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Revision as of 08:30, 7 April 2013
 | This article is a construction site. This project is currently undergoing significant construction and/or revamp. By all means, take a look around, thank you. |
| Asaari | |
|---|---|
| Tsán asáari, Asáari | |
 | |
| Pronunciation | [/t͡sán at͡sá͜ɑɣɪ/] |
| Created by | – |
| Native to | United States of America |
| Native speakers | 21,020 (2012) |
Early form | |
Dialects |
|
| Official status | |
| Regulated by | Tsárapi áyasáari |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | as |
| ISO 639-2 | aas |
| ISO 639-3 | aas |
Tsán asáari, ꔌꖟꔷ ꕉꕦꔹꗏ , or simply Asáari, ꕉꕦꔹꗏ, or Asaari /at͡sá͜ɑɣɪ/ is a language spoken in the eastern United States of America. It is not known to be related to any extant language and is thus a language isolate. The name, Tsán asáari /t͡sán at͡sá͜ɑɣɪ/ simply means "the ocean blue language", or "the language that is ocean blue".
Asaari is a heavily agglutinating with a complex verbal morphology. The language has repeatedly been analysed as lacking nouns and adjectives altogether, in favour of verbs. Asaari is a tonal language with a limited vowel inventory, and an extensive array of consonants.
The language is being constructed by Waahlis to represent is fierce love for tones, voiceless consonants, and the voiceless lateral fricative.
I also wish to make it clear that this language has no connexion what so ever to the invented language and species of Asari, in the video game Mass Effect! The name is purely coincidental as Asaari is derived from the word for "blue" in the language (Yes, I'm aware the species of Mass Effect also happen to be blue...), which was propably inspired from the European word "azure". The final "-i" is a relativising suffix. No connexions, okay!?
Phonology
Consonants
Asaari has 23 consonants, called tsínáa /t͡sɪ́ná͜aʔ/, traditionally categorised into the following groups:
- màaráyi /mɑ̀ⁿːʀáʔjɪ/ - "shaking" or voiced consonants.
- mháasi /m̥á͜ɑʔsɪ/ - "smooth" or approximants and voiced nasal consonants.
- tuáaqi /tʼá͜ɑʔcɪ/ - "shocking" or ejective consonants.
- tsamàaráyis /t͡samɑ̀ⁿːʀáʔjɪs/ - "non-shaking" or voiceless consonants.
- yéelhàyi /jɛ́͜əɬɑ̀ⁿjɪ/ - "gliding" or fricatives and voiceless nasal consonants.
- quáasi /qʼá͜ɑʔsɪ/ - "stopping", that is stop consonants.
- sitsàayi /sɪt͡sɑ̀ːⁿjɪ/ - "jumping" or affricates.
| Bilabial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Uvular | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| central | central | lateral | ||||||
| Nasals | voiceless | mh /m̥/ | nh /n̥/ | |||||
| voiced | m /m/ | n /n/ | ||||||
| Stops | ejective | pu /pʼ/ | tu /tʼ/ | qu /cʼ ~ qʼ/ | ||||
| voiceless | p /p/ | t /t/ | q /c ~ q/ | h /ʔ/ | ||||
| Affricates | ejective | tsu /t͡sʼ/ | tlu /tɬ'/ | tshu /t͡ɕʼ/ | ||||
| voiceless | ts /t͡s/ | tl /t͡ɬ/ | tsh /t͡ɕ/ | |||||
| Fricatives | voiceless | ph /ɸ ~ pɸ/ | th /θ ~ tθ/ | s /s ~ ts/ | lh /ɬ/ | sh /ç ~ ɕ/ | h /χ ~ h/ | |
| Approximant | l /l/ | y /j/ | r /ʁ ~ ʀ/ | |||||
Vowels
Asaari has three main vowels, /a/, /ɪ/ and /ɛ/. The vowels can all bear tone. The tones may change the vowels' qualities and articulation; these allophones are enclosed in square brackets. Vowels may be long or short. Long vowels are written twice in the native orthography.
