New CBB

I've finally decided to make a thread for Wa‘tē. The language is far from finished, and it may develop as this thread proceeds. There are some scattered pieces of information about the language on this board, as well as a fair amount if TC's.

Some time ago I made a post in the random phonology-thread. I'll repost it here:


Any changes since then?
I usually write the mid vowels as [e̞] and [o̞].
I also usually don't indicate the voicing of lenis plosives. That means, the primary distinction will be one of length/gemination. Voicing may be a dialectal feature.
I substituted /r̪/ for /h/. [h] may be a realisation of /r̪/ in certain dialects.
I'm not really sure about the realisation of /ɰ/. Possibly it will be something like [β̞ˠ] or [β̞͡ɰ] in some dialects. I'll keep on transcribing it /ɰ/ though.

Here is the phonology, in IPA and X-sampa






As before, all vowels may be long, and all consonants, except /ʔ r̪ j ɰ/ /? r_D j M\/ may be geminate

Standard orthography:

p - p
t̪ - t
k - k
pː - ʻp
ʔ - x
t̪ː - ʻt
kː - ʻk
m - m
n̪ - n
ŋ - g
mː - ʻm
n̪ː - ʻn
ŋː - ʻg
l̪ - l
l̪ː - ʻl
r̪ - r
j - y
ɰ - w

a - a
aː - ā
e - e
eː - ē
i - i
iː - ī
o - o
oː - ō
ɯ - u
ɯː - ū

See also the rule above about word-final <u>.

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constructedlanguages.net

I also decided to include a new grapheme: <pw>. Historically, this used to be a velarised labial - /pˠ/.

In the contemporary language, it may have several different pronunciations:

/p/ pwapoko - /pa'poko/ 'create'
/k/ pwepui - /ke'pɯi/ 'extravagance'
/ɰ/ - pwiru - /ɰiː/ 'covering', 'veil' (archaic)

It may also be silent - pwēkāi - /eː'kaːi/ 'coconut', 'child' (archaic, formal)


There is also the nasal counterpart, <mw>, with a similar origin and behaviour. I have yet to come up with some words with <mw>.

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constructedlanguages.net

Lapsus, isn't it?

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(native)
(learning)

--
Języki sztuczne i lingwistyka, po polsku.

Is gemination contrastive in all environments? If not, where is it neutralized?

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♀♥Ø

For most of the hypothetical speakers it's neutralised word-finally.

For some of the hypothetical speakers it's also neutralised word-initially.

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constructedlanguages.net

Interesting: How does this neutralization affect affixing and/or cliticization, if at all?

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♀♥Ø

There is barely any inflection in the Wa'tē. There are some derivational prefixes, as well as compounding.

If there is a derivational prefix, and the root starts with a geminate consonant, gemination will be clearly pronounced. Initial gemination is always marked in the orthography, and it is part of the "standard" or prescriptive versions of spoken language.

Non-standard varieties of the language may drop pronunciation of world-initial geminates, and this may be reflected also in the pronunciation of derived words.

The only situation where a geminate (or indeed, any consonant) can appear word-finally, is before a silent, word-final <u>. There are no derivational or inflectional suffixes; the only thing that may be added right after a root is another root, when forming compounds. The general rule is that the final <u> would then be pronounced, since it's not longer word-final.

(I have to look for some examples in my word-list...)

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constructedlanguages.net

Well shit. If you can make this thread, maybe I'll make one for Kron.

But from what I've seen, Wa'tē is way more interesting.

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Banami bhjaddhos rafi mau cy vyaja cecerror.
Fools do not see the sun nor sail the seas
-Azenti Proverb

Some very elementary syntax.

Ko rēku ā ta xega ta tuki nā ne eno ī ta lere. - ʻThe woman stabbed the dog with a knife in the garden.ʻ
PRFT stab ERG DEF woman DEF dog INSTR INDEF knife LOC DEF garden

A sentence usually begins with a verb, preceded by a TAM-marker. The various arguments and complements then follow the verb, in a somewhat flexible order.

If been thinking about whether I should allow arguments to precede the verb in some situations. I'm not sure about this. At times, I've been thinking about having a quite free order between the arguments. Now I think will only allow arguments before the verb in highly marked circumstances. I'm not sure about the details yet.

Probably, any constituent of a sentence that appears before the verb must be dislocated. As in the English sentence "That dog, the woman stabbed it."

Ko taima tuki, ko rēku ā ta xega (xī).
PRFT DEM dog PRFT stab ERG DEF 3.SG
Ko taima tuki rēku ā ta xega (xī).
PRFT DEM dog stab ERG DEF 3.SG
Taima tuki, ko rēku ā ta xega (xī).
DEM dog PRFT stab ERG DEF 3.SG


I'm not sure about which one(s) of the above I will allow for, nor about the 'tree structure' beneath the sentences. I have to think more about this, as I have to do with all kinds of more complex sentences.

