Roshterian
Roshterian (from rāSTra) is an Indian language isolate of the Lõis timeline.
Numbers
TODO: Combining forms, ordinals, distributives
- 1: peem, peemy-
- 2: ṯitu, ṯitu-
- 3: naaṟ, naṟ-
- 4: loob, loo-
- 5: helit, lit-
- 6: ṯiam
- 7: ruad
- 8: loṟ
- 9: baṟ
- 10: ḡiṟ
- 11: huplai
- 12: plai
Phonology
Consonants
Roshterian uses the following consonants:
| Labial | Dental/Alveolar | Retroflex | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| central | lateral | central | lateral | ||||||
| Nasal | m /m/ | n /n̪/ | ṉ /ɳ/ | [ŋ] | [ɴ] | ||||
| Stop | voiceless | p /p/ | t /t̪/ | ṯ /ʈ/ | c /k/ | q /q/ | |||
| voiced | b /b/ | d /d̪/ | ḏ /ɖ/ | g /g/ | |||||
| Continuant | voiceless | f /f/ | s /s̪/ | x /ʂ/ | h /h/ | ||||
| voiced | w /w/ | r /r/ | l /l̪/ | ṟ /ɻ/ | ḻ /ɭ/ | ḡ /ʁ/ | |||
Palatals and aspirated stops are used in loanwords from Indic.
- Notes
- The voiceless stops /p t̪ ʈ k q/ are unaspirated.
- /n̪ t̪ d̪ l̪/ are dental; /s̪/ is dentalized alveolar (transcribed /n t d s l/ for sake of convenience).
- [ŋ] and [ɴ] are allophones of /n̪/ before velar and uvular consonants, respectively.
- /r/ can be an alveolar flap [ɾ], an apical retroflex flap [ɽ], or trilled [r].
- /ɳ ʈ ɖ ɭ/ can be realized as apical-postalveolar (like Hindi retroflexes) or subapical-palatal (like Tamil retroflexes). The apical realization dominates in casual speech, while the subapical realization occurs in careful or formal speech. After /ʂ/, /ʈ/ is always apical.
- Colloquial Roshterian often merges /ɖ/ and /ɭ/.
- /ʂ/ is laminal post-alveolar [s̠] or sometimes [ɧ].
- /ɻ/ can be post-alveolar [ɹ̠] or truly retroflex [ɻ].
- /ʁ/ is a voiced uvular fricative [ʁ] or a trill [ʀ].
- /w/ is [v] in some dialects.
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| short | long | short | long | short | long | |
| Close | i /ɪ/ | ii /iː/ | u /ʊ/ | uu /uː/ | ||
| Mid | e /ɛ/ | ee /eː/ | y /ə/ | yy /əː/ | o /ɔ/ | oo /oː/ |
| Open | a /a/ | aa /aː/ | ||||
In addition, the following diphthongs are used: ⟨ai ei ia au ua oi iu⟩ /aɪ ɛɪ iə ɛʊ uə ɔɪ ɪʊ/
- Notes
- /ɪ, iː/ are centralized after retroflex consonants to [ɪ̈, ɨː]; for example, ṉii 'big' is pronounced [ɳɨː]
- /eː, oː/ are lowered to [ɛː, ɔː] before retroflexes and uvulars.
Stress
There is no phonemic stress or tone; all words are pronounced with word-final stress.
Phonotactics
Roshterian allows fewer clusters than Proto-Talmic. Only two-consonant clusters are permitted, obstruent + nasal and fricative + sonorant clusters are prohibited. However, final clusters are allowed.
Here are the allowed clusters:
- Not allowed finally: /pl bl pr br tr dr ʈr ɖr kl kr/ ⟨pl bl pr br tr dr ṯr ḏr cl cr⟩
- Some dialects may have /ʈɻ ɖɻ/ for /ʈr ɖr/.
- Some dialects always use [Cɭ] or [Cɻ] for /Cr/.
