Kämpya

Kämpya is spoken is my far-future Antarctican conworld, where runaway global warming has melted the icecaps and made the continent habitable (while rendering most of the rest of the world uninhabitable).

It originated from the area around Ross Island, one of the first large-scale colonies on Antarctica. The founders of the settlement were a mostly either Burmese, Australian or Taiwanese, and as such Kämpya is most heavily influenced by the languages of those countries (especially Burmese). However, a later wave of Spanish speaking migrants from South America also had a large impact on the language.

It has since spread to other parts of the continent, aided by the spread of a religion called Laikyâr (although far from all Kämpya speakers follow the Laikyâr religion). Indeed there is a special register of the language that is only used in religious contexts. There are also a number of regional dialects. However, this page describes what could be termed the "standard" dialect.

Brief Description

Kämpya has topic comment syntax with isolating morphology. The syntactic alignment is split ergative, with pronouns having nominative accusative alignment, and the rest of the language being ergative. Possessors are marked for alienability [1] using tone, and come before the nouns they modify. Kämpya (at least in the standard dialect) uses postpositions rather than prepositions, and adjectives can come either before or after the nouns they modify if they are restrictive or non-restrictive respectively [2].

In terms of phonology, the most notable thing is a 3-way vowel phonation contrast on stressed syllables (which is not present on unstressed syllables). Kämpya distinguishes words with harsh voice (marked with a tilde e.g. /a̰/), from breathy voice (marked with a pair of dots either above or below the vowel e.g. /a̤/ or /ä/), from glottalisation (marked with a glottal stop after the vowel e.g. /aʔ/.

There are many minimal pairs of words that only contrast stress and phonation e.g. /síˈtâ̰/ - "wing" vs. /ˈsíʔtà/ - "guardian" vs. /ˈsì̤tà/ - "sister", or /áˈlôṵn/ - "that which is alone" vs. /áˈlòṳn/ - "everything / everyone".

In addition to this, there is also a tone contrast, but this is only used for grammatical purposes (e.g. to change between different parts of speech, or to mark alienable / inalienable possession), never for lexical purposes. For example, from the nouns /síˈtâ̰/ - "wing" and /áˈlôṵn/ - "that which is alone", which both have High Tone on the first syllable and Low Tone on the second (with harsh voice), we can derive the non-restrictive adjectives /sìˈtá̰/ - "wing" and /àˈlóṵn/ - "by itself / solitary", which both have Low Tone on the first syllable and High Tone on the second (with harsh voice).

It is usually written using a script based on the Burmese alphabet.

Phonology

Vowels

The vowel system is quite simple, with 5 monophthongs and 4 diphthongs.

Monophthongs

	Front	Central	Back
High	/i/		/u/
Mid	/e/		/o/
Low		/a/

Diphthongs

The following diphthongs are found /ai/, /au/, /ei/ and /ou/.

Consonants

	Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Lateral	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stop	pʰ p b		tʰ t d			kʰ k g
Nasal	m̥ m		n̥ n			ŋ
Fricative		θ ð	sʰ s z	(ɬ)	(ç)		h
Semivowel	(ʍ) w				j
Other Sonorants	ⱱ~ʋ		ɾ	l

1. /b/, /d/ and /g/ are often pronounced as slightly implosive.
2. [ɬ] corresponds to Burmese */l̥/, and English */sl/. It is underlyingly /hl/.
3. [ç] is underlyingly /hj/.
4. [ʍ] is underlyingly /hw/.
5. [ⱱ] and [ʋ] are in free variation.

Phonotactics

In the standard dialect, only syllables of the form (C) (C) V (C) are permitted.

Initial consonant clusters can consist of any non-semivowel consonant followed by /w/ or /j/, except that /ŋj/ syllable onsets are forbidden.

In writing and formal speech, syllables can also begin with /pʰl/, /pl/, /bl/, /kʰl/, /kl/ and /gl/ (i.e. any non-alveolar stop + /l/). But outside formal speech, the /l/ is usually replaced with /j/.

In unstressed syllables, the coda consonant can only be a stop or a nasal.

In stressed syllables, codas can also be /ⱱ/, /ɾ/ or /h/, as long as the vowel is a monophthong and not a diphthong.

