Knrawi

Knrawi
knrawi
knrawìguaa, "Knrawi language" in the Wacag script
Pronunciation	[k̠n̩˥ɹɔʍɛ]
Created by	Dillon Hartwig
Date	2020
Setting	Pollasena
Native to	Knrawi Isles
Language family	Wasc Knrawi
Official status
Official language in	Knrawi Empire
Range map of Knrawi (pink) and Soc'ul' (green)

Knrawi /kənˈrɑwi/ (standard Knrawi: [k̠n̩˥ɹɔʍɛ]) is an isolate spoken across the Knrawi Empire, with moderate influence from Soc'ul' and other languages of the Knrawi Isles.

Etymology

Knrawi is autonym of both the language and the Knrawi ethnic group. Its further etymology is not known.

Orthography

Knrawi is written with the Wacag logography. Its romanization is as follows.

Knrawi Romanization

a	c	ch	cj	e	f	fh	fj
/a/	/k̟/	/k̟ʰ/	/k̟ˣ/	[ə]	[ɸ]	[ɸʰ]	[ɸˣ]
g	h	i	j	k	kh	kj	m
/ŋ/	/h/	/ɪ/	/x̠/	/k̠/	/k̠ʰ/	/k̠ˣ/	/m/, [mʷ]
n	p	ph	pj	q	qh	qj	r
/n/	[p]	[pʰ]	[pˣ]	/kʷ/	/kʷʰ/	/kʷˣ/	/ɹ/
s	sh	sj	t	th	tj	u	v
/x̟/	/x̟ʰ/	/x̟ˣ/	/t/	/tʰ/	/tˣ/	/ʊ/	[β̞]
w	y	z	zh	zj	á	à	â
/ʍ/	/ɉ/	/θ/	/θʰ/	/θˣ/	/a˥/	/a˩/	/a˥˩/

High tone in unmarked on a word's first vowel.

Phonology

Consonants

Consonants

		Labial		Alveolar		Prevelar		Postvelar		Labialized velar		Glottal
Nasal		m	(mʷ)	(n̪)	n	(n̠) (ŋ̟)	ŋ		(ŋ̠)	(ŋʷ)
Stop	Plain	(p)		t		k̟		k̠		kʷ
	Aspirated	(pʰ)	(pˣ)	tʰ	tˣ	k̟ʰ	t͡ʃˣ	k̠ʰ	k̠ˣ	kʷʰ	kʷˣ
Fricative	Plain	(ɸ)	(β)	θ	(ð)	x̟	(ʒ)	x̠		ʍ
	Aspirated	(ɸʰ)	(ɸˣ)	θʰ	θˣ	x̟ʰ	ʃˣ					h
Approximant		(β̞)		ɹ		(j)	ɉ			(w)		(ʔ̞)

• All sonorants can be syllabic.
• Alveolar consonants become bilabial adjacent to /m/, /ʊ/, and labialized consonants.
  • /n/ becomes what is notated here as [mʷ], but is merged into [m] in most regions and in standard Knrawi.
• /ŋ/ assimilates to following velar consonants, and /n/ assimilates to following dental and postalveolar consonants.
• /ɪ/, /ʊ/, and /a/ are realized as [j], [w], and [ʔ̞] postvocalically.
  • In some regions this also applies across word boundaries.
• The conditions for approximants being realized as fricatives varies by region.
  • In standard Knrawi they are realized as fricatives on word boundaries and after non-syllabic vowels.
• [β̞] and [w] (but not [β]) are merged in most regions and in standard Knrawi.
  • In standard Knrawi the merged value is [w].
• In some regions,
  • Bilabial fricatives are realized as labiodental.
  • Alveolar consonants are realized as dental or vice versa.
  • Prevelar stops and fricatives (or only aspirated ones) are realized as postalveolar affricates and fricatives.
    • In fewer of these regions /ŋ/ assimilates to following postalveolar consonants as [n̠], merging with /n/.
  • Prevelar and postvelar consonants are realized as palatal and velar, postalveolar (as above) and velar, or velar and uvular.
    • Royal Knrawi realizes prevelar and postvelar consonants as velar and uvular.
  • [j] and [ɉ] are merged.
  • /m/ and [mʷ] are realized as [ŋʷ] and [m]; this is the realization in Royal Knrawi.
  • non-labial /ɹ/ is realized as [l] or [r].
  • /ʍ/ is realized as [xʷ], [hʷ], [ɸʷ], [w], or others.
  • [ʔ̞] is realized as [ʔ], [ɦ], or [∅].
  • Geminated sonorants are glottalized, generally with creaky voice.

