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Lámeyi languages: Difference between revisions
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The smallest group, consisting of a single languages – '''Las''' – is the most conservative branch, preserving many old feature. It used to be classified as a distant Peripheral Khad language, because it palatalises both ''*kʲ'' and ''*tʲ'', which it shares with the Khad languages. It merges both sounds into a single phoneme /c/ (which some Peripheral Khad languages do). A unique feature of Las is lack of a phoneme /p/ and word-initial [[w:Fortition|fortition]] and a simple [[w:Pitch accent language|pitch-accent system]] not unlike the pitch accent in the Thadpalmé language. There are two pitches: "high" or "marked" and "low" or "unmarked". For example: ''kwhó'' [kʷʰɒ́ː] “fire”, ''akwho'' [ɑkʷʰɒ̀] “find it”. There are two dialects of Las that are mutually intelligible with one another, typically called the '''R-dialect''' and the '''L-dialect''', since the reflex of *l (and its coarticulated variations) in Proto-Lámeyi is used for their classification (the L-dialect only has [l], while the R-dialect only has [ɾ]). Transitional dialects tend to have [ɺ] instead. For instance: the word for “land” is ''qala'' in the L-dialect, ''qara'' in the R-dialect and in the transitional areas it is [ˈqɑ.ɺɑ] or [ˈqɔɺɔ]. | The smallest group, consisting of a single languages – '''Las''' – is the most conservative branch, preserving many old feature. It used to be classified as a distant Peripheral Khad language, because it palatalises both ''*kʲ'' and ''*tʲ'', which it shares with the Khad languages. It merges both sounds into a single phoneme /c/ (which some Peripheral Khad languages do). A unique feature of Las is lack of a phoneme /p/ and word-initial [[w:Fortition|fortition]] and a simple [[w:Pitch accent language|pitch-accent system]] not unlike the pitch accent in the Thadpalmé language. There are two pitches: "high" or "marked" and "low" or "unmarked". For example: ''kwhó'' [kʷʰɒ́ː] “fire”, ''akwho'' [ɑkʷʰɒ̀] “find it”. There are two dialects of Las that are mutually intelligible with one another, typically called the '''R-dialect''' and the '''L-dialect''', since the reflex of *l (and its coarticulated variations) in Proto-Lámeyi is used for their classification (the L-dialect only has [l], while the R-dialect only has [ɾ]). Transitional dialects tend to have [ɺ] instead. For instance: the word for “land” is ''qala'' in the L-dialect, ''qara'' in the R-dialect and in the transitional areas it is [ˈqɑ.ɺɑ] or [ˈqɔɺɔ]. | ||
Most Las nouns are simple mono- or disyllabic, longer nouns are usually deverbal. In verbs, only stems may carry a marked tone. Prefixes are mostly single consonants and thus do not carry tone. There are some exceptions to this, however, most other tone-bearing units are incorporated nouns or clitics. In addition, the compound verbs take personal agreement prefixes similar to those found on nouns. This entire word may then take proclitics, which may also carry tone: | Most Las nouns are simple mono- or disyllabic, longer nouns are usually deverbal. In verbs, only stems may carry a marked tone. Prefixes are mostly single consonants and thus do not carry tone. There are some exceptions to this, however, most other tone-bearing units are incorporated nouns or clitics. In addition, the compound verbs take personal agreement prefixes similar to those found on nouns. This entire word may then take proclitics, which may also carry tone. There are two groups of syllables: those that only carry tone ('''"donors"''') and those that only receive tone ('''"recipients"). | ||
:{| class="wikitable" border="1" | :{| class="wikitable" border="1" | ||
! clitics= | ! clitics= | ||