Haššûl


Haššûl
Pronunciation[/ħɐ.'ʃ:u:l/]
Created byNicolás Straccia
SettingYrḳuti conworlding project
Native toThe Yar-Beššel (Kingdom of Yar-Beššel and vassal counties) and The Riverlands
  • Haššûl
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The language known as Haššûl is a conlang being created and developed by Nicolás Straccia. It is part of the Yrḳuti conworlding project.

INTRODUCTION

The language known as the Haššûl /ħɐ.'ʃ:u:l/ is the common language of The Yar-Beššel (name given to the Kingdom of Yar-Beššel proper and its neighboring vassal counties), as well as of the nearby region known as The Riverlands (organized in a --comparatively-- looser adjunction of fiefdoms and acting as a federation, with a politically and economically friendly relationship with the Kingdom). There are many different languages being spoken in The Riverlands, some more related to each other than others, but all riverlanders speak the Haššûl as well. On the contrary, being it the principal language of the Kingdom, most of its inhabitants are native speakers of the Haššûl while they know little, if anything, of the indigenous languages of the neighboring Riverlands. For outsiders, there is a certain impression of linguistic and cultural homogeneity in the region, since the Haššûl is the language they would expect everyone to be able to speak anywhere near the Yar-Beššel and The Riverlands, and to which they would refer to as the "local tongue".

PHONOLOGY

Inventories

VOWEL INVENTORY

Front Near-front Central Near-back Back
Close
 
i
u
e
o
ä
Near‑close
Close‑mid
Mid
Open‑mid
Near‑open
Open
Front Mid Back
High i î u û
e ê
Low o ô
a â


CONSONANT INVENTORY

h [ħ] š [ʃ] l [l] b [b] r [r/ɾ] y [j] n [n] x [χ] m [m] p [p] k [k] z [z] w [w]


Phonotaxis

Syllable structure

(C1)V(C2)

C1: plosive, continuant (nasal, lateral, rhotic, fricative)

C2: continuant (nasal, lateral, rhotic, fricative)

Sandhi

%h > k/C_V [C=n,k] e=k-happ= > ekkapp- S>P/n_ ?
h > y/y_V ey-happ- > eyyapp-
k > x/n_ mann-kên- > manxên-
lttu > ldu

Prosody and accent

Pitch accent

The accent is placed on the last syllable of disyllables and on the first syllable of a root. Monosyllables which are grammatical morphemes carry no accent and are, typically, attached prosodically to the following word.

Intonation

All sentences tend to have a rather monotone intonation by default, and emphasis can be used rhetorically. Questions are marked morphologically and can therefore be intonated for emphasis, just like any declarative sentence.

GRAMMAR

Morphology

An existential statement is assumed of all nominal roots. Verbal roots can be nominalized by marking them with nominal morphology; this nominalization can be further modified, for instance by adverbials. Some cases apply to a certain kind of noun or are related to a certain semantic field (e.g. the aversive case being linked to verbs of fear or of avoidance).

NOMINAL MORPHOLOGY

Slot population

· Slot -n

Nominal groups i, iv and v: number marking prefix.


· Slot 0: root and infixes

Infix Marker Notes
Stative form -na- After the first vowel. See Stative forms below.
.


· Slot _:

Number marking in variable slot distribution

Nouns are marked for number through different strategies, which makes it possible to group nouns in five number making strategy categories (i-v). Nevertheless, there are some irregularities.


Indeterminate Determinate
i) Number marking by prefix Slot -n
Singular Ø- ak-
Paucal bar- šte-
Plural l(e)- har-
ii) Number marking by suffix Slot n
Singular -eš -eš=ûr Etymologicaly related to êš, "one".
Paucal -n -n=ûr
Plural -n=zûr
iii) Number marking by infix:
mainly collective nouns and pluralia tanta
Slot 0
Singular -VyV- V1CCV2 → V1CV1yV1CV2 Singulative form of a collective noun or plurale tantum; an individualisation or instance thereof.
Paucal -az- -(t)is(i)-
Plural -VhtV-
iv) Number marking by combination of the above {variable: S=PA: 0, n; PL: -n, n}
Singular -VrV-...-em Ø-...-s=ûr
Paucal -VkkV-...-ar ar-...-m=ûr
Plural u'-...-kûr
v) Number marking by reduplication Slot -n
Singular Ø itV1(t)-
Paucal C1a- C1... -> C1aC1...
Plural VCVC-

