Laceyiam: Difference between revisions

The Chlegdarims quickly spread across southern Leitāvaja, making contact with a new habitat, mostly made of rainforests and swamps (even more than on Tahianshima) and other civilizations: first of all the so-called '''Nanaklāri''' peoples, whose languages have never been directly attested. Their name derives from ''Nanaklāra'', a borough in ''Kailamārśikha'' (Laltīmāhia's capital city and the largest city on the planet) whose name is a toponym linked to a "Nanaklāri" origin. '''Old Hjøtūchilāmi''' isn't usually set apart from Nanaklāri languages, but unlike "proper Nanaklāri" it is attested in sparse inscriptions and texts both in ''Laceyiam'' and ''Dzams-bltyod''; it was however spoken further west (in present-day ''Hjøtūchilām'') but was another major source language for many loans into Laceyiam, including a huge number of proper personal names. Apropos personal names, the fact almost no common Laceyiam given name is PCT-derived and a good majority is of either Old Hjøtūchilāmi or Nanaklāri origin, most anthropologist think that the Chlegdarims absorbed Nanaklāri and Old Hjøtūchilāmi cultures easily by intermarriage so that ethnic identity “borders” between them became blurred and vanished. The other main influence was '''Ancient Lelīmuyāńi''', the language of ''Lelīmuyāńa'' (a historical distinct region, today in northern and northeastern ''Leitāvaja'' and extreme southern ''Lanturlīṭa'' dioceses), which at the time was the most advanced civilization of the area. Ancient Lelīmuyāńi already had written texts, and in fact the first attestation of the Chlegdarims’ presence is found in an Ancient Lelīmuyāńi text, probably aimed at travelling merchants, which talks about “people of the west” living in the “forested low coastal areas”, which call themselves ''Cuḷeketazhi'' (approximation of ''Chlegdarim'') in the language ''we'' (the Ancient Lelīmuyāńi people) call “''laccaiyam''”. The word '''Laceyiam''' is in fact an Ancient Lelīmuyāńi borrowing, meaning “voice (''iyam'') of the sunset (''lacca'')”, where “sunset” means “west”.

Despite the prehistory of Laceyiam and its descendance from Proto-Cis-Tahianshima being now certified and accepted scientifically, Laceyiam’s date and place of birth are considered respectively the time of the Chlegdarims’ arrival on Isungatsuaq and southern Leitāvaja. This area is in fact the homeland of Chlegdarim civilization, and it is only here that Chlegdarim culture and traditions shaped themselves - including language. The most obvious and most important trace of this in Laceyiam is the huge number of words that entered the Chlegdarims’ daily life: obviously they had the need to describe the nature they found themselves in, a jungle- and swamp-centric environment, most features of which were completely unknown in their previous, sea-based habitat. In fact, most words for equatorial plants, animals, and geographical features are of either Nanaklāri, Old Hjøtūchilāmi, or Ancient Lelīmuyāńi origin (e.g. ''jaja'' “igarapé”, ''māra'' “mango”, ''kāmbava'' “water lily”, ''ėmīla'' “tiger”, ''kėmbe'' “toucan”, ''naʔikė'' “flooded clearwater forest”, ''heita'' “durian”, ''kalńi'' “sound of a tree branch falling into water”); only few of them have Proto-Mǎng Tì origin (e.g. ''kami'' “rose”, ''dalakām'' “bamboo”, ''humba'' “spice”, ''tiuʔa'' “palm”), and only those most related to coastal areas are inherited from PCT (e.g. ''tėti'' “island”, ''jhāva'' “reef”). Also borrowed are lots of wordsrelated to activities and products (e.g. ''mānska'' “glass”) and, most importantly, cultural (e.g. ''buldhām'', the typical Chlegdarim burial and the relative ceremony; ''talengim'', ritual tattoo) and religious terms, most of which have probable Nanaklāri origins. In fact, the Leitāvaji society of the First Era was extremely multicultural, and Nanaklāri languages in the west and Ancient Lelīmuyāńi in the east (the latter being the only written language) were the lingua francas; Laceyiam became more important and ultimately drove the others to extinction mainly for two reasons: the cultural intermixing mentioned before and also because '''Lėliðaṇīṭa''', the Great Prophet of the '''Yūnialtia''', was a Chlegdarim and her language began to be considered holier; the amount of Nanaklāri instead of Ancient Lelīmuyāńi words in Yūnialtei terminology points to her native village, and the areas of her first teachings, being located west of the ''Kaicedhīma'' mountains.

