Pulqer/Kelt: Difference between revisions

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==Grammar==
==Grammar==
===Nominals===
===Nominals===
Nouns had the following features:
Nouns were marked for '''gender''' (masculine, other), '''number''' (singular, plural) and state (absolute, construct) through a series of affixes. Adjectives were unmarked but formed compounds with the noun they modified. Personal pronouns were usually prefixes attached to verbs, nouns, adjectives etc.
* Gender - masculine or other  
* Number - singular or plural
* State - absolute or construct


The exact nature of the gender system is unclear, but it appears to be based on two classes: a '''masculine''' class and an '''other''' class. The masculine class (also called the E-class) includes male humans, animals and deities along with other 'masculine' objects denoted by shape (i.e. long/tall and narrow), material (all metal and some stone objects belong here), purpose (e.g. weapons) or importance (including many celestial bodies). The 'other' (or A-class) contains all other nouns that don't belong to the masculine category, including all female living beings and deities and many abstracts.  
====Gender====
The exact nature of the gender system is unclear, but it appears to be based on two largely semantic classes: a masculine class and an other class. The '''masculine''' class (also called the E-class) included male humans, animals and deities along with other 'masculine' objects denoted by shape (i.e. long/tall and narrow), material (all metal and some stone objects belong here), purpose (e.g. weapons) or importance (including many celestial bodies). The '''other''' class (or A-class) contains all other nouns that don't belong to the masculine category, including all female living beings and deities, and many abstracts.


Both gender and number form part of an inflectional paradigm.
As gender is semantically determined, stems usually have inherent gender but some nouns may belong to more than one gender with a difference of meaning, e.g. the root ''HATAL'' "child" may be masculine ''qehatal'' "the boy" or other ''qahatal'' "the girl, the child". Masculine nouns may be declined as 'other' to give a pejorative sense, e.g. ''putah'' "effeminate or weak man".


All nouns have two forms: an '''absolute''' and a '''construct'''. The absolute is marked with suffixes and is the form used without a preceding determiner or pronominal prefix and, as such, may be called 'indefinite'. The construct occurs with a preceding determiner or pronominal prefix and is usually definite.  
====Number====
Nouns are either singular or plural and number is required on all nouns.  


Each noun is constructed from an immutable stem, to which affixes are attached, e.g. ''PUT'' "man", ''QRAL'' "house". The stem may not stand alone. As gender is semantically determined, stems usually have inherent gender but some nouns may belong to more than one gender with a difference of meaning, e.g. ''HATAL'' "child" mean be masculine ''qehatal'' "the boy" or other ''qahatal'' "the girl, the child". Masculine nouns may be declined as 'other' to give a pejorative sense, e.g. ''putah'' "effeminate or weak man".
A collective suffix ''-ul'' can be used to denote a class of objects and is declined as a singular noun, e.g. ''putulek'' "men (in general)".


Nouns are declined according to their class. Masculine nouns have ''e'' in the singular and ''ii'' in the plural. Other nouns have ''a'' in the singular and ''aa'' in the plural.  
====State====
All nouns have an absolute and a construct form. The '''absolute''' is marked with suffixes and is the form used without any preceding determiner or pronominal prefix and, as such, may be called 'indefinite'. The '''construct''' occurs with a preceding determiner or pronominal prefix and is usually definite.
 
Construct nouns must be preceded by one of the following:
* a demonstrative prefix
* a possessive prefix
* a verbal prefix
 
====Declension====
All nouns consist of an immutable stem to which affixes are attached, e.g. ''PUT'' "man", ''QRAL'' "house", ''NUUK'' "dog". The stem may not stand alone and must be accompanied either by absolute suffixes or some kind of prefix. Nouns are declined according to their class. Masculine nouns have ''e'' in the singular and ''ii'' in the plural. Other nouns have ''a'' in the singular and ''aa'' in the plural. These vowel sequences form part of the affixes attached to the noun stem, as follows:


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Construct nouns must be preceded by:
====Demonstrative Prefixes====
* a demonstrative prefix
The demonstrative prefixes are added to the beginning of the construct noun and are as follows:  
* a possessive prefix
* ''q-'' "that", denoting things close to the listener, but used in a general sense almost like a definite article, e.g. ''qaqral'' "the/that house".
* a verbal prefix
* ''p-'' "this", denoting things close to the speaker or recently mentioned, e.g. ''piiput'' "these men"
 
