Habyela
Habyela (pronounced [xæ̀bʲɛ̀ɫɑ̀] is another language spoken in my far-future Antarctic conworld. It is descended from a mixture of languages spoken around the NE Indian Ocean area, with the greatest influence coming from Amharic. Other languages that heavily influenced Habyela were Swahili, Arabic, Urdu and Bengali. Later on, it received areal influence from surrounding languages, which can be seen in its simple phonotactics, vertical vowel system, and by how it distinguishes alienable and inalienable possession. However, it retains some features that are atypical for the area, such as SOV word order.
Phonology
Vowels
Habyela has a vertical vowel system, distinguishing /a/, /ə/ and /ɨ/, but making no contrasts for frontness or backness. All of these vowels have front or back allophones depending on the surrounding consonants.
There are no phonemic diphthongs, however, word-finally [ai] and [au] are heard. However, it simplifies the phonology to analyse these as /aj/ and /aw/ respectively.
Vowel Allophony
The situation here is very similar to neighbouring languages such as North-East Antarctican. Even though there is no phonemic contrast between front and back vowels, this does not mean that sounds such as [i], [u] and [e] are absent from the language. Front and back vowels occur as allophones of their corresponding central vowels e.g. /ˈhɨ̰mːʲɨ/ - "fjord" is pronounced [ˈhḭmːʲḭ], and /ˈtʷɨ̤pːasɨ/ - "digestion" is pronounced [ˈtʷṳpːasɨ].
There is no difference between how consonants influence the preceding vowel and the following vowel. So if /ɨ/ is between /j/ and /w/, in both cases it will be pronounced /y/, no matter whether the sequence is /jɨw/ or /wɨj/.
The allophones of each vowel are given in the table below. Note that a "lowering" consonant is defined as a retroflex or uvular consonant (labialised or non-labialised, including /ɫ/):
| Environment | /ɨ/ | /ə/ | /a/ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Default | [ɨ] | [ə] | [a] |
| Adjacent to a Palatal or Palatalised Consonant | [i] | [e] | [æ] |
| Adjacent to a Non-Labialised Lowering Consonant | [ɤ] | [ʌ] | [ɑ] |
| Adjacent to a Labialised Non-Lowering Consonant | [u] | [o] | [a] |
| Adjacent to a Labialised Uvular Consonant | [ʊ] | [ɔ] | [ɒ] |
| Adjacent to a Labialised Palatal Consonant | [y] | [ø] | [œ] |
| Between a Lowering Consonant and a Labialised Non-Lowering Consonant | [ʊ] | [ɔ] | [ɒ] |
| Between a Palatal / Palatalised Consonant, and a Labialised Non-Lowering Consonant | [y] | [ø] | [œ] |
| Between a Palatal / Palatalised Consonant, and a Labialised Uvular Consonant | [ʏ] | [ɵ] | [ɐ] |
| Between a Palatal / Palatalised Consonant, and a Non-Labialised Lowering Consonant | [ɪ] | [ɛ] | [ɐ] |
Consonants
Habyela has a complex system of consonants, contrasting many secondary articulations.
| Labial | Pal. Labial | Dental / Alveolar | Lab. Alveolar | Alveolo-Palatal | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Lab. Palatal | Lab. Velar | Lab. Uvular | Glottal / Placeless | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | mʲ | n | nʷ | ɲ | ɲʷ | ɴ | ||||||
| Stop | p b | pʲ bʲ | t d | tʷ dʷ | c ɟ | k g | q | cʷ ɟʷ | kʷ gʷ | qʷ | ʔ | ||
| Affricate | tɕ dʑ | ʈʂ ɖʐ | |||||||||||
| Fricative | f | fʲ | s | sʷ | ɕ | ç | x | çʷ~ɸʲ | xʷ~ɸ | ||||
| Flap / Trill | ʀ | ʀʷ | |||||||||||
| Lateral | ʎ | ɫ | ʎʷ | ɫʷ | |||||||||
| Semivowel | j | ɥ | w |
/çʷ/ and /ɸʲ/ are in free variation, as are /xʷ/ and /ɸ/.