Laceyiam up until this point in time is normally defined as '''Pre-classical Laceyiam''': its limit is the late First Era, around the lifetime of ''Lėliðaṇīṭa'', with Nanaklāri and a few Old Hjøtūchilāmi loans being already established, but without substantial Ancient Lelīmuyāńi influence; in the earliest Laceyiam texts (''Archaic Laceyiam'') we can for example already find the root numbers of Nanaklāri origins (''tulūʔa'' “six” and ''jaibha'' “fifteen”) but the number system itself is still hexadecimal (the Classical decimal one was borrowed from Ancient Lelīmuyāńi). Anyway, except for the hexadecimal numeral system, Laceyiam had grammatically already reached its classical and present state.

Standard Laceyiam has a slightly above average consonant inventory with, in the most common analysis, 39 phonemes. The consonant analysis followed here does not follow the exact points of articulation, but is the traditional analysis done by native grammarians, grouping consonant phonemes in mostly regular groups. The Laceyiam word for consonant, ''hīmbeyālia'', is a compound of ''hīmba ''"colour" and ''yālia ''"sound".

| f v

|ɦ ʁ

Some analyses differ slightly from the one above: the laryngeal flap /<span>ʕ̯/ is sometimes included among the non-sibilant fricatives (''susatiak pańjńybessai''), and nasal flaps, approximants and semivowels are all grouped as approximants (''mūgyālieniai''). These analyses focus more on the actual behaviour of consonants in different environments rather than on their actual articulation.</span>

* '''Locative '''(''hlūðademin''): used for locations (in any voice except locative) and punctual time.

Nominal morphology is fusional, but there are some regular patterns that reflect the mostly agglutinative nature of Proto-Cis-Tahianshima noun morphology. There are nine declensions (''paiktairathādai''), each of them having a particular citation form ending, plus a few irregular nouns. Some declensions include regular sub-patterns for certain nouns in some forms.

|ėmīla'''ndra'''

|ėmīl'''arið'''

* Nouns ending in '''-au''' change this into '''-āva''' before any ending beginning with a vowel, so for example ''hīmuyau'' "husband of father's sister" has dir.pl. ''hīmuyāvai, ''erg.sg. ''hīmuyauss, ''acc.sg. ''hīmuyāvau'' ... transl.sg. ''hīmuyaunam, ''and so on. ''Chlou'', the only word with /ɔ<span>u̯/, may informally follow this pattern, but the official recommendation is to use compounds such as ''Chlou-marta ''"Chlou city" or ''Chlou-lila ''"Chlou person" in order to decline it or derive forms.</span>

* Nouns ending in '''-ia, -iā, -ie, '''or '''-iė '''all have accusative singular in '''-vau''' (e.g. ''nahia ''"mountain" > ''nahiavau'') genitive singular in '''-ei''' (''nahia ''> ''nahei''), ablative singular in '''-vų''' (''nahia ''> ''nahiavų''), locative singular in '''-ye '''(''nahia ''> ''nahiaye''); ergative plural in '''-lss '''(''nahia ''> ''nahialss''), genitive plural in '''-riė''' (''nahia ''> ''nahiariė''), and locative plural in '''-rilym '''(''nahia ''> ''nahiarilym'').

''heilenu ''"wind" is an irregular noun which, for the most part, follows the first declension, alternating between ''heilenu- ''stem and umlauted ''høylen- ''stem, the latter used in singular accusative, genitive, essive, and locative, and in every plural form except essive, ablative, and locative. Non-umlauted forms have /u/ replacing any /a/ in the "normal" first declension pattern, becoming breathy-voiced in ablative plural. Ablative singular is ''heilenų'' with a single, breathy-voiced /<span class="">ṳ</span>/; locative plural is ''heilenuilym'', with the /<span class="">ui̯/ diphthong.</span>

|kairė'''ndra'''

|kair'''ėrið'''

* Nouns ending in '''-y '''and '''-ȳ '''have genitive singular in '''-yvi '''(e.g. ''tammy ''"train" > ''tammyvi''); direct plural in '''-r '''(''tammy > tammyr''), ergative plural in '''-ylss '''(> ''tammylss''), genitive plural in '''-yvė '''(> ''tammyvė''), ablative plural in '''-įnie '''(> ''tammįnie''), and locative plural in '''-īlym '''(> ''tammīlym'').

