Thangha'

Thangha' is another language spoken in my far future Antarctic conworld (after runaway global warming has melted most of the ice but made most of the rest of the world uninhabitable). It is spoken by nomads who inhabit the centre of the continent.. Because each group of nomads speak their own dialect, Thangha' is a Pluricentric language. The situation is further complicated by the fact that Thangha's has become a lingua franca across much of East Antarctica (through other ethnic groups trading with the nomads). To give an example of the diversity, the initial consonant in the name of the language can be pronounced as [tˤ], [θˤ], [θ], [tsˤ], [sˤ], [tʰ], [tsʰ] or occasionally [ts]. The consonant that begins the second syllable is usually prononuced [x], but a few dialects pronounce it as as [χ], [ħ] or [h].

Thangha' was heavily influenced by Austronesian languages, most notably in its split ergative alignment. But it also borrowed heavily from English, Hindi and various Chinese dialects.

Phonology

Vowels

In stressed syllables, most dialects distinguish 5 plain oral vowels /a/, /iː/, /uː/, /e/, /o/, two nasal vowels /aⁿ/ and /əⁿ/, and one glottalised vowel /əʔ/. The difference between /iː/ vs. /e/ is more dependent on length than height. For example, a short [i] is more likely to be heard as /e/ than /iː/, and a long /eː/ is more likely to be heard as /iː/ than /e/. The back vowels /uː/ and /o/ are similar in this regard.

In unstressed syllables, the plain oral vowels /iː/, /uː/, /e/ and /o/ (i.e. all of the plain oral vowels except /a/) merge to /ə/ (which is still distinct from /əʔ/.

In non-word final syllables, it is very common for nasal vowels to unpackinto a sequence of oral vowel + nasal consonant (which is homorganic with the following consonant). For example, the vowel of the first syllable in the language name Thangha' is phonemically /aⁿ/, but is usually heard as [aŋ] (or [aɴ] for speakers who use a uvular fricative instead of a velar fricative).

Thangha' is well on the way to developing a second phonemic glottalised vowel /aʔ/, from coalesence of the sequence /a/ + Stop + /əʔ/ (unstressed). For example, in careful speech, Thangha' is heard as /ˈtˤaⁿxapəʔ/, however in normal conversation it is almost always contracted to /ˈtˤaⁿxaʔ/.

Consonants

There is considerable variation between dialects here:

	Labial	Pal. Labial	Dental / Alveolar	Lab. Dental	Alveolo-Palatal	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Lab. Velar	Lab. Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	m	mʲ ~ mj	n	nʷ ~ nw			ɲ ~ nj
Voiced Stop / Affricate	b	bʲ ~ bj	d	dʷ ~ dw	dʑ	ɖ	ɟ ~ gj	g		gʷ ~ gw ~ gb
Voiceless Stop	p	pʲ ~ pj	t	tʷ ~ tw		ʈ	c ~ kj	k	q	kʷ ~ kw ~ kp	qʷ ~ kf ~ qp	ʔ
Voiceless Affricate			ts ~ tɬ		tɕ
"Aspirated" Consonant	pˤ ~ pʰ		tˤ ~ θˤ ~ θ ~ tsˤ~ sˤ ~ tʰ ~ tsʰ ~ ts				cç ~ kɕ ~ ks
Fricative	f	fʲ ~ fj	s	sʷ ~ sw	ɕ	ʂ	ç ~ ɬ	x ~ χ ~ ħ ~ h		xʷ ~ χʷ ~ ʍ ~ ɸ
Flap / Trill					ɾʲ	ɽ			ʀ		ʀʷ ~ ⱱ
Lateral							ʎ		ɫ		ɫʷ ~ ɫw
Semivowel							j			w

The uvular trill is most commonly pronounced as an approximant [ʁ].

Flaps usually become trills after glottal stops.

Clusters of glottal stop followed by stops, fricatives or affricates coalesce to become geminates e.g. /ˈwəʔɖa/ - "rain" [ˈwɔɖːɑ]

The "aspirated" consonants were originally aspirated stops, and a very small number of dialects preserve this pronunciation, however in the vast majority of dialects these have undergone sound shifts.

A few dialects merge the aspirated dental consonant into the voiceless alveolar affricate. In these dialects, Thangha' would be pronounced [ˈtsaŋxaʔ].

Some dialects merge /ɫʷ/ into /ɫ/.

