Khattish: Difference between revisions

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**final ''u'' with AN and ''k'' with IN
**final ''u'' with AN and ''k'' with IN
*Genitive (GEN): possession ('''his''' head); with most adpositions; adjective-forming
*Genitive (GEN): possession ('''his''' head); with most adpositions; adjective-forming
**final ''l'' with AN and ''j'' with IN
**last syllable nuclaus = syllabic ''l''  
*Instrumental-comitative (INS-COM): using something or in company of someone (compare "with"); adjacent location (ADE)  
*Instrumental-comitative (INS-COM): using something or in company of someone (compare "with"); adjacent location (ADE)  
**final ''s'' with AN and ''h'' with IN
**final ''s'' with AN and ''h'' with IN


===Adjective===
===Adjective===

Revision as of 18:39, 7 July 2014

Khattish Zupett [zɯpət'] is the language of Khat region in Grundet. Khattish derives from Proto-West-Herookuan languages. Although Khattish is a cousin language of Sceptrian, the strong influence from Kher languages has made it hard to recognize the shared traits.


Phonology

Consonants

The IPA symbol is shown after the romanization if they aren't the same.

Bilabial Alveolar Postalveolar Velar Uvular
Nasal m n ng ŋ
Plosive Voiceless p t k kg q
Voiced b d g gg ɢ
Fricative Voiceless f ɸ~f s ss ʃ h x
Voiced v β~v z zz ʒ x ɣ
Ejective pp p' tt t' kk k'
Affricate pf c t͡s cc t͡ʃ kh kx
Trill pr ʙ r rr ʀ
Approximant w w~ʋ l ɹ~l j ɰ~j
  • /f/, /v/ and /ʋ/ are allophones of /ɸ/, /β/ and /w/ with close vowels
  • /l/ and /j/ come with front vowels while /ɹ/ and /ɰ/ are used with back vowels

Vowels

Front Central Back
Close Unrounded u ɯ
Rounded ú u
Mid é e e ə~ɵ
Open-mid Unrounded a ʌ
Rounded á ɔ
  • 'vowels can be long: aa /ʌ:/, áa /ɔ:/
    • If diacriticts are marked in the native abjad, long vowels are shown simply with double marks.
  • /ɵ/ appears as an allophone of /ə/ after voiced consonants

Phonotactics

Word-final schwa is not pronounced


Cekara.JPG

Orthography

Formal Khattish uses featural abjad script Cekara shown above with its romanization. Diacritics are marked in educational materials and words out of context, sometimes in place names as well. The diacritics have evolved into elaborate decorations in the Razáfian calligraphy.

There is some controversy of the creator of Khattish script due to a great loss of historical records during the years under Western Tyranny of the sixth era:

Lightlisteners name shinesharer saint Gunda Tliwirshu as the designer, based on the remaining parts of his chronicles written on the island of Guard already in the third era, around 470. They claim that she had to create a translation of the Book of Light and even a new script "for those living in the darkness; poor natives to whom, alas, our beautiful language (Rinapri) is nothing but dog's bark".

Since the language has changed much during these millennia, supporters of the Lafan school believe that the script was coined in 4th era around year 400 by Narrif Tsero, one of the most productive Khat linguists, who used Kher and Northern runic scripts (not used anymore) as the base. The new script managed to spread just in time before the decline of Khat culture and was finally revived after the of the collapse of Western Tyranny in the sixth era more than two thousand years later by Teke Kále. Much later, in the seventh era 290, the founder of New Khat Empire, Sekkute I, used the script as a national romantic example of pure Khattish culture, not contaminated by this Westlang.

See also the modern script whose one variation uses β-grapheme for v and its left-mirrored version for f, 8-grapheme for pf, b-grapheme for z and d-grapheme for s.

Morphology

  • roots slightly similar to semitic roots: voiceless bi- and quadriliterals (while Kher have triliteral roots)
    • voiceless→voiced & ejective→affricate & voiced→approximant as one derivation process: √p-p → b-p and p-b
    • derivation with affixes as well

Pronoun

Noun

Nouns of Khattish have two grammatical genders, animate (AN) and inanimate (IN), which are characteristic to words and not explicitly shown. Animate class contains all living creatures and their body parts while inanimate

Nouns have two numbers, singular and plural, and the plural is formed by voicing the consonant of the stressed syllable (second or last).

Case

Noun cases:

  • Absolutive (ABS): Subject of intransitive verbs and direct object of transitive ones
    • base form (consonants and medial schwas)
  • Ergative (ERG): Agent of transitive verbs (before object); causative (after object)
    • final ée
  • Dative (DAT): Indirect objects; for the benefit of (BEN)
    • final u with AN and k with IN
  • Genitive (GEN): possession (his head); with most adpositions; adjective-forming
    • last syllable nuclaus = syllabic l
  • Instrumental-comitative (INS-COM): using something or in company of someone (compare "with"); adjacent location (ADE)
    • final s with AN and h with IN

Adjective

  • noun GEN where the last internal e becomes a
  • agree with gender: na-suffix with animate nouns
  • only agrees with ergative case: -áa for AN and for IN


Verb

  • conjugated for number, tense, aspect and mood
  • apophony
  • first consonant voicing for subjunctive mood


Adposition

postpositions and circumpositions


Derivational morphology

Suffixes:

  • -enú origin, characteristic


Numeral

decimal base

Syntax

ergative-absolutive alignment, word order SOV (verb-final), head-medial