Modern Lyran (NP: Slots +7 through +10:)

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Modern Lyran (NP: Slots +7 through +10:)

Post by Osia »

Modern Lyran

Introduction

Modern Lyran is a language spoken as a vast dialect continuum across the Northern Lyran Mountains, with varying degrees of mutual intelligibility between them. However the dominant form spoken as a form of diglossia between these is the dialect spoken in the capital city, which is the dialect described in this grammar. It has become an international lingua franca due to various historical reasons, mostly due to the political, cultural, and militaristic dominance of the Lyran union. It has many sister languages, some derived from an earlier form known as Classical Lyran, and some few fringe languages derived from Proto-Lyran. These have not been developed, but I may post about them if I decide to develop them more fully. Lyran distinguishes itself from its sister languages due to the expansion of the already large consonant system, preserving many distinctions lost in other languages, the collapse of the vowel system, and the development of post velar harmony.

Typology and Influence

In its actual characteristics, Lyran is a highly polysynthetic ergative highly right branching language with an expansive verbal system. It is verb initial but highly non-configurational, and has a slight prefixing bias. Influences have come from various parts of Native North American languages, though the vast majority of influences have come from the Salishan and Athabaskan-Eyak-Tlingit family.

Phonology

The phonology of Lyran is heavily inspired by Athabaskan and Salish languages, and has a large inventory of glottalized consonants; the vowel system is more Salish though, excluding suprasegmentals.

Vowels

/a i u/ <a i u>
/ː ́ ̃/* <VV V́ V̨>

Vowel Pronunciation

The plain vowels are a simple 3 vowel system, with a large amount of variation around the vowel spectrum. Long vowels are typically more tense, while vowels are lowered when nasalized or adjacent to uvulars. In some non-standard dialects, the syllabic nasals may become nasal vowels, and the syllabic liquids devolve into sequences of a high vowel and a liquid depending on the following/preceding consonants. Tone can occur on all vowels, and long vowels can have rising and falling contours, albeit rarely.

Vowel Allophony

Vowel Qualities: All vowels vary wildly depending on adjacent consonants. The vowel /i(:)/ is realized as /ɪ~e, e:/ adjacent to uvulars, /e, e:/ adjacent to sonorants, /ɛ, ɛ:/ in closed syllables unstressed, /i, i:/ adjacent to palatals, /i~y, i:~y:/ adjacent to labialized palatals, sometimes partially rounded, and /e/ elsewhere.
The vowel /u(:)/ is realized as /ʊ~o, o:/ adjacent to uvulars, /o, o:/ adjacent to sonorants, /ɔ, ɔ:/ in closed syllables unstressed, and /o/ elsewhere. It also may front when adjacent to palatals.
The vowel /a/ is realized as /æ/ adjacent to palatals, /œ̞/ adjacent to lablialized palatals, /ä/ adjacent to sonorants, /ɒ/ adjacent to rounded velars and post-velars, /ɑ/ adjacent to plain velars, and /a/ elsewhere.

Consonants

This is where the real fun starts. There are around 60 consonants, depending on how you count. Frequent visitors to this forum may notice that this is the same phonology I posted a while back in the Questions thread.

/p (pʷ) t tθ (tʷ) ts tʃ tɬ c cʷ k kʷ q qʷ/ <p pʷ t tz tʷ ts č λ c cʷ k kʷ q qʷ>
/tʰ tθʰ (tʷʰ) tsʰ tʃʰ tɬʰ cʰ cʷʰ kʰ kʷʰ qʰ qʷʰ h/ <tʰ tzʰ tʷʰ tsʰ čʰ λʰ cʰ cʷʰ kʰ kʷʰ qʰ qʷʰ h>
/t' tθ' (tʷ') ts' tʃ' tɬ' c' cʷ' k' kʷ' q' qʷ' ʔ/ <t' tz’ tʷ’ ts’ č’ λ’ c’ cʷ’ k’ kʷ’ q’ qʷ’ ʔ>
/ɸ θ s ʃ ɬ ç çʷ x xʷ χ χʷ/ <f z s š ł ç çʷ x xʷ x̌ x̌ʷ>
/ɸ' θ' s' ʃ' ɬ' ç' çʷ' x' xʷ' χ' χʷ'/ <f’ z’ s’ š’ ł’ ç’ çʷ’ x’ xʷ’ x̌’ x̌ʷ’>
/m n r l j w ʁ~ʕ ʁʷ~ʕʷ/ <m n r l j w ʕ ʕʷ>
/m̥ n̥ r̥/ <mʰ nʰ rʰ>
/m' n' r' l' j' w' ʁ~ʕ' ʁʷ~ʕʷ'/ <m’ n’ r’ l’ j’ w’ ʕ’ ʕʷ’>

Consonant Pronunciation

Plain Stops: The plain stops are rather simple, and are mostly pronounced according to their IPA values. The palatal stops may be slightly fricated, this happens more in women's speech. The labialized labials and coronals are merging with the plain labials and labiovelars. They may be optionally voiced word medially

Aspirated Stops: Aspirated stops are very strongly aspirated and may affricate with a following /h/ or /x/, or completely fricativize, merging with the plain fricatives, as has happened in some dialects. (Af)frication typically happens the most to palatals, velars, and post-velars.

