Jakvalat

Introduction

Goals

To create an aesthetically pleasing, yet easily pronounceable (for me, anyways), language for the setting of a habitable alternative Venus.

Setting

The setting is a Venus with a thinner crust which enables convection of heat within the planet's core and, despite Venus' slower rotation, the subsequent generation of a magnetic field sufficient to prevent the loss of the planet's oceans.

Yakvala (Often called Common Venerian in English) is the predominant lingua franca spoken on Venus (Ln: Trinta). It originated from the environs of the mercantile city of Suliriyaq on the continent of Yekhadramit.

Inspirations

The overt phonological inspirations I began with were from English, Inuktitut and Quenya to varying degreees. Somehow I ended up somewhere quite different. Not sure which terrestrial natural language Yakvala resembles but Google Translate often detects it as one of the languages of India. The morphological inspirations are very likely to be Inuktitut, various Salish languages and the Uralic languages.

Phonology

Orthography

Native Script	Practical Orthography	IPA Value
⟨o⟩	⟨p⟩	/p/
⟨ɵ⟩	⟨ph⟩	/f/
⟨c⟩	⟨b⟩	/b/
⟨ɔ⟩	⟨m⟩	/m/
⟨s⟩	⟨v⟩	/ʋ/
⟨v⟩	⟨t⟩	/t/
⟨ʌ⟩	⟨th⟩	/θ/
⟨w⟩	⟨d⟩	/d/
⟨ʍ⟩	⟨n⟩	/n/
⟨x⟩	⟨s⟩	/s/
⟨z⟩	⟨l⟩	/l/
⟨ɴ⟩	⟨r⟩	/ɹ/
⟨n⟩	⟨k⟩	/k/
⟨u⟩	⟨kh⟩	/x/
⟨m⟩	⟨g⟩	/ɡ/
⟨ɯ⟩	⟨q⟩	/ŋ/
⟨ʜ⟩	⟨y⟩	/j/
⟨h⟩	⟨i⟩	/i/
⟨hh⟩	⟨ī⟩	/eɪ/
⟨ɥ⟩	⟨e⟩	/ɛ/
⟨ɥɥ⟩	⟨ē⟩	/aɪ/
⟨b⟩	⟨u⟩	/u/
⟨bb⟩	⟨ū⟩	/oʊ/
⟨q⟩	⟨a⟩	/ɑ/
⟨qq⟩	⟨ā⟩	/ɑʊ

NOTES:

1. The native alphabet was ultimately derived from an ancient featural abugida.

2. The practical orthography was devised by the first terrestrial linguists to reach Venus. The Wilkins Orthography has since become the default scheme of romanisation for Yakvala.

3. The spelling of the practical and native orthographies are morphophonemic in that the spelling is phonemic but does change to reflect morphophonemic changes.

4. The following punctuation marks are in use in the native alphabet:

⟨.⟩ = short pause, equivalent to a comma or semi-colon. ⟨:⟩ = long pause, equivalent to a colon or full stop.

Punctuation marks occur immediately after the last word of a clause and never occur consecutively.

5. Any given word is separated from any following word by a space. There are no equivalents to parentheses, quotation marks, exclamation marks or questions marks.

Phoneme Inventory

Consonants

	Labial	Central Coronal	Lateral Coronal	Dorsal
Voiceless Plosive	/p/	/t/		/k/
Voiced Plosive	/b/	/d/		/ɡ/
Sibilant		/s/
Spirant	/f/	/θ/		/x/
Nasal	/m/	/n/		/ŋ/
Liquid		/ɹ/	/l/
Semivowel	/ʋ/			/j/

Notes:

1. All coronals are alveolar except /ɹ/ which is postalveolar.

2. Yakvala has 17 consonants which, according to the World Atlas of Language Structures, is a moderately small inventory. The most notable features, according to WALs, are an initial velar nasal and the presence of a dental fricative.

Vowels

	Front Short	Front Long	Short Back	Long Back
High	/i/	/eɪ	/u/	/oʊ/
Low	/ɛ/	/aɪ/	/ɑ/	/ɑʊ/

Notes:

1. The long vowels are phonetically diphthongs but are phonologically long vowels.

2. Yakvala has 4 vowel qualities which, according to WALS, is a small inventory. The consonant-vowel ratio is 4.25 which is an average ratio.

Allophony

1. /s/ is realised as [z] when adjacent to /b, d, ɡ/.

2. /ɹ/ is realised as [ʃ] when in coda position before /p, t, k/.

3. /ɹ/ is realised as [ʒ] when in coda position elsewhere.

4. /ʋ/ is realised as [w] when the second segment of a syllable onset cluster.

5. /ʋ/ is realised as [v] elsewhere.

6. /i, u/ are realised as [ɪ, ʊ] in closed syllables.

Phonotactics

1. Syllable template: C(C)V(C).

2. Permitted syllable codas:

/p, t, k, b, d, ɡ, s, m, n, ŋ, l, ɹ/.

3. /p, ɡ, s, l, ɹ/ do not occur morpheme-finally.

