Ciètian

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Ciètian
i Qieluòreng
Created byUser:IlL
SettingVerse:Tricin
Native speakers100 million L1 speakers (300 million L2 speakers) (fT 1670dd (2676))
Quame
  • Talmic
    • Thensaric
      • Tigolic
        • Ciètian
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.

Ciètian (natively i Qieluòreng) is a Talmic language (in the Tigolic subbranch of Talmic, which also includes Eevo). It's inspired by Mandarin, Irish, and German.

Todo

  • Single vs. double negatives: use both
  • Vdh > lowered vowels - a source of /ɛ: ɔ:/ in addition to Old Eevo ae ao
  • need vowel changes from Old Eevo
    • a > ea, e > eo, i > iu in certain conditions - what type of pal'n do these new vowels trigger
      • e.g. cell 'small' > *cĕoll > qiol
    • already have eo éu iu íu/iú
  • Actually palatalization is NOT as simple as this. y ø a o u vs. i ie vs. ia io iu vs ja jo ju je/ĺa ĺo ĺu ĺe affect consonants differently.
  • Get rid of initial clusters:
    • CrV- > CVrV-
    • sX- > X- (tensed) (X = plosive)
    • sR- > sVR- (R = m, n, ń, ŋ, r)
  • non-initial -gh might die
  • mièn àvaħ (this-DEF book) = 'this book'
  • Revise Thensarian declension based on Ciètian
  • Have a separate schwa phoneme a /ə/?
  • -ac is cognate to Eevo -ahd (both from Old Eevo -aitt)
  • -z is one plural suffix (often used for nouns ending in vowels; from palatalized lenited -dh)
  • cht > c à la Wenedyk, final slender -t > -cy
  • sg palatalizes to sh, not xj
  • Words starting with f- are reanalyzed to start with p-: nonstandard dialects don't have this
  • Etymological doublets from Tigol absolute-conjunct verb forms.
  • lianger = dream (< leṁar)

Notes

Symbols

  • L - lenition/aspiration
  • N - eclipsis

Phonology

The following describes Ciètian as spoken in Asdiemìn. The standard dialect is non-rhotic and has intrusive R.

Stress

Stress is not phonemic and is weight-sensitive. The rule is: the last long vowel is stressed. If there is no long vowel the last syllable is stressed.

In most compound words, primary stress falls on the first member and a secondary stress falls on the second member. Place names are sometimes exceptions to the preceding rule: for example, the element -vià is always stressed.

Intonation

A stressed short vowel has a high pitch; a stressed long vowel or diphthong has a falling pitch; unstressed vowels have low pitch.

Consonants

Ciètian has an aspiration distinction in stops; however, the distinction is neutralized in word-final position.

p b f v t d c z s з /z/ q j x ξ /ʑ/ ch zh sh r /ɹ/ k g h γ /ɣ/ ħ /h/ m n ng l w y - mostly pronounced as in Mandarin; however, l is velarized when not followed by /i/, /j/, /y/, or /ɥ/.

Before /u/ and /w/, in the standard Asdiemìn accent ch zh sh r are pronounced as /pfʰ pf f ʋ/.

Vowels

Vowel phonemes
Front Central Back
short long short long short long
Close i /i/, ü /y/ ì /iː/, ǜ /yː/ (i /ɨ/) (ì /ɨː/) u /u/ ù /uː/
Close-mid e /ə/ è /ɤː/
Mid ie, üe iè, üè [ə] (u)ò /wɔː/
Open ia a /a/ à /aː/

[ɨ(ː)] is an allophone of /i(ː)/ after dental and retroflex sibilants.

Semivowel onglides: i ü u /j ɥ w/

Diphthongs: ai ao ei ou iu /aj aw ej əw jəw/

R-colored vowels

  • ar, àr, or, òr /oɯ(ɹ)/
  • er, èr, air, aor /ɑɯ(ɹ)/
  • ir, ìr, iur /(j)ɤː(ɹ)/
  • ür, ǜr /ɥɤː(ɹ)/
  • ur, ùr /wɤː(ɹ)/
  • eir /ɛɯ(ɹ)/
  • final -ar = /ɑɯ(ɹ)/
  • final -er = /ɯ(ɹ)/

Phonotactics

Loanword phonology

Initial /θ/, /x/ and /h/ in loans are rendered /t/, /k/ and /Ø/ respectively (cf. German pronounces initial ch in Greek loans as /k/). Non-initial /θ/, /x/, and /h/ become /ħ/, /x/, and /x/.

