Kandi
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| Asaari | |
|---|---|
| Lha asáari, Asáari | |
 | |
| Pronunciation | [/ɬa at͡sá͜aʀɪ/] |
| Created by | – |
| Native to | United States of America |
| Native speakers | 21,020 (2012) |
Lhisan
| |
Early form | |
Dialects |
|
| Official status | |
| Regulated by | Tsárapi áyasáari |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | as |
| ISO 639-2 | aas |
| ISO 639-3 | aas |
Lha asáari, or simply Asáari, Asaari /at͡sá͜aʀɪ/ 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, Lha asáari /ɬa at͡sá͜aʀɪ/ simply means "the ocean blue language", or "the language that is ocean blue".
Asaari is a heavily agglutinating or polysynthetic language, 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 /t͡sɪ́ná͜a/, traditionally categorised into the following groups:
- màaráyi /mɑ̀ⁿːʀájɪ/ - "shaking" or voiced consonants.
- mháasi /m̥á͜ɑsɪ/ - "smooth" or approximants and voiced nasal consonants.
- tuáaqi /tʼá͜ɑcɪ/ - "shocking" or ejective consonants.
- tsamàaráyis /t͡samɑ̀ⁿːʀájɪs/ - "non-shaking" or voiceless consonants.
- yéelhàyi /jɛ́͜əɬɑ̀ⁿjɪ/ - "gliding" or fricatives and voiceless nasal consonants.
- quáasi /qá͜ɑsɪ/ - "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/ | ' /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/ | ||
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
Morphology
Verbs
Nominals
Nominals are a conjugation of verbs that function primarily as nouns.
Predicative
Relative
Applicative
Benefactive
Malefactive
Conjugation
| Noun | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | /-/ | ... | |||||||||||||
| 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 | -ʾin | -ʾíih | -ʾsíir | |||||
| Predicative | See non-past perfective conjugation | ||||||||||||||
| Relative | sí- | sí-yih | shá- | shá-yih | yée- | yée-yih | -i | sí-ʾi- | shá--i | i-ʾ-i | |||||
| Applicative | àsí | àsí-yih | àshá- | àshá-yih | àyée- | àyée-yih | à-i | àsí--i | àshá--i | àʾi--i | |||||
| Benefactive | sí-yáa | sí-yáayih | shá-yáa | shá-yáayih | yée-yáa | yée-yáayih | -yáa | sí-ʾiyáa | shá-ʾiyáa | -ʾiyáa | |||||
| Malefactive | tsá-
yáa |
tsá-yáayih | tshá-yáa | tshá-yáayih | shé-yáa | shé-yáayih | ʾi-yáa | tsá-
ʾiyáa |
tshá-ʾiyáa | ʾi-ʾiyáa | |||||