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Nisukil Pʰakwi

Posted: 06 Mar 2016 12:24
by Znex
Just figured I might showcase what I've been working on most recently, since I might not have time to really work on it too much due to uni/college/whathaveyou. Nisuese, or "Ancient Monster" is the ancient language spoken by monsters for my Undertale fan project.

Up until the Monster-Human war, Nisuese and its various dialects was spoken by the Kingdom of Monsters, spread primarily across Britain. Nisuese soon came to be supplanted by the growing influence of human languages, and following the banishment of the remnant of monsters to the Underground, the language only remained spoken by the royal family and the elder generation. Much of the old culture was preserved through song and poem in the Nisuese dialects on the cavern walls, now illegible to most monsters.

Nisuese is written in a derivative of the Old Italic scripts.

Western Nisuese

PHONOLOGY

Inventory

/m n/
/p t ts tʃ k/
/pʰ tʰ tsʰ~tʃʰ kʰ/
/f s ʃ x~h/
/l~ɾ j w/

/i u/
/e a/
/ei ai/
/eu au/

Phonological processes

TT > T[+asp] / _
NT > T / _
V[-high] > Ø / V..C_[-stress]..V
V[-high] > Ø / _#
penultimate stress
L > N / L..._V[+back]
L > F[+front] / L..._V[+front]
F/AF > [+vcd] / [+vcd]_
more maybe?

others:
/tsʰ/ > [tʃʰ] / _V[+front]
/l/ > [ɾ] / V_V
/e/ > [a] / h_
/n t tʰ/ are denti-alveolar, in contrast to /ts tsʰ s l/ which are alveolar
vowel allophony to be figured out
more maybe?

Phonotactics

(C)V(C)

Word final vowels allowed: /i u/
Word final consonants allowed: /m n t ts k s ʃ l/

Stress and prosody

Stress without condition is penultimate, marked by volume and low pitch. Enclitics (particularly monosyllabic postpositions) are considered part of words and hence shift the stress of the preceding word to the new penultimate position.

BASIC VOCABULARY

Pronouns and Interrogatives

{1SG} [mi]
{2SG} [tsi]
{3SG} [ʃi]
{1DU} [wit]
{2DU} [lit]
{3DU} [hit]
{1PL} ['wenu]
{2PL} ['lenu]
{3PL} ['haɾu]
{DEM near} [has]
{DEM far} ['huni]
{who} [mu]
{what} [sek]
{where} ['tsʰedʒi]
{why} [se'dʒaki]
{how} [pu]

Numbers

{1} [jak]
{2} [pʰi]
{3} [fiʃ]
{4} [lu]
{5} ['munwei]
{6} ['lukʰi]
{7} [han]
{8} [mai]
{9} [ʃai]
{10} [tʰis]

----

More to be added at some later date.

Re: Nisuese {working title}

Posted: 23 Mar 2016 03:22
by Znex
VOCABULARY/ROOTS

A rudimentary dictionary is linked here.

Plain roots are no longer than three syllables, typically (C)V in structure although occasionally even (C)(C)V(C)(C). More complex roots are typically simplified in speech, by inserting vowels or merging consonants, to fit a (C)V(C) structure. Noun roots often can appear without any apparent affix; their animacy dictates their syntactic meaning.

eg. au-Ø
['ɑu̯]
sack-INM.ABS

nis-Ø
['nis]
Nis-ANM.ERG

mi-Ø
['mi]
1SG-NOM

Verbal roots without any apparent affix, on their own, are presumed imperfective imperatives.

eg. ailk-Ø vs. ʃi-Ø ailk-Ø
['ai̯ɾək] | ['ʃi 'jai̯ɾək]
burn-IMPF.IMP.2SG | 3SG-INM.ABS burn-IMPF.3SG
Burn! | It's burning.

New roots can be derived via a number of different derivation affixes, some productive and some not. Any one root can potentially undergo an arbitrarily large number of derivations.

eg. *tʰapajukʰaikil
tʰa-pai-ukʰai-kil-Ø
CAUS-understand-SUBST-ADJ-ANM.ABS
persuasionable/persuasive

MORPHOLOGY

Nominals

Nominal conjugation is mostly simple and predictable. Number and case suffixes are both attached to a nominal in that order. Overt case suffixes are only attached when the syntactic meaning is unclear from the semantic content of the phrase.

