Meskangela: Difference between revisions
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===Syllable structure=== | ===Syllable structure=== | ||
The typical Proto-Meskangela root syllable consisted of the following structural elements: an onset consisting of a root initial consonant '''C<sub>i</sub>''', optionally followed by a liquid '''L''' or semivowel glide '''G''' (either "j" or "w"); and a vocalic nucleus consisting minimally of a simple vowel '''V''', followed by a final consonant '''C<sub>f</sub>'''. The semivowels could also occur postvocalically, forming falling diphthongs in "-w" and "-j", thus belonging to the inventory of '''C<sub>f</sub>'''. Unlike word roots, prefixes and suffixes followed a different pattern, consisting of a single consonant followed by a vowel '''PV<sub>p</sub>''' or '''SV<sub>s</sub>''' (in case of prefixes and suffixes respectively). Only root vowels could carry vowel length (:) and tone ('''t'''), the latter being a consonantal feature at the Proto-Meskangela stage. There was no contrast between zero-initial *VC and glottal-initial *ʔVC, in such cases the second variant is reconstructed with '''C<sub>i</sub>''' being an obligatory element. of the root syllable. Two non-syllabic suffixes are reconstructible for Proto-Meskangela, *-s and *-n. When added they could have resulted in a forbidden postvocalic sequence of two consonants ( e.g. -C<sub>f</sub>s or C<sub>f</sub>n). For these specific instances the suffixes are instead reconstructed as '''ə<sub>s</sub>S''' with "ə" being a short semi-syllabic element that disappeared in Classical Meskangela and later dialects. In other cases, where a single final consonant suffix is expected, a "hollow" consonant is reconstructed (which in some cases gives rise to tone H<sub>t</sub>, or disappear without a trace H<sub>0</sub>), as in *rjaH<sub>0</sub>ən “to laugh”. In Classical Meskangela the suffix became phonetically identical the C<sub>f</sub>, becoming a part of the root ( e.g. ''gësata'' ← ''* | The typical Proto-Meskangela root syllable consisted of the following structural elements: an onset consisting of a root initial consonant '''C<sub>i</sub>''', optionally followed by a liquid '''L''' or semivowel glide '''G''' (either "j" or "w"); and a vocalic nucleus consisting minimally of a simple vowel '''V''', followed by a final consonant '''C<sub>f</sub>'''. The semivowels could also occur postvocalically, forming falling diphthongs in "-w" and "-j", thus belonging to the inventory of '''C<sub>f</sub>'''. Unlike word roots, prefixes and suffixes followed a different pattern, consisting of a single consonant followed by a vowel '''PV<sub>p</sub>''' or '''SV<sub>s</sub>''' (in case of prefixes and suffixes respectively). Only root vowels could carry vowel length (:) and tone ('''t'''), the latter being a consonantal feature at the Proto-Meskangela stage. There was no contrast between zero-initial *VC and glottal-initial *ʔVC, in such cases the second variant is reconstructed with '''C<sub>i</sub>''' being an obligatory element. of the root syllable. Two non-syllabic suffixes are reconstructible for Proto-Meskangela, *-s and *-n. When added they could have resulted in a forbidden postvocalic sequence of two consonants ( e.g. -C<sub>f</sub>s or C<sub>f</sub>n). For these specific instances the suffixes are instead reconstructed as '''ə<sub>s</sub>S''' with "ə" being a short semi-syllabic element that disappeared in Classical Meskangela and later dialects. In other cases, where a single final consonant suffix is expected, a "hollow" consonant is reconstructed (which in some cases gives rise to tone H<sub>t</sub>, or disappear without a trace H<sub>0</sub>), as in *rjaH<sub>0</sub>ən “to laugh”. In Classical Meskangela the suffix became phonetically identical the C<sub>f</sub>, becoming a part of the root ( e.g. ''gësata'' ← ''*gasaH<sub>0</sub>t-ʔa'' “he/she kills”. Thus a potential fully inflected word consists of the following elements: | ||
: {| | : {| | ||
|PV<sub>p</sub>—C<sub>i</sub>—L—G—V(:)—C<sub>f</sub>/H<sub>0/t</sub>—SV<sub>s</sub>—(ə<sub>s</sub>S) | |PV<sub>p</sub>—C<sub>i</sub>—L—G—V(:)—C<sub>f</sub>/H<sub>0/t</sub>—SV<sub>s</sub>—(ə<sub>s</sub>S) | ||
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|} | |} | ||
Later dialects generally follow the model above, modifying some individual elements, such as adding more permissible clusters, or merging the clusters into single consonants, thus retaining all the elements only nominally. This is especially true for the Southern dialects, most of which became fairly analytic and lost most of their suffixes and prefixes in the process, as well as tone and contrastive vowel length. | Later dialects generally follow the model above, modifying some individual elements, such as adding more permissible clusters, or merging the clusters into single consonants, thus retaining all the elements only nominally. This is especially true for the Southern dialects, most of which became fairly analytic and lost most of their suffixes and prefixes in the process, as well as tone and contrastive vowel length. | ||
==Grammar== | ==Grammar== | ||
In this subsection only the grammar of Classical Meskangela is discussed, considering the amount of variation among different dialect groups and uncertainty of the Old Meskangela morphological structure. Classical Meskangela as well as most of its dialects are [[w:Agglutinative language|agglutinative]] or weakly [[w:Fusional language|fusional]], the individual morphological elements are not easily segmentable, due in large part to the presence of [[w:Portmanteau|portmanteaux]] morphemes and [[w:Allomorph|allomorphy]]. | In this subsection only the grammar of Classical Meskangela is discussed, considering the amount of variation among different dialect groups and uncertainty of the Old Meskangela morphological structure. Classical Meskangela as well as most of its dialects are [[w:Agglutinative language|agglutinative]] or weakly [[w:Fusional language|fusional]], the individual morphological elements are not easily segmentable, due in large part to the presence of [[w:Portmanteau|portmanteaux]] morphemes and [[w:Allomorph|allomorphy]]. | ||