Kišta
Posted: 22 Jun 2015 21:48
OK, let's start a new conlang thread. I've been sprinkling notes on my longest running conlanging project Kišta around for a while now, so maybe it's time to give it a proper address on the board. I also wrote yesterday a bit about the interplay between the information structure and word order in the language and was immediately a bit unhappy on some solutions in the core case marking. This is also a good excuse to start writing this thread now.
Basic phonology
I guess the first thing people want to read is a short description of the phonology and the transcription I'll be using. The main dialect of Kišta that I'll be developing has the following phonemes:
/p t tɕ k/ - p t č k
/s ɕ/ - s š
/m n ɲ ŋ/ - m n ń ŋ
/l r/ - l r
/ʋ ð̞ j ɦ/ - v đ j h
/a e i o u ø y/ - a e i o u ö ü
All of the vowels can appear as long or short and all V+/i/ diphthongs are allowed. These will all be written as vowel sequences. The only deviation to the above transcription is that /ʋ ð̞ ɦ/ have the allophones [ b d g] which I'll always write as b d g.
The general syllable structure is (C)V(C) where V includes the long vowels and diphthongs. Geminate consonants and a moderate set of two consonant clusters are common between two vowels.
The phonology shamelessly borrows influences from the northern Eurasian area so you'll have a vowel harmony and a stress driven consonant gradation system. The vowel harmony progresses from left to right and recognises three morphonemes: |A E O|. The morphonemes |A O| denote the pairs /a e/ and /o ø/ and alternate between the back and front variants based on whether the word has back or front vowels preceding them. The third morphoneme |E| includes labial harmony and surfaces as /o/ or /ø/ if the preceding vowel is a round one and otherwise as /a/ or /e/. /i/ is neutral to the vowel harmony and on its own triggers the back variants of the harmony pairs if the word stem contains no /ɲ j/ but front variants if these consonants are present. In addition the vowel /e/ can also occur as an invariable vowel in words that otherwise have back vowels. The vowels /u y/ can only appear on the initial syllable except for the most recent unnaturalised loans and maybe the most recent innovative clitics.
The stress and gradation patterns will need a post of their own and I'll say now just that the primary stress always falls on the initial syllable of words.
Core case marking
The grammar bit for this post concerns the case marking of the core participants and is a slight refinement from what I wrote yesterday. The three core cases that are involved in the marking of the subject, object, and the recipient are nominative, accusative and focus. Their assignment revolves around the information structure and the animacy hierarchy within the sentences. Two important concepts here are the topic (what's the established thing the sentence is talking about) and focus (what's the new information the sentence contains about the topic). Especially important for the case assignment is to recognise what's the most focal, i.e. the most newsworthy, element in the sentence. Carrying across what's the topic and what the focus is difficult in isolated sentences so I'll be resorting quite a bit to translating things into passive and assuming that the topic is definite.
In intransitive sentences the subject can be in two cases (not counting cases of quirky subject), either the nominative or the focus case. The more typical case is nominative marking which happens when something else than the subject is the most focal element in the sentence. If no other nominal element is specified in any explicit way as a focus and the sentence doesn't use negative conjugation, the verb has to be marked for action focus by using another special conjugation,
Purto siilla-i niitti-še.
man house-LAT come-ACT.FOC+PRF+SG3
"The man came to a house." (S topic)
If the subject is in focus, it's inflected for the focus case,
Siilla-i purđo-n niiđi.
house-LAT man-FOC come.PRF+SG3
"To the house there came a man." (S focus)
Transitive sentences have more variation since also the accusative comes to play there. Probably the most typical case for a transitive sentence is that the subject is the topic and the object the most focal element. In this case the subject is in the nominative and the object in the focus case,
(Kuu) poiđo-n čevö-ss-i.
(SG1) door-FOC open-PRF-SG1
"I opened the door." (S topic, O focus)
(Kuu) purđo-n vila-ss-i.
(SG1) man-FOC see-PRG-SG1
"I saw the man." (S topic, O focus)
If anything else is more focal than the object, can the object be either in the nominative of the accusative. The choice between the two cases comes from the animacy hierarchy between the subject and the object. Objects that are equally or more animate than the subject are in the accusative while objects that are less animate than the subject are nearly always in the nominative, though the accusative is still to some extent available for them. The animacy hierarchy is: humans > animals > others. On the other hand, the transitive subject is always in the nominative even if it's the most focal element in the sentence. In other words the focus case follows an ergative pattern,
Poitto kuu čevö-ss-i
door SG1 open-PRF-SG1
"The door was opened by me." (S focus, O topic)
Purđo-š kuu vila-ss-i.
man-ACC SG1 see-PRG-SG1
"The man was seen by me." (S focus, O topic)
Ditransitive sentences follow the pattern of the monotransitive ones except that highly focal human recipients are marked with the focus case. Less focal human resipients receive the lative case which is also the standard case for recipients,
Purto ku-je rambo-n kaaja.
man SG1-LAT bag-FOC give.PRF+SG3
"The man gave me a bag." (O focus)
Purto rampo kuu-n kaaja.
man bag SG1-FOC give.PRF+SG3
"The man gave a bag to me." (Recipient focus)
I'm open for questions and suggestions of what to describe next, though for many things I'll have to work quite a bit with the diachronics before I can arrive to an acceptable design.
