The Kazumbe Language

A forum for all topics related to constructed languages
Post Reply
User avatar
LinguoFranco
greek
greek
Posts: 613
Joined: 20 Jul 2016 17:49
Location: U.S.

The Kazumbe Language

Post by LinguoFranco »

I finally have enough to present Kazumbe! It is a language spoken by a an Iron Age people who are also called Kazumbe who rely on fishing and seafaring. It has an agglutinative morphology and a direct-inverse alignment. The default word order is SOV. It's still very much a work in progress, but I think I finally have enough to present what I have so far. I seek feedback and ways to improve the language.
Right now, there aren't really any rules about stress, but I am leaning towards penultimate stress or word final stress. The most complex syllable allowed in Kazumbe is CGVS, or Consonant + Glide + Vowel + Sonorant.

Below are is the consonant chart.
/m n ɲ ŋ/
/p t t͡ ɕ c k/
/ᵐb ⁿd ⁿd͡ʑ ᶮɟ ᵑɡ/
/s ɕ ɬ h/
/z ɮ/
/l ʎ j w/

*/h/ becomes / ç / whenever it is followed by a high vowel like /i/ or /u/.
*I'm thinking about adding another consonant like /ᵐʙ / and might be an allophone of /ᵐb/ whenever it is followed by a high vowel.
*Only /n/ and /l/ can occur in the coda, though I'm debating whether to permit /j/ and /w/, as well.

And here are the vowels:
/i (ɨ) u/
/e o/
/a/

Pretty straightforward. There is no phonemic length contrast. /ɨ/ is in parentheses because I am unsure about whether I actually want to include it as a phoneme. However, I might use a vertical vowel system instead, similar to the one found in Abkhaz, along with similar allophonic rules. Oh, and there is vowel harmony in the form of nasalization. The first vowel to occur next to a nasal (including prenasalized consonants) is nasalized and all succeeding vowels are also nasalized until the end of the word or interrupted by an obstruent.

Now, let's move on to morphology and grammar.
As stated earlier, Kazumbe has a direct-inverse alignment. The direct case is when an noun of higher animacy acts upon a noun of lower animacy, but the inverse case is used when lower animacy noun acts upon the higher animacy noun. (I may not be understanding this correctly, so please clarify it because I'm pretty sure I'm misunderstanding something about this alignment.) The direct voice is '-mo', and the inverse voice is '-ke.'
The direct and inverse voices are affixed to the verbs.
/ᵐbe ᵐbi.zu.ᵑɡo ᵐbe.ja.ᵐba.mo.ɬe/, or "I eat the cow." /ᵐbe/ is the first person singular pronoun, so it comes before /ᵐbi.zu.ᵑɡo/ ('a cow') since it is higher on the animacy scale. We also see this on the verb, as the first person agreement occurs as a prefix /ᵐbe/ on the verb and the suffix /ɬe/ is the third person proximate suffix. The verb /ja.ᵐba/ means "eat", and /mo/ is used because the sentence is in the direct case.

If, for some reason, you wanted to say, "the cow eats me," the sentence then becomes /ᵐbe ᵐbi.zu.ᵑɡo ɬe.ja.ᵐba.ke.ᵐbe/. Notice how /ke/ is used instead of /mo/ since the noun of the lower animacy is the agent or "doer" in the sentence.

Like many languages, Kazumbe nouns are marked for number, such as singular or plural. The plural suffix is -ʎan. /ᵐba.za/ is "dog", while /ᵐba.za.ʎan/ is "dogs."
Unlike many languages, Kazumbe also has a collective number, where the unmarked form of the noun indicates that there are "more than one" items in the unmarked form of the noun, while singulative number indicates that there is specifically only one of that item in the noun. Think of it has singular and plural, but revesed, where the "plural" (in this case, collective) is unmarked, and the singular, or signulative is marked with an affix. This time, the suffix is -ᵑɡo.

/a.çi/ is "fish," but /a.çi.ᵑɡo/ is "(one) fish." /ᵐbi.zu/ is "cattle," and /ᵐbi.zu.ᵑɡo/ is "(one) cow."

Below, I will present a list of words I have in my conlang thus far.

ᵐbe- 1st person
t͡ʃo- 2nd person
ɬe- 3rd person proximate
ha- 3rd person obviative
na- proximal demonstrative
ᵑɡo- distal demonstrative
mo- 'inverse voice'
ke- 'direct voice'
-ʎan 'plural suffix'
-ᵑɡo 'singulative suffix'
ja.ᵐba- eat
ᵐba.sa- make
ki.no- travel
ᶮɟa.mu- see
pa.lo- moon
ⁿd͡ʑa.la- river
ɬo.ko- food
ᵐba.za- dog
ᵐbi.zu- cattle
ke.ᵐbu- drums
na.ko.ⁿd͡ʑo- store, marketplace
ki.zo- sword
ŋa.ta- bow
ⁿd͡ʑi.ma- man
koha- person
e.sa- roads
o.ⁿdo- bird
ⁿda.ɬe- winter
a.çi- fish
sese- lizard
na.zul- gem, jewel
na.kal- summer
na.ʎa- day

