Dundulanyä: Difference between revisions

==Phonology (''yāṃsaśodda'')==

Dundulanyä has a moderately large, but asymmetrical, vowel inventory with six short and four long vowels, along with two diphthongs and two consonants (short and long versions of the same one) that can fill the syllable nucleus.

|+ Vowels - ''camiyāṃsai''

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Dundulanyä has, among many points of articulations, a series of linguolabial consonants, which are common in its geographical area (in most of northern and central Lūsaṃrīte) but are otherwise extremely rare on Eventoa.

|+ Consonants - ''hīmbayāṃsai''

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Dundulanyä roots belong to one out of nine classes (eight ablaut classes or non-ablauting), called ''dhoptai'' (sg. ''dhopta''):

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! Class<br/>''dhopta''<ref>Class 0 is known as ''kuḍachiṣadīra dhopta'' "non-ablauting class"; the others are referred to with ordinals: ''rählälu dhopta, hälinaika dhopta, kiṅkesi dhopta'' and so on, up to ''mbulesi dhopta''.</ref> !! Zero grade<br/>''ślūtya'' !! Middle grade<br/>''būcūya'' !! Higher grade<br/>''udhyukṣṇise''

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|+Root nouns

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|+1st ablauting declension (-e)

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|+2nd ablauting declension (-a)

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|+Ablauting nouns in ''-i''

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|+Ablauting nouns in ''-u''

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|+Ablauting nouns in ''-ṛ''

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|+Non-ablauting consonant stem 1st declension

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|+Non-ablauting consonant stem 2nd decl. (glottal)<ref>In colloquial Dundulanyä, such nouns are often declined like ''-a'' nouns, given that their declensions are similar, the main difference being vowel lengthening in most forms.</ref>

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|+Non-ablauting ''-a'' stems

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|+Non-ablauting ''-i'' stems

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|+Non-ablauting ''-u'' stems

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|+Non-ablauting ''-e'' stems

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|+Non-ablauting ''-ä'' stems

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|+Non-ablauting ''-ṛ'' stems

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|+''-ai'' stems

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* Nouns are always singular after numerals (except, optionally, ''rirä'' (two), which they can also be dual after), ''sora'' (some), ''grāṇa'' (any), ''idu'' (no), ''idūṣam'' (no other), ''taili'' (many, much), ''didya'' (more), ''kaili'' (most), and ''ṣubha'' (few, little).

** After ''yaiva'', the difference in the noun's number expresses a distinction much like the one between English "every" and "all": ''yaiva täte'' "every house", ''yaiva täti'' "all houses".

* When referring to a single person, ''häɂli'' (hand), ''meśiḫe'' (eye), and ''p̃agu'' (ear), and often also ''junai'' (foot) (more rarely for ''nādah'' (leg) and ''m̃ukar̃e'' (arm)) are typically singular and not dual - e.g. ''ānū miśeḫī meśah'' "I see it with my eyes" (lit. "with my eye"). In fact, they might be translated as "a person's hands/eyes/ears", given that dual forms are often used to mean e.g. "both hands of two people" and the plural ones for e.g. "many people's hands".

* ''junēlte'' (indoor slippers), ''rapūda'' ((thick) shoes), ''mähṣa'' (boots), and all types of shoes are also used in the singular to refer to a pair of them. The main exception is ''frāṇagi'' (straw rope sandals), which is a plurale tantum.

===Pronouns (''śidrāñjiḫi'')===

====Personal pronouns====

| ''hiyome''<br/>this one || ''huyome''<br/>that one (near you) || ''āyome''<br/>that one (over there) || ''beyome?''<br/>what?; which one? || ''idume''<br/>nothing || ''sorame''<br/>something || ''grāṇame''<br/>anything || ''viṣāme''<br/>something else || ''idūṣāme''<br/>nothing else

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The morpheme order of Dundulanyä verbs is the following; elements in '''bold''' are required, even if some of them may be zero morphemes:

|+ Dundulanyä verb structure

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Incorporated verb roots form root+root complexes where the incorporated root adds a dimension of meaning to the main one, such as with the root ''jūpūn-'' "to work in a hurry" from ''pūn-'' "to work" with the incorporated root ''jo-'' "to hurry", or ''nililobh-'' "to write down through brainstorming" from ''lobh-'' "to write" with ''nily-'' "to think".<br/>

The prefix ''yau-'' fills the incorporated nominal root slot, however it denotes repetition and patient plurality and is always used together with the agentive trigger, as shown in forms such as ''yaukṛsūn'' "I waited for all of them", ''yaucikhūn'' "I offered [them] a drink one by one".<br/>Similarly, the prefixes ''sya-'' (exhaustive), ''tra-'' (iterative) and ''cū-'' (excessive) fill the slot of the incorporated root. ''sya-'' is uncommon in the modern language, as it is often used as a synonym of ''yau-'';  the original difference being that it does not apply to transitive verbs only, and it does not imply a repeated or prolonged action. Cf. forms such as ''syanīyūn'' "I said it all", ''tranīyūn'' "I said it again", ''cūnīyūn'' "I said too much".

====Inverse deixis and ablative motion====

Some affixes may force the stem vowel to be in a certain ablaut grade, such as the ablative motion marker shown in the previous section, which forces a present stem to have a zero grade vowel regardless.