Consonant Neutralisations

Voicing and aspiration distinctions are neutralised in syllable codas, though they are still present underlyingly e.g. /sjúˈðâ̰d/ - "city" is pronounced [sjúˈðâ̰t], but when combined with the genitive clitic /jà/ to form /sjúˈðâ̰djà/ - "of the city (alienable)", it is pronounced [sjúˈðâ̰djà].

In colloquial speech, stops in the codas of unstressed syllables are debuccalised to glottal stops e.g. the city named /ˈkʰóʔnàt/ is often pronounced [ˈkʰóʔnàʔ].

If a nasal coda occurs before /h/, an approximant, or at the end of a word, it is simply pronounced as nasalisation of the preceding vowel e.g. /áˈlòṳn/ - "everyone" is pronounced [áˈlòṳⁿ]. But likewise it is still present underlyingly, as can be seen when combined with the genitive clitic /jà/ to form /áˈlòṳnjà/ - "everyone's (alienable)", which is pronounced [áˈlòṳnjà].

Stress and Phonation

One syllable in each word bears stress. Vowel phonation is phonemic on stressed syllables but not elsewhere. The phonations are harsh <â> [3], breathy <ä> [4], and glottalised <á>. Harsh and breathy vowels are pronounced long, glottalised vowels are pronounced short, and with glottalisation of the following consonant (or with a glottal stop [ʔ] in the case of word final syllables).

Allophones of /h/

Between two vowels, /h/ is voiced to [ɦ] e.g. /máháˈkáʔp/ - "eternity" is pronounced /máɦáˈkáʔp/

/h/ can occur in the coda of stressed syllables. It's realisation depends on the phonation of the previous vowel, but is always pharyngeal.

If the stressed vowel has breathy phonation, the /h/ manifests itself as a pharyngeal fricative [ħ] e.g. /à̤h/ - "question" is pronounced [à̤ħ]. Compare /ŋà̤/ - "fish" which is pronounced [ŋà̤].

If the stressed vowel has glottalised phonation, the /h/ manifests itself as a pharyngeal stop [ʡ] e.g. /dáʔh/ - "darkness" is pronounced [dáʡ]. Compare /táʔ/ - "a wish" (in a nostalgic context) which is pronounced with a glottal stop [táʔ].

/h/ never occurs after vowels with harsh phonation.

Of course, if a process such a cliticisation (e.g. with the genitive clitic /jà/ or the dative clitic /àuŋ/), means that the /h/ is no longer in coda position, then these process do not occur e.g.

/à̤h jà/ - "of the question (alienable)" is pronounced [ˈà̤çà] (/hj/ assimilates to [ç]).

/dáʔh jà/ - "of the darkness (alienable)" is pronounced [ˈdáʔçà].

/à̤h àuŋ/ - "to the question" is pronounced [ˈà̤ɦàuⁿ].

/dáʔh àuŋ/ - "to the darkness" is pronounced [ˈdáʔhàuⁿ].

Also, if a coda [ʡ] (i.e. /h/ after a glottalised stressed vowel) is followed by a consonant that can be aspirated (i.e. /p/, /t/, /k/, or /s/), there is a tendency to manifest this as aspiration on the consonant instead e.g.

/ˈbóhsòut/ - "bauxite", can be pronounced either [ˈbóʡsòut] or [ˈbósʰòut].

Tone Patterns

There are 4 phonemic tones: High á, Falling â, Low à and Rising ǎ. While it may seem that the pitch of each syllable is random, actually it is not. It changes regularly depending on how the word is being used in a sentence (e.g. restrictive vs. non-restrictive, alienable vs. inalienable possessor etc.), in conjuction with the phonation on the syllable (for stressed syllables) or the location of the syllable relative to the stressed syllable (for unstressed syllables).

In terms of assigning tone, there are three parts of speech:

Class 1 This is the default, catch-all class. It is used for most nouns and verbs.

Class 2 This is used for nouns in prepositional phrases, inalienable possessors, nouns used attributively, restrictive adjectives, and verbs used in compounds.

Class 3 This is used for adverbs and non-restrictive adjectives.

Stressed Syllables

This table shows how the tone of a stressed syllable (for each of the three phonations) depends on the tone class.

