North-East Antarctican: Difference between revisions
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There is a very strong preference to make endocentric compounds from words that have identical voicing on the stressed syllable. For example, the word /ˈxa̰ɾʲɨ/ [ˈxæ̰ːɾʲḭ] - "freshwater fish", could, in theory, be compounded with /bɨˈhə̤kɨ/ [bɨˈhə̤ːkɨ] - "bake", to form /bɨˈʔə̤kɨxaɾʲɨ/ [bɨˈʔə̤ːkɨxæɾʲi] - "baked freshwater fish". However, since /bɨˈhə̤kɨ/ has breathy voice, and /ˈxa̰ɾʲɨ/ has tense voice, the resulting compound would strike native speakers as inelegant and clumsy. | There is a very strong preference to make endocentric compounds from words that have identical voicing on the stressed syllable. For example, the word /ˈxa̰ɾʲɨ/ [ˈxæ̰ːɾʲḭ] - "freshwater fish", could, in theory, be compounded with /bɨˈhə̤kɨ/ [bɨˈhə̤ːkɨ] - "bake", to form /bɨˈʔə̤kɨxaɾʲɨ/ [bɨˈʔə̤ːkɨxæɾʲi] - "baked freshwater fish". However, since /bɨˈhə̤kɨ/ has breathy voice, and /ˈxa̰ɾʲɨ/ has tense voice, the resulting compound would strike native speakers as inelegant and clumsy. | ||
In cases like the above, native speakers would search for a synonym with tense voice e.g. /qəˈŋɨ̰ɫa/ [ | In cases like the above, native speakers would search for a synonym with tense voice e.g. /qəˈŋɨ̰ɫa/ [qʌˈŋɤ̰ːɫɑ̰], which also means "to bake". A much more commonly used word meaning "baked (freshwater) fish" would therefore be /kəˈŋɨ̰ɫaxaɾʲɨ/ [kəˈŋɤ̰ːɫɑ̰xæɾʲi]. | ||
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/ˈnə̰tʷɨ/ [ˈno̰ːtʷṵ] - "North", /gʷɨˈʔə̤/ [gʷuˈʔə̤ː] - "remain", /ˈnə̰tɨgʷɨʔə/ [ˈnə̰ːtṵgʷuʔə] - "person who did not migrate south to Antarctica, but rather stayed to take their chances on the northern continents" (literally "North remain"). | /ˈnə̰tʷɨ/ [ˈno̰ːtʷṵ] - "North", /gʷɨˈʔə̤/ [gʷuˈʔə̤ː] - "remain", /ˈnə̰tɨgʷɨʔə/ [ˈnə̰ːtṵgʷuʔə] - "person who did not migrate south to Antarctica, but rather stayed to take their chances on the northern continents" (literally "North remain"). | ||
===Nominalisation=== | |||
There is a very productive process that forms nouns and adjectives (they are not distinguished in the language, all nouns can be used as adjectives and vice versa) from verbs by shifting the stress (along with the phonation) leftwards. This creates nouns with the meaning "the result of doing X", or "what was made by doing X" e.g. from the verb /qəˈŋɨ̰ɫa/ [qɑˈŋɤ̰ːɫɑ̰] - "to bake", we can derive the noun /ˈqə̰ŋɨɫa/ [ˈqʌ̰ːŋɤ̰ɫɤ̰] - "baked food". Likewise, from the verb /gʷɨˈkɨ̰da/ [gʷuˈkɨ̰ːda] - "to float", we can derive the noun /ˈgʷɨ̰kɨda/ [ˈgʷṵːkɨ̰da] - "something which is floated". | |||
However, since stress cannot spread onto a vowel immediately before a glottal consonant, sometimes the nominalisation shifts the stress more than one syllable e.g. /kɨnəˈʔɨ̤qːɨ/ [kɨnəˈʔɤ̤qːɤ] - "to twist" becomes /ˈkɨ̤nːəʔɨqɨ/ [ˈkɨ̤nːə̤ʔɤqɤ] - "something twisted". And if there is no possible syllable to shift the accent onto, some verbs become nouns without any change e.g. /gʷɨˈʔə̤/ [gʷuˈʔə̤ː] means "remain", but it can also mean "that which is left over". | |||
====Irregular Cases==== | |||
The above cases were all regular. Vowel quality, phonation and gemination (if applicable) all migrated unchanged from one syllable to another. However, there are many cases in which the nominalised word undergoes irregular changes e.g. /kʷaɴˈdɨ̰ka/ [kʷanˈdɨ̰ːka̰] - "to reverse" becomes /ˈkʷa̤ɴdɨka/ [ˈkʷa̤ɴdɨ̤ka] - "reversal", /ɲɨkɨˈhə̰ɻa/ [ɲikɨˈhʌ̰ːɻɑ̰] - "to rent out land" becomes /naˈʔɨ̤kɨhəɻa/ [naˈʔɨ̤ːkɨhʌɻɑ] - "land for rent", and /cɨtanaˈhɨ̰/ [citanaˈhɨ̰ː] - "to make dirty" becomes /cɨhəˈta̤nːə/ [cihəˈta̤nːə̤] - "dirty (thing)". | |||
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