Lántun: Difference between revisions

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Látun is a [[w:Pitch-accent language|pitch-accent]] language, meaning that the accentuated syllable is indicated by a contrasting pitch (or [[w:Tone (linguistics)|tone]]) and vowel length, rather than by loudness, as in stressed languages. Some words are “accentless”, they instead receive a neutral pitch, which assimilates to the pitch of the neighbouring words. Short vowels can have one of the two marked pitches (or three if considering the neutral pitch as distinct): '''high''' (''há'' [ɦɑ˥]) and '''low''' (''hà'' [ɦɑ˩]). The accent on a long vowel or diphthong could be on either half of the vowel, making a contrast possible between a rising accent (''hǎ'' [ɦɑː˧˥]) and a falling one (''hâ'' [ɦɑː˧˩]); compare ''itaî'' [i꜊.täɪ˧˩] “at home” vs. ''itǎi'' [i꜊.täɪ˧˥] “homes”. Other vowels are considered unaccented, yet they actually receive the tone of the preceding accented syllables.
Látun is a [[w:Pitch-accent language|pitch-accent]] language, meaning that the accentuated syllable is indicated by a contrasting pitch (or [[w:Tone (linguistics)|tone]]) and vowel length, rather than by loudness, as in stressed languages. Some words are “accentless”, they instead receive a neutral pitch, which assimilates to the pitch of the neighbouring words. Short vowels can have one of the two marked pitches (or three if considering the neutral pitch as distinct): '''high''' (''há'' [ɦɑ˥]) and '''low''' (''hà'' [ɦɑ˩]). The accent on a long vowel or diphthong could be on either half of the vowel, making a contrast possible between a rising accent (''hǎ'' [ɦɑː˧˥]) and a falling one (''hâ'' [ɦɑː˧˩]); compare ''itaî'' [i꜊.täɪ˧˩] “at home” vs. ''itǎi'' [i꜊.täɪ˧˥] “homes”. Other vowels are considered unaccented, yet they actually receive the tone of the preceding accented syllables.
===Phonotactics===
===Phonotactics===
The consonants ''g'', ''ŋ'' and ''ḥ'' centralise the neighbouring front vowels, so that ''*iŋ'', for example, would become ''yŋ'' [ɪŋ]. Two vowels in hiatus often form diphthongs, when in word stems, but otherwise the preceeding vowel becomes elided by the following one: ''néŋi'' “we (incl.) see him” becomes ''néŋū'' “we (incl.) see them”, where ''-i'' (inclusive marker) is elided by by ''-ū'' (3rd plural marker). In this example the morpheme is not deleted, it instead becomes its zero allomorph, which happens quite frequently. The phoneme /s/ becomes [r̥] after a voiceless consonant, the preceeding consonant then becomes aspirated.
The consonants ''g'', ''ŋ'' and ''ḥ'' centralise the preceding front vowels, so that ''*iŋ'', for example, would become ''yŋ'' [ɪŋ]. Two vowels in hiatus often form diphthongs, when in word stems, but otherwise the preceeding vowel becomes elided by the following one: ''néŋi'' “we (incl.) see him” becomes ''néŋū'' “we (incl.) see them”, where ''-i'' (inclusive marker) is elided by by ''-ū'' (3rd plural marker). In this example the morpheme is not deleted, it instead becomes its zero allomorph, which happens quite frequently. The phoneme /s/ becomes [r̥] after a voiceless consonant, the preceeding consonant then becomes aspirated.
 
==Morphology==
==Morphology==
Lántun is a [[w:Polysynthetic language|polysynthetic]] language, meaning words have a root verb basis to which information is added; that is, morphemes (affixes) are added to verb roots. These words may contain subjects, objects, indirect objects, possession and location. Thus, surprisingly complex ideas can be communicated with as little as one word, for example:  
Lántun is a [[w:Polysynthetic language|polysynthetic]] language, meaning words have a root verb basis to which information is added; that is, morphemes (affixes) are added to verb roots. These words may contain subjects, objects, indirect objects, possession and location. Thus, surprisingly complex ideas can be communicated with as little as one word, for example:  
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