Ametdantar
Background
Goals
My goal was simply to create an a priori constructed language. I don't remember the exact date when I started, but I believe it was some time in August of 2014.
Setting
The ametdantar live on a small remote tropical desert island. They have no outside contact and are not aware of any other landmasses (and there may not be any others -- I haven't decided that yet). They believe that the world is mostly water and is therefore amorphous.
Inspiration
I joined the Constructed Languages group on Facebook with the intent of simply looking at the constructed languages of others for a while to get some ideas, and was mainly interested in auxilliary languages, but I started my own, ametdantar, fairly promptly after joining.
Phonology
Consonants
| Bilabial | Labio-dental | Dental | Alveolar | Post-alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Pharyngeal | Epiglottal | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ||||||||||
| Plosive | p | t̪ d̪ | k | |||||||||
| Fricative | s | ʃ ʒ | ʁ | h ɦ | ||||||||
| Affricate | ts | dʒ | ||||||||||
| Approximant | ||||||||||||
| Trill | ||||||||||||
| Flap or tap | ɾ | |||||||||||
| Lateral fric. | ||||||||||||
| Lateral app. | l | |||||||||||
| Lateral flap |
Vowels
| Front | Near-front | Central | Near-back | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | u | ||||
| Near-close | |||||
| Close-mid | o | ||||
| Mid | |||||
| Open-mid | ɛ | ||||
| Near-open | |||||
| Open | a a: |
Phonotactics
/p/ and /ʃ/ can occur only in onset position. /r/ and /ʁ/ cannot be the first element of an onset cluster or the second element of coda cluster. Onset clusters can contain a maximum of two consonants. Rimes are maximally trimoraic -- the long a, /a:/, counts as two morae, and each consonant in the coda is a mora.
Diphthongization does not occur in ametdantar, and the hiatus resolution strategy is "do not resolve." A series of two homorganic vowels does not become a lengthened vowel, not even if it is /a/.
Orthography
ametdantar has a mostly phonemic alphabet -- each monograph stands for exactly one sound, and each digraph stands for exactly one sound.
Monographs
a /a/
m /m/
d /d̪/
t /t̪/
n /n/
r /ɾ/
e /ɛ/
h /h/
f /ɦ/
o /o/
p /p/
k /k/
u /u/
l /l/
s /s/
j /ʒ/
Digraphs
tz /ts/
si /ʃ/
rg /ʁ/
aa /a:/
Stress
ametdantar stress is very simple. There are two rules: Stress is ultimate. Enclitics are disregarded in stress assignment.
Now, of course, this requires us to define the enclitics of ametdantar. They are -et, the plural suffix, and -er, the perfective suffix. Note that there are roots that end with -et or -er naturally; these are not enclitics. There are also fossilized forms that are stressed on the enclitic (because, as a suffix, it's in ultimate position). Fossilized forms include the plural personal pronouns, which are all formed with the plural suffix, and some adjectives formed with the perfective suffix.