Basic phonology
I guess the first thing people want to read is a short description of the phonology and the transcription I'll be using. The main dialect of Kišta that I'll be developing has the following phonemes:
/p t tɕ k/ - p t č k
/s ɕ/ - s š
/m n ɲ ŋ/ - m n ń ŋ
/l r/ - l r
/ʋ ð̞ j ɦ/ - v đ j h
/a e i o u ø y/ - a e i o u ö ü
All of the vowels can appear as long or short and all V+/i/ diphthongs are allowed. These will all be written as vowel sequences. The only deviation to the above transcription is that /ʋ ð̞ ɦ/ have the allophones [ b d g] which I'll always write as b d g.
The general syllable structure is (C)V(C) where V includes the long vowels and diphthongs. Geminate consonants and a moderate set of two consonant clusters are common between two vowels.
The phonology shamelessly borrows influences from the northern Eurasian area so you'll have a vowel harmony and a stress driven consonant gradation system. The vowel harmony progresses from left to right and recognises three morphonemes: |A E O|. The morphonemes |A O| denote the pairs /a e/ and /o ø/ and alternate between the back and front variants based on whether the word has back or front vowels preceding them. The third morphoneme |E| includes labial harmony and surfaces as /o/ or /ø/ if the preceding vowel is a round one and otherwise as /a/ or /e/. /i/ is neutral to the vowel harmony and on its own triggers the back variants of the harmony pairs if the word stem contains no /ɲ j/ but front variants if these consonants are present. In addition the vowel /e/ can also occur as an invariable vowel in words that otherwise have back vowels. The vowels /u y/ can only appear on the initial syllable except for the most recent unnaturalised loans and maybe the most recent innovative clitics.
The stress and gradation patterns will need a post of their own and I'll say now just that the primary stress always falls on the initial syllable of words.
Core case marking
The grammar bit for this post concerns the case marking of the core participants and is a slight refinement from what I wrote yesterday. The three core cases that are involved in the marking of the subject, object, and the recipient are nominative, accusative and focus. Their assignment revolves around the information structure and the animacy hierarchy within the sentences. Two important concepts here are the topic (what's the established thing the sentence is talking about) and focus (what's the new information the sentence contains about the topic). Especially important for the case assignment is to recognise what's the most focal, i.e. the most newsworthy, element in the sentence. Carrying across what's the topic and what the focus is difficult in isolated sentences so I'll be resorting quite a bit to translating things into passive and assuming that the topic is definite.
In intransitive sentences the subject can be in two cases (not counting cases of quirky subject), either the nominative or the focus case. The more typical case is nominative marking which happens when something else than the subject is the most focal element in the sentence. If no other nominal element is specified in any explicit way as a focus and the sentence doesn't use negative conjugation, the verb has to be marked for action focus by using another special conjugation,
Purto siilla-i niitti-še.
man house-LAT come-ACT.FOC+PRF+SG3
"The man came to a house." (S topic)
If the subject is in focus, it's inflected for the focus case,
Siilla-i purđo-n niiđi.
house-LAT man-FOC come.PRF+SG3
"To the house there came a man." (S focus)
Transitive sentences have more variation since also the accusative comes to play there. Probably the most typical case for a transitive sentence is that the subject is the topic and the object the most focal element. In this case the subject is in the nominative and the object in the focus case,
(Kuu) poiđo-n čevö-ss-i.
(SG1) door-FOC open-PRF-SG1
"I opened the door." (S topic, O focus)
(Kuu) purđo-n vila-ss-i.
(SG1) man-FOC see-PRG-SG1
"I saw the man." (S topic, O focus)
If anything else is more focal than the object, can the object be either in the nominative of the accusative. The choice between the two cases comes from the animacy hierarchy between the subject and the object. Objects that are equally or more animate than the subject are in the accusative while objects that are less animate than the subject are nearly always in the nominative, though the accusative is still to some extent available for them. The animacy hierarchy is: humans > animals > others. On the other hand, the transitive subject is always in the nominative even if it's the most focal element in the sentence. In other words the focus case follows an ergative pattern,
Poitto kuu čevö-ss-i
door SG1 open-PRF-SG1
"The door was opened by me." (S focus, O topic)
Purđo-š kuu vila-ss-i.
man-ACC SG1 see-PRG-SG1
"The man was seen by me." (S focus, O topic)
Ditransitive sentences follow the pattern of the monotransitive ones except that highly focal human recipients are marked with the focus case. Less focal human resipients receive the lative case which is also the standard case for recipients,
Purto ku-je rambo-n kaaja.
man SG1-LAT bag-FOC give.PRF+SG3
"The man gave me a bag." (O focus)
Purto rampo kuu-n kaaja.
man bag SG1-FOC give.PRF+SG3
"The man gave a bag to me." (Recipient focus)
I'm open for questions and suggestions of what to describe next, though for many things I'll have to work quite a bit with the diachronics before I can arrive to an acceptable design.