Tseer

Tseer/Lexicon
Swadesh list for Tseer

This article describes Classical Tseer. See Tseer/Modern for Modern Tseer.

Tseer
dolødx Tseer
Created by	IlL
Setting	Verse:Tricin
Language family	Lakovic Ashanic Tseer

Tseer (cher; natively dolødx Tseer Classical: /dolødz tʃẽr̝/ Modern: /dowəts 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
  • ø occurs when a is u-umlauted: *taafu > tøøfu
• 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 22 phonemic consonants: Syllable-final v dh are allophones of /b 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/ (only syllable finally)

w r /r̝~ʒ/ l 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 l r y v dh b d g, [əz] after x tx ts th 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

• ⟨r⟩ = patientive
• xi- = adjectivizer
  • xiwakoo = free, wakoo originally meant 'human'
• to- = nominalizer
• boo- = agentive
• (diminutive redup)

Poetry

Tseer poetry is based on rhyming and lines with set numbers of syllables.