Tlu
Tlu (məchə̄tvaʔ guṇma) is an ancient Mustlup language inspired by my oldest draft of Proto-Talmic.
todo
- tī < tiwī "yes"
- sufnə (f) < suxʷnə "rain"
- kuoṇḍaiḍ (m) < kʷujɳɖajʈʼ "net"
- gai (f) < gaj "east"
- chƛətum (f) < χtɬətum "west"
- pəsə (f) < pəʂə "south"
- ʔauʔāp (f) < ʔawʔaːkʷ "north"
- guṇma (m) < ɡuɲma "sound, language"
- nīmə (m) < nīmə "water"
Phonology
Consonants
/m n ɳ ɲ ŋ p t tɬ ʈ c k q ʔ b d dɮ ɖ ɟ g f s̠ ɬ x h z̠ ɮ ʋ l ɭ j/ ⟨m n ṇ ñ ŋ p t ƛ ṭ ť k q ʔ b d λ ḍ ď g f s σ ch h z ʒ v l ḷ j⟩
Vowels
/i iː u uː ə əː a aː ai au ei ou ie uo/ ⟨i ī u ū ə ə̄ a ā ai au ei ou ie uo⟩
Orthography
Prosody
Stress
Stress falls on the first heavy (CV̄, CVV or CVC) syllable, if it is not the final syllable. If no syllables are long, the first syllable is stressed.
Intonation
Phonotactics
Morphophonology
Morphology
Pronouns
- 1sg, 2sg, 3sg, 1pl, 2pl, 3pl: sƛī, ŋə̄, bəʔ, bə̄, zad, chau, bəbuo, bəbəv
Nouns
Nouns are reduplicated for plural, and take possessive prefixes. They do not decline for case, unlike adjectives and determiners. When nouns are preceded by a determiner or an adjective, they (even if plural) do not take a plural form.
| chnousaṭ - 'cloud' | ||
|---|---|---|
| Number→ State↓ |
Singular | Plural |
| Indefinite | chnousaṭ | chəchnousaṭ |
| 1sg possessor | łichnousaṭ | łichəchnousaṭ |
| 2sg possessor | ŋəchnousaṭ | ŋəchəchnousaṭ |
| 3sg.m possessor | səchnousaṭ | səchnousaṭ |
| 3sg.f possessor | sūchnousaṭ | sūchəchnousaṭ |
| 1pl possessor | zdəchnousaṭ | zdəchəchnousaṭ |
| 2pl possessor | hauchnousaṭ | hauchəchnousaṭ |
| 3pl.m possessor | səŋchnousaṭ | səŋchəchnousaṭ |
| 3pl.f possessor | səstchnousaṭ | səstchəchnousaṭ |
- mich sud sə·tətāňi
- DEF-ACC man 3SG-PL-house
- the man's houses
Adjectives
Adjectives precede nouns and inflect for gender, number and case. Demonstratives and determiners also inflect as adjectives.
| zviṭəʔ 'big' (masculine) | ||
|---|---|---|
| State | Singular | Plural |
| Nominative | zviṭəʔ | zviṭuo |
| Oblique | zviṭuch | zviṭəŋ |
| zviṭəʔ 'big' (feminine) | ||
|---|---|---|
| State | Singular | Plural |
| Nominative | zviṭou | zviṭə̄f |
| Oblique | zviṭə̄ʔ | zviṭə̄st |
The definite article inflects as follows:
| miʔ 'definite article' (masculine) | ||
|---|---|---|
| State | Singular | Plural |
| Nominative | miʔ | muo |
| Oblique | mich | miŋ |
| miʔ 'definite article' (feminine) | ||
|---|---|---|
| State | Singular | Plural |
| Nominative | mie | mə̄f |
| Oblique | mə̄ʔ | mə̄st |
Verbs
- vimaḷch = I sit
- ŋəmaḷch = you sit
- ʔəmaḷch = he sits
- ʔūmaḷch = she sits
- zamaḷch = we sit
- chamaḷch = you people sit
- ʔəmmaḷch = they sit
- -au = past tense?
- sva- = negative
Numerals
Tlu uses a base-12 numeral system. Numerals are indeclinable.
- 1: seiďu /ˈseiɟu/
- 2: bli /bli/
- 3: sqā /sqaː/
- 4: māvuo /ˈmaːʋuo/
- 5: paiku /ˈpaiku/
- 6: ə̄ƛich /ˈəːtɬix/
- 7: zətə̄ /ˈzətəː/
- 8: baŋud /ˈbaŋud/
- 9: ďavuň /ˈɟaʋuɲ/
- 10: fqāchṭī /ˈfqaːxʈiː/
- 11: bə̄zie /ˈbəːzie/
- 12: zie /zie/
- 144: ʔənƛə̄ḷ
- 1728: kapkis
The ordinal numbers are adjectives:
- 1: tmugəʔ
- 2: bligəʔ
- 3: sqāgəʔ
- 4: māvgəʔ
- 5: paigəʔ
- 6: ə̄ƛigəʔ
- 7: zətgəʔ
- 8: baŋudgəʔ
- 9: ďavuňgəʔ
- 10: fqāchṭīgəʔ
- 11: bə̄ziegəʔ
- 12: ziegəʔ
etc.