Jakvalat

Introduction

Goals

To create an aesthetically pleasing, yet easily pronounceable (for me, anyways), language for the setting of a habitable alternative Venus.

Setting

The setting is a Venus with a thinner crust which enables convection of heat within the planet's core and, despite Venus' slower rotation, the subsequent generation of a magnetic field sufficient to prevent the loss of the planet's oceans.

Jakvalat (Often called Common Venerian in English) is the predominant lingua franca spoken on Venus (Ja: Telku). It originated from the environs of the mercantile city of Suliriyaq on the continent of Jekhatramit.

Inspirations

Phonological inspirations were from Inuktitut and Finnish. The morphological inspirations will likely be primarily from Inuktitut and the Uralic languages.

Phonology

Orthography

Native Script	Practical Orthography	IPA Value
⟨o⟩	⟨p⟩	/pä/
⟨ɵ⟩	⟨m⟩	/mä/
⟨s⟩	⟨v⟩	/ʋä/
⟨v⟩	⟨t⟩	/tä/
⟨ʌ⟩	⟨n⟩	/nä/
⟨x⟩	⟨s⟩	/sä/
⟨ɴ⟩	⟨r⟩	/ɹä/
⟨z⟩	⟨l⟩	/lä/
⟨n⟩	⟨k⟩	/kä/
⟨u⟩	⟨q⟩	/ŋä/
⟨ʜ⟩	⟨j⟩	/jä/
⟨h⟩	⟨i⟩	/i/
⟨ɥ⟩	⟨ai⟩	/aɪ/
⟨b⟩	⟨u⟩	/u/
⟨q⟩	⟨au⟩	/ɑʊ/
⟨ı⟩	⟨∅⟩	/∅/
⟨∅⟩	⟨a⟩	⟨ä⟩

NOTES:

1. The native alphabet is a borderline abugida ultimately derived from an ancient featural alphasyllabry.

2. All consonant letters represent a CV syllable of that consonant plus /ä/.

3. Unusually for an abugida, hence the script's borderline status, all the vowels other than /ä/ are written with a full vowel letter rather than a vowel diacritic as is usually found in terrestrial alphasyllabries.

4. A following vowel letter neutralises the inherent /ä/ of the preceding consonant.

5. A following letter ⟨ı⟩ cancels out the inherent /ä/ of the preceding consonant thus producing a representation of a coda consonant.

6. The practical orthography was devised by one the first terrestrial linguists to reach Venus. The Wilkins Orthography has since become the default scheme of romanisation for Yakvalat.

7. The spelling of the practical and native orthographies are morphophonemic in that the spelling is phonemic but does change to reflect morphophonemic changes.

8. The following punctuation marks are in use in the native alphabet:

⟨.⟩ = short pause, equivalent to a comma or semi-colon. ⟨:⟩ = long pause, equivalent to a colon or full stop.

Punctuation marks occur immediately after the last word of a clause and never occur consecutively.

9. Any given word is separated from any following word by a space. There are no equivalents to parentheses, quotation marks, exclamation marks or questions marks.

Phoneme Inventory

Consonants

	Labial	Central Coronal	Lateral Coronal	Dorsal
Plosive	/p/	/t/		/k/
Fricative		/s/
Nasal	/m/	/n/		/ŋ/
Liquid		/ɹ/	/l/
Semivowel	/ʋ/			/j/

Notes:

1. All coronals are alveolar except /ɹ/ which is postalveolar.

2. Jakvalat has 11 consonants which, according to the World Atlas of Language Structures, is a small inventory. The most notable features, according to WALs, are an initial velar nasal and the presence of a dental fricative.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	/i/		/u/
Low	-l	/ä/
Diphthong	/aɪ/		/ɑʊ/

Jakvalat has 3 vowel qualities which, according to WALS, is a small inventory. The consonant-vowel ratio is 3.75 which is an average ratio.

Allophony

1. /p, t, k/ are realised as [pʰ, tʰ, kʰ] when in the onset of a stressed syllable.

2. /ɹ/ is realised as [ʃ] when in coda position before /p, t, k/.

3. /ʋ/ is realised as [w] when the second segment of a consonant cluster.

4. /ʋ/ is realised as [v] elsewhere.