Labialised labial consonants /mʷ/, /bʷ/, /pʷ/ (and sometimes /fʷ/~/ɸ/) occur as separate phonemese in a few dialects. But most dialects have merged these with the plain labials.

Some dialects merge /xʷ/ into /f/ (or /ɸ/ in one dialect that treats this as a distinct phoneme to /f/).

Stress

Syllable stress is not fixed, and can occur on any syllable of a word. However, as mentioned earlier, the range of vowels that can occur on unstressed syllables is limited.

Phonotactics

Only CCV syllables are permitted (this assumes that nasal and glottalised vowels are distinct phonemes). Furthermore, the only permissible consonant clusters (that are not affricates / cases of secondary articulation in at least some dialects) are /pf/, /tf/ and /pç/~/ps/~/pɬ/.

Vowel Allophony

The vowels of Thangha' have a number of different allophones depending on what consonants they are adjacent to. These are described in the table below. Note that a "lowering" consonant is defined as a pharyngealised, retroflex or uvular consonant (labialised or non-labialised, including /ɫ/). If two sounds are listed, the first occurs in stressed syllables, and the second in unstressed syllables:

Phoneme	/a/	/iː/	/uː/	/e/	/o/	/aⁿ/	/əⁿ/	/əʔ/	/ə/	/aʔ/
Default	[a]	[iː]	[uː]	[e]	[o]	[aⁿ]	[əⁿ]	[əʔ]	[ə]	[aʔ]
Adjacent to a Palatal or Palatalised Consonant	[æ]	[iː]	[ʉː]	[i]	[ɵ]	[ɛⁿ]	[eⁿ]	[ɪʔ]	[ɪ]	[ɛʔ]
Adjacent to a Lowering Consonant (Non-Labialised)	[ɑ]	[eː]	[oː]	[ɛ]	[ɔ]	[ɑⁿ]	[ʌⁿ]	[ʌʔ]	[ʌ]	[ɑʔ]
Adjacent to a Labialised Consonant (Non-Lowering)	[a]	[yː]	[uː]	[ø]	[u]	[aⁿ]	[oⁿ]	[ʊʔ]	[ʊ]	[ɔʔ]
Adjacent to a Labialised Uvular Consonant	[ɒ]	[øː]	[oː]	[œ]	[ɔ]	[ɒⁿ]	[ɔⁿ]	[ɔʔ]	[ɔ]	[ɒʔ]
Between a Lowering Consonant and a Labialised Consonant	[ɒ]	[øː]	[oː]	[œ]	[ɔ]	[ɒⁿ]	[ɔⁿ]	[ɔʔ]	[ɔ]	[ɒʔ]
Between a Palatal / Palatalised Consonant, and a Labialised Consonant (Non-Lowering)	[ɞ]	[yː]	[ʉː]	[y]	[ʉ]	[œⁿ]	[øⁿ]	[ʏʔ]	[ʏ]	[œʔ]
Between a Palatal / Palatalised Consonant, and a Labialised Uvular Consonant	[ɐ]	[øː]	[oː]	[ø]	[o]	[ɐⁿ]	[əⁿ]	[ɵʔ]	[ɵ]	[ɐʔ]
Between a Palatal / Palatalised Consonant, and a Lowering Consonant (Non-Labialised)	[ɐ]	[eː]	[oː]	[e]	[o]	[ɐⁿ]	[əⁿ]	[ɘʔ]	[ɘ]	[ɐʔ]

Nouns

Plurals

Additive Plural

This is formed by reduplicating the last syllable of the noun e.g. /ˈʂaⁿsəʔ/ [ˈʂɑnsəʔ] - "boss" -> /ˈʂaⁿsəʔsəʔ/ [ˈʂɑnsəsːaʔ] - "bosses". However, in Thangha', pluralisation is optional. So /ˈʂaⁿsəʔ/ could mean either "boss" or "bosses". In general, the plural is only used to emphasise that there is a large number / quantity of something. It can even be used for uncountable nouns e.g. /ˈpfəⁿʂa/ [ˈpfʌɲʂɑ] - sand (from a desert, Thangha' has a different word for beach sand) -> /ˈpfəⁿʂaʂa/ [ˈpfʌɲʂɑʂɑ] - "large amount of desert sand / dune sea".