| Front | Near-front | Central | Near-back | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | [ɨ̃] | ||||
| Near-close | ı /ɪ/ | ||||
| Close-mid | |||||
| Mid | |||||
| Open-mid | e /ɛ/, [ɛ̃] | ||||
| Near-open | |||||
| Open | a /a/ | [ɑ̃] |
Diphthongs
There are three so called "diphthongs¨" in the language. This is however merely a traditional name, as the diphthongs have long since collapsed into long vowels. Originally, these were homogeneous diphthongs, composed of doubled vowels.
| Monophthongs | ||
|---|---|---|
| i /ɪ/ | e /ɛ/ | a /a/ |
| Diphthongs | ||
| ii /ɪː/ | ee /ɛː/ | aa /aː/ |
Tone
There are three phonemic tones in Lha asáari, the high, medium, or default, and the low tone. The tones have immense effects on the qualities of the vowels.
- Short and long vowels with the high tone are pronounced with a glottal closure, that is, a coda glottal stop, /ʔ/. The long vowels are diphthongised - this is the sole trace of the homogeneous diphthongs.
- Low tone vowels are nasalised. This nasalisation is phonetically marked with a superscript minuscule "n", so that the nasalisation marking does not coincide with the tone diacritics.
| Monophthongs | Diphthongs | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quality | Medium tone | i /ɪ/ | e /ɛ/ | a /a/ | ii /ɪː/ | ee /ɛː/ | aa /aː/ | |
| High tone | í /ɪ́ʔ/ | é /ɛ́ʔ/ | á /áʔ/ | íi /ɪ́͜ɨʔ/ | ée /ɛ́͜əʔ/ | áa /á͜ɑʔ/ | ||
| Low tone | ì /ɨ̀ⁿ/ | è /ɛ̀ⁿ/ | à /ɑ̀ⁿ/ | ìi /ìⁿː/ | èe /ɛ̀ⁿː/ | àa /ɑ̀ⁿː/ | ||
Phonological processes
Apart from the low tone vowels being nasalised, and the diphthongs collapsing into long vowels, Asaari has a few other compulsory phonological changes.
Emphatic consonants
The term emphatic is a controversial one but refers to a certain form of assimilation in the Asaari language. Following high tone vowels, fricative consonants and /ʁ/ change their pronunciation.
| Phonological changes | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ph | th | s | lh | sh | h | r | |
| Plain | /ɸ/ | /θ/ | /s/ | /ɬ/ | /ç/ | /ʔ/ | /ʁ ~ ʀ/ |
| Emphatic | [p͡ɸ] | [t͡θ] | [t͡s] | [t͡ɬ] | [ɕ] | [χ] | [ɣ] |
| Final | - | - | - | - | - | [h] | [r] |
Unreleased consonants
When in coda position of a word, consonants are pronounced with no audible release. This applies to all oral occlusives, or plosives. Ejective plosives are never found in final position and thus never unreleased.
| Phonological changes | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| p | t | q | |||||
| Plain | /p/ | /t/ | /c ~ q/ | ||||
| Unreleased | [p̚] | [t̚] | [c̚ ~ q̚] | ||||
Orthography
The Asaari natively use the Vai syllabary to write amongst themselves. This modified syllabary is called the Asaari abugida.
The abugida symbols are composed of one onset consonant and one vowel. Vowels carrying different tones are perceived as proper vowels and do thus have their own symbols. There are a few gaps in the syllabary, since some combinations are not possible in the language, or have been lost.
The native name for the syllabary is qiráas atsàari, ꘒ ꕉꔍꔹꗏ, which means "imperfect script". It is near-homophonous to qiráas asáari ꘒ ꕉꕦꔹꗏ, which would mean "Asaari" or "blue script".
There are a few problems with the script; ejective consonants and long vowels are not denoted by symbols of their own. Instead, they are marked with the following symbols:
- ꔷ - which marks ejectivity on a consonant, and also that that the vowel should be elided if final.
