User:Chrysophylax/Sketches/caer: Difference between revisions

From Linguifex
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Line 58: Line 58:
|libation-{{sc|dvposs}}
|libation-{{sc|dvposs}}
|}
|}
:Their libation.
:Their/His/Her libation.
:{|
:{|
|-
|-

Revision as of 04:03, 10 January 2015

Caer (caer [qæɪ̯ʐ] or caeryn [ˈqæjɪˌʐjəǀ] is the ceremonial sacred language of the Vá people. Its use is nowadays primarily restricted to the rituals of lyaa ('libation') and yayaq (‘divination’) although historically it saw much more use. It is remarkable for being typologically dissimilar to Vánic language with differing morphosyntactic agreement and word order.

Phonology

Caer has an interesting phonological system, completely lacking rounded and back vowels; dental, bilabial and velar plosives; or any of the common nasals.

Consonants

The incredibly sparse consonantal system includes a few uvular consonants, one alveolar sibilant, a voiced retroflex and two clicks.

c~q nn h r s t y l v n

q ɴ χ ʐ sˡ θ j ʟ ʘ ǀ

Vowels

There are three phonemic vowels in Caer: a /æ/, e /ɪ/, y /ə/.

Vowel phonemes in Caer
Front Central
Near-close e /ɪ/
Mid y /ə/
Open a /æ/

Pitch

Each word in Caer can optionally take one of two pitch contours: falling (t₁) or rising (t₂). The falling contour (t₁) ends with creaky voice. Although lexically and grammatically important, it is not indicated in the orthography.

A common minimal pair given in literature is: yayaq [ˈjæˌə̯æ̰q˥˩] ‘divination’ and yayaq [ˈjæˌə̯æq˩˥] ‘calamity’.

Phonotactics

Orthography

Morphology

Verbal morphology

Nominal morphology

Possession

Caer extraordinarily includes a third-person ergative suffix -yn (dvposs). The affix bears connotations of transitivity when the inflected word is combined with a head noun or phrase. It is only utilised when referring to deities and their possessions, e.g.,

lyaa-yn
libation-dvposs
Their/His/Her libation.
alcahsa caer-yn
Maker secret-dvposs
The Maker's given secret.

Determiners

Personal pronouns

Derivational morphology

Syntax