Stress is usually as in the original language; non-initially stressed words lengthen the stressed vowel. Example: bintelisràl /bintəɫisˈɻaːɫ/ 'republic'.

Morphophonology

Mutations

Consonant mutations
Radical m /m/ p /pʰ/ b /p/ f /f/ t /tʰ/ d /t/ q /tɕʰ/ j /tɕ/ s /s/ x /ɕ/ sh /ʂ/ k /kʰ/ g /k/ ch /tʂʰ/ zh /tʂ/ 0 /Ø/, y /j/
Lenited vm /v/ fp /f/ vb /v/ f /f/ ħt /ħ/ zd /ts/ xq /ɕ/ ξj /ʑ/ hs /h/ x /ɕ/ sh /ʂ/ hk /x/ γg /ɣ/ sch /ʂ/ rzh /ɻ/ add h' /x/
Eclipsed m /m/ bp /p/ mb /m/ vf /v/ dt /t/ nd /n/ jq /tɕ/ nj /ɲ/ зs /z/ ξx /ʑ/ rsh /ɻ/ gk /k/ ŋg /ŋ/ jch /tʂ/ njh /ɲ/ add n' /n/

Palatalization

  • e/i-palatalization
    • l not affected
  • ä-palatalization
  • ia/io/iu-palatalization
    • l softens to /j/
  • soft L-palatalization
    • k, t > cy
  • initial vs. non-initial pal'zn

Umlaut

i-umlaut often operates in inflections and derivation:

o oo u uu ua > nonpalatalizing e ee i ii ia

a > somewhat palatalizing e

Generally i-umlaut is triggered by Old Eevo post-tonic -(a)e-, -(a)é-, -(a)i- and -(a)í- if there does not intervene another syllable between the root and these post-tonic vowels. There are sporadic exceptions.

Dialectology

Ciètian is subject to a fair amount of accent and dialect variation.

Common dialectal features

  • /x ɣ/ realized as uvular [χ ʁ]
  • Native words in f- retained
  • h from Tigol h = /h/; h from Tigol ch = /x/; ħ is consistently /ħ/

Tumakan

The Tumakan dialect has a pitch accent system which may be the most complex in Talma: The vowel length distinction has turned into tone; it also uses definite suffixes like Swedish, giving additional tonal distinctions. Tumakan uses an RP-type pronunciation for R-colored vowels:

  • or, òr /oː(ɹ)/
  • ar, àr, à /ɑː(ɹ)/
  • er, èr, air, aor /ɜː(ɹ)/
  • ir, ìr, iur /(j)ɜː(ɹ)/
  • ür, ǜr /ɥɜː(ɹ)/
  • ur, ùr /wɜː(ɹ)/
  • eir /ɛː(ɹ)/
  • final -ar = final -a = /a(ɹ)/
  • final -er = final -e = /ə(ɹ)/

Thus, many grammatical endings are merged in Tumakan Qelorian.

Morphology

Pronouns

I you (sg.) he she it we (exc.) we (inc.) you (pl.) they you (semi-polite) you (polite)
Emphatic gonin gonas gonu gonyi gona gonav gonid gonax gonar gonax gonawaa
Genitive naa fiar hu hi he aav geed seed haar seed waa
Accusative moon moos moov mooy moo moom meed moox moor moox mowaa

Politeness

Modern Ciètian has three levels of politeness in pronouns:

  • gonas, moos (sg.) is used for family members, friends, pets, inanimates, deities, and among blue-collar workers. It is becoming more common among young people.
  • gonalaa, mowaa is used as a polite second-person pronoun (for both singular and plural) for strangers or persons in positions of authority. It is still considered acceptable for some professions, such as superiors in military or schoolteachers, to refer to their counterparts with the familiar pronouns gonas and gonax, although nowadays using gonawaa is becoming more common.
  • gonax is roughly intermediate in formality between gonas and gonawaa. The pronoun gonax is used when an apprentice addresses their master, when university students address professors or when professors address students. In universities and some schools students use gonax for each other. (In vocational schools gonawaa is used for student-instructor conversation.) Strangers on the Internet and books intended for a general audience also use gonax.
    • In archaic Ciètian, gonax is used as a polite pronoun for persons of higher class (say nobles or royalty), or among the upper class.

