User:Waahlis/Hrasic: Difference between revisions

From Linguifex
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Line 600: Line 600:
Hrasú has three numbers, all of which are equally common in the language. The Hrasic numbers are different to those of English, instead using a so-called [[w:singulative number|collective-singulative]] distinction.
Hrasú has three numbers, all of which are equally common in the language. The Hrasic numbers are different to those of English, instead using a so-called [[w:singulative number|collective-singulative]] distinction.


The distinction infers that the basic form of a noun is the collective, which is indifferent to the number and unmarked. However, in Hrasú, the collective form has an additional meaning, and can also signify duals. It is thus the singulative that goes unmarked.
The distinction infers that the basic form of a noun is the collective, which is indifferent to the number and unmarked. However, in Hrasú, the collective form has an additional meaning, and can also signify duals. It is thus the singulative that most often goes unmarked.


=====Singulative=====  
=====Singulative=====  
Line 609: Line 609:
=====Plurative=====
=====Plurative=====
The [[w:plurative|plurative]] ({{sc|pl}}) marks when there are multiple nouns, but more than two. It does not have the collective sense that the English equivalent does.
The [[w:plurative|plurative]] ({{sc|pl}}) marks when there are multiple nouns, but more than two. It does not have the collective sense that the English equivalent does.
=====Examples=====
In the animate gender ({{sc|an}}), most of the times the collective goes unmarked.
{| cellpadding="4" style="line-height: 1em;"
|+
<!-- Sentence -->
| colspan="2"|'''gúra'''
!
| colspan="2"|'''gur'''
!
| colspan="2"|'''gúran'''
|-
<!-- Pronunciation-->
| colspan="2"|/ˈgɯrɑ/
!
| colspan="2"|/ˈgʊr/
!
| colspan="2"|/ˈgɯrɑn/
|-
<!-- Morphemes-->
|<small>gur</small>
|<small>-a</small>
!
|<small>gur</small>
|<small>-∅</small>
!
|<small>gur</small>
|<small>-an</small>
|-
<!-- Gloss-->
|pig.{{sc|c2.an}}
| -{{sc|nom.sg.}}
!
|pig.{{sc|c2.an}}
| -{{sc|nom.dc.}}
!
|pig.{{sc|c2.an}}
| -{{sc|nom.pl.}}
|-
<!-- Translations -->
| colspan="2"| ''A pig''
!
| colspan="2"|''Pigs (''as a race'')<br> Pigs (''as a group'')<br> Two pigs''
!
| colspan="2"|''Pigs; several''
|}
There exceptions to this, however. The first class of animate nouns ({{sc|c1.an}}) have a marked collective instead.
{| cellpadding="4" style="line-height: 1em;"
|+
<!-- Sentence -->
| colspan="2"|'''tiánu'''
!
| colspan="2"|'''etiánu'''
!
| colspan="2"|'''tiánun'''
|-
<!-- Pronunciation-->
| colspan="2"|/ˈtɪæn/
!
| colspan="2"|/əˈtɪæn/
!
| colspan="2"|/ˈtɪænʊn/
|-
<!-- Morphemes-->
|<small>tiánu</small>
|<small>-∅</small>
!
|<small>e-</small>
|<small>tiánu</small>
!
|<small>tiánu</small>
|<small>-n</small>
|-
<!-- Gloss-->
|man.{{sc|c1.an}}
| -{{sc|nom.sg.}}
!
| {{sc|nom.dc.}}-
|man.{{sc|c1.an}}
!
|man.{{sc|c1.an}}
| -{{sc|nom.pl}}
|-
<!-- Translations -->
| colspan="2"| ''A man''
!
| colspan="2"|''Man (''humanity'')<br> Men (''as a group'')<br> Two men''
!
| colspan="2"|''Men; several''
|}
Concerning class 2 inanimate nouns ({{sc|c2.inan}}), the singulative most often goes unmarked, just like class 2 animates.
{| cellpadding="4" style="line-height: 1em;"
|+
<!-- Sentence -->
| colspan="2"|'''chac'''
!
| colspan="2"|'''achac'''
!
| colspan="2"|'''chacú'''
|-
<!-- Pronunciation-->
| colspan="2"|/ˈkʰɑk̚/
!
| colspan="2"|/ɑˈkʰɑk̚/
!
| colspan="2"|/ˈkʰɑk̚ɯ/
|-
<!-- Morphemes-->
|<small>chac</small>
|<small>-∅</small>
!
|<small>a-</small>
|<small>chac</small>
!
|<small>chac</small>
|<small>-ú</small>
|-
<!-- Gloss-->
|box.{{sc|c1.inan}}
| -{{sc|nom.sg.}}
!
| {{sc|nom.dc.}}-
|box.{{sc|c1.inan}}
!
|box.{{sc|c1.inan}}
| -{{sc|nom.pl}}
|-
<!-- Translations -->
| colspan="2"| ''A box''
!
| colspan="2"|''Boxes (''as a group'')<br> Two boxes''
!
| colspan="2"|''Boxes; several''
|}
The first class of inanimates  ({{sc|c1.inan}}) have an unmarked collective, instead. These are often [[w:collective nouns|collective nouns]].
{| cellpadding="4" style="line-height: 1em;"
|+
<!-- Sentence -->
| colspan="2"|'''hara'''
!
| colspan="2"|'''hár'''
!
| colspan="2"|'''haran'''
|-
<!-- Pronunciation-->
| colspan="2"|/ˈhɑrɑ/
!
| colspan="2"|/ˈhær/
!
| colspan="2"|/ˈhɑrɑn/
|-
<!-- Morphemes-->
|<small>hár</small>
|<small>-a</small>
!
|<small>hár</small>
|<small>-∅</small>
!
|<small>hár</small>
|<small>-an</small>
|-
<!-- Gloss-->
|wheat.{{sc|c1.inan}}
| -{{sc|nom.sg.}}
!
|wheat.{{sc|c1.inan}}
| -{{sc|nom.dc.}}
!
|wheat.{{sc|c1.inan}}
| -{{sc|nom.pl}}
|-
<!-- Translations -->
| colspan="2"| ''A grain of wheat''
!
| colspan="2"|''Wheat (''as a cereal'')<br> Two grains of wheat''
!
| colspan="2"|''Several grains of wheat''
|}


