A Weird Descendent of Verdurian: Sosfaikhrhim

Questions or discussions about Almea or Verduria-- also the Incatena. Also good for postings in Almean languages.
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dhok
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A Weird Descendent of Verdurian: Sosfaikhrhim

Post by dhok »

Picture the following scenario:

A bunch of Verdurians off to colonize somewhere in the southern hemisphere- I dunno where, Kereminth maybe- get blown off course to Curym. They have food, and even after their disappearence, the Verdurians at home figure "Ah, if they've got blown across the Zone they'll just colonize wherever they land. It won't be that hard, what resistance up there could they possibly meet? They're not stupid enough to try and conquer a ktuvok empire."

And how! They establish an empire somewhere on the coast of Curym. Their standard Verdurian changes into what they call Sosfaikhrhim, or the Speech of Curym.

Here's the sound changes (again- Verdurian <h> doesn't exist phonetically. So <Rahela> is actually /ɾaɛla/):

i, u, y > e ,o, œ / (q, ʁ)_ or _(q, ʁ)
ʁ > ħ/ V_V, _#
ʁ > h
q > ħ
y > ɪ <î>
œ > ɔ <ô>
aɛ > ai
ao > au
p t tʃ k b d g m n f s ʃ ħ h v ð z ʒ ɾ l j/ f θ ʃ x v ð ɣ β z ɸ h ç h 0 β l 0 ʝ ɹ 0/ V_V.
p t tʃ k b d g m n f s ʃ ħ h v ð z ʒ ɾ l j/ b d dʒ g mb nd ŋ m n v z ʒ n_0 n_0 ɱ n n ɲ w ɾ ɲ/ N_ (note that the preceding nasal then drops out).
C/0/_# (As Verdurian words mostly end in a vowel, this isn't much of a problem. One place where it is: nouns like cuon, which have their final consonant re-introduced (but lenited!) by analogy.)
> It's at this point that we get the cliticization of object pronouns.
V/0/_# (except for monosyllables. Also, verbs get their endings back, borrowed from the forms of "to be". Note, too, that this makes nouns a hell of a lot more analytic.)
Syncope: EVERY even-numbered vowel drops out (but Cu, if the u syncopates, becomes Cw. And the final vowel can't drop out.)
h> 0/ _C, C_


Here's an orthographic table (in X-SAMPA). I know it's ugly, but I can only do ASCII right now. And, this is for our purposes; the Verdurians use something different:

Code: Select all

p              t            tS<ch>         k       
b              d            dZ<j>          g
               n_0<nh>      
m       F<mh>  n                  J<ñ>     N<ng>
p\<fh>  f      T<th>   s    S<sh> C<ç>     x<kh>      X\<x>        h
B<vh>   v      D<dh>   z    Z<zh> j\<jh>   G<gh>
w              4<r>               j<y> 
               r\<rh>
               l

i          u
e    I<î>  o
             O<ô>
a



OK. Let's move onto nouns. They are very uninteresting, because the loss of final vowels also meant the loss of case distinctions-which were generally represented by prepositions. Where standard Verdurian would have

Code: Select all

NOM   katy      katî
GEN   katii     katuë   
ACC   katim     katom
DAT   katin     katuin
Sosfaikhrim has

Code: Select all

NOM xath     xath-xath
GEN de xath  de xath-xath
ACC xath     xath-xath
DAT a xath   a xath-xath
Notice something? NO INFLECTIONS. Gender's gone too! Verdurian had ten declensions; Sosfaikhrhim has none at all. Plurality is formed by reduplicating the noun.


The verb, on the other hand, is absolutely insane. Syncope and cliticization of object pronouns were not nice to it, AND it's developed a subjunctive, a perfective and a passive. (The past anterior's gone, though.)
Let's look at prath, to talk to.
A subjunctive was formed by the suffix -u-, of which we're not sure the derivation ; a passive by -uy- from the past participle; the perfective by ya-. The object pronouns that cliticised were se-, le-, iye-, ta(nasalizes)-, mî(lenites)-, ca(nasalizes)-.

Let's look at a synopsis of prath with a first-person subject. ŕ represents a vocalic r sometimes left by syncope. *-an- ALWAYS forms the imperative; *-ec- ALWAYS the past, and *-er- ALWAYS the future.
The personal endings are: -ai, -ei, -e, -a, -eo, -eu. Remember, the e of -eo and -eu can syncopate.

