User:Waahlis/Vrka: Difference between revisions

The language is tripartite and heavily fusional. Namic has lost the stress system of the [[Proto-Attamian]] language, and inherited a now grammaticalised tonal system which only applies to long and short vowels.

The language has remained extant especially in the Namastan and Maharaya regions in [[w:Iran|Iran]] and [[w:Afghanistan|Afghanistan]] despite the lack of official status. There is an exclave of speakers of the Parsa dialect of the Namic language in Iran, sometimes classified as a proper language. The dialect is heavily influenced by the [[w:Farsi|Farsi language]].

In addition to these, there's a multitude of digraphs with corresponding affricates. It is important to note that the four digraphs <span style="font-size: 125%;">⟨</span>pt<span style="font-size:125%;">⟩</span>, <span style="font-size: 125%;">⟨</span>vt<span style="font-size:125%;">⟩</span>, <span style="font-size: 125%;">⟨</span>kt<span style="font-size:125%;">⟩</span>, and <span style="font-size: 125%;">⟨</span>ȷt<span style="font-size:125%;">⟩</span>symbolise consonant clusters with an affricate onset. They are not affected by lenition.

|+Affricate clusters

!colspan="2" scope="col"|Cluster

The Sthānta dialect will be featured in this article, and is the main dialect that distinguishes consonant assimilaton upon voicedness.

|+Assimilation

!colspan="2" scope="col"|Example

The representation of Nāmic's vowels. There are are 12 vowel phonemes, yet only 6 graphemes, thus, it may be assumed some are allophones during certain circumstances. It is obvious that many of the vowel graphemes are recycled, since many phonemes are allophones. The background is covered in the [[Nāmic#Metaphony|Metaphony]] section.

! scope="col" style="width: 90px; "|

! scope="col" style="width: 90px; text-align: center; "|Front

There are a limited number of diphthongs in Nāmic, with the same amount rising as falling diphthongs. [ɪ̯] is most often equivalent to [j], and [u̯] is often just [w]. The left diphthong is its front value, and the right one is the back value. All other vowel clusters are diaeresis. The main phoneme in all diphthongs may be geminated.

|+Diphthongs

! colspan="6"|Rising

Front diphthongs on the left, back ones at the right.

|+Diphthong Allophony

! colspan="14"|Falling

Nāmic's metaphony is based upon backness, with exceptions being when /ә/, /e/ and /o/ are followed by an [r], which ignores the harmony, and modifies the phoneme.

|+Metaphony

! colspan="2"|Grapheme

The vowels will be represented by a default /a/. Please note that any nasal can nasalise the preceding vowel, however in non-voiced environments, only the letter <span style="font-size: 125%;">⟨</span>ṃ<span style="font-size:125%;">⟩</span> may.

|+Quality

!

Stress must always be marked in all polysyllabic words - except verbs in the infinitive, or rather lemma, to avoid confusion in the vocabulary.

|+Diacritics

!

The manipulation of stress in conjugations and declensions '''change the meaning''' of the word radically. The most common usage of changing the stress, is in the conjugations; the stress may be pressed forward to the ultimate syllable, to change the tense from present to preterite. See the [[Nāmic#Verbs |Verbs section]].

|+Stress Apophony

!

| colspan="2"|"I"<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">pro.</span>1<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">.sg</span>.<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">abs</span> "danced" <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">intrans.</span><span style="font-variant:small-caps;">ppfv</span>.1<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">.sg</span>

|}

|+Stress Apophony

!

===Prosody===

====Intonation====

*Rising [↗] Intonation.

*Falling [↘] Intonation.

The intonation is used to emphasise certain words - that is, if you want to stress a certain action, location or noun in the sentence. It is very similar to the case in English. If not necessarily sad, the pitch is normaly rising [↗].

|+Lexical

! colspan="2"|English

|}

For the grammatical intonation, certain moods are associated with certain intonation, which may vary by dialect and accent. The standard however dictates a '''rising '''pitch [↗] during interrogative moods and the interrogative words, followed by a '''dipping '''intonation in the end [↘↗].

|+Interrogative Mood

!

|}

The conditional mood however - the subjunctive mood when used in main clauses - is characterised by a '''peaking '''[↗↘] intonation. The English language doesn't really distinguish the intonation in the conditional mood, but a rising pitch is fairly common.

|+Conditional Mood

!

*Here? ↗

|+Prosodic stress in pro-adverbs

!

SVO with ergative verbs is rather common, similarly to English.

|+Transitive SVO

! colspan="3"|Inflectional phrase

Since focus lies on the patient, the verb phrase often moves further back.

|+Transitive SOV

! colspan="3"|Inflectional phrase

The intransitive order SV(O) is not very common, but it does occur.

|+Intransitive SVO

! colspan="2" style="text-align: center;"|Inflectional Phrase

Since focus lies on the verb in the Nāmic languages intransitive orders, the VS(O) is much more common. Please note that the pronoun may be dropped, but it is not custom regarding intransitive verbs.

|+Intransitive SVO

! colspan="2" style="text-align: center;"|Inflectional Phrase

The Naṃkrthāvāka does not possess particular positions for the adpositional phrase, thus it will be prepositional for the sake of simplicity. It is quite similar to English.

|+  

! colspan="5" style="text-align: center;"|Noun Phrase

Possessive noun phrases can be formed by the means of a possessive pronoun, or a dative construction. Nevertheless, they remain after the noun.

|+Possessive

! colspan="5" style="text-align: center;"|Noun Phrase

In the Naṃkrthāvāka, adverbial phrases always precede the modified verb. The noun phrase may be freely positioned,or it may depend on transitivity - see further up.

