Soc'ul'

Soc'ul'
soc'ul'
Jul soc'ul', "Soc'ul' language" in the Wacag script
Pronunciation	[so̞˧kʷʰu˩lˀ]
Created by	Dillon Hartwig
Date	2020
Setting	Pollasena
Native to	Knrawi Isles
Language family	Wasc Soc'ul'
Early form	Pre-Soc'ul'
Official status
Official language in	Knrawi Empire
Range map of Soc'ul' (green) and Knrawi (pink)

Soc'ul' /ˈsoʊkʊl/ (Soc'ul': [so̞˧kʷʰu˩lˀ]) is a Wasc language spoken primarily by the Cuoñ'o people, with strong influence from Knrawi and other languages of the Knrawi Isles.

Etymology

Soc'ul', the language's autonym, is inherited from the Pre-Soc'ul' autonym səkʰulːa, from Wascotl *(cek)-cek-sole-la "our tongue".

Orthography

Soc'ul' is written with the Wacag logography. Its romanization is as follows.

Soc'ul' Romanization

A a	Á á	Ā ā	B b	B' b'	C c	C' c'	Cñ cñ	Cñ' cñ'	D d	D' d'
E e	É é	Ē ē	H h	I i	Í í	Ī ī	Ï ï	J j	L l	L' l'
M m	M' m'	N n	N' n'	Ñ ñ	Ñ' ñ'	O o	Ó ó	Ō ō	P p	Pf pf
Pm pm	Pm' pm'	R r	R' r'	S s	T t	Tn tn	Tn' tn'	Ts ts	Tx tx	T' t'
U u	Ú ú	Ū ū	Ü ü	V v	V' v'	X x	Y y	Ý ý	Z z	Z' z'

This romanization matches IPA except

• ⟨c⟩, ⟨e⟩, ⟨h⟩, ⟨j⟩, ⟨ñ⟩, ⟨x⟩, and ⟨y⟩ represent /k/, /ə/, /ʔ/, /x/, /ŋ/, /ʃ/, and /ɰ/
• ⟨pm⟩, ⟨tn⟩, ⟨cñ⟩, ⟨pf⟩, ⟨ts⟩, and ⟨tx⟩ represent /ᵖm/, /ᵗn/, /ᵏŋ/, /p͡f/, /t͡s/, and /t͡ʃ/
• ⟨ü⟩ and ⟨ï⟩ represent /u/ and /i/ when ⟨u⟩ and ⟨i⟩ would cause ambiguity
• ⟨o⟩ represents /ə/ when realized as [o̞] except between a labialized consonant (except allophones of /u(ː)/) and a plain velar consonant (except /ɰˀ/)
• Apostrophes mark glottalization and aspiration.
• Acutes and macrons mark long and overlong vowels respectively, except in ⟨ý⟩ in which it marks glottalization.
• Labialization and palatalization are marked by surrounding vowel letters.

Phonology

Consonants

Consonants

	Labial/ labiodental				Alveolar				Post- alveolar	Palatalized velar/ palatal				Velar				Labialized velar				Glottal
Nasal	ᵖm	m	ᵖmˀ	mˀ	ᵗn	n	nˀ	ᵗnˀ		ᵏŋʲ	ŋʲ	ᵏŋʲˀ	ŋʲˀ	ᵏŋ	ŋ	ᵏŋˀ	ŋˀ	ᵏŋʷ	ŋʷ	ᵏŋʷˀ	ŋʷˀ
Stop		b		bˀ	t	d	tʰ	dˀ		kʲ		kʲʰ		k		kʰ		kʷ		kʷʰ		ʔ
Affricate	p͡f				t͡s				t͡ʃ
Fricative		v		vˀ	s		z	zˀ	ʃ	xʲ	(ʝ)		(ʝˀ)	x	(ɣ)		(ɣˀ)	xʷ	(ɣʷ)		(ɣʷˀ)
Approximant						l		lˀ			(j)		(jˀ)		(ɰ)		(ɰˀ)		(w)		(wˀ)
Trill						r		rˀ

• Glottalized consonants are realized with simultaneous creaky voicing for most speakers, but some speakers realize glottalized stops as implosive either in free variation or word-initially
• Aspirated consonants have light to moderate aspiration
• [j(ˀ)] and [w(ˀ)] are allophones of /i(ː)/ and /u(ː)/ adjacent to vowels
• [j(ˀ)], /ɰ(ˀ)/, and [w(ˀ)] are realized as [ʝ(ˀ)], [ɣ(ˀ)], and [ɣʷ(ˀ)] adjacent to high vowels
• Some speakers devoice voiced obstruents adjacent to voiceless consonants