Ejective Stops: The ejective stops are strongly glottalized and may assimilate consonants they cluster with to glottalized allophonically. Note the lack of aspirated and ejective labials, these having lenited into the labial fricatives.

Fricatives: The fricatives come in plain and glottalized, no aspirated fricatives exist. The ones after the velars are unvoiced uvular fricatives if they don't display properly.

Sonorants: The sonorants come in plain, devoiced, and glottalized. The devoiced may be fricated slightly. There are no devoiced sonorants past /r/, these having became fricatives. The uvular sonorants are in free variation between uvular and pharyngeal.

Consonant Allophony

Due to the large consonant inventory, there is little allophony. Unvoiced stops may voice optionally word medially, and clusters may assimilate in glottalization and voicelessness.

Syllable Structure

The syllable structure is a strict CV(C), with glottal stops inserted to otherwise vowel initial words. Only obstruents can occur finally, and no two vowels can occur next to one another, these forming long vowels.

Stress

Stress is rather consistent on the last syllable of any word, with secondary stress stretching out from every other syllable from the last. Stress is rather strong and is one of the criteria used to detect word boundaries.

Morphophonology

Ignoring basic assimilation rules, there are 4 main morphophonemic processes in Lyran. These are, Vowel Merging, Glottalization/Aspiration Metathesis, Word Final Reduction, and Post Velar Harmony.

Vowel Merging


This is the simplest rule of the three. Any two vowels become one long vowel, where the quality of the vowel is determined by the hierarchy u > a > i. That is:

ua > aa
ai > ii
iu > ii

Glottalization/Aspiration Metathesis

Now this is where it gets complicated, consonants can have two main processes applied to them, glottalization and aspiration.
Glottalization is the simplest, any plain consonant, ignoring aspiration, becomes a glottalized consonant. The fricative /h/ becomes a glottal stop. Aspiration is more complicated. With any plain stop it becomes aspirated, sonorants become voiceless sonorants or voiceless fricatives, and fricatives become aspirated stops.

These rules are applied depending on the aspiration or glottalization of consonants in closed syllables. If the first one is, then it shifts to the coda consonant. If the coda is, it shifts to the next syllable. If both are, then the initial consonant remains only.
When both aspiration and glottalization are at play, glottalization dominates.

Examples in case that was too confusing.

f'atni > pat'ni
fat'ni > fatn'i
f'at'ni> f'atni

Word Final Reduction

Word final reduction is much simpler than the previous rules, and is simply a restriction on word final consonants. Any word final consonant reduces to a simple unaspirated unglottalized stop or affricate. Fricatives change into the corresponding stop/affricate, and aspirates/glottals become plain.

Examples

ta-x' > tak foot-PLU
qaa-jał > qaajaλ tree-AUG
hiit' > hiit lake-DU

Post Velar Harmony

Post velar harmony is a simple system of consonant harmony between velar and post velar consonants. In any given word if there is any post velar, all velars are backed to post velars

qaa-x' > qaaq tree-ERG

Next post will probably be about word and root structure and noun and verb templates.
Last edited by Osia on 17 Sep 2017 03:33, edited 4 times in total.
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Re: Modern Lyran (NP:Word Classes and Conjugation Templates)

Post by Osia »

Word Classes and Conjugation Templates

Open Word Classes

There are 3 main open word classes, Nouns, Verbs, And Verbal Adjectives. Verbal Adjectives conjugate almost identically to Verbs, excluding their conjugation for comparatives , superlatives, and equatives. They also behave differently in certain syntactic constructions and take different modifiers. Nouns are rather simple, and conjugate for Possession and Number, which are suffixes, and Case, which is a prefix. They also can conjugate for augmentatives and diminutives, and can form distributives by reduplication. The basic noun template is this:

Case-Root-Derv-Num-Aug/Dim-Poss

Nouns also have two genders, animate and inanimate. These only affect verb agreement and plural conjugations, where the latter are quite irregular.

Case is ergative aligned and has around 15~20 elements. I haven't decided on the exact inventory, but I know that the ergative will be somewhat limited and also will encode an instrumental.

