Old Yateqtix

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spanick
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Old Yateqtix

Post by spanick »

as my dissatisfaction with my current main conlang Dnukta'u grows, I've decided to dig up an older conlang I didn't do much with and revamp it.

Phonology
/p t k Ɂ/ <p t k q>
/f θ s x h/ <f z s x h>
/m n ŋ/ <m n ń>
/w l j/ <w l y>

/ɪ ɛ ʊ ɔ ɑ/ <i e u o a>

Prosody
Primary stress is always on the penultimate syllable.
Feet are iambic.
Secondary stress is built right to left.
Degenerate feet are not allowed.
Syllables are not weight sensitive.

Phonotactics
Syllable structure is: CV(C). Any consonant can be an onset or coda.

E-Epenthesis: Ø → e / (C)C ____C
J-Epenthesis: Ø → j / V ___ V (this rule may get changed to disallow /iji/)
Q-Epenthesis: Ø → Ɂ / #____V

Morphology
Nouns and Verbs are derived from tri-consonantal root CCC. These consonants are referred to by number based on their order from left to right C1-C2-C3.

Noun Classes
Class I CVC.VC katip "book"
Class II CV.CV.CV katipa "paper"
Class IIIa V.CVC.CV qaqayla "body"
Class IIIb V.CVC.VC qofetun "drink"

Verb Classes
Class I CVC.CV fatna "to eat"
Class II CV.CVC saxat "to grow"
Class III VC.CVC qiktep "to write"

*Take note than Class II nouns and verbs underlyingly have word initial V. However, Q-Epenthesis inserts a glottal stop. If a prefix is applied, such as a personal ending for verbs, Q-Epenthesis does not apply and that consonant takes its place.
**Class I and IIIb nouns also do not violate syllable structure rules. They are shown this way because of the way they pattern during reduplication. Otherwise, a Class I or Class IIIb noun is identical to a Class II verb.

Noun Morphology
Nouns are declined for 7 cases: Nominative, Accusative, Genitive, Dative, Locative, Instrumental, and Vocative. Nouns are also marked for plurality through reduplication.

Nom: Ø katip
Acc: ta- takatip
Gen: ń- ńekatip
Dat: yo- yokatip
Loc: la- lakatip
Ins: f- fekatip
Voc: ha- hakatip

Reduplication:
Class II and IIIa nouns are made plural by reduplicating the final syllable. Class I and IIIb nouns are made by reduplicating C2 and using the reduplicated consonant as the onset of the final syllable.

Class I katip > kattip
Class II katipa > katipapa
Class IIIa qaqayla > qaqaylala
Class IIIb qofetun > qofettun

Verb Morphology
Verbs are marked for both subject and object. The subject marking is prefixed while the object is suffixed. The object marking only marks for one argument, the direct object/reflexive.

Subject (Nom) prefixes:
1st Sg m- miktep "I write"
2nd Sg s- siktep "You write"
3rd Sg t- tiktep "He writes
1st Pl l- liktep "We write"
2nd Pl n- niktep "You write"
3rd Pl z- ziktep "They write"

Object Suffixes:
1st Sg -mi sefidewmi "He sees me"
2nd Sg -si mefidewsi "I see you"
3rd Sg -du tefidewdu "He sees him" or "He sees himself"
1st Pl -l zefidewel "They see us"
2nd Pl -n mefidewen "I see you"
3rd Pl -zi sefidewzi "You see them"

These suffixes also appear when there is an explicit object such as: Takitap miktepdu "I write (it) the book"

Haven't decided how to mark for tense/mood/aspect. I plan on have simple past, present future tenses; a general irrealis mood; and imperfective/perfective aspects. Thoughts? I'd like to incorporate reduplication for verbs somehow.

Syntax
Basic word order is SOV.

This is all I have so far. More to come once I have the time.

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spanick
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Re: Old Yateqtix

Post by spanick »

Past Tense

Ive decided to take a cue from Gothic and use reduplication to express the past tense.

To form the past tense, the first syllable of the verb is reduplicatsd in full:

Class I fatna "eat" > fatfatna "ate"
Class II saxat "grow" > sasaxat "grew"
Class III qiktep "write" > qikiktep "wrote"

Future Tense

The future tense is expressed with an infix -o- which in class I and class II verbs is placed after C2 and in class III verbs is placed after C1.

Class I fatna "eat" > fatona "will eat"
Class II saxat "grow" > saxoyat "will grow"
Class III qiktep "write" > qikotep "will write"

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