Paang
Rostherian /rɒʃˈtɛriən/ (erhbirostherim 'The Rostherian language') is a Talmic language spoken in Northeastern Cuadhlabh, inspired partly by Welsh. It is head-initial and polysynthetic; verbs use bipersonal conjugation, applicative constructions and noun incorporation.
Todo
- Suffixed copula for predicatives.
- cannu 'wife'
- ôłus /oːˈɬus/ 'wave'
- rondh, rondho- /rɔɳɖ/ = man (male) (*rondwom?)
- breit, breit- /brɛɪt/ (irregularly from bondi- + teit 'child') = woman
- bo- = profession
- bopenicili-, bopenicili /bopɛnikiˈli/ = penicillin player
- nysh-, henysh /hɛˈnəʂ/ = water, liquid
- nysnhoq = sauce (noqa-, noq = 'top')
- nyshołhi = fruit juice
- vîp = eye
- nyshvîp = tears
- qeqeqeqeqe... = (laughter or snickering)
- hołhi, hôłhi = fruit
- qârhan = laugh
Numbers
TODO: Combining forms, ordinals, distributives
- 1: pêm
- 2: tiłu
- 3: narhg
- 4: lôb
- 5: selił
- 6: thiam
- 7: ruad
- 8: lored
- 9: barh
- 10: ghîr
- 11: hunaes
- 12: naes
Phonology
Among Talmic languages, Rostherian is notable for having retroflex consonants, uvular consonants and multiple liquids.
Consonants
| Labial | Dental/Alveolar | Retroflex | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| central | lateral | central | lateral | ||||||
| Nasal | m /m/ | n /n̪/ | nh /ɳ/ | [ŋ] | [ɴ] | ||||
| Stop | voiceless | p /p/ | t /t̪/ | th /ʈ/ | c /k/ | q /q/ | |||
| voiced | b /b/ | d /d̪/ | dd /ɖ/ | g /g/ | |||||
| Continuant | voiceless | ff /f/ | s /s/ | ł /ɬ/ | sh /ʂ/ | łł /ɬʵ/ | h /h/ | ||
| voiced | f /v/ | r /r~ɽ/ | l /l/ | rh /ʐ~ɻ/ | ll /ɭ/ | gh /ʁ/ | |||
Northeastern dialects fail to distinguish ll /ɭ/ from rh /ɻ/.
Vowels
ɪ i: ʊ u: ɛ e: ə ə: ɔ o: a a: aɪ ɛɪ iə ɛʊ uə ɔɪ ɪʊ
⟨i î w ŵ e ê y ŷ o ô a â ae ei ia ew wa oe iw⟩
Stress
There is no phonemic stress; however, all words are pronounced with weak word-final stress.
Phonotactics
Rostherian allows relatively few clusters compared to e.g. Thensarian, but more clusters than Nurian.
Allowed clusters:
- Not allowed initially: mp, mb, nt, nd, nth, ndh, nc, ng, nq, ngh, lp, lt, lc, lq, lb, ld, lg, lgh, rp, rt, rhth, rc, rq, rb, rd, rg, rgh, st, sth, sv-, rhb, rhdh, rhg?
- Allowed initially: pl, pr, bl, br, tr, thr, dr, ts, tł, tłh, cl, cr, gl, gr
Sandhi
Sound changes
The most significant changes characterizing Rostherian are coalescing and altering of consonant clusters, often creating retroflex consonants.
- *ā > ia (*nā > nia 'I'); *ō > ua; *au > ô; *ou > û; *ū > î
- *qʷ > /χʷ/ > /ɧ/ > sh; *ʁʷ > /ζ/ > rh
- ʁʷelinə ("6 parts [of 12]") > rhelin 'half'
- *nw, tw, dw, sw, łw, lw, rw > nh, th, dh, sh, łh, rh, rh /ɳ, ʈ, ɖ, ʂ, ɬ̠, ʐ~ɻ~ɭ, ʐ~ɻ~ɭ/
- gʷałwā > bałhi 'neck, throat' ~ Thn. gaθuā 'throat (also language)'
- *sl-, sm-, sn- > lh-, m-, nh-
- *sɸ-, sr-, sw- > sh-, rh-, sh-
- *st, sk, skʷ, sq > t-/st, th-/sth-, v-/sv-, q-/sq
- stas- > tetsil 'gathering' (~ Thn. Stasnyssōs)
- skəttā > thytti 'body' ~ Thn. scyttā
- *bastom > bast 'king' ~ Thn. bastom 'head'
- *sb, sd, sg > rhb, rhdh, rhg
- *nasg- > narhg '3'
- *φn, tn, φl, tl > /ːn, ts, ːɬ, tɬ/
- łnāgin > tłiagin 'I believe' ~ Thn. θnāginis
- oφlutsus > ôłus 'wave'
- *kt, qt > /jt, :ʈ/
- *tektə > teit /teit/ 'child'
- *neqtə > nêth /neːʈ/ 'cloud'
- *kn, gn, qn, ql, qr > /jn, jn, :ɳ, :ɻ, :ɻ/ (with **/uj/ > /uː/ )
- sφugnus > shûn 'root' ~ Thn. sφugnus
- leqnos > lênh 'river' ~ Thn. leānos?
- qrīdis > rhîd 'knife' ~ Thn. ȝrīdis 'edge'
- *φj, tj, kj, qj > pt ss ts gh
- *φ-, j-, s- > h-
- *skj, stj > th-/sth, s-/ss
- final short vowels lost; final -m, -r, -s, -t lost; final long vowels shorten (ia, ua > i, u)
- i-affection: The following changes affect V1 in sequences of the form V1 + consonant cluster + (*i/*ī/*j) unless the consonant cluster after V1 contains a retroflex consonant.
- a > e
- Stress shifts to final
- Some combining forms and combined forms are altered due to the stress shift - conjunct forms for verbs arise when there is an antepenultimate syllable
Morphology
Nouns
Nouns are marked with a singular-plural distinction, and may also take possessive suffixes. However, the lemma form of a noun is typically its combining form, which is the incorporated form of a noun and is also used to form possessed forms and compounds. Unlike in Thensarian and its descendants, the Proto-Talmic grammatical gender was lost; pronouns and gender verb affixes no longer mark grammatical gender, but natural gender (as in Naquian).
Nouns may end in a consonant, i, e or u.
The plural form is inherited from the Proto-Talmic reduplicated collective; some irregularities may be present due to the retention of the original single consonant in the reduplicant, as opposed to the stem-initial cluster where the consonants interacted to produce new consonants and clusters.
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Verbs
Evidentiality/Discourse affixes
Object incorporation
Verbs often change form when used with incorporated objects.
hôłhîshyn 'eat fruit' < hôłhi 'fruit' + câsyn 'eat'
Object affixes
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ni- | mi- |
| 1 + 2 | - | łi- |
| 2 | ti- | hi- |
| 3 | bi- | ne- |
Subject+TAM affixes
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Voice affixes
- -ron = passive suffix
- -stan = causative suffix
Syntax
Rostherian is a head-marking polysynthetic language. Verbs take both subject and object affixes (this occurs in Thensarian as well).
- Tiraddan.
- /t̪ɪraˈɖan/
- ti-radda-n
- 2SG.OBJ-love-1SG.SUBJ
- I love you.