User:IlL/A Danified analytic Neo-Arabic

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IlL/A Danified analytic Neo-Arabic/Lexicon

IlL/A Danified analytic Neo-Arabic/Swadesh list


Modern Canaanite
IlL/A Danified analytic Neo-Arabic
Pronunciation[/knaːniθ/]
Created byIlL
SettingLõis
Afro-Asiatic
  • Semitic
    • Central Semitic
      • North Semitic
        • Canaanite
          • Hebrew
            • Modern Canaanite

Modern Canaanite (Canaanite: Knánith or sofø Knán, Togarmite: Xnoniþ) is the sole surviving descendant of Biblical Hebrew, spoken by the Knánim people in Lõis's Cyprus, Turkey, Armenia and the Levant. Some Lõisian rabbinical Jewish writings identify this language with the Lost Tribes of Israel, though they disavow the "quasi-pagan" (i.e. Θāħīdaθ Hawūθan) religious practices of the Knánim. This is not without cause, as the language preserves quite a few Biblical words and phraseology that fell out of use in Mishnaic Hebrew, though its grammar has been greatly simplified and was completely restructured to use auxiliaries instead of the older Hebrew tenses.

Numbers: 0-10: afs, ódh (m)/áth (f), sznay, szlusz, arbą, homisz, szesz, szewą, szmun, teszą, ngaxør

11-20: ódh/áth ngaxør, hnay ngaxør, hlusz ngaxør, arbą ngaxør, homisz ngaxør, szesz ngaxør, szew ngaxør, hmun ngaxør, teszą ngaxør, ngaxre

40: stay ngaxre

60: hlusz ngaxre

...

120: merkø

14400: rúø

before: kkorm


Orthography

Knánith is written in an alphabet descended from the Proto-Hebrew script.

Introduction

  • Swadesh list
  • bel-, ble- is a common prefix (conflation of ben- and ba3al-)
  • tiwdith = Thedish
  • szą sze... = when...
  • Many adverbs are froma infinitive absolute
  • likkori = to die (lit. be called)
  • szovuą = week
  • midhborø = conference
  • נא becomes a focus clitic =nø, they use it a lot
  • Philippi should be weaker: i > e, instead of the TibH i > a (*bint > bett 'daughter'; TibH baṫ)

Phonology

Orthography

Consonants

/m p b f v n t d θ ð ts s z ʃ ŋ k g x h l w j r/ m p b f v n t d th dh ts s/x z sz ng k g kh h l w y r

Glottal reinforcement (transcribed by tt kk) occurs before historical Biblical Hebrew emphatics /tʼ kʼ tsʼ/, and also analogically in some other cases (cf. Glottalic PIE > RP English).

Biblical Hebrew /l/ became /w/ in some places, especially before C.

Mutations

Words can undergo initial lenition, as in Irish and Tiberian Hebrew:

p- b- t- d- k- g- > f- v- th- dh- kh- Ø-

Vowels

/a ɛ i ɔ u ə a: ɛ: i: ɔ: u: ə: ã:/ = a e i o u ø á é í ó ú ǿ ą

Word-final /i/ is silent and palatalizes the preceding consonant.

Prosody

Stress

Stress is always penultimate, except with some verbs where the lV- prefix does not have the stress.

Intonation

Phonotactics

Morphophonology

Morphology

Knánith has lost the verbal inflections and triconsonantal morphology of Biblical Hebrew.

Nouns and adjectives

Nouns inflect for number and definiteness. Adjectives agree with nouns in number.

Knánith has lost grammatical gender.

  • The regular "feminine" singular suffix is -ø or -th.
  • The regular "masculine" plural suffix is -im or -e.
  • The regular "feminine" plural is -uth.
  • However, there are many irregular plurals, especially nouns derived from construct state constructions. e.g. benusz, blenusz = human

køfor, køforim = village, villages

bakkbøkk, bakkbøkkim = bottle, bottles

i, iim = island, islands

kiszø, kiszuth = cucumber, cucumbers

gøfø, gøfuth = corpse, corpses

takkrith, takkriyuth = incident, incidents

Canaanite has lost the construct state. The only remnant of the construct state is the -th- interfix used in possessive constructions between two nouns that end and begin with a vowel, respectively: e.g.

  • hadhør-mittø 'bedroom'
  • ngønove-th-anf 'the grapes of wrath'
  • nøszomø-th-ahwø 'spirit of brotherhood'

Degree markers:

  • Equative: de- = as X as; equally X; X enough
  • Excessive: ro- = too (from Celtic)
  • Comparative/Superlative: -ter = more X or most X; comparandum takes broth 'than' (from Biblical Hebrew *birʔōṫī ʔeṫ 'when I see ACC')

Verbs

Verbs use only one form, usually the inherited Biblical infinitive construct, prefixed with l-. Even for imperatives: Lathett lo hi! = 'Give it to her!' Some verbs instead are derived from other nouns derived from the triconsonantal root rather than the infinitive of a particular verb.

