is nasalised. The <ṃ> in the singular accusative is just a friendly reminder that n in this position always gets assimilated.
Of further note, in consonant stems, the genitive and temporal are identical in the singular and plural. The same is true of the adpositional, as -u- and -ġ- behave identically in sandhi in this position (which I failed to mention in the intro post, sorry). (Also, with *e/ē, VġC becomes ViC, not VuC; dialects which have <ē>=[ø] generally show [øy] here).
So śap, adp.sg. śaup; pl śapa, adp.pl. *śaġp > śaup; kazēn adpos.sg. *kazēun > kazēin; pl kazēna, adpos.pl *kazēġna > kazēin.
Furthermore, some cases also show identity for certain stem classes; the k-stems have identical instrumental sg. and pl., for example: ruk > adpos.sg/pl rukś[/i], from sg *rusk and pl *ruśk.

The consonant cluster stems are a bit easier, as they insert an epenthetic <a> between the infix and the consonant cluster (its actual realization is more surrounding-dependent, though, and not necessarily [ɑ] or [ɐ].

Code: Select all

	                Singular	Dual	    Plural
Nominative	      -	       -VvaC      -VCa
Accusative         -VnaC	   -VnvaC     -VŋaC
Dative             -VraC	   -VrvaC     -VlaC
Genitive           -VCtu      -VCtvu     -VCtu
Instrumental       -VsaC	   -VśvaC     -VśaC
Adpositional       -VfaC	   -V̄vaCu    -VġaC
Temporal           -VCmē	   -VCumē     -VCmē
The lenghtening of the last stem vowel in the adpositional dual is in effect here, too.

Vocalic substitution
This is more of a side note, really, but: any consonant stem can be declined as a vowel stem simply by suffixing the gender-marking vowel. For example, instead of śap, śãmp, śaptu, you decline śap, śapun, śap(u)tu. Some dialects reduplicate the last vowel instead (śap, śapan, śap(a)tu), but unlike the other mode of vocalic substitution, this is not accepted in the written standard.
How common this substitution is depends on the register that is used (it's a big no-no in Religious Baranxe'i, but relatively common for long compounds in legal Baranxe'i, and lyrical language tends to use whichever suits the meter), and often merely serves to clear up some ambiguity (so that adpos.sg/pl rukś can be clarified as adpos.sg rukus vs adpos.pl rukuś.

Adjectives
Adjectives are pretty much completely identical to nouns in their declension. The only major difference is that there are even fewer consonant stems, and that the citation form for pretty much all vowel stem adjectives (and the nominative singular form) ends in . Their non-nominative singular vowel is -ī-, however.
Adjectives generally follow the noun they modify (although determiners, which generally are adjectives, precede it).

Next installment: comparison of adjectives. Unless you want some example paradigms.

---

ETA:
A handy map of the genitive/partitive isogloss:
Image
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Re: Baranxeï

Post by roninbodhisattva »

I love the infixes with the consonant stems. Did that happen with metathesis historically or something of that sort?

Also, it would be cool to see some full paradigms.

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Re: Baranxeï

Post by MisterBernie »

roninbodhisattva wrote:I love the infixes with the consonant stems. Did that happen with metathesis historically or something of that sort?
That is the general idea. Most consonant stems end in stops, and most affixes are fricatives, which led to metathesis to adhere loosely to sonority hierarchy.
Another group of exeptions apart from k-stems would be the nasal stems, where many (but not all) endings end up re-metathesised (so zen > zens instead of *zesn)
...
Yeah, I think a few full paradigms would be handy. I'll write them up either tonight or tomorrow :)
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Re: Baranxeï

Post by roninbodhisattva »

Yeah, I think a few full paradigms would be handy. I'll write them up either tonight or tomorrow :)
Sounds good!

A question I've been meaning to ask...what's the scale on that map of yours? (the last one, that is)

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Re: Baranxeï

Post by MisterBernie »

roninbodhisattva wrote:A question I've been meaning to ask...what's the scale on that map of yours? (the last one, that is)
It's on the scale of MAGIC TO AWESOME.
Ahem, but seriously, geography and me are two unmixy things /Whedon-paraphrase. In my mind, somewhere between Germany-France-ish and Western-Europe-in-whole-ish.
...
The climate is held together with silly string >_>

---

Vowel stems:
asana one's own daughter

Code: Select all

	                Singular	Dual	    Plural
Nominative	      asana      asanavu    asanaja
Accusative         asanan	  asananu    asanaŋ
Dative             asanar	  asanaru    asanal
Genitive           asanatu	 asanatvu   asantva
Instrumental       asanas	  asanaśvu   asanaś
Adpositional       asanaf	  asanāvu    asanax
Temporal           asanamē	 asanavumē  asanajamē
marxi fire