Stative forms

Some nouns need to be marked for a so called stative form, which allows further nominal marking. Such nouns as water, wind or fire, for example, receive the nominal particle -na- (infixed after the first vowel if the word starts in a CV= syllable or after the first consonant in case of a VC= syllable). Nouns which don't usually receive a stative marker take it to make the noun a predicate in a nominal phrase. E.g.:

pešš-, "tea plant" → penašš-
{pe<na>šš-eš}
[tea.plant<stat>-sg], "to be a teaplant";
{tea.plant<stat>-sg dem.sg.prox.sp}
'penaššeš telêš' , "this is a teaplant";

of which in turn the form

{pe<na>šš-a-telê-eš}
[tea.plant<stat>-a-dem.sg.prox.sp-sg]
'penaššatelêš'

is also valid.

Incorporation

Some nouns can be incorporated to some verbs, in which case they take on an incorporated form. For example, nouns for food items can be incorporated into verbs of cooking; for instance, bread (akku-, incorporated form -kkû-) can be incorporated into to.cook (haptu-) as follows:

{haptu-kkû-}
to.cook-bread[INC]-
'to.bread-cook' => to bake
E.g. "wânkaptukkûš", I bake {wâ[N]-Ø-hanaptu-kkû-Ø-Ø-Ø-Ø-š-Ø}

Other examples in this semantic field are meat & roasting and tea & brewing. Other examples in similar semantic fields are wall & to.erect and animal & to.track. For the rendering of more specific situations, noun incorporation into verbs is regularly employed combining an incorporated hyperonym with a non-incorporated hyponym marked as direct object. For example, "to meat-roast a lamb", "to tea-brew oolong", "to wall-erect an enclosure", "to animal-tame a horse", etc.


Pronouns

Pronouns form two groups: "free" pronouns, which can be marked for case, and genitive pronouns, which are a supletive paradigm, etymologically related to the root *wēr, " to belong".

There are three forms for each pronoun: a long form, a short form and an enclitic form (prefixed). The long form is used when in standalone situations, were the pronoun is the sole representation of the argument in question. The short and enclitic forms look largely alike in isolation, but the enclitic forms are subject to sandhi phenomena the short forms are not, and the short forms elicit circumstantial mutations the enclitic forms do not trigger. The phonemes enclosed in square brackets in the tables below show which kind of underlying influence the prefixes carry on their boundaries.

Paucal forms are reportedly derived from the plural forms, which in turn seem to be related to the singular forms. The exclusive prefix is t=, etymologically related to the root *tə, "without".

Whenever a genitive pronoun in its long form is used in a clause, case marking is dropped from the arguments and the roles are marked by their syntactic relation with the pronoun (e.g. possessed-gen-possessor; see Possession below).

· Free pronouns:

SINGULAR PAUCAL PLURAL
Long Short Enclitic Long Short Enclitic Long Short Enclitic
1.incl umâl uma- wâ[N]- numîli nul(i)- nîl[D]- numêš nume- nêm-
1.excl t=numîli > dumîli dul(i)- dîl[D]- t=numêš > dumêš dume- dêm-
2 ozûr ozu- ûz[z]- nusîli nus(i)- nîsi- nošûl noš- nûš-
3 mubâl mub- mû[B]- namîli nam(i)- nîma- namâl mul- mâb-


· Reflexive pronouns:

Reflexive pronouns are formed by prefixal and infixal reduplication of the long form of the free pronouns and have only a long form. The prefixal element V- applies to CV1C- forms, which become V1CV1C-. The infixal element -CC- applies to both CVC- and VCV- forms, which geminate the first and second consonant, respectively, of the free form of the pronoun. This lengthening of the consonant compensatorily shortens any subsequent long vowels and drives the elision of final vowels. Regular phonological processes also apply.
SINGULAR DUAL PLURAL
1.incl ummal unummil unummeš
1.excl udummil udummeš
2 ozzur unussil onoššul
3 muppal anammil anammal