4. Permitted Consonant Clusters:

P

T

K

B

D

G

S

PH

TH

KH

M

N

Q

L

R

V

Y

P

-

-

-

-

-

-

ps

-

-

-

-

-

-

pl*

pr*

pv*

py*

T

-

-

-

-

-

-

ts

-

-

-

-

-

-

tl*

tr*

tv*

ty*

K

-

-

-

-

-

-

ks

-

-

-

-

-

-

kl*

kr*

kv*

ky*

B

-

-

-

-

-

-

bs

-

-

-

-

-

-

bl*

br*

br*

by*

D

-

-

-

-

-

-

ds

-

-

-

-

-

-

dl*

dr*

dv*

dy*

G

-

-

-

-

-

-

gs

-

-

-

-

-

-

gl*

gr*

gv*

gy*

S

sp

st

sk

sb

sd

sg

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

sl*

sr*

-

-

PH

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

phl*

phr*

-

-

TH

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

thl*

thr*

-

-

KH

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

khl*

khr*

-

-

M

mp

-

-

mb

-

-

-

mph

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

N

-

nt

-

-

nd

-

ns

-

nth

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

Q

-

-

qk

-

-

qg

-

-

-

qkh

-

-

-

-

-

-

L

lp

lt

lk

lb

ld

lg

-

-

-

'-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

R

rp

rt

rk

rb

rd

rg

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

Notes:

a. The practical orthography is used here for clarity.

b. First segment of cluster runs along left of table.

c. Second segment of cluster runs along top of table.

d. * indicates a syllable onset cluster. All other clusters occur across syllable boundaries.

6. No consonant cluster may have more than three segments.

7. Consonant clusters do not occur within the syllable coda.

8. Consecutive vowel sequences do not occur.

9. Long vowels only occur before an onset of /p, t, k, b, d, g, s, f, θ̠, x, m, n, ŋ, l, ɹ/.

10. Long vowels do not occur in closed syllables.

11. Long vowels do not occur in morpheme-final position.

12. /i, eɪ/ may not occur after onset /j/.

13. /u, oʊ/ may not occur after onset /ʋ/.

14. /eɪ, aɪ/ may not occur before onset /j/.

15. /oʊ, ɑʊ/ may not occur before onset /ʋ/.

16. Most native roots are disyllabic with monosyllabic roots being restricted to pronouns. Most particles are monosyllabic.

17. Roots, particles and prefixes must begin with a single consonant or a syllable onset cluster.

18. Suffixes may begin with a single consonant, a syllable onset cluster, a syllable boundary cluster or a vowel.

Prosody

1. Primary stress falls on the first syllable of the root.

2. Secondary stress is borne on every odd-numbered syllable after the primary stress.

3. Rhythm type is trochaic.

Morphophonology

1. When two-segment consonant clusters result from affixation, they are treated as per the table below:

P

T

K

B

D

G

S

PH

TH

KH

M

N

Q

L

R

V

Y

T

v̄p

v̄t

v̄k

v̄b

v̄d

v̄g

ts

v̄ph

v̄th

v̄kh

nt

nt

nt

tl

tr

tv

ty

K

v̄p

v̄t

v̄k

v̄b

v̄d

v̄g

ks

v̄ph

v̄th

v̄kh

qk

qk

qk

kl

kr

kv

ky

B

v̄p

v̄t

v̄k

v̄b

v̄d

v̄g

bs

v̄ph

v̄th

v̄kh

mb

mb

mb

bl

br

bv

by

D

v̄p

v̄t

v̄k

v̄b

v̄d

v̄g

ds

v̄ph

v̄th

v̄kh

nd

nd

nd

dl

dr

dv

dy

M

mp

nt

qk

mb

nd

qg

ns

mph

nth

qkh

v̄m

v̄n

v̄q

nd

nd

mb

qg

N

mp

nt

qk

mb

nd

qg

ns

mph

nth

qkh

v̄m

v̄n

v̄q

nd

nd

mb

qg

Q

mp

nt

qk

mb

nd

qg

ns

mph

nth

qkh

v̄m

v̄n

v̄q

nd

nd

mb

qg

Notes:

a. The practical orthography is used here for clarity.

b. First segment of cluster runs along left of table.

c. Second segment of cluster runs along top of table.

d. The notation v̄ indicates the preceding short vowel was lengthened.

2. If a three-segment consonant cluster results from affixation, then the first segment in that cluster is deleted and the two remaining consonants are treated as per the table above.

3. If a vowel sequence results from affixation, then an epenthetic /ŋ/ is inserted.

Morphology

Yakvala morphemes fall into the following classes:

1. Particles.

These do not bear any inflection, have little semantic content and comprise such things as temporal or locative adverbs, conjunctions, interjections and anything else that isn't a root.

2. Roots.

These do bear inflection and contain much of the semantic content of an utterance. Roots are divided into nouns and verbs. Nouns are further divided into animate and inanimate categories, verbs into transitive and intransitive categories.