User:Waahlis/Hrasic

Hrasic
Hrasú múng
Pronunciation	[/ˈχrʌsɯ ˈmɯŋg̚/]
Created by	–
Native to	Azerbaijan, Russia; Republic of Dagestan
Native speakers	301,486 (2012)
Language family	Menmer languages Hrasic
Early form	Proto-Men
Official status
Regulated by	Ahrasú rám amúng nánshi
Language codes
ISO 639-1	hr
ISO 639-2	hr
ISO 639-3	qhr

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 V_a (type-a vowel) causes the preceding V_b (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.

• ming - narrow, meaning front vowel.
• rán - perfect, signifying the mid-central /ə/, the schwa.
• bhún - broad vowels are 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.

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.c1.an	-nom.sg.		pig.c1.an	-nom.dc.		pig.c1.an	-nom.pl.
A pig			Pigs (as a race) Pigs (as a group) Two pigs			Pigs; several

There exceptions to this, however. The second class of animate nouns (c2.an) have a marked collective instead.

tiánu			etiánu			tiánun
/ˈtɪæn/			/əˈtɪæn/			/ˈtɪænʊn/
tiánu	-∅		e-	tiánu		tiánu	-n
man.c2.an	-nom.sg.		nom.dc.-	man.c2.an		man.c2.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.c2.inan	-nom.sg.		nom.dc.-	box.c2.inan		box.c2.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

There are two genders in the Hrasic language, the animate (an) and inanimate (inan). The animate gender includes only living animals and insects, as well as supernaturals like spirits and deities. The inanimate gender mainly denotes non-living objects, abstractions as well as flowers and microorganisms.

Case

There are 6 grammatical cases in Hrasú. All of these are rather common to the Indo-European languages.

Hrasic cases

Cases and usage
Case		Usage		Example
Nominative		The independent form of nouns; the lemma.		The dog
		Subject of high-control intransitive verbs; without a patient.		The dog bites.
		Subject of high-control intransitive verbs; without a patient.		The man fell.
		Subject of a transitive verb; with a patient.		The dog bit the man.
Accusative		Object or patient of a transitive verb.		The dog bit the man
		Indicates a duration of time.		I did it for many years
		In indirect statements.		He said I was ugly.
		To mark location.		I am at home.
		After certain prepositions.		Between one and ten; near you.
Dative		Indirect object of a ditransitive verb.		He gave the man a pen
		Dativus finalis; dative of purpose.		I fight for the king! Call for help!
		Dativus commodi; dative of benefit or malefic.		Open the door for him; this one is not for children.
		Dativus lativus; dative of movement.		I'm going to Siberia; I come from home.
		Dativus modi; dative of manner and cause.		He died from a disease.
		Dativus possessivus; dative of possession.		There is a book to me; I have a book.
		After certain prepositions.		Get away from me.
Instrumental		Instrumentalis instrumenti; the means of the action.		He writes with a pen.
		Instrumentalis auctoris; the performer of actions.		Opened by the mayor; caught by a net.
		Instrumentalis modi; the manner of means of an action.		Go by the short cut.
Genitive		Symbolises ownership		The dog's bone
		Marks objects related to the subject in composition		The group member
		Symbolises lacking		Go without me
		Marks origin of nouns.		I moved from the house
		Marks origin of nouns		It is from France
		Marks concerned, associated nouns		On the Origin of Species.
		Marks concerned, discussed nouns.		Talking about films.
		Indicates cause		It's because of the snow.
		Marks abstract cause		Thanks to/despite him.
Comparative		For comparations, and semblatives.		It is like a fish.
		For comparative adverbials.		I dance like a god; I dance godly.
Exclamation.		Poor me! Wretched life!
Vocative		Direct address.		Hey, John!
		Disjoint address.		You are right, Mary.
		Exclamation.		Poor me! Wretched life!

Declension

Declension of hrasú

2.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.