Balog: Difference between revisions

| ||  || /tʼ/ ^3,⁶<br>‹'''tq'''› ||  ||  || /kʼ/ ⁶<br>‹'''kq'''› ||  ||

| ||  || /t͡sʼ/ ^6,⁷<br>‹'''tsq'''› || /t͡ʃʼ/ ^6,⁷<br>‹'''tšq''' / '''tshq'''› ||  ||  ||  ||

# The ejective consonants /pʼ tʼ kʼ t͡sʼ t͡ʃʼ/ are frequently pronounced irregularly by L2 speakers who lack ejective consonants in their native languages. As there are many minimal pairs that can result in dangerous misunderstandings if the ejective consonants are not pronounced, many L2 speakers who are unable to pronounce the ejectives substitute them with sequences of a plain plosive or affricate, a weakly articulated schwa and then a glottal stop: [pə͉ʔ tə͉ʔ kə͉ʔ t͡sə͉ʔ t͡ʃə͉ʔ].

# The affricates are not distinguished phonetically from equivalent sequences of plosive and fricative that come together by compounding processes or even across word boundaries. They are ascribed phonemic status due to their phonotactic patterning.

# The lateral /l/ may be, as discussed in point 3., either be dental or alveolar, however there is always a strong velar or pharyngeal coarticulation: [ɫ~ɫ̪]

! Header text !! Front !! Back

| /i/ [ɪ] ‹'''i'''› || /u/ [ʊ͍] ‹'''u'''›

| /e/ [ɛ] ‹'''e'''› || /o/ [ɔ͍] ‹'''o'''›

| /æ/ [æ] ‹'''ä'''› || /a/ [ɐ] ‹'''a'''›

===Gemination===

===Prenasalisation===

===Vowel Frontness===

===Verbs===

There is only one class of content word in Balog. These form the equivalent of verbs, nouns, adjectives and pronouns in other languages. Words of this lexical category cannot be sorted into separate discrete classes of nouns, verbs etc. using syntax or morphology. With few exceptions, each content word exhibits complete bidirectional subject-predicate flexibility, meaning they can be used in predicates ("verbally") or become nominalised by a subject marker in order to be used ("nominally") as the subject of a clause without any irregular changes in form or meaning. This class of words in Balog is refered to as "verbs" due to the simple fact that they can appear unmodified in a predicate but must be modified by a nominaliser in order to appear in subjects.

By contrast, the meaning of Balog verbs does not change depending on their syntactic position within a clause. Each verb may be given a nominal or a verbal translation into English, but the relationship between them is consistent. If given a nominal translation, then the verbal translation is simply "be [noun]". If given a verbal translation, the nominal translation is simply the agent noun of it or, more specifically, "entity that [verb]s", "one who [verbs]", "that which [verbs]", "those that [verb]" etc.  

! Balog Verb!! Verbal Translation !! Nominal Translation

It could be argued that a non-syntactic division of the category of verbs into classes of true verbs, nouns, adjectives etc., could be made on the basis of semantics. For example, semanticists may argue that the verb '''magaz''' (fall over) is semantically a ''true verb'' as it describes "an action/state",  whereas the verb '''dauz''' (be a tree) is semantically a ''noun'' because it describes "an entity". This semantic approach to the creation of additional categories that are not supported by syntactic analysis will, however, inevitably cause disagreements as semantic categories have fuzzy edges. A verb such as '''lisim''' could equally well regarded as a noun meaning "(an) annoyance" or "nuisance" or as a true verb meaning "annoy" or "bother". The question as to whether ''lisim'' refers to an entity or to an action/state can be answered with "Both!" '''Lisim''' refers to the action and the agent of that action. Likewise, the verb '''vaŋ''' could be argued to be a true verb meaning ''hunt'' (an action) or a noun meaning "hunter" (an entity or that performs the action). Even in more apparently clear-cut cases,  although the verb '''magaz''' "fall over", which patently seems to describe an action, is most conveniently translated into English as a verb, it also describes an ''entity that falls over'' (a "faller-over"). Likewise, the verb '''dauz''' describes an entity, a "tree", yet it also describes the action/state of '''being a tree'''. Balog simply makes no syntactic or lexical distinction between performing an action or being the agent of such an action.  