====Gender====
====Gender====

Revision as of 15:10, 21 May 2013

Hrasic
Hrasú múng
Pronunciation[/ˈχrʌsɯ ˈmɯŋg̚/]
Created by–
Native toAzerbaijan, Russia; Republic of Dagestan
Native speakers301,486 (2012)
Menmer languages
  • Hrasic
Early form
Proto-Men
Official status
Regulated byAhrasú rám amúng nánshi
Language codes
ISO 639-1hr
ISO 639-2hr
ISO 639-3qhr
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Hrasú múng, /ˈχrʌsɯ ˈmɯŋg̚/, Hrasú or Hrasic /ˈkɹæzɪk/ is a language spoken in the Eastern Caucasus, by the Hrasú people. The population is dispersed over an area covering the Eastern parts of Dagestan in Russia, as well as the area around Baku in Azerbaijan. The number of speakers were in 2012 estimated to be about 300,000, and increasing.

The language is a language isolate, and is thus not known to be related to any extant language. Hrasic has a normal-sized inventory of consonants and a fair amount of allophony. It is a fusional language and is morphosyntactically w:nominative-accusative. The morphology is evenly split between nominal and verbal inflections.

Background

The Hrasic language, or Hrasú, is a constructed language, but does have a fictional background set in the real world.

Phonology

Consonants

The following is the inventory of consonants in the Hrasú language. There are 20 contrastive consonants.

Hrasú consonants
Consonants
Bilabial Denti-alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
apical laminal
Nasals plain m /m/ n /n/ ng /ŋ/
Plosives aspirated bh /pʰ/ th /t̺ʰ/ ch /kʰ/
unvoiced p /p/ t /t/ c /k/
voiced b /b/ d /d/ g /g/
Fricatives unvoiced sh /s̺ʰ/ s /s/ h /ç ~ x ~ h/
voiced z /z/ y /ʝ/
Trills r /r/
Approximants hu /w/
Laterals l /l ~ ɬ/

Consonant allophony

Allophony is common to many consonants, and sandhi forces them to be realised different in different environments.