Code: Select all

	                Singular	Dual	    Plural
Nominative	      marxi      marxivi    marxija
Accusative         marxin	  marxini    marxiŋ
Dative             marxir	  marxiri    marxil
Genitive           marxitu	 marxitvu   marxtvi
Instrumental       marxis	  marxiśvi   marxiś
Adpositional       marxif	  marxivi    marxix
Temporal           marximē	 marxivimē  marximē
aźrī human

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	                Singular	Dual	    Plural
Nominative	      aźrī      aźrīvi      aźrīja
Accusative         aźrīn	  aźrīni      aźrīŋ
Dative             aźrīr	  aźrīri      aźrīl
Genitive           aźrītu	 aźrītvu     aźrtvī
Instrumental       aźrīs	  aźrīśvi     aźrīś
Adpositional       aźrīf	  aźrīvi      aźrīx
Temporal           aźrīmē	 aźrīvimē    aźrīmē
Simple consonant stems:
śap building

Code: Select all

	                Singular	Dual	    Plural
Nominative	      śap	     śaupu      śapa
Accusative         śãmp	    śãnpu      śaŋp
Dative             śarp	    śarpu      śalp
Genitive           śaptu      śaptvu     śaptu
Instrumental       śasp	    śaśpu      śaśp
Adpositional       śaup	    śaupu      śaup
Temporal           śapmē	   śapumē     śapmē
dźad hair

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	                Singular	Dual	    Plural
Nominative	      dźad	    dźaudu     dźada
Accusative         dźãnd	   dźãndu     dźaŋd
Dative             dźard	   dźardu     dźald
Genitive           dźādu      dźādvu     dźādu
Instrumental       dźazd	   dźaźdu     dźaźd
Adpositional       dźaud	   dźaudu     dźaud
Temporal           dźadmē	  dźadumē    dźadmē
ruk dream

Code: Select all

	                Singular	Dual	    Plural
Nominative	      ruk	     ruku       ruka
Accusative         rũŋk	    rũŋku      ruŋk
Dative             rurk	    rurku      rulk
Genitive           ruktu      ruktvu     ruktu
Instrumental       rukś	    rukśu      rukś
Adpositional       ruk	     ruku       ruk
Temporal           rukmē	   rukumē     rukmē
misēn rice farmer (animate)

Code: Select all

	                Singular	Dual	    Plural
Nominative	      misēn	   misēinu    misēna
Accusative         misē̃n	   misē̃nu     misēŋ(n)
Dative             misērn	  misērnu    misēln
Genitive           misēntu    misēntvu   misēntu
Instrumental       misēns	  misēnśu    misēñś
Adpositional       misēin	  misēinu    misēin
Temporal           misēnmē	 misēnumē   misēnmē
kvir family

Code: Select all

	                Singular	Dual	    Plural
Nominative	      kvir	    kvīru      kvira
Accusative         kvĩrn	   kvĩnru     kvirŋ
Dative             kvīr	   kvīru       kvīl
Genitive           kvirtu    kvirtvu     kvirtu
Instrumental       kvirs	  kviśru      kvirś
Adpositional       kvīr	   kvīru       kvīr
Temporal           kvirmē	 kvirumē     kvirmē
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Re: Baranxeï

Post by MisterBernie »

(I considered doing a bit on irregular nouns, but those would pretty much boil down to "post the paradigms", so let's skip that and turn to adjectives.)

Adjectives

As mentioned above, most adjectives are vowel stems (ending in ) and thus can agree with nouns in number, case and gender. Consonant stem adjectives only agree in number and case with their noun:

rojā big
> alē'i roji big man (alē'itu rojitu of the big man)
> īna roja big woman (īnanu rojanu the two big women (acc))
> ato roju big stone (atoś rojuś with the big stones)

kānen beautiful
> alē'i kānen beautiful man (alē'in kānē̃n the beautiful man (acc))
> īna kānen beautiful woman (īnāvu kāneinu uði near the two beautiful women)
> ato kānen beautiful rock (atol kāneln to the beautiful rocks)


Comparison
All Baranxe'i dialects know four degrees of comparison: positive, negative comparative (is there a short term for that?), comparative, superlative.

Notably, there are two parallel systems of comparison in use in Baranxe'i. One is borrowed from the Northern dialects (that is, the Northern and Eastern groups), and one from the Southern dialects (that is, Southern and Western, but also the Central dialects).
The use of either is admissible in Standard Written Baranxe'i, although the Southern one is officially the preferred one.

Code: Select all

           Negative    Positive    Comparative    Superlative
Northern   hēl-          -         ēś-            first cons+i- / first vowel+j-

Southern   gauz-         -         -kanen         an-
Their use is relatively straightforward, safe for one more dialectal distinction:
In the Northern dialects, a bare superlative doubles as an elative.
In the Southern dialects, this function is taken over by the bare comparative.
So:
Northern: Baranxi anar ajañamā has
=
Southern: Baranxi anar añaŋkanen has.
=
English: Baranxi is a very merciful deity.