In many cases, the difference between what semanticists would regard as true verbs or nouns depends on the the intrinsic temporal aspect or ''Aktionsart'' of the word's definition. Words describing relatively long-lasting and static attributes of an entity, such as '''dauz''' "be a tree" or '''ŋaž''' "be tall" are less likely to be perceived by semanticists as true verbs and also less likely to be translatable by verbs alone in languages with a noun-verb distinction. Dynamic states or actions involving movement or change, especially transient or momentane descriptions of an entity that the entity may quickly pass through, are more likely to be regarded as intrinsically "verb like" and, when translated into English, may frequently have awkward, clunky nominal translations involving relative clauses headed by "entity that", "one who" or "that which".

The following table illustrates the temporal duration of varying attributes of what may be regarded as a single entity, a tree. This entity can be regarded as performing the action "be tree" for a substantial period of time, although, archetypally, it would most likely be described as a tree when fully grown and not yet fallen over. The size of the X's in the table indicates the suitability of the word. Throughout a tree's life, it undergoes dynamic, changing action/states, some only for a single moment such as germinating or falling over, others, such as flowering may continue for a few weeks or months at a time and recur intermittantly. Other action/states, such as verbal "growing", occur for similar durations of time as more semantically nominal action/states such as "be tree", "be sapling", however these are regarded by semanticists as verbal merely due to the focus of the word on the change of state, contrasting with "be tree", in which changes of state are not in focus.  

<pre>Balog     Verbal               

Verb:     Translation:      Time:----------------------------------------------------------------------->  

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________        

dauz     | be tree        | xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

ŋurad     | germinate      | X

biyad     | grow:          | XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

zemalik   | be seedling    |  XXXXXXXXXXxxx

dauzit   | be sapling      |        xxxXXXXXXXXXXXXXxxx

ŋaž       | be tall        |                            xxxxxxxxxxxXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

näh      | photosynthesise |  X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X

zambilif | flower          |                    XX    XX    XX  XX  XXX  XXX XX

magaz     | fall down      |                                                        X

dišif     | rot            |                                                      xxxXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxxxxx

däžib     | fallen tree, log|                                                          XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxxxxx</pre>

===Adverbs===

Adverbs modify verbs to give them new shades of meaning. The vast majority of adverbs are very short, particle-like words. For example, adverbs indicating tense and aspect optionally stand before a verb and give temporal information about it. These are not restricted to use with semantically verbal verbs, nor are they restricted to syntactic positions within a predicate as subject phrases themselves consist of  

In the following example, the imperfective particle '''''hi''''' indicates that the action of dying is not spoken about as a completed whole, but, rather, an action seen from the middle, thus "is dying" (or according to context, "was dying" etc.). The past tense particle '''''do''''' appears before '''''garag''''' "be neighbour" to indicate "be one who was a neighbour", thus "former neighbour" in the translation.  

| <span style="color:#0000FF">IPFV</span> || die.of.protracted.illness || SPEC(B)- || <span style="color:#0000FF">PST</span> || neighbour || ESS- || GEN- || 1S

| colspan="8" | "A <span style="color:#0000FF">former</span> neighbour of mine <span style="color:#0000FF">is</span> dy<span style="color:#0000FF">ing</span> (of a protracted illness)."

===Syntactic Clitics===  

Syntactic clitics are morphemes that attach to the first word of a verb phrase in order to subordinate them in some manner into another verb phrase. Syntactic clitics include the archiphoneme /ː/, which lengthens the clitic's vowel when the following morpheme consists of only a consonant and, when the following morpheme is syllabic, geminates the following consonant.

