Dzomba

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R.Rusanov
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Dzomba

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Phonology
/p t ts tɬ k/ p t ts tl~ch k~q~'
/b d dz/ b d dz
/s ɬ/ s hl~sh
/r ʁ w/ r rh~y w

/a e i o u/ a e i o u

Syllables
Syllable structure is CV(N)

Allophony
/k/ is /q/ after back vowels, which is pronounced [q] before /a/, [ʔ] otherwise
/ɬ/ and /tɬ/ are pronounced [ʃ] and [tʃ] before front vowels
/ʁ/ is pronounced [j] around

An illustration of these rules: /ʁitɬi/ "paved road" is pronounced [jí:tʃi]
/ukoka/ "revolution" is pronounced [ú:ʔuqa]

Stress
Primary stress lies on the first vowel of the word, which is pronounced long. Secondary stress lies on all odd vowels in a word. The second, fourth, sixth etc. vowels are unstressed, with /e/ and /o/ reflecting as and respectively. However, stress tends to jump away from the first vowel if the next syllable has a voiced onset. Nasal codas assimilate with the following consonant.

An illustration of these rules: /bemdori/ "red calx" is pronounced [be:(n)núri], /dzomba/ "Dzomba language" is pronounced [dzo:(m)má]

Grammar
Dzomba has a generally agglutinative morphology on nouns with twenty six things that can be considered either cases or adpositions and fifteen optional noun classes/adjectives Verbs, however, are very loose and uninflected and use a closed class of thirty very irregular (and inflecting) "helper verbs" to indicate case, evidentiality, mood, tense, and some aspect of adverbiality. Numerals act really crazy, I haven't figured out the how and why yet.

Kindo-pi wewe tobodzerim duwa hluperhankan-rum
[ki:(n)nó-pi we:wí to:búdzerim du:wá ɬú:pija(ŋ)ŋan-rum]
boar-large.singular.gender towards farmer-unspecified.singular.gender move unspecified.gender.past.tense.began.desired.action-by.foot
The farmer began to walk towards the big boar*

*a boar is a wild pig

Culture
The Dzomba language is spoken by the Dzontu-'a, a nomadic society of cattle herders on the northern part of the great steppe. Dzom is a stem meaning "black" and it refers to the soil which they prefer to graze their animals on. Their domain spans a wide territory, including desert to the south, marshes, lakes, and rivers crossing the steppe, and, to the north, great hills and wide rolling forests. The primary companion of a Dzontu is the bactrian camel, which is used for meat, milk, and burthen, but other animals include goats, sheep, chickens, and rabbits. The western tribes also utilize horses and cattle. The Dzontu-'a have also domesticated dogs.

The society, morals, and values are very unique but I can't really do them justice to the typical reader, who would surely decry them as barbaric.

Around the Dzontu-'a live a number of other peoples of varied custom and complexion, including farmers, nomads, foragers, fishermen and all manner of other folk. The land is dotted with agglomerations of metal which are mined by the Tlape-ka, a part of the Dzontu-'a who lead a separate, settled existence and speak a highly divergent dialect, but are nonetheless considered valued members of the community.

I will update this post with more details soon.
Slava, čĭstŭ, hrabrostĭ!

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