Vowels

Vowels

	Front		Central	Back
High	i	(y)		u
Mid			ə	(o̞)
Low	a			(ɒ)

• All vowels can be long or overlong
• [y], [o̞], and [ɒ] are allophones of /i/, /ə/, and /a/ adjacent to labialized consonants except allophones of /u(ː)/

Prosody

Stress and pitch

There is no set stress position, but allophonic pitch based on vowels' surrounding consonants. For most speakers these pitches are not contrastive but are seen as proper and are required in recitations; marginal exceptions occur for speakers occur that assimilate voicing in clusters and for speakers that retain tone in loaned Knrawi or tonal substrate words.

Short vowels

	Voiceless /pre-stopped consonant	Aspirated /voiced consonant	Word boundary /vowel	Glottalized consonant
Voiceless /pre-stopped consonant	high	mid	high	low
Aspirated /voiced consonant		mid
Word boundary /vowel
Glottalized consonant		mid	low

Long/overlong vowels

	Voiceless /pre-stopped consonant	Aspirated /voiced consonant	Word boundary /vowel	Glottalized consonant
Voiceless /pre-stopped consonant	high	high falling	high falling	high sharp falling
Aspirated /voiced consonant	high rising	mid		low falling
Word boundary /vowel	high rising			low falling
Glottalized consonant	low sharp rising	low rising	low rising	low

Whether glottalized pre-stopped nasals pattern as pre-stopped or glottalized varies by speaker and region.

Intonation

Declarative sentences generally have a falling pitch throughout, but volume and pitch range can be used for emphasis.

In questions the particle xen may also be emphasized with a sharp falling pitch followed by higher pitch in the following word.

Rhythm

Syllables are generally mora-timed, with syllables containing long and overlong vowels having two and three morae; in recitations, continuant coda consonants or coda clusters with them may have their own mora, and overlong syllables may instead have four morae.

Phonotactics

Syllables are at most (C(C₁))V((C₂)C), with C₁ being a non-lateral approximant and C₂ being C₁ or /ʔ/, but these maximum syllables are very rare. There are no restrictions on what clusters can occur.

Grammar

Nouns and pronouns

Nouns fall into five classes which are unmarked directly on the noun but trigger agreement in verbs and some particles. In informal speech class-2 marking is often used for class-1 nouns.

Pronouns do not exist independently (except see Possession; person and class of dropped nouns are instead only shown through verb agreement.

Nouns are marked for number, case, and possession by particles before the noun as follows.

Noun particles

	ACC/ERG	POSS/DAT	INDEF/PL	INAL/LOC/ADJZ
1	a	en	ez'	he
2	a	nej	ez'	hej
CL1/CL2	a	nu	ez'	hé
CL3	al	nil	ez'e	hel
CL4	ax	nux	ez'e	hex
CL5	ád	nid'	ez'e	hed'

• Case and number/definiteness marking are optional in non-formal speech, and on nouns with suppletive plural/indefinite forms or nouns modified by numerators plural/indefinite particles are only used as a plural indefinite marker.
• Other particle groups above are optional in non-formal speech when verb agreement marking gives sufficient context.

Plurality and indefiniteness are treated as one category, and many nouns mark plurality or indefiniteness with suppletion. This suppletion is most often from fossilized final-syllable reduplication in Wascotl.

Possession

Possessive particles (alienable or inalienable) can also serve as possessive pronouns when verb agreement marking does not give sufficient context.

Inalienable possession is generally restricted to family members, body parts, inherent or permanent qualities (for example tumiad "sanctity"), and internal processes (for example c'uád "thought"). Words in the latter two categories are more flexible in which type of possession they take, varying by speaker and region.

Verbs

Alignment

All verbs trigger either nominative-accusative or ergative-absolutive marking on nouns.

Aspect and mood

Verbs are marked for aspect and mood by particles preceding the verb.

Aspect-mood prefixes

	PFV	PROG	CONT	SUBJ	ABIL	RES
	en	miu	ji, laz	uc'	c'e	c'ez
INCH	r'uz	miur'	jir', lar'	r'uc'	c'er'	r'ez
TERM	coi	miuc	jiuc, lauc	cuc'	c'oc	coz
NEG/Q	xen	miun	jin, lan	nuc'	c'en	nez

• The perfective particle en is optional except in formal speech, and in non-formal speech can used to reset aspect-mood in embedded or sequential clauses or to contrast with other nearby markers.
• The progressive and continuative particles are often used contrastively as imperfective nonpresent and imperfective present markers respectively.
• The subjunctive particles are often used as future markers.
• The negation/question particle xen can be reduplicated after the verb to disambiguate it as a question particle.

