Sekhulla

Sekhulla
səkʰulːa
Created by	Dillon Hartwig
Date	2020
Setting	Pollasena
Era	-2400 to -1500 MT
Language family	Wasc Sekhulla
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Sekhulla /səˈkulə/ (Sekhulla: [səkʰulːa]) is a Wasc language spoken in far western Septentria and Pulsuria and in the far eastern Knrawi Isles, and the common ancestor of the Sekhulla languages.

Etymology

Sekhulla is from the autonym səkʰulːa, from Wascotl *(cek)-cek-sole-la "our tongue".

Phonology

Consonants

Consonants

	Labial			Alveolar			palatal			Velar		Labialized velar		Glottal
Nasal	m			n						ŋ			ŋʷ
Stop	p	pʰ	b	t	tʰ	d	k	kʰ	kʷ	kʷʰ
Fricative		fʰ	v	s ɬ	sʰ ɬʰ	z ɮ	ʃ	ʃʰ	ʒ	ɣ		ɣʷ		h
Approximant				r l			j			w

• All voiced consonants can be geminated

Vowels

Vowels

	Front		Central		Back
High	i	iː	ɨ	ɨː	u	uː
Mid			ə	əː
Low			a	aː

• /u(ː)/ is in free variation with [o(ː)]

Stress

Stress is penultimate.

Phonotactics

Syllables are at most (C)V(C).

Morphology

Alignment

Sekhulla has fluid active–stative morphosyntactic alignment.

Nouns and pronouns

Nouns are marked for class, number, case, and possession by particles before the noun as follows.

Noun particles

	acc/erg	poss	loc
1	a	ən	aə
2		nəh	aəːh
cl1		ŋːan	aəɣan
cl2		ənə(ɣʷ)	aəː
cl3	ala	nil	aəla
cl4	aɬ	nuɬ	aəɬ
cl5	aːdi	niad	aəad

Plural nouns are marked either by suppletion or a preceding particle əzːə.

Pronouns

Pronouns do not exist independently (except see Possession); the person and class of dropped nouns are instead only shown through verb agreement.

Verbs

Agreement

Verbs agree with the person and class of their agent and patient as follows.

Verb agreement prefixes

	>1	>2	>cl1	>cl2	>cl3/cl4	>cl5
1	sək-	səkʷ-	səkju-	səp-	sətna-	su-
2	kʷər-	kʷəzə-	kʷərju-	kʷəp-	kʷəriɬ-	kʷu-
cl1	jːuːsə-	jːuːɣʷə-	ajːu-	jːuːp-	jːuːwin-	jːuːuː-
cl2	parə-	paɣʷ-	pazajːu-	pah-	parin-	pu-
cl3	ina-	naɣʷ-	iɬjːuː-	nalː-	inɮə-	nu-
cl4	ansə-	ŋʷːə-	ŋːajːu-	ŋːip-	aŋːi-	u-
cl5	us-	uɣʷ-	uwajːu-	ba-	uwiɬ-

• Intransitive verbs are marked with patient agreement of the agent's class, and impersonal verbs are unmarked.
  • In western Sekhulla, pah- may be omitted; in eastern Sekhulla, u- may be omitted with class-5 patients.

Copula

The copula pazən inflects as follows.

Copulae

	>1	>2	>cl1	>cl2	>cl3/cl4	>cl5
1	səɣən	səɣʷəːn	səɣajːuːən	səpaən	sətnaɮən	suən
2	kʷərən	kʷəzən	kʷərajːuːən	kʷəbaən	kʷəriɮən	kʷuən
cl1	jːuːsəɣən	jːuːɣʷəzən	ajːuːən	jːuːbaən	jːuːwinən	jːuːuːən
cl2	parəɣən	paɣʷəːn	pazajːuːən	pazən	parinən	puən
cl3	nasən	naɣʷəːn	naɮjːuːən	naplaən	naɮən	nuən
cl4	ansəɣən	ŋʷːəːn	ŋːajːuːən	ŋːibaən	ŋːiən	uən
cl5	səːn	ɣʷəːn	wajːuːən	baən	winaɮən

Numerals

Sekhulla uses base-12 numerals which agree in class with their head noun.

