Yacavestu

Yacavestub/Lexicon

Yacavestub is a head-final ("Altaic") agglutinative language spoken in Eastern Talma and Northern Etalocin, and is an official language of Quelocin (!werotunu in Yacavestub, from the !Zoom name tkwe) alongside Clofabosin. It's inspired aesthetically by drug names (cf. Clofabosin), Zulu, Estonian and Lushootseed. It also has clicks, from !Zoom. It is an isolate, though some believe it is related to Idavic.

Yal eŋcuvil g!ifam herazu vestamad. = Methavir nalaminyl mekerylide ester axoram.

Todo

• reduplication
• -mad (e.g. ololirmad)
• -vab
• -mob
• -al
• -am
• -xab
• -mob
• -zob?
• -ub
• -ode
• rotunu = 'world'
• elir = 'one'
• pelog (after pegol)

Phonology

Consonants

m n ŋ p t ʈ k b d g f s h v z l ɬ r j ⟨m n ŋ p t th c b d g f s h v z l hl r y⟩

clicks: @ g@ ! g! | g| || g||

(/ks/ is written ⟨x⟩.)

Word final l may be retroflexed to /ɭ/ or even lenited to /ɻ/. The lateral fricative /ɬ/ may be a palatal lateral fricative or even a palatal central fricative /ç/ depending on dialect. In those dialects the lateral click is also realized as a palatal click.

Vowels

Yacavestu vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i, y /i/		u /u/
Mid	e /e/		o /o/
Open		a /a/

Morphology

Nouns

Case suffixes

• -b: (definite)
• -vab: definite accusative suffix
• -am: genitive
• -zod: at, in
• -ax: to
• -vil: from

Suffixaufnahme

Definiteness and possession

Nouns take a suffix for definiteness. Possessive suffixes are added directly to the noun for inalienable possession, and to the classifier for alienable possession.

vestu - 'language'
Number→ State↓	Singular	Plural
Indefinite	vestu	vestəl
Definite	vestub	vestələb
1sg possessor	vestel	vestəlel
2sg possessor	vestud	vestəlud
3sg possessor	vestun	vestəlun
1pl possessor	vestelax	vestəlelax
2pl possessor	vestudax	vestəludax
3pl possessor	vestunax	vestəlunax

Verbs

Present tense: -mad