Vadi

Introduction

Vadi is an extinct language once spoken in Minhay. A small parchment fragment was discovered in April 2015 in a cave outside of Peħħat, a small township in Sakkeb Prefecture. Soon larger fragments and then the wonderfully preserved Kalapái Scriptum were discovered in an isolated hut, dated as late as the mid to late 1800's CE. The Kalapái Scriptum is a collection of letters between two farmers who were embroiled in an ongoing feud regarding the property lines between their lands. The letters were written in a mixture of Vadi intermixed with words from the unrelated Peshpeg and Minhast languages. A few letters were written entirely in the the extinct Minhast Knife Speaker dialect. Also found among the letters are legal papers drawn from the Prefect of Dog Speaker Country. The farmers' letters contained several texts clearly indicating code-switching between Vadi and the Knife Speaker dialect. The portions containing the intermixed Knife Speaker and Peshpeg words were used to decipher the Vadi texts. The Dog Speaker papers did not contribute directly to the decipherment of the language, but as an external source it provided a great deal of context of the nature of the feud between the litigants. This external contextual source clarified the translation of otherwise ambiguous passages. The Kalapái Scriptum is thus popularly referred to as the "Minhast Rosetta Stone".

Phonology

The entire corpus of the Scriptum is written in the indigenous Minhast Širkattarnaft script. While the Širkattarnaft, an abugida, works quite well for the Minhast language, it has presented a major challenge to Vadists in determining the phonology and phonotactics of Vadi. There are several spelling variants or inconsistencies, and numerous occurrences of digraphs appear in both litigants' texts. Many of the digraphs combine one of the few surviving ideographs in the Širkattarnaft with an ordinary character. These and other unusual usage of the Širkattarnaft characters in the texts, while not completely regular, do follow recurrent patterns, an indication of phonological differences between Vadi and Minhast, and as demonstrated by Iyyaħmi min Ruššur, evidence of sandhi processes occurring between word boundaries. J.F. Schumann has argued the texts indicate dialectal differences between the litigants; Iyyaħmi also supports this position, but cautions of the difficulties determining whether the spelling inconsistencies reflect dialectal differences, sandhi processes, or Vadi phonemes not represented by the standard Širkattarnaft characters.

However, linguists have come to a general consensus of the Vadi phonemic inventory. The language is largely CV. Gemination occurs among a restricted set of consonants, particularly /k/ and /l/. Iyyaħmi has shown orthographic evidence that CVC, initial and final CC syllables can arise due to the application of sandhi processes.

Consonants

Minhast Consonantal Inventory

	Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	m	n
Plosive	p b	t d		k g		ʔ
Fricative	v	s s̺				h
Affricates			d͡ʒ
Approximants			j
Flap		ɾ
Lateral Approximant		l

Vowels

	Front	Near- front	Central	Near- back	Back
Close	i u o ɛ a
Near-close
Close-mid
Mid
Open-mid
Near-open
Open

Prosody

Stress

Stress is highly variable in Vadi, but it tends to fall on the penultimate syllable. The Romanized orthography commonly used among Vadists employs marks stress with an acute accent, which in turn implies that the vowel is lengthened, although exceptions abound. When a penultimate syllable is marked with an acute accent, one can generally assume that vowel lengthening has also occurred, although at times it may be an orthographic relic from a time when the vowel was lengthened in the past, but in modern speech has been shortened.

Morphology

Vadi is a mildly fusional language with some agglutinative characteristics. Cliticization is a prominent feature of the language, such that considerable debate has arisen as to whether some affixes should be reclassified as clitics. Further adding to this debate is the ambiguities arising from the orthography in the texts: a given morpheme may appear as part of a word, and other times may be written as separate and distinct from its target word. Where the morpheme is written separately from its host, the initial or internal phoneme of the separated morpheme is often represented by a different character from the one usually used when it is attached directly to its host. This most likely indicates some sort of sandhi process occurred, suggestive of an affixal status, despite being written separately. Recognizing the clitic-vs-affix debate remains a contested area, this article generally follows Schumann's classification system, although some conventions based on Iyyaħmi's more recent work will be used. Iyyaħmi's analyses have been gaining increasing acceptance by Vadists, although some of his other arguments remain contested. Iyyaħmi's conventions, wherever they appear in this article, will be noted.

