Yacavestu

Revision as of 02:48, 25 March 2022 by IlL (talk | contribs) (→‎Consonants)
Yacavestub/Lexicon

Yacavestub is a head-final ("Altaic") agglutinative language spoken in Eastern Talma and Northern Etalocin, and is the official language of Quelocin (!werotunu in Yacavestub, from the !Zoom name tkwe). It's inspired aesthetically by drug names (cf. Clofabosin), Zulu, Estonian and Lushootseed. It also has clicks, from !Zoom. It is an isolate, though some believe it is related to Idavic.

Yal eŋcuvil g!ifam herazu vestamad. = Methavir nalaminyl mekerylide ester axoram.

Todo

  • redup at the beginning of verbs?
  • -mad (e.g. ololirmad)
  • -vab
  • -mob
  • -əl
  • -am
  • -xab
  • -mob
  • -ub
  • -ode
  • rotunu = 'world'
  • elir = 'one'
  • pelog (after pegol)

Phonology

Consonants

m n ŋ p t k b d g f s h v z l ɬ r j m n ŋ p t c b d g f s h v z l hl r y

clicks: @ g@ ! g! | g| || g||

(/ks/ is written x.)

Vowels

Yacavestu vowels
Front Central Back
Close i, y /i/ u /u/
Mid e /e/ o /o/
Open a /a/

Morphology

Nouns

Case suffixes

  • -ub: (definite)
  • -uvab: definite accusative suffix
  • -am: genitive
  • -zode:
  • -une:
  • -vil

Definiteness and possession

Nouns take a suffix for definiteness. Possessive suffixes are added directly to the noun for inalienable possession, and to the classifier for alienable possession.

vestu - 'language'
Number→
State↓
Singular Plural
Indefinite vestu vestəl
Definite vestub vestələb
1sg possessor vestel vestəlel
2sg possessor vestud vestəlud
3sg possessor vestun vestəlun
1pl possessor vestelax vestəlelax
2pl possessor vestudax vestəludax
3pl possessor vestunax vestəlunax

Verbs

Present tense: -mad