Vålkakil

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Omzinesý
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Vålkakil

Post by Omzinesý »

Vålkakil is my Uralic a-posteriori project. It's spoken somewhere in real Belarus. That's also the origin of the name 'white language'. I don't know why the Slavonic language there is called White Russian but the Uralic language however gets a similar name.

Vålkakil is its own branch in the Uralic familily. It has many 'West-Uralic' features but not all of them.

Vowels
The vowel system is basic5 with rounding and length contrasts of all of them. That makes 20 vowels, though lengths could maybe be counted supra-segmental.

i y ɯ u <i ü ï u>
e ø ɘ o <e ö ë o>
ä ɒ <a å>

Historical development
PU vowel inventory is reconstructed (here Vɣ is already seen as a long vowel):
i, i:, y, ɯ, ɯ:, u, u:
e, e:, o, o:
æ, ɒ

1. Long mid-vowels rise to high
2. Short high vowels lower to mid.
3. æ is backed central
4. ɒ is fronted central

Vowels preceding a single (non-geminated) stop are lengthened. V + some resonants -> V:
Last edited by Omzinesý on 02 Apr 2017 12:36, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Vålkakili

Post by Omzinesý »

Consonants

p t t͡s tʃ tɕ k <p t c č ć k>
m n ŋ <m n ng>
f s ʃ ɕ h <f s š ś h>
ʋ l r j ʀ <v l r j rg>

PU (I hope I remember all.)
p t tʃ tɕ k
m n ɲ
s ʃ ɕ
ð ðʲ
ʋ l lʲ r j

Some sound changes:
1. Affricates are lenited to the corresponding spirants.
2. t -> ts /_i (this is PU i not Vålkkili i)
3. k -> tɕ /_i (PU i)
4. r -> ʀ
5. ð ðʲ -> r (this includes some ðs lenited from t)

h f and tʃ are quite marginal and borrowed sounds.
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Re: Vålkakili

Post by Omzinesý »

Declension

PU has two word-final vowels
Vålkakil reduses word-final vowels. They are however preserved before some case endings. (Here I suppose the low word-final vowel was unrounded, at least in Pre-Vålkakil.)

Example word is kå't 'house'

Nom kå't <- kåta
Acc kå'tå <- kåta-m (labialization because of m)
Dat-gen kå'ta <- kåta-n
Part kå'tta <- kåta-tɯ

Iness kå'tan <- kåta-na
Elat kåt'tant <- kåta-na-tɯ
Superess kå'tal (West-Uralic l case)
Delat kå'talt
Adess kå'tkerg <- kåta + kera
Abl kå'tkergt

Maybe more cases to come.
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Re: Vålkakil

Post by shimobaatar »

Omzinesý wrote:Vålkakil is my Uralic a-posteriori project. It's spoken somewhere in real Belarus. That's also the origin of the name 'white language'. I don't know why the Slavonic language there is called White Russian but the Uralic language however gets a similar name.

Vålkakil is its own branch in the Uralic familily. It has many 'West-Uralic' features but not all of them.
Sounds like a cool project!

Also, here are some notes on why Belarus might possibly be called "White Russia".
Omzinesý wrote:Example word is kå't 'house'
What does the apostrophe signify?

Also, what are the underlying morphemes that result in the superessive, delative, and ablative forms?
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Re: Vålkakil

Post by Omzinesý »

shimobaatar wrote:
Omzinesý wrote:Example word is kå't 'house'
What does the apostrophe signify?

Also, what are the underlying morphemes that result in the superessive, delative, and ablative forms?
It's difficult to put an accent above å. Vowel length is marked by accent above other vowels, á ű etc.

Kå'ta-l or maybe syncronically kå't-al
The l element is the same as in Finnic adessive, ablative, and allative. Its origin is debated. Relational noun üllä ültã ülle is the most probable source.

Finnish has postposition kera 'with'. It has developed to a comitative case in some minor Finnic language.
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Re: Vålkakil

Post by Omzinesý »

Vowel and consonant length

Vowels have two lengths. Consonant( cluster)s have three.

Short vowels are marked with a simple letter <a>.
Long vowels have an accent <á>.

Short consonants have one letter <t>.
Semi-long consonant( cluster)s have two letters <tt, kt>.
Over-long vowels have two letters and a punct between them <t.t, t.k>

Voiceless fricative + stop clusters <ft, sk ...> are however considered short consonants.


In the pre-language, vowel length was lost but plosives had two lengths.
- Stressed vowels before a single short consonant were lengthened. *kåta -> *kå'ta

I don't know yet how the over-long consonant is created. I guess it comes from suffixes attached to the consonant stem.

- Long vowels are shortened before an Over-long consonant.

There is some kind of consonant gradation, but i'm not sure how it works.
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Re: Vålkakil

Post by CMunk »

Omzinesý wrote:
shimobaatar wrote:
Omzinesý wrote:Example word is kå't 'house'
What does the apostrophe signify?

Also, what are the underlying morphemes that result in the superessive, delative, and ablative forms?
It's difficult to put an accent above å. Vowel length is marked by accent above other vowels, á ű etc.

