User:Ponzai/Sast

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Revision as of 13:22, 20 October 2015 by Ponzai (talk | contribs) (→‎Personal pronouns: corrected subject and object to nominative and accusative)
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A language created for personal practice and fun!

Background

Phonology

Consonants

Consonants
Bilabial Labio-dental Dental Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Plosive p b t̪ d̪ t d k g ʔ
Fricative f v θ ð s ç1 ʝ ɧ2 h
Lateral fri. ɬ
Flap or tap ɾ

1. Is in some dialects replaced with the voiceless palato-alveolar sibilant /ʃ/
2. Is in some dialects replaced with the normal velar fricative /x/.

Vowels

Vowels
Front Central Back
Close i ɤ
Open-mid ɔ
Near-open
Open a

The proto-language contains no diphthongs, though several derived languages do.

Phonotactics

Syllabic Structure

C=Consonant
V=Vowel
F=Fricative
P=Plosive
There are three types of syllables in Sast: precursory, subsequent and amalgam. Generally speaking, precursory and subsequent syllables come in pairs, whereas amalgam syllables come on their own. Note how the amalgam syllable is very similar to a precursory-subsequent syllable pair. The hyphen in the subsequent syllable represents a glottal stop, as all subsequent syllables start with one.

  • Precursory: (F)CV
  • Subsequent: -V((F)P)
  • Amalgam: (F)CV((F)P)

Consonant clusters

Certain consonant clusters never occur, due to their difficulty in pronounciation. Others are rare, but still do occur.

Consonant clusters
p b t d k g ʔ f v θ ð s ç ʝ ɧ h ɬ ɾ
p - - - - - - pk - - pf pv ps - -
b - - - bd̪ - - - - - bf bv bs - -
- - - - - - - - - t̪f t̪v t̪θ t̪ð t̪s t̪ç
t
d
k
g
ʔ
f
v
θ
ð
s
ç
ʝ
ɧ
h
ɬ
ɾ

Orthography

Orthography
IPA Romanized
p P p
b B b
Tt tt
Dd dd
t T t
d D d
k K k
g G g
ʔ - (Hyphen)
f F f
v V v
θ Tz tz
ð Th th
s S s
ç Sh sh
ʝ Z z
ɧ Sj sj
h H h
ɬ L l
W w
ɾ R r
i I i
ɤ U u
ɔ O o
E e
a A a


Parts of speech

Nouns

Gender

Sast nouns belong to one of four genders:

  • Inanimate - Objects that seem to contain no form of life, like stone.
  • Feminine - Animate objects that seem feminine in nature, such as women, or doors.
  • Masculine - Animate objects that seem masculine in nature, such as men, or lighthouses.
  • Spiritual - Both objects that seem to be supernatural in nature and abstract nouns belong to this gender. Examples being love, fire, or deities.

Nouns inflect differently based on gender, and verbs inflect for the gender of the subject.

Note: the genders need reworking. There are still going to be 4, but I will probably change inanimate to neuter or something like that

Case

Sast nouns are written differently in two cases.

  • Nominative
  • Accusative

Subjects are written in nominative form, whereas both accusative and dative objects are written in accusative form. The case of a noun affects its suffix in most cases.
Generally, the accusative contains fricatives, while the nominative does not. This is however not always the case.
Note that there is no genetive form, but rather a genitive particle. This is covered in the adverbials section.

Number

Noun suffixes
Gender↓ Case & Number
Nominative Accusative
Singular Dual Plural Singular Dual Plural
Inanimate - -ad -at -a -ab -ap
Feminine -u -udd -usjk -usht -ushd -ilk
Masculine -usk -usg -isk -isg
Spiritual -e -eg -ef -efg

Pronouns

Personal pronouns

Personal pronouns
Case Gender 1st person 2nd person 3rd person
Singular Dual Plural Singular Dual Plural Singular Dual Plural
Nominative Inanimate N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A Tte Di Ddi
Feminine Sha Zki Sku Za-a Du-i Di-i Vzo-i Tzshi Tatt
Masculine
Spiritual
Accusative Inanimate
Feminine
Masculine
Spiritual

Interogative and relative pronouns

Indefinite pronouns

Verbs

Adjectives

Adverbs

Particles

As particles are much more situational they will not displayed in a table, but rather be listed and explained.

The relative particle

To mark the beginning of of a noun clause

Syntax

Sast is an SOV language, meaning the subject is followed by the object, and last comes the verb.

  • Example: I am following him -> I him following

Adverbials are always added after the word that they are modifying.

  • Example: I am following him with courage -> I him following with courage.

Noun clauses are formed using the relative particle "la" to mark the start of a noun clause and the end particle "tza" to end it.

  • Example: I think that following people is wrong -> I "la" people following "tza" wrong is.


Subordinate clauses

Adverbials
Noun phrases

Derivational morphology

Derivations are done using either suffixes or infixes before the last syllable.

Nouns

  • Verb-to-noun is done by infixing "asj" before the last syllable.
  • Adjective-to-noun is done by suffixing "ash".
  • Maker, implying the doer of an action or the maker of an object is done by infixing "ttip".

Verbs

Adjectives

Adverbs