* Nouns ending in '''-iū''' (uncommon, but most notably ''jeniū'' "flower") have ablative singular in '''-ųu '''(''jeniū ''> ''jeniųu'') and various extended plural stems: direct in '''-ūyai '''(> ''jeniūyai''), ergative '''-ūyilss '''(> ''jeniūyilss''), accusative '''-ūyiau '''(> ''jeniūyiau''), translative '''-ūyinam '''(> ''jeniūyinam''), dative '''-ūyið '''(> ''jeniūyið''), and locative in '''-ūlym '''(> ''jeniūlym''). In addition to these, they also keep the long vowel in genitive singular and plural (e.g. > ''jeniūyi, jeniūyė'').

The third declension (''chīkende paiktairathāda'') includes nouns ending in '''-i'''; they are however divided in two different sub-declensions depending on whether they take ''i-umlaut ''or not. Nouns taking ''i-umlaut ''have their root vowel in either '''a, ā''', (both ''a1'' or ''a2'' types) '''u''', or '''ū; '''umlaut is present in every form <u>except</u> direct, ergative, comitative and dative singular and ablative and locative plural.

|tėti'''ndra'''

|gindāmi'''ndra'''

|tėt'''iarið'''

|<span>gind</span>'''ä'''<span>m'''arið'''</span>

The fourth declension (''bäliende paiktairathāda'') is the least regular and the least common of all. It includes nouns which are a relic of the ablauting nouns, already somewhat archaic and unproductive in Proto-Cis-Tahianshima. Some linguists, however, argue that ablauting and non-ablauting nouns originally had a gender distinction on the basis that Laceyiam has some ablauting nouns which are words for animals native to Isungatsuaq - and thus unknown in PCT times - like ''kīva ''(a kind of capybara), ''linda ''(giant river otter), or ''gunta ''(marsh deer). These nouns are often either common words (like ''niyū'' "mother" or ''tyt''''' '''"father") or compounds with ''lila''''' '''"person". Some of these also have irregularities (including ''niyū'' and ''lila'', probably the two most common nouns of this declension) or some cases with more possible forms. Nouns with /j/-stems are the most complicated in the whole Laceyiam language due to extensive umlaut on top of ablauting vowels.  

|muða'''ndra'''

|m'''ė'''ð'''indra'''

|gunt'''andra'''

|g'''ā'''nt'''indra'''

|lila'''ndra'''

|l'''ei'''l'''indra'''

|m'''įndra'''

|m'''ięndra'''

* 4.3 nouns have ablative singular with '''-ų''' and the singular stem, like ''aʔīma ''(a freshwater crustacean of the flooded rainforest in Southern Laltīmāhia) > ''aʔīmų; ''accusative plural with '''ei-au '''(> ''aʔeimau''), and dative plural '''e-ið''' (> ''aʔemið''). The regular ablative singular ''lilų''''' '''and the plural accusative ''leilau'' are however attested as variant forms of the declension of '''lila''' in some literary texts, particularly those composed until the 1st century of the Third Era in modern-day Hjøtūchilām diocese.

|ń'''ȳ'''ń'''endra'''

|ń'''ė'''ń'''eindra'''

|b'''y'''n'''endra'''

|b'''ø'''n'''indra'''

|mitū'''ndra'''

|m'''ei'''tū'''ndra'''

==== The fifth declension (one-stem nasals) ====

The fifth declension (''gembliende paiktairathāda'')'' ''includes all nasal nouns (those ending in '''-n '''or '''-m''') with a single stem, that is, the majority of them - two-stem nasal nouns are those of the sixth declension.