Associative Plural

Distinct from the additive plural, this means "X and company", "X and his/her mob" etc. (similar to Japanese -tachi). It is formed by suffixing /-də/ to the noun e.g.

/ˈʂaⁿsəʔ/ [ˈʂɑnsəʔ] - "boss" -> /ˈʂaⁿsəʔdə/ [ˈʂɑnsədːə]- "the boss and his lot"

Note that this is distinct from the additive plural discussed before. /ˈʂaⁿsəʔsəʔ/ refers to a group of bosses, while /ˈʂaⁿsəʔdə/ refers to a boss with a group of other people associated with him (who by no means need to be bosses, and could well be the boss's subordinates).

Case

Thangha' has three cases, Absolutive (unmarked), Ergative (marked with the suffix /-ɟa/) and Genitive.

The Genitive case is normally marked with the prefix /naⁿ-/ e.g. /ˈʂaⁿsəʔ/ [ˈʂɑnsəʔ] - "boss" -> /naⁿˈʂaⁿsəʔ/ [naɳˈʂɑnsəʔ] - "of the boss", /ˈpfəⁿʂa/ [ˈpfʌɳʂɑ] - "sand" -> /naⁿˈpfəⁿʂa/ [namˈpfʌɳʂɑ] "of the sand". However, if the initial consonant of the noun is /ʔ/, /j/ or /w/, then these are replaced with /nag-/, /naɟ-/ and /nagʷ-/ respectively. e.g. /ˈʔaba/ - "ash" -> /naˈgaba/ - "of the ash", /ˈjiːtəʔ/ - "food" -> /naˈɟiːtəʔ/ - "of the food", /ˈwəʔɖa/ [ˈwɔɖːɑ] - "rain" -> /naˈgʷəʔɖa/ [naˈgʷɔɖːɑ] - "of the rain".

Possession

Like most Antarctican languages, Thangha' uses different constructions for alienable and inalienable possession.

Inalienable Possession

In this case, the word order is Possessed - Possessor, with the Possessor marked with the genitive case e.g.

/ˈʀʷəʔtʷəʔ naⁿ-kʷəʔˈta/

[ˈʁʷɔʔtʷʊʔ naŋkʷʊʔˈta]

bone GEN-dog

The dog's bone (in it's body)

Alienable Possession

The construction for alienable possession is completely different. The word order is Possessor - Possessed (the reverse of inalienable possession) and the Possessor is marked with the Ergative case e.g.

/kʷəʔˈta-ɟa ˈʀʷəʔtʷəʔ/

[kʷʊʔˈtæ-ɟæ ˈʁʷɔʔtʷʊʔ]

dog-ERG bone

The dog's bone (that it is chewing / burying etc.)

Demonstratives

Like English, Thangha' makes a two-way distance contrast in demonstratives, and there is no distinction between pronominal demonstratives and adnominal demonstratives (which precede the noun, like in English). Unlike English, there is no singular vs. plural contrast in demonstratives:

This / These: /ˈjəʔɲəʔ/ [jɪʔɲɪʔ]

That / Those: /ˈjəʔtʷəʔ/ [ˈjʏʔtʷʊʔ]

Prepositional Clitics

In Thangha', prepositions are clitics that attach phonologically to the following word (whether that is a noun, demonstrative, numeral or adjective). The pronunciation of the last vowel in a preposition is affected by the first consonant in the following word e.g.

/saⁿpʲəⁿ/ [sɛmpʲeⁿ] - "next to"

/ˈʂaⁿsəʔ/ [ˈʂɑnsəʔ] - "boss"

/saⁿpʲəⁿ=ˈʂaⁿsəʔ/ [sɛmpʲəɳ=ˈʂɑnsəʔ] - "next to the boss"

Contractions

If a preposition ends with /-əʔ/, and the following word begins with /ʔ/, /j/ or /w/, then the combination of the two words is often abbreviated by deleting the last vowel of the preposition and the first consonant of the following word e.g.

/ʔatasəʔ/ - "above"

/ˈjiːtəʔ/ - "food"

/ʔataˈsiːtəʔ/ - "above the food" ( the uncontracted form /ʔatasəʔ=ˈjiːtəʔ/ is grammatical but almost never heard).

Sometimes, an initial /j/ or /w/ is not deleted entirely, but survives as secondary articulation on the last consonant of the preposition e.g.

