Kämpya: Difference between revisions

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Kämpya (view source)

Revision as of 08:33, 21 November 2013

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(Added morphology section)
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Kämpya has topic comment syntax with isolating morphology. It belongs to category 4 in Milewski's typology [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milewski's_typology] i.e. it uses the same marker (the clitic -i) to mark both possessors and ergative subjects. Possessors are marked for alienability [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alienable_possession] using tone, and come before the nouns they modify. Kämpya (at least in the standard dialect) uses postpositions rather than prepositions, and adjectives can come either before or after the nouns they modify if they are restrictive or non-restrictive respectively [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restrictiveness].
Kämpya has topic comment syntax with isolating morphology. It belongs to category 4 in Milewski's typology [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milewski's_typology] i.e. it uses the same marker (the clitic -i) to mark both possessors and ergative subjects. Possessors are marked for alienability [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alienable_possession] using tone, and come before the nouns they modify. Kämpya (at least in the standard dialect) uses postpositions rather than prepositions, and adjectives can come either before or after the nouns they modify if they are restrictive or non-restrictive respectively [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restrictiveness].


In terms of phonology, the most notable thing is a 3-way phonation contrast on stressed syllables (which is not present on unstressed syllables). Kämpya distinguishes words with harsh voice (marked with a tilde e.g. /a̰/), from breathy voice (marked with a pair of dots either above or below the vowel e.g. /a̤/ or /ä/), from glottalisation (marked with a glottal stop after the vowel e.g. /aʔ/.
In terms of phonology, the most notable thing is a 3-way vowel phonation contrast on stressed syllables (which is not present on unstressed syllables). Kämpya distinguishes words with harsh voice (marked with a tilde e.g. /a̰/), from breathy voice (marked with a pair of dots either above or below the vowel e.g. /a̤/ or /ä/), from glottalisation (marked with a glottal stop after the vowel e.g. /aʔ/.


There are many minimal pairs of words that only contrast stress and phonation e.g. /síˈtâ̰/ - "wing" vs. /ˈsíʔtà/ - "guardian" vs. /ˈsì̤tà/ - "sister", or /áˈlôṵn/ - "that which is alone" vs. /áˈlòṳn/ - "everything / everyone".
There are many minimal pairs of words that only contrast stress and phonation e.g. /síˈtâ̰/ - "wing" vs. /ˈsíʔtà/ - "guardian" vs. /ˈsì̤tà/ - "sister", or /áˈlôṵn/ - "that which is alone" vs. /áˈlòṳn/ - "everything / everyone".
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===Copula===
===Copula===


====With Pronouns====
Kämpya has no verb meaning "to be" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero_copula]. Instead, the two words are simply placed side by side in the sentence. If a pronoun is used, then tense can be marked on the pronoun e.g.
 
Kämpya only has a verb meaning "to be" if the subject is a pronoun. It is marked for 4 TAM categories (and is the only verb in the language to do so). It could thus be said that Kämpya has "tensed pronouns" (like Hausa). The 4 tenses are: Present Progressive (used for actions that are happening right now), Past Imperfect (also used for present habitual actions, or that are true in general), Perfect, and Future.
 
This verb is not marked for number, but takes different forms for 1st person subjects depending on whether the listener is included [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clusivity]. Another way of looking at this is that Kämpya makes no distinction between "us not including you" and "me".  
 
 
Here are some example sentences:




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'''You''' are the enemy (right now).
'''You''' are the enemy (right now).


====Other Cases====
If there is no pronoun in the sentence, then tense is not marked e.g.
 
In other cases where English would use the word "to be", Kämpya does not use a copula [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero_copula] and simply places the two words together e.g.


/ˈsíʔtà ˈḛ̂nèmì/
/ˈsíʔtà ˈḛ̂nèmì/
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