User:Waahlis/Tlastir
Tlastir /ˈtlæstɪə̯/ (natively In tlastīratl /ɪn t͡ɬäs̪θiːˈɽät͡ɬ/ - that which is a language) is a constructed language heavily inspired by the Uto-Aztecan language Nahuatl and the Indo-European language Greek. It is a priori, and does therefore not inherit any characteristics from the two languages, but is instead an artistic reinterpretation.
The Tlastir language is odd in a few of its features, for example, the language completely lacks true nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and adverbs, instead relying almost completely on verbs.
General Information
The Tlastir language is a relatively small native American language, spoken foremost in the southernmost of Mexico and on the borders of Guatemala and Belize. The number of speakers is currently obscure, but estimations gather around 12 - 15,000 speakers over four main dialects. Distinctive features include the lack of voiced consonants - despite a large inventory, phonemic vowel length as well as labialisation and aspiration on plosive consonants. Similar to some other native American languages, for example Blackfoot, the language has phonemic consonant gemination. Grammar-wise, the language is heavily agglutinative, possesses what could be described as a V(S)O word order, and verb-based grammatical structure.
Whilst distinct from other Native American languages, it has formed a solid Sprachbund with the Uto-Aztecan languages and especially with the isolate Cuoxeh language.
Phonology
| Vocabulary | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| tlātl | sound | ||||||
| natlāllitl | consonant | ||||||
| huōnotlatlicā | phonotactics | ||||||
This is the Tlastir phonemic inventory of sounds, which possesses about 20 consonants, the majority of them voiceless and gemination is not distinguished. In addition to that, there is a simple five-vowel system.
Template:Col-2| Bilabial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Retroflex | Velar | Glottal | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | aspirated | labialised | central | lateral | plain | lateral | plain | aspirated | labialised | |||||
| Nasals | m /m/ | n /n̪/ | nu /n̪ʷ/ | [ŋ] | ||||||||||
| Plosive | p /p/ | t /t̪/ | th /t̪ʰ/ | tu /t̪ʷ/ | c /k/ | ch /kʰ/ | cu /kʷ/ | h /ʔ/ | ||||||
| Affricate | tz /t͡s/ | tl /t͡ɬ/ | x /ɕ - t͡ɕ/ | |||||||||||
| Fricative | z /s/ | |||||||||||||
| Approximant | hu /ʍ/ | y /j/ | ||||||||||||
| Liquids | l /ɬ/ | ll /ʎ̥˔/ | r /ɽ/ | |||||||||||
| Front | Central | Back | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| short | long | short | long | short | long | |
| Close | i /i/ | ī /iː/ | u /u/ | ū /uː/ | ||
| Mid | e /e̞/ | ē /e̞ː/ | o /o/ | ō /oː/ | ||
| Open | a /ä/ | ā /äː/ | ||||
- ⟨c⟩ is written ⟨qu⟩ when preceeding the front vowels /i/ or /e̞/.
- ⟨z⟩ is written ⟨c⟩, also when preceeding the front vowels /i/ or /e̞/, and ⟨s⟩ when preceeding ⟨t, tu, c, cu⟩
- ⟨tz⟩ is written ⟨ch⟩ also when preceeding the front vowels /i/ or /e̞/.
- The labialised consonants and bilabial approximant ⟨nu, tu, cu, hu⟩ are inverted to ⟨un, ut, uc, uh⟩ when final.
Morphophonology
Assimilation
Similarly to Cuoxeh, the Tlastir language tends to assimilate some syllable codas to the neighbouring onset. The syllables of morphemes may be altered when followed or proceeded by certain other morphemes. A list of such assimilations is shown below:
| Assimilation | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coda | Onset | Result | ||
| Consonants | ||||
| m | + | y | → | mn |
| n | + | y | → | nn |
| l | + | y | → | ll |
| r | + | y | → | yy |
| z | + | y | → | zz |
| x | + | y | → | xx |
| tz | + | y | → | x |
| tl | + | y | → | ll |
| y | + | c | → | cc |
| l | + | c | → | zc |
| tl | + | c | → | tz |
| h | + | C | → | C |
| l | + | tl | → | ll |
| l | + | z | → | zz |
| l | + | r | → | ll |
| Vowels | ||||
| Vshort | + | h | → | Vlong |
| Vshort | + | Vshort | → | Vlong |
| Vshort | + | Vlong | → | Vlong |
| Vlong | + | Vshort | → | Vlong |
Phonotactics
The Tlastir phonotactics and syllable structure is very close to that of Nahuatl, and the structure (C)V(C) is the general maximum. This grants that all syllables are broken into this structure, no matter if the current form arose through for example allophony: the word mennoh , "for us", is thus split into /me̞n/ +/ˈnoːʔ/ and not /me̞nn/ + /ˈoːʔ/.