Although /ɫ/ and /ɫʷ/ are strictly speaking uvularised dental laterals, in the phonology they pattern as uvular consonants.
/ɴ/ is similar to the Japanese moraic nasal, or the Burmese placeless nasal. It only occurs in syllable codas. At the end of words, it is heard as nasalisation of the preceding vowel. Otherwise, it assimilates in place of articulation to the following consonant.
Phonotactics
Habyela phonotactics are quite simple. The only possible syllable shapes are CV and CVC. In a non-word final syllable, the only possible coda consonant is /ɴ/. In word-final syllables, /j/ and /w/ are also possible as coda consonants, but only after /a/.
When a word ending with /j/ or /w/ takes a suffix, the /j/ or /w/ is deleted, however it turns into secondary articulation on the first consonant of the suffix (if the resulting consonant would be legal in Habyela).
For example, the word for "leaf" is /paɴtaj/. When it takes the possessive suffix /-mà/ - "her", the result is /paɴtamʲà/ - "her leaf". The /j/ has assimilated with the /m/ to become /mʲ/. But, when the same suffix is attached to /banàw/ - "beach", the result is /banàmà/ - "her beach", since there is no consonant */mʷ/. However, when /banàw/ - "beach" is combined with the diminutive suffix /-jɨtə/, the result is /banàɥɨtə/ - "little beach", since /j/ can labialise to /ɥ/.
If a suffix begins with a glottal stop, a preceding /j/ or /w/ simply replaces the stop e.g. /paɴtaj/ - "leaf" and /banàw/ - "beach" combines with the first person plural possessive suffix /-ʔaɴʈɨnə/ to become /paɴtajaɴʈɨnə/ - "our leaf" and /banàwaɴʈɨnə/ - "our beach" respectively.
Timing
Habyela is mora timed, like Japanese. Syllables ending in /j/, /w/ or /ɴ/ count as two morae, all the others count as one. So /banàw/ - "beach" consists of three morae ba-na-w, and /paɴtaj/ - "beach" consists of four morae pa-ɴ-ta-j.
Pitch Accent
Habyela has a pitch accent system reminiscent of Japanese. Any mora can either be accented or unaccented. An accented mora (marked with an acute accent e.g. /à/) always has low pitch. An unaccented mora has high pitch by default, but this changes to low pitch if there is an accented mora earlier in the word. The result of this is that pitch can either remain level or fall across a word, but cannot rise.
For example, /banàw/ - "beach" has accent on the second mora, so the pitch pattern is High-Low-Low. But /paɴtaj/ - "leaf" has no accent, so every mora is pronounced with high pitch. In contrast, /xàbʲəɫa/ - "Habyela" has accent on the first mora, so the pitch pattern is Low-Low-Low.
If a process such as affixation would result in more than one accented mora, the first accented mora determines the pitch pattern of the word, and the others are ignored. For example, /paɴtamʲà/ - "her leaf" is pronounced with the pitch pattern High-High-High-Low, with the pitch only dropping on the final vowel /a/. However, /banàmà/ - "her beach" is pronounced with the pitch pattern High-Low-Low (not High-High-Low).
Word-final coda /w/ and /j/ can also bear accent, for example in the word /qaẁ/ - "chief". When these words take a suffix (which deletes the /w/ or /j/), the accent shifts onto the first mora of the suffix e.g. /qaɥɨ̀tə/ - "minor chief".
