Old Zoki
| Old Zoki | |
|---|---|
| Zoki | |
| Pronunciation | ['zoːki] |
| Created by | – |
Rttirrian
| |
Old Zoki (English: /ˈzoʊki/, Old Zoki: ['zoːki], Burmese: [zo˥ki˩]) is the reconstructed common ancestor of Zoki and a few closely related languages spoken in Myanmar, spoken by the Zoki people and other groups around the 15th century CE. It is part of the North Rttirrian branch of the Rttirrian family of languages, and a direct descendant of Proto-North-Rttirrian.
Old Zoki was probably not written, but as modern Zoki is written in the Burmese abugida, linguistic texts and other materials featuring reconstructed Old Zoki typically use this abugida as well. However, because of the recency with which it was spoken, the language's phonology, vocabulary, and grammar are known with a fairly high degree of confidence.
The language had nominative-accusative alignment and largely analytic morphology, as part of the Southeast Asian sprachbund. However, it is better known for its root-and-pattern inflectional system reminiscent of those of the Semitic languages; this system allowed biconsonantal and triconsonantal roots to be expressed as nouns or adjectives as well as gerunds and several types of verbs. Phonologically, it distinguished six vowels (in both short and long versions) and 23 consonants.
Phonology
Consonants
Old Zoki possessed the following consonants:
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal- alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | *m /m/ | *ṇ /n̪/ | *n /n/ | |||
| Plosive | *p /p/ *b /b/ |
*ṭ /t̪/ *ḍ /d̪/ |
*t /t/ *d /d/ |
*k /k/ *g /g/ | ||
| Fricative | *f /ɸ/ *v /β/ |
*s /s/ *z /z/ |
*sh /ʃ/ *zh /ʒ/ |
*kh /x/ | ||
| Affricate | *j /d͡ʒ/ | |||||
| Approximant | *w /w/ | *l /l/ *r /ɹ/ |
*y /j/ |
In addition, the phoneme *ng /ŋ/ was allowable in loanwords.
Allophonically, the voiceless stops were optionally aspirated in initial position, especially in loanwords. However, most speakers did not (yet) distinguish aspirated from non-aspirated stops in loanwords, instead using them interchangeably.
Vowels
The following vowels were used:
| Front | Central | Back | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Short | Long | Short | Long | Short | Long | |
| High | *i /i/ | *ī /iː/ | *u /u/ | *ū /uː/ | ||
| Mid-high | *e /e/ | *ē /eː/ | *o /o/ | *ō /oː/ | ||
| Low-mid | *â /ɔ/ | *ấ /ɔː/ | ||||
| Low | *a /ä/ | *ā /äː/ | ||||
Phonotactics
Consonant clusters were not allowed (maximally CVC syllables), although a syllable ending with a consonant could be followed by a syllable beginning with one.
Grammar
Roots
Like the Semitic languages of the Middle East, Old Zoki made use of a wealth of consonantal roots out of which various verbs and nouns could be formed. They could contain either two or three consonants. A sampling of some common consonantal roots is given below:
| Root | Cognate (Rttirri) | Meaning | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| k | b | — | /kɑpɑ/ | to stop |
| sh | j | — | /t͡ʃi/ | to eat |
| m | ṇ | — | /munu/ | to drink |
| ṭ | kh | — | /fiu/ | to work |
| s | g | — | /tøki/ | to lend |
| t | b | — | /ʂipi/ | to tell, inform |
| k | l | — | /kiɽi/ | to learn, study |
| p | k | — | /hiki/ | to grow |
| kh | l | — | /wɑɽɑ/ (to jump) | to dive, pierce, shoot |
| z | g | — | /ʃɑku/ (to trim) | to edit, correct |
| k | ḍ | — | /kɑʔu/ (to squeeze) | to have, own |
| b | zh | — | /piçi/ (electricity) | to spark, flash, glow |
| n | kh | — | /nuwu/ (water) | to douse, splash |
| d | k | — | /ʈukɑ/ (pouch) | to trap, enclose |
| kh | f | g | /wøi/ | to become |
| g | j | ṇ | /jɑnɑ/ | to cook |
| ḍ | j | m | /cɑmɑ/ (to sew) | to connect, join |
| ṭ | j | ṇ | /çnini/ (problem) | to bother |
| w | b | s | /øpʼu/ (to flex) | to rotate, twist |
| g | j | m | /jɑmɑi/ (fire) | to burn |
| b | v | l | /pøɽɑu/ (bread) | to expand, puff up |
| ṭ | k | l | /tʼuɽɑ/ (boss) | to supervise, spy on, follow |
| sh | f | k | /t͡ʃøkø/ (wide) | to be wide, open, the ocean |
| m | p | j | /mɑhɑi/ (to name) | to identify, choose |
Verbs
Verb forms
Old Zoki had several verb forms, each giving a different nuance to the concept expressed in the biliteral or triliteral root. These forms are summarized below.