5. The geminate clusters /pp, tt, kk, ss/ are realised as [f, θ̠, x, tɬ].

6. The geminate consonant clusters /mm, nn, ŋŋ/ are realised as [mb, nd, ŋɡ].

7. The geminate consonant clusters /ll, ɹɹ/ are realised as [ld, ʒd̠].

8. The consonant clusters /ɹ̠s, ɹ̠l, ɹ̠ʋ, ɹ̠j/ are realised as [ʃ, ʒl, ʒw, ʒ].

9. /i/ is realised as [ɪ] when following a /j/ onset.

10. /u/ is realised as [ʊ] when following /ʋ/ when it is the second segment of a consonant cluster.

11. /i, u/ are realised as [ɪ, ʊ] in closed syllables.

12. /aɪ, ɑʊ/ are realised as [ɛ, ɔ] in closed syllables.

Phonotactics

1. Syllable template: CV(C).

2. Permitted syllable codas:

/p, t, k, s, m, n, ŋ, l, ɹ/.

3. /s, l, ɹ/ do not occur morpheme-finally.

4. Permitted Consonant Clusters:

	P	T	K	S	M	N	Q	L	R	V	J
P	pp	pt	pk	ps	-	-	-	-	-	pv	pj
T	tp	tt	tk	ts	-	-	-	-	-	tv	tj
K	kp	kt	kk	ks	-	-	-	-	-	kv	kj
S	sp	st	sk	ss	-	-	-	-	-	sv	sj
M	mp	-	-	-	mm	-	-	-	-	mv	-
N	-	nt	-	ns	-	nn	-	-	-	-	-
Q	-	-	qk	-	-	-	qq	-	-	-	qj
L	lp	lt	lk	ls	-	-	-	ll	-	lv	lj
R	rp	rt	rk	rs	-	-	-	-	rr	rv	rj

Notes:

a. The practical orthography is used here for clarity.

b. First segment of cluster runs along left of table.

c. Second segment of cluster runs along top of table.

6. No consonant cluster may have more than two segments.

7. Consonant clusters may only occur across syllable boundaries

8. Consecutive vowel sequences do not occur.

10. Most native roots are disyllabic with monosyllabic roots being restricted to pronouns. Most particles are monosyllabic.

11. Roots and particles must begin with a single consonant.

12. Suffixes may begin with a single consonant, a consonant cluster or a vowel.

Prosody

1. Primary stress falls on the first syllable of the root.

2. Secondary stress is borne on every odd-numbered syllable after the primary stress.

3. Rhythm type is trochaic.

4. Jakvalat is spoken with a somewhat slower cadence than English is.

Morphophonology

1. When two-segment consonant clusters result from suffixation, they are treated as per the table below:

	P	T	K	S	M	N	Q	L	R	V	J
P	pp	pt	pk	ps	mp	mp	mp	lp	rp	pv	pj
T	tp	tt	tk	ts	nt	nt	nt	lt	rt	tv	tj
K	kp	kt	kk	ks	qk	qk	qk	lk	rk	kv	kj
M	mp	nt	qk	ns	mm	nn	qq	ll	rr	mv	qj
N	mp	nt	qk	ns	mm	nn	qq	ll	rr	mv	qj
Q	mp	nt	qk	ns	mm	nn	qq	ll	rr	mv	qj

Notes:

a. The practical orthography is used here for clarity.

b. First segment of cluster runs along left of table.

c. Second segment of cluster runs along top of table.

d. The notation v̄ indicates the preceding short vowel was lengthened.

2. If a three-segment consonant cluster results from suffixation, then the first segment in that cluster is deleted and the two remaining consonants are treated as per the table above.

3. If a vowel sequence results from suffixation, then an epenthetic /ŋ/ is inserted.

Morphology

Yakvalat morphemes fall into the following classes:

1. Particles:

These do not bear any inflection, have little semantic content and comprise such things as temporal or locative adverbs, conjunctions, interjections and anything else that isn't a root.

2. Roots:

These do bear inflection and contain much of the semantic content of an utterance. Roots are divided into nouns and verbs. Nouns are further divided into animate and inanimate categories, verbs into transitive and intransitive categories.

3. Stems:

These are any given sequence of root plus following suffixes.

4. Suffixes:

These either comprise inflection or modify the semantic content of a root or stem.