Katäfalsen
Introduction
Katäfalsen (pronunciation: [kɑˈtɑːfɑlsɛn]) is an apriori language, which is partially inspired by Basque, Hebrew and Latin. The aim was to construct a language with simple phonology along with unorthodox grammar and syntax. Katäfalsen is highly synthetic and features a free word order and ergative-absolutive alignment.
Phonology
Consonants
The consonant phonemes of Modern Katäfalsen are as follows:
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m /m/ |
n /n/ |
||||
| Stop | voiced | b /b/ |
d /d/ |
g /g/ |
||
| voiceless | p /p/ |
t /t/ |
k /k/ |
/ʔ/ | ||
| Fricative | f /f/ |
s /s/ |
h /x/ |
|||
| Approximant | r /ɹ/ |
j /j/ |
w /w/ |
|||
| Lateral approximant | l /l/ |
|||||
Vowels
The vowel inventory of Katäfalsen is quite symmetrical as there are each three front, back, rounded and unrounded vowels.
| Front | Back | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unrounded | Rounded | Unrounded | Rounded | |
| Close | i /i/ |
y /y/ |
u /u/ | |
| Mid | e /e/ |
o /o/ | ||
| Open | a /ɑ/ |
|||
The only vowel that distinguishes length is /ɑ/ contrasting phonemically with /ɑː/. The long vowel is represented by ⟨ä⟩. The sequences /ɑj/, /ɑw/, /ɑːj/ and /ɑːw/ are realised as diphthongs, while adjacent vowels are usually pronounced in hiatus.
Alphabet
The Latin alphabet used for Katäfalsen therefore contains the following letters. Uppercase letters are used for the first letter of a sentence and proper nouns.
| a | b | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | r | s | t | u | w | y | ä |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | B | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | R | S | T | U | W | Y | Ä |
Phonotactics
The syllable structure in Katäfalsen is CV(C), where C denotes a consonant and V a vowel. The glottal stop /ʔ/ is only allowed as syllable onset and only intervocalically in hiatus and word initially, i.e. after a break. This is not represented in the orthography.
Metathesis and epenthesis
Metathesis occurs in Katäfalsen when a suffix beginning with a consonant is added to a word. If the word ends with a vowel or diphthong, the morphemes are simply concatenated. The suffix -n, which creates female forms, is used for examples here.
ki + n → kin
kaj + n → kajn
However, if the word ends with a consonant instead, metathesis of this consonant and the preceding vowel occurs.
fales + n → falsen
In words that are either monosyllablic or feature a closed penultimate syllable (although very rare), an epenthetic vowel /ɑ/ is inserted.
sen + n → asnen
meslip + n → mesalpin
In addition, there is a class of words that ended with /ɑ/ but dropped the ending later. When taking suffixes, this vowel emerges again.
kat + n → katan instead of aktan
The epenthetic /ɑ/ occurs also before words which consist of a single consonant and disappears when the word takes suffixes beginning with a vowel.
aj
aj + an → jan
Vowel mutation
Old Katäfalsen had the additional phoneme /ħ/, which has disappeared in Modern Katäfalsen but has left still observable effects. We already know that the sequences /ɑj/, /ɑw/, /ɑːj/ and /ɑːw/ yield diphthongs. Moreover, whenever one of the phonemes /j/, /w/ and /ħ/ are syllable codae, they melt into the preceding vowel and cause the mutations summarised in the following table:
| Codae | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| /ħ/ | /j/ | /w/ | ||
| Nucleus | /ɑ/ | /ɑː/ | /ɑj/ | /ɑw/ |
| /e/ | /i/ | /i/ | /y/ | |
| /i/ | /i/ | /i/ | /y/ | |
| /o/ | /u/ | /y/ | /u/ | |
| /u/ | /u/ | /y/ | /u/ | |
| /ɑː/ | /ɑː/ | /ɑːj/ | /ɑːw/ | |
| /y/ | /y/ | |||
| /ɑj/ | /ɑːj/ | |||
| /ɑw/ | /ɑːw/ | |||
| /ɑːj/ | /ɑːj/ | |||
| /ɑːw/ | /ɑːw/ | |||
The last five syllable nuclei are never followed by /j/ and /w/ because they solely arise from the mutations above and complex syllable codae are forbidden. When a suffix beginning with a vowel is attached to a word ending with a mutated vowel, the mutation is usually undone.
ty + an → tojan
ami + an → amejan
As already mentioned, the class of words that ended with /ɑ/ in Old Katäfalsen behaves differently:
kat + an → kataan [kɑtɑʔɑn]
Double consonants CC were changed to ħC in Old Katäfalsen and also triggered vowel mutation later.
welal + n → wilan (via *wellan → *weħlan)
In other positions, Old Katäfalsen /ħ/ has merged with /ʔ/. Intervocalically, i.e. syllable initially after a vowel or diphthong, /ħ/ triggered mutation of the preceding vowel nevertheless.
*meħel → miel [miʔel]
Stress
Katäfalsen features a dynamic stress. In contrast to compounds, the stress in simple words is always initial: katä and falsen are pronounced [ˈkɑtɑː] and [ˈfɑlsen]. In compounds, the stresses of words attached to the right are pulled to the previous syllable, thus the last syllable of the preceding word component. The last stressed syllable in a compound is the heaviest one. Therefore other stresses (including the initial stress on the first word component) are analysed as secondary stresses. If several stressed syllables are in a row, the rightmost is most dominant and the other ones are negligible. To come back to the example above, the compound Katäfalsen is finally pronounced [kɑˈtɑːfɑlsen] with the shifted stress of the second component being more dominant than the initial stress of the first one.
Further examples (the stressed syllables are in bold):
- kaj-sen: The stress of the last component is shifted to the previous syllable.
- kaj-sen-kat: The rightmost stressed syllable is most dominant.
- mesalpi-sedar: The initial syllable of the first component receives a secondary stress.
- agä-mesalpi-sedar: The stress on the second syllable is heavier than the one on the first syllable.
Grammar
Noun phrases
Declension
Nouns are declined in four cases, which are found in a subordinate and a coordinate form each. The total number of cases is therefore eight. The case suffixes and their exemplary application to the noun pares (man) are given in the following table:
| Coordinate | Subordinate | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Suffix | Example | Suffix | Example | |
| Absolutive | ∅ | pares | *ħ | parsi |
| Dative | a | paresa | ä | paresä |
| Locative | e | parese | i | paresi |
| Ablative | o | pareso | u | paresu |
The glossing abbreviations used here are abs, dat, loc, abl, abs.sr, dat.sr, loc.sr and abl.sr. A selection of the most important usages of the cases locative, dative and ablative is given below. The subordinate forms will be gone into in the section Coordination and subordination.
- Dative: recipient or affected; where to; beneficiary
- Locative: place where, time when; accompaniment
- Ablative: where from; means or topic; cause, reason or value
Postpositions
Most Katäfalsen postposition can be treated as separate words and form (subordinate) compounds with the noun they refer to. The meaning of a postposition may change depending on its and the noun's case suffixes, while the noun always needs to be in the subordinate form. Examples:
- katätoni: katä-toni, mountain.abs.sr-middle.loc, 'in the middle of the mountain'
- parsitamali: parsi-tamali, man.abs.sr-thought.loc, 'regarding the man'