!hjøðam (hand)

|'''hjøðam'''

|hjøðam'''ai'''

|hjøða'''ṃss'''

|hjøðam'''ulss'''

|hjøðam'''au'''

|hjøða'''ṃrau'''

|hjøðam'''i'''

|hjøðam'''ė'''

|hjøða'''ṃnam'''

|hjøðam'''arṇam'''

|hjøðam'''indra'''

|hjøðam'''aivāh'''

|hjøðam'''u'''

|hjøðam'''ariu'''

|hjøðam'''að'''

|hjøða'''ṃrið'''

|hjøðam'''ų'''

|hjøðam'''ęnie'''

|hjøðam'''ie'''

|hjøðam'''ilym'''

==== The sixth declension (two-stem nasals) ====

The sixth declension (''tulūʔende'' ''paiktairathāda''), as mentioned before, includes two-stem nasals: this declension is similar to the fifth one, but these nouns have a '''-s''' between the '''-m''' and the ending in all forms except ergative plural and direct, ergative, and translative singular.

The noun ''sūgnulum ''"blind", while etymologically a sixth declension one (< PCT ''*tsu₁ɣ-ŋʷoħūm-s'' "without eye(s)"), is often declined as a fifth declension one. 

|lilla'''ṃśindra'''

|lilla'''ṃṣrið'''

==== The seventh declension (consonant-stem nouns) ====

The seventh declension (''hauþtinde paiktairathāda'') is a common one including basically all ''consonant-stem'' nouns, that is, one of those ending in non-nasal consonants except ''-h''. Possible endings are '''-ð, -t, -ṭ '''and '''-r''', and there are also only five nouns (and their compounds) ending in '''-l: '''''līṭhal ''"seafoam", ''khāngertėl ''(a typical Chlegdarim tandoori oven), ''nūrtāl ''"lake", ''ladragyal ''"inn, restaurant", and ''kambāl ''"thousand". This is also one of the two declensions with a distinct vocative singular form, made by adding '''-e''' to the direct singular.

|bhārmat'''indra'''

|bhārmat'''arið'''

Consonant-stem nouns all follow the same pattern as ''bhārmat,'' but there are some differences between them due to saṃdhi and/or dissimilation:

* As seen with ''bhārmat'', all ''t-stems'' have '''-ṭau''' for plural accusative. All other stems except ''r-stems ''(see below) have '''-Crau''' (the ''t-stem ''form is actually a contraction).

* ''ð-stems ''have dative singular in '''-við '''instead of *-ðið (e.g. ''hlūð ''"place, seat, location" > ''hlūvið'') because of dissimilation. Also, in translative singular the '''-a-''' at the beginning of the ending is optional (> ''hlūðanam ''and ''hlūðnam'' are both acceptable, but the first one is more common).

* ''r-stems ''have two different dissimilations: accusative plural has '''-rl-''' instead of *-rr- (e.g. ''leiðir ''"significant other, girlfriend, boyfriend" > ''leiðirlau''), while translative, essive, and dative plural have '''-lar- '''instead of *-rar- (> ''leiðilariu, leiðilarṇam, leiðilarið'').

* ''l-stems'' have '''-lss '''instead of *-lass in ergative singular (e.g. ''nūrtāl ''"lake" > ''nūrtālss'').

There is a subset of seventh declension nouns which do not fit into the above pattern because they have two different stems, one for the direct singular (and vocative) and one (the ''oblique stem'') for all other forms. These nouns are relics of PCT nouns with hysterokinetic stress:

''śvað ''"thread, path, theme, idea, direction" is an irregular noun mostly following the seventh declension. It has a contracted stem ''śvað'' found in singular direct (with vocative ''śvaþe''), accusative, genitive, exessive, essive, and dative (''śvaþið''), and ablative plural. All other forms use an extended stem ''śvatoð'', but´genitive plural is the synchronically irregular ''śvateðė '', and dative plural is attested both in the regular form ''śvatoðarið'' and the irregular ''śvatoþrið''.

Finally, there are a few nouns ending in '''-k'''; these are all Calémerian toponyms borrowed from Kalurilut, like ''Inūkutlāk'' "Ceria", ''Inūlulīk ''"Nivaren", ''Itanāk ''"Nordúlik", ''Inūkṣvāk ''"Evandor", or ''Ittukavik ''"Gathuráni" - these are all declined following the ''t-stem ''rules (without the special rule for plural accusative). Also, some non-assimilated toponyms for cities, rivers, or other features outside Laltīmāhia may end in '''-k''', but they are usually not declined, instead adpositional constructions like ''[name] ga marta ''"city of [name]" is used, with (here) ''marta ''being the declined word.