|+  

! colspan="5" style="text-align: center;"|Verb Phrase

Please note that the pronouns decline as common nouns, according to the phonological characteristics, except ''[[Nāmic#Interrogative Declension|kō, keı, kā]]'', and their respective relative pronouns. See the "[[Nāmic#Nominal Declension|Declensions]]" section.

|+  

! colspan="20" scope="col"|Correlatives

Please note that the ergative-absolutive distinction is not made in the third nominal declension, nor in the comparative, cercative nor the superlative degrees of comparison of adjectives, whence they form the [http://conlang.wikia.com/wiki/Neumatic_Declension#Nominative Nominative case].

|+Case

! colspan="2"|Case

====Pronominal Declension====

|+Personal Pronouns

!scope="col"|Person →

In transitive phrases with pronouns, the syntax is modified. The subject is most often omitted, however, if enclitic pronouns are used, the subjects become almost compulsory. The cause is the phonological change in the verb.

|+Transitive (S)OV

! colspan="3"|Inflectional phrase

|}

|+Transitive SV(O)

! colspan="3"|Inflectional phrase

The demonstratives serve as '''determinatives'''. However, since Nāmic doesn't have a third person personal pronoun in the English sense, its demonstratives fulfil this function instead, by standing independently without a noun to be modified. The demonstratives decline by gender, number, and case. The declension is equivalent to English '''he''', '''she '''and '''it''', and will be called the '''third person''' in conjugations. Consider the following:

|+Demonstratives

! colspan="3"|Determiner

====Distal Declension====

The distal, or normal declension, corresponds either to ''he'', ''she ''and ''it'', or '''that'''. It is a cognate to the Sanskrit distal "''ayám''"-declension.

|+Distal Demonstratives

!scope="col"|Person →

The proximal declension, corresponds well to the English demonstrative '''this'''. It is a cognate to the Sanskrit distal "''etát''"-declension.

|+Proximal Demonstratives

!scope="col"|Person →

There is but one interrogative pronoun, ''kyā'', which declines. It congruates with gender, but does not distinguish the dual number. It is essentially similar to the First front declension, though it's somewhat irregular.

====Interrogative Declension====

|+Interrogative Declension

!scope="col"|Gender →

The relative declension is indeed identical to the interrogative one, with exception for three enclitics. In case they are suffixed postvocally, they receive an initial <span style="font-size: 125%;">⟨</span>a<span style="font-size:125%;">⟩.</span>

|+Relative Enclitics

!scope="col"|Gender →

*Contain only [ɛ]'s.

|+Front Declension

!scope="col"|

*the ⟨ṿ⟩ indicates an intervocal ⟨u⟩, pronounced /w/.

|+Back Declension

!scope="col"|

Please note that the ⟨ṭ⟩ is pronounced /ʂ/ intervocally and finally.

|+Second Declension

!scope="col"|

Please note that the neuter declines identically to the masculine, however, this does not apply to the so called "s-neuter". The s-neuter includes nouns which terminate with a nasal and an /s/.

|+Third Declension

!scope="col"|

*{{cd|pātur}}, पातर, (''pedestrian'')

|+Fourth Declension

!scope="col"|

Predicative adjectives are conjuncted to the object with copulae or another verb, that is, a predicate. The adjectival predicative is indeclinable to case and number, but not gender. It can be compared.

! colspan="6"|''āyam''

! colspan="6"|''sāma''

The nominal form stands independently or with a demonstrative, to represent the full object. In Nāmic, it's identical to the nominative attributive form.

! colspan="6"| ''grīgama''

! colspan="6"|''nāvaı''

Attributive adjectives differ in the sense that they congruate with the nouns regarding case, number and gender. They describe a feature of the object in a state.

! colspan="6"|''nāraı''

! colspan="6"|''mādraı''

The last form describes a verb, in which manner it's conducted. Adverbs are not perceived as a lexical category in Neumatic linguistics, separate from adjectives. Please note that adverbs decline by gender and number of the verb's subject.

! colspan="6"|''nāka''

! colspan="6"|''kāryakā''

===Adjectival Comparison===

! colspan="9" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% |Adjectival Root

|-

Please note that this is however only used in formal contexts.

! colspan="9"|''htrīṇa''

! colspan="9"|''marәyā''

Nāmic possesses four moods, which all verbs conjugate by. The conditional is simply the subjunctive used in main clauses, and is therefore identical in form.

! colspan="6"|Indicative

! colspan="6"|Subjunctive

The difference between the past and the present, is simply a manipulated stress. All tenses are dependent on the aspects.

! colspan="3"|Present

! colspan="3"|Past

There are three or two aspects in the Nāmic language, although not all aspects may be combined with other moods.

! colspan="6"|Aorist

! colspan="6"|Imperfective

Differentiating between the transitivity is made through an old causative infix from the [[w:Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] language, initially /aja/. This infix did however go through mutation and formed firstly /ja/, then just /j/. Eventually it grew to form falling diphthongs from the preceding vowel. These diphthongs were exposed to synaeresis and formed the following table:

|+Development of the causative infix /aja/.

! colspan="14"|Falling

The development can be seen in transition from '''Old Nāmic''':

|+Development of the causative infix /aja/.

! colspan="5"|Language

====Intransitive Conjugation====

This section is subject to change. Reduplication has received a new purpose, and paradigms shall now be derived from PIE.

! colspan="9" |Intransitive Verb

|-

====Transitive Conjugations====

This one, on the other hand, is finished. Descriptive texts will come.

! colspan="9" |Transitive Verb

|-

Nāmic possesses a few classes of conjugations, which conjugate slightly differently, because of their phonological attributes, or irregularity. They are named after the most prominent word conjugated in the class.