Tseer
Tseer/Lexicon
Swadesh list for Tseer
- This article describes Classical Tseer. See Tseer/Modern for Modern Tseer.
| Tseer | |
|---|---|
| dowødx Tseer | |
| Created by | IlL |
| Setting | Verse:Tricin |
Lakovic
| |
Tseer (cher; natively doløt Tseer Classical: /doløt tʃẽr̝/ Modern: /dowət tʃẽʃ/; Skellan: brits Txeñz) is a Lakovic language spoken in Talma. It is inspired mainly by Hmong and Somali, with touches of Burmese (especially for Modern Tseer), Vietnamese and Satem IE languages like Polish.
Tseer was a prominent classical language of Talma, second to Windermere; it left a significant influence on Windermere and Skellan.
Todo
- Needs some vowel shifts
- i ü u e o a ì ǜ ù è ò à → i ø u e o a ii øø uu ee oo aa
- p > f
- final -g, -w disappear
- /w l/ > v w /v w/
- ś, g > kh /x/
- s- > θ > t /t/
- -s > -x
- š-, y- > x-
- c, ć > tx, ts
- t- > th /T/
- r > r /r/
Numbers: don, oorad, txim, khaag, omøøtx, dag, abood, xev, wooj, thab, taxaa, trøg
thanam = ice
tawsuug = example
odoxmed = ??? (odosméd = 'byproduct' in Eevo)
nasal vowels merge with nonnasal vowels before m/n/ng/l?
Final -ng disappears leaving nasalization (as in Skellan)
hox = angle
thamex = side
ba<gon>aakh = proportion, ratio
anxoofay = climate
Phonology
Consonants
Classical Tseer has 20 phonemic consonants: Syllable-final -dh is an allophone of /d/, and syllable final b d g are allophones of /p t k/.
m n ng /ŋ/
t th /ʈ/ k ' /ʔ/
b d g
f x /s~z/ kh /x/ h
tx /ts/ ts /tʃ/
v dh /ð/ (dh only occurs syllable finally)
w r /r̝~ʒ/ y /j/
- Notes
- /x/ is [ʂ] in some dialects
- b d g = [p t k] word-finally.
Vowels
Classical Tseer has 12 vowels: 6 oral and 6 nasal.
a e i o u ø /a e i o u ɵ/
aa ee ii oo uu øø /ã ẽ ĩ õ ũ ɵ̃/
/ɵ/ will be transcribed as /ø/ for convenience.
Morphology
Tseer grammar and morphology are rather conservative (unlike Windermere). For example it has retained the Proto-Lakovic reduplicated plural, pluractionality and gender in verbs and the grammatical function of Proto-Lakovic applicatives or triggers.
Pronouns
| I | thou (m.) | thou (f.) | he | she | we (exc.) | we (inc.) | you (pl.) | they (an.) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subject clitics | -ir | -ekh | -ex | -in | -ix | -txaa | -ba | ??? | ??? |
| Full pronouns | rii | khen | kheex | in | iix | txam | baa | ??? | ??? |
'you' and 'they': from honorific expressions?
Todo: correlatives table
this, that = ti, fi
this/that man = ten, fen; this/that woman = teex, feex
here, there = mit, mif
Nouns
Each noun has an intrinsic gender, either masculine or feminine. Feminine is marked with -x (pronounced [z] after V m n y w v dh b d g, [əz] after x tx ts r and [s] after f kh).
- ativ = son-in-law; ativx = daughter-in-law
- bakhoo = uncle; bakhoox = aunt
- athaay = lion; athaayx = lioness
Plurals are formed by reduplication with the reduplicant modified for phonotactic or euphonic reasons.
- athaay 'lion' > a'athaay 'lions'
- moog 'feather' > momoog 'feathers'
TODO: plural reduplication rules
Verbs
Verb template
TAM-pluractionality-feminine-voice-ROOT?
Agreement
Feminine subject: va-
- Nutx-ir ownax = I loved the girl (male speaker)
- Vanutx-ir ownax = I loved the girl (female speaker)
Voice
Passive: haa- (~ Windermere ha-)
Verbal number
Pluractionality is used when a verb is done multiple times or done to multiple objects.
Pluractionality: Fe-, FeL-, eeFe- or eeFeL- (cf. Windermere frequentative enFă-)
TAM
Aspects/Tenses:
- Perfective aspect: unmarked
- Intensive: tho-, ~ Wdm. thu-
- Imperfective aspect: we- or reduplication
- Progressive: oL-, oo- (~ Wdm. ăL-, Modern oL- with non-past meaning)
- Jussive: af- (~ Wdm. hef-; Modern Tseer uses xa- for imperative)
Derivation
- xi- = adjectivizer
- xiwakoo = free, wakoo originally meant 'human'
- ta- = nominalizer
- boo- = agentive
- (diminutive redup)
Poetry
Tseer poetry is based on rhyming and lines with set numbers of syllables.