	Harsh Phonation a̰	Breathy Phonation a̤	Glottalised Phonation aʔ
Class 1	(High) Falling Pitch + Harsh Voice	Low Pitch + Breathy Voice	High Pitch + Glottal Stop
Class 2	Low Pitch + Harsh Voice	Low Pitch + Breathy Voice	Low Pitch + Glottal Stop
Class 3	High Pitch + Tense Voice	Rising Pitch + Faucalised Voice	High Pitch + Glottal Stop

Unstressed Syllables

Here the situation is simpler. For unstressed syllables, the tone can only be high or low, and does not depend on the phonation of the stressed syllable.

For Class 1 words, the tone is high before the stressed syllable, and low after it.

For Class 2 words, unstressed syllables always have high tone.

For Class 3 words, unstressed syllables always have low tone.

Examples

Here is a table with examples of how roots change classes depending on what part of speech they belong to:

English Translation	Class 1	Class 2	Class 3
Kämpya	ˈkà̤mpjà	ˈkà̤mpjá	ˈkǎ̤mpjà
wing	síˈtâ̰	síˈtà̰	sìˈtá̰
guardian	áinˈsíʔtà	ˈsìʔtá	ˈsíʔtà
sister	ˈsì̤tà	ˈsì̤tá	ˈsǐ̤tà
alone	áˈlôṵn	áˈlòṵn	àˈlóṵn
alone + Genitive clitic /ja/	áˈlôṵnjà	áˈlòṵnjá	àˈlóṵnjà
all	áˈlòṳn	áˈlòṳn	àˈlǒṳn
all + Genitive clitic /ja/	áˈlòṳnjà	áˈlòṳnjá	àˈlǒṳnjà

Pronouns

Pronouns are not marked for singular or plural, but there are two words for "we" depending on whether the listener is included [5]. The pronouns that do not include the listener are also used to only talk about the speaker. Another way of looking at this is that Kämpya makes no distinction between "us not including you" and "me", but uses different forms for "us including you".

In each case, there is a different form of the word depending on whether they are immediately followed by a word beginning with a vowel. There is also an "emphatic" form, which is used to emphasise the subject. The emphatic form does not depend on whether the following word starts with a vowel or not. Each form is listed below, with the normal form listed first, the form before a vowel second, and the emphatic form last:

Nominative Pronouns

	1st Person Exclusive	1st Person Inclusive	2nd Person
Before a consonant	ái	wéi	jéi
Before a vowel	ój-	wéj-	jéw-
Emphatic	òṵ	wèḭ	jèḭ

As you can see above, the emphatic forms all have Low Tone with Harsh Phonation (i.e. belong to Tone Class 2), while all the other forms have High Tone with no phonation (i.e. modal phonation).

Accusative Pronouns

	1st Person Exclusive	1st Person Inclusive	2nd Person	3PS	Reflexive
Before a consonant	mí	lán	bwó	swí	sé
Before a vowel	mj-	lán-	bwós-	síw-	és-
Emphatic	mḭ̀	là̰n	bwò̤	swḭ̀	sḛ̀

Possessive Pronouns

These inflect for alienable vs. inalienable possession, however, in the emphatic form, these are not distinguished. There is also a proximate vs. obviative distinction on 3rd person possessive pronouns. The proximate pronouns are used when the possessor was the last noun that was in the absolutive case (i.e. unmarked). The obviative pronouns are used in other cases.

	1st Person Exclusive	1st Person Inclusive	2nd Person	3PS Proximate	3PS Obviative
Before a consonant (Inalienable)	mái	áu	jó	dé	ðí
Before a vowel (Inalienable)	máj-	áw-	józw-	dézw-	ðj-
Alienable	môṵ	ˈḛ̂wà	jô̰	dḛ̂-	ðjíʔ
Emphatic	mòṵ	ˈḛ̀wá	bwò̤	swḭ̀	sḛ̀

Syntax

Kämpya has topic comment syntax [6], and is also syntactically ergative [7] and secundative [8].

Copula

Kämpya has no verb meaning "to be" [9]. Instead, the two words are simply placed side by side in the sentence. e.g.

/jéi ˈsíʔtà/ phonetically [jéiˈsíʔtà]

2PS guardian

You are / were / will be the guardian(s).

/jéw ˈḛ̂nèmì/ phonetically [jéˈwḛ̂nèmì]

2PS enemy

You are / were / will be the enemy.

/jèḭ ˈḛ̂nèmì/ phonetically [jèḭ ˈḛ̂nèmì]

2PS.EMP enemy

You are the enemy.

/ˈsíʔtà ˈḛ̂nèmì/

guardian enemy

The guardian is / was / will be the enemy.