It also makes it nigh impossible to have an onset over one consonant long, making consonant clusters with labialised or aspirated impossible, e.g. CʷV not CʷCV.
There are exceptions to this structure, however, and that is clustering the alveolodental fricative /s̪/ with any of the dental or velar plosives in the syllable onset. However, sonority dictates that fricatives may only preceed other fricatives, fricativising the stops. This grants the clusters:
- ⟨z⟩ + ⟨t⟩ = ⟨st⟩ /s̪θ/
- ⟨z⟩ + ⟨th⟩ = ⟨sth⟩ /s̪θ/
- ⟨z⟩ + ⟨tu⟩ = ⟨stu⟩ /s̪θw/
- ⟨z⟩ + ⟨c⟩ = ⟨scu⟩ /s̪x/
- ⟨z⟩ + ⟨ch⟩ = ⟨sch⟩ /s̪x/
- ⟨z⟩ + ⟨cu⟩ = ⟨scu⟩ /s̪xw/
Interestingly, this gives a maximum onset of sCwV, far larger than the standard structure. This syllable may only occur in an onset position of a lexeme. The combination z + p never occurs in the language, and is not viable.
Verbal nominalisation
| Noun | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | /-/ | ... | |||||||||||||
| Person | Singular | Plural | |||||||||||||
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | ||||||||||
| masculine | feminine | masculine | feminine | masculine | feminine | neuter | |||||||||
| Indicative | |||||||||||||||
| Object enclitics | -yi | -yique | -ti | -tique | -hui | -huique | -in | -itz | -itzque | -itzin | |||||
| Predicative | See non-past atelic conjugation | ||||||||||||||
| Relative | meme- | meme-que | tutu- | tutu-que | huhui- | huhui-que | in- | meme-nī- | tutu-nī- | in-nī- | |||||
| Applicative | name- | name-que | natu- | natu-que | nahui- | nahui-que | nahin- | name-nī- | natu-nī- | nahin-nī- | |||||
| Benefactive | me-yōh | me-quiyōh | tu-yōh | tu-quiyōh | hui-yōh | hui-quiyōh | -yōh | me-nīyōh | tu-nīyōh | -nīyōh | |||||
| Malefactive | xime-yōh | xime-quiyōh | xitu-yōh | xitu-quiyōh | xihui-yōh | xihui-quiyōh | xi-yōh | xime-nīyōh | xitu-nīyōh | xi-nīyōh | |||||
Verbs
Subject to change.
| Verb | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| nah | /n̪äʔ/ | to see | |||||||||||||
| Participles | |||||||||||||||
| Non-Past | nahayyāh | ||||||||||||||
| Past | nahayyātl | ||||||||||||||
| Person | Singular | Plural | |||||||||||||
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | ||||||||||
| masculine | feminine | masculine | feminine | masculine | feminine | neuter | |||||||||
| Indicative | |||||||||||||||
| Object enclitics | -yi | -yique | -ti | -tique | -hui | -huique | -in | -itz | -itzque | -itzin | |||||
| Past | |||||||||||||||
| Telic | |||||||||||||||
| Atelic | |||||||||||||||
| Retrospective | |||||||||||||||
| Non-Past | |||||||||||||||
| Telic | menātl | menātzque | tunātl | tunātzque | huinātl | huinātzque | nātl | menātzin | tunātzin | nātzin | |||||
| Atelic | menāh | menāque | tunāh | tunāque | huināh | huināque | nah | menanīh | tunanīh | nanīh | |||||
| Retrospective | menanāh | menanāque | tunanāh | tunanāque | huinanāh | huinanāque | nanāh | menananīh | tunananīh | nananīh | |||||
| Irrealis | menātza | menātzaque | tunnātza | tunātzaque | huinātza | huinātzaque | nātza | menāxin | tunāxin | nāxin | |||||
| Imperative | camenātza | camenātzaque | catunnātza | catunātzaque | cahuinātza | cahuinātzaque | canātza | camenāxin | catunāxin | canāxin | |||||
Examples
| Graded Sentences for Analysis from http://www.potterpcs.net/gsfa/ | |
|---|---|
| English | Tlastir |
| Gloss | |
| Part 1 | |
| Birds sing. | Inhanātzin zimīmtzin |
| Children play. | Intuallanīh nāthatzin |
| Dogs bark. | Incuallī mēxin |
| Bees hum. | Inririnīh steccanīh |
| The baby laughed. | Inhuāhuatzin nāthayatzin |
| The sun shines. | Intunāh tunāh |
| The wind blows. | Inhuīnīh huīnīh |