Hutala

Phonology

Orthography

Hútala is written with the Latin alphabet. Diacritics can be used to indicate stressed vowels : á, é, í, ó, ú, but they are often omitted. They will be used in this article.

A a /a/
B b /b/
D d /d/
E e /e/
F f /f/
G g /g/
H h /h/
I i /i/
Dj dj /d͡ʒ/ (J, j is an alternative spelling that fell into disuse by analogy with Tx, tx).
K k /k/
L l /l/
M m /m/
N n /n/
O o /o/
P p /p/
Q q /ʔ/
R r /r/
S s /s/
T t /t/
U u /u/
V v /v/
W w /w/
X x /ʃ/
Y y /j/
Z z /z/

Digraphs include : Dj, dj /d͡ʒ/ ; Tx, tx /t͡ʃ/ ; Ng, ng /ŋ/ ; Ts, ts /t͡s/ ; Dz, dz /d͡z/.

Consonants

		Bilabial		Labio-dental		Dental		Alveolar		Post-alveolar		Palatal		Velar		Glottal
Nasal		m				n								ŋ
Plosive		p b				t d								k g		ʔ
Fricative				f v				s z		ʃ						h
Approximant												j		w
Trill								r
Affricate								t͡s d͡z		t͡ʃ d͡ʒ
Lateral approx.						l

Vowels

		Front		Central		Back
Close		i				u
Close-mid		e				o
Open				a

Phonotactics

The syllable underlying structure is most usually (C)V, but consonant clusters can appear at the surface in morpheme boundaries as a result of derivative and especially of inflectional morphology. Consequently, such clusters only show up word-internally and are limited to two consonantal phonemes. However, there is no restriction on the consonants which can make up the cluster, or on their identity as C1 or C2. On the other hand, there are phenomena of voice assimilation : if one of the consonants is voiced and the other unvoiced, the voiced one gets devoiced, unless it is a nasal (although some level of devoicing might be observed in practice for nasals too). There is also an assimilation of place of articulation of the nasals /n/ and /ŋ/ and their homorganic counterparts. A word or a syllable can start with any phoneme. On the other hand, coda consonants or consonants at the end of a word are rare and diachronically restricted to nasals and stridents, but in synchronic, spoken Hútala, other coda consonants have appeared as a consequence of the elision of final vowels.

Morphology

Noun

Hútala has so-called noun classes. There are 12 singular noun classes and 12 corresponding plural noun classes. They are numbered as follows : CL1a to CL12a for the singular, and CL1b to CL12b for the plural. Class is marked on the noun by a prefix ; every noun belongs to one class, often following some semantic grouping. Adjectives and verbs agree in class with the noun and are marked in the same way.

Noun Class	Singular	Plural
CL1 : human/sentient	hu-	hi-
CL2 : land animals	ma-	me-
CL3 : sea and sky animals	ba-	be-
CL4 : bugs	za-	ze-
CL5 : sweet edible plants	su-	ʃi-
CL6 : savory edible plants	sa-	se-
CL7 : sensations/feelings	se-	sei-
CL8 : tools, useful objects	ʔu-	ʔi-
CL9 : clothes, buildings	ro-	ra-
CL10 : other artefacts, dishes	de-	d͡ʒi-
CL11 : soft, warm, light	ru-	rui-
CL12 : hard, cold, dark	t͡ʃo-	t͡ʃa-

Thus, nouns are marked for class, and consequently for number, but also for definiteness. As has already been mentioned above, class is marked by a prefix ; definiteness, however, is marked by a suffix : CL-noun-DEF. There are four definiteness suffixes to choose from ; historically, they correspond to the fusion of two "sorts" of definiteness for which the noun had to be marked. The first kind of definiteness, DEF1, corresponds to whether the referent is known or has been mentioned, or if on the contrary it is unknown or new in the conversation. The second kind of definiteness, DEF2, corresponds to whether the referent is a specific one, or instead a typical, unspecified one. Morphosyntactically, the noun inflectional structure would be : CL-noun-DEF1-DEF2. In the pair "specified vs typical", typicality was unmarked, so that eventually the morphemes DEF1 and DEF2 fusionned into 4 definiteness morphemes such that DEF1 would be either unmarked or marked for specificity.

Definiteness	Suffix
known/mentioned ; typical	-nde
known/mentioned ; specific	-nd͡ʒi
unknown/new ; typical	-t͡sa
unknown/new ; specific	-t͡se

Syntax

Constituent order

The basic constituent order for transitive phrases is SVO, while for intransitive phrases it is VS. It is also VS for expressions in the passive voice. Constituent order changes in the case of questions : they are verb-final, so that we get SOV and SV.

Noun phrase

Most usually, the adjective precedes the noun. In this case, the adjective is not marked for definiteness. For emphatic or poetic effects, the adjective will follow the noun, in which case it will be marked for definiteness, in agreement with the noun. If an adverb qualifies an adjective, then it will be placed between the noun and the adjective. NP : (Adj) (Adv) N or N (Adv) (Adj)

Verb phrase

If an adverb qualifies a verb, it usually precedes it.