Regular pa3al verbs

The regular pattern is *liCCuC.

-t verbs

Many of these verbs got the glottally reinforced -tt from -ʔt. The -tt then analogically spread to other verbs.

  • lalakht /laˈlaxt/ = to go
  • lakkakht /laʔˈkaxt/ = to take
  • lasakht /laˈsaxt/ = to go back
  • laszaft /laˈʃaft/ = to sit
  • lathett /laˈθeʔt/ = to give
  • larast /laˈrast/ = to go down
  • lalast /laˈlast/ = to be born
  • lasett /laˈseʔt/ = to carry
  • latsett /laˈtseʔt/ = to go out
  • lasątt /laˈsãːʔt/ = to travel
  • laghątt /laˈɣãːʔt/ = to hit, to smite
  • ladhątt /laˈðãːʔt/ = to know
  • lattątt /laʔˈtãːʔt/ = to plant

Regular nif3al

The regular pattern is *liCoCiC where the first C is not lenited.

Regular pi3el

The regular pattern is *løCaCiC or *løCiCuC where the middle C is not lenited.

Regular hif3il

The regular pattern is *laCCiC, *leCCeC, or *laCCoCø.

Regular hithpa3el

The regular pattern is *lithCaCiC where the middle C is not lenited.

Other verbs

Other verbs come from noun derivation patterns, or from earlier verb + noun collocations.

Auxiliaries

Knánith has an auxiliary verb system similar to Colloquial Welsh. In addition, there is a T-V distinction: the 2nd person plural tem is also used as a polite pronoun.

Various auxiliaries in Knánith
→ Person
↓ Truth value
1sg 2sg.m 2sg.f 3sg.m 3sg.f 1pl.in 2pl 3pl Non-pronominal
Affirmative ni, i to te u hi nanu, nu tem em re, r'
Present emphatic ngud i ngud to ngud te nguden u nguden hi ngud nu ngud tem ngud em ngud
Interrogative am ni, am i am to am te am u am hi am nu am tem am em am
Negative i mul to mul te mul u mul hi mul nu mul tem mul em mul ___ mul
Past si ni, sit i, sit ni sit to sit te so u sto hi sin nu sit tem su'm so/sto/su
Passive present ur ni, ur i tur to tri te yur u tur hi nur nu tru tem ru'm yur/tur/ru
Passive past var ni, var i, vart i vart to vart te var u vro hi var nu vart tem vru'm var/vro/vru
Future/Subjunctive ąs i tąs to tąs te yąs u tąs hi nąs nu tąsu tem yąsu'm yąs/tąs/yąsu
"May" kekh i tkekh to tkekh te kekh u tkekh hi kekh nu tkekhu tem kekhu'm kekh/tkekh/kekhu
"Do X more" - present usif i tusif to tusif te yusif u tusif hi nusif nu tusif tem yusifu'm usif/tusif/yusifu
"Do X more" - past seft i seft to seft te sif u sifo hi sef nu seft tem sifu'm usif/tusif/yusifu
Cautionary zum i tøzum to tøzum te zum u tøzum hi nøzum nu tøzmu tem zmu'm izum/tozum/izmu
Cautionary future

The auxiliary for the cautionary future comes from the Biblical Hebrew verb *zāmam 'to scheme'. It's used to:

  • warn the listener of a future event or contingency:
    • Zum sąraz lovu henø kol ngeth. = 'The storm might come here any moment.'
    • Tøzum tafkestaz mul lith ngal szom! = 'The function might not be onto! [in a hypothetical math textbook, cautioning against a tacit assumption a reader might make]'
  • often used in a threatening manner, for example: Lakh to mul yedhą ma zum i ląsuth lakh to! = 'You have no idea what I'm gonna do to you!'

Prepositions

Prepositions inflect like in Welsh: for pronominal prepositional objects, usually the preposition is inflected and is followed by the independent pronoun.

example of a knánith inflected preposition: lø "for"

  • 1sg: li, li ni
  • 2sg.m: lakh to
  • 2sg.f: lakh te
  • 3sg.m: lu hu, lú hu
  • 3sg.f: lo hi, loy hi
  • 1pl. lon nu, lonu
  • 2pl. lém tem
  • 3pl. lam em

Syntax

Constituent order

The order is tense-subject-verb-object.

