User:Nicolasstraccia/Minhastid: Difference between revisions

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===Crane Speaker Dialect Phonotactics Table ===
===Crane Speaker Dialect Phonotactics Table ===


{| class="bluetable lightbluebg mw-collapsible"
{| class="bluetable lightbluebg collapsible collapsed"
! rowspan=2 | Initial Consonant
! rowspan=2 | Initial Consonant
! colspan=18| Final Consonant
! colspan=18| Final Consonant
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* Time - Quasi-verb NP + NP Compounding: Verb  root/complex +  ''-ummak'', e.g. ''gubbattustummak'' >> ''gubbāt-dust-ummak'' >> ''gubbāt-dust min ummak'' make.war-RECIP.ADVERS-time.of.doing.something, i.e. "wartime" (Salmon Speaker dialect)
* Time - Quasi-verb NP + NP Compounding: Verb  root/complex +  ''-ummak'', e.g. ''gubbattustummak'' >> ''gubbāt-dust-ummak'' >> ''gubbāt-dust min ummak'' make.war-RECIP.ADVERS-time.of.doing.something, i.e. "wartime" (Salmon Speaker dialect)
* Instrument: Type I Noun Incorporation, e.g. ''isangarsakua'' >> ''isangar-sakua'' >> make.light.with.flame-drinking.glass, i.e. "light bulb"
* Instrument: Type I Noun Incorporation, e.g. ''isangarsakua'' >> ''isangar-sakua'' >> make.light.with.flame-drinking.glass, i.e. "light bulb"
-->


<!--
=== Derivational Affixes ===
=== Derivational Affixes ===


There is a small set of suffixes that can be attached to a verb root to derive a noun, nevertheless Minhast prefers to nominalize clauses or use NI. The most frequently encountered ones are listed in the following table.
There is a small set of suffixes that can be attached to a verb root to derive a noun, nevertheless Minhast prefers to nominalize clauses or use NI. The most frequently encountered ones are listed in the following table.


{|
{|
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| style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #66ff99" | similarity of the action/event/state of the verb; also serves as an abstraction affix like "-pna"  
| style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #66ff99" | similarity of the action/event/state of the verb; also serves as an abstraction affix like "-pna"  
|}
|}
-->
 


<!--
<!--
== Morphosyntax ==
== Morphosyntax ==


Line 2,214: Line 2,213:
=== Conjunctions and Connectives===
=== Conjunctions and Connectives===


Minhast has two classes of morphemes for joining two or more NPs into a larger phrase, one set being conjunctions, and another set called either ''ligatures'' or ''connectives'' which bind either mutually interdependent NPs (e.g. possessive phrases), or adjuncts to the nuclear clause.  Most of the Minhast linguistic literature uses the latter term ''connectives'', as in this article.  The purpose of both conjunctions and connectives is to link two or more entities or structures together to form a cohesive unit.  However, there are major differences between the two.  Conjunctions simply link a series of NPs with no implication that the individual NP units are interdependent.   The connectives, on the other hand, are required for interdependent NPs or other adjuncts (e.g. evidential particles), otherwise the phrase would be ungrammatical when the connective is omitted.   An example would be a possessive construction; omission of the connective min render the sentence ungrammatical because two NPs, namely the possessor and possessum, are “stranded”, and a possessive relationship cannot be inferred from the stranded NPs.
Minhast has two classes of morphemes for joining two or more NPs into a larger phrase, one set being conjunctions, and another set called either ''ligatures'' or ''connectives'' which bind either mutually interdependent NPs (e.g. possessive phrases), or adjuncts to the nuclear clause.  Most of the Minhast linguistic literature uses the latter term ''connectives'', as in this article.  The purpose of both conjunctions and connectives is to link two or more entities or structures together to form a cohesive unit.  However, there are major differences between the two.  Conjunctions simply link a series of NPs with no implication that the individual NP units are interdependent. The connectives, on the other hand, are required for interdependent NPs or other adjuncts (e.g. evidential particles), otherwise the phrase would be ungrammatical when the connective is omitted. An example would be a possessive construction; omission of the connective min render the sentence ungrammatical because two NPs, namely the possessor and possessum, are “stranded”, and a possessive relationship cannot be inferred from the stranded NPs.