Nouns
Nouns have a suffixing, mostly agglutinating morphology. The template for nouns is: Root - [Possessive Suffix] - [Plural] - [Case Suffix]
Possession
Where English would use a possessive pronoun such as "my" or "his", Habyela uses suffixes. These are:
1st person singular /-ʎə̀/ 1st person plural /-ʔaɴʈɨnə/ 2nd person singular /-mə̀/ 2nd person plural /-ʔaɴʈɨxʷɨ̀/ 3rd person male singular /-wɨ/ 3rd person female singular /-mà/ 3rd person plural / nonhuman /-ʔaɴʈa/
These suffixes are used no matter whether or not an explicit possessor phrase is used. For example, /ɖəwə̀-wɨ/ means "his ear", and /qaẁ ɖəwə̀-wɨ/ means "the chief's ear". In both cases, the noun /ɖəwə̀/ takes the 3rd person male singular suffix /-wɨ/.
Contractions
Many nouns have special abbreviated forms when they are combined with possessive suffixes. For example, the word for "leg" by itself is /ʔɨʀəʔə̀/, however when combined with possssive suffixes, it becomes:
/ʔɨʀəjə̀/ - "my leg" (not */ʔɨʁəʔə̀-ʎə̀/) /ʔɨʀəʔàɴʈɨnə/ - "our leg" (not */ʔɨʁəʔə̀-ʔaɴʈɨnə/) /ʔɨʀəʔə̀mə̀/ - "your (sg.) leg" /ʔɨʁəʔàɴʈɨxʷɨ̀/ - "your (pl.) leg" /ʔɨʀəwɨ̀/ - "his leg" /ʔɨʀəʔə̀mà/ - "her leg" /ʔɨʀəʔàɴʈa/ - "their leg / its leg".
Alienable Possession
Like most Antarctican languages, Habyela makes a distinction between alienable and inalienable possession https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inalienable_possession. Alienable possession is marked by adding the suffix /-qa/ to the possessor, while keeping the same possessive suffixes on the possessed noun e.g.
/qənə̀bə-qa ʔasətɨ̀-ʔaɴʈa/
dog-GEN bone-3PS.NONHUMAN
The dog's bone (that it is chewing on / has buried etc.)
Compare the above to the inalienable equivalent:
/qənə̀bə ʔasətɨ̀-ʔaɴʈa/
dog bone-3PS.NONHUMAN
The dog's bone (in its body)
Pluralisation
Pluralisation is marked with the suffix /-wəɴ/ e.g. /ʔasətɨ̀/ - "bone", /ʔasətɨ̀-wəɴ/ - "bones".
Contractions=
Like with possessive constructions, there are many cases when plural forms are contracted e.g.
/ʔɨʀəʔə̀/ - "leg", /ʔɨʀəwə̀ɴ/ - "legs" (not */ʔɨʀəʔə̀wəɴ/)
/qənə̀bə/ - "dog", /qənə̀bəɴ/ - "dogs" (not */qənə̀bəwəɴ/)
When the plural suffix /-wəɴ/ comes after the second person plural possessive suffix /-ʔaɴʈɨnə/, they fuse to become /-ʔaɴʈɨnəɴ/, (not */-ʔaɴʈɨnəwəɴ/) e.g.
/ʔasətɨ̀ʔaɴʈɨnəɴ/ - "your (pl.) bones" (not */ʔasətɨ̀ʔaɴʈɨnəwəɴ/)
Case
There are only two cases, nominative (unmarked) and genitive (marked with the suffix -qa). The genitive case also functions as an ergative marker.
Adjectives
Adjectives always precede the noun. They are marked forRestrictiveness. Restrictive adjectives end in /-(w)aw/, and descriptive adjectives end in /(t)aɴ/.
For example, the restrictive form of the adjective meaning "black" is /qanʷə̀-waw/, while the descriptive form is /qanʷə̀-taɴ/. To say "the black dog" (selecting one out of a group of dogs containing ones with other colours), a Habyela speaker would say /qanʷə̀waw qənə̀bə/. However, in other cases, they would say /qanʷə̀taɴ qənə̀bə/. When an adjective is used predicatively (e.g. to say "the dog is black"), the suffix /çà/ is used for singular subjects, and /çàɴ/ for plural subjects e.g. /qənə̀bə qanʷə̀-çà/ - "the dog is black", or /qənə̀bəɴ qanʷə̀-çàɴ/ - "the dogs are black".