Nnaçmàa-yà

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Nnaçmàa-yà

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Nnaçmàa-yà is an isolate language spoken on an island to the west of the Ngǂamian languages.
/p pʲ pˠ t tʲ tˠ c k q/ <p py pp t ty tt c k q>
/ pç px tʰ tç tx cç kx qX/ < pç px th tç tx cc kk qq>
/m mʲ mˠ n nʲ nˠ/ <m my mm n ny nn>
/çm xm ʰn çn xn/ /çm xm hn çn xn/
/θ θʲ θˠ s sʲ sˠ ç x X/ <z zy zz s sy ss ç x ẍ>
/l lʲ ɫ/ <l ly ll>
/j ɹ w/ <y r w>

/ə/ <a>
/ə:/ <aa>
/˩ ˧ ˥ ˩˧ ˧˩ ˧˥ ˥˧/ <à a á àa aà aá aá/


The vowel changes based on the initial (the phonotactics are CV(:)). Using the plain stop series:
[pɵ] [pʲø] [pˠo] [tə] [tʲe] [tˠɤ] [ce] [kɤ] [qʌ]


Grammar:
Nnaçmàa-yà is isolating and SVO. Thus simple sentences are formed like this:
Çaqá thààzza lla
"A woman sees a flower"
The Definite article is Ẍa for singular, and Qqaá for plurals:

Ẍa çaqá thààzza qqaá lla
"The woman sees the flowers"

Non-definite nouns show no difference for number.

To show the past tense, one puts the syllable á before the verb. This is the only time a V syllable can occur. However, most of the time, unless the first vowel of the verb is á or áá, this is elided, and the following morphosyntactic tone sandhi is applied to the first vowel of the verb:
a>á
aa>áa
áa>áá
áa>áá
à>a
àà>aa
àa>aa
aà>áa

Ẍa çaqá thaazza qqaá lla
"The woman saw the flowers"
Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.
-JRR Tolkien
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Re: Nnaçmàa-yà

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To form genitive phrases, one places <yà> between the possesor and possesee:
Çaqá yà lla
"a woman's flower(s)"


Pronouns are unusual, as they have case, but this limited to Nominative, Genitive and Oblique.:
Nominative:
1P sing: Nàa
1P Plr: Ka
2P Sing: Ttà
2P plr: Sáa
3P Sing: Ẍaà
3P plr: Pxa

Oblique:
1P sing: Naa
1P Plr: Ká
2P Sing: Tta
2P plr: Sáá
3P Sing: Ẍáa
3P plr: Pxá

Genitive:
1P sing: Nyàa
1P Plr: Ca
2P Sing: Tyà
2P plr: Syáa
3P Sing: Çaà
3P plr: Pça


Example:

Ttà thaazza nyáa hmálya
[tˠɤ̀ tʰə:θɤ nʲê: ʰmɵ́lʲe]
"You saw my pitcher"

Ttà thaazza naa
"You saw me"

In this case, the 1P pronoun may be fronted to make an SOV sentence
Ttà naa thaazza
"You saw me"
Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.
-JRR Tolkien
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Re: Nnaçmàa-yà

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I'm making a little change here: the fronting of Oblique Pronoun to make an SOV sentence has an effect on the sentence: it makes it perfective. Compare:
Ttà thaazza naa
"You saw me"

Ttà naa thaazza
"You have seen me"


Nàa á pxácaxa tta
"I slapped you"

Nàa tta á pxácaxa
"I have slapped you"

In the non-past in means "future perfect". Younger speaker are using this to distinguish the future in general.


Nàa pxácaxa tta
"I am slapping you"


Nàa tta á pxácaxa
"I will have slapped you"
or
"I will slap you"


In sentences with a specific object, the pronoun is simply inserted before the verb. Compare:
Ẍa çaqá thaazza qqaá lla
"The woman saw the flowers"

Ẍa çaqá pxá thaazza qqaá lla
"The woman has seen the flowers"

This can also distinguish plurality:
Çaqá thaazza lla
"A woman saw (a) flower(s)"

Çaqá pxá thààzza lla
"A woman has seen flowers"

Çaqá ẍáa thààzza lla
"A woman has seen a flower"
Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.
-JRR Tolkien
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Re: Nnaçmàa-yà

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The Future Adverb is Ẍazyáata:
Ẍa çaqá ẍazyáata thààzza qqaá lla
"The woman will see the flowers"

The verb can be negated by Nyaà
Ẍa çaqá ẍazyáata nyaà thààzza qqaá lla

This forms an emphatic adverb for the past, with the adverb Ẍakkáçawà "Now", often with the implication of "yet":