There are also '''tense markers''' which are added to the above stems to form the base for other TAM:

* the '''future''' formant is ''-iṣy-'' (or ''-ṣy-'' after vowels), added to the past stem (more precisely, to the zero grade root<ref>While there is no difference for most verbs, this is meaningful in the case of verbs with suppletive stems: for example, ''meś-'' has the suppletive past stem ''āsmy-'', but the future stem is ''miśiṣy-''.</ref>);

The various tenses (more appropriately tense-aspect combinations) and moods are formed by the combination of the above stems and different terminations (which are listed in the dedicated section below):

* Future: future "stem" + perfect terminations

* Future intentional: future intentional "stem" + perfect terminations

The intensive, which is a tense-aspect-mood combination, has only two aspects: imperfective and perfective (today both found in very formal styles, but otherwise considered too bookish for general use):

* Imperfective intensive: intensive stem + present terminations

The following ones are the personal agreement endings for Dundulanyä verbs.

|+ Personal markers

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Exclusively for the dative argument, there is a set of dative terminations that show indirect object concord in all voices except for dative-trigger. The terminations are the same as the [[#Possessive_suffixes|possessive suffixes]] used with nouns, except for 1SG and 1DU having ''-m-'' instead of ''-b-'' as the thematic consonant:

|+ Dative terminations

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Example basic conjugation showing stems and endings (but, for simplicity, zero morphemes wherever possible):

|+ Example conjugation of the root √śro- (III) "to throw, propel, launch"

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: ''kālomīye dariśah '''jalliṣiga va'''.'' "Kālomīye will not be a dancer."

The undeclinable so-called "copular adjectives", such as ''cami'' "great, important", ''lalla'' "high, higher; next" or ''umūm'' "good", are not used with ''ga'', but need ''idu'' in a negative sentence:

Numbers (sg. ''dhujāvam'', pl. ''dhujāvāmi'') have six different forms: cardinal, ordinal, collective, distributive, adverbial/multiplicative, and fractionary. The numbers from 1 to 4 have separate adverbial multiplicative forms, while all other ones have an invariable form used both as adverbial and "adjectival" multiplicatives. Cardinals from 1 to Ɛ and their compounds decline for case (see below); collectives, multiplicatives, and fractionaries always decline, while ordinals are only declined if used as substantives, i.e. without an accompanying noun. Distributives do not decline.

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! Digit₁₂ !! <small>Base 10</small> !! Cardinal !! Ordinal !! Collective !! Distributive !! Adv./Multiplicative !! Fractionary

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! 0

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! 1

====Non-clitic conjunctions====

* '''itta''' is a conjunctive particle, translatable as "and", "meanwhile" or "while": ''nādaśrūṣeya cända '''itta''' nādaśrūṣeɂe śyūda.'' "Your (sg.) bike is orange, while his/her bike is black."

* '''kuka''' — and, amongst others; while similar to the clitic ''-cu'', it is more emphatic and generally only used together with plural nouns (or singularia tantum, see the second example), and comes after the last of the nouns it refers to. It can be more accurately rendered with periphrases such as "[things] like ..."; e.g. ''lalāruṇai fanēyai '''kuka''' ga irāḍai'' "Lalāruṇai and capybaras, amongst others, are animals"; ''nāra maɂiḍa '''kuka''' idu dambū itta mugba.'' "[Foodstuffs] like sorghum or rice are not fruits, but cereals."

'''-anah''', with middle grade ablaut, denotes an act or process, or its tangible manifestation (see third example).

* ''śoc-'' (to clean) → ''śocanah'' (cleaning, the act of cleaning)

* ''meś-on-'' (to see + causative marker) → ''meśonnah'' (exhibition)

* Long objects (much greater in one dimension than in the others), generally stiff;

* Ropes or other long, non-stiff objects (e.g. palm leaves);

* Masses or generic/uncategorized objects, as well as figurative meanings;

* Non-contained liquids;

The following table indicates all positional-classificatory verb roots with the respective ablaut classes:

|+ Dundulanyä positional-classificatory verb roots

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| (apṣma) || - || ''√pṣam-'' <small>(I)</small> || - || ''ta-√pṣam-'' <small>(I)</small> || rowspan=4 | - || - || -

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! Masses, generic/uncategorized<br/>Contained, heterogeneous masses<br/>Figurative

===Colours===

Dundulanyä people traditionally distinguish 13 basic colours (''hīmba''), with the notable presence of two heavily culturally significant ones: golden yellow and lilac:

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! Colour !! Noun !! Verb<br/><small>''to be …''</small> !! Prototypical example

: ''nälte nilavā tati nilin, lalla dāvan cāhin jallīyās''. — I thought it was 4:00 in the morning, but it was already ''lalla dāvan'' (7:00 in the morning).

: ''nadda naṅgaśaurulu tati inilyam hä !'' — I thought you were from Naṅgaśūra! (the perfect here could also be translated as "until now, I had been thinking ...")

Note that ''√nely-'' is a perception verb, as defined [[#Telicity_in_perception_verbs|above]], and therefore intransitive, unlike ''√sām-''.