User:Waahlis/Tlastir

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The corresponding sphere and signature of the Tlastir language used on the wiki.

Tlastir /ˈtlæstɪə̯/ (natively In tlastīratl /ɪn t͡ɬäs̪θiːˈɽät͡ɬ/ - that which is a language) is a constructed language heavily inspired by the Uto-Aztecan language Nahuatl and the Indo-European language Greek. It is a priori, and does therefore not inherit any characteristics from the two languages, but is instead an artistic reinterpretation.

The Tlastir language is odd in a few of its features, for example, the language completely lacks true nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and adverbs, instead relying almost completely on verbs.

General Information

The Tlastir language is a relatively small native American language, spoken foremost in the southernmost of Mexico and on the borders of Guatemala and Belize. The number of speakers is currently obscure, but estimations gather around 12 - 15,000 speakers over four main dialects. Distinctive features include the lack of voiced consonants - despite a large inventory, phonemic vowel length as well as labialisation and aspiration on plosive consonants. Similar to some other native American languages, for example Blackfoot, the language has phonemic consonant gemination. Grammar-wise, the language is heavily agglutinative, possesses what could be described as a V(S)O word order, and verb-based grammatical structure.

Whilst distinct from other Native American languages, it has formed a solid Sprachbund with the Uto-Aztecan languages and especially with the isolate Cuoxeh language.

Phonology

This is the Tlastir phonemic inventory of sounds, which possesses about 20 consonants, the majority of them voiceless and gemination is not distinguished. In addition to that, there is a simple five-vowel system.

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Consonant phonemes in Tlastir
Bilabial Dental Alveolar Palatal Retroflex Velar Glottal
plain aspirated labialised central lateral plain lateral plain aspirated labialised
Nasals m /m/ n /n̪/ nu /n̪ʷ/ [ŋ]
Plosive p /p/ t /t̪/ th /t̪ʰ/ tu /t̪ʷ/ c /k/ ch /kʰ/ cu /kʷ/ h /ʔ/
Affricate tz /t͡s/ tl /t͡ɬ/ x /ɕ - t͡ɕ/
Fricative z /s/
Approximant hu /ʍ/ y /j/
Liquids l /ɬ/ ll /ʎ̥˔/ r /ɽ/

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Vowel phonemes in Tlastir
Front Central Back
short long short long short long
Close i /i/ ī /iː/ u /u/ ū /uː/
Mid e /e̞/ ē /e̞ː/ o /o/ ō /oː/
Open a /ä/ ā /äː/
  • c⟩ is written ⟨qu⟩ when preceeding the front vowels /i/ or /e̞/.
  • z⟩ is written ⟨c⟩, also when preceeding the front vowels /i/ or /e̞/, and ⟨s⟩ when preceeding ⟨t, tu, c, cu
  • tz⟩ is written ⟨ch⟩ also when preceeding the front vowels /i/ or /e̞/.
  • The labialised consonants and bilabial approximant ⟨nu, tu, cu, hu⟩ are inverted to ⟨un, ut, uc, uh⟩ when final.

Morphophonology

Assimilation

Similarly to Cuoxeh, the Tlastir language tends to assimilate some syllable codas to the neighbouring onset. The syllables of morphemes may be altered when followed or proceeded by certain other morphemes. A list of such assimilations is shown below:

Assimilation
Coda Onset Result
Consonants
m + y mn
n + y nn
l + y ll
r + y yy
z + y zz
x + y xx
tz + y x
tl + y ll
y + c cc
l + c zc
tl + c tz
h + C C
l + tl ll
l + z zz
l + r ll
Vowels
Vshort + h Vlong
Vshort + Vshort Vlong
Vshort + Vlong Vlong
Vlong + Vshort Vlong

Phonotactics

The Tlastir phonotactics and syllable structure is very close to that of Nahuatl, and the structure (C)V(C) is the general maximum. This grants that all syllables are broken into this structure, no matter if the current form arose through for example allophony: the word mennoh , "for us", is thus split into /me̞n/ +/ˈnoːʔ/ and not /me̞nn/ + /ˈoːʔ/.

It also makes it nigh impossible to have an onset over one consonant long, making consonant clusters with labialised or aspirated impossible, e.g. CʷV not CʷCV.

There are exceptions to this structure, however, and that is clustering the alveolodental fricative /s̪/ with any of the dental or velar plosives in the syllable onset. However, sonority dictates that fricatives may only preceed other fricatives, fricativising the stops. This grants the clusters:

  • ⟨z⟩ + ⟨t⟩ = ⟨st⟩ /s̪θ/
  • ⟨z⟩ + ⟨th⟩ = ⟨sth⟩ /s̪θ/
  • ⟨z⟩ + ⟨tu⟩ = ⟨stu⟩ /s̪θw/
  • ⟨z⟩ + ⟨c⟩ = ⟨scu⟩ /s̪x/
  • ⟨z⟩ + ⟨ch⟩ = ⟨sch⟩ /s̪x/
  • ⟨z⟩ + ⟨cu⟩ = ⟨scu⟩ /s̪xw/

Interestingly, this gives a maximum onset of sCwV, far larger than the standard structure. This syllable may only occur in an onset position of a lexeme. The combination z + p never occurs in the language, and is not viable.

Verbal nominalisation

Noun
- /-/ ...
Person Singular Plural
1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd
masculine feminine masculine feminine masculine feminine neuter
Indicative
Object enclitics -yi -yique -ti -tique -hui -huique -in -itz -itzque -itzin
Predicative See non-past atelic conjugation
Relative meme- meme-que tutu- tutu-que huhui- huhui-que in- meme-nī- tutu-nī- in-nī-
Applicative name- name-que natu- natu-que nahui- nahui-que nahin- name-nī- natu-nī- nahin-nī-
Benefactive me-yōh me-quiyōh tu-yōh tu-quiyōh hui-yōh hui-quiyōh -yōh me-nīyōh tu-nīyōh -nīyōh
Malefactive xime-yōh xime-quiyōh xitu-yōh xitu-quiyōh xihui-yōh xihui-quiyōh xi-yōh xime-nīyōh xitu-nīyōh xi-nīyōh

Verbs

Subject to change.

Verb
nah /n̪äʔ/ to see
Participles
Non-Past nahayyāh
Past nahayyātl
Person Singular Plural
1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd
masculine feminine masculine feminine masculine feminine neuter
Indicative
Object enclitics -yi -yique -ti -tique -hui -huique -in -itz -itzque -itzin
Past
Telic
Atelic
Retrospective
Non-Past
Telic menātl menātzque tunātl tunātzque huinātl huinātzque nātl menātzin tunātzin nātzin
Atelic menāh menāque tunāh tunāque huināh huināque nah menanīh tunanīh nanīh
Retrospective menanāh menanāque tunanāh tunanāque huinanāh huinanāque nanāh menananīh tunananīh nananīh
Irrealis menātza menātzaque tunnātza tunātzaque huinātza huinātzaque nātza menāxin tunāxin nāxin
Imperative camenātza camenātzaque catunnātza catunātzaque cahuinātza cahuinātzaque canātza camenāxin catunāxin canāxin

Examples

Graded Sentences for Analysis from http://www.potterpcs.net/gsfa/
English Tlastir
Gloss
Part 1
Birds sing. Inhanātzin zimīmtzin
Children play. Intuallanīh nāthatzin
Dogs bark. Incuallī mēxin
Bees hum. Inririnīh steccanīh
The baby laughed. Inhuāhuatzin nāthayatzin
The sun shines. Intunāh tunāh
The wind blows. Inhuīnīh huīnīh

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