· Genitive pronouns:

These pronouns are etymologically related to the root *wēr, "to belong", being reconstructed as an adpositional compound of *PREP+wer. E.g. :
SINGULAR PAUCAL/PLURAL
Long Short Enclitic Long Short Enclitic
1.incl ekker ek- e=k- akler ak- a=k-
1.excl t=akler > talêr tâl- ta=l-
2 ener en- e=n- aššer aš(š)- a=š-
3 eyer ey- e=y- nammer nâm- na=m-


· Negative pronouns:

SINGULAR PAUCAL/PLURAL
Long Short Enclitic Long Short Enclitic
1.incl erex ex- re=x- šârek šâr- šâ=r-
1.excl t=šârek > trašek traš- tra=š-
2 umât tûm- tû=m- šêkru šek- še=k-
3 tammûr tâm- twâ- šûrak šûr- šû=r-

VERBAL MORPHOLOGY

Slot population

· Slot -2: Pronominal marking on the verb

Verbal roots are prefixed with the enclitical form of the personal pronouns (see Pronouns above).

Not marking with a pronominal form lets the agent unspecified, which conveys a grammatical aspect of the gnomic and habitual types. E.g. if the actor is mentioned (be it through the use of a proper name or the use of a long pronominal form), then a verb without pronominal marking would convey the meaning of a certain gnomicity/habituality of that doing by said overtly stated actor.


· Slot -1: Referent anaphora

Referent Marker Notes
Same referent -Ø-
Another (mentioned) -i-
Another (not mentioned) -šku- Begs for subsequent introduction


· Slot 0: Stem and infixes

Infix Marker Notes
Compositional genitive -šnV- V= reduplication of the root vowel as short vowel regardless of original length; the verb receives a noun in genitive compound; akin to a construct state marking, but in the verb.
.


· Slot 1: Tense/Aspect

Tense/Aspect Marker Notes
Anterior tense -xtu-
Past tense/perfectve aspect -kše-
Relative present tense/gnomic aspect -Ø-
Present-future/imperfective aspect -ra=
Posterior tense -šar-


· Slot 2: Inverse marking

The animacy hierarchy, from most to least animated, is as follows: 1 > 2 > 3; S > PA > P; INCL > EXCL. This can be seen, from top to bottom, in the following table:

This is marked as follows:

Marking Marker Notes
Direct -Ø- The agent role of a transitive construction is taken by an argument in a higher hierarchical level than that of the argument taking on the patient role.
Inverse -n- The agent role of a transitive construction is taken by an argument in a lower hierarchical level than that of the argument taking on the patient role.
Same -C- Repeats the first consonant of the marker in Slot 1; if said slot is "empty" (unmarked), The agent role of a transitive construction is taken by an argument in the same hierarchical level than that of the argument taking on the patient role.

This is not strictly a traditional direct-inverse marker, but rather the functional equivalent which marks verbs for reflexivity using the same slot, but nevertheless also owing to the same hierarchical logic, thus being analized as part of the same system.


· Slot 3: Object number marking

Transitive verbs can be marked to agree with the number of the object argument. The marking is for singular, dual, paucal and plural, using markers derived from the words for one, two, some and many. The object itself is then mostly left unmarked for number.

Number Marker Notes
Singular (one) -heš- (< h-êš, one)
Dual (two) -xu- (< h-ku, two)
Paucal (some) -fal- (< h-bâl, some)
Plural (many) -- (< h- )
None -ht(a)- (< h-ta, "_", <*tə, "without").
Unspecified -Ø- Unspecified number of the object; also used with proper names.


· Slot 4: Aspect

Aspect Marker Notes
Imperfective/Atelic ipf -ô-
Perfective/Telic perf -ta-
-û-
Progressive/Continuous prog/cont -î-
Resultative res -ne-
Tense/aspect -Ø- Unmarked aspect in Slot 4 points towards the tense/aspect marking in Slot 1 (aspects: perfective, gnomic, imperfective); a gnomic/habitual aspect is also convenient by leaving the agent pronoun in Slot -2 unmarked.


