Ɯ

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Ŭrbŭrŭx U
"the speech, U"
Pronunciation[/ˈuɾ.bu.ɾux ˈɯ/]
Created byNicolás Straccia
SettingYrḳuti conworlding project
Ɯ languages
  • Ŭrbŭrŭx U
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

The language known as Ɯ is a conlang being created and developed by Nicolás Straccia as part of the Yrḳuti conworlding project.


Background


[...]

Grammar

PHONOLOGY

Vowels

Vowel inventory

Front Near-front Central Near-back Back
Close
Blank vowel trapezoid.svg
i
y
u
ɯ
e
ø
o
a
Near‑close
Close‑mid
Mid
Open‑mid
Near‑open
Open

Stem-controlled roundness harmony. Both /a/ and /o/, a back and a front vowel, are neutral. In compounds each element retains it own harmony; affixes will harmonize with the stem with which they are directly in contact.

Consonants

Consonant inventory

Bilabial Labio-dental Dental Alveolar Post-alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Plosive p b t d (ɟ) k g ʔ
Nasal m n (ɲ) (ŋ)
Trill r
Tap or flap ɾ
Fricative f v s ʃ x h
Africate ʧ
Approximant w j
Lateral app. l (ʎ)

Phonotaxis

Sandhi

[...]



Syllable structure

Both verbal and nominal roots, as well as affixes, have a (C)(C)V(C) syllable structure.

MORPHOLOGY

Nominal morphology

Nominal roots are marked for grammatical case, deixis (relative locativity and lativity), definiteness and number or quantity.

Grammatical gender and animacy

There are two grammatical genders: animate and inanimate. The animate gender has two subdivisions: masculine and feminine. These are all generally listed as masculine, feminine and neuter gender.

(See also ‘Animacy and volition’ below)

Grammatical number and quantifier affixes

There are two systems of grammatical number: i) for nouns, Collective 1, Dual, Singulative, Collective 2; ii) for pronouns, the numbers Singular, Dual, Plural and Indefinite.

(See also “__*number*__” below)

Grammatical number markers for nouns

The determiners account for definiteness as well as for number:

Number Definiteness Marker
col Collective Indefinite -Ø
Definite -Vr
dual Dual Indefinite -Vt
Definite -VmVm
sg Singulative Indefinite -Vm
Definite -Vx
col2 Collective 2* Indefinite -lVt
Definite -lVm

* The number “Collective 2” reffers to collectives or complete sets of a noun; e.g. ne; trees; nelet, a.forest

Declension particles and affixes

Grammatical case
Animate Inanimate
Singular Dual Plural 4th Singular Dual Plural 4th
Nominative nom Ø
Ergative erg an- vVl- sVm- tVm- ɯl- xan- rVm- tVl-
Dative dat bVl- mVl- bVl- mVl-
Absolutive abs tVn- wVn- VtVn- sVn- okVn- xVn- VkVn- šVn-
Accusative acc VnV- lVt- VnV- lVt-
Instrumental inst or- Vm- or- Vm-
Partitive* part bV- tV- kV- tV-
Genitive** gen -(o)nnu(r)

* The partitive case (part) conveys the telicity of the verb (to.x/to.x.obj vs. to.fully/thoroughly.x/x.obj).
** The genitive case (gen) is marked with a conflation of the deictic markers -ho- (FROM) and -nur (APUD) and is thus the same for all nouns.

Deictics

.

Nominal declension themes

C-theme VC-stems
CVC-stems
V-theme CV-stems
CCV-stems

Personal pronouns

Personal pronouns can be dropped. They are marked as follows:

-1 0 1 2
grammatical.case lam deictic.marker number.marker
“person"

Proper names

Proper names are marked for grammatical case in the same way as animate singular common nouns. Regular sandhi over morpheme boundaries is not triggered (for instance, tanTavar instead of **tanDavar, see below).

In the Romanization, the capitalization of the proper name remains in place while prefixes and suffixes remain in minuscle, e.g.:

“Farŭl” {Ø-Farŭl} nom-Farŭl vs. “anFarŭl” {an-Farŭl} erg-Farŭl or

“Perit” {Ø-Perit} nom-Perit vs. “belPerit” {bVl-Perit} dat-Perit or

“Tavar” {Ø-Tavar} nom-Tavar vs. “tanTavar” {tVn-Tavar} abs-Tavar.

Other names, like given names, nicknames and pet names based on common nouns are marked with the proper name marker pnm –gV or –Vg.