====Conjunctions====
====Conjunctions====
Line 2,238: Line 2,237:
====Connectives====
====Connectives====


There are two major connectives. One binds only NPs together, while the other binds a NP or adjunct (e.g. evidentials) and a clause together.   The first type of connective, called the ''min''-connective, is used most notably for creating possessive phrases, although it is involved in the formation of other NP-NP structures .   The other is called the ''wa''-connective and is used to bind adjuncts to clauses. The two connectives are described in further detail below.
There are two major connectives. One binds only NPs together, while the other binds a NP or adjunct (e.g. evidentials) and a clause together. The first type of connective, called the ''min''-connective, is used most notably for creating possessive phrases, although it is involved in the formation of other NP-NP structures. The other is called the ''wa''-connective and is used to bind adjuncts to clauses. The two connectives are described in further detail below.




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! Notes
! Notes
|-
|-
!  f,g,h,k,m,p,r,s, š,(w),y,z
!  f, g, h, k, m, p, r, s, ś, (w), y, z
| min
| min
|  
|  
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==== Copula ====
==== Copula ====


Minhast is a zero-copula language and thus lacks the verb "to be". Instead, a NP and its predicate argument are simply juxtaposed, as in ''"Anyar Minhast"'' ("Anyar is Minhast"). The NP may precede or follow its predicate, but generally the unmarked word order is NP + Predicate.
Minhast is a zero-copula language and thus lacks the verb "to be". Instead, a NP and its predicate argument are simply juxtaposed, as in ''"Anyar Minhast"'' ("Anyar is Minhast"). The NP may precede or follow its predicate, but generally the unmarked word order is NP + Predicate.


Copular clauses are negated with the negation particle ''hatā''' (no, not).  This particle can either precede or follow its argument; both ''"Kaslub hatā'"'' and ''"Hatā' kaslub"'' ("It is not a dog") are correct. Nouns can take tense markers.  Thus, if tense needs to be indicated, the appropriate verbal tense marker is suffixed to the predicate, as in ''"Keslib-ar, attim wakkaslub"'' ("He was a puppy, now he's an adult dog").  Pronominal affixes are suffixed to their predicates, as in ''"Minhast-ek"'' ("I am Minhast").  Tense markers, when they appear, come before the pronominal affix, as in ''"Minhast-ar-ek"''  ("I was Minhast").
Copular clauses are negated with the negation particle ''hatā''' (no, not).  This particle can either precede or follow its argument; both ''"Kaslub hatā'"'' and ''"Hatā' kaslub"'' ("It is not a dog") are correct. Nouns can take tense markers.  Thus, if tense needs to be indicated, the appropriate verbal tense marker is suffixed to the predicate, as in ''"Keslib-ar, attim wakkaslub"'' ("He was a puppy, now he's an adult dog").  Pronominal affixes are suffixed to their predicates, as in ''"Minhast-ek"'' ("I am Minhast").  Tense markers, when they appear, come before the pronominal affix, as in ''"Minhast-ar-ek"''  ("I was Minhast").
-->