/ˈwəʔwa/ [ˈwʊʔwa] - "animal fat"

/ʔataˈsʷəʔwa/ [ʔataˈsʷʊʔwa] - "above the animal fat"

/pəⁿtˤakəʔ/ [pʌntˤɑkəʔ]- "on top of"

/pəⁿtˤaˈkʷəʔwa/ [pʌntˤɒˈkʷʊʔwa] - "on top of the animal fat"

/pəⁿtˤaˈciːtəʔ/ [pʌntˤɐˈciːtəʔ] - "on top of the food"

Pronouns

Thangha' makes a distinction between inclusive and exclusive "we". Unlike the rest of the language which has ergative-absolutive alignment, pronouns have Fluid-S Alignment. In transitive sentences, subjects have the agentive case, while objects have the patientive case e.g.

/ˈʔəʔkʷa ʎə-ˈkəʔta ˈkəʔɲəʔ/

[ˈʔʊʔkʷa ʎɪ-ˈkətːa ˈkɪʔɲɪʔ]

1PS.SG.AGT ATEL-bite 3PS.PAT

I was biting him/her/them.

However, in intransitive sentences, pronominal subjects only have the agentive case if they perform the action of their own free will e.g.

/ˈʔəʔkʷa mʲaɲəʔ-ˈɫʷuːʂa/

[ˈʔʊʔkʷa mʲæɲɘʔ-ˈɫʷoːʂɑ]

1PS.SG.AGT TEL-fall

I dropped to the ground (deliberately, e.g. to duck a bullet)

If the action is involitional, pronominal subjects of an intransitive verb take the patientive case e.g.

/ˈʔacəⁿ mʲaɲəʔ-ˈɫʷuːʂa/

[ˈʔæceⁿ mʲæɲɘʔ-ˈɫʷoːʂɑ]

1PS.SG.PAT TEL-fall

I fell to the ground (by accident)

The various pronouns are listed in the table below:

	Agentive	Patientive	Genitive
1PS Singular	/ˈʔəʔkʷa/ [ˈʔʊʔkʷa]	/ˈʔacəⁿ/ [ˈʔæceⁿ]	/kʷo/ [kʷu]
1PS Plural Exclusive	/kaˈmʲəʔ/ [kæˈmʲɪʔ]	/ˈʔəʔmʲəⁿ/ [ˈʔɪʔmʲeⁿ]	/ˈnəʔmʲəⁿ/ [ˈnɪʔmʲeⁿ]
1PS Plural Inclusive	/ˈtəʔxʷa/ [ˈtʊʔxʷa]	/ˈʔəʔtəⁿ/ [ˈʔəʔtəⁿ]	/ˈnəʔtəⁿ/ [ˈnəʔtəⁿ]
2PS Singular	/jəʔˈko/ [jɪʔˈko]	/jəʔˈxʷo/ [jʏʔˈxʷu] ~ [jʏʔˈɸu] ~ [jɪʔˈɸo]	/mo/ [mo]
2PS Plural / Polite	/kaˈxʷo/ [kaˈxʷu]	/jəⁿˈxʷo/ [jøŋˈxʷu] ~ [jømˈɸu] ~ [jemˈɸo]	/ɲəⁿˈxʷo/ [ɲøŋˈxʷu] ~ [ɲømˈɸu] ~ [ɲemˈɸo]
3PS	/səʔ/ [səʔ]	/ˈkəʔɲəʔ/ [ˈkɪʔɲɪʔ]	/ɲəʔ/ [ɲɪʔ]

The genitive pronouns are used for both alienable and inalienable possession. In both cases, they precede the noun they possess e.g. /kʷo ˈʀʷəʔtʷəʔ/ [kʷu ˈʁʷɔʔtʷʊʔ] - "my bone" (either in my body, or in my possession).

The second person plural pronouns can also be used to refer to a single person, if the speaker desires to express respect to that person. This is similar to French tu vs. vous.

Verbs

All verb conjugation is done using prefixes. Verbs do not inflect for tense or mood, but Telicity plays a central role in verb conjugation. Verbs can also be inflected into a number of different grammatical voices:

Voice	Telic	Atelic
Default	mʲaɲəʔ-	ʎə-
Antipassive	mʲaⁿma-	ʎama-
Applicative	mʲaɲəʔka-	ʎəka-
Adjutative	mʲaɲəʔpaⁿ-	ʎəpaⁿ-

Default Voice

Transitive Sentences

For transitive sentences, the most common word order is [Subject] Verb [Direct Object] [Prepositional Objects] e.g.

