User:Juhhmi/Ljopva

Ljopva or Ḷoṗa /ɭɔⱱɐ/ is an a priori language spoken in the fantasy world Akekata. The speakers of Ljopva reside on the Twin Islands, which have been blamed by central spellcasters and major religions for allowing the practice of "evil" forms of sorcery. The language can be described as isolative-fusional, head-final, topic-prominent, split-S and having a free word order with AOV being the most frequent.

Phonology

Consonants

	Bilabial	Labio-dental	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		ɱ		ɳ	ɲ	ŋ
Plosive		p̪		ʈ	c	k	ʔ
Fricative		f		ʂ	ç ʑ	x	h
Approximant					j
Trill	ʙ
Flap or tap		ⱱ		ɽ
Lateral fricative			ɬ
Lateral approximant			l	ɭ

Co-articulated consonants: k͡p

Vowels

Monophthongs

	Front	Central	Back
Close		ɨ
Close-mid		ɵ	ɤ
Mid	e
Open-mid	ɛ		ɔ
Open	a

Sound changes

lordlang>godlang>old spellang>spellang; old spellang loans into old ljopva>ljopva

• ku>kʷ>
  kʷe>k͡ve>k͡ⱱɛ>k͡ⱱa>ⱱa
  kʷ/V_∅>w
• ka>xa
• gu>gʷ>k͡p
• g/V_V>k; g/V_∅>ɰ>x
• b>β>w
• p/∅_V>pʋ>p̪; p/V_V>pʋ>ⱱ
• pr>ʙ
• m>ɱ
• n/_V[rounded]>ɳ
• n/_V[front]>ɲ
• n/_k>ŋ
• ŋkʷ>ŋw>ŋ͡ʋ>ŋ͡ɱ>ɱ
• s/V_∅>ç>h>:
  s/_V[front vowel]>ɕ; s/_V[back vowel]>ʂ
• sʷ>sʋ>sf>
  >f
  sf/i_∅>s͡f (whistle)
• l/_V[rounded]>ɭ
• lʷ>ɭ
• ls>lɬ>ɬ
• li/V_>lj>j
• t/V_V>ɾ
  ɾ/_V[back]>ɽ; ɾ/_V[front]>ʔ
• t/_V[rounded]>ʈ
• ti>tʲi>ci
• ki>ci
• ci/[unstressed]>çi>ɕi
  ɕi/V_∅>ɕ; ɕi/V_C>ʝ>j; ɕi/V_V>ʑ
• ɛ>a
• e>ɛ; ɛ/C[labio-dental]_>a
• ʌ>ɔ
• i>ɨ
• ɯ>u>ɵ
• u>o>ɤ

Phonotactics

Syllables require an onset, which can't be a flap or tap,

Suprasegmentals

Tone

Only in eastern dialects: e.g. ti /cí/ vs. ki /cì/

Orthography

Native script

Written from right to left in zigzag rows consisting of hexagons. Logographic symbols, loaned from Spellang, form the nucleus of writing: the symbols are surrounded by a six-place template for morphemic symbols tied with the core to form expressions and clauses.

Morphophonology

processes when combining

Morphology

Noun

Class

expressed by the first consonant

• concept (laterals)
• coreful, animate (fricatives)
• coreless, inanimate (plosives)

coreful inanimates loan words from spellang

Particles

• agentive for agents of transitive verbs and volitional subjects of intransitive verbs
• possessive

Verb

Mood

potentials: physical vs. magical

evidentials: visual, sensory, hearsay, foretelling (--> destiny?)

relative form: "brown is-(relative), cat-(topic) there sits" (The cat, which is brown, sits there.)

contrastive form: "good with-drawing I-am, bad with-sports I-am-(contrastive)" (I'm good at drawing but bad at sports.) vs. "good with-drawing I-am-(contrastive), bad pens I-have" (I'm good at drawing even though I have bad pens.")

Topic

Referring

once a topic has been presented, it is the one being referred to and the topic of relative clauses

Syntax

Word order

• PV or AV in intransitive
• APV in transitive
• AP₁VP₂ or AP₁P₂V in ditransitive (where P₁ is the theme and P₂ is the recipient)