Number is singular, dual and plural, but nouns can also be unmarked for number, the number depending on the semantics of the noun. Most count nouns default to singular, most mass nouns default to plural, with singular expressing a singulative, most body parts that come in pairs of two default to dual.

Word Structure and Roots

Verbs and nouns are based on roots, which have prefixes and suffixes attached to them. Roots are highly monosyllabic, with very little root compounding. The only polysyllabic roots are those that have been loaned from other languages, or very opaque historical compounds from earlier phases of the language.

Closed Word Classes

Closed word classes include nominal adjectives, pronouns (which are rare), and adverbs. Nominal adjectives have about 20~ members, expressing things like size, value, color etc. Pronouns are rare due to mass personal agreement, but exist for emphatic usage and various oblique arguments. Many common adverbials are incorporated into a slot into the verb, but independent adverbs do exist.

Verb Template

I saved this one for last since there are way too many slots in the verb to describe shortly. The verb template has 14 prefix slots, symbolized with negative numbers, and 11 suffix slots, symbolized by positive numbers. The verb template is this:

BP=Preverb=Evid-Bd.Inst-Bd.Loc-Direc-Indef-Adv-IN-Deic-Obl-Obj-Neg-Sub-Root-Derv-Voice-Asp1-Asp2-Tense-Appl-Irr-Mood-Modal-Class

or also depicted like this

-14: Bound Phrases
-13: Preverb
-12: Bound Instrumentals
-11: Bound Locatives
-10: Evidentiality
-9: Directional
-8: Indefinite
-7: Adverbial
-6: Incoporated Noun
-5: Deictic
-4: Oblique Agreement
-3: Object Agreement
-2: Negative
-1: Subject
0: Root
+1: Derivational
+2: Voice/Valency
+3: Aspect 1
+4: Aspect 2
+5: Tense
+6: Applicatives
+7: Irrealis
+8: Mood
+9: Modality
+10: Classifier

I will now go through these one by one.

-14: Bound Phrases

These consist of certain obliques, such as instrumentals, locatives, benefactives, etc. They are of an odd nature, being syntactically bound, but not phonologically bound. They are depicted as part of the verb nonetheless.

-13: Preverb


The preverb expresses some incorporated oblique arguments and certain adverbial notions not covered by other slots. It's use is very diverse and has many unrelated prefixes all in the same slot.

-12: Evidentiality

This is an innovation separate to Modern Lyran specifically, and distinguishes it from other related languages. There are five affixes that can go here, direct visual /-0-/, direct-auditory /-cʰahįį-/, direct-sensory (other senses) /-cʰajuu-/, indirect /-cʰúk'-/ and quotative /-aatz-/. Note all of them except for the quotative begin with /cʰ/. This is because they are derived from constructions like "I heard", and "I felt", while the quotative is derived from "they said".

-11: Bound Instrumentals


Bound instrumentals are a closed of incorporated oblique nouns expressing instrumentals, mostly body parts. Many less common ones have a fossilized ergative marker in the incorporated form.

-10: Bound Locatives

Like the bound instrumentals, the bound locatives express common locative phrases that have been incorporated into the verb. Unlike the bound instrumentals, none have a fossilized locative marker.

-9: Directional

There are two affixes that can go here, a cislocative /-wa-/, and a translocative /-i-~-j-~-c-/. These are transparently related to the verb roots √wa and √i, which mean come and go respectively. These are derived from serial verb constructions with these verbs and are an innovation of this language compared to others. They also have some suppletive forms for subject agreement. The 3rd person inanimate forms are shown here.

-8: Indefinite

Two affixes can go here, an animate /-cáá-/, and an inanimate /-cʷii-/. These express when the subject is either someone or something respectively, in the English translation. They can also be added in as optional subjects for passive verbs.

-7: Adverbial


These express certain incorporated adverbials, expressing notions like to do something quickly, /-wąąj-/, slowly, /-š’í-/, well, /-mʰii-/, poorly, /-łuu'~łuú-/, and incorrectly, /-č'uč'u-/. The phrase č'uč'u is also used as an interjection when scolding someone.

-6: Incoporated Noun

This slot is for the incorporated noun of a verb that represents an argument. Any noun can be placed here, and incorporating a noun decreases the valency like in other languages with incorporation.

-5: Deictic

The deictic expresses when the subject of a verb is a deictic argument expressed by 'this' or 'that' in an English translation. There are four of these, /-la-/ for proximal, /-qíí-/ for medial, /-cʷąą-/ for proximal-medial, and /-q’aat-/ for distal.

-4: Oblique Agreement


The oblique agreement is a personal agreement with forms identical to the object. It specifies an oblique argument, the exact nature specified by the semantics of the verb.