* ''qr-'' "that" denoting things far away or abstract, e.g. ''qrahatal'' "that girl/child".
The demonstrative prefixes are: ''q-'' "that", used in a general sense and often closer to a definite article; ''p-'' "this", denoting things close to the speaker or recently mentioned; ''qr-'' "that" denoting things far away or abstract. E.g. ''qaqral'' "the/that house", ''piiput'' "these men", ''qrahatal'' "that girl/child".


The possessive prefixes are:
====Possessive Prefixes====
Possessive prefixes form part of a series of personal prefixes which occur for each person and number, as well as masculine and other in the 3rd person singular only (3rd pl. ''wey-'' is used for both genders). There is also an impersonal prefix ''tśey-'' "someone's" used when the possessor is not known or when speaking generally (e.g. ''tśeyenuuk'' "someone's dog").


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Note that there is no distinction made in noun class in the 3rd person plural, ''wey-'' means "their" for all types of nouns.
Examples: ''keyaqral'' "my house", ''seyefak'' "his wife", ''weyaahatal'' "their children". 
 
====Verbal Prefixes====
Verbal prefixes transform the noun into a predicate, e.g. ''keput'' "I am a man", ''hanuuk'' "it is a dog". See below for forms.


The impersonal ''tśey-'' is used when the possessor is unknown.
====Adjectives====
Adjective stems are not fully distinguishable from nouns and in many cases a single stem may behave as either, e.g. ''ETS'' "salt; salty". Adjectives may be either simple (e.g. ''SUUP'' "large") or derived from another part of speech (e.g. ''PUTIŚ-'' "manly, man-like"). In either case they may be used predicatively or attributively.


Examples: ''keyaqral'' "my house", ''seyefak'' "his wife", ''weyaahatal'' "their children", ''tśeyenuuk'' "someone's dog".  
An attributive adjective is added to the front of the noun in either its absolute or construct state. In the latter, the adjective intervenes between the prefixes and the stem, e.g. ''qaqral'' "the house" → ''qa'''suup'''qral'' "the big house", ''nehputek'' "an old man", ''qaaetsiwes'' "the salty waters".


Verbal prefixes transform the noun into a predicate, e.g. ''keput'' "I am a man", ''hanuuk'' "it is a dog". See below for forms.
A predicative adjective may be formed by adding the verbal prefixes to the stem, e.g. ''kiputiy'' "I am manly", ''hisuup'' "it is large".

Revision as of 16:38, 28 April 2020

Kelt is the extinct native language of the island of Jacques (Tśak), believed to have been a language isolate. Relatively little is known of the language; there are few written survivals and the primary source of information is through its impact on the language of Pulqer, which replaced it. Kelt is the name of the language in Pulqer, it is thought to have been called Keltah by its speakers.

Phonology

Vowels

Kelt had a system of four primary vowels, each of which had long and short variants. There were no diphthongs.

Front Back
Close i /i/, ii /iː/ u /u/, uu /uː/
Open-mid e /ɛ/, ee /ɛː/
Open a /a/, aa /aː/

Consonants

The consonant inventory is shown below. It is characterised by having only voiceless plosives, fricatives and affricates but voiced resonants. It is unclear whether Kelt originally had a series of aspirated plosives alongside the unaspirated ones - a defining feature of Old Pulqer, which has a phonology heavily influenced by Kelt. If this distinction existed, it had probably been lost by the time Pulqer began ousting Kelt.

It is possible that /l/ and /ɾ/ were allophonic variants of the same sound occurring in different environments. Evidence from later Pulqer suggests that /ɾ/ occurred between vowels or after a consonant (CrV) while /l/ occurred at the beginning or end of a word and before consonants (VlC).

The realisation of h is unclear and may also have had allophonic variation, perhaps /h/ in most circumstances but /ʔ/ or /χ/ at the end of a word.

