mèþru wrote:Might want to reconsider everything with ʷ - for example:
[ʟua] vs [ʟʷa]
<lua> is always [ʟʷa]. The only valid diphthongs have already been said, and there is no vowel hiatus - any such instance will gain an epenthetic glottal stop.
A better transliteration for /x ʀ/ (in my opinion at least) is <x r>
I don't want to use <r> for [ʀ] because that would imply that it is to be interpreted as a rhotic, when in fact it patterns as a velar fricative.
Anyways...
Nominal Morphology:
The basic structure of a noun is as follows: root-case-number-misc-class
There are eleven cases, eight classes, and two number categories. The miscellaneous affix is there for any non-case non-class affixes I may add in the future. Like maybe a negative.
The cases are:
Ergative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -∅-
Accusative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -m-
Ablative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -fa-
Lative/Intransitive S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -qo-
Perlative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -ta-
Adessive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -guo-
Superessive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -(')u-
Subessive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -wa-
Benefactive/Passive S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -(')y-
Comitative-Instrumental . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -c-
Causal/Antipassive S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -lu-
The Lative, Benefactive, and Causal, in addition to their regular functions, also serve to mark the Intransitive case in different situations. The Lative marks the Simple Intransitive Subject, which is just the single direct argument of a regular-ass intransitive verb. The Benefactive marks the Passive Subject - when passivizing a verb, the direct object is promoted to the status of subject, while the agent is demoted to an indirect object. So, the Benefactive marks this promoted object. This is not confused with a normal usage of the Benefactive because indirect objects always appear after the verb, while subjects, agents, and direct objects always appear before the verb. Similarly, the Antipassive Subject - an agent turned into a subject while the object gets demoted to indirect - is marked by the Causal. Another thing to note here is that the agents and objects that get demoted to indirect objects in passive and antipassive constructions are marked by the Comitative-Instrumental. Furthermore, that same case defaults, in its normal usage, to Comitative - Instrumental usages require the preposition
na. EDIT: Oh, right. Almost forgot. The motion cases (Ablative, Lative, Perlative) can be combined with the location cases (Adessive, Superessive, Subessive) in that order to gain more granular meaning. So, 'from on top of the table' would be:
(table)fa'unu
The classes are as follows:
Class 1 (Humans) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .-an
Class 2 (Animals, minus birds and insects) . . . . .-(y)h
Class 3 (Plants) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .-ut
Class 4 (Mass Nouns) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -(a)k
Class 5 (Dangerous Things) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -(y)jim
Class 6 (Flying Things) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -qa
Class 7 (Harmless Inanimate Objects) . . . . . . . . -nu
Class 8 ("Powers") . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -is
Class 1 contains most nouns that signify people, though there are certain exceptions that are in Class 5 instead. Class 2 contains most animals, with the primary exceptions being birds and insects. Class 3 contains the vast majority of plants. Class 4 contains mass nouns, so things like liquids, gases, and other substances that are considered in bunches rather than individual units, like grains and raw textiles. Also, most insects are in Class 4. Class 5 contains things to be avoided. It's a hodgepodge of things that would otherwise be in many other classes. For example, the words for 'witch', 'bandit', and 'warlord' are contained here instead of Class 1. Class 6 is where the birds lie, along with some winged insects. Some objects that are made to fly, like javelins and arrows, are part of Class 6 as well. Class 7 contains the vast majority of inanimate objects. I suppose it'll probably end up being the largest class. Class 8 is kind of difficult to define. Anything "powerful" or "mystical" goes there. Of course, some powerful things may be dangerous, and thus might be in Class 5 instead. Or maybe they're in Class 8 anyway, even though they're dangerous. It's not like this needs to be terribly logical.
Number is simple:
Singular . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -∅-
Plural . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .-w-