-3: Object Agreement

The object agreement slot has agreement for all persons, including reciprocals and reflexives. The forms are similar to the subject affixes, but some more common ones are distinct.

-2: Negative


The negative is a single morpheme, which expresses a simple negative of the verb. The form is /-f~fu-/, and the use of it triggers irrealis marking.

-1: Subject

The subject slot is a simple subject agreement, the third person inanimate is simply a null.

0: Root

The root is base of the verb, and is the only mandatory segment. They are almost always monosyllabic, and of any syllable shape. Note there is a distinction between null initial roots and glottal initial roots, where glottal initial roots glottalize the preceding consonant.

+1: Derivational

The derivational is a simple derivational affix added to verbs, or to nouns to form verbs. There are much fewer root nouns in Lyran than there are verbs, and most derivational morphology is from verbs to nouns.

+2: Voice/Valency


The voice/valency marks both the valency of the verb, and forms different voices from the verbs. There are four valencies, intransitive, /-0-/, stative, /-ka-/, transitive, /-ł-/, middle, /-s-/, these are combined with the voice affixes active , /-0-/, passive /-t'/, causative, /-t-/, and self-benefactive /-q'a-/. These are partially inspired by the "Classifier" system of Athabaskan languages. I can't really explain what all of these mean right now, but I will in later posts. If you have any questions, just ask.

+3: Aspect 1

Aspect one is a set of base aspects from which other aspects can be derived. This part was heavily inspired by Navajo. I don't have the full aspect inventory yet, but I will when I get to aspects in the verb.

+4: Aspect 2


The second aspect slot, as said, will be explained later.

+5: Tense


There are two morphemes here, past /-h-/, and a historical distant past, /-pʷ-/, though now it is mostly confined to poetic language. Null indicates non-past.

+6: Applicatives

This houses various constructions separate from voice, that indicate various applicative constructions. I haven't decided the full inventory of them yet, but I know I want a lot. I also know that when a verb is put into an applicative, the former object must be incorporated.

+7: Irrealis

The irrealis morpheme is /-c-/, and is common, occurring with negatives, questions, subordinate clauses, conditionals, futures, etc. It also is used with all non-indicative moods in the following mood slot.

+8: Mood

There are four moods in this slot, indicative /-0-/, interrogative /-kʷ-/, polar /-q/, imperative/propositive /-rʰ-/, and future /-l-/.

+9: Modality

There are four modalities in this slot , indicative /-0-/, optative /-θ'-/, relative /-ʕ-/, and conditional /-š-/.

+10: Classifier


This is an innovation of my own, though based off a distinction made in Navajo verb stems. For all inanimate third person objects, the shape and characteristics of this must be specified. I have not decided the full range of this, but I will post about it soon.
Last edited by Osia on 20 Sep 2017 23:43, edited 15 times in total.
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Re: Modern Lyran (NP: Intro and Phonology)

Post by DesEsseintes »

I want to see more of this.
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Re: Modern Lyran (NP: Intro and Phonology)

Post by Osia »

DesEsseintes wrote:I want to see more of this.
Thanks! Can I ask what you like about it in particular?
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Re: Modern Lyran (NP: Intro and Phonology)

Post by Iyionaku »

Osia wrote:/p (pʷ) t tθ (tʷ) ts tʃ tɬ c cʷ k kʷ q qʷ/ <p pʷ t tz tʷ ts č λ c cʷ k kʷ q qʷ>
/tʰ tθʰ (tʷʰ) tsʰ tʃʰ tɬʰ cʰ cʷʰ kʰ kʷʰ qʰ qʷʰ h/ <tʰ tzʰ tʷʰ tsʰ čʰ λʰ cʰ cʷʰ kʰ kʷʰ qʰ qʷʰ h>
/t' tθ' (tʷ') ts' tʃ' tɬ' c' cʷ' k' kʷ' q' qʷ' ʔ/ <t' tz’ tʷ’ ts’ č’ λ’ c’ cʷ’ k’ kʷ’ q’ qʷ’ ʔ>
/ɸ θ s ʃ ɬ ç çʷ x xʷ χ χʷ/ <f z s š ł ç çʷ x xʷ x̌ x̌ʷ>
/ɸ' θ' s' ʃ' ɬ' ç' çʷ' x' xʷ' χ' χʷ'/ <f’ z’ s’ š’ ł’ ç’ çʷ’ x’ xʷ’ x̌’ x̌ʷ’>
/m n r l j w ʁ~ʕ ʁʷ~ʕʷ/ <m n r l j w ʕ ʕʷ>
/m̥ n̥ r̥/ <mʰ nʰ rʰ>
/m' n' r' l' j' w' ʁ~ʕ' ʁʷ~ʕʷ'/ <m’ n’ r’ l’ j’ w’ ʕ’ ʕʷ’>
Holy maccarony.