- Not allowed initially: /mp nt ɳʈ ŋk ɴq mb nd ɳɖ ŋg ɴʁ ns ɳʂ lp lt ɭʈ lk ɭq lb ld ɭɖ lg ɭʁ rp rt ɻʈ rk rq rb rd ɻɖ rg rʁ rm rn ɻb ɻg ɻm ɻɳ sp st ʂʈ sk ʂq/ ⟨mp nt ṉṯ nc nq mb nd ṉḏ ng nḡ ns ṉx lp lt ḻṯ lc ḻq lb ld ḻḏ lg ḻḡ rp rt ṟṯ rc rq rb rd ṟḏ rg rḡ rm rn ṟb ṟg ṟm ṟṉ sp st xṯ sc xq⟩
In addition, s and ṟ are not allowed initially.
Sandhi
Morphology
Verbs
Each verb has 3 principal parts: the progressive stem, the habitual stem and the preterite stem.
Object incorporation
All verb stems have a combining form, also called the incorporating form, which is used in the presence of an object marker, negative prefix or an incorporandum (incorporated object). Any noun stem can be incorporated, including proper nouns.
hootiixyn 'eat fruit' < hooti 'fruit' + caasyn 'eat'
Verb template
The Roshterian verb has 8-9 slots which mark a variety of grammatical information. Slots that must obligatorily be filled are in bold.
- discourse - considered clitics by some
- evidentiality/interrogative
- negation
- causative person marker
- object person marker/passive marker
- STEM:
- incorporandum
- applicative
- ROOT
- one or more auxiliaries
- subject+aspect
Discourse markers
Discourse markers are often connecting words for clauses, or particles that display the speaker's emotional reaction to an event or state.
- bys- = 'gladly', 'great!'
- boo- = 'alas'
- yṟ/ṟy- = (softening marker)
Evidentiality affixes
Evidentials mark the source of the speaker's information; a lack of evidential marking signals that the verb is an imperative or a purpose clause. Some other discourse affixes (which are in complementary distribution with evidentials) also go into this slot.
- i- (before C), r- (before V) = I witnessed or otherwise directly experienced this
- pyn- = information I obtained from hearsay or am quoting
- nar- = a third-party source I consider credible
- me- = my own inference, assumption or subjective opinion
- hy- (< PTal *səni φī... 'tell me if...') = interrogative (used for both wh-questions and yes-no questions)
- eb- = if
- ṯus- = (optative)
Negative/focus affixes
Negation is marked with the negative affix mis- (before V), or mi-/N- (before C), which may alter the verb stem to its incorporating form.
- Negative: mis-, mi-, N-
Causative person markers
The causative prefixes are used in causative verbs to index the agent causing the action of the object-ROOT-subject complex. The causative person marker comes from forms of the verb ooni 'to do/make' (*oonin sy 'I make it that' > oony- > ony-).
For example:
- Ronipicaasym.
- /ronipikaːˈsəm/
- r-ony-pi-caasy-m
- DIR-CAUS.1SG-OBJ.4-eat-PROG.SUBJ.3SG.M
- I'm feeding it to him.
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ony- | ome- |
| 1 + 2 | - | onty- |
| 2 | ory- | ofy- |
| 3 (male) | omy- | oty- |
| 3 (female) | osy- | |
| 3 (inanimate) | oo- | |
| 4 (obviative) | opy- | |
| Who? | ote- | |
| What? | ota- | |
Object person markers
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | in- | mee- |
| 1 + 2 | - | bee- |
| 2 | ti- | hee- |
| 3 (proximate) | bi- | nee- |
| 4 (obviative) | pi- | |
| Whom?/Someone | tei- | |
| What?/Something | taa- | |
Applicatives
- di- = at, in, by
- hee- = about
- hu- = benefactive
- lengy- = malefactive
Subject+TAM markers
Roshterian tenses: present, perfect, imperfect, future
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Habitual indicative: Reduplicate the progressive indicative with Ce-. (the reduplicant can be irregular) |
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Voice affixes
- ṯy- = mediopassive (< "body, self")
- ab/aa- = reciprocal
Auxiliaries
- -dunqan: 'I must/have to' (negated: 'I don't have to')
- -peren: 'I can/I'm able to'
- -ṯysin: 'I may/I have permission to' (negated: 'I must not')
- -xan: 'I will' (future tense)
- -dawan: 'I want to' (future tense)
Copula
To express "is a [NOUN]" or "is [ADJ]", the copula -(l)uan is suffixed to the bare stem of X; X plus the copula then goes to the normal stem slot for purposes of verb inflection. The noun itself doesn't go into the plural even when the subject is plural.
