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Kirtumur: Difference between revisions
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|name= ''Kirtumur language'' | |name= ''Kirtumur language'' | ||
|nativename=''Kirtumur'' | |nativename=''Kirtumur'' | ||
|pronunciation= | |pronunciation=kir.tu.ˈmur | ||
|- | |- | ||
|creator=[[User:Raistas|Raistas]] | |creator=[[User:Raistas|Raistas]] | ||
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Vowel length was phonemic in East Kyrdan, but in Kirtumur the only vowel that has both a short and a long versions is /e/, which is still differentiated by quality: the short counterpart is noticeably more open. Kirtumur also has two diphthongs: ''"ei"'' [eɪ] and ''"au"'' [aʉ], with the second being pronounced [ɛʏ] in the northeast. Erepursal variety has additional two vowels: ''"y"'' [y] and ''"ȳ"'' [øː], which usually correspond to ''"i"'' in Umunesal. The old East Kyrdan diphthongs *ai and *ei are still distinct in Erepursal with *ai becoming ''"ei"'' [ɛɪ] | Vowel length was phonemic in East Kyrdan, but in Kirtumur the only vowel that has both a short and a long versions is /e/, which is still differentiated by quality: the short counterpart is noticeably more open. Kirtumur also has two diphthongs: ''"ei"'' [eɪ] and ''"au"'' [aʉ], with the second being pronounced [ɛʏ] in the northeast. Erepursal variety has additional two vowels: ''"y"'' [y] and ''"ȳ"'' [øː], which usually correspond to ''"i"'' in Umunesal. The old East Kyrdan diphthongs *ai and *ei are still distinct in Erepursal with *ai becoming ''"ei"'' [ɛɪ] and *ei becoming ''"ui"'' [ʉɪ]~[ɵɪ], while both merged into [eɪ] in Umunesal. | ||
Early in its history a sound change took place that gave rise to the Kirtumur vowel harmony. According to this rule, a front vowel differs depending on the vowel in the following syllable. When the next syllable contains a high vowel ([i] or [u]) or a diphthong, then the vowel is [i] and in other cases it is [ɛ], for instance: '''''e'''n'''e'''thachē'' "she/he gave it to them", '''''i'''n'''i'''šukē'' "she/he bought it for them". Certain prefixes, like the locative prefix, does not change, however. If the vowel is [ɛ], then both [i] and [ɛ] can appear before it, but the latter appears much more often then the former. | Early in its history a sound change took place that gave rise to the Kirtumur vowel harmony. According to this rule, a front vowel differs depending on the vowel in the following syllable. When the next syllable contains a high vowel ([i] or [u]) or a diphthong, then the vowel is [i] and in other cases it is [ɛ], for instance: '''''e'''n'''e'''thachē'' "she/he gave it to them", '''''i'''n'''i'''šukē'' "she/he bought it for them". Certain prefixes, like the locative prefix, does not change, however. If the vowel is [ɛ], then both [i] and [ɛ] can appear before it, but the latter appears much more often then the former. | ||
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===Stress=== | ===Stress=== | ||
Like other Eastern varieties, Kirtumur does not possess a strong stress and thus it generally does not cause any vowel reduction of unstressed syllables (a feature, shared with Kērsalur, but not with some westernmost dialects, like Ilusal). A stress is generally fixed on the root vowel of a word, but some suffixes can cause the stress shift to the right, like the inanimate locative marker ''-enei'' which receives stress on its first vowel ([ˈlum] "surface" - [lu.ˈmɛ.nɛɪ] "on the surface" ) or the negative active present conjugation, which shifts the stress to the person suffix ([ˈkʰɑ.tʰɑ] "to stop" - [kʰɑ.ˈtʰeɪ.ŋi] "I'm not stopping him/her". In composite words the stress always falls on the second root vowel or a suffix - [nɑm.sɑ.ˈlir] "speech, the manner of speaking". | Like other Eastern varieties, Kirtumur does not possess a strong stress and thus it generally does not cause any vowel reduction of unstressed syllables (a feature, shared with Kērsalur, but not with some westernmost dialects, like Ilusal). A stress is generally fixed on the root vowel of a word, but some suffixes can cause the stress shift to the right, like the inanimate locative marker ''-enei'' which receives stress on its first vowel ([ˈlum] "surface" - [lu.ˈmɛ.nɛɪ] "on the surface" ) or the negative active present conjugation, which shifts the stress to the person suffix ([ˈkʰɑ.tʰɑ] "to stop" - [kʰɑ.ˈtʰeɪ.ŋi] "I'm not stopping him/her". In composite words the stress always falls on the second root vowel or a suffix - [nɑm.sɑ.ˈlir] "speech, the manner of speaking". | ||
==Written standard== | |||
Kirtumur has two written standards: '''Umunesal''' and '''Erepursal'''. Other Kirtumur dialects have are not standardised and the usage of Erepursal was later limited to only religious practices and as a local variety. However, neither of these two are spoken standards, even though both provide rules concerning the proper pronunciation, and most Kirtumur speakers use their native dialect in most or all circumstances, as no attempts at creating a unified spoken standard have been made. Erepursal is based primarily on western mountainous dialects of Kirtumur and thus was difficult to learn for speakers of various eastern dialects. It was later almost completely replaced with Umunesal in most areas, which is based on central lowland dialects instead and is slightly closer to some eastern dialects, than Erepursal, though neither standard was based on or included the eastern dialects. Thus, broadly speaking, Erepursal is widespread in western mountainous parts of Umu, though not in major urban areas, while Umunesal is used everywhere else. Umunesal is generally less conservative and allows a great variety of optional word forms; forms that are closer to its original central dialect and Cirdamur is called ''munulikhir'' ("conservative") and forms that are closer to other local dialects and/or Kērsalur are ''muatauŋir'' ("moderate"). | |||
==Morphology== | ==Morphology== | ||
The word is perhaps the most basic unit of grammar and morphology deals with the internal structure of words. Kirtumur is consistently classified as an [[w:Agglutinative language|agglutinative]] language. Although it differs from a standard agglutinative language, where each morpheme carries one meaning and they remain unchanged after their unions. Some of its morphemes act similarly to morphemes in a [[w:Fusional language|fusional language]], which tend to use a single morheme to carry multiple meanings. For example, the verb ''misa'' ("to eat") has the first-person singular subject present tense form ''misi'' ("I eat it"); the single suffix ''-i'' represents both the features of the direct agreement between first and third persons and present tense, instead of having a separate affix for each feature (although the present tense morpheme can also be analysed as zero). | The word is perhaps the most basic unit of grammar and morphology deals with the internal structure of words. Kirtumur is consistently classified as an [[w:Agglutinative language|agglutinative]] language. Although it differs from a standard agglutinative language, where each morpheme carries one meaning and they remain unchanged after their unions. Some of its morphemes act similarly to morphemes in a [[w:Fusional language|fusional language]], which tend to use a single morheme to carry multiple meanings. For example, the verb ''misa'' ("to eat") has the first-person singular subject present tense form ''misi'' ("I eat it"); the single suffix ''-i'' represents both the features of the direct agreement between first and third persons and present tense, instead of having a separate affix for each feature (although the present tense morpheme can also be analysed as zero). | ||