I have to say that I'm not very fund of your romanization (I am totally, though, of the inventory!) I mean, what you use is almost IPA, adding up the superscript letters, but then the letters č and š appear. I've read your post in the inventories thread; would it really be that bad to use digraphs, trigraphs or quadrigraphs? Just for my eyes, <kwh> is way more asthetic than <kʷʰ>.

I'm particularly interested in your verbal system as my main conlang Yélian uses a similar slot system (albeit way easier with only maximum 7 prefixes and 2 suffixes, see the spoilers.) Can you provide a maximum example that uses as many slots as possible? I see that not all slots can be filled at one time (p.e. -8, -5 and -1 seem to contradict each other).
Spoiler:
Iyionaku wrote:While nouns usually bear two classifiers at a maximum (example: neralnelniyp, meaning "little red bug"), verbs can be really elaborate. Similar to the Sumerian language, there are a lot of "slots" of a verb that can be filled; another order of prefixes is not allowed. The slots are as follows:

-7 negation prefix ci-, additional suffix pou- or negative addition prefix cou-
-6 mood prefix {1} (only conditional di- and necessitative ian- if position -2 is already filled)
-5 time prefix (past, future)
-4 aspect prefix (perfective, ingressive, terminative)
-3 one or more intensifiers (like ya- (very), ut- (too) or rit- (so))
-2 mood prefix {2} (all other mood prefixes like tya-, meg-, or ian- if occurring alone)
-1 one or more adverbs as determiner*
0 verbal root
+1 direct/inverse suffix or adjectivizer
+2 jussive/conditional suffix

* Adverbs itself can have their own classifiers that will be incorporated before the adverb stem. If there is more than one adverb, sometimes there will be a fugen-è.

A maximum example:
Re coudiyaidéstyaritpafitècepacasolkvaino.
Re cou-di-yi-adés-tya-rit-pafit-è-ce-pacas-olk-vain-o.
1SG not_either-COND-PST-PERF-ABL-so-easy-and-NEG-noticable-kill-INV.COND.1SG
I would not have been able to be killed that easily and unnoticed either.

However, such forms are very rare, and for the sake of understanding you might outsource some of the information in a subordinate sentence.
Osia wrote:There are two morphemes here, non-past /-0-/, and past /-h-/. There is also a historical distant past, /-pʷ-/, though now it is mostly confined to poetic language.
I assume for the non-past you mean the nullmorpheme -Ø-? It would propably be easier to just say that only past is marked in that case.

Altogether I have to say that it appears that you had been thinking about and working at your conlang for a very long time before you registered at that forum! Is that so, though? What you have provided looks a lot more "grown" than what you can see from "newbies" most of the time (gosh, I remember my own horrific first conlang thread! [O.o] )
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Re: Modern Lyran (NP: Intro and Phonology)

Post by Osia »

Iyionaku wrote:
Osia wrote:/p (pʷ) t tθ (tʷ) ts tʃ tɬ c cʷ k kʷ q qʷ/ <p pʷ t tz tʷ ts č λ c cʷ k kʷ q qʷ>
/tʰ tθʰ (tʷʰ) tsʰ tʃʰ tɬʰ cʰ cʷʰ kʰ kʷʰ qʰ qʷʰ h/ <tʰ tzʰ tʷʰ tsʰ čʰ λʰ cʰ cʷʰ kʰ kʷʰ qʰ qʷʰ h>
/t' tθ' (tʷ') ts' tʃ' tɬ' c' cʷ' k' kʷ' q' qʷ' ʔ/ <t' tz’ tʷ’ ts’ č’ λ’ c’ cʷ’ k’ kʷ’ q’ qʷ’ ʔ>
/ɸ θ s ʃ ɬ ç çʷ x xʷ χ χʷ/ <f z s š ł ç çʷ x xʷ x̌ x̌ʷ>
/ɸ' θ' s' ʃ' ɬ' ç' çʷ' x' xʷ' χ' χʷ'/ <f’ z’ s’ š’ ł’ ç’ çʷ’ x’ xʷ’ x̌’ x̌ʷ’>
/m n r l j w ʁ~ʕ ʁʷ~ʕʷ/ <m n r l j w ʕ ʕʷ>
/m̥ n̥ r̥/ <mʰ nʰ rʰ>
/m' n' r' l' j' w' ʁ~ʕ' ʁʷ~ʕʷ'/ <m’ n’ r’ l’ j’ w’ ʕ’ ʕʷ’>
Holy maccarony.
Yeah. My other main conlang had only 13 consonants, so I decided to go a bit buck wild with this one.
Iyionaku wrote:I have to say that I'm not very fund of your romanization (I am totally, though, of the inventory!) I mean, what you use is almost IPA, adding up the superscript letters, but then the letters č and š appear. I've read your post in the inventories thread; would it really be that bad to use digraphs, trigraphs or quadrigraphs? Just for my eyes, <kwh> is way more asthetic than <kʷʰ>.
I dunno. To me the superscript one looks way better. I guess its all a matter of taste though. I may switch to using digraphs and trigraphs if I get lazy or tired of copypasting the superscripts though.
Iyionaku wrote:I'm particularly interested in your verbal system as my main conlang Yélian uses a similar slot system (albeit way easier with only maximum 7 prefixes and 2 suffixes, see the spoilers.) Can you provide a maximum example that uses as many slots as possible? I see that not all slots can be filled at one time (p.e. -8, -5 and -1 seem to contradict each other).
Actually for verbs with marked with those slots the verb would take either /-0~h/ or /-á~aʔ/ in slot one, for third person animate and inanimate singular respectively. I don't have many verb roots but I could give you this (albeit bizzare) one from a conworld context, with two incorporates and a mighty long verb.

