Lakovic languages
- Not to be confused with the Lahob languages.
Swadesh lists for the Lakovic languages
Wordlist
Lakovic languages/Sketchbook
| Lakovic | |
|---|---|
| Created by | – |
| Geographic distribution | Originally Bjeheond, Talma and Txapoalli; today worldwide |
| Linguistic classification | One of Tricin's primary language families |
| Proto-language | Proto-Lakovic |
| Subdivisions |
|
The Lakovic languages (/ləˈkoʊvɪk/ lə-KOH-vik; Windermere: fi imcduay Lăcof Bjeheondian: [vɪ (ʔ)ɪmˈgduːj ləˈkov]) are a major Trician language family, originally native to Bjeheond. The family is inspired by Semitic, Mon-Khmer and Austronesian languages. The shortest family
The family is named after *läkof, the PLak reconstructed word for 'human'. *läkof is the etymon of Windermere Lăchua '(poetic) Wen Dămea', Tseer lakoo 'free', and several other ethnonyms of Lakovic-speaking peoples. Template:Windermere sidebar
Todo
Language with dissimilated reduplicated plurals/verbs
some confusion between derivational affixes and trigger/applicatives in Ashanic
an ergative Lakovic language
a Txapoallian Lakovic language with a possessed classifier system
Urheimat
The Proto-Lakovic urheimat is thought to have been Bjeheond, based on the distribution of the family and reconstructed Proto-Lakovic vocabulary for Bjeheondian fauna and flora and tropical rainy and dry seasons.
Proto-Lakovic culture
Phylogeny
Most scholars agree on the following major branches:
- Ashanic
- Tseeric
- Häskä
- Pfiunic
- Tumhanic
- Txapoallian Lakovic
- Dakʼox (Ejective-y, tonal language)
- Tsrovesh
Phonology
The reconstructed phonology of PLak
Consonants
| Labial | Dental | Domed | Palatal | Velar | Laryngeal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | *m /m/ | *n /n/ | *ŋ /ŋ/ | ||||
| Plosive | voiced | *b /b/ | *d /d/ | *g /ɡ/ | |||
| voiceless | *p /p/ | *t /t/ | *k /k/ | *Q | |||
| Affricate | *c /t͡s/ | *ć /t͡ʂ/ | |||||
| Fricative | *f /ɸ/ | *s /s/ | *ś /ʂ/ | *š /ʃ/ | *X, *H | ||
| Resonant | *w /w/ | *l /l/ | *r /r/ | *y /j/ | |||
Little is known about the laryngeals *Q, *H, *X. Some conjectured realizations are:
- Q = /ʔ/ or /q/
- H = /ɦ/ or voiced uvular fricative
- X = /x/ or /ç/
The laryngeals may have developed allophones in different environments, leading to conditioned reflexes in daughter lnaguages.
Vowels
i u e o ä a
There is some disagreement about the vowel ä - it may have been /æ/ or /ə/.
Phonotactics
Proto-Lakovic was dominated by CV or CVC syllables. Some prefixes and infixes resulted in CC- initials.
Proto-Lakovic morphology
Root structure
Roots consisted of a sequence of consonants plus an inherent vowel. There was schwebeablaut: the vowel could change position within the root. The roots could be of the form
- biconsonantal roots alternating between CVC and CCV. Example: sep ~ spe 'to walk'
- triconsonantal roots alternating between CCVC, CVCC, and CVCVC. Example: ptsun ~ putsn ~ putsun 'to live'
- 4-consonant roots like cpalg ~ cplag 'to cry out' (Wdm. tspong and tsloc)
Statistically, biconsonantal roots in Lakovic are somewhat more common than in Semitic; triconsonantal roots are derived from biconsonantals via root extensions.
Various prefixes, infixes and suffixes were added to derive words. Some infixes had 2 allomorphs, either as an infix or as a prefix: C<əC>CVC or C-CVC/C-CVCC.
Three-consonant roots had 3 ablaut grades, traditionally called:
- Verbal grade: CCVC
- Nominal grade: CVCC
- Long nominal grade: CVCVC
The CVCC grade had some reflexes with either the first C assimilating into V or the second C (explain some words like muad, yar or -b, -d finals)
Weak roots
Weak roots such as *yriš 'to hear' and *sapQ 'to pull' have irregularities in their allomorphs, like weak roots in Semitic. The weak consonants are y, w, H, and Q.
With week roots, either the verbal stem (e.g. yriš > riš) or the nominal stem (sap' > sap 'to pull, to drag') or both are shortened, and either drops or assimilates the weak consonant.
Nouns
Nouns were pluralized by total reduplication:
- lakof 'person' > lakof-lakof 'people'
- ptek 'flesh' > ptek-ptek 'a large quantity of flesh'
There was an honorific suffix -is/-s. The semantic shift from honorific to feminine was an areal feature of Talman Lakovic languages.
Nouns had no morphological case; genitive noun phrases were formed by concatenation.
