Teutla

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Teutla
Teutla
Pronunciation['teu.tla]
Created byNicolás Campi
SettingEarth-like planet
Native speakersUnknown (2009)
Cramarian
  • Proto-Cramarian
    • Teutla
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Teutla is a Cramarian language with a faintly mixed Nahuatl/Mayan touch. It was later to be superseded by another language Coalen, with a very similar motif and inspiration but different grammar and phonetics.

Phonology

Teutla notably preserves the alveolar/retroflex distinction for the sibilant, adding a palatal also.

Consonants

Bilabial Dental/Alveolar Palatal Velar Retroflex Labio-Velar Glottal
Stop p t t͡ʃ ch k tx
Fricative h
Sibilant s ʃ sh ʂ x
Nasal m n
Liquid l r
Approximant w hu

Vowels

Five vowels are distinguished with their long and short versions.

Front Central Back
Close i, iː i, ī u, uː u, ū
Mid e, eː e, ē o, oː o, ō
Open a, aː a, ā

Morphosyntax

Nouns

Nouns only mark for ergative, absolutive (lack of marking and citation form) and construct. Appart from these, Teutla uses a number of postpositional suffixes to convey most other senses that could be covered by cases in other agglutinative languages. More important than case marking is the plural, which depends on the noun class and can also cover names other than plain plural, such as collective or "completive" and a "multative" (many instances of one same thing).

she
"man"
chak
"ash"
hop
"foot"
Singular Absolutive she chak hop
Ergative sheum chakum hopum
Construct shei chaki hopi
Plural Absolutive shetla chakneh hopneh
Ergative shetlum chaknum hopnum
Construct shetli chakni hopni
Plural coll. Absolutive shetash chaktash hoptash
Ergative shetashum chaktashum hoptashum
Construct shetashi chaktashi hoptashi
Plural mult. Absolutive shenech chaknech hopnech
Ergative shenechum chaknechum hopnechum
Construct shenechi chaknechi hopnechi

Plurals

Some plurals include a semantic distinction and can only be used with nouns of a class.

Plural Form IPA
inanimate abstract -tu [tu]
inanimate concrete -neh [neʰ]
animate -tla [tɬa]

Some plurals can be used with either.

Plural Form IPA Meaning
collective -tash [taʂ] All X
multative -nech [net͡ʃ] A lot of X

Example texts

Sample:
shetash huaccan | chacnech ijopnej īxnen.
/ˈʃetaʃ ˈwakkan | ˈt͡ʃaknet͡ʃ iˈxopnex ˈiːʂnen/
All men are big | A lot of ashes cover his feet