The proper name vocative, derived from a reduplicated form of the pnm, fossilized in the forms -gagV and -agVg, occurs with epenthesis of the harmonically neutral vowel a. In this latter form, the first g is subject to sandhi, while the second isn’t. E.g. Tavar → Tavarraga!, Perit → Perittagi!, Farŭl → Farŭllagŭ!.

Verbal morphology

Verbal roots are marked for tense, aspect and subject (animacy, gender, number and person). Mood is marked through postpositions.

Tenses

Tenses are: present, non-present. The equivalent to the future and past tense are conveyed as follows:

Marking Conveyed tense
-2 -1 0 1 2
perfect - √root obviative subject.non-present past
Ø subject.present present
prospective subject.non-present future

Whence:

Marking
Primary aspect (-2) Tense (2)
Perfect present stative resulting from past action
non-present past
Prospective present prospective
non-present future
Neutral (Ø marking) present present
non-present oblique

Tense-person marking suffixes

The most animate agent of the clause (see "Animacy, control, volition") agrees with the verb declined with the proximate suffix, the lesser animate with the verb marked with the obviate. This can also be used to mark a change of referent (see "referent anaphora").

Proximate suffixes
Obviate suffixes

The obviative particle obv -i-/-ĭ- is placed between the root and the proximal tense marker. It applies to the second and third person.

This in turn shows the form of the tense suffix that is otherwise opaqued by the sandhi:

prox mẹnnᴉt, obv mẹnᴉlᴉt
-lit 3s.masc.pres, -ilit 3s.masc.pres.obv.

Verbal aspect markers

.

Aspect Marker
Perfect perf C₂a-/C₂o-
Prospective pros C₂ora-/oC₂osa-
Continuous cont C₂ona-
Progressive prog C₂ara-
Gnomic gnom aC₂C₂a-
Imperfective imper oC₂a-
Iterative iter toC₂a-


The primary and the secondary aspect markers have historically fused through metaphony and syncope, yielding the following standarized forms:

For animate subjects


For inanimate subjects

Mood marking particles

All mood marking particles are postpositional to the verb they modify. Being there no copula for existencial predication, all mood markers modify verbal phrases directly (see below: negation).

Special cases

i) Counterfactual conditional

The if clause is counterfactual

ii) Deliberative mood

A construction similar to a deliberative mood (delib – sentences of the form “should I do X?”) can be marked by the conflation of the optative mood marker (opt) kŭ either 1) with the interrogative mood marker (int) če; or 2) with the imperative mood marker (imp) kŭ.

delib (int+opt): čekkŭ (< če + kŭ)
delib (imp+opt): nakkŭ (< na + kŭ)

iii) Desiderative mood (“wanting to X”)

Participles

The participial verbal forms are formed with the bare root of the verb, marked with the participial marker ppl aC₂(a)- (a modified form of the gnomic aspect marker gnom aC₂C₂a-) and an epenthetic suffix -i/-ĭ that takes over the slot of the person-tense marker. This works as an infinitive participle, and can furtherly be inflected for tense and aspect. The forms of the ppl fused with the verbal tense structural primary verbal aspects, and most used participles are:

Marking Conveyed tense
-3 -2 0 2
1 ppl aC₂(a)- perfect C₂a-/C₂o- √root subject.non-present past
2 Ø subject.present present
3 prospective C₂ora-/oC₂osa- subject.non-present future

Marked with the forms:

Participle ppl Primary aspect marker Person-tense marker Participle prefix (-3)·(-2)-
1 Past participle aC₂(a)- C₂a-/C₂o- subject.non-present aC₂C₂(V)-
2 Present participle Ø subject.present aC₂(V)-
3 Future participle C₂ora-/oC₂osa- subject.non-present aC₂Vr(V)-

For example:

‹axxamaxi nēr›
/ˈax.xa.ma.xi neːɾ/
{axxa-max-i ne-er}
{aC₂C₂(V)-max-i ne-Vr}
ppl-to.cut-ppl trees-def.col
“the cut trees”

All other combinations of ppl+(aspect marker) are also allowed.

