Keren

Keren

Keren
Keren
Pronunciation	[ˈkɛ.ren]
Created by	Bari
Date	November 2023
Native to	Sand Island
Native speakers	400 (2023)
Language family	language isolate Keren
Early form	Old Keren

Background

Keren in language for Kerens - people, that live on Sand Island - fictional island. Is based on amazonian proto-languages & have some proto-indo-european morphology.

Phonology

Keren has 24 phonemic consonants & 4 vowels.

Consonants

		Labial		Coronal		Palatal		Labio-Palatal		Dorsal		Labio-Dorsal
Nasals		m		n		ɲ				ŋ		ŋʷ
Stops		p		t͡s	t	t͡ʃ				k		kʷ
Sibilant				s	z	ʃ
Trills				r						ʀ		ʀʷ
Fricative				ɬ		ç
Glides				l		j		ɥ		ɰ		w

Notes:

• /z/ is from Old Keren #'VsV & #ri. For these speakers, that has /z/ in palatal group (see below), only from #ri is in this group.
  • /l/ also is from Old Keren #'VɬV & #d. If #d occurs before #i, was paltalised to /ɥ/ after rounded vowels & to #d͡ʒ after non-rounded vowels & turned to modern /At͡ʃ˩/ (see consonant alternations)

Consonant groups

• Labial: /p, m, ŋʷ, w, ɥ, ʀʷ, kʷ/
• Palatal: /ɲ, t͡ʃ, ʃ, j, ç/ & for some archaic speakers - /ɥ, t͡s, z/
• Neutral: /t, n, ŋ, r, ɬ, ʀ, ɰ, l, k, s, z, t͡s/

Vowels

		Front		Back
High		i
Mid		e		o
Low		a

Notes:

• /e, o/ are [ɛ, ɔ] in open syllabes, [e, ɵ] after palatal consonant in unstressed syllabes, [e̞, o̞] in clossed syllabes & [ɛ, ʌ] in open unstressed syllabes (if previous consonant is not labialised or labial)
• /a/ is [ɒ] after labialised or labial consonant, [æ] after palatal consonant & [ə] in unstressed closed syllabes
• /i/ is [ɨ] in stressed syllabes
• vowel lenght is phonemic
  • /oː/ can be [u̯o] in stressed position for some speakers

Syllabes

Keren syllabes occur as (C)(C)V(:)(C)(C²)T where (C²) is one of these three consonants /r, n, m/, that can be stressed independently as syllabic consonants. (T) is mid tone /˧/ (unmarked/default), low tone /˩/ or “question tone” - /˧˩˥/ (only in question particle). Some speakers can ad [ə̥] between onset-syllabes consonant cluster, at least in unstressed syllabes. Low-toned syllabes work as stressed syllabes.

Prosody

Stress is penultimate. Secondary stress is on first syllabe & occurs in word with at least five syllabes (for some archaic speakers, at least four).

Grammar

Syntax

Keren is SVO in positive clausules, VSO in negative clausules & SOV in question clausules.