Wakensi: Difference between revisions

From Linguifex
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Line 8: Line 8:
Wakensi phonology is pretty straughtforward.
Wakensi phonology is pretty straughtforward.


Consonants
=== Consonants ===
{| border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" class="bluetable lightbluebg" style="width: 660px; text-align:center;"
{| border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" class="bluetable lightbluebg" style="width: 660px; text-align:center;"
! style="width: 68px; "|
! style="width: 68px; "|
! style="width: 68px; " |Bilabial
! style="width: 68px; " |Bilabial
! style="width: 68px; " |Alveolar
! style="width: 68px; " |Alveolar
! style="width: 68px; " |Pre-nasal
! style="width: 68px; " |Palatal
! style="width: 68px; " |Palatal
! style="width: 68px; " |Velar
! style="width: 68px; " |Velar
Line 20: Line 19:
! style="" |Nasal Stop
! style="" |Nasal Stop
| m
| m
| n
|colspan="4" | n
|
|
|
|
|-
|-
! style="" |Oral Stop
! style="" |Oral Stop
| p b
| p b
| t d
| t d
|
| k g
| ’ [ʔ]
|-
! style="" |Pre-nasal
| <small><sup>m</sup></small>p <small><sup>m</sup></small>b
| <small><sup>n</sup></small>t <small><sup>n</sup></small>d
|
| <small><sup>n</sup></small>k <small><sup>n</sup></small>g
|
|
| c [ʧ] j [ʤ]
| k g
| q [ʔ]
|-
|-
! style="" |Fricative
! style="" |Fricative
| f v
| f v~w
| s
| s
|
|  
| x [ʃ] r [ʒ]
|  
|  
| h
| h
Line 45: Line 45:
|  
|  
|  
|  
|
| j
| j
|  
|  
Line 53: Line 52:
|  
|  
| l r
| l r
|
|  
|  
|  
|  

Revision as of 17:14, 14 November 2019


Wakensi is a language belonging to the Cramarian family of languages. It has some oddities and peculiarities that set it apart from even more closely related Cramarian languages. One such is the use of an introductory particle at the beginning of sentences which marks whether it is a question or a statement. Also it relies in heavy prefixing rather than suffixing. Apart from this, the Cramarian morphology is pretty transparent.

Phonology

Wakensi phonology is pretty straughtforward.

Consonants

Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal Stop m n~ŋ
Oral Stop p b t d k g ’ [ʔ]
Pre-nasal mp mb nt nd nk ng
Fricative f v~w s h
Approximant j
Liquid l r

Morphosyntax

Nouns

Nouns are indeclinable and are only inflected for number and construct state. The language has only two grammatical numbers: singular and plural, and expresses possession through the use of the construct state. Plurals are handled in a pattern:

Noun Singular Plural
Pattern CVC C1i-C1VC
e.g.: "god" tomb titomb
e.g.: "cat" nau ninau

However note that the plural of tman, "man", is titmin, "men".

Possession

Wakensi uses the construct for possessive constructions, which is suffixed to the possessed noun. The construct is <-‘i>.

Example:

sisei’i nau “the fingers of the cat”
wau’i hun “eye of the dog”

There are two possession in Wakensi, alienable and inalienable. The construct form makes the alienable possessive, the inalienable possessive is formed prefixing the pronoun to the noun.

Example:

katombyour god”
wotanmy sister”
mbegabaour father”

The inalienable possessive means that the object possessed constitutes a part of the person possessing it. While the alienable shows that the object only has some kind of possessive realtionship to the noun.

Example:

wosomy flesh” (the flesh that constitutes me)
so’i wohmy flesh” (as in the flesh in my plate)

Pronouns

The prefixed pronouns are as follows:

Singular Plural
First wo-, woh- mbe-, mb-
Second ka-, k- kika-, kik-
Third m. wi- f. wa-, w- m. wiwi- f. wiwa-, wiw-

The third person neutral takes the femenine “wa-“ pronoun, also it is the default for a group of different genders.

And the independent pronouns:

Singular Plural
First woh mbee
Second ka kika
Third m. wi, f. wa m. wisi, f. wasi

Verbs