Intransitive Sentences

Intransitive sentences generally have free word order. If the verb is in focus [10], then it will come after the subject. If the subject is in focus, then it will come after the verb. So both of the following are grammatical:

/kʰwèi̤ áˈlôṵn/

dog alone

The dog is / was / will be alone.

as well as

/áˈlôṵn kʰwèi̤/

alone dog

The dog is / was / will be alone.

Constituent Deletion

However, constituents of phrases can be freely deleted, so it is perfectly possible to have one word sentences e.g.

/áˈlôṵn/

alone

He / She / It / They is / are / was / were / will be alone.

With Postpositional Phrases

Likewise, if we include a postpositional phrase in the sentence, word order is fairly free e.g. with the postpositional phrase /ˈkʰóʔnàt m̥à/ - "from ˈkʰóʔnàt (a place name)", the verb /kúʔn/ - "to set off" and the noun /ˈḛ̂nèmì/ - "enemy", we can say:

/ˈkʰóʔnàt m̥à ˈḛ̂nèmì kúʔn/

/ˈkʰóʔnàt m̥à kúʔn ˈḛ̂nèmì/

/ˈḛ̂nèmì kúʔn ˈkʰóʔnàt m̥à/

/ˈḛ̂nèmì ˈkʰóʔnàt m̥à kúʔn/

/kúʔn ˈḛ̂nèmì ˈkʰóʔnàt m̥à/

These all mean "The enemy set off / sets off / will set off from ˈkʰóʔnàt". However sentences like */kúʔn ˈkʰóʔnàt m̥à ˈḛ̂nèmì/ are ungrammatical i.e. Kämpya does not permit the word order Intransitive Verb - Postpositional Phrase - Subject.

With Pronouns

The same subject pronouns as before are also used for intransitive sentences e.g.

/jéi kúʔn/

2PS depart

You are setting off.

However, the pronoun must immediately precede the verb so */kúʔn jéi/ is ungrammatical. And postpositional phrases cannot intervene between the pronoun and the verb, so */jéi ˈkʰóʔnàt m̥à kúʔn/ is ungrammatical (unlike sentences such as /ˈḛ̂nèmì ˈkʰóʔnàt m̥à kúʔn/ which are grammatical). It is only grammatical to say:

/ˈkʰóʔnàt=m̥à jéi kúʔn/

ˈkʰóʔnàt=from 2PS depart

You are setting off from ˈkʰóʔnàt.

or

/jéi kúʔn ˈkʰóʔnàt=m̥à/

2PS depart ˈkʰóʔnàt=from

You are departing from ˈkʰóʔnàt.

Transitive Sentences

In transitive sentences without pronouns, the basic word order is SVO, with the subject marked with the ergative clitic /-zu/ e.g.

/ˈkʰwèi̤=zù káiʔk gáʔɾ/

dog=ERG bite lizard

It was the dog that bit the lizard.

However, immediately after an open syllable with a stressed vowel, the ergative clitic has the allomorph /-ɾu/ e.g.

/ŋà̤=ɾù káiʔk gáʔɾ/

fish=ERG bite lizard

It was the fish that bit the lizard.

Topicalisation

However, Kämpya speakers very often topicalise either the subject or the object. The object is topicalised by moving it in front of the subject (i.e. making the sentence OSV) e.g.

/gáʔɾ kʰwèi̤=zù káiʔk/

lizard dog=ERG bite

The lizard was bitten by the dog.

The subject of a transitive sentence is topicalised by deleting the ergative marker e.g.

/kʰwèi̤ káiʔk gáʔɾ/

dog bite lizard

The dog bit the lizard.

The difference between this and /kʰwèi̤ zù káiʔk gáʔɾ/ (i.e. with the case marker), is that, in the sentence with the case marker, the "new information" being presented to the listener is that it was the dog that did the biting. Without the case marker, it is a sentence describing the dog, and the new information is that it bit the lizard. This is analagous to the difference between "ga" and "wa" in Japanese.

Also note that topicalising both the subject and object is ungrammatical i.e. we cannot say */gáʔɾ kʰwèi̤ káiʔk/ or anything like that.

With Pronouns

The nominative pronouns discussed earlier can also be the subject of transitive verbs, with no restrictions other than the time of the action must be made clear (on the pronoun) e.g.