The glottal fricative

The phoneme /h/, the so called glottal fricative, is in free variation with the unvoiced palatal fricative /ç/ as well as the unvoiced velar fricative /x/.

hlá
/ˈhɬæ/ = /ˈxɬæ/ = /ˈçɬæ/
good; well

The velar fricative is the most common one, but the phones are all affected by palatalisation, producing the palatal fricative [ç]. If followed by a rhotic trill /r/, the pronunciation becomes uvular.

hyó hrasú
/ˈhʝə/ → [ˈçə] /ˈhrɑsɯ/ → /ˈχrʌsɯ/
to leave.subj pride


The uvularisation of the glottal fricative is included in broad transcriptions, as such, it is enclosed by slashes, //. The palatalisation is not.

Palatalisation

Palatalisation occurs due to many factors:

  • The phonemes /ʝ/ and /ɪ/, the voiced palatal fricative and the near-close near-front vowel, tend to palatalise adjacent consonants internally.
  • Externally, a final voiced velar stop, /g/, palatalises the initial consonant of the following word.

All post-bilabial consonants are affected, except the rhotic /r/ and the aspirated apical fricative /s̺ʰ/. As such, the allophony is rather extensive:


Plain /n/ /t/ /d/ /s/ /z/ /l/ /ŋ/ /k/ /g/ /kʰ/ /t̺ʰ / /h/
Palatalised [ɲ] [t͡ʃ] [d͡ʒ] [ʃ] [ʒ] [ʎ] [ɲ]1 [t͡ʃ] [d͡ʒ] [k] [t] [ç]
  1. Realised as /ŋg/ when non-initial. This grants /ŋg/ → [ɲd͡ʒ].


hráni tian átzi? móngi
/ˈhrænɪ/ → [ˈχræɲɪ] /ˈtɪɑn/ → [ˈt͡ʃɪan] /ˈætzɪ/ → [ˈætʃɪ] /ˈməŋgɪ/ → [ˈməɲd͡ʒɪ]
spider, hand friend now.int to go.subj.
Voicedness

Some phonemes are susceptible to voicedness sandhi. These are the sibilants and the voiced lateral approximant /l/. When preceded by a phoneme differing in voicedness, the above mentioned phonemes assimilate.

hlá gyáng-sóm átzi? méngshi
/ˈçlæ/ → /ˈçɬæ/ /ˈgʝæŋgsəm/ → /ˈgʝæŋgzəm/ /ˈætzɪ/ → /ˈætsɪ/ /ˈmiŋɡs̺ʰɪ/ → /ˈmiŋɡz̺ʱɪ/
good; well; happy to say.subj-you.1.p.pl.acc.inf now.int to dance.subj.caus


The voicedness assimilation is included in broad transcriptions, as such, it is enclosed by slashes, //.

Vowels

There are 10 vowel phonemes in the Hrasic language. In addition to these, the open mid-back unrounded vowel, /ʌ/, is an allophone of /ɑ/.

Hrasú vowels
Front Near-front Central Near-back Back
Close é /i/ í /ɨ/ ú /ɯ/
Near-close i /ɪ/ u /ʊ/
Close-mid
Mid e /ə/
Open-mid ó /ɞ/ a /ʌ/ · o /ɔ/
Near-open á /æ/
Open a /ɑ/


Vowel allophony

Open mid-back vowel

The open mid-back unrounded vowel, /ʌ/, is an allophone of /ɑ/ when it precedes the close back unrounded vowel, /ɯ/, or the open mid-back rounded vowel, /ɔ/.

gahuo hrasú
/ˈgɑwɔ/ → /ˈgʌwɔ/ /ˈhrɑsɯ/ → /ˈχrʌsɯ/
bush pride


The allophony of the open mid-back vowel is included in broad transcriptions, as such, it is enclosed by slashes, //.

Morphophonology

Metaphony

Hrasic has a system of regressive metaphony similar to the I- and U-mutation in the Germanic languages. It is a kind of vowel harmony, rather than mutation.

