Tübbih

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Tübbih

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Tübbih is an isolate spoken a small island off the northwest coast of the Ngasalu island, which is part of Ngasalu territory. It is the last survivor of a family that was displaced by North Islandic Rɨdk͡patian.

Phonology (phonemes in parathesis are found in Ngasulu loanwords only):
/p p: b b: t t: d d: k k: g g:/ <p pp b bb t tt d dd k kk g gg>
/ts dz tɕ dʑ/ <c ž ch j>
/(f) θ ð s z ɕ ʑ x ɣ (h)/ <(f) th dh s z sh zh h̠ ǧ (h)>
/m n (ŋ)/ <m n (ŋ)>
/r/ <r>
/l/ <l>
/j ɥ w/ <y y̌ w>

/i y u/ <i ü u>
/e ø o/ <é ő ó>
/ɛ œ ɔ/ <e ö o>
/a/

/V̤ V̰ Ṽ/ <Vh V' Ṽ>

Phonotactics:
(C)V
There is height harmony, with only vowels of the same height can occur in a word. /a/ is the neutral vowel. Geminated stops occur intervocally.

Nouns:
Nouns are divided into four natural classes: Male, Female, Animate, Inanimate. There is no case, though the nouns take prepositions for role.

Nouns can be indefinate or definate. The later is marked by a class suffix in the singular, but all plurals have the same article suffix.
H̠owa "man" H̠owakke "The man" H̠owaza' "The men"
Muki "woman" Mukili "the woman" Mukiza' "The women"
Akoh "bird" Akohcõ "the bird" Akohza' "The birds"
Dhéta "rock" Dhétaǧő "The rock" Dhétaza' "The rocks"
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: Tübbih

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The article may change to convey attitude towards the noun0:
H̠owali
"The effiminant man"
H̠owacõ
"The wild man"
Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.
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Re: Tübbih

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Pronouns:
1P sing: Nü
1P plr: Nüzu
2P sing: Ka
2P plr: Kaza
3P masc sing: H̠é
3P fem sing: Ri
3P anim sing: Sũ
3P inanim sing: Ü
3P plr: Dhaka
This is important, as when we get to the verb, all but 3P is ergative, but verbs don't inflect for person.
Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.
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Re: Tübbih

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The Nominative and ablsolutive are unmarked. Nouns take the following prepostions for core case:
Ergative: Wã
Accusative: Sü
Dative: Zhó


Verbs inflect only for number, reduplicating the first syllable if subject is plural. There is no Tense, but aspect.The primary aspects are: Continuious, Progressive, Habitual, and Perfective. There are also sub-aspects, but they occur as unique auxliries before the verb, instead of being suffixes. There is a similiar division with the moods, with Aspect-moods being common, but for now, we are discussing the indicative:
Continuious:∅
Progressive:ggÜ
Habitual: thIh
Perfective: mÜla'

Take the verb H̠órégga "to kill":
Wã nü h̠órégga akoh
"I kill birds"

Wã nü h̠óréggaggő akoh
"I am killing birds"

Wã nü h̠óréggathéh akoh
"I regurlarly kill birds"

Wã nü h̠óréggamőla' akoh
"I have killed birds"

H̠owakke h̠órégga sü akoh
"The man kills the birds"

H̠owakke h̠óréggaggő sü akoh
"The man is killing birds"

H̠owakke h̠óréggathéh sü akoh
"The man regurlaly kills birds"

H̠owakke h̠óréggamőla' sü akoh
"The man has killed birds"
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: Tübbih

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The Subaspects, as stated come as particles before the verb. They can combine with other aspects, if it makes semantic sense. Here's most of them (there might be a Few that apply only to verbs of motion and ditransitives, but I haven't gotten there yet:
Resultative: <Pi>. Often an emphatic perfective. Almost always used with adverbs of future time, thus the combonation Res.-perf can give a TA meaning, despite the language not having tense otherwise: Future Perfective:
H̠owakke pi h̠órégga sü akoh
"The man has indeed killed birds"

H̠owakke pi h̠óréggamőla' sü akoh
"The man will have killed birds"

Iterative- Repeated action, with no reference to overall time <Lökke>
H̠owakke lökke h̠órégga sü akoh
"The man keeps killing birds"

Seriative- Like the Iterative, but with implication of serealazation <Bó':
H̠owakke bó' h̠órégga sü akoh
"The man killed birds, one after the other"


Inceptive- <Chő̃>:
H̠owakke chő̃ h̠órégga sü akoh
"The man started killing birds"

Terminative: <Tha'y̌u>
H̠owakke tha'y̌u h̠órégga sü akoh
"The man finished killing birds"

Conative: Attempt to do something unsucessfully <žã>:
H̠owakke zã h̠órégga sü akoh
"The man tried to kill birds"
Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.
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Re: Tübbih

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Polar questions are formed in sentences with secondary aspect by putting the particle after the verb:
H̠owakke h̠órégga lökke sü akoh
"Does the man keep killing birds?"


