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Siųa

Posted: 06 Feb 2011 02:20
by MONOBA
Siwa is spoken in a precolumbian Quebec about 4,000 years ago by a genetically european people, perhaps related to or the descendants of the posited neolithic population that would have taken up a finno-ugric language in Scandinavia who would later become the Sámis. It is part of the Alopian language family, which covers all the middle stretch of Northern Quebec. Siwa is the most conservative language of the family. It is more of a west-east dialect continuum than a single language, but this phonology and all of the Siwa grammar is based mostly on the eastern dialects (spoken inland), which have been less influenced by algonquian populations than the western dialects (spoken on the shores of the hudson bay).

Siwa is part of the Alopian language family:

Image



Here is the Siwa Phonology.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7216892/fororogy.pdf

Re: What do you imagine this language to be like?

Posted: 06 Feb 2011 03:53
by Bristel
It reminds me of the Sami languages... or a bit Arabic or Estonian... Just going by looks.

Re: What do you imagine this language to be like?

Posted: 06 Feb 2011 04:37
by cybrxkhan
It made me think of Berber or some northeast African language (i.e. Ethiopian, Oromo, etc.). But yeah, it also looks kind of Uralic.

Re: What do you imagine this language to be like?

Posted: 06 Feb 2011 08:00
by roninbodhisattva
Yeah, it's got some kind of Uralic flair going on, but then some other things too. It's a nice mix.

Re: What do you imagine this language to be like?

Posted: 06 Feb 2011 08:05
by Bristel
Looking much more closely at the morphology, it reminds me of Sanskrit as well.

Re: What do you imagine this language to be like?

Posted: 07 Feb 2011 14:07
by Omzinesý
Yes, there could be some Sami features in the language. hC vC consonant clusters mostly. But come! is Mana! in Sami not manin. hehhe. good

Re: What do you imagine this language to be like?

Posted: 07 Feb 2011 14:14
by Ear of the Sphinx
It looks Uralic and a bit Baltic.

Re: What do you imagine this language to be like?

Posted: 07 Feb 2011 16:47
by MONOBA
Manin is a pure coincidence, as the root of the verb is ma-, augmented by the cislocative -n, the intransitive -i and the imperative -n.

ma·n·i·n
go·cisl·assertive.intransitive.conclusive·imperative

Uralic languages are definitively a huge source of inspiration, but so is Georgian, which I'm surprised no one has mentioned so far!

Re: What do you imagine this language to be like?

Posted: 07 Feb 2011 16:47
by MONOBA
Manin is a pure coincidence, as the root of the verb is ma-, augmented by the cislocative -n, the intransitive -i and the imperative -n.

ma·n·i·n
go·cisl·assertive.intransitive.conclusive·imperative
'come here!'

cf.

ma·k·i·n
go·translocative·assertive.intransitive.conclusive·imperative
'go there!/go away!'


Uralic languages are definitively a huge source of inspiration, but so is Georgian, which I'm surprised no one has mentioned so far!

Re: What do you imagine this language to be like?

Posted: 07 Feb 2011 16:59
by Ceresz
Ertu Egein frá Unilang?
Are you Egein from Unilang?

Anyway, this language looks interesting. Do you have anything more to share on it?

Re: What do you imagine this language to be like?

Posted: 07 Feb 2011 18:13
by roninbodhisattva
Georgian didn't really strike me at, actually. There are no ejectives and the consonant clusters aren't that striking. Are you going for georgian grammatically?

Re: What do you imagine this language to be like?

Posted: 07 Feb 2011 19:11
by MONOBA
Það er ég.
I have a lot on it. Hundreds of pages.
Unfortunately I am too much of a perfectionist to share it right now. I'm trying to make what I have on verbal morphology presentable. Maybe in a few months. I can give you examples, not much more.

As for georgian, I am inspired by both the sound and the structure of the language. Specifically the verb morphology. Not only ejective consonants make Georgian phonologically interesting, to me :).

The conlang is still Siwa but it's gone through some aesthetics refinements.

Here is a sample, for your curiosity:
kỉspitta manimi; suonahta simu tįadnake da na manimi.
[ˈc ʰ i:spɪʔta ˈmɑnimi / ˈsʊɔnahda ˈsimu ˈʨaʔtnɑɟe ˈdana ˈmɑnimi]
kispid-ta Ø-ma=n-i-mi suo<n>ag-ta sim-u-Ø tįadna-ke d-a na Ø-ma=ni-mi
northern=lakes.gen-illat itr-go=trans-ass.concl.(d)itr-1p.act.ag.sg evergreen=forest.gen-illat catch-pas.act.sg find-link.purpose be.inf.temp.tr-imp ass.concl.partc itr-go=trans-ass.concl.(d)itr-ip.act.ag.sg

‘I go to the northern lakes, I go to the evergreen forest to find my catch’

Re: What do you imagine this language to be like?

Posted: 07 Feb 2011 19:20
by Ceresz
I thought I recognized that avatar :-).

If you don't mind, a phonology would be nice to see at least.

Re: What do you imagine this language to be like?

Posted: 07 Feb 2011 19:24
by MONOBA
I can try to very roughly fix it (since I haven't “registered” any of the changes yet) tonight, but that depends on many things.
I think all in all I've greatly simplified things. So it should be more comprehensible than earlier versions of the phonology.

If the haps want so.

Re: What do you imagine this language to be like?

Posted: 07 Feb 2011 19:26
by Ceresz
Well, if you have the time to post it, I'd gladly take a look :-).

Re: What do you imagine this language to be like?

Posted: 07 Feb 2011 21:44
by roninbodhisattva
I woud too! I love verbal systems. I've also liked everything I've seen you post on siwa at other places.

Re: What do you imagine this language to be like?

Posted: 07 Feb 2011 22:33
by Omzinesý
Awesome, almost what I have been trying to push Omsin to.

Does it even include consonant craduation?

Re: What do you imagine this language to be like?

Posted: 07 Feb 2011 22:45
by MONOBA
It does have consonant gradation, and a fairly complex system of consonant changes and vowel umlauts. The phonotactics are quite complicated. It's a lot of fun to work with, especially when working with derivation from a proto-language (proto-alopian, in this case).

Re: What do you imagine this language to be like?

Posted: 07 Feb 2011 23:03
by Omzinesý
Have you happened to look at Sami consonant graduation tables. Finnish ones are easy and logical. E.g. ks becomes vss. Impossible to say via what changes.

Re: What do you imagine this language to be like?

Posted: 07 Feb 2011 23:13
by MONOBA
Yes I have. Mun oahppán :).