<!--
== Texts ==
== Texts ==
=== The Tower of Babel ===
# Now the whole earth had one language and the same words.
# And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.
# And they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly." And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar.
# Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth."
# And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built.
# And the Lord said, "Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.
# Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech."
# So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.
# Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.<br/><br/>
# Mattim šūmī min kirim šarraktī, irriyērum kastarmaharaban, wa'atim.
# Wahēk, redad wayyaħna min ambunistikī yalkikmiraban, Šinarkī takušš naħkisaššiatikkenaru.
# Indikirišmattararannamā: "Iggar išpisaxtakyatapirmannēruš."  Mattim iggar, hambin banak. Mattim issik, hambin nayyapi.
# Indikirišmattararannamā: "Hawassabummurratħakaš, šuxtānaran tuyye amandimahampinaft hawassaptirħakuš.  Hintirissakšarmakkakannimmāš šarratim suharaktikī tandikaħsaħptarikmaš."
# Wahēk,  Šuxtānim Ikkūne hārannimā, ummurrat sut tuyyēran sararampi, išpiħyimannarunaft sarmannaru.
# Wahēk,  Šuxtānim Ikkūne kirimarannamā: "Sapim redad šūmikman, šūmī min kirimaran ittaħšikman,  indikanawikmabampi, rearan markanawikminesampiš."
# "Wahēk,  iknahakmannimāš, kirinseššente haradaknesunimmāš, kirimtarseššentēran ikšempihikminesampiš."
# Wahēk,  Šuxtānim Ikkūnede išpiknatarkennarunimmā ummurratiyār iknikmaran.
# Atim waggabgabalaram hittinristirħaku, Šuxtānim Ikkūnede kirimseššente išpikšempiharu, šarrat min suharaktillidēran išpiknatarkennaru.
=== Sapim Tayatta ("This Poison") ===
This is a Horse Speaker poem, also known as “The Shaman Answers the Friar”
<blockquote>
Matti waddanua hittimtaru,<br/>
Tayatta min dannua išpisassambelampi.<br/>
Sakuki tanessatayattamminesaš,<br/>
Naššiyekitturħamminesašaft taklahwinittamumāš<br/>
Uggunki bastettayattatittemumāš, nuskikakkuneknesumāš,<br/>
Harattayatteknesunimmāš nurrekeknesuš.<br/>
Matti wayyuhar hittimtaru,<br/>
Tayatta min yuhar išpisaxtisassambelan.<br/>
Yuhar wattakalluttayattamminesaš,<br/>
Naššiyekitturħamminesašaft taklahwinittamumāš;<br/>
Uggunki bastettayattatittemumāš, āpirki yippehetireknesunimmāš,<br/>
Siyyekimtahaš, tayatta min yuhar saxtisassamaħnesaš<br/>
Matti wasattawa hittimtaru,<br/>
Suruššis kay awwakukmaħ, tanakkurennennesuš!<br/>
Tadutyattunnemumāš,<br/>
Naššiyekitturħamminesašaft taklahwinittamumāš;<br/>
Uggunki bastettayattatittemumāš, āpirki yippehetireknesunimmāš,<br/>
Aškunnesammāš, turħamte keħrinesaš .<br/>
Matti wašširkat tašširkamtattamaru,<br/>
Širkat dutyattutamabu.<br/>
Taxrikaħsašširkattarmannenesumāš
tasuyyekna’ennemki ittahišširkatmakkaknesuš, <br/>
Wahēk naššiyekitturħamminesašaft taklaħwinittamumāš;<br/>
Uggunki bastettayattatittemumāš, āpirki yippehetireknesunimmāš,<br/>
Āpirki saxtipayyakminesmāš, yurrudatarminesuš.<br/>
Sap min turħa ittaħšittūmanšaranaft išpissiblultireknesuš,<br/>
Turħa taħlimmatišan, intakwasktireknesumāš išpissiblultireknesuš.<br/>
Hatā tartarrak išpirakne’ennennesumāš tašpiħyennesuš<br/>