These particles can cooccur, and are often combined for more specific or otherwise combined meanings, but in serial verbs are only used before the first verb. All but en can also be used as standalone verbs (see Copula), but do not need to take any agreement.

Agreement

Verbs agree with the person and class of their agent and patient as follows.

Verb agreement prefixes

	>1	>2	>CL1	>CL2	>CL3/CL4	>CL5
1	sec-	soc-	seic-	seh-	setn-	'cu-
2	cor-	coz-	cor-	coh-	cox-	cu-
CL1	íús-	íúy-	aí-	íúh-	íún-	íū-
CL2	har-	hau-	z'ai-	∅-	han-	hu-
CL3	in-	nau-	ixú-	nal'-	iy-	nu-
CL4	an'-	ñ'o-	ñ'ai-	ñ'ih-	añ'-	u-
CL5	us-	úu-	úi-	ba-	úx-	u-

• Intransitive verbs are marked with patient agreement of the agent's class.
• Possessed nouns trigger agreement as their possessor unless a possessive particle is used.

Copula

The copula hazen inflects as follows.

Copulae

	>1	>2	>CL1	>CL2	>CL3/CL4	>CL5
1	syen	suén	syíún'	sehan'	setnayn	sun'
2	coren	cozen	coríún'	coban'	coriyn	cun'
CL1	íúsyen	íúzen	aíún'	íúban'	íúnen	íún'
CL2	haryen	huén	hazíún'	hazen	harin'	hun'
CL3	nasen	nuén	naíún'	nahlan'	nayn	nun'
CL4	an'yen	ñ'ón	ñ'aíún'	ñ'iban'	ñ'in'	un'
CL5	sén	uén	uaíún'	ban'	uinayn	un'

If aspect-mood marking is used, the copula is optionally dropped.

Adjectives and adverbs

Adjectives are not their own class of words, but are derived from nouns or verbs. Most often they are derived by zero-marking before other nouns or verbs, or with suffixes or particles.

Some of these derived adjectives and adverbs have meanings that don't directly correspond to the word they are derived from; in most cases this is due to homophony in ancestral Wascotl words after dropping of the adjective suffix *-(c)osc or regular merging with forms ending in *-(o)tl (*-osc and *-otl both becoming -ux), for example toc "knife" or "sharp" from Wascotl *tequ- and *tequ-osc respectively.

Postpositions

Soc'ul' has a limited set of general postpositions: locative eý, lative je, proximal/comitative ne, ablative xenuz, and distal/ablative/abessive xen'e.

More specific adpositions, when needed, are formed with {location} ... {postposition} constructions (for example m'e ... eý "on" from m'e "top").

Numerals

Soc'ul' uses base-12 numerals except in formal writing, which uses base-24 numerals.

Derivational morphology

Reduplication

Most words (other than nouns and conjunctions, but including some particles) can be fully reduplicated after the word for augmented or intensified meaning. In verbs this can also mark an iterative or contrastive meaning, and in adjectives and adverbs it can also mark a comparative or superlative meaning when the thing being compared to is absent in the sentence.

The reduplicated word comes after any particles that would othrewise be directly after the word. Reduplicated verbs only mark agreement on the first verb.

Triplication is also used by some speakers for further augmentation/intensification, but this is not considered standard.

Syntax

Constituent order

All clauses are strictly VO, and subject and object order are flexible with sufficient marking or context, but VSO order is most common.

Noun and verb phrases

All modifiers follow their head noun or verb, except aspect-mood particles precede verbs and the demonstrative jál precedes nouns. Generally numerators follow adjectives and possessors follow all other modifiers, but otherwise modifier order is flexible.

Dependent clauses

Dependent clauses follow the head they modify after all other dependents, and are usually marked with a relativizer āh-.

Example texts

• Linguifex translations
• CALS translations

Twitter translations

• Permechikan showcase text
• Ossetian cowboy verse
• My horses collect teeth
• Buddy
• NSFW joke
• One Punch Man opening theme
• Dad joke

Other resources

CALS

Pollasena Wiki

Twitter word of the day

Discord word of the day