User:Chrysophylax/Sketches/caer

Caer (caer [qæɪ̯ʐ] or caeryn [ˈqæjɪˌʐjəǀ] is the ceremonial sacred language of the Vá people. Its use is nowadays primarily restricted to the rituals of lyaa ('libation') and yayaq (‘divination’) although historically it saw much more use. It is remarkable for being typologically dissimilar to Vánic language with differing morphosyntactic agreement and word order.

Phonology

Caer has an interesting phonological system, completely lacking rounded and back vowels; dental, bilabial and velar plosives; or any of the common nasals.

Consonants

The incredibly sparse consonantal system includes a few uvular consonants, one alveolar sibilant, a voiced retroflex and two clicks.

c~q nn h r s t y l v n

q ɴ χ ʐ sˡ θ j ʟ ʘ ǀ

Vowels

There are three phonemic vowels in Caer: a /æ/, e /ɪ/, y /ə/. However, there are some who posit six vowels, three long (/æ:/, /ɪ/, /ə:/) and three short.

Vowel phonemes in Caer

	Front	Central
Near-close	e /ɪ/
Mid		y /ə/
Open	a /æ/

Pitch

Each word in Caer can optionally take one of two pitch contours: falling (t₁) or rising (t₂). The falling contour (t₁) ends with creaky voice. Although lexically and grammatically important, it is not indicated in the orthography.

A common minimal pair given in literature is: yayaq [ˈjæˌə̯æ̰q˥˩] ‘divination’ and yayaq [ˈjæˌə̯æq˩˥] ‘calamity’.

Orthography

Digraph ⟨x⟩ for /χsˡ/, ⟨y⟩ does double duty, etc.

Morphology

Verbal morphology

Aspect

There are three aspects: imperfective (ipfv), perfective (pfv), extemporaneous (ext).

Voice

Active, causative, reflexive-reciprocative, antipassive.

Nominal morphology

Possession

Caer extraordinarily includes a third-person suffix -yn (dvposs) which is marked on the possessum. The affix bears connotations of transitivity when the inflected word is combined with a head noun or phrase. It is only utilised when referring to deities and their possessions.

Syntax

Constituent order

Caer is OVS.

Possessive constructions

Divine possession

lyaa-yn

libation-dvposs

Their/His/Her libation.

valcaxa	caer-yn
Maker	secret-dvposs

The Maker's given secret.