User:Ceige/Sketch

Name

## No name yet, leave it as is and call it Proto-Speedy? Has there ever been a language discovered with no hint at an endonym or exonym or even place to associate it with available?

Phonology

Consonants

The places of articulation are defined as follows:

• labial: using the lips
• dental: near the teeth or alveolar ridge
• lateralised dental laterals and lateralised dental affricates
• post-alveolar: either palatal or retroflex
• dorsal: allophonically palatal, velar and uvular, probably
• and finally, glottal: provided for a symmetry's sake, see phonemic brackets

Plosives are distinguished by place of articulation and phonation. The three phonations are fortis (with a positive VOT and/or preaspiration, i.e. voiceless), tense (not well defined, but perhaps having a neutral VOT, glottalisation, or some other feature), and lenis (with a neutral to negative VOT, i.e. voiced).

Nasals (and other normally voiced continuants) are described as being distinguished based on voicing, but this is a simplified approach. In actuality, voiceless nasals can be pre-stopped, may have a negative VOT, or be glottalised. Post-stopped nasals (e.g., mp) are accounted for by vowel nasalisation (see the relevant section)

Note that tl and tš can be substituted with ƛ and č respectively.

Consonants

🦌		Labial	Dental	Lateralised	Post-Alveolar	Dorsal	Glottal
Plosives	Fortis	pʰ ⟨pʰ⟩	tʰ ⟨tʰ⟩	tłʰ ⟨tlʰ⟩	čʰ ⟨tšʰ⟩	kʰ ⟨kʰ⟩	ʔʰ /h/ ⟨h⟩
	Tense	p' ⟨p'⟩	t' ⟨t'⟩	tł' ⟨tl'⟩	č' ⟨tš'⟩	k' ⟨k'⟩	ʔ' /ʔ/ ⟨', ʔ⟩
	Lenis	b~p ⟨p⟩	d~t ⟨t⟩	dl~tł ⟨tl⟩	ž~č ⟨tš⟩	g~k ⟨k⟩	ʔ /∅/
Sonorants #1	Voiceless	m̊ ⟨hm⟩	n̊ ⟨hn⟩	l̥ ⟨lt⟩	ɲ̊ ⟨hň⟩	ŋ̊ ⟨hŋ⟩
	Voiced	m ⟨m⟩	n ⟨n⟩	l ⟨l⟩	ɲ ⟨ň⟩	ŋ ⟨ŋ⟩
Fricatives			s ⟨s⟩	ł ⟨ł⟩	š ⟨š⟩	x ⟨x⟩
Sonorants #2		w ⟨w⟩	r ⟨r⟩		j ⟨j⟩

Some additional notes:

• Fortis and tense plosives, voiceless sonorants, nasals and /r/ can only occur at the start of a syllable. If one occurs at the end of a syllable, it implies that there is a new syllable with a null-nucleus, and as such the consonant is still often released, and a dummy vowel may be inserted.

N.B.: This is an area people creating daughter languages can explore.

Vowels

Vowels are distinguished horizontally (frontness) and vertically (openness), and by roundedness or nasality.

N.B.: This vowel system was chosen as it has a few areas which could lead to a breakdown in symmetry and thus an entire rearrangement of the vowel system. In addition, as rounding is not distinguished in nasal vowels, there is an opportunity for vowel shifts to occur there too in order to bring in extra symmetry. Nasal vowels are also often quite unstable, at least going by French and the Slavic language family, and can also have weird effects on following consonants too. Lastly, vowel harmony can be tweaked given the number of dimensions vowels are distinguished by here. So people making daughter languages should have plenty of options available to them.

Roundedness as a feature can be achieved by lip rounding, cheek rounding and lip compression together in various degrees.

Oral Vowels

🦌	Front			Back
	Unrounded	Rounded	Nasal 🐘	Unrounded	Rounded	Nasal 🐘
Closed	i ⟨i⟩	y ⟨ü⟩	ĩ ⟨į⟩	ɯ ⟨ï⟩	u ⟨u⟩	ũ ⟨ų⟩
Mid	e ⟨e⟩	ø ⟨ö⟩	ẽ ⟨ę⟩	ɤ ⟨ë⟩	o ⟨o⟩	õ ⟨ǫ⟩
Open	a ⟨ä⟩		ã ⟨ą̈⟩	ɑ ⟨a⟩		ɑ̃ ⟨ą⟩

In addition, an epenthetic schwa /ə/ can be used.

Vowel Harmony

Vowel harmony is in effect for rounding (with an exception for nasal vowels) and dialectally for frontness and backness. In describing the #Grammar, vowels are written in upper-case (e.g. I, A, E) to signify that they change according to vowel harmony.

N.B.: Vowel harmony is not set in stone and can be tweaked a lot in daughter languages. Like with every description of the language on this page, don't feel too bad if you decide to get rid of vowel harmony or decide to go nuts with it and expand it. That's why I've added vowels out the wazoo!

