Pulqer: Difference between revisions

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As described above, the '''infinitive''' is formed in all cases by the stem + the thematic vowel + ''-l''.
As described above, the '''infinitive''' is formed in all cases by the stem + the thematic vowel + ''-l''.


The '''past participle''' is formed in the same way for ''E'' and ''I'' verbs, replacing ''l'' with ''t'', e.g. ''amet'' "loved", ''katit'' "fallen".
The '''past participle''' is formed in the same way, replacing ''l'' with ''t'', e.g. ''amet'' "loved", ''katit'' "fallen", ''nakyt'' "injured".


''Y'' verbs add ''-t'' directly to the stem, causing the following changes:
:: <small>Note: some old past participles are retained but have diverged in meaning from their original verbs, e.g. ''aret'' "correct, just; straight" < ''arekyl'' "rule". </small>
* Stem-final ''p, k'' are lost, e.g. ''arek-t- > aret'' "ruled", ''pip-t- > pit'' "drank"
* Stem-final ''t'' merges to become ''(t)s'', e.g. ''krat-t- > kras'' "closed", ''tient-t- > tients''


The '''present participle''' is formed by ''-ant'' in the ''E'' verbs and by ''-ent'' everywhere else.
The '''present participle''' is formed by ''-ant'' in the ''E'' verbs and by ''-ent'' everywhere else.
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! style="width: 100px"  | Mood
! style="width: 100px"  | Mood
! style="width: 100px"  | Tense
! style="width: 100px"  | Tense
! style="width: 100px"  | ''apir'' "have"
! style="width: 100px"  | ''apil'' "have"
! style="width: 100px"  | ''patir'' "go"
! style="width: 100px"  | ''patil'' "go"
! style="width: 100px"  | Y-Verbs
|-
|-
! rowspan="2;" | Indicative
! rowspan="2;" | Indicative
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| ''a'' (sg.) <br> ''an'' (pl.)
| ''a'' (sg.) <br> ''an'' (pl.)
| ''pa'' (sg.) <br> ''pan'' (pl.)
| ''pa'' (sg.) <br> ''pan'' (pl.)
| -Ø (sg.) <br> ''-un'' (pl.)
|-
|-
! Past
! Past
| ''apip'' (sg.) <br> ''apipan'' (pl.)
| ''apip'' (sg.) <br> ''apipan'' (pl.)
| ''patip'' (sg.) <br> ''patipan'' (pl.)
| ''patip'' (sg.) <br> ''patipan'' (pl.)
| ''ip'' (sg.) <br> ''-ipan'' (pl.)
|-
|-
! rowspan="2;" | Subjunctive
! rowspan="2;" | Subjunctive
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| ''apir'' (sg.) <br> ''apiren'' (pl.)
| ''apir'' (sg.) <br> ''apiren'' (pl.)
| ''patir'' (sg.) <br> ''patiren'' (pl.)
| ''patir'' (sg.) <br> ''patiren'' (pl.)
| -''yr'' (sg.) <br> ''-(y)ren'' (pl.)
|-
|-
! Past  
! Past  
| ''apis'' (sg.) <br> ''apisen'' (pl.)
| ''apis'' (sg.) <br> ''apisen'' (pl.)
| ''patis'' (sg.) <br> ''patisen'' (pl.)
| ''patis'' (sg.) <br> ''patisen'' (pl.)
| -''is'' (sg.) <br> ''-isen'' (pl.)
|-
|-
! colspan="2;" | Present Participle
! colspan="2;" | Present Participle
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|}
|}


 
To Be
 
 
 


{| border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" class="bluetable lightbluebg" style="text-align:center;"
{| border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" class="bluetable lightbluebg" style="text-align:center;"
|-
|-
! style="width: 100px" rowspan="2;" |  
! style="width: 100px" rowspan="2;" | ''eśyl'' <br> "to be"
! colspan="2;" | Indicative
! colspan="2;" | Indicative
! colspan="2;" | Subjunctive
! colspan="2;" | Subjunctive
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! 1s
! 1s
| ''su''
| ''su''
|  
| rowspan="3;" | ''ser''
| ''si''
| rowspan="3;" | ''si''
|
| rowspan="3;" | ''ses''
|-
|-
! 2s
! 2s
| ''se''
| ''se''
|
| ''si''
|
|-
|-
! 3s
! 3s
| ''seśt''
| ''seśt''
|
| ''sit''
|
|-
|-
! 1p
! 1p
| ''sum''
| ''sum''
|
| rowspan="3;" | ''seran''
| ''sim''
| ''sim''
|
| rowspan="3;" | ''sesen''
|-
! 2p
| ''set''
|
| ''sit''
|
|-
! 3p
| ''sunt''
|
| ''sint''
|
|}
 