/jéi=káiʔk gáʔɾ/

2PS.NOM=bite lizard

You are biting the lizard.

As before, the object can be fronted as a topic e.g.

/gáʔɾ jéi=káiʔk/

lizard 2PS.NOM=bite

You are biting the lizard.

However, the subject pronoun still come immediately before the verb, so sentences like */jéi gáʔɾ káiʔk/ are ungrammatical.

When a verb takes an accusative pronoun as its object, it becomes intransitive i.e. the subject will be unmarked (in the absolutive case) and can come either before or after the verb e.g.

/kʰwèi̤ bwó=káiʔk/

dog 2PS.ACC bite

The dog will bite you.

or

/bwó=káiʔk kʰwèi̤/

2PS.ACC=bite dog

You will be bitten by the dog.

Using the ergative form /kʰwèi̤=zù/ is ungrammatical here.

When both the subject and the object of a verb are pronouns, the subject comes first e.g.

jéi=swí=káiʔk

2PS.NOM=3PS.ACC=bite

You are biting him.

Reciprocal Voice

This takes a transitive verb and turns it into an intransitive verb meaning "do ... to each other / one another". It is formed by reduplicating the first syllable of the verb, and putting it as a particle in the object pronoun "slot" e.g. /ˈdè̤sì/ - "to speak" -> /dé ˈdè̤sì/ - "to speak to each other".

However coda consonants and the second elements of diphthongs are deleted e.g. /káiʔk/ - "to bite" -> /ká káiʔk/ - "to bite each other".

Also if the onset of the first syllable contains an aspirated consonant, the aspiration is lost in the reduplication e.g. /sʰwè̤/ - "to pull" -> /sé sʰwè̤/ - "to pull each other".

If the onset of the first syllable contains a voiceless nasal, the it becomes voiced in the reduplication e.g. - /m̥â̰n/ "to correct" -> /má m̥â̰n/ - "to correct each other". Likewise, if the onset of the first syllable contains /h/, it is lost in the reduplication e.g. /hwêg/ - "to play" -> /wé hwêg/ - "to play with each other".

Subject Deletion

It is perfectly acceptable to delete the subject of a transitive sentence e.g.

/káiʔk gáʔɾ/

bite lizard

He / She / It / They bit the lizard.

/gáʔɾ káiʔk/

lizard bite

The lizard was bitten.

This carries no ambiguity, because the word for lizard is always in the absolutive case.

Antipassive Voice

To delete the object of a transitive sentence, the antipassive voice is used [11]. This is done with the clitic /θu-/. It goes in the same syntactic "slot" as an object pronoun would e.g.

/kʰwèi̤ θú=káiʔk/

dog ANTPASS=bite

The dog bit (someone / something).

However, if followed by a vowel, the form of the clitic is /θw-/ e.g.

/kʰwèi̤ θw=áhlôṵn/

dog ANTPASS=abandon

The dog abandoned (someone / something).

The deleted object can be re-introduced into the sentence using the dative clitic /-àuŋ/ e.g.

/kʰwèi̤ θú=káiʔk gáʔɾ=àuŋ/

dog ANTPASS=bite lizard=DAT

The dog bit the lizard.

At first glance, this may seem pointless, as we could have quite easily have said:

/ˈkʰwèi̤=zù káiʔk gáʔɾ/

dog=ERG bite lizard

It was the dog that bit the lizard.

However, the difference is that Kämpya has ergative syntax. Whatever argument of the verb is in the absolutive case is the syntactic pivot [12]. In a normal transitive sentence, this is the object of the verb. But, by using the antipassive voice, the subject of the transitive verb becomes the syntactic pivot. If we combine the two sentences above with the verb /pjèi̤/ - "to flee", the meaning becomes very different:

/kʰwèi̤ θú=káiʔk gáʔɾ=àuŋ pjèi̤/

dog ANTPASS=bite lizard=DAT flee

The dog bit the lizard and (the dog) ran away.

vs.

/ˈkʰwèi̤=zù káiʔk gáʔɾ pjèi̤/

dog=ERG bite lizard flee

The dog that bit the lizard and the lizard ran away.

Note that the dative clitic has the allomorph /jàuŋ/ after a vowel e.g.

/gáʔɾ θú=káiʔk kʰwèi̤=jàuŋ/

lizard ANTPASS=bite dog=DAT

The lizard bit the dog.