For example

• I: i, ü (for frontness harmony: i, ü, ï, u)
• E: e, ö (for frontness harmony: e, ö, ë, o)
• A (can only do frontness harmony): a, ä
• O: ë, o
• U: ï, u

(Naturally, Į, Ę, Ą, Ǫ, Ų signify the relevant nasal vowels)

Accent

There are two marked accents: relative high and low pitch. High pitch uses an acute accent (á) and low pitch uses a grave accent (à). There is also a neutral accent. After an accented syllable, all subsequent syllables may use the same pitch until the next accented syllable. Thus:

• tatáta = NHH (or LHH)
• tátatà = HHL
• tatatà = NNL (or HHL)

Grammar

## DESCRIPTION // SUMMARY

Word Order

Word order is flexible, with VSO, SOV and SVO all being possibilities. Note, however, that S and O are not strictly speaking the actor and patient in a sentence; see #Morphosyntactic alignment for more information.

Nouns

## Should nouns mark for gender or animacy?

Number

## NEEDS REVAMP

Nouns can optionally be distinguished by number. The three numbers are singular, plural, and collective. The semantic distinction between the plural -mE and collective -kI is weak. The set collective suffix, -(O)t'ə, however, is normally used for things in an identifiable set, such as a pair of eyes, a pair of shoes, a collection of houses ("a neighbourhood") and the like.

All number suffixes can come after a case particle, except for the Set Collective, which is fused to the noun. However, both the normal and set collectives can cause the verb to agree in the collective number too (see #Verbs).

Noun Number Suffixes

Number	Suffix	Example
Singular	Ø	k'ut = a house
Plural	-mE	k'utmö = the houses
Collective	-kI	k'utkü = the houses
Set Collective	-(O)l'	k'utolt = the neighbourhood, complex etc

Case

Nouns use case particles which agree with them in vowel harmony. These case particles fulfil the same role as prepositions in English.

The Inalienable Genitive is used for inalienable genitive - for example, family relationships, body parts, creations, actions, essential qualities and the like. The normal genitive however is not to be thought of as an alienable genitive - it is simply the default genitive.

The reportative is actually an evidentiality marker that can be affixed to any unit of speech, including verbs or even entire phrases and sentences.

Using <code /> tags on case forms for orthographic clarity:

Noun Cases

Name	Case Form	Semantic role	Examples
Actor	-nO	The doer of an action	murno = the river (does something)
Patient	-mU	The thing that has an action done to it	murmu = the river (has something done to it)
Direct	-(ʔ)A(p) or -Ø	Any actor, patient, dative etc that was left out of explicit marking	mura(p), mur = the river
Genitive	-nĮ < Earlier -nIŋ	"of X", "belonging to X", "to do with X"	murnį = of the river
Inalienable Genitive	-kA, -ŋA	"of X", "belonging to X", "to do with X"	murka mitšəmitš = along the path of the river
Locative	-p'E	Can be used as a proximative ("near") and colloquially as a comitative ("with")	murp'ö = by the river
Lative	-kE, -ŋE	Lative ("to X") and dative ("to X, for X")	murkö
Prolative	-mItš	"Via X", "by way of X"; a late innovation	murmütš = via the river
Ablative	-xU	Ablative ("from") and abessive ("without")	murxu
Instrumental	-ŋI	Instrumental ("by means of") and comitative ("with")	murŋü = by use of the river
Equative	-sĄ	"Like a X", "as X as a"	mursą = like a river
Reportative	-jO	"Apparently like a X"	murjo = like a river, they say...

Verbs

Verbs can mark for a range of categories, and are also pro-drop as far as some of these categories are concerned too. The categories are:

• Gender: male, female, inanimate and honorific (note that verbs tend to only mark for a gender or honorific, thus its inclusion in this category)
• Number: singular, plural, collective
• Person: 1st (I, we), 2nd (you), 3rd (he, she, it) and 4th (one)

N.B.: since the language is pro-drop, 4th person can also be done by not marking at all without context being provided.

Note that the honorific marker is a verbal prefix, and when not o- may be preceded by w- (e.g. wë-)

Gender Affixes for Verbs

🦌	Affix	Example Use Cases
Male	-nA	Father, son, boy, bull
Female	-mI	Mother, daughter, girl, cow
Inanimate	-mų	Rocks, grass, hydrodynamics
Honorific	(w)O- (prefix)	Anything including the above

Number Affixes for Verbs

🦌	Affix	Example Use Cases
Singular	-Ø	I, you, a bird
Plural	-(ə)ł(ə)	we, you all, the birds
Collective	-(E)lt	we together, the flock of birds

Participles

Standard verbal nouns, gerunds or participles end with -mA.

Morphosyntactic alignment

## Austronesian type alignment
# focus erg/acc/dir
# can focus multiple at once for clarification but that's really nom/acc then innit?
# intr can use erg/acc/dir as necessary for semantic reasons (i break smthng, I break, I dance) (e.g. bridge-wo cross.verb in japanese?)
# verb marking if necessary (cf. austronesian "passive" voice with C-um-VC)

Vocabulary

Word List

• kʰałta = drawing
• k'ut = house
• kïł = bird
• mur = river
• pʰer = to plant
• pąt = wall
• pątmolt = enclosure, fortified area
• pątk'utolt = fortified town
• pęsä = limb
• są̈tʰi = healthy
• sępi = fruit, nut, seed
• sko = to brew something
• stak- = to fight, engage (?)
• stakma = fight, engagement
• stakwa = warrior
• t'äni = stone
• tul = to help
• tulma = help
• tlʰa = hoof
• tšąka = forest