 
{| border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" class="bluetable lightbluebg" style="text-align:center;"
|-
! style="width: 100px" rowspan="2;" |
! colspan="2;" | Indicative
! colspan="2;" | Subjunctive
|-
! style="width: 100px" | Present
! style="width: 100px" | Past
! style="width: 100px" | Present
! style="width: 100px" | Past
|-
! 1s
| ''a''
|
|
|
|-
! 2s
| ''se''
|
|
|
|-
! 3s
|
|
|
|
|-
! 1p
|
|
|
|
|-
|-
! 2p
! 2p
| ''set''
| ''set''
|
| ''sit''
| ''sit''
|
|-
|-
! 3p
! 3p
| ''sunt''
| ''sun''
|
| ''sin''
| ''sint''
|
|}
|}



Revision as of 16:52, 12 April 2020

Pulqer is a Romance language spoken on the island of Jaques (Pul. Tśaq). Along with Sardinian it is one of the earliest languages to diverge from Latin and is thought to have been isolated since the 3rd century AD. Pulqer has been heavily influenced by the now vanished language of Kelt, previously spoken on the island, both in its phonology and vocabulary. This marks Pulqer out as distinct amongst the Romance languages.

History

Pulqer takes its name from the Latin (sermo) vulgaris "common speech". It is thought that Latin was brought to the islands by sailors between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD and may have originally formed part of a pidgin before being adopted by a tribe believed to have been called Khrapnat as a language of power and religion. These people became known in Old Pulqer as faulartśi pulkaeri and later simply as Pulkaeri.

The language spoken by the Pulkaeri was a bastardised form of Vular Latin referred to today as Old Pulqer. Upon its adoption, Vulgar Latin was assimilated to the existing phonology of Kelt which immediately resulted in a slew of changes to the language. Plosives in Kelt appear to have been distinguished by aspiration rather than by voicing so that, in general, Latin voiced plosives became voiceless (/d, b, g/ > /t, p, k/) and voiceless plosives became aspirated (/t, p, k/ > /tʰ, pʰ, kʰ/). Vowels also assimilated, resulting in Latin /o/ becoming Pulqer /u/ in most cases, and Vulgar Latin /ẹ/ (< ē, œ) merging with /i/. These sound changes, alongside forces of analogy resulted in drastic reduction of noun and adjective declensions and verbal conjugations. However, because Old Pulqer remained primarily the language of a learned elite, it could be said to be closer to Latin than its descendants.

From about the 7th century AD the Pulkaeri began to dominate their neighbours and all tribes were eventually brought under their leadership. Old Pulqer became the language of the elite across the island, but gradually filtered down through society until it eventually ousted the native Kelt entirely. This new vernacular was marked by a large number of borrowings from Kelt and by further phonological changes, most notably the weakening of unstressed vowels which resulted in the total loss of the declension system and a greater reliance on syntax, adverbs and prepositions to indicate relationships between words. This period of the language is known as Middle Pulqer.

Since the loss of final vowels perhaps 1,000 years ago, there have been relatively few changes to Pulqer and the medieval language is largely intelligible to speakers today. The most drastic changes to have taken place are the loss of the aspirate distinction, leading to the merger of aspirated and unaspirated consonants, and the loss of all diphthongs except au and ai. Modern Pulqer is distinguished from its predecessor largely by a renewed connection to the outside world, which began in the 18th century.

Phonology and Orthography

Vowels

Pulqer has a very simple vowel inventory, consisting of only five primary vowels and two diphthongs, with no distinctions of length.

Front Mid Back
Close i /i/ u /u/
Open-mid e /ɛ/ y /ə/
Open a /a/

The diphthongs are ai /ai/ and au /au/.

Consonants

The consonant inventory is similarly straightforward. All plosives, fricatives and affricates are voiceless whilst all liquids are voiced.

Bilabial Alveolar Post-alveolar Velar Glottal
Plain Labial
Nasal m /m/ n /n/
Plosive p /p/ t /t/ k /k/ q /kʷ/
Fricative f /ɸ/ s /s/ ś /ʃ/ h /h/
Affricate ts /t͡s/ /t͡ʃ/
Approximant r /r/
Lateral app. l /l/

Stress

Primary stress is routinely placed on the final syllable of a word, except where that syllable contains y /ə/, e.g. atnel /at'nel/ but atyn /'atən/.

Morphology and Grammar

Nouns

All Pulqer nouns are either masculine or feminine in gender and singular or plural in number but neither of these is marked on the noun itself, which is immutable. For example, atyn is a masculine noun and can mean "man" or "men" whilst hityn is feminine and may mean "woman" or "women".

The gender and number of a noun is either unspecified or is indicated by an attached determiner, an article, possessive adjective, demonstrative adjective, interrogative adjective etc.

Determiners

Articles

Articles are either definite (su) or indefinite (nu) and decline by gender and number. They always precede the noun they modify directly, or with intervening adjectives.

Definite Indefinite
Singular Plural Singular Plural
Masculine su si nu ni
Feminine sa se na ne

Where the article ends and the following word begins with the same vowel, the articles are reduced to s', n'.

Examples:

nu atyn "a man"
si atyn "the men"
s'aśtetyl "the star" (< sa astetyl)
ne kes "some houses"
sa kat "the cat"
n'iśtyl "the islands" (< ni iśtyl)

From the articles, the vowels -u, -i, -a, -e are used to mark gender and number on other determiners.