Nouns

Gender

Vadi nouns for the most part do not mark for gender, but there appear to be remnants of gender marking on special singulative forms, interestingly confined to body parts:

Number-Gender Marking on Body Part Nouns

Body Part	Singulative	Unmarked	Plural
Head	--	jidár	jidárha
Eye	kulúri	kulun	--
Ear	támika	taka	--
Nose	--	uvaz	uváza
Hair	varláka	varlat	--
Lips	túnturi	tuntu	--
Tongue	--	nipáz	nipáza
Finger	patáka	pata	--
Hand	uzáka	uzap	--
Penis	niátari/niátak(a)	niat	niata
Testicle	vúlari/vúluka	vula	--

The singulative forms seem to roughly correspond with animacy. The -(r)i forms seem associated with animate nouns, whereas the -ka forms correspond largely with inananimates. However, exceptions do appear, as in uzáka instead of expected uzap(r)i "hand". The plural forms, consisting of the sole affix -a, shows no animacy distinction.

Unfortunately, these body parts are the only ones attested from the Scriptum. The last two body parts listed were extracted from letters that became especially laced with various vulgar ad hominems between the two litigants. Note also that the two last terms have both the presumptive animate and inanimate forms. The inanimate forms appear to be used as proxy pronouns for the addressee (implying impotence), while the animate forms appear to be proxy pronouns for the addresser, especially in passages threatening physical violence.

Regardless, the usual singulative determiner han/ha does not co-occur with singular body part nouns in any of the texts of the Scriptum, suggesting that double-marking with the determiner is ungrammatical.

Number

Number exhibits a two-way distinction in nouns: singular and non-singular. Singular number is explicitly marked with the determiner han/ha, while plural and collectives are unmarked. Nouns beginning with a vowel are preceded by the allomorph han, while ha appears before nouns beginning with a consonant. Sometimes the singulative is represented by inflection, particularly body parts. Number distinction in body part nouns displays an unusual split, one being the typical singulative-unmarked distinction, and the other being a plural-unmarked distinction. Body parts that usually come in pairs (e.g. hands), mass/collective (e.g. hair), or multiple instances (e.g. fingers) follow the singulative/non-singulative distinction. Those that occur (usually) as a single instance on the human body, such as the head, tongue, and nose follow a singular/plural distinction, with the singular being the unmarked condition. The last body part in the table follows a singulative-plural-unmarked distinction, a highly divergent pattern combined with both animate and inanimate distinctions in the singulative form. How this distinction came about remains speculative, but if the texts between the litigants is any guide, the form chosen to intensify some of their more vitriolic correspondence.

Case

Six postpositional morphemes have been identified. They were originally classified by Schumann as clitics, whereas Iyyaħmi has convincingly argued for their status as affixes. This article follows Iyyaħmi's classification, as this has now become the prevailing position of Vadists today:

Postpositional Affixes

Case	Postposition
Genitive	-na
Dative-Benefactive	-li
Ablative	-ta
Locative	-éva
Instrumental	-eta
Comitative	-kalí

Body part nouns may precede a head noun already marked with one of the case clitics to add more locational, directional, or positional precision. The singulative determiner does not surface before a singular body part noun, as would be expected. The following example illustrates this type of structure. Here, the noun kilái "heart", often combines with a noun marked with the locative clitic -eva to convey an inessive sense.