Form I was used generally for loaned verbal concepts, mostly relating to skilled acts practiced by other local cultures and taught to the Zoki people. It is sometimes not considered a true verbal form, as it consisted of the single verb shekh ("to practice", cognate to Rttirri /t͡ʃiu/ "to do") followed by an auxiliary verb—the gerund is nufokh ("process", a truncation of rinufokh, cognate to Rttirri /ɻiɳøu/). This auxiliary verb, unlike the verbal concepts of the other four verb forms, did not need to take any particular vowel pattern.
| Forms | Examples | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Form | Past | Present | Future | Gerund | Meaning | Biliteral roots, e.g. k-b (to stop) | Triliteral roots, e.g. ṭ-j-ṇ (to bother) |
| I | shekh-___ | shekh-___ | shekh-___ | nufokh-___ | to do something skillful or foreign | shekh-siyā – he spins silk (from Middle Chinese /sɨʌH/ 絮) |
shekh-puwāng – he imitates (from Middle Chinese /pʰʉɐŋX/ 仿) |
| II | _ō_(e_) | _ē_(e_) | _ē_(e_) | _ē_(e_) | to undergo a process emphatically or suddenly | kēb – he stops suddenly | ṭējeṇ – he goes crazy |
| III | _ā_(a_) | _ā_(a_) | _ī_(i_) | _ấ_(â_) | to undergo a process weakly or gradually | kāb – he slows to a halt | ṭājaṇ – he hesitates |
| IV | _i_ō(_e) | _i_ē(_e) | _i_ē(_e) | _i_ē(_e) | to act on someone/something emphatically or suddenly | kibē – he causes to stop suddenly | ṭijēṇe – he completely disrupts |
| V | _i_ā(_a) | _i_ā(_a) | _i_ī(_i) | _i_ấ(_â) | to act on someone/something weakly or gradually | kibā – he drags to a halt | ṭijāṇa – he annoys |
Verb inflection
The following verb prefixes are reconstructed:
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sing. | Pl. | Sing. | Pl. | Sing. | Pl. | |
| Past | *mo- | *om- | *ap- | *am- | *bo- | *bom- |
| Present | *na- | *nam- | *af- | *sam- | — | *khem- |
| Future | *ne- | *mi- | *ke- | *mīj- | *j- | *mēj- |
Nouns
Most nouns were pluralized with *-m if they ended with a vowel, or *-mi if they ended with a consonant. A small class of nouns ending in *-ey/y (historically, a diminutive suffix) were pluralized instead with *-mizh.
The following pronouns are reconstructed:
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sing. | Pl. | Sing. | Pl. | Sing. | Pl. | |
| Nominative (emphatic) |
*nak | *naw | *āt | *sak | *âtū | *âk |
| Accusative | *ni | *me | *ki | *se | *yo | *goj |
| Possessive noun prefix |
*na- | *mi- | *ak- | *sa- | *â- | *e- |
Syntax
Standard word order was subject-object-verb (SOV).
- *Muse-m asi-m bom-shōj.
- cat-PL mouse-PL 3PL.PST-eat.Form_II.PRES
- The cats ate the mice.
Adjectives followed nouns, and adpositions followed noun phrases.
- *Biṇu tavdav
- light bright
- the bright light
- *Shấfâk kulā nō mo-khōl.
- be_wide.GER deep into 1SG.PST-dive.Form_II.PST
- I dove into the deep ocean.
However, verb-subject-object (VSO) order was used for some purposes, most commonly conditionals and subjunctives.
- *Na-kāl nak gijấṇâ, biza shā na-kēḍ mis Tấmu.
- 1SG.PRES 1SG.NOM cook.Form_V.GER, husband beautiful 1SG.PRES-have.Form_II.PRES like Tấmu
- If I learned how to cook, I would get a handsome husband like Tấmu (has).
Negation
There was no single negative particle used in Old Zoki. Instead, verbs were negated with the suffix -n if they ended with a vowel, or -an if they ended with a consonant.
- *Ar ∅-gājam-an.
- house 3SG.PRES-burn.Form_III.PRES-NEG
- The house isn't burning.
Noun and adjective phrases were negated with the prefixing clitic kag (lit. "entirely", cognate to Rttirri /kɑi/ "if only") and the suffix -nu.
- *Āt kag sīmi og nu.
- 2SG.NOM NEG smart very NEG
- You're not that smart.