Referent anaphora

Anaphoric reference shift particle

The anaphoric marker states that the referent of the verb has changed. This is to avoid the ambiguity of sentences like the following:

“Tavar hit Perit. He cried”

Given a sequence of actions like the one above, performed by actuants (A or S) of the same level of semantically adscribed animaciy, it is necessary to mark wether the sequence of actions (hitting, then crying) belongs to the same referent, or if the referent of the first action is different than that of the latter. To mark that the actuant of the crying, S, is now Perit (formerly the non-actuant, O, of the hitting), and no longer Tavar (actuant, A, of the hitting), either the verb itself or the pronoun -most commonly the verb, given the pro-drop feature of the language- is suffixed with one of the following particles:


This would render the aforementioned sentence ("Tavar hit Perit. He cried") into the unambiguously marked:

‹anTavar sakĕssiteš tenPerit. Lamma xabaxlitešen›
/an.ta.ˈvaɾ sa.ˈkøs.si.teʃ ten.pe.ˈɾit | ˈlam.ma xa.ˈbax.li.te.ʃen/
{an-Tavar sa-kĕs-siteš ten-Perit | Ø-lam-ma xa-bax-liteš-en}
{an-Tavar C₂a-kĕs-liteš tVn-Perit | Ø-lam-Ca C₂a-bax-liteš-Ø-Vn}
erg.anim.sg-Tavar perf-to.hit-3s.anim.masc.npres abs.anim.sg-Perit | nom.anim.sg-lam-pron.sg perf-to.cry-3s.anim.masc.npres.ind-shift
“Tavar hit Perit. He cried”

Tavar did the hitting, Perit the crying.

Use of the obviate

The obviative form of the tense-person marker, used to mark agreement of verbs with the less animate actor of a clause with different actors of the same semanticly adscribed degree of animacy, as it sepparates actors, can be used on its own to mark the shift in referent within a single clause, while the anaphoric reference shift particle can also be used over longer discourse segments.

Verbal compounding

Two verbal roots are combined to convey a new meaning (see Derivational morphology: Special compositional functions of verbs).

Derivational morphology

.

Derivational affixes

Marker Meaning
‹› // gloss Name Slot
-(i)ti i.ti agen agentive Derives agent nouns from other common nouns or from verbs, denoting someone or something whose role or purpose it is to use the noun (instrumental construction) or to perform or partake in the verb's action.
-(s)im sim agen agentive The same as -(i)ti. Mostly used for derivation from verbs.
-(r)in ɾin agen agentive The same as -(i)ti. Mostly used for derivation from other common, but non-agent nouns.
-Can [C]an res resultative Derives nouns resulting of an action. (e.g. mar to.carve, marran carved.item, statue; mĕr to.write, mĕrran letter, written symbol)
y(V)- j_ nlz nominalizer (See "Nominalization of a locative adverb")
=la- la hyl hylic 1 Material commonly associated with the noun (e.g. -ne- trees, -ne=la- wood)
-aš aʃ tool tools Tool associated with the verb or noun which it modifies.


Compounding

Genitive compounds

Genitive compounds are usually binary structures of elements of the same or different parts of speech, though some tripartite compounds can arise. In binary structures, the first element is the determinatum (head element) of the compound. The following compositions are the most common:

i) A noun₁+noun₂ compound: will yield a compound noun that pertains both elements.
ii) A noun+verb compound: will yield a noun after the scheme: [noun]-used.for/used.to-[verb]
iii) A verb₁+verb₂ compound: will yield a compound verb that pertains both elements
iv) A verb+noun compound: will yield a verb after the scheme: [verb]>>[noun]

When a noun is the first element in a compound, it will be rendered in its construct state (CS) after the following scheme:

(1) [√-C] → +V(√) if [√C-] | +V(√)m if [√V-]
(2) [√-V] → +Ø if [√C-] | +m if [√V-]

(1) If the root of noun₁ ends with a consonant, the CS of that root will be either i) √+V(√) if the root of noun₂/verb begins with a consonant or ii) √+V(√)m if it begins with a vowel.
(2) If the root of noun₁ ends with a vowel, the CS of that root will be either i) √+Ø if the root of noun₂/verb begins with a consonant or ii) √+m if it begins with a vowel.

The roots of verbs have no CS and the morphemes are subject to regular sandhi phenomena.