Háx̌'aatzimʰíínʰínʰíf'uz'iniłq'aqc'iλ x'aa qatuu λ'ii níkuu
ALL-people=QUOT-TRANS.LOC-soldier-3.AN.PLU.OBL-3.AN.PLU.OBJ-NEG-3.AN.PLU.SUB-give-TRANS-SELF.BEN-PERF-IRR-FUT- people ERG-water-3.AN.POSS air-3.AN.POSS COM-earth
há-x'aa=aatz-i-mʰíí-nʰí-nʰí-f'u-z'i-ni-ł-q'a-k'-ci-l x'aa qa-tuu-h λ'ii-h ní-kuu
"(They say) The people of water (Osia) won't give the people of air and earth (Lyra and Sela) soldiers (for themselves)."
Osia wrote:Osia wrote:
There are two morphemes here, non-past /-0-/, and past /-h-/. There is also a historical distant past, /-pʷ-/, though now it is mostly confined to poetic language.


I assume for the non-past you mean the nullmorpheme -Ø-? It would propably be easier to just say that only past is marked in that case.
Yeah. There are a bit of inconsistencies in that. I'll go fix that now.
Osia wrote:Altogether I have to say that it appears that you had been thinking about and working at your conlang for a very long time before you registered at that forum! Is that so, though? What you have provided looks a lot more "grown" than what you can see from "newbies" most of the time (gosh, I remember my own horrific first conlang thread!)
I've been conlanging for about three years I think, though I've only been on this forum for a short while. I did make one other thread though, that you can find here. I wouldn't call myself a noob at that point either, but I knew a lot less than I do now. This conlang is actually somewhat new, though I guess you could say it was related to an Eskimo-Aleut ripoff that I made a while ago.
Last edited by Osia on 21 Aug 2017 18:35, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Modern Lyran (NP: Intro and Phonology)

Post by DesEsseintes »

Osia wrote:
DesEsseintes wrote:I want to see more of this.
Thanks! Can I ask what you like about it in particular?
The large inventory, the NA aesthetic, and last but not least, polypolypoly!

I look forward to more on aspect and mood.
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Re: Modern Lyran (NP: Intro and Phonology)

Post by Osia »

Small edit, the evidentiality markers are now prefixes, in slot -10. Previous posts will be edited.

Next post will be about noun basics, and the large case system in particular.
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Re: Modern Lyran (NP: Intro and Phonology)

Post by Osia »

Noun Morphology

Nouns have relatively simple morphology compared to verbs. They are rather regular, but gender and plurals, along with augmentatives and diminutives are very irregular.

Gender

As said, there are two genders, animate and inanimate. The gender of the noun is not distinguishable from the phonological material of the noun itself, but most animate nouns end in a form ending in /-a/, and inanimates ending in /-i/, with varying tone length, and nasalization. The distinction between them is more semantically based than phonological. All nouns referring to humans are animate, including professions and familial terms. Most names derived from inanimate nouns are inanimate, but some common names have become animate due to association. All body parts, animals, and types of meats are also animate, but plants and non-meat based foods are inanimate. All astronomical bodies perceived as animate in some religious contexts, such as the sun, moon, and stars, are animate. All other nouns are typically inanimate, though all loanwords are animate, regardless of age or source language.

Number

As said, all nouns have one inherent number, expressed by the bare noun with no suffixes added. This can be singular, dual, or plural, depending on the semantics of the noun. This has no affect on the conjugation of the noun though, but gender does.