Vowels

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	ɪ		ʊ
Mid		(ə)
Low mid	(ɛ)		(ɔ)
Low	a

• [ɛ] and [ɔ] are unstressed allophones of /ɪ/ or /a/ and /ʊ/ or /a/ respectively.
  • The conditions in which unstressed /a/ becomes [ɛ] or [ɔ] varies by region.
    • In standard Knrawi [ɛ] is the realization adjacent to coronal and glottal consonants or when the previous vowel is [ɔ], and [ɔ] is the realization otherwise.
    • In Royal Knrawi unstressed /a/ is instead realized as [ə] in all environments.
• /ɪ/, /ʊ/, and /a/ are realized as [j], [w], and [ʔ̞] postvocalically (not including syllabic consonants).
  • In some regions this also applies across word boundaries.
• Epenthetic [ə] is placed between
  • voiceless consonants and /h/ or /x̠/ (except /hh/ and /x̠x̠/).
    • In standard Knrawi an exception is /hx̠/ and /x̠h/ clusters.
  • aspirated consonants and non-nasal consonants.
  • C₁CC₁, #CC₁, and C₁C# clusters with the C₁ being less sonorous than C (not including syllabic consonants).
• In some regions,
  • Unstressed /ɪ/ and /ʊ/ are realized as [e] and [o] (with /a/ still having [ɛ] and [ɔ] realizations).
  • Stressed /ɪ/ and /ʊ/ are realized as [i] and [u] or [ə] and [u].
  • [ɛ] and [ɔ] are realized as [e̞] and [o̞].

Pitch accent

Tones

High	Low	Falling
˥	˩	˥˩

• Some regions also have a separate grammatical low falling tone, see Nouns and pronouns.

Only a word's stressed syllable bears tone; other syllables' pitch depends on intonation.

Lexical falling tone in native words is rare, but grammatical falling tone is more common.

Prosody

Stress

Stress is root-final in native verbs, root-initial in native nouns, and variable in all other words but tending toward root-initial.

Most affixes shift stress by one syllable toward them, and due to this most words have mobile stress.

Intonation

Declarative sentences generally have a falling pitch throughout, but volume and pitch range can be used for emphasis.

In questions the particle wuj and/or the demonstrative wi may also be emphasized with a sharp falling pitch followed by higher pitch in the following word.

Rhythm

Syllables are generally mora-timed, with syllables before non-syllabic vowels having two morae; in some recitation traditions, stressed syllables have one extra mora.

Phonotactics

Syllables are at most (C(C₁))V((C₁)C), with C₁ being more sonorous than the adjacent consonant and syllabic consonants functioning as V.

Clusters with syllabic consonants are as onset-heavy as possible unless a stress shift occurs (and in most regions syllabicity is lost next to vowels unless a stress shift occurs).

Morphology

Alignment

Knrawi has nominative-accusative morphosyntactic alignment.

First and third person

First and third person are treated as the same category; where disambiguation is needed, an unstressed form of it "head" is used as a first-person marker after the relevant verb or possessive.

Nouns and pronouns

Nouns are marked for case, portion, and definiteness/number.

Noun affixes

	SGV	PTV
NOM/DAT	-g	-ri
ACC	∅	zi-
LOC	sg -g	sr -ri

• Sg and sr bear the same tone as their noun.

As in Soc'ul', plurality and indefiniteness are treated as one category, and in words with modifiable tone it is marked with low tone.

The genitive case is affixed as if accusative, and in words with modifiable tone is marked with falling tone. This tone takes priority over grammatical low tone, except in some regions where the two combine into a dipping tone.

Pronouns

Pronouns do not exist independently (except see First and third person and Possession); the person of dropped nouns are instead only shown through verb agreement.

The demonstrative shir (and the relative/interrogative demonstrative wi) can also be used as a pronoun.

Possession

Possession is marked with the genitive case plus rn̂ and jîi following the possessed noun for first/third-person and second-person possessors respectively. These markers are optional with sufficient context.

In some regions rn̂ and jîi are instead high-tone rn and jii, or bear the possessor's tone; the Royal Knrawi forms are tone-assimilating.

Verbs

Verbs agree in person with both agent and patient, and mark aspect and mood.