Nouns

Standard Ciètian nouns are quite conservative: they have three genders (masculine, feminine and neuter), three numbers (singular, plural and collective), and three states (nominative, genitive and construct). Collective nouns take singular agreement with verbs and adjectives. Regiolects usually have less noun declension.

  • The nominative singular, nominative plural, and genitive singular must be memorized for every noun. Feminine plurals tend to end in -r.
  • The genitive plural is formed by affixing -enı to the genitive singular.
  • The singular construct is formed by affixing -aħ to the nominative singular.
  • The plural construct is formed by affixing -u to the nominative singular if the nominative singular ends in a consonant, and -v to the nominative singular if it ends in a vowel.

The article

The article inflects and triggers mutation based on number and gender.

The singular definite article i and iN changes to in (with no mutation) before a noun starting with a vowel or a semivowel. For example:

  • *iN ùr > in ùr /in ˈwɤː/ (masculine) 'the sense (nominative)';
  • *i àvaħ > in àvaħ /in ˈaːvaħ/ (neuter) 'the book (nominative)'.

But:

  • iL aszuòc > i h'aszuòc /i xasˈtswɔːts/ (feminine) 'the guilt (nominative)'.

Collective nouns are by nature definite, and the collective of a noun is formed by using the collective article before the singular form.

The nominative case is used for the subject; the genitive case is used for direct objects and objects of prepositions.

To be revised:

Definite article
singular plural collective
m. f. n. m. f. n. m. f. n.
nom. iN iL i na ner naN baN baL ba
gen. naL naL iN na na na baL baL baN

Adjectives

Attributive adjectives must agree with nouns in gender, number and case. Adjectives have the same principal parts as nouns. The feminine plural always ends in -er, and the genitive plural always ends in -enı.

Attributive forms of qial 'small'
singular, collective plural
m. f. n. m. f. n.
nom. jqial xqial qial qiala qialer jqiala
gen. jqiele jqiele jqiele qialenı qialenı qialenı

Verbs

Modern Ciètian has a closed class of about 20-30 auxiliaries which are conjugated for tense and person. The main verb is used as a verbal noun. (Verbal nouns do not decline.) Example:

Nyan garhiav wan dtarsiad ikaan xkarhii.
[ɲan gaˈriəv wən daɾˈsiət iˈkaːn xəˈr̝iː]
PRES.1SG go.VN to-DEF.GEN.SG.N school.GEN.SG every.F day.GEN.SG
I go to school every day.
I thou he she it we (exc.) we (inc.) you (pl., semi-polite) you (polite) they one (impersonal)
present1 nyan nyer nyav nyas nya nyam nyad nyax nyaw nyaħ nyar
past kon ker kov kos ko kom kod kox koo koħ kor
future pon per pov pos po pom pod pox poo poħ por

1 from Old Eevo ar.nédh 'to dwell at'. (The verb acquired a meaning like Vietnamese 'be at' which then turned into a progressive construction with a verbal noun.)

Prepositions

If the prepositional object is a pronoun, the genitive form of the pronoun is used: wa naa = to me, for me.

Derivational morphology

  • yir- = un-, non-
    • yiraszuòc, yiraszuòc (f) 'innocence', from aszuòc (f) 'guilt'
  • -gàn, -gànı, -gànı = -able?
  • -ah, -ax, -aha (n) = verbal noun
  • Unstressed initial prefixes are separated by an interpunct (·)
    • ar· is an applicative

Sample texts

UDHR

Nyav baa gew gkar asŋea gasaan ak ascii nea woŋŋacy ak nea vmarozh. Nyav ar·seciin nea na vmiishiin ak i n'astorŋax, ak nya ar hu wa poda baraaħanar nea na weesycy na syarbacy.
/ɲəv baː gɛw gaɾ əsˈŋɛː gəˈsaːn ək əsˈtsiː nɛː ˈwoŋːətɕ ək nɛː vəˈɾɔʒ. ɲəv əɾsɛˈtsiːn nɛ nə viːˈʃiːn ək i nəstɔɾˈŋax, ək ɲə ˈaɾ hu wə pɔˈda bəˈraːħənəɾ nɛː nə ˈweːɕtɕ nə ɕəɾˈbatɕ./
All humans are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.