Naššiyekitturħamminesašaft taklaħwinittamumāš;<br/>
Tūmantinnemte išpintettennesumāš, intakwasktireknesuš.<br/>
Urruħyaknagikkitireknesumāš, intaharattireknesuš.<br/>
Turħa taħlimmatišanaft hittettemunaft, wassap min hukkemp,<br/>
Taħtemaran intattaħšisakšarampamā tukkišampamā inturruttaršampi;<br/>
Inturrustuyyeknaštaršaban, inturruddeltaršaban,<br/>
Tayatta hittitamannamā, “Sappu tektušmia”;<br/>
Sapim tayatta, wahatā’a nessannennesuš, <br/>
Išpikeħreammā, siyekkitennesumaš nistennesuš.<br/>
Iknitamaš, kurtamammā, naš wa’asmuyyakkāhaltamanaft, iknitamaš!<br/>
Dūy min Kirimastaran iknitamanimmāš, tabbuktartakkemaš!<br/>
Kan wassappu immattannesammāš sirastammenesuš,<br/>
Immattannesammāš, galkemmipār daššilaptammenesuš;<br/>
Immattannesammāš, šarrakti daššilaptammenesuš,<br/>
Gāl min Kirimastaran bitamammāš, nistirasmatannesaš.<br/>
<hr/>
This is the water you offer us,<br/>
This is the poison that has rotted your minds.<br/>
Do not tell us that our spirits will burn,<br/>
If we do not drink it from its cup;<br/>
Place it on the table and I shall draw my sword out,<br/>
Thus shall I shatter its goblet, thus it shall spill onto the ground;<br/>
This is the circle you give us,<br/>
It has a poison that has rotted your minds.<br/>
Do not tell us that our spirits will burn,<br/>
If we do not eat this circle you have given;<br/>
Place it on the table and I shall cast it into the fire,<br/>
Thus it will burn in the fire, the poison will burn and die.<br/>
This is the jewelry you give us,<br/>
Though it is embossed in fine gold, we will not kiss it;<br/>
Do not tell us that our spirits will burn,<br/>
If we do not bow low before it;<br/>
Place it on the table and I shall cast it into the fire,<br/>
There it will melt, and its spirit shall die.<br/>
These are the writings you have written,<br/>
These are the writings you give obeisance to;<br/>
Do not tell us that our spirits will burn,<br/>
If we do not read it and take it into our hearts;<br/>
Place it on the table and I shall cast it into the fire,<br/>
Into ashes it shall burn, and then the wind shall take it away.<br/>
The spirit that resides in it, I shall drive out,<br/>
This is a vile spirit, I will destroy it and cast it out.<br/>
Do not tell us that our spirits will burn,<br/>
If we do not accept this abomination and raise it high;<br/>
Bring it into our abode and I shall destroy it,<br/>
I will grind it under my foot, I will crush it with all my might.<br/>
This evil spirit you offer us, the one that has seized you tightly,<br/>
Like a viper it has bitten you, and it has wrapped itself tightly;<br/>
It wraps itself tight around your heart and your mind,<br/>
You offer us its venom, you say it is a gift;<br/>
We will not drink this poison you give us,<br/>
It is a dangerous thing, so we will burn it and cast it outside.<br/>
Get away from us, you who are dressed in black robes,<br/>
Go to the Salmon Speakers, so they can cut you to pieces;<br/>
Else if you remain here, we shall ride you down;<br/>
Stay here and we will take to our horses,<br/>
Stay here and we will run you into the ground;<br/>
Return to Horse Speaker Country, and you forfeit your lives.
</blockquote>
-->
-->