R'iszaz bø lékhul tapuhaz.
The man is eating the apple.
Re beth-u bø dhe-rul kø liyothøn.
His house is as big as a whale.
Sto hi lásuth halkkbeth-i bø muødh múhør.
She did her homework very late.

The negative particle mul (from mə'u'â lo 'not anything') comes after the subject pronoun and before the verb.

Faulty accusative

Knánith has the faulty accusative particle tha (from Biblical Hebrew ʔeṫ ha-). It is not used for all direct objects, but only for constituents that are separated from their heads.

Noun phrase

The definite article is a clitic:

  • Singular: -az (after C) or -zu (after V)
  • Plural: -iw

Examples:

  • hadhør = a room
  • hadhraz = the room
  • hadhrim = rooms
  • hadhriw = the rooms
  • hadhør grú = a big room
  • hadhør grulaz = the big room (< hah-hadhər hag-gâdhol haz-ze)
  • botim grulim = big houses
  • botim gruliw = the big houses
  • tøpuaz r' iszaz bø lékhul u = The apple, the man eats it

There is no construct state, unlike in Biblical Hebrew. Genitives are expressed with concatenation: szem-mawkaz = the king's name.

To say "this X" or "that X", X-az fu and X-az szom (lit. "the X here" and "the X there") are used. To say "this" and "that", you say ze fu and ze szom (where the ze becomes ilø in the plural).

The abstract demonstrative is zuth.

Verb phrase

Isz li rąv "I'm hungry"

Sentence phrase

Complementizer

There is a complementizer mur (from לאמר lēmōr) or zuth depending on dialect. This is different from relative clauses, which use szer (from אשר ʔăšer).

Vocabulary

Many words are formed form earlier construct state combinations, and are sometimes unrecognizable:

  • anvinin, anevinin 'brick' from אבני בניין *ʔaḃ(a)nē ḃinyān 'building stones'
  • szavdom, szavdomim 'carnage, destruction' from שפך דם *šáṗek̇ dām 'spilling of blood'
  • ngemem, ngememuth 'source' from עין מים ʕēn máyim 'spring of water'
  • laseppin 'to like' from נשא פני lit. 'lift the face of' meaning 'to favor'
  • kulaliv 'conscience' from קול הלב lit. 'voice of the heart'

The CăCiCâ verbal noun pattern is not attested (the pattern appears first in Mishnaic Hebrew).

  • ben-, pl. ble- = agentive
  • beth-, pl. bate- = place noun

Example texts

UDHR, Article 1

Kol blenusziw vru'm lalest kø hofszim; hem szowim ngaw kovdaz ke tsrokkuthiw. Blenusziw vru'm lifkudh bø vinø ke kulaliv, ke re ngawem lalakht ngem szuthif bø nøszomø-th-ahwø.
all human/PL-DEF.PL.M PASS.PRES-3PL be_born as free-M.PL; 3PL equal-PL on dignity-DEF.SG and right-DEF.F.PL. human/PL-DEF.PL.M PASS.PRES-3PL entrust with understanding and conscience, and PRES on-3PL walk with one_another with spirit-EZAFE-brotherhood.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act toward one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Tower of Babel

  1. Vro bø khol ngulømaz tha zuthø sofø lødhabir ke vru luthøm miluthiw leszamisz.
  2. Wini khi su'm bø lasątt me mizroh, su'm litakkiw bø miszuraz Szinngor ke lithyaszev szom.
  3. Ke su'm lemur: "Enø, butonu ląsuth anevinin ke léfuth em ettev." Ke su anevininiw løszamisz lom em kø avoniw, ke hemør kø mawtt.
  4. Ke su'm lemur: "Enø, butonu levnuth kiriø ke mídøl bo hi, yąs ruszu hu lagią le szomayim, ki nąs nu ląsuth lonu szem, ke klu nąs nu lithpazir pli kol ngulømaz!"
  5. Wini Eluim so u lovu mattø, ki yąs u lávitt bø kiriøzu ke mídølaz szer yu blenusziw bø levnuth.
  6. Ke Eluim so u lemur: "Bø szą szer su'm hátholø ląsuth zuth kø ódh ngom szer bø lødhabir áth sofø, yiye mum mikhszul mul lø madovør szer yąsu lithkawin ląsuth!
  7. "Enø, bu tonu larest ke løvawbiw sofø-th-em, klu yąsu'm lávin szuthif."
  8. Kokh Eluim so u løfazir em, ke su'm ládul levnuth kiriøzu.
  9. Ke me sibøzu fu szer kiriøzu bø lakkakht szemaz "Boviw" -- szom so Eluim løvawbiw sofø kol ngulømaz. Me szom so Eluim løfazir em pli kol ngulømaz.

Schleicher's Fable

Other resources