Julanáina kilái ha kileva mana, ukan hen!
/d͡zul'neɪnɛ kɪ'laɪ haklɛv man ukan hen/
ji-úla-nai-na ha kilái kil-eva mana ukan hen
1S.NOM-2S.ACC-FUT-GEN heart SGV house-LOC still go wreak.havok EMPH
I will enter your house and still ruin you!

With the exception of the portmanteau pronouns, core arguments take no marking in transitive clauses. When an explicit noun appears in transitive clauses, strict SOV order is followed:

1) Jinái kusara iaviti.
/d͡zɪ'ne: ksarɛ 'jafti
ji-nai kusara iaviti
1S-FUT meat buy
I shall buy meat.

Tense markers, when they cliticize, do so only with pronominal patient arguments. As this explicitly marks the direct object, word order can vary without ambiguity. In sentences 2b and 2c, the past tense marker hai has cliticized to the first person singular ji. As the patient is now explicitly marked, it can now appear after the subject (its default position), or it may precede it. Compare these to 2a where no cliticization has taken place:

2a) Ávaron ji vasáli hai
ávaron ji vasáli hai
PN 1S visited PST
Ávaron has visited me.

2b) Ávaron jai vasáli.
ávaron ji-hai vasáli
PN 1S.DO-PST visit
Ávaron has visited me.

2c) Jai Ávaron vasáli.
ji-hai ávaron vasáli
1S.DO-PST PN visit
Ávaron has visited me.

An object may also come before the subject if the object is topicalized by the particle ipan, which is also followed by an audible pause:

Kusara ipan, ji iaviti nai.
kusara ipan ji iaviti nai.
meat TOP 1S buy
Meat, I shall buy (some).

Clitic/Affix Chaining

A phenomenon seen in Vadi nouns is clitic chaining or affix chaining, whereby two or more clitics or affixes become conjoined to each other to convey more precise syntactic information of the host noun. This is seen most often in possessive phrases, whereby the possessor noun undergoes clitic/affix chaining to specify the semantic role of its head, and sometimes to indicate tense, as in the third sentence:

Jinali valin pela udahadi hai, jutavarana iskuvan.
ji-na-li valin pela udahadi hai jutavara=na iskuvan
1S-GEN-DAT family cloth buy PST winter.clothing=GEN purpose
For my family I bought cloth to make winter clothing.

Jinevata kilái han odorim hesa hai, kuniri-ahalin ajul.
ji-na-eva-ta kilái han odorim hesa hai kuniri-ahalin ajul iskuvan
1S-GEN-ABL-LOC heart SGV house coin.PL bring PST disk-payment iron purpose
From inside my house I brought out money to pay for the iron ingot.

Jainevata kilái han odorim hes, kuniri-ahalin ajul.
ji-hai-na-eva-ta kilái han odorim hesa kuniri-ahalin ajul iskuvan
1S-PST-GEN-ABL-LOC heart SGV house coin.PL bring PST disk-payment iron purpose
From inside my house I brought out money to pay for the iron ingot.

Pronouns

Vadi pronouns do not mark for gender. Case marking on core arguments for transitive clauses do exhibit a nominative-accusative distinction, but only when both arguments are singular in number.

Plurality in the independent pronouns are indicated by the suffix -ta. This contrasts with number marking on nouns, where plurals are unmarked but singulars are preceded by the determiner han/ha.

	Singular	Plural
First	ji	jita
Second	úla	ulta
Third	ka	kata

The nominative-accusative distinction occurs in the portmanteau forms, which are etymologically transparent. The first segment of the portmanteau affix marks the nominative argument, while the second marks the accusative argument:

Agent			Patient
	Singular
		Person	Singular			Plural
			First	Second	Third	First	Second	Third
		First	--	júla	jíka	--	julta	jikata
		Second	uláji	--	uláka	ulajta	--	ulkata
		Third	kaji	kúla	káka	katáji	kulta	katá
	Plural
		First	--	jitúla	jitakta	--	jitulta	jitkata
		Second	ultaji	--	ultakta	ultajta	--	ultakta
		Third	kataji	katúla	katáta	katajta	katulta	kakta