/kʷəʔˈta-ɟa ʎə-ˈkəʔta ˈʀʷəʔtʷəʔ/

[kʷʊʔˈtæ-ɟæ ʎɪ-ˈkətːa ˈʁʷɔtːʷʊʔ]

dog-ERG ATEL-bite bone.ABS

The dog was biting a / the bone.

Note that this construction is only used when a) the subject is definite (where English would use "the") and b) the subject is not topicalised (i.e. in cases where Japanese would use "ga" and not "wa"). See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topic_and_comment, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topic-prominent_language and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_grammar#Topic.2C_theme.2C_and_subject:_.E3.81.AF_wa_and_.E3.81.8C_ga.

Subject Topicalisation

In transitive sentences where the subject is definite and is also topicalised (i.e. in a case where English would mark it with "the" , and Japanese would mark it with "wa"), the subject takes the absolutive case e.g.

/kʷəʔˈta ʎə-ˈkəʔta ˈʀʷəʔtʷəʔ/

[kʷʊˈtːa ʎɪ-ˈkətːa ˈʁʷɔtːʷʊʔ]

dog ATEL-bite bone.ABS

The dog was biting a / the bone.

This sentence differs from the previous one (which has the ergative marker -ɟa) in that, without -ɟa, it simply describes the dog and what it is doing, whereas with -ɟa, it is more likely to be an answer to a question (overt or implied) asking something like "Who / What was biting the bone?"

Object Topicalisation

Objects of such transitive sentences can be topicalised by moving them to the front of the sentence (this precludes subject topicalisation, a sentence can only have one topic). This is usually used in situations where English would use the passive voice e.g.

/ˈʀʷəʔtʷəʔ kʷəʔˈta-ɟa ʎə-ˈkəʔta/

[ˈʁʷɔtːʷʊʔ kʷʊˈtːæ-ɟæ ʎɪ-ˈkətːa]

bone.ABS dog-ERG ATEL-bite

The bone was being bitten by the dog.

Subject Deletion

Thangha' is a Pro-drop language. In particular, it is common to delete the subject of transitive sentences if it is obvious from the context e.g.

/ʎə-ˈkəʔta ˈʀʷəʔtʷəʔ/

[ʎɪ-ˈkətːa ˈʁʷɔtːʷʊʔ]

ATEL-bite bone.ABS

It (or he/she/they) was biting a / the bone.

Intransitive Sentences

Subjects of intransitive sentences come before the verb if the subject is topicalised e.g.

/ˈʂaⁿsəʔ mʲaɲəʔ-ˈɫʷuːʂa/

[ˈʂɑnsəʔ mʲæɲɘʔ-ˈɫʷoːʂɑ]

boss TEL-fall

The boss dropped to the ground (where the main point of the sentence is to say what the boss did)

If the subject is not topicalised, they come after the verb e.g.

/mʲaɲəʔ-ˈɫʷuːʂa ˈʂaⁿsəʔ/

[mʲæɲɘʔ-ˈɫʷoːʂɑ ˈʂɑnsəʔ]

TEL-fall boss

The boss dropped to the ground (where the main point of the sentence is to say who dropped to the ground)

Pronouns

In intransitive sentences, subject pronouns come before the verb e.g.

/ˈʔəʔkʷa mʲaɲəʔ-ˈɫʷuːʂa/

[ˈʔʊʔkʷa mʲæɲɘʔ-ˈɫʷoːʂɑ]

1PS.SG.AGT TEL-fall

I dropped to the ground.

This applies even if the subject pronoun is in the patientive case (to indicate that the action was involitional) e.g.

/ˈʔacəⁿ mʲaɲəʔ-ˈɫʷuːʂa/

[ˈʔæceⁿ mʲæɲɘʔ-ˈɫʷoːʂɑ]

1PS.SG.PAT TEL-fall

I fell to the ground (by accident)

Subject Deletion

As with transitive sentences, subjects of intransitive sentences can be freely deleted if they are obvious from context e.g.

/mʲaɲəʔ-ˈɫʷuːʂa/

[mʲæɲɘʔ-ˈɫʷoːʂɑ]

TEL-fall

I/you/he/... fell to the ground.