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IlL/Spare pages 1/4
lees ndoigh Kuamh
Created by	IlL
Setting	Verse:Tricin
Language family	Hlou-Ku IlL/Spare pages 1/4

4 (English: /ku:ə/, natively lees ndoigh Kuamh /li noi kuə/ (TBA: tone)) is a language spoken in Bjeheond; as a Hlou-Shum language, it's related to Hlou. It is a monosyllabic tonal language inspired by Hmong, Irish and English. Like Irish, it has initial consonant mutations.

Todo

Motivation: "Sinospheric Irish" or "Hmoob read by an Irish speaker"

• Explain: lexical mutation in Hlou, grammatical mutation in Ku
  • Hlou lexical mutation could have arisen from a grammatical mutation system where the particles fell away
• dor = to be born ~ Hlou Ndol 'person'
• TODO: kl gl sk > q
• bach = small, meer = big (not the usual words)
• hlubh = to love (hlub means "to love" in Hmong)
• Justify "Bach txuabh kein bach, so txuabh ein meer"
• kein = archaic negative word
• ein = emphasis/'rather'
• koobh = good

Phonology

4 has fewer initials and fewer vowels than Hlou, due to initial mutations.

Phonotactics

C + V + tone

Initials

m n ny l nl r y w = /m n ɲ l (dark l) r j w/

hm hn hny hl hr hy hw = /ʰm ʰn ʰɲ ʰl ʰr ç (voiceless w)/

p t tz ts tx c k q b d j g = /h t ts (Basque ts) tʃ c k q b d ɟ g/

pl bl tl dl = /hl bl tl dl/

ph th tzh tsh txh ch kh qh bh dh jh gh = /f θ s (Basque s) ʃ ç x χ v ð j ɣ/

phl bhl thl dhl /fl vl ɬ ɮ/

np nt ntz nts ntx nc nk nq nb nd nj ng = /b d dz (voiced Basque ts) dʒ ɟ g ɢ m n ɲ ŋ/

npl nbl ntl ndl /bl ml dl nl/

f z s x h = /f s (Basque s) ʃ h/

nf nz ns nx, also fh zh sh xh = /v z (voiced Basque s) ʒ/

Rimes

a i ao u e o ee oo ai ei oi au eu ia ua = /a ɪ ɨ ʊ ɛ ɔ i u ai ei oi au eu iə uə/

Tones

9 tones:

• -Ø: mid level
• -ch: entering (i.e. glottal stop final)
• -s: low falling
• -r: low rising
• -gh: low creaky
• -mh: breathy
• -bh: mid rising
• -dh: high falling
• -n: high level

Grammar

Ku is SVO and head-initial. Many function words in Ku trigger mutations.

Nouns

plural word: yoo-N (placed after classifier but before noun)

Classifiers

Classifiers are a relatively open class.

Do they always lenite, or always eclipse?

lu, tzagh, hnyoobh, lees, zua, yaus, ...

• lu-L = humans
  • faon = a man; lu fhaon = the man (classifier lu)
• tzagh-N = animals
  • plaidh = a dog; tzagh nplaidh = the dog (classifier tzagh)
• hnyoobh = tall objects such as trees, buildings
  • qo = a tree; hnyoobh qo the tree
• zua-N: infinitive
  • dor = is born; zua ndor = to be born (inf.)
• lees-N = nominalization, way of X-ing
  • doigh = 'to speak'; lees ndoigh 'language'
• In archaic language: fancy apparently ad-hoc classifiers (cf. English murder of crows except they said things like 'N murder crow' instead)

Sample text

Tower of Babel

Pugh zedh yaus qhar nyiamh tso txuabh zhaor aon lees ndoigh kiabh aon lees ntlair.

CONJ in CLF world whole PST give only one CLF language and one CLF speak

And in the whole world there was one language and one way of speaking.

Roomh lu yoo nlas jhugh dle [hyoch mhar], [ka nfemh] re txuabh tzhaoch ibh yaus [jho qiagh] Xi-Na, pugh re txuabh cheich hmoi nblaun.

when CLF PL person travel eastward then

As the people moved eastward...