- ꔹ - marks long vowels.
| Asaari abugida | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vowel | ||||||||||||
| -a | -e | -i | ||||||||||
| /a/ | /áʔ/ | /ɑ̀ⁿ/ | /ɛ/ | /ɛ́ʔ/ | /ɛ̀ⁿ/ | /ɪ/ | /ɪ́ʔ/ | /ɨ̀ⁿ/ | ||||
| Onset | (none) | ꕉ | ꕱ | ꕊ | ꔀ | ꖺ | ꗢ | ꕪ | ꖷ | ꔧ | ||
| p- | ꕐ | ꕑ | ꕒ | ꔅ | ꔆ | ꗩ | ꗨ | ꔇ | ꗪ | |||
| t- | ꔎ | ꔐ | ꔒ | ꕚ | ꕜ | ꖁ | ꕽ | ꕾ | ꘅ | |||
| q- | ꖏ | ꔫ | ꖐ | ꗛ | ꗜ | ꗝ | ꖴ | ꖵ | ꖶ | |||
| '- | ꖋ | ꗘ | ꖍ | ꗗ | ꗘ | ꗙ | ꖰ | ꖱ | ꖲ | |||
| ts- | ꔋ | ꔌ | ꔍ | ꕗ | ꕘ | ꕙ | ꗯ | ꗱ | ꗲ | |||
| tl- | ꕪ | ꕌ | ꕭ | ꔞ | ꔟ | ꔠ | ꘃ | ꘄ | ꘆ | |||
| tsh- | ꖉ | ꗉ | ꗊ | ꗋ | ꗍ | ꖑ | ꖨ | ꖪ | ꖳ | |||
| ph- | ꕓ | ꕔ | ꕖ | ꔈ | ꔉ | ꔊ | ꗫ | ꗬ | ꗮ | |||
| th- | ꕞ | ꔕ | ꔖ | ꕠ | ꕡ | ꖇ | ꗻ | ꗽ | ꔺ | |||
| s- | ꔻ | ꕦ | ꕧ | ꗳ | ꔿ | ꔛ | ꖤ | ꗿ | ꘀ | |||
| lh- | - | ꖆ | ꖃ | - | ꔳ | ꔱ | - | ꘇ | ꔦ | |||
| sh- | - | ꕨ | ꕩ | - | ꔜ | ꔝ | - | ꘁ | ꘂ | |||
| h- | - | ꕬ | ꕍ | - | ꔂ | ꕅ | - | ꗤ | ꗥ | |||
| l- | ꕿ | ꖻ | ꖼ | ꔵ | ꗓ | ꗕ | ꕳ | ꖅ | ꕴ | |||
| y- | ꖢ | ꖣ | ꖎ | ꔬ | ꔭ | ꕸ | ꖝ | ꖞ | ꗄ | |||
| r- | ꕀ | ꕁ | ꕂ | ꖙ | ꕏ | ꖗ | ꗏ | ꖿ | ꖽ | |||
| m- | ꕎ | ꕮ | ꕯ | ꔃ | ꕆ | ꕇ | ꗦ | ꘈ | ꘉ | |||
| n- | ꕺ | ꕻ | ꗇ | ꗅ | ꗆ | ꕼ | ꖟ | ꔨ | ꖡ | |||
| mh- | ꕰ | ꕃ | - | ꕈ | ꕄ | - | ꘊ | ꘋ | - | |||
| nh- | ꗁ | ꗂ | - | ꕶ | ꕷ | - | ꖛ | ꖜ | - | |||
Punctuation
Qiráas atsàari does not use Latin punctuation. It is somewhat more limited, but uses the following symbols:
- ꘎ - Marks a full stop.
- ꘏ - Question or interrogation mark.
- ꘍ - Denotes a comma, separates clauses.
- ꖫ - Has the function of an English colon or semicolon.
Logograms
The Atsàari script does also have a number of logograms: Single characters that mark a full word.
These are rather few, and they can all be spelt out with the syllabary. It should be noted however, that whilst the logograms are very comfortable and quick to write, they are never marked for affixes, inflexion or the like. That means they must be pronounced out of context.
Grammar
Asaari has a fairly complex grammar; it lacks the common definition of a noun. Instead, all nouns are so called "nominals" verbs conjugated in a certain pattern.
