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<h2>Verbs / Adjectives</h2> | |||
There is no distinction between adjectives | |||
and verbs in Antarctican. Instead of adjectives like “good”, “bad”, “strong”, | |||
“weak”, there are verbs meaning “to be good”, “to be bad” etc. | |||
<h3>Verb Bases</h3> | |||
Verbs have a root form, from which various | |||
other base forms are derived. The two most important of these base forms are | |||
the mirative base and the normal base. Below is a list of verb roots with their | |||
corresponding mirative and normal bases: | |||
| |||
duolieegi /doleːgi/ - to drag, | |||
intransitive, root | |||
duoliieju /doleːɟu/ - to drag, | |||
intransitive, mirative | |||
tùlòoezi /tuɦlɘɦːzi/ – | |||
to drag, intransitive, normal | |||
| |||
rèdu /ʁɘdu/ - red, root | |||
rèdlu /ʁɘɦdɮu/ - red, | |||
mirative | |||
rèdù /ʁɘɦduɦ/ - red, | |||
normal | |||
| |||
suekiraeypyi /sɨkiʁɛipʲi/ | |||
- to become scraped, root | |||
suekiraeypyu /sɨkiʁɛipʲu/ | |||
- to become scraped, mirative | |||
suekiraeypùe /sɨkiʁɛipɨɦ/ | |||
- to become scraped, normal | |||
| |||
<h4>Mirative Base</h4> | |||
This is used when the action being | |||
described is something the listener has not previously heard about (<a | |||
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirative">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirative</a>). | |||
How it is formed from the root is regular, but the rules are somewhat complex | |||
and depend on whether the last syllable of the base begins with a soft or hard | |||
consonant: | |||
<h5>Final Consonant is Soft</h5> | |||
If the final consonant (not including any | |||
placeless nasal /ɴ/) is soft, infix -iq-/iʔ/ immediately after it | |||
e.g. | |||
| |||
hlo /ɬɔ/ - to perform, root | |||
hliqo /ɬiʔɔ/ - to perform, | |||
mirative | |||
| |||
However, many vowels shift when this | |||
happens e.g. | |||
| |||
qíeypyii /ʔeiʔpʲiː/ - | |||
to spit out, root | |||
qíeypyiqiiey /ʔeiʔpʲiʔeːi/ | |||
- to spit out, mirative | |||
| |||
qinyieliie /ʔiɲeleː/ - to | |||
pierce, root | |||
qinyieliqaa /ʔiɲeliʔaː/ | |||
- to pierce, mirative | |||
| |||
kivieluun /kiɥeluːɴ/ - to | |||
die, root | |||
kivieliqiewn /kiɥeliʔeuɴ/ - | |||
to die, mirative | |||
| |||
These vowel shifts are all in a roughly | |||
anti-clockwise directions around the vowel space. The shifts are listed below: | |||
i /i/ -> ie /e/ | |||
ii /iː/ -> iey /ei/ | |||
ie /e/ -> a /a/ | |||
iie /eː/ -> aa /aː/ | |||
a /a/ -> u /u/ | |||
aa /aː/ -> uu /uː/ | |||
u /u/ -> i /i/ | |||
uu /uː/ -> iew /eu/ | |||
iey /ei/ -> ay /ai/ | |||
iiey /eːi/ -> aay /aːi/ | |||
ay /ai/ -> uy /ui/ | |||
aay /aːi/ -> uuy /uːi/ | |||
uy /ui/ -> ii /iː/ | |||
iew /eu/ -> aw /au/ | |||
iiew /eːu/ -> aaw /aːu/ | |||
aw /au/ -> uow /ou/ | |||
aaw /aːu/ -> uuow /oːu/ | |||
| |||
<h5>Final Consonant is Hard</h5> | |||
If the final consonant (not including any | |||
placeless nasal /ɴ/) is hard, change it to be soft e.g. | |||
| |||
yuentuoro /jɨɴtoʁɔ/ - | |||
to introduce oneself, root | |||
yuentuolo /jɨɴtolɔ/ - to | |||
introduce oneself, mirative | |||
| |||
However, many vowels shift when this | |||
happens e.g. | |||
| |||
nangariew /naŋaʁeu/ - to flow, | |||
root | |||