Examples:

Composition i) noun₁+noun₂

Noun₁: ĕl /øl/ flesh; CS: √+V(√) → ĕlĕ- {ĕl=ĕ}
Noun₂: ne /ne/ trees {tree:COL}
‹ĕlĕne›
/ˈø.lø.ne/
{ĕl=ĕ-ne}
{flesh=CS-tree:COL}
“tree-flesh; wood”

Composition ii) noun+verb

Noun: kaš /kaʃ/ sticks {stick:COL}; CS: √+V(√) → kaša- {kaš=a}
Verb: kĕs /køs/ to hit
‹kašakĕs›
/ˈka.ʃa.køs/
{kaš=a-kĕs}
{stick:COL=CS-to.hit}
“hit-sticks; clubs, maces”

Composition iii) verb₁+verb₂

Verb₁: mĕn /ˈmøn/ to.fly
Verb₂: koteš /ko.ˈteʃ/ to.hand.over
‹mĕngoteš›
/ˈmøn.go.teʃ/
{mĕn-koteš}
{to.fly-to.hand.over}
"to fly” (transitive)

Composition iv) verb+noun

Verb: max /max/ to.cut
Noun: nela /ne.la/ {ne=la} trees-HYL, wood
‹maxnela›
/ˈmax.ne.la/
{max-(ne=la)}
{to.cut-wood}
“to cut wood; woodcutting”


Special compositional functions of verbs

There are some verbs that, being the determinans in a type iii composition (verb₂), act differently than in isolation or as the determinatum of such a composition.

- The verbs ‹kĕs› /køs/ to.hit and ‹huš› /ˈhɯʃ/ to.burn.

They may both act like intensifiers, either forming new lexemes or acting as intensive aspect marker. The verb kĕs to.hit is mostly used for motion verbs, the verb huš to.burn mostly for stative or abstract verbs.

Examples:


to.cleave

Verb₁: max /max/ to.cut
Verb₂: kĕs /køs/ to.hit
‹mankĕs›
/ˈman.køs/
{max-kĕs}
{to.cut-to.hit}
“to.cleave”

to.glare

Verb₁: ala /ˈa.la/ to.see
Verb₂: huš /ˈhɯʃ/ to.burn
‹alahuš›
/ˈa.la.hɯʃ/
{ala-huš}
{to.see-to.burn}
“to.glare”


Dative compounds

Dative compounds are binary structures, mainly nominal compounds that portray some form of possession (dativus possesivus). The elements can be nominal roots or nominalized verbal roots, adjectives and adverbs. The compositions follow the structure noun₁+noun₂, where the first element is the determinatum (head element) of the compound.

The elements of the dative compound are preceded by the pertinent dative case marker DAT depending on the gender and number of the determinatum. Furthermore, the determinatum is suffixed as follows:

(1) [√-C] → -i if [√C-] | -Ø if [√V-]
(2) [√-V] → -Ø if [√C-] | -t if [√V-]
(1) If the root of noun₁ ends with a consonant, then it will be suffixed either with –i/-ĭ if the root of noun₂ begins with a consonant or not suffixed if it begins with a vowel.
(2) If the root of noun₁ ends with a vowel, then it will be either not suffixed if the root of noun₂ begins with a consonant, or with -t if it begins with a vowel.

The determinatum suffix is glossed with DS (“determinatum suffix”). The morphemes are then subject to regular sandhi phenomena.

This kind of “triple” marking of the dererminatum (syntactically, through the position in the compound, and morphologically, through prefixation of DAT and suffixation as described above) allows that one of the two morphological ones can be dropped, most typically the DAT prefixation. As the compound attained through a dative of possession can be treated as a noun, this allows for the absolutive case marker ABS to be attached directly to the determinatum instead of to the DAT.

Examples:

-C·C-

Regular form

BALMARAX NELEMER
bVl-mar-Vx nelem-Vr Ø
DAT.SG.INAN-hills-SG.DET forests-COL.DET-IND
“to the hill, there are forests” > “the hill has forests”
The forests of the hill

Compound form

BALLARINELEM
bVl-mar-i-nelem-Ø
DAT.SG.INAN-hills-DS-forests-COL.DET-IND
“to the hill, there are forests” > “the hill has forests”
The forests of the hill

Regular form

BALMARAX NĒR
bVl-mar-Vx ne-Vr Ø
DAT.SG.INAN-hills-SG.DET trees-COL.DET-IND
“to the hill, there are trees” > “the hill has trees”
The trees of the hill

Compound form

BALLARINE
bVl-mar-i-ne-Ø
DAT.SG.INAN-hills-DS-trees-IND
“to the hill, there are trees” > “the hill has trees”
The trees of the hill

This kind of compounding is also used to form many words referring to places where something is made or found. This takes different general descriptive words for different kinds of places as determiners in the DEF.SING form. For buildings, it takes the word house, en. For open spaces, it takes the word field, bĕ.