Kå'ta-l or maybe syncronically kå't-al
The l element is the same as in Finnic adessive, ablative, and allative. Its origin is debated. Relational noun üllä ültã ülle is the most probable source.

Finnish has postposition kera 'with'. It has developed to a comitative case in some minor Finnic language.
Well, <ǻ> does exist in unicode at U+01FB, if you wish to use it. Of course it may be a little cramped with stacked diacritics, and it may not show up nicely in all fonts and sizes.
Native: :dan: | Fluent: :uk: | Less than fluent: :deu:, :jpn:, :epo: | Beginner: Image, :fao:, :non:
Creating: :con:Jwar Nong, :con:Mhmmz
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Re: Vålkakil

Post by Omzinesý »

This is my first attempt to make the verbs.

As usually in Uralic, verbs have three 'conjugations', i.e. valence-changing derivation, kind of voice.
I call them unergative, unaccusative, and transitive conjugations. Traditionally they are called subjective, reflexive, and objective, respectively.
The verbs of the unergative conjugation are either intransitive verbs that have an agent as the subject or transitive verbs that have an indefinite object. The verbs of the transitive conjugation are transitive verbs that have a definite object. Verbs of the unergative conjugation are intransitive and have a patien(like argument) as the subject.

One stem can either
1. have all 3 conjugations
2. have unergative and transitive conjugation*
3. have unaccusative conjugation

*Intransitive verbs of course have a definite object very rarely (eg. to sing the song).


Unergative conugation is usually the simplest one.
tekö 'to do'

sg1 teng <- teken
sg2 teht <- teket
sg3 tek <-tek-
pl1 tehma <- tekemä
pl2 tehta <- teketa
pl3 tekåt <- tekevät

lűpö 'love' (a Germanic or Slavonic loan)

sg1 lűm
sg2 lűft
sg3 lűp
pl1 lűfma
pl2 lűfta
pl3 lűpåt

I don't have an idea of the other two conjugations yet.
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Re: Vålkakil

Post by Omzinesý »

CMunk wrote:
Omzinesý wrote:
shimobaatar wrote:
Omzinesý wrote:Example word is kå't 'house'
What does the apostrophe signify?

Also, what are the underlying morphemes that result in the superessive, delative, and ablative forms?
It's difficult to put an accent above å. Vowel length is marked by accent above other vowels, á ű etc.

Kå'ta-l or maybe syncronically kå't-al
The l element is the same as in Finnic adessive, ablative, and allative. Its origin is debated. Relational noun üllä ültã ülle is the most probable source.

Finnish has postposition kera 'with'. It has developed to a comitative case in some minor Finnic language.
Well, <ǻ> does exist in unicode at U+01FB, if you wish to use it. Of course it may be a little cramped with stacked diacritics, and it may not show up nicely in all fonts and sizes.
Thank you, I didn't know that.

But that looks Vietnamese, and is impossible with a mobile.

If there was an elegant and logical way to write the low rounded vowel and add the accent to it, I would replace <å>, but I cannot find one.
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Re: Vålkakil

Post by Omzinesý »

About the transitive conjunction

It's based on the element ta, which is some kind of 3rd person pronominal morpheme.

Pål-ta-m 'I eat it'
Pål-ta-t
Pål-ta
Pål-ta-mma
Pål-ta-tta
Pål-tta-t

This is a bit boring yet.
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Re: Vålkakil

Post by Omzinesý »

Renewing vowel and consonant lengths

The basic system is similar to Swedish.

<at> [a:t], <ata> [a:ta]
<att> [at], <atta> [atta]
So a long vowel precedes a short consonant and a short vowel precedes a geminate or a consonant cluster.

Reduced vowels, however, mess the system.
(C)VCVCV(C) -> (C)VC.CV(C) , where the punct marks a very reduced vowel. The consonant before it is often voiced. This elided cluster can follow either long or sort vowel.
Last edited by Omzinesý on 09 Apr 2017 11:54, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Vålkakil

Post by Omzinesý »

This reduced grade also appears in loan words ending in a vowel.

Nom šulë
Acc šul.lå
Gen.Dat šul.la
...

Nom safka
Acc savkå
Gen.Dat savka
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Re: Vålkakili

Post by Omzinesý »

Omzinesý wrote:Declension

PU has two word-final vowels
Vålkakil reduses word-final vowels. They are however preserved before some case endings. (Here I suppose the low word-final vowel was unrounded, at least in Pre-Vålkakil.)

Example word is kå't 'house'

Nom kå't <- kåta
Acc kå'tå <- kåta-m (labialization because of m)
Dat-gen kå'ta <- kåta-n
Part kå'tta <- kåta-tɯ

Iness kå'tan <- kåta-na
Elat kåt'tant <- kåta-na-tɯ
Superess kå'tal (West-Uralic l case)
Delat kå'talt
Adess kå'tkerg <- kåta + kera
Abl kå'tkergt

Maybe more cases to come.
I see that the root should actually be kót instead of kå't, if the PU root is kotA.
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Re: Vålkakili

Post by Omzinesý »

Omzinesý wrote:Consonants

p t t͡s tʃ tɕ k <p t c č ć k>
m n ŋ <m n ng>
f s ʃ ɕ h <f s š ś h>
ʋ l r j ʀ <v l r j rg>
Cyrillic writing:

п т ц тш* ч к
м н ҥ
ф с ш щ х**
в л р й г

*tʃ diphthong is quite rare anyway, so it can be written with a digraph.
** the only place for /h/ to appear in native words is before consonants, where it actually is closed to [x] than [h].