- Lamebaaṯuu.
- la-me-baaṯ-uu
- merely-INFERRED-child-COP.PRES.3PL
- In my opinion, they are mere children.
- Hyroṉḏuar, hyteituar?
- hy-roṉḏ-uar, hy-teit-uar
- Q-man-COP.2SG, Q-child-COP.PRES.2SG
- Are you a man or a boy?
When the copula is added on nouns without an evidential, it emphasizes the noun or simply indicates the tense of an action (either past or non-past).
- Metuumi bastaim.
- me-tuu-mi bast-aim
- INFERRED-do-3SG.M.PFV king-COP.PST.3SG.M
- It was apparently the king who did it. / The king apparently did it.
Inflection
The copula is suppletive; it also has only non-past indicative and past indicative forms.
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Nouns
Nouns are marked with a singular-plural distinction, and may also take possessive suffixes. However, the lemma form of a noun is typically its combining form, which is the incorporated form of a noun and is also used to form possessed forms and compounds. Unlike Thensarian, Roshterian lost the Proto-Talmic grammatical gender; gendered pronouns and verb affixes no longer mark grammatical gender, but natural gender (as in Naquian). There is no definite or indefinite article.
The plural form is inherited from the Proto-Talmic reduplicated collective, and is often formed by reduplication. Example: bleit /blɛit/ 'woman', bebleit /bɛˈblɛit/ 'women'. Some irregularities may be present due to the retention of the original single consonant in the reduplicant, as opposed to the stem-initial cluster where the consonants interacted to produce new consonants and clusters.
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Demonstrative suffixes
Deixis or demonstratives (such as 'this' or 'that') are marked with a suffix added to the combining form of the noun.
- this: -ma
- that: -pa
Adjectives
The class of adjectives is actually a small, closed subclass of nouns, usually relating to concrete properties of objects such as shape, color, size, and texture, and relatively permanent characteristics of people. Note that most English adjectives, like "cozy", "active", "incendiary", ..., are expressed in Roshterian by other means such as inflected verbs or verb phrases.
Predicative adjectives work the same way as predicative nouns in that they must take the copula.
Attributive adjectives are compounded after the noun.
A more analytic construction can also be used: the 3rd person singular inanimate possessive suffix is added to the noun, and the adjective comes after.
- bryn 'red': Ibrynua hoget. 'The apple is red.'; hootibryn or hootit bryn 'red apple'
- pant 'big': Ipantua huaryn. 'My house is big.'; huarypant or huaryt pant 'big house'
Prepositions
Prepositions are inflected for person similarly to nouns. [Should they be cliticized? Probably]
- di- = 'in'
- bel- = 'from'
- en = for
- bar = towards
- nai = with (instrumental)
Pronouns
Personal pronouns
Independent pronouns are not used except for emphasis.
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | nia | iam |
| 1 + 2 | pynd | |
| 2 | weer | typi |
| 3 (masculine) | hum | sia |
| 3 (feminine) | hii | |
| 3 (inanimate) | ha | |
| 4 (obviative) | pii | |
Demonstrative pronouns
Independent demonstratives look like:
- this: amac
- that: apac
Interrogatives
Derivational morphology
- bo- = associated person
- bopenicili-, bopenicili /bɔpɛnɪkɪˈlɪ/ = penicillin player
- blei- = -ess, feminine counterpart to bo- (not common in modern Roshterian)
- -ait (not productive) = forms adjectives
- [NOUN]-ṯobyn = to resemble a NOUN (the noun is incorporated)
Syntax
Roshterian is a verb-initial, head-marking polysynthetic language. Verbs take both subject and object affixes, and features complex morphophonemic alternations [much of which is inherited from Old Roshterian]. Where Roshterian deviates from typical Talman typology are features such as obviation, noun incorporation and evidential marking, making Roshterian resemble Native American languages such as Blackfoot or Ojibwe.
