Project Bronze scratchpad

Substantial postings about constructed languages and constructed worlds in general. Good place to mention your own or evaluate someone else's. Put quick questions in C&C Quickies instead.
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Shemtov
Lebom
Lebom
Posts: 129
Joined: Sun Sep 15, 2013 8:15 pm

Project Bronze scratchpad

Post by Shemtov »

This is a language with no conculture; I'm using it to test some linguistic ideas.
/b ɓ t d ɗ k g/ <b bh t d dh k g>
/m n ŋ/ < m n ng>
/ɸ~p̚ f s ʂ h/ <fh~p f s sh h>
/l/ <l>
/ʋ j/ <v y>

/i ɪ e ɛ u ʊ o ɔ ä ə/ <i y ê e u ư ô o â a>

/˥ ˩ ˦˥ ˧˩/ <á à ả ạ>

Roots are all (CV)CV(C)
The only word final codas allowed are /m n ŋ t k p̚/ [p̚] is an allophone of /ɸ/. When a vowel is added after it, it becomes /ɸ/.

The language has tense/lax vowel harmony, ə being the lax version of â. It also has tone harmony. This means that a high tone cannot occur with a low tone.

Core Cases:
The language is tripartite.
Erg.: (h)ềp/(h)ếp/(h)ép/(h)èp (h is added after a vowel-final root)
Acc. ngị/ngỵ/ngỉ/ngỷ
Abs: ∅

4 nouns in ergative case:
<mạtè> "yam" <mạtèhèp>
<bhìshồk> "boat" <bhìshồkềp>
<yỷm> "heart" <yỷmép>
<tộdhộ> "Fighting Staff" <tộdhộhếp>
Non core Cases:
Genitive: -gú/gù/gừ/gứ: This case can be used for motion away from with a verb of motion and the absence of a possessed. It is also used to express proximate relations, if what normally be the possessed takes the locative. Two genitives in sequence indicate an equitave meaning.
Dative: -(h)ạmà/(h)ảmá/(h)ậmầ/(h)ẩmấ: This case can be used for motion toward with a verb of motion. With intransitive verbs, the Subject will take this case instead of the unmarked Absolutive to indicate passivity. Similarly, a sequence of the Erg. case marker followed by this one indicates passivity of transitive verbs.
Locative: (h)ó/(h)ò/(h)ồ/(h)ố
Instrumental: -fỉm/fịm/fỵm/fỷm. This case can be used for a perlative meaning with a verb of motion
Monosyllabic words form their plural by simple reduplication:
<yỷm> "heart" <yỷmyỷm> "hearts"
Disyllabic words can form their plural in two ways:
1. Reduplicating the first syllable:
<mạtè> "yam" <mạmạtè> "yams"
Most words that form this plural are lax vowel stems, however <shủmếng> "tree" <shủshủmếng> "trees"
A subclass of this plural is those lax vowels that not only reduplicate their first syllable but become tense vowel stems:
fhửbhỏm "jerky strip" fhủfhủbhổm "jerky strips"
2. Reduplicating the last syllable:
<bhìshồk> "boat" <bhìshồkìshồk> "boats"


The dual is formed by the prefix "ngả/ngạ/ngẩ/ngậ"
The paucal (3-5) is formed by adding the dual prefix to the plural form.

Pronouns:
The pronouns as a class are all monosyllabic in the singular form. They also have only level tones. There is no number distinction in the 2nd and 3rd person:
1p sing.: dhòm
1p plural inclusive: dhòmdhòm
1p Dual inclusive ngàdhòm
1p Paucal inclusive ngàdhòmdhòm
1p plural exclusive: dhòmdhừp
1p Dual exclusive ngàdhòmdhừp
1p Paucal exclusive ngàdhòmdhừp
2p: lế
3p: váng
Verbs:
Verbs have 3 tenses: Past Present and future and four moods: Indicative Subjunctive optative and potential.

The Verb optionally takes a marker of the subject or agent. This is followed by the tense marker (except in tone shifting verbs)
Tense Markers:
Past: (h)ậng/(h)ẩng/(h)ạng/(h)ảng
present: kò/kó/kồ/kố
Future: nựn/nửn/nủn/nụn
The intransitive verb takes the plain pronoun as the person marking, adjusted for tone and vowel harmony.
shímẩdhốmẩng
shímẩ-dhốm-ẩng
sing-1p-PST
"I Sang"
Transitive verbs take the pronouns, but with the tone shifted to a contour.
váng késỷdhỏmảng
váng késỷ-dhỏm-ảng
3p kill-1p-PST
"I killed him/her/it/them"
Tone shift verbs are a class of monosyllabic high tone verbs that shift to low tone in the past instead of taking the suffix:
fhửbhỏmngỷ mửngdhỏmkó
fhửbhỏm-ngỷ mửng-dhỏm-kó
jerky-ACC eat-1p-PRSNT
"I eat the jerky"
but:
dhòmèp fhửbhỏmngỷ mựng
dhòm-èp fhửbhỏm-ngỷ mựng
1p.sing-ERG jerky-ACC eat\past
"I ate the jerky"

The Subjunctive mood marker is (h)ỉk/(h)ịk/(h)ỷk/(h)ỵk. The subjunctive mood can't have person marking except in use 3, where 2p marking is required.
Uses of the subjunctive:
1. Dubative subjunctive. Used with the question particle <ỷ> before the verb. The semantics are different from a normal question with <ỷ> following the verb, in that either the question is rhetorical, or is a gentle imperative.
2. Conditional subjunctive. Used as "if", a protasis , followed by an indicative apodosis.
3. Imperative subjunctive. This may be analyzed as a 5th mood with lếhỉk/lềhịk/léhỷk/lèhỵk as the ending in the intransitive and lểhỉk/lệhịk/lẻhỷk/lẹhỵk in the transitive.

The optative mood is used for wishes. dhè/dhé/dhế/dhề
The potential mood is used to show that the speaker believes something is possible, but is currently unsure. (h)ám/(h)àm/(h)ằm/(h)ắm

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