Derivation

Derivational affixes occur in greater frequency, but the texts from the Scriptum suggest the overwhelming number of these affixes are no longer productive. For this reason, the general consensus among Vadists is that these affixes have been fossilized. A prefix pesa- occurs among some verbs that tends to give them causative meaning. For this reason some have speculated this is a borrowing from the Minhast causative prefix -šp-. This view is problematic however, because this prefix sometimes appears to intensify the meaning of the root. Moreover, it is also found attached to some nouns, but its addition does not appear to affect the semantics of the noun.

Causative pesa-:

Anu úla pesadíka, hen.
Anu úla pesa-díka nai hen
PN 2P CAUS-run.off FUT EMPH
(Prefect) Annu will drive you out!

Intensive pesa-:

Ji pesakúna, kaman uláta, ji nokan pesakúdi.
ji pesa-kúna nai, kaman uláta ji nokan pesa-akúdi.
1P CAUS-go FUT head úla=ABL 2S rock CAUS-throw.
I will climb (that mountain) above you (so that) I can rain down rocks (upon you).

Nominal pesa-:

Pesarona hokun.
pesa-rona hokun
CAUS-snake eat.
Snakes will eat (you).

Contrast this with the use of the actual Minhast causative -šp-, by Prefect Annu (Minhast, Dog Speaker Dialect):

Tašpintaknataheknessuš, tašpintaknaknessuš. Marantaħmankilmakš, yattax! Ikšitamaškidustitaħmāš!
ta-šp-nt-ikna-tahek-ness-u=š ta-šp-nt-ikna-k-ness-u=š maran-tahem-an-kilmakš yattax kš-tamašk-dust-tahem-an=š
NEG-CAUS-INT-go-2S.ACC+1S.NOM-FUT-TRNS=IRR NEG-CAUS-go-FUT-TRNS=IRR pest-2P.NOM-MIR.NEG DEPR CESS-stalk.while.hunting-REC.ADVS-2P.NOM-INTR=IRR
I don't plan on throwing you off your land, and I'm not planning on throwing him off his land. You two pests should leave each other alone!

Other derivational affixes, both prefixes and suffixes, are more common, some appear to be highly productive and suggest they can be spontaneously generated:

• -kai: a deverbal for creating place nouns, e.g. iavati-kai "a place for buying", i.e. marketplace.
• -pallái: another deverbal for creating place nouns, e.g. tukin-pallái "a place for sitting", i.e. hearth, dining room.
• -kattá: a deverbal affix deriving agent nouns, e.g. iavati-kattá "one who buys, a buyer"

Some affixes may be chained, as in tukimpallaikattá < tukin-pallai-kattá "a place for sitting ones", i.e. "dinner guests, diners". However, affix chaining is rather uncommon.

Syntax

Vadi, as an analytic language, relies on word order to indicate the case roles of the core arguments of a clause, to delineate the constituents of a noun phrase, and to indicate the pivot in multiclausal sentences. The language is primarily SOV, although the verb phrase may occur in different locations in the clause for pragmatic purposes. However, the S-argument invariably precedes the O-argument in transitive clauses. Tense particles typically occur in clause-final position, but when a portmanteau pronoun appears, they often move from clause-final position and cliticize to the pronoun.

Noun phrase

Possessums follow their heads.

Example texts

Ad-Hominems and Other Insults

The majority of the materials found in the Scriptum are known as the Waškixrapmakirimērumbustikmaban lit. "All they do is insult each other incessantly", a Minhast term that describes the nature of these letters accurately, i.e. correspondence containing mostly ad-hominems, threats, taunts, and other insults. Many descend to the level of childishness, but this characteristic is probably the most valuable part of the collection, as the style appears to be in vernacular Vadi, with fewer intrusions from the dominant Minhast language found in the legal correspondence.