Revision as of 19:36, 12 February 2016


This is a tribute to Minhast, by Chris Borillo: a "Minhastid" of sorts.

Crane Speaker Dialect
[Minhastid]
Pronunciation[/'min.hɑst/]
Created byNicolás Straccia (based on original work by Chris Borillo)
Setting[meta] Alt-Earth
Native toRyu Kyu Islands
Native speakersca. 700 (1996)
Minhastid Languages
  • Crane Speaker Dialect
Language codes
ISO 639-3n/a


Introduction

The Crane Speaker Dialect (CSD) is part of a "lost" branch of the Upper Minhast group of the Historical Regional Dialects of Minhast.

It is spoken in a secluded cluster of settlements in one of the Ryu Kyu Islands by some 700 people, originally fishermen and workers who had left Minhay for Japan but ended up fleeing for the Ryu Kyus to avoind getting involved in the happenings of WWI. About 37% of the CSD speakers are monolingual, 60% are CSD-Uchinaaguchi bilinguals and 3% speak CSD, Uchinaaguchi and also Japanese (1996 census data).

Typologically, as is the case with Minhast, the CSD is ergative and polysynthetic, with ergativity surfacing both at the morphologic and syntactic levels and a highly agglutinative verbal morphology, performing noun incorporation and other complex valence operations.

The unmarked word order is SOV. Even though some deviation from this word order is allowed for discourse purposes (e.g. an argument that is to be focused is fronted to the head of the clause or in compound and complex sentences), the verb rarely deviates from its clause-final position and the order of the other arguments of the clause (core, oblique, and sentential complements) is not as flexible as in Minhast proper.

Dialectology

Minhast is divided into two major dialects: Upper Minhast and Lower Minhast. The two dialects groups differ chiefly in phonetics and the lexicon (for instance, Lower Minhast contains loanwords from neighbouring languages -e.g. Golahat- which Upper Minhast doesn't). Otherwise, the two dialects are mutually intelligible.

The Crane Speaker Dialect has traditionally been considered an integral part of the Upper Minhast group, given the history of its split from the mainland dialects through emigration from the Upper Minhast speaking prefectures to Japan around the year 1900. Nevertheless, modern comparative study of the differences which characterize the CSD seem to indicate that the linguistic split from the established subgroups of Regional Historical Dialects in the mainland must have happened before the speakers left Minhay and a longer time ago than previously thought. This earlier split would place CSD in a more basal level within the Minhast tree, perhaps as part of a lost third branch parallel to the Upper versus Lower Minhast split. The main point made by two of these contending classifications situate the CSD as follows:

Minhastic Languages
Regional Historical Dialects
Upper Minhast
Mainland Dialects

Salmon Speakers ("Gaššarat", Northeastern Coast)



Dog Speakers ("Hisašarum", Northeastern Plains)



Horse Speakers ("Gannasia", Central Plateau)




Crane Speaker Dialect (Ryu Kyu) 1



Lower Minhast

Gull Speakers (Senzil and Rēgum Prefectures)



Osprey Speakers (Kings' Bay)



Stone Speakers (Neskud and Yaxparim prefectures)




Crane Speaker Dialect (Ryu Kyu) 2



NCR Modern Dialects

Modern Standard Minhast [variant of Upper Minhast]



Modern Colloquial Minhast ("City Speaker Dialect") [admixture of Upper and Lower Minhast]




1 after Hisakawa, Horn-Schwabbach & Harrison, (1957).

2 after Harrison, Yoshida & Dallas, (1996).

This new work in Minhast historical linguistics, lead by Dr. Michael P. Harrison (an old pupil of the Minhast scholar Prof. Dr. Yoshi Hisakawa), and the subsequent revision of the internal splits into the different dialect groups gave place to the term "Minhastic Languages" as a way to address the whole group, owing to 1) the noticeable differences between the fringe dialects of the already established dialect continua and 2) the greater differences present in those dialects which had drifted apart from the rest earlier on, the paramount case of the latter being the CSD itself.

This lead to a revision of the original Kilmarian Hypothesis posed by Hisakawa (Hisakawa et.al., 1957) which upheld the belief that, "when considered on their own" (i.e., only from a linguistic perspective), "the Regional Historical Dialects of mainland Minhay constitute a small language family, more heterogeneous than originally thought and related to other small languages" (the so called Shakhtabari Group of the Kilmay-Ri Family), with Minhast proper being but a central and incidentally more well known branch to it.

A different school of thought, more conservative and reluctant to Hisakawa's theories, adopts a more loose criterion, grouping the Crane Speakers Dialect together with other "lost dialects", such as that of the Knife Speakers' and the extinct Šarmakandast, in a miscellaneous group, without committing to any definitive classification.


Phonology and Orthography

Phonemic Inventory

The following chart contains the consonants in the Crane Speaker dialect phonology. A variation on the Minhast Latinized alphabet is used throughout this article (see Orthography below).