Possessive Adjectives

Possessive adjectives decline according to the gender and number of the following noun as follows:

Masculine Feminine
Singular Plural Singular Plural
Singular 1 mau mai mia mie
2 tau tai tua tue
3 sau sai sua sue
Plural 1 nuśru nuśri nuśra nuśre
2 puśru puśri puśra puśre
3 suru suri sura sure

Demonstrative Adjectives

Demonstrative adjectives show a three way distinction:

  • kiśtu "this" refers to objects close to the speaker
  • kisu "that" refers to objects close to the listener
  • kitlu "that" refers to objects at a distance

All three may function as adjectives preceding the noun or as pronouns; in both cases they must agree with the referent in gender and number.

Masculine Feminine
Singular Plural Singular Plural
This kiśtu kiśti kiśta kiśte
This, That kisu kisi kisa kise
That kitlu kitli kitla kitle

Interrogative Adjectives

Masculine Feminine
Singular Plural Singular Plural
Which kelu keli kela kele
How Much kantu kanti kanta kante

Indefinite Adjectives

  • alkunu "some, any" is declined like su etc.
  • altru "another, other"
  • tantu "such (an amount), so many"
  • su metis "the same" can occur before nouns as a determiner, e.g. su metis atyn "the same man"

Verbs

Verbs fall into one of three classes, categorised by their thematic vowel, found in the infinitive:

  • E verbs have an infinitive in -el, e.g. amel "to love, stel "to be", kantel "to sing"
  • I verbs have an infinitive in-il, e.g. lukil "to grieve", katil "fall", itnil "to light"
  • Y verbs have an infinitive in -yl, e.g. nakyl "to injure", arityl "to laugh", eśyl "to be".

Verbal stems are taken from the infinitive by removing the ending -el, -il, -yl, except in certain irregular cases (e.g. eśyl).

Non-Finite Forms

As described above, the infinitive is formed in all cases by the stem + the thematic vowel + -l.

The past participle is formed in the same way, replacing l with t, e.g. amet "loved", katit "fallen", nakyt "injured".

Note: some old past participles are retained but have diverged in meaning from their original verbs, e.g. aret "correct, just; straight" < arekyl "rule".

The present participle is formed by -ant in the E verbs and by -ent everywhere else.

Finite Forms

Conjugated verb forms for regular verbs are limited in extent and usage, most verb tenses being created through periphrasis.

Verbs are conjugated by tense, mood and number but not by person, so all conjugated regular verbs require an overt subject unless context implies the subject. The conjugated tenses are formed agglutinatively with the verb stem + tense/mood suffix + number ending.

The number endings are -Ø for singular and -n for plural.

Mood Tense E-Verbs I-Verbs Y-Verbs
Indicative Present -Ø (sg.)
-an (pl.)
-Ø (sg.)
-en (pl.)
-Ø (sg.)
-un (pl.)
Past -ep (sg.)
-epan (pl.)
-ip (sg.)
-ipan (pl.)
-ip (sg.)
-ipan (pl.)
Subjunctive Present -er (sg.)
-eren (pl.)
-ir (sg.)
-iren (pl.)
-yr (sg.)
-(y)ren (pl.)
Past -as (sg.)
-asen (pl.)
-is (sg.)
-isen (pl.)
-is (sg.)
-isen (pl.)

Irregular

Mood Tense apil "have" patil "go"
Indicative Present a (sg.)
an (pl.)
pa (sg.)
pan (pl.)
Past apip (sg.)
apipan (pl.)
patip (sg.)
patipan (pl.)
Subjunctive Present apir (sg.)
apiren (pl.)
patir (sg.)
patiren (pl.)
Past apis (sg.)
apisen (pl.)
patis (sg.)
patisen (pl.)
Present Participle apent patent
Past Participle apit patit

To Be

eśyl
"to be"
Indicative Subjunctive
Present Past Present Past
1s su ser si ses
2s se
3s seśt
1p sum seran sim sesen
2p set sit
3p sun sin

Derivation

The following suffixes are used to form abstract nouns:

  • -(e)tsun < OP. -tsune < L. -tiō
    • kantsun "song", ratsun "reason"
  • -ment < OP. -menttu < L. -mentum
  • -tet < OP. -ttaette < L. -tātem
  • -(i)ts < OP. -itsa < L. -itia

The following form agents or instruments:

  • -(u)r < OP. -ure < L. ōrem
  • -(e)ltś < OP. -ertśu < L. -ārius

The suffix -etl is a diminutive < OP. -ellu < L. -ellus

The following form adjectives:

  • -(e)l (pertaining to, of, like) < OP. -aele < L. -alis, -alem
  • -(e)pl (-able) < OP. -aeple < L. -abilis
  • -(i)p < OP. -ipu < L. -īvus
  • -(u)s (full of, prone to) < OP. -usu < L. -ōsus
  • -(i)s (of, from a place) < OP. -ise < L. -ēnsis