· Slot 5: Location of the action's performance as relative to the place of utterance

Location Marker Notes
Unspecified unsp -Ø- Unmarked for a specific location relative to the place of utterance. The location has either already been mentioned in the same clause (outside of the verb or via a proper name), or it is meant to be identical with the place of utterance.
Not here not.here -rta- The action either takes/will take/etc. place somewhere else than at the place of utterance, or one will go somewhere else to perform the action/for the action to be performed.
Here here -nke- The action either takes/will take/etc. place at the place of utterance, or one will come to the place of utterance to perform the action/for the action to be performed.
Arriving there arriving.there -llu- The action will take place upon arrival somewhere else than at the place of utterance.
Arriving here arriving.here -šti- The action will take place upon arrival at the place of utterance.


· Slot 6: Mood

Mood Marker Notes
Indicative ind -š-
Interrogative int -n- Marks the verb as a question regarding wether the assertion made by the verbal construction is true (reality compliant) or not.
Negative neg -r- It is combined with the other mood markers to form their negative counterparts:

-rš- neg.ind, -rn- neg.int, -rl- neg.cont/neg.subj, -rx- neg.pot/neg.opt, -r(V)hh(V)- neg.vol

Subjunctive/ Conditional subj/cond -l- The conditional form is formed with the affix =tu-, "if", following this marker. For the different voices (marked in the next slot) regular sandhi rules yield the following forms:

-l=tu-Ø > -ltu ; -l=tu-i > -ltwi ; -l=tu-u > -ltû ; -l=tu-k > -ltuk

Potential/Optative pot/opt -x- The "then"-verbal clause following an "if"-marked verb is characterized by this mood.
Volitive vol -hh(V)- +(V) before a consonant in the following slot; it repeats the preceding vowel, always short regardless of its original length.


· Slot 7: Voice

Voice Marker Notes
Active act
Anticausative antic -i
Middle mid -u
Applicative app -k ; also marking of unergative past participles as nominal modifiers with active meaning
Unergative unerg -t

-Syntactic argument marking-

~Unaccusative

~~Anticausative

~Unergative

Hortatives and imperativity

negative voice + hortative = abhortative

Noun incorporation

Some nouns can be incorporated to some verbs depending on certain established parameters based on certain semantic fields (see Nominal morphology:Incorporation).

MARKING HIERARCHY

Nominal marking

Verbal marking

Subject pronoun: free pronoun, short form
Referent anaphora: the same vs. anoher mentioned vs. anoter not mentioned (begs for introduction)
Stem - Infixes
Tense: [anterior] vs. [past/perfective] vs. [relative present tense] vs. [present-future/imperfective] vs. [posterior]
Inverse: I/O
Object number (transitive verbs)
Aspect:
Mood:
Voice: indicative vs. interrogative vs. negative vs. subjunctive/conditional vs. potential/optative
-2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Subj.Pron (free pr. short form) Ref.Anaph Stem <infixes> Tense Inverse Obj.Nr Aspect Mood Voice
e=n- S>P/n_ (ej. h>k) -Ø- -happ=a- <šnV>1 -ra=z- =z/_V[-high] -n- -- -ô- -r- -i
e=y- -a/_C [plosive] -i- -happ=š- -ra=x- =x/_t, d -Ø- -- -ta- -n- -u
-šku- -haptu-* -ra=n- =n/_V[+high], n -- -û- -š-
-Ø- -C- -- -î- -l- -k
-ša=r- =r/_n -Ø- -ne- -x- -t
-ša=k- =k/_t
-ša=s- =s/
-xtu-
-kše-

1 the verb receives an incorporated noun in genitive compound; akin to a construct state marking in the verb.