Ulájinai tábila nikku osar, petta ulátane
/u:'lad͡ʒinaɪ 'ta:bɪla nɪk:u osaɾ pet:a u'la:tane/
úla-ji-na-hai tábila nikku osar petta úla-tane
2S.NOM-1S.ACC-GEN-PST land.PL seize try, thief 2S-EMP
You tried to seize my lands, you are a thief indeed!

Ka úla mai naha jina tábila é, júlanai puni mérkeva!
/ka 'u:la maɪ 'naha d͡ʒina 'ta:bɪla e 'd͡ʒu:lanaɪ 'pu:ni 'mɛɾkɛva/
ka úla mai naha ji=na tábila nikku é ji-úla-nai puni mérkeva
if 2S come here 1S=GEN land.PL seize SJV, 1S.NOM-2S.ACC-FUT RSLT kill
If you come here to seize my land, I will kill you!

Júla nánani.
/d͡ʒ'u:la 'na:nani/
ji-ula nanani
1S.NOM-2S.ACC RV~disgust
You truly disgust me.

Valí ulaki úla píhala nai.
/va'li u'laki 'u:la 'pihala naɪ/
valí ulaki úla píhala nai
perhaps authorities 2S seize FUT
Perhaps the authorities shall arrest you.

Dávan biri ulájai kunet? Dumúla rani ikkúni siráha ji?
/'da:van biɾi ul'a:d͡ʒaɪ kunet du'mu:la ɾani ik:'u:ni siɾ'a:ha d͡ʒi/
dávan biri ulá-ji-hai kunet dum-úla rani ikkúni siráha ji
why thus 2S.NOM-1S.ACC-PST commit.wrong Q-2S know prefect stand.behind 1S
Why have you wronged me thus? Do you not know the Prefect has given me his support?

Súnagun jibáitane! Ji súharak kanéneka, báti úla kimúdi, bia!
/'su:nagun d͡ʒi'baɪtane d͡ʒi 'su:haɾak ka'ne:neka 'ba:ti 'u:la: ki'm:udi bija/
súnagun ji-bai-tane ji súharak kanéneka báti ulá kimúdi bia
place.name 1S-ownership-EMP 1S papers hold.in.hand PART 2S read behold
Súnagun is mine! I have the (legal) papers, [?] here, take them and read!

Éro, úla peho te. Júlanai kanarídi. Ikkúni jili Súnagun parati nai.
/'e:ɾo 'u:la pɛho te 'd͡ʒu:lanaɪ kana'ɾidi ɪ'k:u:ni 'd͡ʒili 'sunagun pa'rati naɪ/
éro úla peho te júlanai kanarídi ikkúni ji-li Súnagun parati nai
PN 2S fool truth 1S.NOM-2S.ACC win FUT prefect 1S=DAT place.name reward FUT
Éro, you indeed are a fool. I will prevail over you. The Prefect shall award me Súnagun.

Óşi jínai kanárato bihók şilmá.
/'o:s̺i 'd͡ʒɪnaɪ kana:ɾato bɪhok 's̺ɪl'ma/
Ósi jí-nai kanárato bihók şilmá
yes 1S.NOM-2S.ACC succeed indeed today
Of course I shall prevail (over you) today

Manetór ki pida dáşelek mi, mánjate nihálave yal.
/manɛ'toɾ ki 'pida 'das̺ɛlɛk mi 'mand͡ʒate ni'halavɛ yal/
manetór ki pida dáşelek mi mánjate nihálave yal
fire well.then fall.down heaven HORT anyone care NEG
Well then, let fire fall down (upon you), no one will care.

Isáro ka munek ki bára jikalí, júla emtol. Ulánai paho yal.
/ɪs'aɾo ka 'munɛk ki 'baɾa d͡ʒɪka'li 'd͡ʒu:la 'ɛmtol u'la:naɪ 'paho yal/
isáro ka munek ki bára ji-kalí ji-úla emtol úla-nai paho yal
choose COND call.upon well.then fist 1S-INST 1S.NOM-2S.ACC thwart 2S-FUT win NEG
If you choose to call up (the townspeople) against me as I expect you will, I will stop you. You will fail.