Most animate nouns take the suffixes /-ha~ʰa/ for singular, /-tz/ for dual, /-x’~-xá/ and for plural, but many animate nouns, including all of those that end with /-u (:)(~)(`) /, take the suffixes /-λ~łu/ for dual and /-(~) (:) ʔú~nʰú/ for plural. This is because this class of nouns has many that have been derived from verbs, and this is derived from an earlier verb plural marker, related to some person markers. All other animate nouns take the suffixes /-aha/ for singular, /-tzáá/ for dual and /-x'ąą/, expanded forms of the normal affixes.

Inanimate nouns are much simpler, and take the suffixes /-ú/ for singular, /-ča~č/ for dual, and /aaqʰ~q/ for plural.

(Editor’s Note: I don’t really like any of the forms for these affixes; they were made recently, so I will probably change them in future posts. Suggestions for the forms are much appreciated.)


Augmentatives and Diminutives


Augmentatives and Diminutives are formed in two ways, derivational and non-derivational.

Derivationals are formed by adding the suffixes /-aλ~jaλ/ and /-ĭč~č/ to animates, and /-q'a/ and /c'a/ to inanimates, for augmentatives and diminutives respectively. These are used for certain derivational processes to derive a larger/smaller noun from a normal one, or as standard affectionate forms used by adult men.

Non-derivationals are formed by a harmonic change where all velars and post-velars in a word will shift to palatals for the diminutive, and where all palatals and velars shift to post velars for the augmentative. These are commonly used by women and children, especially when talking to family members. Usually older family members will be referred to by a term in the augmentative, while younger ones will be referred to by a term in the diminutive.

There are also certain semantic distinctions made by these changes, to express intensity.

c'ááł "to be pink"
k'ááł "to be red"
q'ááł "to be bloody"

cʷųų "to be warm"
kʷųų "to be hot"
qʷųų "to be boiling"
Spoiler:
Yes I stole this from Lakhota
The non-derivationals are also used as an accent by certain animals in stories. Typically, songbirds will talk solely in the diminutive, while birds of prey and animals that are predatory or powerful will talk solely in the augmentative.

Possession

Possession on nouns is rather simple, and has no involvement with the gender of the noun. The possession marking distinguishes singular, plural, and dual number, and clusivity, though the dual is only distinguished in the third person. The possession markers are shown below.

Code: Select all

       SIN       DU              PLU
1      -(~)~ʔą   -Uxa~xʷa      -nʰíí
12               -áhu~káhu     -kŭ~kʷ
2      -šĭ       -čii          -ma
3.AN   -a              -λ’a~λ’    
3.INAN -0              -pí~p      
REC                    -h~ʰ~(:)



The forms after the tilde are those after a vowel, due to morphophonological rules. For the reciprocal, it lengthens the vowel and produces a high tone. Also note the first person forms nasalize the preceding vowel. These forms are identical to the verb conjugation forms of the object and oblique arguments. The subject forms are different in some forms though. Also note that Lyran makes use of inalienability, where inalienable nouns consist of familial terms, body parts, and relational nouns.

Case

As said, case is ergative-absolutive, with a large number of locative and oblique cases. There are 14 cases, with many overlapping forms. Cases are prefixes, derived from earlier prepositions. There are no prepositions as a freestanding class, though certain constructions with relational nouns take care of these. Cases come into 3 categories, Core cases, Subcases, and Locative cases. The cases are listed below, seperated into their respective categories.

Core Cases

Absolutive: 0-

Expresses the object of transitive verbs and the subject of intransitives.

Ergative: qa~q-

Expresses the subject of transitive verbs, but is rather limited in its usage. It only occurs on definite nouns, but is also used to mark the instrumental when used as an oblique.

Subcases

Comitative: ní~niʔ-

The comitative is used for when one noun accompanies another. Because of this case, there is no dedicated form for 'and'. The comitative case is used on the second noun for all instances.

Benefactive: q’aa~q’aʕ

The benefactive case is used for the beneficiary of an action. This case is more recent, and has been back derived from the self-benefactive “voice”. It is rather uncommon, since the self benefactive takes the job where it would be common.

Allative: há~haʔ-

The allative case is used for the destination of a verb meaning to go or a verb with a trans-locative.

Ablative: kʷíí~kʷiiʔ-

The ablative case is used for the source of a verb meaning to come or a verb with a cis-locative.

Perlative: ʔaçĭ~ʔaç-

The perlative is used for the mode of travel for motion verbs, or the source or cause of an action. It is also the case of the demoted agent of causative constructions.

Locative Cases

Locative: tĭ~t-

The locative is used for marking the location of an object in space.

