Habyela: Difference between revisions

1,036 bytes added ,  19 November 2015
Relational Nouns
(Relational Nouns)
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====Vowel Allophony====
====Vowel Allophony====


The situation here is very similar to neighbouring languages such as [[North-East_Antarctican|North-East Antarctican]]. Even though there is no phonemic contrast between front and back vowels, this does not mean that sounds such as [i], [u] and [e] are absent from the language. Front and back vowels occur as allophones of their corresponding central vowels e.g. /ˈhɨ̰mːʲɨ/ - "fjord" is pronounced [ˈhḭmːʲḭ], and /ˈtʷɨ̤pːasɨ/ - "digestion" is pronounced [ˈtʷṳpːasɨ].
The situation here is very similar to neighbouring languages such as [[North-East_Antarctican|North-East Antarctican]]. Even though there is no phonemic contrast between front and back vowels, this does not mean that sounds such as [i], [u] and [e] are absent from the language. Front and back vowels occur as allophones of their corresponding central vowels.


There is no difference between how consonants influence the preceding vowel and the following vowel. So if /ɨ/ is between /j/ and /w/, in both cases it will be pronounced /y/, no matter whether the sequence is /jɨw/ or /wɨj/.
There is no difference between how consonants influence the preceding vowel and the following vowel. So if /ɨ/ is between /j/ and /w/, in both cases it will be pronounced /y/, no matter whether the sequence is /jɨw/ or /wɨj/.
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"The bone that the men gave to the dog."
"The bone that the men gave to the dog."
When the head noun is a genitive possessor (alienable or inalienable), the clitic /ɟɨɲa/ is used e.g.
/ʔàɟʷɨnəɴ-qa qənə̀baɴʈa-qa ʔasətɨ̀ ʎə̀-ʔaɴɖà-wɨ=ɟɨɲa/
man.PL-GEN dog.3PS.PL.POSS-ERG bone RESTR.REL.HUMAN.SG-bite-3PS.NONHUM.TEL=SR.GEN
"The men whose dog bit the bone"




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3rd person plural / nonhuman /ʔàsaɴʈa/
3rd person plural / nonhuman /ʔàsaɴʈa/
==Relational Nouns==
Habyela does not have prepositions or postpositions. Rather it uses nouns for bodyparts to indicate location. English does this with the phrase "the foot of the mountain" (to mean below the mountain), but Habyela does this across the entire language. For example, to say "in ...", a Habyela speaker would say "...'s belly" e.g.
/paɲɨ pʲəʈaɴʈa paʔà-qʷɨ/
water belly.3PS.NONHUM.POSS fall-1PS.SG.TEL
"I fell in the water" (literally "I fell water's belly")
These are possessive phrases, as is evident from the fact that possessive suffixes are used. Also, when they are relativised, the clitic /ɟɨɲa/ is used (which is normally used when English would use "... whose ....") e.g.
/paɲɨ pʲəʈaɴʈa wə-paʔà-qʷɨ=ɟɨɲa/
water belly.3PS.NONHUM.POSS RESTR.REL.3PS.NONHUM-fall-1PS.SG.TEL
"The water that I fell in".