Ẍa çaqá nyaà ẍakkáçawà thazza qqaá lla
"The woman has not yet seen the flowers"

The copula is invariable, Çàa:
Pxa çàa qqaá lla
"They are the flowers"

It can be made past tense by nyaà ẍakkáçawà:
Pxa nyaà ẍakkáçawà çàa qqaá lla
"They were the flowers"
Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.
-JRR Tolkien
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Re: Nnaçmàa-yà

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Adjectives, except for color terms, when predicative, act as stative verbs:
Nàa kaása
"I am angry"

As attributes the particle <Rà> comes between them and the noun:
Ẍa kaása rà çaqá
"The angry women"

Color terms, as said, are treated diferently. There are only three colors "Llaçmàná" "White; Light-coloured" "Çapxàraà" "Black; "Dark-Coloured" "Yáappamá" "Red"

Qqaá yáappamá lla
"The red flowers"


Qqaá lla çàa yáappamá
"The flowers are red"
Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.
-JRR Tolkien
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Re: Nnaçmàa-yà

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The admirative mood is a mood that expresses surprise or sarcasm; the difference may depend on context, however there is a way to express the difference, as will be shown below.
The mood is marked by the particle Yáa before the verb:

Ttà naa yáa thaazza
"You have seen me!"
or
"Well, you have seen me, have you?

This second use can be clarified by stating an expression in the indicative, and then repeating the verb phrase in the admirative:

Ttà naa thaazza, yáa thaazza
"Well, you have seen me, have you?"

The particle yáa can also be used to introduce an apodosis in a conditional sentence. About 100 years ago, this was only used for counterfactual statements, with a different pattern for factual conditionals; however this has only been preserved in some proverbs.


Ttà thaazza naa, yáa nàa ẍazyáata pxácaxa tta
"If you saw me, I will slap you"
Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.
-JRR Tolkien
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Re: Nnaçmàa-yà

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The Gerund is formed by putting the apropriate nominal or oblique pronoun followed by rà before the verb:
Ttà rà nacanna naçnama
2P.NOM PART sing good
"Your singing is good"

cçasjaka tta rà nacáánna
1P.NOM like 2P.OBL PART sing
"I enjoy your singing"

If it refers to the act in general, the definite article is used instead of the pronoun:
Nàa çasjaka qqaá rà nacáánna
"I enjoy songs [lit. Singing]"


The progressive is formed by the irregular verb Nna followed by the gerund. It has negative forms:
Non-Past Affirmative: Nna
Past Affirmative: Nná
Non-Past Negative: Nnaà
Past Negative: Nnáa

Nàa nná naa rà nacanna
"I was singing"

Nàa nnaà naa rà nacanna
"I'm not singing"
Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.
-JRR Tolkien
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Re: Nnaçmàa-yà

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The causative voice is made by putting the particle Ssa before the verb
Nàa ssa thààzza ẍa çaqá qqaá lla
"I showed the woman the flowers".

The Inchoative aspect is made by the verb Lyáçaazà "To start" followed by the Gerund:
Nàa lyaçaazà ẍa rà nacáánna
"I started singing"

These can be combined:
Nàa ssa lyaçaazà ẍa çaqá ẍa rà nacáánna
"I made the woman start to sing"
Note the word order: The Gerund must come sentence-finally, even in a transitive sentence.
Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.
-JRR Tolkien
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Re: Nnaçmàa-yà

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Adverbs of Place:
The Adverb of Place phrase always has a particle marking its status as such at the begining. Xmà signals that the action takes place at that location. There are others, but they are used only for verbs of motion. Then comes the body-part idiom for the releationship of the location noun and the place where the action occurs:
PPáa- external location. Lit. "Body"
Yanyà- Interior location. Lit. "Guts"
Panyaà- Front of. Lit "Face"
Qaẍara- To the back of. Lit. "Human spine"
Yaáhna- On a Long surface. Lit. "Arm"
Sjacà- On Top of horizantal surface*. Lit. "Animal back"
Wàaça- Top of vertical surfaces* Lit. Head
Xaká- Bottom of Lit. "Foot"

*NB: Vertical and horizantal mean that that is the dominant feature of the location noun- plateaus are Horizontal, while Mountains are Vertical. Hills may be both, depending on the speaker.

These all take genitive constructions.

Nàa ssa thààzza ẍa çaqá qqaá lla xmà xaká yà kkawáázà
"At the foot of the hill, I showed the woman the flowers."

If the adverb is an adjective, describing were an arguement is, it is fronted before that arguement, with rà between them:
Nàa ssa thààzza ẍa çaqá qqaá xmà xaká yà kkawáázà rà lla
"I showed the woman the flowers that [were] at the foot of the hill"
Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.
-JRR Tolkien
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