This is all I have so far. What do you think?
yangfiretiger121
sinic
sinic
Posts: 337
Joined: 17 Jun 2018 03:04

Re: The Kazumbe Language

Post by yangfiretiger121 »

I realize you only have two affricates, but it's awkward for me to see them grouped with plosives. Otherwise, it looks good.
Alien conlangs (Font may be needed for Vai symbols)
User avatar
LinguoFranco
greek
greek
Posts: 613
Joined: 20 Jul 2016 17:49
Location: U.S.

Re: The Kazumbe Language

Post by LinguoFranco »

yangfiretiger121 wrote: 24 Dec 2019 17:45 I realize you only have two affricates, but it's awkward for me to see them grouped with plosives. Otherwise, it looks good.
I often see them group with plosives in other phoneme charts, so I did, too.
User avatar
DesEsseintes
mongolian
mongolian
Posts: 4331
Joined: 31 Mar 2013 13:16

Re: The Kazumbe Language

Post by DesEsseintes »

LinguoFranco wrote: 24 Dec 2019 17:53
yangfiretiger121 wrote: 24 Dec 2019 17:45 I realize you only have two affricates, but it's awkward for me to see them grouped with plosives. Otherwise, it looks good.
I often see them group with plosives in other phoneme charts, so I did, too.
It’s not an issue. Grouping affricates with plosives makes perfect sense if they behave like plosives.
User avatar
gestaltist
mayan
mayan
Posts: 1617
Joined: 11 Feb 2015 11:23

Re: The Kazumbe Language

Post by gestaltist »

In a direct-inverse system, only going by animacy May not be enough. First thing you need to consider is speech act participants: either 1st or 2nd person would count as more salient than the other, and both usually count as more salient than any 3rd person.

In 3rd person, you also need some strategy for when both arguments are animate or both are inanimate.
User avatar
Omzinesý
mongolian
mongolian
Posts: 4079
Joined: 27 Aug 2010 08:17
Location: nowhere [naʊhɪɚ]

Re: The Kazumbe Language

Post by Omzinesý »

LinguoFranco wrote: 24 Dec 2019 16:54 Like many languages, Kazumbe nouns are marked for number, such as singular or plural. The plural suffix is -ʎan. /ᵐba.za/ is "dog", while /ᵐba.za.ʎan/ is "dogs."
Unlike many languages, Kazumbe also has a collective number, where the unmarked form of the noun indicates that there are "more than one" items in the unmarked form of the noun, while singulative number indicates that there is specifically only one of that item in the noun. Think of it has singular and plural, but revesed, where the "plural" (in this case, collective) is unmarked, and the singular, or signulative is marked with an affix. This time, the suffix is -ᵑɡo.

/a.çi/ is "fish," but /a.çi.ᵑɡo/ is "(one) fish." /ᵐbi.zu/ is "cattle," and /ᵐbi.zu.ᵑɡo/ is "(one) cow."
So some nouns mark the plural and have an unmarked singular, and some mark the singulative and have an unmarked plural?

Do the semantics of Singular and Singulative differ?
Which number is used in generic contexts like "The cat (species) has a long tail." ~ "Cats have long tails."
My meta-thread: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5760
User avatar
LinguoFranco
greek
greek
Posts: 613
Joined: 20 Jul 2016 17:49
Location: U.S.

Re: The Kazumbe Language

Post by LinguoFranco »

gestaltist wrote: 25 Dec 2019 09:33 In a direct-inverse system, only going by animacy May not be enough. First thing you need to consider is speech act participants: either 1st or 2nd person would count as more salient than the other, and both usually count as more salient than any 3rd person.

In 3rd person, you also need some strategy for when both arguments are animate or both are inanimate.
Yeah, I think in Ojibwe, the second person is more salient, probably for politeness. The second person being more salient than the first person might also apply to Cree, but I'm not sure on that one.

From what I have read, if two arguments of the same animacy were to occur in a sentence, then the speaker gets to choose the order they occur in or which is more salient. Maybe there would be case marking in this case, like an accusative case?
Omzinesy wrote:
So some nouns mark the plural and have an unmarked singular, and some mark the singulative and have an unmarked plural?

Do the semantics of Singular and Singulative differ?
Which number is used in generic contexts like "The cat (species) has a long tail." ~ "Cats have long tails."
Whether a noun is singular or collective depends on its animacy. There is a tendency for animate nouns, especially humans, to be unmarked for singular and marked for plural and for inanimate nouns to have collective as the unmarked form but marked for singulative (when there is specifically one of that thing.) However, since it's just a tendency in Kazumbe, there are exceptions.

So, in the generic context, which number is used depends on the noun.
Post Reply