Classless Numerals 1 2 3 4 5 6 haːl əh ta am kʷi kuː 7 8 9 10 11 12 zaːl əːh əda əam ɣʷi ɬi 13 24 144 1,728 20,736 248,832 ɬi haːl əh ɬi sʰi ɬiɣan sʰiɣan ɬi sʰiɣan

Class-1 Numerals 1 2 3 4 5 6 haːlkan əkʰan taɣan aŋʷːan kʷiɣan kuːɣan 7 8 9 10 11 12 zaːlkan əːkʰan ədaɣan əaŋʷːan əɣʷiɣan ɬiɣan 13 24 144 1,728 20,736 248,832 ɬi haːlkan əh ɬiɣan sʰiɣan ɬiɣaŋːan sʰiɣaŋːan ɬi sʰiɣaŋːan

Class-2 Numerals 1 2 3 4 5 6 haːlə əzə taə amə kʷiə kuːə 7 8 9 10 11 12 zaːlə əːzə ədaə əamə əɣʷiə ɬiə 13 24 144 1,728 20,736 248,832 ɬi haːlə əh ɬiə sʰiə ɬiɣanə sʰiɣanə ɬi sʰiɣanə

Class-3 Numerals 1 2 3 4 5 6 haːlːa əlːa tala amla kʷila kuːla 7 8 9 10 11 12 zaːlːa əːlːa ədala əamla əɣʷila ɬila 13 24 144 1,728 20,736 248,832 ɬi haːlːa əh ɬila sʰila ɬiɣanla sʰiɣanla ɬi sʰiɣanla

Class-4 Numerals 1 2 3 4 5 6 haːlː əɬʰ taɬ amɬə kʷiɬ kuːɬ 7 8 9 10 11 12 zaːlː əːɬʰ ədaɬ əamɬə əɣʷiɬ ɬiɬ 13 24 144 1,728 20,736 248,832 ɬi haːlː əh ɬiə sʰiɬ ɬiɣanɬə sʰiɣanɬə ɬi sʰiɣanɬə

Class-5 Numerals 1 2 3 4 5 6 haːladi əzadi taːdi amadi kʷiadi kuːadi 7 8 9 10 11 12 zaːladi əːzadi ədaːdi əamadi əɣʷiadi ɬiadi 13 24 144 1,728 20,736 248,832 ɬi haːladi əh ɬiadi sʰiadi ɬiɣanadi sʰiɣanadi ɬi sʰiɣanadi

In East Sekhulla, ɬiɣan "1,728" and sʰiɣan "20,736" (as opposed to class-1 ɬiɣan "12" and sʰiɣan "144") may be replaced by indeclinable saːaːt and saːsaː respectively.

Classless numerals are used when modifying a non-noun, including when non-final in multiword numerals, when numerating an agreement-marked first- or second-person argument, and when numerating a possessive particle. Classless numerals are also variably used in counting regardless of the thing counted, and classed numerals are used when themselves functioning as nouns.

Nouns are not marked for number when using numerals.

Questions

Questions are marked by dipping intonation.

Derivational morphology

aʃ

The causative enclitic aʃ can be used productively on any verb, as well as being used nonproductively on some verbs deriving verbs of new meanings.

-suʃ

-suʃ can be used productively to derive adjectives.

Syntax

Constituent order

SVO order is most common, but word order is flexible and VSO is also common in western Sekhulla.

Noun and verb phrases

All modifiers follow their head noun or verb, except aspect-mood particles precede verbs. Generally numerators follow adjectives and possessors follow all other modifiers, but otherwise modifier order is flexible.

Dependent clauses

Dependent clauses follow the head they modify after all other dependents, and are usually marked with a relative particle aːaːə.

Example texts

Linguifex-hosted translations

• Translated works in Sekhulla
• Sekhulla/Test Case Sentences
• Sekhulla/Corpus

Conlang Atlas of Language Structures-hosted translations

• CALS translations

Other resources

• CALS
• Sekhulla/Swadesh