User:Frrurtu/Sandbox2

Old Zoki is the reconstructed common ancestor of Zoki and a few closely related languages spoken in Myanmar. It is part of the North Rttirrian branch of the Rttirrian family of languages, and a direct descendant of Proto-North-Rttirrian.

Phonology

Consonants

Old Zoki possessed the following consonants:

	Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal- alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal	*m /m/	*ṇ /n̪/	*n /n/
Plosive	*p /p/ *b /b/	*ṭ /t̪/ *ḍ /d̪/	*t /t/ *d /d/			*k /k/ *g /g/
Fricative	*f /ɸ/ *v /β/		*s /s/ *z /z/	*sh /ʃ/ *zh /ʒ/		*kh /x/
Affricate			*j /d͡ʒ/
Approximant	*w /w/		*l /l/		*y /j/

Vowels

The following vowels were used:

	Front		Central		Back
	Short	Long	Short	Long	Short	Long
High	*i /i/	*ī /iː/			*u /u/	*ū /uː/
Mid-high	*e /e/	*ē /eː/			*o /o/	*ō /oː/
Low-mid					*â /ɔ/	*ấ /ɔː/
Low			*a /ä/	*ā /äː/

Grammar

Roots

Like the Semitic languages of the Middle East, Old Zoki made use of a wealth of consonantal roots out of which various verbs and nouns could be formed. They could contain either two or three consonants. A sampling of some common consonantal roots is given below:

Root			Cognate (Rttirri)	Meaning
k	b	—	/kɑpɑ/	to stop
sh	j	—	/t͡ʃi/	to eat
m	ṇ	—	/munu/	to drink
ṭ	kh	—	/fiu/	to work
s	g	—	/tøki/	to lend
t	b	—	/ʂipi/	to tell, inform
k	l	—	/kiɽi/	to learn, study
p	k	—	/hiki/	to grow
z	g	—	/ʃɑku/ (to trim)	to edit, correct
k	ḍ	—	/kɑʔu/ (to squeeze)	to have, own
b	zh	—	/piçi/ (electricity)	to spark, flash, glow
n	kh	—	/nuwu/ (water)	to douse, splash
d	k	—	/ʈukɑ/ (pouch)	to trap, enclose
kh	f	g	/wøi/	to become
g	j	ṇ	/jɑnɑ/	to cook
ḍ	j	m	/cɑmɑ/ (to sew)	to connect, join
ṭ	j	ṇ	/çnini/ (problem)	to bother
g	j	m	/jɑmɑi/ (fire)	to burn
b	v	l	/pøɽɑu/ (bread)	to expand, puff up
ṭ	k	l	/tʼuɽɑ/ (boss)	to supervise, spy on, follow
m	p	j	/mɑhɑi/ (to name)	to identify, choose

Verbs

Verb forms

Old Zoki had several verb forms, each giving a different nuance to the concept expressed in the biliteral or triliteral root. These forms are summarized below.

Form I was used generally for loaned verbal concepts, mostly relating to skilled acts practiced by other local cultures and taught to the Zoki people. It is sometimes not considered a true verbal form, as it consisted of the single verb shikh ("to practice", cognate to Rttirri /t͡ʃiu/ "to do") followed by an auxiliary verb—the gerund is nufukh ("process", a truncation of rinufukh, cognate to Rttirri /ɻiɳøu/). This auxiliary verb, unlike the verbal concepts of the other four verb forms, did not need to take any particular vowel pattern.

Forms						Examples
Form	Past	Present	Future	Gerund	Meaning	Biliteral roots, e.g. k-b (to stop)	Triliteral roots, e.g. ṭ-j-ṇ (to bother)
I	shikh ___	shikh ___	shikh ___	nufukh ___	to do something skillful or foreign	shikh pag – he imitates (from Classical Chinese /*pʰaŋʔ/ 仿)	shikh sanās – he spins silk (from Classical Chinese /*snas/ 絮)
II	_ō_(e_)	_ē_(e_)	_ē_(e_)	_ē_(e_)	to undergo a process emphatically or suddenly	kēb – he stops suddenly	ṭējeṇ – he goes crazy
III	_ā_(a_)	_ā_(a_)	_ī_(i_)	_ấ_(â_)	to undergo a process weakly or gradually	kāb – he slows to a halt	ṭājaṇ – he hesitates
IV	_i_ō(_e)	_i_ē(_e)	_i_ē(_e)	_i_ē(_e)	to act on someone/something emphatically or suddenly	kibē – he causes to stop suddenly	ṭijēṇe – he completely disrupts
V	_i_ā(_a)	_i_ā(_a)	_i_ī(_i)	_i_ấ(_â)	to act on someone/something weakly or gradually	kibā – he drags to a halt	ṭijāṇa – he annoys

Verb inflection

The following verb prefixes are reconstructed:

	1st		2nd		3rd
	Sing.	Pl.	Sing.	Pl.	Sing.	Pl.
Past	*mo-	*om-	*ap-	*am-	*bo-	*bom-
Present	*na-	*nam-	*af-	*sam-	—	*khem-
Future	*ne-	*mi-	*ke-	*mīj-	*j-	*mēj-

Nouns

Most nouns were pluralized with *-m if they ended with a vowel, or *-mi if they ended with a consonant. A small class of nouns ending in *-ey/y (historically, a diminutive suffix) were pluralized instead with *-mizh.

The following pronouns are reconstructed:

	1st		2nd		3rd
	Sing.	Pl.	Sing.	Pl.	Sing.	Pl.
Nominative (emphatic)	*nak	*naw	*āt	*sak	*âtū	*âk
Accusative	*ni	*me	*ki	*se	*yo	*goj
Possessive noun prefix	*na-	*mi-	*ak-	*sa-	*â-	*e-

Syntax

Standard word order was subject-object-verb (SOV).

*Muse-m asi-m bom-shōj.

cat-PL mouse-PL 3PL.PST-eat.Form_II

The cats ate the mice.

Adjectives followed nouns.

*Biṇu tavdav

light bright

the bright light

However, verb-subject-object (VSO) order was used for some purposes, most commonly conditionals and subjunctives.

*Na-kāl nak gijấṇâ, biza shā na-kēḍ mis Tấmu.

1SG.PRES 1SG.NOM cook.Form_V.GER, husband beautiful 1SG.PRES-have.Form_II like Tấmu

If I learned how to cook, I would get a handsome husband like Tấmu (has).