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 /ɾ/
Lateral app. l /l/ y /j/ w /w/

Phonotactics

The maximal syllable structure was CLVC, where C represents any consonant, L represents either l or r (possibly always /ɾ/ in this position) and V either a long or short vowel. Consonant clusters could occur across syllable boundaries.

Stress

Stress placement is unclear, but may have been on the penult.

Grammar

Nominals

Nouns were marked for gender (masculine, other), number (singular, plural) and state (absolute, construct) through a series of affixes. Adjectives were unmarked but formed compounds with the noun they modified. Personal pronouns were usually prefixes attached to verbs, nouns, adjectives etc.

Gender

The exact nature of the gender system is unclear, but it appears to be based on two largely semantic classes: a masculine class and an other class. The masculine class (also called the E-class) included male humans, animals and deities along with other 'masculine' objects denoted by shape (i.e. long/tall and narrow), material (all metal and some stone objects belong here), purpose (e.g. weapons) or importance (including many celestial bodies). The other class (or A-class) contains all other nouns that don't belong to the masculine category, including all female living beings and deities, and many abstracts.

As gender is semantically determined, stems usually have inherent gender but some nouns may belong to more than one gender with a difference of meaning, e.g. the root HATAL "child" may be masculine qehatal "the boy" or other qahatal "the girl, the child". Masculine nouns may be declined as 'other' to give a pejorative sense, e.g. putah "effeminate or weak man".

Number

Nouns are either singular or plural and number is required on all nouns.

A collective suffix -ul can be used to denote a class of objects and is declined as a singular noun, e.g. putulek "men (in general)".

State

All nouns have an absolute and a construct form. The absolute is marked with suffixes and is the form used without any preceding determiner or pronominal prefix and, as such, may be called 'indefinite'. The construct occurs with a preceding determiner or pronominal prefix and is usually definite.

Construct nouns must be preceded by one of the following:

  • a demonstrative prefix
  • a possessive prefix
  • a verbal prefix

Declension

All nouns consist of an immutable stem to which affixes are attached, e.g. PUT "man", QRAL "house", NUUK "dog". The stem may not stand alone and must be accompanied either by absolute suffixes or some kind of prefix. Nouns are declined according to their class. Masculine nouns have e in the singular and ii in the plural. Other nouns have a in the singular and aa in the plural. These vowel sequences form part of the affixes attached to the noun stem, as follows:

Masculine PUT Other QRAL
Absolute Singular putek qralah
Plural putiik qralaah
Construct Singular -eput -aqral
Plural -iiput -aaqral

Demonstrative Prefixes

The demonstrative prefixes are added to the beginning of the construct noun and are as follows:

  • q- "that", denoting things close to the listener, but used in a general sense almost like a definite article, e.g. qaqral "the/that house".
  • p- "this", denoting things close to the speaker or recently mentioned, e.g. piiput "these men"
  • qr- "that" denoting things far away or abstract, e.g. qrahatal "that girl/child".

Possessive Prefixes

Possessive prefixes form part of a series of personal prefixes which occur for each person and number, as well as masculine and other in the 3rd person singular only (3rd pl. wey- is used for both genders). There is also an impersonal prefix tśey- "someone's" used when the possessor is not known or when speaking generally (e.g. tśeyenuuk "someone's dog").

Singular Plural
1 key- ney-
2 ley- tey-
3m sey- wey-
3o hey-
Imp. tśey-

Examples: keyaqral "my house", seyefak "his wife", weyaahatal "their children".

Verbal Prefixes

Verbal prefixes transform the noun into a predicate, e.g. keput "I am a man", hanuuk "it is a dog". See below for forms.

Adjectives

Adjective stems are not fully distinguishable from nouns and in many cases a single stem may behave as either, e.g. ETS "salt; salty". Adjectives may be either simple (e.g. SUUP "large") or derived from another part of speech (e.g. PUTIŚ- "manly, man-like"). In either case they may be used predicatively or attributively.

An attributive adjective is added to the front of the noun in either its absolute or construct state. In the latter, the adjective intervenes between the prefixes and the stem, e.g. qaqral "the house" → qasuupqral "the big house", nehputek "an old man", qaaetsiwes "the salty waters".

A predicative adjective may be formed by adding the verbal prefixes to the stem, e.g. kiputiy "I am manly", hisuup "it is large".