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constructedlanguages.net

I was reading to this week's podcast about demonstratives. Here is how Wa‘tē handles it.

Wa'tē has no distance contrasts in demonstratives. The same affix, -ima, can mean both 'this' and 'that' (or 'these' and ʻthose').

It can be attached either to the noun, or the article.

taima tuki - 'this/that dog'
ta tukīma - 'this/that dog'

tukīma - 'these/those dogs'

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constructedlanguages.net

I like a lack of distance contrast in demonstratives.

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"Wait for the starvation of glaciers, chicken hamburger Noel Weber Arthur."

= | = | =

If one needs to indicate a distance contrast, one can indicate use the words gī (here) and gā (there).

Taima tuki gī - 'this dog here'
Taima tuki gā - 'that dog there'

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constructedlanguages.net

How Does Wa‘tē handle instrumentals?
What sorts of aspects does Wa‘tē have?

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"Wait for the starvation of glaciers, chicken hamburger Noel Weber Arthur."

= | = | =

Concerning instrumentals, there are a few prepositions that may be used, for example nā. Possibly also mē, and eventually some more. I'll make a post in prepositions some day...

Concerning mood, tense and aspect, these are handled by particles preceding the verb. These are:

xe - present tense
ko - past, prefective
me - past, imperfective
ma - future
kei - condictional/subjunctive
xē - optative
xā - imperative

(More on their use in some coming post...)


Btw here is a phrase from the lang:

kē pwē keru? /keː keː keː/ 'for which heart?ʻ
PURP which heart

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constructedlanguages.net

Thinking more about movement processes, I am planning to have a particle, 'tei', that is in some ways similar to 'ko' or '‘o' in Polyneesian languages.

It must be used when a NP is placed before the verb:

To say 'A man helped me', one might say:

Ko tei ‘taka katu mai. - 'it was a man who helped me'
PRFT ?? DEF.man help 1.SF

Instead of:

Ko katu ā 'taka mai. - 'a man helped me'
PRFT help ERG DEF.man 1.SG

Tei is also used in WH-movement:

Ko tei pwē katu mai? - 'Who helped me?', (more literally 'It was who that helped me?')
PRFT ?? who help 1.SG

Ko tei pwē katu ā mai - 'Whom did I help?'
PRFT ?? who help ERG 1.SG

And in negative expressions:

Ko tei kū katu mai - 'No one helped me' ('It was no one that helped me')
PRFT ?? NEG help 1.SG

Similarly:

Ko tei kū katu ā mai - 'I helped no one', 'I didn't help anyone'
PRFT ?? NEG help ERG 1.SG

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constructedlanguages.net

Articles

There is an article ta that is used for specific, singular nouns.

ta wara - 'the cat', 'a cat'
ta gami - 'the girl, 'a girl'

It is used whenever the noun refers to one specific entity in the mind of the speaker.

Ko kipe ā mai ta gami - 'I saw a girl'
PRFT see ERG 1.SG DEF girl
Ko loxe ta wara ī ta kaxa - 'The/a cat is on the mat'
PRFT be.placed DEF cat LOC DEF mat

There is no plural article:

Wara - '(the) cats'
Gami - '(the) girls'

Ko ʻkipe ā mai gami - 'I saw (the) girls'
PRFT PL-see ERG ERG girl
Ko ʻloxe ta wara ī ta kaxa- '(The) cats are on the mat'
PRFT PL-be.placed

If one needs to emphasise plurality, one could use determiners like oʻno ('some', 'a few', 'a group of').

Ko ʻkipe ā mai oʻno gami - 'I saw (some) girls'
PRFT see ERG 1.SG some girl
Ko ʻloxe ta wara ī ta kaxa- '(Some) cats are on the mat'
PRFT PL-be.placed DEF cat LOC DEF mat


Next up: the indefinite/non-specific article

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constructedlanguages.net

From what I can see the phonology looks cool. Did you base it on Japanese phonology? Though would you mind going back in the first post and putting X-Sampa symbols alongside the IPA ones? A couple of the symbols aren't showing up on my computer ...

I think the phonology is mainly inspired by Tuvaluan, and some Micronesian languages.

Here is the phonology, in IPA and X-sampa

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constructedlanguages.net

The non-specific article

There is an non-specific article, ne.

It may be used for:

Nominal predication:

Xe ne wara taima. - 'This is a cat'
PRS INDEF cat DEM
Xe ne mia‘pēa taima taka. - 'That man is an idiot'
PRS INDEF idiot DEM man

Questioning something's existence:

Xe ne wara ō nō?- 'Do you have a cat?'
PRS INDEF cat GEN 2.SG
Xe ne wara ī ta maro - 'Is there a cat in the house?'
PRS IDNEF cat LOC DEF house

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constructedlanguages.net

Thanks. But no fricatives at all, not even /s/. Are you sure it hasn't been inspired by Australian Aboriginal languages?