Verb inflections

		IND	SUBJ	IMP	JUS
1/3	>2	∅	-ha		hu
	>1/3	-aj	-j		ju -j
2	>2	m-	yi-	hu
	>1/3	sr-	y-	y- yu

• Subjunctive mood is often also used for future marking.
• Hu, ju, and yu bear the verb's tone.
• Jussive and imperative hu precede and follow their verb respectively, and dative nouns must be placed between jussive hu and the verb.

In verbs with modifiable tone imperfective aspect is marked with falling tone; in some regions verbs with modifiable lexical low tone are instead marked with low falling tone.

Verbs are passivized with a preceding particle r which bears the verb's tone; in most regions and in standard Knrawi r precedes jussive hu, but in some regions and in Royal Knrawi directly precedes the verb, and in some regions passivization is instead marked with passive copulae.

Infinitive verbs are marked with i-, iterative/durative verbs are marked with -qm (in some regions and in standard Knrawi directly after the verb root, and in other regions after other suffixes, and in Royal Knrawi instead a separated following particle qm), and abilitative and conditional verbs are marked with a preceding particle nĝ.

Questions are marked with a particle wuj at either the beginning or end (as in standard and Royal Knrawi) of the clause. See also Pronouns.

Copula

The copula su inflects as follows.

Copulae

• In some regions,
  • The passive forms of the copula are instead high-tone.
  • The passive imperfective forms of the copula are instead low falling-tone.

Numerals

Knrawi uses base-24 numerals.

Numerals

1	2	3	4	5	6
tì	qûat	càvu	shuga	kaau	fùch
7	8	9	10	11	12
m̀vis	khain	kàtiu	huc	chaua	ycham
13	14	15	16	17	18
tìm	quâpm	cavùm	shugám	kaáum	fuchm̀
19	20	21	22	23	24
mvìsm	khaímm	katìum	hucḿ	chaúam	ychámm
25	48	576	13,824	331,776
ychámm hn tì	qûat ychámm	sûign	suîgmm	ychámm suîgmm

Nouns are not marked for number when using numerals.

Negation

All negation is marked with hàr. Hàr cannot precede its clause's verb, so negated nouns and adjectives must be backed.

Prohibitive sentences instead use hàj.

Derivational morphology

Part-of-speech modifiers

Nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs are derived with gu-, -kej, mau-, and -jr respectively.

Agentive nouns are derived either from gu- or guqa-; in some regions guqa- is instead a suffix -guqa.

Causative wai (bearing the modified word's tone) can be applied before any part of speech. It is also used with some verbs as a non-shifting refix wai-.

Syntax

Constituent order

Word order is flexible with sufficient marking or context, but SOV order is most common in the western Knrawi Isles and VSO order is most common in the eastern Knrawi Isles.

Noun and verb phrases

All modifiers follow their head noun or verb if not affixed, except some particles. Generally numerators follow adjectives and possessors follow all other modifiers, but otherwise modifier order is flexible.

Dependent clauses

Dependent clauses follow the head they modify after all other dependents, and their head noun is often backed to the end of its clause.

Example texts

Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 1

Thaágg jua r yamúszaq ih r azjnázaq wuicsjḿjr ih r zauákejr. Gufḿqhvi ih guwúiri r̀ iaràm, quatîtg hu qakhúy sugkúkujr.

Thaag-g

person-NOM

jua

all

r

PASS

yamús-zaq

free-bear

ih

and

r

PASS

azjna-zaq

equal-bear

wuícsjm-jr

dignified-ADVZ

ih

and

r

PASS

zauak-jr.

own-ADVZ

Thaag-g jua r yamús-zaq ih r azjna-zaq {wuícsjm}-jr ih r zauak-jr.

person-NOM all PASS free-bear and PASS equal-bear dignified-ADVZ and PASS own-ADVZ

Gu-fmqh-ri

NZ-think-NOM.PTV

ih

and

gu-wui-ri

NZ-good-NOM.PTV

r̀

PASS

iaràm,

give

quatît-g

RECP-NZ

hu

JUS.3>3

qa-khuy

do-toward

sug-kuku-jr.

brother-way-ADVZ

Gu-fmqh-ri ih gu-wui-ri r̀ iaràm, quatît-g hu qa-khuy sug-kuku-jr.

NZ-think-NOM.PTV and NZ-good-NOM.PTV PASS give RECP-NZ JUS.3>3 do-toward brother-way-ADVZ

Linguifex-hosted translations

• Translated works in Knrawi
• Knrawi/Test Case Sentences

Conlang Atlas of Language Structures-hosted translations

• CALS translations

Other resources

CALS

Pollasena Wiki