Syntax
Verbs
Number
Asaari verbs are conjugated according to three different numbers; singular, dual, and plural.
Singular
The singular (sg) number is the most basic form of most nouns, and marks individual nouns, counting "one". It is completely corresponding to the English equivalent. The singular third person perfective dynamic is the citation form of all words in the Asaari language. The singular inflects according to three genders: Masculine, feminine and neuter.
The singular is formed with prefixes and suffixes.
Dual
The dual (du) number marks when there are two subjects of a verb, or two of a noun. It is a living number unlike many European equivalents as well as Arabic. It is not inflected according to any gender.
The dual is formed through prefixes.
Plural
The plural (pl) number refers to any objects numbering more than two, that is "several". It corresponds well to the English plurals.
The plural formation differs from that of the other numbers; it uses reduplication of the singular prefixes. The reduplication is partial and dependent upon the structure of the prefix.
- C1V1C2-prefixes are reduplicated to C1V1C2V1C2.
- V1C1-prefixes form the reduplication V1C1V1C1
- Prefixes with a sole vowel, V, are reduplicated as VhV.
Gender
Unlike other Native American languages, there are three genders, the masculine (m), feminine (f) and neuter (n). Gender plays important roles in and verbal inflections, since Asaari verbs conjugate according to gender. It is important to note that while verbs agree according to gender, it is the subject's gender that congruates.
Statives
Statives are an Asaari conjugation of verbs that function primarily as nouns and adjectives. A stative is most often defined as a predicative verb, nominal or adjective, but may also include other predicates. There are three different applicative forms and two copulative. The applicative in Asaari is parted in three; instrumental, benefactive, malefactive and oblique.
Predicative
The predicative construction of a nominal has a usage most often analogous to an English copula, used in a predicative expression.
- It is a dog. - mées
- Sara is a girl. - Sára lhináan
- The house is crushed.- tláta quirásináayan
Relative
The relative construction of an Asaari nominal is equivalent to a modifying relative clause. In the language, this is used to create objects, subjects, and modifiers. It is the basic form of Asaari verbs.
- That which is a dog - méesi
- Did you see her who is Jonna? or Did you see Jonna?
- The man who is angry kicks the tree. - nar yéeitsán háranilhèqa
| Relative | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mood ↓ | Number → | Singular | Dual | Plural | ||||||||||||
| Gender ↓ | Person → | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | ||||||
| Indicative | masculine | sí- | shá- | yée-i/n | tlí- | thá- | ti- | sí-- | shá-- | yée-- | ||||||
| feminine | sí-yih | shá-yih | yée-yih | tlí-yih | thá-yih | ti-yih | ||||||||||
| neuter | -i/n | ti-i/n | ||||||||||||||
Instrumental
The Instrumental form has the function to promote an oblique argument of a verb to the core object argument, and indicates the oblique role within the meaning of the verb. When the instrumental applicative is applied to a verb, its valency may be increased by one. The instrumental has mainly comitative and instrumental functions.
- He writes a letter with a pen. - Tìyitlá apuéni ayítlisi.
- He fetches wood with his hands. - Tìhem arási tsáran.
- He fetches it with me. - Tìhemir asími.
| Applicative | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mood ↓ | Number → | Singular | Dual | Plural | ||||||||||||
| Gender ↓ | Person → | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | ||||||
| Indicative | masculine | así- | ashá- | ayée- | atlí- | athá- | ati- | así-- | ashá-- | ayée-- | ||||||
| feminine | así-yih | ashá-yih | ayée-yih | atlí-yih | athá-yih | ati-yih | así--yih | ashá--yih | ayée--yih | |||||||
| neuter | a-i/n | ati-i/n | ||||||||||||||
Benefactive
The benefactive form expresses that the referent of the noun it marks receives the benefit of the situation expressed by the clause. It is simply expressed to be done "for" someone, as a favor or with neutral or good intent.
- He wrote a letter to me. - Tìyitlá símiyáa ayítlisi.
