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Topic: Modern Sebastic, phonology, verbs, nouns
Modern Sebastic
Modern Sebastic comes in three forms. It includes two colloquial dialects, referred to as Galilean and Diasporal. The Galilean dialect belongs to the largest concentration of Sebastic speakers, in the southern Galilee region, who also produce the most cultural output. The Diasporal dialect is descended from the Jerusalem dialect, whose largest concentration of speakers in the region is now in Bethlehem. The majority of its speakers now live abroad, where a sort of koine serves as the lingua franca among them. Remnants of other dialects have influenced very local uses of the Diasporal dialect, but have, for the most part, died out.
A standard written dialect, referred to as simply Modern Sebastic, has also existed since the 19th century. It is a slightly classicizing or conservative standard, intended to be accessible to modern Sebastic speakers.
Below is a look at the standard written dialect, with partial notes on the phonologies of the Galilean/Diasporal dialects.
Phonology
β̥ (from *b) > v in Galilean, some Diasporal; > w in other Diasporal (incl. in Bethlehem)
l > j / _.C in both Galilean, Diasporal
l > w / V_V in Diasporal
w > v in Galilean, some Diasporal; remains w in other DIasporal (incl. in Bethlehem)
ā > ɔ in Diasporal
ī > e
ū > o
Galilean dialect undergoes advanced imāla: a > ε, ī > e > i, ā > ɔ > a
Some Diasporal accents influenced by this.
Verbs
The verbal system condenses significantly in Modern Sebastic.
Stems:
Gt, Dt disappear
D stems tend to merge morphologically: (G, D), (C, CD), (N, ND), (NC, NCD), (Ct, CDt).
Ct/CDt no longer productive and fossilized in meaning.
Classical D and CD stem meanings tend to transfer to Ct/CDt stem. Sometimes their meanings replace the G-stem or C-stem. Sometimes the meanings disappear entirely.
In some cases, D-stem is replaced with a stem of reduplication.
Meanings of t-stem verbs tend to transfer to N-stem verbs.
N-stems are almost always intransitive. The other stems (G, C, Ct/CDt) tend to be either transitive or intransitive.
Intransitives, especially mediopassives and passives, of Ct/CDt tend to take an indirect object to mark this function. They are similar in this regard to reflexive verbs of the Indo-European languages.
Examples:
'put down roots, become entrenched': Classical D-stem yəsakkám > Modern G-stem esákkim (also 'settle, settle down')
'chop up': Classical D-stem yákassir > Modern Redup. yákaskis
'be chopped up': Classical Dt-stem yátkassir > Modern Ct/CDt ejtákassir (see below)
'fall to pieces': Classical NCD-stem yəmjákassir > Modern Ct/CDt ejtákassir (used also transitively as 'break apart,' the Classical meaning of this verb)
'cut oneself': Classical Gt-stem yátkasir > Modern N-stem yámkasir (subsumed under the broader meaning: 'be cut')
Other notes:
Gender is no longer marked in verbs.
e- replaces yə- as 3S subject prefix.
Nouns
The archaic nominal marker -a is reanalyzed as an indefinite article. One theory claims this would have been motivated by a reanalysis of the Classical definite marker -(i)m as marking direct objects, in confusion with the actual direct object marker, -ma. There is little to evidence the theory, however.
Indefinite marker: -a (kásba 'a piece of money')
Definite marker: -Ø (kásib 'the money')
Indef Direct Object marker: -ma (ejtəhakkílmaju kásibma 'he spent some money on it')
Definite Direct Object marker: -imma (ejtəhakkílmaju kásbimma 'he spent the money on it')
The feminine marker is no longer productive, as a homophonous morpheme marks collectives/specimens.
Gender agreement thus falls out of use.
Semantic distinctions in masculine/feminine nouns remain only in nouns that preserve social or economic differentiations based on gender. In some cases they come from different roots entirely (mas man; vashar woman), while in other cases, the feminine marker is preserved fossilized to make the distinction (bajɔ́ son; bájit daughter).
Next post: Comparison of Classical/Modern/Galilean/Diasporal
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