For instance, ‘bakery’ would be bŭllŭkenex {bVl-vŭk-Ø-en-Vx}, literally “to breads, the house”. Furthermore, the word for arsenal or armory, both “weapon storage” and “weapon manufacture”, would be balgašenex {bVl-kaša(s̆)-Ø-en-Vx}, literally “to weapons, the house” (SEE NOUN-VERB COMPOUNDS).

Nominalization

NLZ ‹y(V)-› /j_/ {jV-}

Nominalization of a verb

A verb can be nominalized through the reduplication of the verbal root, which undergoes a mutation of its onset. Regular sandhi rules also apply to this forms. This yields a noun that is an instance of the action conveyed by the verb. This compositions take the following forms:

Replacement of the first consonant through /m/ in the iteration: [√-C], [√-V] → √C·{C>m}V-

-fricative

kĕs to.hit _________ kĕsmĕs strikes
max to.cut ________ maxmax cuts

-nasal

vun to.grow _______ vunnun (<vunmun) growth
mĕn to.fly ________ mĕnnĕn (<mĕnmĕn) flights

-liquid

mŭr to.(be).ill ______ mŭrmŭr illnesses
bul to.go __________ bullul (<bulmul) ways

-vowel

reta to.eat _______ retama (retam’a < retameta) meals

Lenition of stops: [√-C], [√-V] → √C·{C+lenition}V-

-nasal

-liquid

-vowel

vun to.grow _______ vunnun (<vunmun) growth

Epenthesis of /b/: VC roots → VC·{b}·VC

ĕl to.__ _________ ĕppĕl (<ĕlbĕl) ___
on to.__ _________ ommon (<onbon) ___
ŭr to.speak _______ ŭrbŭr speech
ala to.perceive ________ alabal(a)


Verbs that are already composite are normally nominalized with the prefixation of the nominalizer NLZ y(V)- to this same effect.

Nominalization of a locative adverb

A locative (essive) adverbs can be nominalized with use of the nominalizer prefix NLZ y(Y)-. In contrast to what happens with locative and lative adverbs on their own, nominalized locative adverbs can be modified by grammatical case and become the theme (T) or object (O) of a sentence

E.g.:
‹nekilixtir› | ‹yenekilixtir›
/ˈne.ki.lix.tiɾ/ | /je.ˈne.ki.lix.tiɾ/
{ne·kil·Vx·tVr} | {yV·ne·kil·Vx·tVr}
tree-SUP-DET.PL-SOME | NLZ-tree-SUP-DET.PL-SOME
"on top of some trees" | "the top of some trees"

From wich, for instance:

‹xomaxram yēkennekilixtir›
/xo.ˈma.xɾam ˈjeː.ken.ne.ki.ˌlix.tiɾ/
{ xo·max·ram ye·eken·ne·kil·ix·tir}
{C₂o max-hɾam |yV·VkVn·ne·kil·Vx·tVr}
PER.ANIM-to.cut-NPR.ANIM.MASC.1S |NLZ-ABS.INAN.PL-tree-SUP-DET.PL-SOME
"I (masc.) cut (past) the top of some trees"

Hypocoristics

Some hypocoristics have since been lexicalized (e.g. yĕmĕr writing, yĕmĕrĭš “little writing” > letter)

Diminutives

-iš/-ĭš

Augmentatives

-(h)kur/-(h)kŭr

SYNTAX

Morphosyntactic allignment

i) transitive verbs (A) – (V) – (O)

ii) intransitive verbs (S) – (V)

iii) ditransitive verbs (A) – (V) – (T) – (O)


(S) NOM

(A) ERG

(T) DAT

(O) i) ABS, iii) ACC

Word order

(S)-V-(O/A)-V-(T)-(O)

A/N

Lexicon


Citation forms:

· Nouns: nominative singular;

· Adjectives: nominative singular

· Verbs: first person singular present indicative active.


Samples

Words:

A verb:
anaramĕnkram
/a.na.ɾa.ˈmøn.kɾam/
aC₂ara-møn-hram
per.prog.anim-to.fly-1s.mas.n.pres
"I was flying"
A noun:
alāšax
/ˈa.laː.ʃax/
ala-aš-Vx
to.perceive-tool-def.singulative
"the pair of glasses"
Something idiomatic:
alahuš
/ˈa.la.hɯʃ/
ala-huš
to.perceive-to.burn
"to glare"
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