==== The eighth declension (-h) ====

The eighth declension (''teitende paiktairathāda'') includes nouns ending in '''-h'''. Word-final ''-h'' is a result of many sound changes, but mostly from PCT *s, so either '''-s''', or /hj/ (the intervocalic reflex of PCT *s) alternate in most forms. Like the seventh declension, eighth-declension nouns have a distinct vocative singular form.

|ńält'''ąndra'''

|ńälta'''hiarið'''

Note that the noun ''lilėmaiṭah'', the most important concept in the Yūnialtei religion (and, due to this, in the whole Chlegdarim worldview), is an irregular, singular-only noun and declines as eighth-declension in direct, genitive, exessive, essive and locative cases, and as a first-declension noun (with stem ''lilėmaiṭą-'') elsewhere; it also lacks a vocative form.

==== The ninth declension (-ai) ====

The ninth declension (''kissende paiktairathāda'') includes those nouns ending in '''-ai'''; they come from various sources but only a minority of them is inherited from PCT: most are Nanaklāri or Ancient Lelīmuyāńi borrowings.

|nanai'''ndra'''

|nanai'''rað'''

These verbs all have their cause in '''exessive''' case and the affected being in '''dative''' case, e.g. "I'm sorry for my mistake" is ''dønėrṇėndra lulið nāvtąu'', with ''dønėrṇė'' (mistake) in exessive case and ''lāli'' (I) in the dative.

Unlike English, Laceyiami pronouns can take attributives arguments, thus phrases like *the young me or *the cleaning he are possible (these examples being respectively ''laṣṭhyęe lāli'' and ''baltiėniaśe nän'').

First person pronouns — lāli, lika

!lāli (I)

!lika (we)

|lāli

|lika

|lalss

|liṃss

|lulei

|chle

|lālia

|liśā

|lulom

|chlom

|lulaṭ

|chlāh

|luleim

|chleim

|lulið

|chlið

|lulų

|chlų

|luliė

|chliė

Second person pronouns — teham, yuvah ; esāt, nagy. Archaic forms, found in older literary texts, inside brackets.

!teham (you (sg))

!yuvah (you (pl))

|teham

|yuvah

|tęss

|ūss

|tęi

|uvei

|temia

|yūya

|tihom

|ūnom

|tiḍa

|ūvāh

|tięm

|uvim

|tīð (tįið)

|uvið

|tių

|uvų

|tihė

|uvė

!esāt (you (sg))

!nagy (you (pl))

|esāt

|nagy

|cass

|nāss

|ṣṭhei

|nuhei

|etia

|naja

|śinom

|nugnom

|śiḍa

|nugāh

|ṣṭhėm

|nuhim

|śið

|nuið

|śidų

|nųu

|śidė

|nujė

Third person pronouns — tami, lahen ; nän, yelah ; pāt, padi ; dāt, śen. Note that ''tami'' is also used as a generic dummy pronoun in many cases, like questions or even just emphasis.

!lahen (they)

|lahen

|taṃss

|laṃss

|tom

|ląi

|täm

|lańā

|tanom

|ląnom

|tāṭ

|lamvāh

|tøm

|lahim

|tað

|ląið

|tah

|lahų

|tayė

|lię

!nän (he (she, it))

!yelah (they)

|nän

|yelah

|ninīss

|yelss (elss)

|nei

|ily (yuly)

|nānia

|ėląa

|nunam

|ilam (yulnam)

|nunaṭ

|ivāh

|naṃsu

|eisu

|nunið

|yulið

|nonų

|yulų

|nuniė

|yuliė

!padi (they)

|padi

|pass

|padiss

|pei

|padu

|pātia

|päti

|patnam

|pädam

|pandra

|padāh

|patsu

|padeṣü

|patið

|padið

|patų

|padių

|patiė

|padiė

!śen (they)

|śen

|dass

|śeṃss

|dei

|śøn

|dātia

|śin

|datnam

|śinnam

|dandra

|śināh

|datsu

|śiṃsu

|datið

|śinið

|datų

|śinų

|datiė

|śiniė

|''lāriss''

|däṃss

|''lārtau''

