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Eyalian: Difference between revisions
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===Prosody=== | ===Prosody=== | ||
Stress (''oaveulo'') can be placed on either the first (initial) or the second syllable. Eyalian had a pitch accent in the past, called ''almoara'' ("the pleasing one") or ''eulo almoan'', and many mountainous dialects still possess this feature. Usually elision of a plosive lead to the rising accent, while the absence of elision resulted in the falling accent, for example ''*qena'' "language" resulted in éna [ɛ̌.nɑ]. Falling pitch was default and thus conditional, but could sometimes become "independent" (''o'hiehtanne'') or "marked" under certain phonological processes: ''alòama'' "woman" > ''jàloama'' "this woman" (in the latter word the accent falls on the short syllable instead of the expected long one, like in the former word), or ''jùmui'' ("completely" from ''ix qomu in'' "in one piece") instead of expected ''**júmui''. Later both pitches coincided, but the rising accent shifted the stress to the next syllable, hence modern [ɛ.ˈnɑ]. There is no regular way to predict the position of stress and it needs to be memorised. Most of the words have one accented syllable, with the exception of compond words. | Stress (''oaveulo'') can be placed on either the first (initial) or the second syllable. Eyalian had a pitch accent in the past, called ''almoara'' ("the pleasing one") or ''eulo almoan'', and many mountainous dialects still possess this feature. Usually elision of a plosive lead to the rising accent, while the absence of elision resulted in the falling accent, for example ''*qena'' "language" resulted in éna [ɛ̌.nɑ]. Falling pitch was default and thus conditional, but could sometimes become "independent" (''o'hiehtanne'') or "marked" under certain phonological processes: ''alòama'' "woman" > ''jàloama'' "this woman" (in the latter word the accent falls on the short syllable instead of the expected long one, like in the former word), or ''jùmui'' ("completely" from ''ix qomu in'' "in one piece") instead of expected ''**júmui''. Later both pitches coincided, but the rising accent shifted the stress to the next syllable, hence modern [ɛ.ˈnɑ]. There is no regular way to predict the position of stress and it needs to be memorised. Most of the words have one accented syllable, with the exception of compond words. | ||
===Consonant changes=== | |||
Changes in initial consonants occur in words according to their morphological environment. From a synchronic perspective certain prefixes or particles can trigger various consonant changes. Diachronically, however, this was caused by word-initial elision or lenition of many consonants. Similar changes happened word-medially, but the alternations were either levelled or spread on other word forms without them. There are two different yet related processes: fortition (or turning a non-plosive consonant into plosive) and prothesis (addition of an initial consonant in words that begin with a vowel). Here, as an example, a [[w:Topic and comment|topic]] marker ''ah/al'' is used to demonstrate, how these changes operate: | |||
{| class="wikitable" style="margin:1em auto;" | |||
! | |||
! one !! void !! abroad !! here !! breath !! heart !! end | |||
|- | |||
! Independent | |||
| ''je'' || ''ona'' || ''anna'' || ''*jer'' || ''fȯlna'' || ''zecca'' || ''luhte'' | |||
|- | |||
! Conjunct | |||
| ''a-'''l''''je'' || ''a-'''t''''ona'' || ''a-'''h''''anna'' || ''a-'''n''''jer'' || ''a-'''p''''ȯlna'' || ''a-'''t''''ecca'' || ''a-'''t''''uhte | |||
|- | |||
! Process | |||
| colspan=4| prothesis || colspan=3| fortition | |||
|- | |||
|} | |||
*The independent form of the word ''a-njer'' "here" is not used in the standard, but can be found in dialects. | |||
Dialects show a great variation of such changes, especially prothesis, even in words that do not change in the standard, for example: ''on m'earin'', ''a-v'epa'' (standard: ''on fearin'' "I feel", ''a-h'epa'' "the lake"), these prothetic consonants can sometimes spread onto the independent form: ''tona, zona'' "space", which is a back-formation of ''ona'', ''vyp'' ("lake" in the Ohtan dialect- a back-formation of ''ei-v'yp'' "near the river", standard: ''ape'' "river"). | |||
==Morphology== | ==Morphology== | ||
Eyalian is a mildly fusional language with a moderate degree of inflection, with three numbers for both nouns and verbs; and a rich derivational morphology, meaning there can be a large number of words derived from the same root. This section will be primarily focused on the Tarnan variety. | Eyalian is a mildly fusional language with a moderate degree of inflection, with three numbers for both nouns and verbs; and a rich derivational morphology, meaning there can be a large number of words derived from the same root. This section will be primarily focused on the Tarnan variety. | ||