-2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Subj.Pron Ref.Anaph Root Tense Inverse Obj.Nr Aspect Mood Voice
1S.NOM SAME to.bread.cook PRES DIRECT UNSP UNSP ACT
wâ[N]- -Ø- -hanaptu-kkû- -Ø- -Ø- -Ø- -Ø- -š-
wâ[N]-Ø-hanaptu-kkû-Ø-Ø-Ø-Ø-š-Ø}
wânkanaptukkûš
"it is a common occurrence that I bake bread"
  • haptu- < happ=ttu-

DEICTICS

Demonstrative pronouns

Haššûl spatial deictics correlate in proximity with first exclusive (proximal), second (medial), and third person (distal) pronouns. The short form of the genitive pronouns is affixed wih the following locative markers (loc) depending on relative positions: -le 'speaker', -nê 'addressee' and -la 'both'. This gives us the following combinations:

Singular:

Personal pronoun and correlative proximity
first exclusive (proximal) second (medial) third (distal)
têk- en- ey-
loc 'speaker' -le têk-le- > têkle- > telê- en-le- > elne- > êlle- ey-le- > eyye- > êye-
'addressee' -nê têk-nê- > têknê- > tekne- en-nê- > ennê- > êne- ey-nê- > enyê- > enye-
'both' -la têk-la- > têkla- > telâ- en-la- > elna- > êlla- ey-la- > eyya- > êya-

Paucal/Plural:

Personal pronoun and correlative proximity
first exclusive (proximal) second (medial) third (distal)
tâl- aš(š)- nâm-
loc 'speaker' -le tâl-le- > tâlle- > tale- aš(š)-le- > ašle- > ašše- nâm-le- > nâlme- > nâlle-
'addressee' -nê tâl-nê- > tânlê- > tanne- aš(š)-nê- > ašne- > ašnê- nâm-nê- > nâmne- > nâmme-
'both' -la tâl-la- > tâlla- > tala- aš(š)-la- > ašla- > ašša- nâm-la- > nâlma- > nâlla-

Deictics may occur either in place of nouns or postposed to nouns, as in ??hanô lene?? 'that house'.

Verbal forms of the demonstrative pronouns can be derived with the verbalizer =š- for intransitive verbs, with the meaning to.be/stay/remain/be.present-loc. E.g. {ašša=š-} 'aššaš' "they just stay there"

POSSESSION

Possession can be marked with the enclitic form of either a genitive or a negative pronoun, indicating respectively possession or non-possession by the marked-for person.

Genitive possessive

The possession of a noun is marked with the enclitic form of the genitive pronouns, bearing the same person and number (1s.gen=1s.pos, "my", etc).

Whenever a genitive pronoun in its long form is used in a clause (e.g. when the possessor is explicitly mentioned), possession marking is dropped from the arguments and the roles are marked by their syntactic relation with the pronoun (order possessed-gen-possessor). For instance, in the sentence "Manxên eyer Rûl" ("a man's she-dog"), the possessor is mentioned (rûl, 'a.man'), and therefore the long version of the third person singular genitive pronoun (eyer) is used. The form **eyManxên eyer Rûl (1s.pos-she.dog 1s.gen man), using the short form of the third person singular genitive pronoun (ey-), would be incorrect.

Negative possessive

The enclitic form of the negative pronouns is used in the same way as that of the genitive pronouns, likewise bearing the same person and number (1s.neg=1s.neg.pos, "not.my", etc.), to indicate a non-belonging relationship. E.g. 'rexlanneš', {re=x-lann-eš} 1s.neg.pos-house-sg, 'not.my.house'.

DERIVATIONAL MORPHOLOGY

Derivation of adjectives

Every lexical root, be it nominal or verbal, can be turned into an adjective with the adjectivizer suffix adjz -(t)ilir.

In the case of nominal roots, it takes on the role of a semblative case, with the general predicate form "x is [noun]-like" .

In the case of verbal roots, it can be defined as a deverbal form, taking over adjectival functions, by which definition it could be called an adverb, with the general predicate form "(x-is) in the manner of [verb]-ing". In the context of a restrictive relative clause, it takes on the role of a deverbal form about which can be predicated of as a noun, by which definition it can be called a participle, with the general predicate form "x, which is like [verb]-ing" (in English both forms would be represented by the infinitive, and are thus rendered as such in the translation).