Animate nouns

SG
DU -t
PL -(l)u
ABS -(k)u
ERG -(lau)
NEUT

eg. juʃi {bird} => juʃiku, juʃitu, juʃiluku; juʃi(lau), juʃit(lau), juʃilu(nau); juʃi, juʃit, juʃilu

Inanimate nouns

SG
DU -t
PL -(l)u
ABS -(ʃu)
ERG
NEUT

eg. tuli {heart} => tuli(ʃu), tulit(ʃu), tulinu(ʃu); tuli, tulit, tulinu

Nouns with consonantal endings

Nouns with no vowel ending at all only where necessary add in a low vowel (front or back agreeing with the vowel before) or merge consonants to ensure a (C)V(C) structure. These are comparatively small in number.

eg. has {gravedust, ashes} => haʃʃu, hastʃu, hasuʃu; has, hasat, hasu
neklet {stone formation} => nekletʃu, nekletsʰu, nekletuʃu; neklet, nekletet, nekletu

Irregular nouns

Some nouns have final vowels that are expressed before other vowels as well, but not plainly.

eg. lam(i) {child} => lameu, lantu, lameuku; lam(lau), lamit(lau), lameu(lau); lam, lamit, lameu
sew(a) {skull, head} => seuʃu, seutʃu, sewauʃu; seu, sewat, sewau
kʰeln(e) {tooth} => kʰelneʃu, kʰelnetʃu, kʰelneuʃu; kʰeln, kʰelnet, kʰelneu

Others use differing roots together.

kakʰun {human} => kakʰutu, kakutʰu, kakʰutuku; kakʰun(lau), kakʰunat(lau), kakʰunu(lau); kakʰun, kakʰunat, kakʰunu

Pronouns & Demonstratives

Pronouns all adopt the animate noun suffixes, but 1st and 2nd person pronouns adopt nominative-accusative alignment. 3rd person pronouns instead behave most similarly to animate nouns and demonstratives, and adopt ergative-absolutive alignment.

Each pronoun has differing roots according to number.

Demonstratives can take both animate and inanimate suffixes depending on their reference.

SG
DU -t
PL -(l)u
ACC/ABS -(k)u
NOM/ERG -(lau)
NEUT

mi {1} => miku, witu, wenuku; mi(lau), wit(lau), wenu(lau); mi, wit, wenu
tsi {2} => tsiku, litu, lenuku; tsi(lau), lit(lau), lenu(lau); tsi, lit, lenu
ʃi {3} => ʃiku, hitu, haluku; ʃi(lau), hit(lau), halu(nau); ʃi, hit, halu
has(a) {PRX ANM} => hasau, hastu, hasauku; has(lau), hasat(lau), hasau(lau); has, hasat, hasau
has(a) {PRX INM} => haʃʃu, hastʃu, hasauʃu; has, hasat, hasau
huni {DST ANM} => huniku, hunitu, huniluku; huni(lau), hunit(lau), hunilu(nau); huni, hunit, hunilu
huni {DST INM} => huniʃu, hunitʃu, huniluʃu; huni, hunit, hunilu

Re: Nisukil Pʰakwi

Posted: 23 Mar 2016 23:47
by deli73
Very interesting!

Re: Nisukil Pʰakwi

Posted: 28 Mar 2016 11:57
by Viorp
I think so too.

Re: Nisukil Pʰakwi

Posted: 15 May 2016 05:04
by shimobaatar
Znex wrote:Just figured I might showcase what I've been working on most recently, since I might not have time to really work on it too much due to uni/college/whathaveyou. Nisuese, or "Ancient Monster" is the ancient language spoken by monsters for my Undertale fan project.

Up until the Monster-Human war, Nisuese and its various dialects was spoken by the Kingdom of Monsters, spread primarily across Britain. Nisuese soon came to be supplanted by the growing influence of human languages, and following the banishment of the remnant of monsters to the Underground, the language only remained spoken by the royal family and the elder generation. Much of the old culture was preserved through song and poem in the Nisuese dialects on the cavern walls, now illegible to most monsters.

Nisuese is written in a derivative of the Old Italic scripts.
Cool! It wouldn't have occurred to me to combine conlanging with this game, so I look forward to seeing what you've come up with here.
Znex wrote:Noun roots often can appear without any apparent affix; their animacy dictates their syntactic meaning.

eg. au-Ø
['ɑu̯]
sack-INM.ABS

nis-Ø
['nis]
Nis-ANM.ERG

mi-Ø
['mi]
1SG-NOM
Interesting!
Znex wrote: SG
DU -t
PL -(l)u
ABS -(k)u
ERG -(lau)
NEUT
What do consonants in parenthesis signify in endings such as -(l)u and -(k)u here?

Re: Nisukil Pʰakwi

Posted: 15 May 2016 06:46
by Znex
shimobaatar wrote:
Znex wrote: SG
DU -t
PL -(l)u
ABS -(k)u
ERG -(lau)
NEUT
What do consonants in parenthesis signify in endings such as -(l)u and -(k)u here?
Those are just the base consonants that appear after any vowel, that may appear after a consonant but not usually. Some examples from the paradigms given in that last post:
{birds NEUT} juʃi-(l)u => juʃilu
{two birds ABS} juʃi-t-(k)u => juʃitu
{hearts NEUT} tuli-(l)u => tulinu
{humans NEUT} kakʰun-(l)u => kakʰunu

Affixes in parentheses tend to be optional.

Re: Nisukil Pʰakwi

Posted: 15 May 2016 08:46
by shimobaatar
Ah, OK, thank you! That's kind of what I figured, but I wanted to make sure of the specifics.