- Itiraḏan.
- I-ti-raḏa-n
- EVID_DIR-2SG.OBJ-love-1SG.SUBJ
- I love you.
Possession
"X of Y" = X-3SG Y or X-Y (e.g. weinyti boclofabim 'the Clofabian's brother' or ganut huar = 'the color of the house')
Obviation
Applicatives
Applicative affixes make a verb's prepositional or oblique object into its direct object (cf. be- in English bemoan 'to complain about'). Applicatives are as much a stylistic or pragmatic choice as syntactic (see below) or lexical. Some verbs may use multiple applicative prefixes, when they do so is difficult to predict.
Examples:
- Iheeditaicyn raḏi am ḡiaf.
- I'm talking about love and hate. (lit. I bespeak love and hate)
Sometimes not using applicatives is preferred, sometimes vice versa:
- Ixoorin di Qaaroxṯerim.
- 'I live in Roshteria.' (lit. I live in Roshteria)
- Idixoorin ḡeeliaṉ.
- 'I live in a city.' (lit. I inhabit a city)
Applicatives are not only useful for emphasizing or topicalizing the oblique argument but in fact are necessary for certain syntactic constructions (and for just sounding natural). When an applicative is used, the original direct object (when used) takes the instrumental preposition nai.
For example:
- Ṯimylt impubri pergofaaṟidi nai maaqex?
- Where is the shelf where I put the spices? [lit. that I beput with the spices]
- Apacua rymbi peteehoḏidi nai ṯas.
- /apaˈkuə rəmˈbi pɛteːhoɖɪˈdɪ nai ˈʈas/
- apac-ua rymbi ped-hee-hoḏia-di nai ṯas
- that-COP.3SG.N forest NMLZ-APPL.about-draw-1SG.PERF INS picture
- That is the forest I drew a picture of. [lit. the forest that I bedrew with a picture]
Clause types
Time clauses
Relative clauses
There are no relative pronouns or resumptive pronouns in Roshterian. Only the gap strategy is available, and only a subject or an object of the relative clause can be a head. This is where applicatives come in handy, as applicatives promote oblique arguments to direct objects, thus allow oblique arguments of a verb to used as relative clause heads.
The relative clause is marked by a nominalizing affix ped-.
- Meiḻicort ḡeeliaṉ pedidixoorin.
- me-eiḻi-cort-0 ḡeeliaṉ ped-i-di-xoor-in
- EVID_SUBJ-heart-embrace-3SG.N city NMLZ-EV.DIR-APP.LOC-live-PRES.1SG
- The city that I live in is cozy. (lit. The city that I inhabit embraces the heart.)
Complement clauses
Reason clauses
Purpose clauses
Sample texts
"I don't want to move on from/grow out of simple pleasures."
Tower of Babel
Snake Lemma
- Professor Kate Gunzinger proves the Snake Lemma in the film It's My Turn (1980). I'll omit the proof, which is less linguistically interesting. [Most Roshterians prefer to use Eevo terms when discussing higher mathematics anyway.]
- Haxupimyṯrut yṟonypinoofer binróþ s, beṉṯylaḡilcoma peeṯypryṉifiaqolip, ḻe?
- haxu-pi-myṯru-t yṟ-ony-pi-noo-fer binróþ s ben-ṯy-laḡ-ilcom-a pee-ṯypr-yṉif-iaqoli-ip ḻe
- way-4-build-CONST DISC_SOFTEN-CAUS.1SG-4-see-2PL.SUBJ.PERF mathematical_function s, DISC_"should be obvious"-PASS-APPL_TELIC-sow-3SG.N NOMZ-PASS-examine-show-at_first-4 TAG
- Let me just show you how to *construct* the map s, which is the fun of the lemma anyhow, okay?