Vowels are trickier. Ideas?
Omzinesý wrote: Vowels
The vowel system is basic5 with rounding and length contrasts of all of them. That makes 20 vowels, though lengths could maybe be counted supra-segmental.

i y ɯ u <i ü ï u>
e ø ɘ o <e ö ë o>
ä ɒ <a å>
и ю ы у
е ? ? о
а ?

ь, ъ, ѣ, є, and ё could be used somehow.
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Re: Vålkakil

Post by Omzinesý »

Inflection of 'two', PU käkt-

NOM kaht
ACC kakta
GEN-DAT kaktå
PART kagta

The partitive has the third grade kakt-ta. Those consonant clusters usually lengthen the first element which also gets somewhat voiced.

jöht 'one' inflects similarly.


inflection of 'long', PU piðkA

NOM perk
GEN-DAT perka
ACC perkå
PART perkta

In the partitive there is a very short vowel between r and kt.
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Re: Vålkakili

Post by Omzinesý »

Omzinesý wrote:Declension

PU has two word-final vowels
Vålkakil reduses word-final vowels. They are however preserved before some case endings. (Here I suppose the low word-final vowel was unrounded, at least in Pre-Vålkakil.)

Example word is kå't 'house'

Nom kå't <- kåta
Acc kå'tå <- kåta-m (labialization because of m)
Dat-gen kå'ta <- kåta-n
Part kå'tta <- kåta-tɯ

Iness kå'tan <- kåta-na
Elat kåt'tant <- kåta-na-tɯ
Superess kå'tal (West-Uralic l case)
Delat kå'talt
Adess kå'tkerg <- kåta + kera
Abl kå'tkergt

Maybe more cases to come.
The partitive formation is much more interesting that the genitive-dative formation.
So it would be more interesting to form the source cases ROOT-PARTITIVE-PLACE instead of ROOT-PLACE-PARTITIVE above.

So the new paradigm would be:
INESS kótan 'in the house' <- kota-na
ELAT kóttan 'from the house' <- kota-tV-na
SEPERESS kótal <- kota-lA
DELAT kóttal <- kota-tA-lA
not sure how the ablative would be formed.


'two'
NOM kaht
ACC kaktå
GEN-DAT kakta
PART kagta

INESS kaktan
ELAT kagtan
ADESS kaktal
ABL kagtal
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Re: Vålkakil

Post by Omzinesý »

I'm changing the terminology. I'll not speak about consonant gradation anymore but about "long" and "short" consonant clusters.

Word-initial consonant clusters
do not exist.

Word-final consonant clusters
- resonant + plosive
e.g. kont 'group of people'
- voiceless fricative + plosive
e.g. pośk 'washes'

pC -> fC
kC -> hC
tC -> rC (in some contexts)
cC -> sC
ćC -> śC
šC -> čC

Word-internal consonant clusters
They can be either "short" or "long".

"Short" consonant clusters consist of
- two voiceless consonants
E.g. kakta 'two GEN.DAT'
- a resonant + an obstruent (+ a liquid)
E.g. konta 'group of people GEN.DAT'
E.g. šënkrå 'mouse ACC'

"Long" consonant clusters have a voiced
They consist of
- two voiced resonants
E.g. śelmå 'eye ACC'
- a plosive/affricate/fricative (somewhat voiced) and a resonant
E.g. tegme 'we do'
- a plosive/affricate/fricative (somewhat voiced) + one or two plosives
E.g. poć.kte 'you pl. wash'

So, some consonant clusters have both long and short forms.
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Re: Vålkakil

Post by shimobaatar »

Regarding vowel orthography, I'd personally go with something like this:

/i y ɯ u/ <и ӱ~ү ы у>
/e ø ɘ o/ <е ӧ~ө ӹ~ә о>
/ä ɒ/ <ӓ а>
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Re: Vålkakil

Post by Omzinesý »

shimobaatar wrote:Regarding vowel orthography, I'd personally go with something like this:

/i y ɯ u/ <и ӱ~ү ы у>
/e ø ɘ o/ <е ӧ~ө ӹ~ә о>
/ä ɒ/ <ӓ а>
I think Cyrillic orthographies rarely use dots. Russian has <ë> that is usually written just <e>. Udmurt has <ö> for schwa.

The distinction between /ä/ and /ɒ/ is not that of POA but rounding.
In which orthography is <ү> used?
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Re: Vålkakil

Post by Omzinesý »

'man'
NOM koj
ACC kojå
GENDAT koja
PART kojta

INESS kojan
ILLAT kojtan
SUPER kojal
SUBLAT kojtal

'tree'
NOM pof
ACC povå
GENDAT pova
PART pofta

INESS povan
ILLAT poftan
SUPEP poval
SUBLAT poftal
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