For sentences without secondary aspect the particle Zhéh after the verb. Diachronically, this was a null-marker for secondary aspect. Synchronically, one could see the switch of the position of the secondary aspect particle as a transformation, and the null marker is an empty category, but resurfacés (as Zhéh) when the transformation is applied:
H̠owakke h̠óréggamőla' zhéh sü akoh
"Has the man killed birds?"
Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.
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Re: Tübbih

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The Negation of Verbs is made by affixing -y̌ĩ to the secondary aspect particle. This means that in verbs without secondary aspect, Zhéh resurfaces:
Wã nü zhéhy̌é̃ h̠óréggathéh akoh
"I do not regularly kill birds"

H̠owakke lökkey̌ẽ h̠órégga sü akoh
"The man does not keep killing birds"

Negative polar questions are formed by putting the suffixed particle after the verb:
H̠owakke h̠órégga lökkey̌ẽ sü akoh
"Does not the man keep killing birds?"
Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.
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Re: Tübbih

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Wh-questions in Tübbih, are formed by the four Y̌-words:
Who (masculine; mixed group): Y̌é
Who (Feminine) Y̌i
What (animal): Y̌ũ
What: Y̌ü

Note that as a conquered territory of the more egalitarian Ngasalu, y̌i is used less and less, except to to emphasize that one knows that it's a woman or girl. Y̌ũ is also falling out of use among the younger generation of the west, who (in the north) use y̌ü and (in the south) y̌é.
The question word in these cases always comes after the verb, with case particles preceding:
H̠óréggamőla' y̌é sü akohza'
"Who has killed the birds?"

H̠owakke zã h̠órégga sü y̌i
"Who (fem.) did the man try to kill?"

H̠owakke zã h̠órégga sü y̌ũ
"What kind of animal did the man try to kill?"

Chő̃ h̠órégga y̌ü sü akohza'
"What could have started killing the birds?"

"When" is formed by putting the phrase Y̌ü ǧéth "What time" at the end of the clause:
H̠owakke chő̃ h̠órégga sü akoh y̌ü ǧéth
"When did the man start killing birds?"
Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.
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Re: Tübbih

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The subaspect resultative <Pi> has use in the protasis of conditional sentences, with the apodeisis preceded by the particle <aza>:
H̠owakke pi h̠órégga sü akoh, aza nü bókkéh
"If the kills birds, I would cry"
Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.
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Re: Tübbih

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Moods:
Tübbih has three moods: Subjunctive, Optative and Imperative.
The Subjunctive suffix is -cIh
It is used:
As an alternative to the pi-conditional, mostly used when speaking about social superiors, or, since Ngasalu domination, Ngasalus:
H̠owakke h̠óréggacéh sü akoh, aza nü bókkéh
"If he kills birds, I will cry"

It is also used for protasises that have secondary aspects, with the main aspect suffix being attached to the secondary particle:
H̠owakke chőmőla h̠óréggacéh sü akoh, aza nü bókkéh
"If the man has started to kill birds, I will cry.

This construction of the main aspect suffix being attached to the secondary particle is used in the other uses of the first two moods. It often means that the ∅-secondary mood marker surfaces, unless the verb is in the continious.

The second use is in a clause that introduces cause. This is done in the second clause:
Nü bókkéh, h̠owakke chőmőla h̠óréggacéh sü akoh
"I cried because the man has started to kill birds"

If the second clause is introduced with the particle "dhi", it is used in a clause that indicates reason:
H̠owakke chő h̠óréggamőla sü akoh,dhi n̈u bókkéhcéh
"The man has started to kill birds, so I cry"

The Optative is used for wishes. It's suffix is -yŨ
H̠owakke chőmőla h̠óréggayó̃ sü akoh
"If only the man had started killing birds!"

It also can have emotive meanings, but that will be considered in the next post, along with the imperative.
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: Tübbih

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Another use of the the moods:
The tertiary AM marker <sitta>, which takes the main aspect, is used with the subjunctive for "should" sentences, and the optative for "must". That is, with the subjunctive mood it has the meaning of "X is a recommended course of action" and with the optative, "X must occur for the speaker to be happy/see success":
H̠owakke sittamula chő h̠óréggacéh sü akoh
"The man should have started to kill birds"

H̠owakke sittamula chő h̠óréggayó̃ sü akoh
"The man must have started to killed birds"

The lone subjunctive:
The subjunctive, when used alone, has a non-alethic epistemic meaning, that is, it can be dubatative, or indicate rumor; the meaning has to be inferred by context:
H̠owakke chőmőla h̠óréggacéh sü akoh
"The man might have started to kill birds"
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: Tübbih

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The non-core "cases":
Tübbih has a rich set of prepositions relating to motion and state.
Locative: Y̌a'
Lative: Dheh
Ablative: Mili
Perlative: Béna

Mukili y̌a'Ꞑasalu
"The woman is in Ꞑasalu"

Mukili chő̃ niya dheh Ꞑasalu
"The woman is starting to sail to Ꞑasalu"

Mukili chő̃ niya mili Ꞑasalu
"The woman is starting to sail from Ꞑasalu"

Mukili racamüla' béna bucaǧü
"The woman ran across the marsh"
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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