Crane Speaker Dialect Consonantal Inventory
Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal Laryngeal Pharyngeal
Nasal m n ŋ
Plosive p b t d k g
Fricative f s z ʃ ʒ χ ʔ h ħ
Affricates t͡ʃ d͡ʒ
Approximants w j
Trill r
Lateral Approximant l

Minhast Vowel Inventory

  Front Near- front Central Near- back Back
Close
Blank vowel trapezoid.svg
i
u
ɪ
e
ɑ
  Near-close
Close-mid
Mid
Open-mid
Near-open
Open



Vowel length is distinctive. Devoiced vowels occur as allophones frequently, based on regular phonotactic rules:

Short Long Devoiced
a ā [ạ]
e ē [ẹ]
i ī [ị]
u ū [ụ]

Syllabic Structure and Phonemic Interactions

As it is the case in Minhast, words are subject to complex morphophonemic changes resulting from interactions with other morphemes occurring in the word. The verb is particularly complex in the various sound changes that may occur as a result of noun incorporation as well as the agglutinative processes involved in conjugation and other inflectional processes. These phonemic changes can be broken down according to the following classifications:

  • Assimilation
  • Metathesis
  • Syncope
  • Epenthesis
  • Voicing/Devoicing
  • Aspiration

These complex morphophonemic interactions operate according to the general phonological principals outlined below:

  1. No syllable can have a consonant cluster of more than two consonants. Syncope can be applied only if a biconsonantal cluster is formed, and the vowel is not a part of a heavy syllable (i.e. the vowel is long, or it occurs in a VCC sequence).
  2. No Minhast word can have an initial consonant cluster. After any initial consonant cluster results from one or more of the possible morphophonemic alternations described below, an epenthetic is automatically appended to the head of the word to form the permissible iCC- pattern.
  3. An epenthetic vowel is always inserted between two syllables if combining the syllables results in a triconsonantal cluster. The default epenthetic vowel is -i-, but the other 3 vowels may also be used, depending on multiple factors (e.g. vowel harmony, an underlying quiescent initial vowel as part of the attached morpheme, etc.)
  4. Minhast has a strong tendency to form intermedial clusters, either or , providing that Rules #1-#3 are observed. If necessary, an epenthetic vowel may be added before or after the syllable to create these syllabic patterns, e.g. e.g. kanut-maris-kar- >> -kant-(u)-maris-kar
  5. The tendency to form intermedial consonant clusters creates complex assimilation interactions that nevertheless are predictable and almost always regular. These interactions are illustrated in Table X below:

    Crane Speaker Dialect Phonotactics Table

    Orthography

    The Crane Speaker Dialect uses two writing systems. One of them is a variant of the "Ammerkast" Latin script for Minhast, itself a an adaptation of the Americanist phonetic notation (with the exception of the grapheme <ħ>, which was adopted from IPA). Note the glottal stop <'> is usually not written unless there is a hiatus between two vowels.

    "Ammerkast" variant
    a, á, e, é, i, í, u, ú, ('), b, p, f, d, t, g, k, x, n, m, l, r, z, s, ś, h, ħ, w, y


    Another system is an indigenous script, adapted from the Uchinaaguchi kana system.


    Derivational Affixes

    There is a small set of suffixes that can be attached to a verb root to derive a noun, nevertheless Minhast prefers to nominalize clauses or use NI. The most frequently encountered ones are listed in the following table.

    Derivational Affixes
    Affix Gloss/Meaning
    -hupnia instrumental affix
    -šnia,-šn consisting of
    -pniš propensity towards
    -pna abstract affix, "-tude,-ity","-ness"
    -sset temporal affix, "time of"
    -kian locative affix
    -(n)niwak,-nwak occupational affix, "one who engages in an activity"
    -tak intransitive/transitive manner affix, "the manner of engaging in an activity; the manner of being"
    -(a)rat the result of an action or event
    -mbat, -umbat, -numbat similarity of the action/event/state of the verb; also serves as an abstraction affix like "-pna"



    Table of Abbreviations

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