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=Location & Origin= | |||
Br'ga is spoken on an island about midway between Sri Lanka and Madagascar. The language has phonetic and grammatical features found in both African and Indic languages, though it appears to be an isolate. There are, however, very many loan words from various trade languages — some estimates place the portion of borrowed lexicon at between ⅓ and ½ of the attested roots. However, in everyday speech, this group of roots makes up well over ¾ of the common lexicon. Borrowings come from English, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Sanskrit, Hindi, Pali, Arabic, and Swahili at the very least, with many "second generation" loans of words that were loaned into those languages from around the world. | |||
=Phonology= | |||
The phonology is shown below using the Latin mode. There are a Devanagari-derived mode, and an Arabic mode, and an attempt is being made to create a featural alphabet that draws graphically from all of them. | |||
==Consonants== | |||
{| class="wikitable" | {| class="wikitable" | ||
|- | |- | ||
! !! Labial !! | ! !! Labial !! Alveolar !! Retroflex !! Palatal !! Velar !! Uvular !! Glottal | ||
|- | |- | ||
| ''' | | '''Voiced Stops''' || b || d || ḍ || j || g || || | ||
|- | |- | ||
| ''' | | '''Voiceless Stops''' || p || t || ṭ || c || k || || | ||
|- | |- | ||
| ''' | | '''Aspirated Stops''' || ph || th || ṭh || ch || kh || || | ||
|- | |- | ||
| ''' | | '''Implosive Stops''' || bh || dh || ḍh || jh || gh || qh || | ||
|- | |||
| '''Nasals''' || m || n || ṇ || ñ || ṅ || || | |||
|- | |- | ||
| ''' | | '''Plain Affricates''' || || ts || ṭṣ || cç || kx || || | ||
|- | |- | ||
| ''' | | '''Plain Fricatives''' || || s || ṣ || ç || x || || h | ||
|- | |- | ||
| ''' | | '''Voiced Fricative''' || || || || || || || ḥ | ||
|- | |- | ||
| ''' | | '''Lateral Affricate''' || || tlh || || || || || | ||
|- | |- | ||
| '''Liquids''' | | '''Lateral Fricative''' || || lh || || || || || | ||
|- | |||
| '''Trills''' || br || dr || || || gr || || | |||
|- | |||
| '''Plain Click''' || || q || || || || || | |||
|- | |||
| '''Nasalized Click''' || || nq || || || || || | |||
|- | |||
| '''Lateralized Click''' || || lq || || || || || | |||
|- | |||
| '''Rhotic Approximants''' || || r || ṛ || || || || | |||
|- | |||
| '''Liquids''' || w || || || y || ħ || || | |||
|- | |||
| '''Lateral''' || || l || || || || || | |||
|} | |||
'''Note:''' The implosive stops are voiced glottalic implosives, except ''qh'', which is voiceless. | |||
'''Note:''' Affricates and fricatives are unmarked for voicing (except ''h'' / ''ḥ''), but the "target" pronunciation is voiceless. | |||
==Vowels== | |||
{| class="wikitable sortable" | |||
|- | |||
! Written !! IPA | |||
|- | |||
| a || ɑ | |||
|- | |||
| e || e | |||
|- | |||
| ê || ɛ | |||
|- | |||
| i || ɪ | |||
|- | |||
| u || ʊ | |||
|- | |||
| ü || ʏ | |||
|- | |||
| ' || ə | |||
|} | |||
==Phonotactics== | |||
Syllable sequence in root words is strictly CV. Word structure is (V)?(CV)+(C)? Single-phoneme particles / glue-word proclitics may be any non-obstuent, or any click. For instance, the noun class for languages is ''q-'', thus ''q-Br'ga'' or ''q-Iṅ'laṃ'' (vs ''al-Br'ga'' and ''al-Iṅ'laṃ'' for Br'ga Island and England respectively). The full set of adpositional and noun class proclitics will be covered below. | |||
===Final Nasalization=== | |||
In words ending with a vowel, that vowel may be nasalized by placing the letter ''ṃ'' after it, and this nasalization (and its mark) persist in compound words. | |||
The most common place that this marking is found is in ''heṃ'' and ''naheṃ'' the positive and negavite copulas. | |||
=Grammar= | |||
==Copulas== | |||
There are in fact many prefixed versions of ''heṃ'' with many different desiderative, optative, dubitative, meanings. | |||
{| class="wikitable sortable" | |||
|- | |||
! Form !! General meaning | |||
|- | |||
| ''heṃ'' || Yes / is | |||
|- | |||
| ''naheṃ'' || No / isn't | |||
|- | |||
| ''jiheṃ'' || Doubt | |||
|- | |||
| ''küheṃ'' || Want | |||
|- | |||
| ''ḥeheṃ'' || "Yesno?" | |||
|} | |||
=Vocabulary= | |||
==Noun Prefixes== | |||
{| class="wikitable sortable" | |||
|- | |||
! Prefix !! Meaning | |||
|- | |||
| ç || danger | |||
|- | |||
| lu || aquatic life | |||
|- | |||
| q || language | |||
|- | |||
| al || country | |||
|- | |||
| biṃ || female | |||
|} | |} | ||
[[Category:Languages]] | |||
[[Category:Conlangs]] | |||