Legal Claims

In contrast, the Legal Claims parchments (Minhast: Yukan Mukan, lit. "Complaint and Judgment") use more formal language and lack the colourful language of the Waškixrapmakirimērumbustikmaban. Minhast words, particularly legal terminology, units of measurement, and other terms requiring precision especially found in lawsuits involving land disputes, are found here. It is believed that each litigant wrote these letters carefully in order to have them translated to the Prefect, the surveyors, or to ingratiate themselves to other Dog Speakers who could serve as witnesses in the lawsuit. In at least one case one of the litigants even tried to petition the powerful Salmon Speaker Prefect, Nattaxxawan. This letter is a rare find, as it contained many archaisms not found in any of the Waškixrapmakirimērumbustikmaban or the majority of the Yukan Mukan for that matter.

• From Éro to Wasiškila for translating to the headman of Niyyurpi Township:

Mek wa Ruxparan-behet širkattartahannamā: Úla hano temáka jilaikandá. Anuna beiólika pisap hai. Hano talta han Karbaratana kalaví Íkavalina ohira julór, hiya han sítturum Sarpaheyeva oroani julór. Kon, ha bihata jóri, ha Pikuévana kippi alok nad. Bari, han Ikkúni han jina pétetaiti hai ha tábila lavák hai, han jina tirosi umukál hai.
{Mek wa Ruxparan-behet širkattartahannamā} úla han-o temáka jilái-kanda Anu-na beiólika pisap hai han-o talta han karbara-ta-na kalaví Íkava-li-na ohira julór, hi-ya han sítturum Sarpahei-eva oroani julór kon ha bihata jóri ha Piku-éva-na kippi alo-k nad bari han Ikkúni han ji-na pétetaiti hai ha tábila lavák hai han jina tirosi umukál hai
{Embedded Minhast text: [deferential.particle CONN=PN=title.of.respect write to him thus]} 2S SGV-PROX map look-IMP PN-GEN surveyor.PL draw PST SGV-PROX line SGV place.name-ABL-GEN rock-GEN river.name-ALL-GEN shore stretch then-EPEN SGV beaver.dam place.name-LOC cross.over stretch from.that.place.there SGV ridge climb SGV PN-ABL-GEN farmhouse burn-DVB NMZ thus SGV prefect SGV 1S-GEN viewpoint SGV agree PS SGV land recognize SGV 1S-GEN control give PST
Please write to Wise Elder Ruxparan thus: Look at this map. This is what Prefect Annu's surveyors have drawn. This line from Karbaram Rock stretches to the shoreline of River Íkava, then extends across the old beaver dam at Sarpahey Spring. Thence it curves upwards along the ridge where old Piku's farmhouse was before it burnt down. Thus the Prefect has recognized my territorial claim as the sole legitimate one.

• From Sorvin to Ittahampar for translating to Prefect Nattaxxawan, of Salmon Speaker Country:

Mek wa Ikkūne Nattaxxawan-behet širkattartahannamā: Tódimtana galua jinda pattuk.
{Mek wa Ikkūne Nattaxxawan-behet širkattartahannamā}

Please write to Wise Lord Nattaxxawan: This lowly one places himself before the Great Hero's feet and kisses the ground upon which he steps. This lowly one is not worthy, for thou art the most high and esteemed Lord of all of Salmon Speaker Country. Yet this lowly one beseeches thee and ask thee but only give a light word to the most respected Prefect of all of Dog Speaker Country, the great Prefect Ruxparan under which this lowly one places himself under the Great Lord's feet.

OVS -> matrix clause SC -> dependent clause

SVO -> matrix clause, COND SOV -> dependent clause, RSLT

OSV