Code: Select all

                                INFINITIVE prath
                               Present Imperfective Active
      IND.                          SUBJ.                      IMP.
sepŕthai tabŕthai           sepŕthuai tabŕthuai       sepŕthazai tabŕthazai
lepŕthai mîfŕthai           lepŕthuai mîfŕthuai       lepŕthazai mîfŕthazai
iprathai cabŕthai           iprathwai cabŕthuai       iprathzai  cabŕthazai

                              Past Imperfective Active
sepŕthechai  tabŕthechai    sepŕthechwai tabŕthechwai     NO PAST IMPERATIVE
lepŕthechai  mîfŕthechai    lepŕthechwai mîfŕthechwai
iprathchai   cabŕthechai    iprathchuai  cabŕthechwai

                              Future Imperfective Active
sepŕtherhai  tabŕtherhai    sepŕtherhwai tabŕtherhwai     NO FUTURE IMPERATIVE
lepŕtherhai  mîfŕtherhai    lepŕtherhwai mîfŕtherhwai
iprathrhai   cabŕtherhai    iprathrhuai  cabŕtherhwai

                              Present Perfective Active
yaprathai  yathbrathai      yaprathwai  yathbrathwai   yaprathzai   yathbrathzai
yaiprathai yamhfrathai      yaiprathwai yamhfrathwai   yaiprathzai  yamhfrathzai
yayepŕthai yachbrathai      yayepŕthuai yachbrathwai   yayepŕthazai yachbrathzai

                              Past Perfective Active
yaprathchai   yathbrathchai yaprathchuai   yathbrathchuai       NO PAST IMPERATIVE
yaiprathchai  yamhfrathchai yaiprathchuai  yamhfrathchuai
yayepŕthechai yachbrathchai yayepŕthechwai yachbrathchuai

                              Future Perfective Active
yaprathrhai   yathbrathrhai yaprathrhuai   yathbrathrhuai       NO FUTURE IMPERATIVE
yaiprathrhai  yamhfrathrhai yaiprathrhuai  yamhfrathrhuai
yayepŕtherhai yachbrathrhai yayepŕtherhwai yachbrathrhuai

In the passive, there can be no objects! So, the passive will look
very small, compared to the passive.

           Imperfective Passive
              Present      Past              Future       
Indicative    prathyai     prathchuyai       prathrhuyai
Subjunctive   prathyuai    prathchuywai      prathrhuywai
Imperative    prathyazai   N/A               N/A

           Perfective Passive
              Present      Past              Future
Indicative    yafŕthuyai   yafŕthechyai      yafŕtherhyai
Subjunctive   yafŕthuywai  yafŕthechyuai     yafŕtherhyuai
Imperative    yafŕthuyzai  N/A               N/A
BWAHAHAHA! TREMBLE, VERDURIANS; WEDE:I HAS TAKEN ITS REVENGE!






I haven't fleshed out much syntax. But in not too long I'll post a short passage. Note that the old definite article has become a prefix and affects syncope.

Here are two sentences from Verdurian, with phonetic transcription:
Ne meršán, nrüsk, er řo vulu luomi, ac milka.
/nE mE4San nrysq Er Ro vulu luomi ak milqa/
>
Ne merš, nrîs, er xo camhyai luomh, a mil.
/nE mE4S nrIs Er X\o kaFjai luoF a mil/.

Agečir soi egleri e vulir cam delažec ďunî fuaî.
/agEtSir soi EglEri E vulir kam dElaZEk DunI fuaI/
>
Aghesh soglerh, e vuy candeyajh dhuz fua.
/aGES soglEr\ E vuj kandEyaj\ Duz fua/

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Nortaneous
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Post by Nortaneous »

For fuck's sake, phonemic /F/? And contrasts between all of /p\ B f v/?

...Oh, you're trying to imitate Irish. But still, that's sort of ugly and probably unstable, so the lenition would have to be recent, but then there's not much time for the syncope... I don't think there's really any good way to explain having that many labials.

Other than that, this looks pretty badass. Looks sort of like IE, but not in a bad way.
Siöö jandeng raiglin zåbei tandiüłåd;
nää džunnfin kukuch vklaivei sivei tåd.
Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei.

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