The essive or equative clitic '''''we(:)-''''' introduces a verb phrase that modifies its preceding head in a strict, additive manner. It is frequently translated into English by means of a relative pronoun.

| SPEC(b) || be.Balog || <span style="color:#0000FF">ESS-</span> || be.tall

| SPEC(b) || be.slave|| <span style="color:#0000FF">ESS-</span> || execute.PRF.PASS

| colspan="4" | '''''iddemeg webbad'''''

| '''i(:)- || '''demeg''' || <span style="color:#0000FF">'''we(:)-'''</span> || '''bad'''  

| DEF(e) || be.book || <span style="color:#0000FF">ESS-</span> || be.big

| colspan="4" | '''''eqeŋŋal wellow'''''

| '''i(:)- || '''ŋal''' || <span style="color:#0000FF">'''we(:)-'''</span> || '''low'''  

| DEF(e) || use.leg || <span style="color:#0000FF">ESS-</span> || sleep

| colspan="5" | "my big book"

Subject clitics appear at the beginning of every phrase denoting a grammatical subject. They indicate not only that the following base phrase is the subject of the preceding predicate but also convey information about '''definiteness''' (whether the addressee is expected to know which exact entity), '''specificity''' (whether the speaker knows which exact entity) and an inflectional dimension integral to Balog called ''status''.  

! colspan="2" | Status (Gloss)  !! Definite<br>Specific<br>(DEF) !! Indefinite<br>Specific<br>(SPEC)!! Indefinite<br>Non-Specific<br>(NSPC)

! colspan="5" | <small>Entities</small>

| <span style="color:#0000FF">'''''u(:)-'''''</span> || <span style="color:#0000FF">'''''uqu(:)-'''''</span> || <span style="color:#0000FF">'''''uhu(:)-'''''</span>

| <span style="color:#0000FF">'''''a(:)-'''''</span> || <span style="color:#0000FF">'''''aqa(:)-'''''</span> || <span style="color:#0000FF">'''''aha(:)-'''''</span>

| <span style="color:#0000FF">'''''o(:)-'''''</span> || <span style="color:#0000FF">'''''oqo(:)-'''''</span> || <span style="color:#0000FF">'''''oho(:)-'''''</span>

| <span style="color:#0000FF">'''''e(:)-'''''</span> || <span style="color:#0000FF">'''''eqe(:)-'''''</span> || <span style="color:#0000FF">'''''ehe(:)-'''''</span>

| <span style="color:#0000FF">'''''i(:)-'''''</span> || <span style="color:#0000FF">'''''iqi(:)-'''''</span> || <span style="color:#0000FF">'''''ihi(:)-'''''</span>

! colspan="5" | <small>Propositions</small>

| <span style="color:#0000FF">'''''ä(:)-'''''</span> || <span style="color:#0000FF">'''''äqä(:)-'''''</span> || <span style="color:#0000FF">'''''ähä(:)-'''''</span>

=====Status=====

All referents are assigned a '''status''' any time they are appear as the subject of a clause. Status is not a permanent attribute of a referent but rather a context-dependent assignment within a discourse that depends on the speaker's perceived and expressed relations between the referent and other referents. When a single referent is mentioned, the status used depends only on the speaker's perception of the referent, however when there are two or more referents, statuses may be assigned that would otherwise not be used in order to differentiate between multiple referents within a discourse and rank them relative to one another.

A useful way to conceptualise the typical assignment of status is to use the question "Who would win in a physical fight?" as the deciding metric. Physically larger, stronger and more active referents are assigned a higher status than smaller, weaker referents. The highest status, A, the "powerful" status, indicated with the vowel '''u''', is an exception, dependent not only physical strength but rather social, financial or political power. A referent marked with '''u''' is not necessarily physically dominant over other referents, but a conflict with an individual could lead to more significant consequences for referents of lower status than the physical prowess of the A-statused referent alone would afford them. "Weighty" abstract concepts may sometimes be referred to with the A-status when there is no person in the discourse assigned to this status.

======Pronouns======