Lkal sik
Posted: 03 Apr 2016 14:47
Here's a side project language, called Lkal sik, on which I've been writing some notes throughout the winter and spring. You can think of it as a way to get something presentable while at the same time developing ideas for Kišta behind the scene. Lkal sik is one of those conlangs that draws inspiration from the Tibetosphere. I'm exploring a bit more rarely used evidential strategies with it by including an egophoric evidential to the language and am also using quite a bit of consonantal prefixes in a way that gives a flavour of Old Tibetan to the aesthetic. On the other hand, I'm considering making these prefixes originally classifiers on nouns so they might actually more resemble the Austroasiatic sesquisyllabic prefixes. On verbs the prefixes can be either directionals or vaguely classificatory fused nominal adjuncts.
Lkal sik is spoken in the same world as Kišta and is the language of an influential state called Skal located some distance upriver from where Kišta and its related languages are spoken. There is trade between the two areas resulting in loan words and new technologies adopted by the Kišta speakers, but also a possibility for political tension since states like this tend to expand their influence over time. I'll be describing here the classical norm of the language which was spoken and got standardised maybe 700 to 900 years before the present time in the world. During this time the language was a regional administrative language in a border province of a larger empire. Later the empire disintegrated and after getting its act together the province of Skal formed its own independent state with Lkal sik as its main language. I should eventually also describe the later stages of the spoken language, but this has to wait until I work out satisfactory sound changes from the classical language. Not surprisingly, especially the modern written Lkal sik rarely follows exactly the grammar or vocabulary of the old classical language and it has always been more or less influenced by the contemporary spoken language. The normative classical language continues to exist as a grammatical ideal.
Both the name of the language and the state are based on the root kal with different prefixes. The prefix l- in the language's name is found in many nouns related to sound or the mouth while the prefix s- in the name of the state is an areal prefix. The second element sik in the language's name simply stands for "speech" or "language" and is derived from the verb si, "speak".
Phonology
The consonant and vowel phonemes of Classical Lkal sik and the orthography I'll use for them are
/p t k q/ <p t k q>
/b d dʑ g/ <b d dź g>
/f s χ/ <f s h>
/v r ʑ ʁ/ <v r ź ř>
/m n/ <m n>
/l j w/ <l j/i w/u>
/a e i o u (ə)/ <a e i o u (e)>
/ae ei ao ou/ <ae ei ao ou>
The glides /j w/ are written as j w at the start of the word or after vowels and as i u when they come after consonants. The off-glides on the low diphthongs /ae ao/ are something around [e̝ o̝] or [i̞ u̞]. They are lower than the off-glides on the high diphthongs but higher than /e o/ or the base vowels of /ei ou/. A big reason for deciding this was simply that when these diphthongs are preceded by glides, writing iae and uao instead of iai and uau looks much more pleasing. The vowel [ə] never appears on the main syllable and its phonemic status is up for debate. The word initial voiceless stops tend all to be aspirated.
The typical allowed word shapes are ((Cə)C(C))V(C(s)), ((Cə)C(C))VCV(s,n), and ((Cə)C(C))VCVCV(s,n). That's to say that a word may begin with a two consonant cluster and on top of that have a prefixed syllable of the form C[ə]-. Here the vowel [ə] is epenthetic and fully predictable and so I won't be writing it down. The allowed consonant clusters at the start of the main syllable are
/sp st sk sq/
/br dr gr/
/bʑ gʑ/
/Cj Cw/ (except for double glide clusters)
A prefix may end up forming an allowed cluster with the initial consonant of the main syllable. In these cases a true cluster is formed and no epenthetic [ə] is interted after the prefix consonant.
Words that have only one full syllable may end with the consonants /p t k s χ m n l/ or the clusters /ps ts ks ns/. In these places the nasal /n/ has the allophone [ŋ]. On longer words all consonants may appear between two vowels but no clusters are allowed and at the end of the word /s n/ are the only allowed consonants. The vocalism of the suffixal syllables following the main syllable is also reduced. Only /i u [ə]/ may appear there. I'll write the suffixal [ə] as e but it's probably better described as an allophone of /a/.
Lkal sik is spoken in the same world as Kišta and is the language of an influential state called Skal located some distance upriver from where Kišta and its related languages are spoken. There is trade between the two areas resulting in loan words and new technologies adopted by the Kišta speakers, but also a possibility for political tension since states like this tend to expand their influence over time. I'll be describing here the classical norm of the language which was spoken and got standardised maybe 700 to 900 years before the present time in the world. During this time the language was a regional administrative language in a border province of a larger empire. Later the empire disintegrated and after getting its act together the province of Skal formed its own independent state with Lkal sik as its main language. I should eventually also describe the later stages of the spoken language, but this has to wait until I work out satisfactory sound changes from the classical language. Not surprisingly, especially the modern written Lkal sik rarely follows exactly the grammar or vocabulary of the old classical language and it has always been more or less influenced by the contemporary spoken language. The normative classical language continues to exist as a grammatical ideal.
Both the name of the language and the state are based on the root kal with different prefixes. The prefix l- in the language's name is found in many nouns related to sound or the mouth while the prefix s- in the name of the state is an areal prefix. The second element sik in the language's name simply stands for "speech" or "language" and is derived from the verb si, "speak".
Phonology
The consonant and vowel phonemes of Classical Lkal sik and the orthography I'll use for them are
/p t k q/ <p t k q>
/b d dʑ g/ <b d dź g>
/f s χ/ <f s h>
/v r ʑ ʁ/ <v r ź ř>
/m n/ <m n>
/l j w/ <l j/i w/u>
/a e i o u (ə)/ <a e i o u (e)>
/ae ei ao ou/ <ae ei ao ou>
The glides /j w/ are written as j w at the start of the word or after vowels and as i u when they come after consonants. The off-glides on the low diphthongs /ae ao/ are something around [e̝ o̝] or [i̞ u̞]. They are lower than the off-glides on the high diphthongs but higher than /e o/ or the base vowels of /ei ou/. A big reason for deciding this was simply that when these diphthongs are preceded by glides, writing iae and uao instead of iai and uau looks much more pleasing. The vowel [ə] never appears on the main syllable and its phonemic status is up for debate. The word initial voiceless stops tend all to be aspirated.
The typical allowed word shapes are ((Cə)C(C))V(C(s)), ((Cə)C(C))VCV(s,n), and ((Cə)C(C))VCVCV(s,n). That's to say that a word may begin with a two consonant cluster and on top of that have a prefixed syllable of the form C[ə]-. Here the vowel [ə] is epenthetic and fully predictable and so I won't be writing it down. The allowed consonant clusters at the start of the main syllable are
/sp st sk sq/
/br dr gr/
/bʑ gʑ/
/Cj Cw/ (except for double glide clusters)
A prefix may end up forming an allowed cluster with the initial consonant of the main syllable. In these cases a true cluster is formed and no epenthetic [ə] is interted after the prefix consonant.
Words that have only one full syllable may end with the consonants /p t k s χ m n l/ or the clusters /ps ts ks ns/. In these places the nasal /n/ has the allophone [ŋ]. On longer words all consonants may appear between two vowels but no clusters are allowed and at the end of the word /s n/ are the only allowed consonants. The vocalism of the suffixal syllables following the main syllable is also reduced. Only /i u [ə]/ may appear there. I'll write the suffixal [ə] as e but it's probably better described as an allophone of /a/.