- He fetched wood for the fire. - Tìhem tináarayáan tsáran.
| Benefactive | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mood ↓ | Number → | Singular | Dual | Plural | ||||||||||||
| Gender ↓ | Person → | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | ||||||
| Indicative | masculine | sí-yáa | shá-yáa | yée-yáa | tlí-yáa | thá-yáa | ti-yáa | sí--yáa | shá--yáa | yée--yáa | ||||||
| feminine | sí-yáayih | shá-yáayih | yée-yáayih | tlí-yáayih | thá-yáayih | ti-yáayih | sí--yáayih | shá--yáayih | yée--yáayih | |||||||
| neuter | -yáan | ti-yáan | ||||||||||||||
Oblique
The oblique applicative often expressed when doing something "against" someone, as a hinder or with neutral or ill intent. It is often used in comparative clauses and as an object of a preposition. It does also have a locative function.
- Don't spit on me! - Ritshápuáta tsamiyáa.
- Please wait for me? - Tshásána tsasèhayáa.
- It is in here. - Itaniyáan.
| Oblique | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mood ↓ | Number → | Singular | Dual | Plural | ||||||||||||
| Gender ↓ | Person → | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | ||||||
| Indicative | masculine | tsa-yáa | tsah-yáa | sha-yáa | tlua-yáa | tsua-yáa | tui-yáa | tsa--yáa | tshá--yáa | sha--yáa | ||||||
| feminine | tsa-yáayih | tsha-yáayih | sha-yáayih | tlua-yáayih | tsua-yáayih | tui-yáayih | tsa--yáayih | tsha--yáayih | sha--yáayih | |||||||
| neuter | i-yáan | ti-yáan | ||||||||||||||
Verbs proper
Perfective
| Perfective dynamic | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Non-Past | ||||||||||||||||
| Mood ↓ | Number → | Singular | Dual | Plural | ||||||||||||
| Gender ↓ | Person → | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | ||||||
| Indicative | masculine | á- | lá- | yà-i/n | láhá- | lálá | láyà- | áha- | lálá- | yàyà- | ||||||
| feminine | á-yih | lá-yih | yà-yih | |||||||||||||
| neuter | -i/n | |||||||||||||||
| Past | ||||||||||||||||
| Indicative | masculine | thaá- | thalá- | thayà-i/n | tláhá- | tlálá | tláyà- | thaáha- | tlálá- | thayàyà- | ||||||
| feminine | thaá-yih | thalá-yih | thayà-yih | |||||||||||||
| neuter | -i/n | |||||||||||||||
| Verb | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | /-/ | ... | |||||||||||||
| Participles | |||||||||||||||
| Non-Past | -áyyah | ||||||||||||||
| Past | -áayan | ||||||||||||||
| Person | Singular | Plural | |||||||||||||
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | ||||||||||
| masculine | feminine | masculine | feminine | masculine | feminine | neuter | |||||||||
| Indicative | |||||||||||||||
| Object enclitics | -yi | -yiis | -shi | -shiis | -ar | -saár | -íir | -'in | -'íih | -'íir | |||||
| Past | |||||||||||||||
| Perfective | |||||||||||||||
| Imperfective | |||||||||||||||
| Retrospective | |||||||||||||||
| Non-Past | |||||||||||||||
| Perfective | á- | á-yih | là- | là-yih | àra- | àra-yih | - | na- | ha- | ya- | |||||
| Imperfective | tí- | tí-yih | tlá- | tlá-
yih |
rì- | rì-
yih |
é- | tí-ʾi- | tlá-ʾi- | -ʾi- | |||||
| Retrospective | ràa- | ràa-yih | qà- | qà-yih | yása- | yása-yih | àari- | ràa-- | qà-- | àari-- | |||||
| Irrealis | páa- | páa-yih | qáa- | qáa-yih | yée- | yée-yih | tháa-yih | páa-- | qáa-- | tháa-- | |||||
| Imperative | tsí- | tsí-yih | tshá- | tshá-yih | shà- | shà-yih | 'í- | t'í- | tl'í- | -'í | |||||