Verse:Hmøøh/USB
Tizian (amysso tízimso /ˈʔamʉsso ˈtʰizimso/)
Phonology
| Tizian consonants | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labial | Coronal | Lateral | Velar | Radical | Glottal | |||
| Nasal | m m̥ | n n̥ | ||||||
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | ʡ | ʔ | ||
| voiced | b | d | g | |||||
| voiceless aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | kʰ | |||||
| voiced aspirated | bʱ | dʱ | gʱ | |||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | θ s | ɬ | x | ħ | h | |
| voiced | v | ð z | ɮ | ɣ | ɦ | |||
| Affricate | plain | ts dz | tɬ dɮ | |||||
| aspirated | tsʰ dzʰ | tɬʰ dɮʱ | ||||||
| Approximant | w ʍ | j ɧ | ||||||
| Trill | r r̥ | ᴙ | ||||||
| Lateral app. | l | |||||||
Word-finally consonant aspiration is realized as aspirated or released consonants. Medial voiced aspirated consonants may be prenasalized in less careful speech.
Nouns
Four numbers are used in Tizian: generic, partitive, singulative and plurative. The generic number refers to an unspecified member or members of a set or to the whole set. The partitive number is used with quantifiers and also with the meaning "some X". Singulative and plurative respectively denote one and multiple specific items.
| Declension | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number→ | Generic | Partitive | Singulative | Plurative | ||||||||||||
| Indefinite | -Ø | -ch | -s | -syr | ||||||||||||
| Definite | -so | -sno | ||||||||||||||
| 1sg | ||||||||||||||||
| 2sg | ||||||||||||||||
| 3sg.animate | ||||||||||||||||
| 3sg.inanimate | ||||||||||||||||
| 1ex | ||||||||||||||||
| 1in | ||||||||||||||||
| 2pl | ||||||||||||||||
| 3pl.animate | ||||||||||||||||
| 3pl.inanimate | ||||||||||||||||
| Impersonal | ||||||||||||||||
| Relative | ||||||||||||||||
Possession
Possession is marked on the possessum with a possessive suffix (possessum-suffix possessor) if and only if said possessum is definite.
Aspiration may be lost or gained in conjunct state: byrs /bʉrs/ "a cloud" > býrs /bʱʉrs/ "a cloud of..."
Pronouns
The first person singular can be used as an impersonal pronoun.
- 1sgv: nó
- 2sgv: í
- 3sgv.an: ðe
- 3sgv.inan: ŧé
- 1plv.ex: cho
- 1plv.in: wéen
- 2plv: sló
- 3plv.an: ðu
- 3plv.inan: ŧú
- 3gen: ða
- 3part: ti
- Impersonal: is
Verbs
Verbs display consonant gradation based on tense and subject agreement. The predesinential consonant is unvoiced resonant/aspirated plosive in the present, and changing this to voiced resonant/unaspirated plosive in the jussive or past tense: (arlí /ar̥ɬi/: "I set up"; arli /arli/: "that I may set up"; arl´ /ar̥ɬ/: you (singular) set up; arl /arl/: set up!)
Split ergativity
The ergative particle le is used before an ergative noun phrase. The default alignment is ergative, with 1st and 2nd person arguments inducing nominative/accusative alignment on both nouns and verbs; only 1st and 2nd person patients can be passivized, and only 3rd person agents can be antipassivized.
Syntax
Relative clauses
The relativizer r(i)- and/or the relative pronominal suffixes are used only for the case of restrictive relative clauses. In non-restrictive relative clauses 3rd person resumptive pronouns are used as in a full clause; in the same vein, predicate adjectives are used as non-restrictive adjectives.