Eyalian: Difference between revisions

Here are some features of '''Ahāre''':

*Strengthening of consonant clusters: ''*su'''jd'''a>lu'''st'''a'' (E. ''lȯ'''ht'''a'') – “hay”.

*Initial [[w:Rhotacism (sound change)|rhotacism]]: ''*'''d'''apenta>'''r'''afta'' (V. ''rafen'', E. ''lauta'') – “house".

*Rounding: ''*å>o'' [ɔ], *ā>[ɑɔ~ɒː]. Short *a does not undergo any rounding - ''zasku'' (E. ''zohtu'') – ("he/she has become").

*Complete diphthongization of long vowels in stressed syllable (including ''*ā>oa'').

*Rounding: ''*å>o'', including *a, although the latter is partial and does not spread on the whole area.

*Phonemes [kʷ] and [c].

*Phoneme "y" [ɪ]: ''*sujda>lyhta'' (E. ''lȯ'''ht'''a'') – “hay”.

===Transitional (Irekinėla)===

The transitional dialects (''ehomėla irekėnėla'') are spoken in the west of the Keina Republic. This is not a genetic grouping and thus various dialects show different features closer to either Tarnan or Keian. None of these dialects have a specifically Keian [s̠] sound, but they also lack rounding of *ā typical to Tarnan (initial ''*ā>uo'' in Uve, but initial ''*ō>eu'', which means they did not merge like in Tarnan), with some also lacking rounding of the short *a. Dialects close to Keian lenite /f/ to [v] between vowels: ''lavat'' "house" (T. ''lauta''), but do not lenite /k/ or /t/ even word-finally.

==Phonology==

===Prosody===

Stress (''oaveulo'') can be placed on either the first (initial) or the second syllable. Eyalian had a pitch accent in the past, called ''almoara'' ("the pleasing one") or ''eulo almoan'', and many mountainous dialects still possess this feature. Usually elision of a plosive lead to the rising accent, while the absence of elision resulted in the falling accent, for example ''*qena'' "language" resulted in éna [ɛ̌.nɑ]. Falling pitch was default and thus conditional, but could sometimes become "independent" (''o'hiehtanne'') or "marked" under certain phonological processes: ''alòama'' "woman" > ''jàloama'' "this woman" (in the latter word the accent falls on the short syllable instead of the expected long one, like in the former word), or ''jùmui'' ("completely" from ''ix qomu in'' "in one piece") instead of expected ''**júmui''. Later both pitches coincided, but the rising accent shifted the stress to the next syllable, hence modern [ɛ.ˈnɑ]. There is no regular way to predict the position of stress and it needs to be memorised. Most of the words have one accented syllable, with the exception of compond words.

==Morphology==

Eyalian is a mildly fusional language with a moderate degree of inflection, with three numbers for both nouns and verbs; and a rich derivational morphology, meaning there can be a large number of words derived from the same root. This section will be primarily focused on the Tarnan variety.

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This degree of inflection is considerably less than found in Meinqələr Kvetain - the oldest known language of Keta, but it likely similar to the inflectional morphology of Proto-Ketan, from which Eyalian descends. Like in most Ketan languages, Eyalian forms noun compounds in which the second noun modifies the category given by the first, for example: ''elja-oh'' “tree of life” (in nominative case, though ''eljoh'' can also be found as a simple word), ''koaz-kȯnui'' “door of a house” (in genitive case). The second noun is in the conjunct form (''aujo lohulti''), which is also used with prepostional clitics (but not with possessive clitics): ''i-kȯn'' “in the house”, but ''zėkono'' “my house” (where the independent form is used instead).

===Verbs===

The verb is one of the most complex parts of Eyalian grammar. Not a full list of verb forms is given here; the purpose is to explain the nature and structure of the verbal system. One of the remarkable characteristics of the Eyalian verb is the fact that verbs can be conjugated both '''synthetically''' (i.e. have morphological finite forms); and '''analytically''' with some only having non-finite forms, which can enter into a wide variety of compound tense structures (consisting of a non-finite verb form combined with a finite auxiliary). For example, "I eat" is ''ohane'' (synthetic), but ''on fearin'' "I feel" (periphrastic, lit. "on me is feeling"). These two groups are further divided into two categories: transitive and intransitive, althouth most transitive verbs have synthetic forms. Old roots have three '''grades''', ''kuole'' ("long"), ''kieke'' ("short") and ''ekikke'' ("reduced"), though usually only the "long" and "short" grades show in conjugation.

Eyalian has ten aspects, but some are rarely used and can only be found in literature. The verb aspects (though they are often tenses and moods too) are organized into "systems" (as well as infinitives, intensives, [[w:Desiderative|desideratives]], [[w:Causative|causatives]], and [[w:Benedictive|benedictives]]) based on the different verb forms used in conjugation.

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