Kalyahekwe

Kalyah language
Kalyahekwe
Pronunciation	[/kalʲ.ˈja.hɛ.kʷɛ/]
Created by	Raistas
Setting	planet Liifam
Ethnicity	Kalyaheen
Language family	Settameric languages Western Plains languages Kalyah language
Early form	Proto-Settameric

Kalyah (with four varieties, known as Möhkinis, Teimyois, Šonoowis and Eihtoomis) is a language, spoken in the western part of a vast flat region of the Northern continent, simply called the Plains. The most commonly spoken variety is Teimyois, it is referred to as an "ð-dialect", because the *θ is still distinct in most cases as a phoneme /ð/. The grammar and the examples used here are from Teimyois, but data on other dialects will be given as well. It is spoken by approximately 117,000 people across the northern part of the Plains near the Frost Bay (Iniikekwa).

Kalyah is believed to have begun as a Plains Settameric dialect spoken between 2,500 and 3,000 years ago in the original homeland, near the Kahaaler mountains and slowly spread eastward. However, it's divergence into separate dialects began much later, around 700 years ago. The main criteria of division are reflexes of *l, *š and *θ as the boundaries, made by those reflexes, are quite clear. Another important phonological variation involves the palatalisation of the phoneme *k to "č" before /j/ and /i(ː)/, however the division is not as clear, since *ky is often pronounced as [c] in the west, slowly becomes [c͡ç], when moving eastward, until it finally becomes [t͡ʃ] Eihtoomis dialect.

Phonology

Consonants

This table shows the possible consonant phonemes in the Kalyah language and its varieties:

	Bilabial	Dental		Postalveolar	Velar		Glottal
					plain	labialized
Nasal	m	n
Stop	p	t			k	kw /kʷ/
Fricative	f	θ	s	š /ʃ/			h
Affricate		/t͡s/		/t͡ʃ/
Approximant	w	ð		y /j/
Lateral Approximant		l

•   Found only in the Möhkinis dialect, where it is a reflex of *č. This dialect has no [t͡ʃ]
•   Present in Teimyois and Möhkinis. [ð] comes from *θ between two vowels in Teimyois and from *l in Möhkinis. *l is preserved as [l] in Teimyois, becomes [n] in Šonoowis and [j] in Eihtoomis.
•   Present in Šonoowis and in Southern Eihtoomis. In other dialects *š becomes [s].

When /j/ precedes a consonant, it becomes palatalized. In most dialects /j/ then disappears. For example the name of the language is often pronounced [ka.ˈlʲa.he.kʷe] with a palatalized (or even a trully palatal /l/). In Eihtoomis plain velars also palatalize before /i(ː)/ and become [t͡ʃ]. A unique combination is "hy" which is almost always pronounced [ç], but that sound is rare, for example: lyahyi "rime" is [lʲaçɪ]. Whether palatalized consonants are separate phonemes or not is a matter of debate, but there is at least one minimal pair: lyoma ([ˈlʲo.ma], "hiding") and loma ([ˈlo.ma], "hammer, obviative") since two consonants in a row are not allowed word-initially in Kalyah. Both plosives and affricates (except č) can be preaspirated between two vowels and word-finally in monosyllabic words, which is marked with "h" before a consonant, for example: ahto "man", fohk "leaf", iskahceh "s/he fed it", fiihp "lake", liihkʷ "fire".

Vowels

Vowels

	Front		Back
	unrounded	rounded
Close	ii |[iː]	öö [øː~ʉː]	oo [oː~uː]
Near-Close	i [ɪ]	ö [ø~ʏ]	o [o~ʊ]
Mid	ee [eː]
Near-Open	e [ɛ]
Open	a [a]		aa [ɑː~ɔɑ]

All dialects have the same set of vowels, but they may differ in certain words. Kalyah has several diphthongs as well, that can be monophthongized in many Southern varieties. The quality of those diphthongs varies too among dialects:

Diphthongs

	Dialects:
	Möhkinis	Teimyois	Šonoowis	Eihtoomis
ei	[aɪ]	[eɪ]	[ɛæ]	[eɪ]
aa	[ɒː]	[ɔɑ]	[ɔɑ]	[ɑː]
oi	[oɪ]	[ʊɪ]	[ɛɵ~œ]	[øʏ]
yo	[jo]	[jo]	[œː]	[je]
ya	[ja]	[ja]	[ɛæ]	[je]
yö	[jo]	[jø]	[øː]	[øː]

Prosody

Stress in Kalyahekwe is non-phonemic. Traditionally, the word stress is antepenultimate and dynamic. This means that it falls on the third from last syllable in words with three or more syllables, but on the first syllable of the root in other words. But in Northern dialects it is always placed on the initial syllable instead. Both variations are correct in modern Kalyah. In its earlier stages of development Kalyah probably had a pitch accent, but it was lost completely nowadays. If a word is longer than four syllables, a secondary stress can be placed on the second to last syllable, for instance: koočikwaaniitis [koː.ˈt͡ʃɪ.kʷɔɑ.ˌniː.tɪs] "we might not be running around".