|däny

|läri

|danīye

|lāritnam

|dänynam

|lārindra

|dämvāh

|lāriteṣu

|dänieṣu

|lārið

|dänyð

|lārtų

|dänitų

|lārtiė

|dänilym

* Level P (this classification follows the Chlegdarim alphabetical order) - these are pre-classical words from a number of origins: Proto-Mǎng Tì and Old Hjøtūchilāmi are the only languages that can be identified as sources for at least some words; they also include all other words from the Nanaklāri substrate, and, most probably, other unattested languages from Tāhiańśīma and the Eastern Islands, as well as possible PCT words that can't be reconstructed as such due to lack of cognates in other languages. Timing for these borrowings is from the end of the common PCT era (about 3600 years ago) up to the late First Era (which ended in 1E 1109, that is 2172 years ago). We lack dates for where the Chlegdarims exactly where during most of these period - Ancient Lelīmuyāńi texts which first mention the Chlegdarims in southern Leitāvaja are dated around 1E 850. Level P roots form a substantial part of the Laceyiam vocabulary - some estimates consider them as being as much as 26% of the vocabulary.

* Level PH1 - Classical Age words borrowed from Ancient Lelīmuyāńi, in particular those borrowed from the late First Era until the mid-Second Era (around 4E 600), the commonly accepted date for the extinction of the Ancient Lelīmuyāńi language - around that time, the areas of modern central and southern Leitāvaja, as well as most of Hjøtūchilām and parts of the lower Tāllahāria basin, were already developing the first daughter languages of Laceyiam itself. Level PH1 roots amount between 12% and 14% of Laceyiami vocabulary - possibly the highest percentage from a single language except PCT.

Among major languages, those that definitely had the largest Laceyiami influence are ''Kalurilut ''and both standardized dialects of ''Brono-Fathanic'' (''Bronic ''and ''Fathanic''), which are the languages of peoples that are of overwhelming Yūnialtei religious majority and thus have close relationships with Laltīmāhia (Brono also shares with Laltīmāhia about 1300 km of border along the 33rd parallel north); many languages of the ''Dabuke'' family and other local languages of Western Isungatsuaq all have been influenced by Laceyiam, though, due to Western colonization, either Cerian or Nordulic is the lingua franca in those areas. Skyrdagor in Northwestern Isungatsuaq also had some Laceyiam influence, though not very extensive; anyway as Skyrdagor countries are politically aligned with the Eastern Bloc they share modern international terminology mostly with Laceyiam (and languages such as Kalurilut and Brono-Fathanic) rather than with Evandorian languages such as Cerian, Nivarese, or Nordulic. Western languages have mostly borrowed from Laceyiam during the contact between those cultures in the (Western) early Modern Age, when Westerners discovered lots of features from the tropical and equatorial areas of Calémere - almost all located inside the Laceyiam-speaking world. Today, however, there is reciprocal cultural knowledge and, consequently, language contact between them, as shown by the ''level T ''of Laceyiami etymology as in the classification above.

Laceyiam has a particular kinship terminology system. Starting from the immediate relatives, the Ego's parents - '''maihāyana''', pl. '''maihāyanai''' (literally "having a daughter", but the term is nowadays used even if they don't have daughters) - are the '''miyū''' (mother) and the '''tyt''' (father). The word for "daughter" is '''maiha''' and the one for "son" is '''paljāram'''. Siblings - collectively called '''dėdum''', pl. ''dėdumai'' - have different terms depending on three factors: not just their own gender, but also the one of the person they're being referred to as siblings, and, if they're of the same gender, relative age. Thus, from a female's perspective, her older sister will be a '''buneya''', her younger sister will be a '''ḍalieh''', and her brother will be a '''yaupam''' no matter his age. Similarly, from a male's perspective, his older brother will be a '''prauḍhām'''; his younger brother a '''vāyeṣa''' and his sister a '''ńältah'''.

It should be however noted that these terms may have some broader meanings. In the case a female has both a younger and an older sister, she may refer to both of them as "my sisters" using ''lālia ńältahiai''; similarly a male with both a younger and an older brother would use ''lālia yaupamai'' for "my brothers". Also, the terms dependent on relative age may be used for the self if they're the oldest or the youngest in a family, as in a female referring to herself as the ''buneya'', implying she's the oldest among her siblings (or, actually, just among the sisters - there's no way to disambiguate these meanings without further clues), or as the ''ḍalieh'' if she's the youngest one - a male would do the exact same thing referring to himself as either the ''prauḍhām'' or the ''vāyeṣa''.

[[Category:Conlangs]]