It is a long distance metaphony which affects the preceding vowels in a whole word.

pre-assimilation   post-assimilation
CVbCVbCVa → CVaCVaCVa   (Va = type-a vowel, Vb = type-b vowel, C = consonant)

In the diagram above, the Va (type-a vowel) causes the preceding Vb (type-b vowel) to assimilate and become the same type of vowel (and thus they become, metaphorically, "in harmony").

In Hrasic, these types of vowels are defined by their frontness. There are three different types; ming, rán and bhún, where the rán vowel is neutral and can appear with both front and back vowels.


Front Neutral Back
i /ɪ/ e /ə/ í /ɨ/
á /æ/ a /ɑ/
u /ʊ/ ú /ɯ/
ó /ɞ/ o /ɔ/
é /i/


As it happens, ming-mutation, or front mutation, is much more common than the bhún-mutation. Please note that the orthography is highly arbitrary, and the accent marks do not reflect frontness.

Grammar

Morphology

Nominal

Number

Hrasú has three numbers, all of which are equally common in the language. The Hrasic numbers are different to those of English, instead using a so-called collective-singulative distinction.

The distinction infers that the basic form of a noun is the collective, which is indifferent to the number and unmarked. However, in Hrasú, the collective form has an additional meaning, and can also signify duals. It is thus the singulative that most often goes unmarked.

Singulative

The singulative (sg) denotes one, single noun, and roughly corresponds to the English equivalent of singular. A singulative noun is a single item, either of a collective noun or even a mass noun.

Dual-collective

The dual-collective number (dc) is a special number to the Hrasic language. The dual-collective primarily marks the collective sense, whereas English uses the plural. It does however also signify two nouns, a pair, in certain contexts.

Plurative

The plurative (pl) marks when there are multiple nouns, but more than two. It does not have the collective sense that the English equivalent does.

Examples

In the animate gender (an), most of the times the collective goes unmarked.

gúra gur gúran
/ˈgɯrɑ/ /ˈgʊr/ /ˈgɯrɑn/
gur -a gur -∅ gur -an
pig.c2.an -nom.sg. pig.c2.an -nom.dc. pig.c2.an -nom.pl.
A pig Pigs (as a race)
Pigs (as a group)
Two pigs 		Pigs; several


There exceptions to this, however. The first class of animate nouns (c1.an) have a marked collective instead.

tiánu etiánu tiánun
/ˈtɪæn/ /əˈtɪæn/ /ˈtɪænʊn/
tiánu -∅ e- tiánu tiánu -n
man.c1.an -nom.sg. nom.dc.- man.c1.an man.c1.an -nom.pl
A man Man (humanity)
Men (as a group)
Two men 		Men; several


Concerning class 2 inanimate nouns (c2.inan), the singulative most often goes unmarked, just like class 2 animates.

chac achac chacú
/ˈkʰɑk̚/ /ɑˈkʰɑk̚/ /ˈkʰɑk̚ɯ/
chac -∅ a- chac chac -ú
box.c1.inan -nom.sg. nom.dc.- box.c1.inan box.c1.inan -nom.pl
A box Boxes (as a group)
Two boxes 		Boxes; several


The first class of inanimates (c1.inan) have an unmarked collective, instead. These are often collective nouns.

hara hár haran
/ˈhɑrɑ/ /ˈhær/ /ˈhɑrɑn/
hár -a hár -∅ hár -an
wheat.c1.inan -nom.sg.


wheat.c1.inan -nom.dc. wheat.c1.inan -nom.pl
A grain of wheat Wheat (as a cereal)
Two grains of wheat 		Several grains of wheat

Gender

Case

Declension

Declension of hrasú
1.inan hrasú - pride
singular dual plural
Nominative hrasú ahrasú hrasún
Accusative hrasúm ahrasúm hrasúm
Dative hrási ehrási hrásin
Instrumental hrásin ehrásin hrásin
Genitive ihrási ehrási ihrásin
Vocative ahrasú ahrasú ahrasún

Sample phrases

  • Thún sóm hyó-ác?
  • Thún ác gyáng-sóm téngi!
  • Men gyáng-tum ác ráráchu bhángi, dánin huéng-tu tugángi at.
Retrieved from "https://linguifex.com/w/index.php?title=User:Waahlis/Hrasic&oldid=7296"