Ashanic developed a new associative plural suffix -am, from PLak päm 'that; those' (the -am in Modern Windermere plural pronouns łănam, ănam).
Case markers
Case markers came before the noun:
- xu = direct case (the noun in focus)
- Hit = indirect case
Pronouns
Most branches of Lakovic show evidence for the following PLak pronouns:
- *riH = I
- *bəŋ = we (dual inclusive)
- *śen = thou
- *śens = thou (hon)
- *Qin = he
- *Qins = he (hon)
PLak had no plural pronouns; it made do with associative plurals or demonstratives instead.
Verbs and adjectives
Proto-Lakovic was a verb-heavy language: verbs contained enough information that a sentence could consist of just a verb, and context made sense of the meaning.
Verbs inflected for triggers, TAM, pluractionality, evidentiality, and gender agreement. Present-day Lakovic languages preserve these inflections to varying levels.
Gender
- wa- = honorific
TAM
- unmarked or li- = imperfective
- -H = perfective
- hem- = change of state for statives?
- various reduplifixes for other TAMs:
- F(M)ä- = iterative
- FaL- = intensive
- ⟨iL⟩, qol-⟨iL⟩- almost X, X a little
- saL- = inceptive
- HenFa- = frequentative
- taFi- = graduative
- ongFa- = X for oneself, X in advance
Triggers
Triggers (giving the noun in the direct case specific semantic roles) were marked by adding infixes to the verbal grade of the root. The original trigger system usually became a set of derivational affixes in daughter languages, much like binyanim (originally marking voice) in Semitic languages.
Proto-Lakovic had eight triggers:
- agent trigger: unmarked?
- patient trigger: ⟨əp⟩
- destination trigger: ⟨əŋ⟩
- locative trigger: ⟨it⟩
- ablative/cause trigger: ⟨əm/nəm⟩
- instrument trigger: ⟨əg⟩
- benefactive trigger: ⟨əkəm⟩
- comitative trigger: ⟨lis⟩
In most branches (Ashanic, Tseeric, Tumhanic, Pfiunic, Häskä, Tsrovesh), the original trigger system became a set of derivational affixes. Txapoallian Lakovic reinterpreted the trigger system into a more head-marking, polysynthetic system. Only some modern Eta-Lakovic languages retain a trigger system today.
Nominalization
The most common ways to form deverbal nouns were:
- Using the nominal grade CVCC of the root
- The ⟨ay⟩ infix
- using instrument, place and agent affixes.
In some descendant languages such as Häskä, the nominal grade retained productivity as a derivational method, in fact there arose a triconsonantal root system.
Derivational morphology
Schwebeablaut
Three-consonant roots had 3 ablaut grades, traditionally called:
- Verbal grade: CCVC
- Nominal grade: CVCC
- Long nominal grade: CVCVC
Root extensions
There is much evidence that the truly basic roots were CVC~CCV roots, and CVCC~CCVC roots were derived from CVC~CCV via suffixing a third root consonant.
- ngit = to happen
- ngitw~ngtiw = new
Affixes
- ⟨-s⟩: honorific, nominalization
- Source of breathy voice ablaut in Wdm.
- ⟨r⟩ prefix or infix: non-volitional or passive verbs
- Ashanic *⟨àr⟩, Wdm. ⟨ră⟩, ⟨năr/măr⟩
- ⟨ay⟩ = deverbal noun
- ⟨ong⟩ = place noun
- ⟨X⟩ = agentive
- Wdm root vowel breathiness
- ⟨aH⟩ = verb forming prefix or infix
- Wdm initial voicing, sometimes also breathy root vowel
- biH- = agentive
- Wdm. pă- + voicing (not productive)
- Tseer ba-
- ha- = resultative (passive in Windermere)
- t- = intensive, denominals
- Wdm. th- or t- (not productive)
- Qu- = intensive
- Wdm. th-u-
- ya- = adjectivizer; from ya 'with'
- Wdm. yă-, Tseezh xi-, Häskä yə-
- ⟨Q⟩ = negative; the opposite or undoing of X
- not productive in Wdm
Proto-Lakovic syntax
Proto-Lakovic had flexible word order, but the most common word order was VSO.
Triggers
- spe-H Hit Qopr-is Xu riH (walk-PFV DIR height-FEM DIR 1SG) = I walked up high (neutral)
- s<əŋ>pe-H Hit riH Xu Qopris (<DEST>walk-PFV DIR 1SG DIR high) = I walked up high (emphasis on "up high")
Copular sentences
Proto-Lakovic was zero-copula (different descendants use different etymologies for the copula).
This caused some triggers to be reinterpreted as noun-deriving affixes in some daughter languages. Demonstration by contrived example, with the instrument trigger:
- p⟨ək⟩tuś Hit riH Hit Qin Xu məHokis.
- ⟨INST⟩stab IND 1SG IND 3SG.M DIR stone-F
- I stabbed him with the stone.
was reinterpreted as something like "The stone was my stabbing-instrument [for piercing] him".