Adverbs
Adverbs are formed by adding to the root (that is, in vowel stem adjectives, it replaces the final vowel)
āmuŋā sole, single, only > āmuŋú only, solely, just
kānen beautiful > kānenú beautifully

A very common alternative for this is to put the adverb in the instrumental singular inanimate.
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Re: Baranxeï

Post by MisterBernie »

Determiners and Pronouns

Determiners and pronouns generally are treated as one category in Baranxe'i, as they share many features: they have a disjunctive and a clitic version, and the disjunctive form functions almost exactly like an adjective, except that it precedes the noun it modifies (with the exception of relative pronouns, which follow their head). Personal pronouns do not modify nouns as an adjective, but apart from that line up with the other determiners/pronouns.

Personal Pronouns

hãmā - 1st person
The animate common form can be either hãmā or hãmī. Apart from that, it declines like any other noun/adjective.

ðumarā - 2nd person
This is a direct loan from Classical Old Baranxe'i, which came into use in the 17th century. The PA root is *dʲūr-, which formed a formal form with the honorific infix *-mu- (nowadays extinct).
The forms *ðūmare,* ðūre coexisted in the late Old Core dialects, a variant *ðūmure in the late Old Northern dialects, and *ðūrə in late Old Southern. The formal pronoun survives in dialects as modern Northern [ðyrm] and modern Eastern [tumari]. Central (Baranxiź) has only [ðure], Southern only [ðu:r] and Eastern only [vu:rə].
Subsequently, ðumarā tends to be only used in very formal Standard Baranxe'i by speakers of non-Northern and Eastern dialects. A common replacement is ðurā.

sāmē, sāmi, sān - 3rd person present
ānē, āni, ān - 3rd person absent
The present/absent distinction is maintained in all dialects, although in careless speech, the Standard pronouns are often substituted with local forms.


The clitic forms are somewhat irregular.
The gender distinction is lost in the 1st and 2nd persons, but the 3rd person clitic pronouns maintain an animate/inanimate distinction (but the present/absent distinction is lost in inanimate clitics).

Genitive clitics (the most commonly occuring form) attach to the noun they refer to:
pa hãmitu > pahãm, my father
pa hãmtvī > panãma, our father
īga ðumaritu > īgaðu, your gift
asana sāmatu > asanasē, her daughter

Accusative and dative clitics can attach to the verb:
hãmi ðumaran varim > hãmi varimdan, I see you
hãmi ān ðumarir juŋim > hãmi ðumarir juŋimān > hãmi juŋimānðra, I give it to you

Complex clitic constructs on nouns are possible, but rare:
īga hãmitu ðumarir > īgahãmðra, my gift to you

---

Demonstratives

The disjunctive demonstratives distinguish three levels of proximity: proximity to the speaker (proximal), proximity to the adressee (medial), and distance from both (distal).
The clitic demonstrative only distinguishes proximal and distal.

Code: Select all

proximal     medial     distal
þinā         viśā       mindā / mandā 
       -hē         -þa
If used as demonstrative adjectives, they behave quite normal:
varet þinin begin?
see-ANIM-2.SG PROX-M-ACC book-M-ACC
Do you see this book (here)?

juŋetmat viśin begin?
give-ANIM-2.SG-1.SG.OBJ MEDIAL-M-ACC book-M-ACC
Can you give me that book (close to you)?

zurvet mindin begin lijã?
bring-ANIM-2.SG DISTAL-M-ACC book-M-ACC here
Can you bring that book here (from over there)?

If used as demonstrative pronouns, they are almost always declines as inanimate nouns, however:
varet þinun? - Do you see this?
juŋetmat viśun? - Can you give me that?
zurvet mindun lijã? - Can you bring that here?


The clitic set of demonstratives in action:
ebēvanānet beginhē?
read-PAST-ANIM-2.SG book-M-ACC-PROXIMAL
Did you read this book?

valet alē'inþa?
know-ANIM-2.SG man-M-ACC-DISTAL
Do you know that man?

Dialectological aside
In many dialects, and þa exist as non-clitics and are used as invariable 3rd person pronouns (sometimes couples with the clitic form of the "proper" pronoun); this can carry over into the colloquial variants of Standard Baranxe'i.
varānet hē? valet þa? - Did you see it/this/that/these? Do you know him/her/it/them/those?

Even more important is the use of –hē or in all Southern dialects and Central Baranxe'i as a definite article. While prescriptive Standard Baranxe'i does not mark definiteness, it is extremely common in colloquial varieties, and gaining ground in Northern dialects as well.
In Standard Baranxe'i, it only crops up in place names so far:
Hē Iśevu - 'The Vault', name of a linguistic enclave
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