nangaluu /naŋaluː/ - to flow, | |||
mirative | |||
| |||
fuekirami /fɨkiʁami/ - to swell | |||
up, root | |||
fuekiramyu /fɨkiʁamʲu/ - to | |||
swell up, mirative | |||
| |||
qimuepu /ʔimɨpu/ - to sit down, | |||
root | |||
qimuepya /ʔimɨpʲa/ - to sit | |||
down, mirative | |||
| |||
These vowel changes are often the reverse | |||
of what happens if the final vowel of the stem is a soft consonant. The vowel | |||
shifts are all roughly clockwise around the vowel space, and are listed below: | |||
i /i/ -> u /u/ | |||
u /u/ -> a /a/ | |||
uu /uː/ -> aa /aː/ | |||
a /a/ -> ie /e/ | |||
aa /aː/ -> iie /eː/ | |||
ie /e/ -> i /i/ * For some words only, | |||
see below. | |||
iie /eː/ -> ii /iː/ | |||
ii /iː/ -> uy /ui/ | |||
uy /ui/ -> ay /ai/ | |||
uuy /uːi/ -> aay /aːi/ | |||
ay /ai/ -> iey /ei/ | |||
aay /aːi/ -> iiey /eːi/ | |||
iey /ei/ -> ii /iː/ | |||
iiey /eːi/ -> ii /iː/ | |||
uow /ou/ -> aw /au/ | |||
uuow /oːu/ -> aaw /aːu/ | |||
aw /au/ -> iew /eu/ | |||
aaw /aːu/ -> iiew /eːu/ | |||
iew /eu/ -> uu /uː/ | |||
iiew /eːu/ -> uu /uː/ | |||
| |||
<h6>Vowel Phonation Changes</h6> | |||
A few verb stems that end in a hard consonant | |||
and ie /e/ behave differently. If the consonant is a voiced obstruent and the | |||
vowel is short and not followed by -n /ɴ/, then most of the time the | |||
syllable is deleted and breathy voice put onto the preceding syllable(s) e.g. | |||
| |||
nituozie /nitoze/ - to be fed on, root | |||
nitù /nituɦ/ - to be fed on, mirative | |||
| |||
The breathy voice “spreads” backwards | |||
through the word, changing vowel phonation with it, until it hits a voiceless | |||
obstruent or prestopped nasal e.g. | |||
| |||
maduozie /madoze/ - to give birth, | |||
intransitive, root | |||
mòetù /mɜɦtuɦ/ - to give | |||
birth, intransitive, mirative | |||
| |||
nyiibie /ɲiːbe/ - to snow, root | |||
nyùue /ɲɨːɦ/ - to snow, | |||
mirative | |||
| |||
san-gizie /saɴgize/ - to bleed, root | |||
sòen-gùe /sɜɦɴgɨɦ/ | |||
- to bleed, mirative | |||
| |||
However, for a few words, this process | |||
doesn’t happen e.g. | |||
kazie /kaze/ - to be windy, root | |||
kadli /kadɮi/ - to be windy, mirative | |||
| |||
To understand this seemingly random | |||
phenomenon, we need to go back to the ancestor language, which had a downstep / | |||
pitch accent system similar to Japanese http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_pitch_accent. In this language, a sound change occurred, which changed to [ɦ] | |||
all word final sequences of Voiced Soft Obstruent + Low Pitched /i/. | |||
This only affected words with pitch accent | |||
on the non-final syllable i.e. low tone words from tone languages, and words | |||
that came into the language from stress-accent languages like English, Indonesian | |||
and Spanish as long as they did not have stress on the final syllable. Words | |||
without accent (like high tone words from tone languages, “flat” words from | |||
Japanese) as well as words with accent on the final syllable were unaffected. | |||
When Antarctican lost its pitch accent, the | |||
change became unpredictable. | |||
| |||
[[Category:Languages]][[Category:Conlangs]] | [[Category:Languages]][[Category:Conlangs]] |
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