For example:

hanaptilir hanaptupepšeš
{hanap-(t)ilir hanaptupepšeš}
[nominal root]-adjz [inflected noun]
"a fire-like tea-brew" (e.g. said of a spicy teabrew)
happ(at)ilir hanaptweš
{happ=a-(t)ilir ha<na>p=tu-eš}
[verbal root]-ADJZ [inflected noun]
"a burning-like cooking" (< "an X [the cooking], which is like burning"; as is characteristic of some barbecuing styles)

Denominal verbs

Marking Marker Notes Example
Verbalizer 1 vlz1 -Ca- Transitive verb associated with the noun's nature. happ- (< *haff-), "fire"; =Ca- vlz1

→ {happ=a-} happa-, "to.burn" (tr.)

Verbalizer 2 vlz2 -ttu- Transitive verb meaning "to transform X (=obj) through [the use of] Y (=noun+vlz2)" : an action performed by the modified noun mn transforms the object of the verb in some way associated with the noun's nature. mn: happ-, "fire"; -ttu- vlz2

→ {happ-ttu-} haptu-, "to.transform.using.fire", "to.cook".

Verbalizer 3 vlz3 -š- Intransitive verb happ- "fire" ; =š- vlz3

→ {happ=š-} happš-, "to.burn" (int.)


Deverbal nouns

Marking Marker Notes
Nominalizer 1 nlz1 Place where the actions of the verb takes place
Nominalizer 2 nlz2 Person that does the action of the verb
Nominalizer 3 nlz3 Person who has a characteristic of the first word
Nominalizer 4 nlz4 That which is done by the verb

SYNTAX

Word order

Constituent order per sentence type

DECLARATIVE Transitive Monotransitive
Ditransitive
Intransitive
IMPERATIVE
QUESTION [topic]=Q [encl.pron]=[NO.OBJECT]-to.ask{tr}

Other

A/N

possessed/gen/possessor (see Possession above)

LEXICON

Nouns (n): animate (an), inanimate (in), deverbal (dev).
Verbs (v): transitive (tr), intransitive (int), incorporated (inc)
Particles (p): verbal (ver), nominal (nom), suprasegmental (sup)
Numerals (nu)

SAMPLES

Manxên eye'Rûl
/män.ˈχeːn e.je.ˈɾuːl/
mann-kên eyer rûl
dog-female.animal 3S.GEN man
"a.dogess of.him a.man", "a man's dog(~bitch)"
wânelššappš-
/wäː.nel.ʃːä.pːʃ-/
wâ[N]-elš-happ=š- -lann-
1s-place-to.burn- -house-
"I-place-to.burn- -house-", "I place-burned.down a house" -> "I burned down a house"
aššašakti
/ä.ʃːä.ˈʃäk.ti/
ašša=š-Vkti
LOC.MED.BOTH=VLZ3-Q
"to.be.there-?", "do they just stay there?"


1) eyyapparaxtani, e=y-happ=a-ra=x-ta-n-i
2) happarazôn, Ø-happ=a-ra=z-ô-n-Ø
3) {happ-}, happarazôr


enkapprazôr
e=n-happ=a-ra=z-Ø-Ø-ô-r-Ø
e=n- -happ=a- -ra=z- -Ø- -Ø- -ô- -r-
2s.gen to.burn=tr pres.fut.ipf dir unspec ipf neg ind
‹›, ""


HISTORICAL NOTES

The accent shifted from first to last syllable over time, which garnered some of the most distinctive sound changes in the evolution of the language.

*yek-wer- > yekwer > yekker > ekker Haššûl
> yekwer > yekuər > ikûr Katzôr
> yikuər > çiɣʷâr/ʃiɣwâ Hečjûr
*tə yek-wer- > têkwer > têkker > tekêr Haššûl
> tyekwer > tyekuər > tikûr Katzôr
> dyikuər > diɣʷâr/diɣwâ Hečjûr
*wagˠ-wer- > wakwer > akuer > akler Haššûl
> wakwer > wakuər > wakûr Katzôr
> ləkuər > elkʷâr/elkwâ Hečjûr
> elkûr