Punctual: t'aa~t'ah-

This is used to express that an object is tightly packed or constrained to a small space. It contrasts often with the locative depending on the semantics of the noun.

Adessive: λUU~λUh-

The adessive is used for something in the surface of something, as opposed to inside or at something. It contrasts with the locative being used for locations and place names, and the adessive being used for the locations of objects relative to objects like tables. It is also used in possessive constructions, as this language lacks a verb to have.

Temporal: ł’aka~ ł’ak-

This case is specifically used to indicate the position of an object in time. It has restricted usage, and is most common with set phrases, like numbers to indicate times of day.

Transitive: nʰą~nʰan-

The transitive case expresses the location in which an object goes through, and the path on which an object traces. It is most common with place names, and has a little more restriction than most cases.

Antative: tzʰÚ~tzʰUʔ-

The antative case specifies that an object is in front of another object, or before another object when used temporally.

Tergative: qʷʰįį~qʷʰinʰ-

The tergative case specifies that an object is in behind of another object, or after another object when used temporally.

Next post will probably be about verb basics, and the affixes closest to the root, that is, subject, voice, and valency. Then I will go into the aspectual system, and maybe some about tense and mood.
Last edited by Osia on 13 Oct 2017 23:47, edited 10 times in total.
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Re: Modern Lyran (NP: Intro and Phonology)

Post by Iyionaku »

In my conlang Caelian, I have two cases denoting “in front of“, a static one and a lative one. I called the first one “Antative“ and the second one “Anteportive“, derived from Latin “ante“ (in front of). A case from behind is afaik not attested in natlangs, but you could call it “Tergative“, from “tergo“.
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Re: Modern Lyran (NP: Intro and Phonology)

Post by Osia »

Iyionaku wrote:In my conlang Caelian, I have two cases denoting “in front of“, a static one and a lative one. I called the first one “Antative“ and the second one “Anteportive“, derived from Latin “ante“ (in front of). A case from behind is afaik not attested in natlangs, but you could call it “Tergative“, from “tergo“.
Thanks! I'll put those terms in.
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Re: Modern Lyran (NP: Intro and Phonology)

Post by Creyeditor »

I just wanted to mention that I really like the way this thread is organized [:)] Would be even better if there were more glossed examples for the use of categories (e.g cases), similar to what you did for the diminutives and augmentatives.
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Re: Modern Lyran (NP: Intro and Phonology)

Post by Osia »

Creyeditor wrote:I just wanted to mention that I really like the way this thread is organized [:)] Would be even better if there were more glossed examples for the use of categories (e.g cases), similar to what you did for the diminutives and augmentatives.
Thanks. I haven't made many glossed samples yet because I haven't created many word roots yet, but I'm working on it and will try to in later posts.
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Re: Modern Lyran (NP: Intro and Phonology)

Post by Creyeditor »

Osia wrote:Háx̌'aatzimʰíínʰínʰíf'uz'iniłq'aqc'iλ x'aa qatuu λ'ii níkuu
ALL-people=QUOT-TRANS.LOC-soldier-3.AN.PLU.OBL-3.AN.PLU.OBJ-NEG-3.AN.PLU.SUB-give-TRANS-SELF.BEN-PERF-IRR-FUT- people ERG-water-3.AN.POSS air-3.AN.POSS COM-earth
há-x'aa=aatz-i-mʰíí-nʰí-nʰí-f'u-z'i-ni-ł-q'a-k'-ci-l x'aa qa-tuu-h λ'ii-h ní-kuu
"(They say) The people of water (Osia) won't give the people of air and earth (Lyra and Sela) soldiers (for themselves)."
I just found your glossed sentence. Lovely [:)]
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Re: Modern Lyran (NP: Intro and Phonology)

Post by Iyionaku »

Osia wrote:Antative: tzʰú~tzʰuʔ-

The antative case specifies that an object is in front of another object, or before another object when used temporally.

Tergative: qʷʰįį~qʷʰinʰ-

The antative case specifies that an object is in behind of another object, or after another object when used temporally.

Next post will probably be about verb basics, and the affixes closest to the root, that is, subject, voice, and valency. Then I will go into the aspectual system, and maybe some about tense and mood.
You wrote "Antative" twice, in the second one it should be "tergative" as well.
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Re: Modern Lyran (NP: Intro and Phonology)

Post by Osia »

Iyionaku wrote:
Osia wrote:Antative: tzʰú~tzʰuʔ-

The antative case specifies that an object is in front of another object, or before another object when used temporally.

Tergative: qʷʰįį~qʷʰinʰ-

The antative case specifies that an object is in behind of another object, or after another object when used temporally.

Next post will probably be about verb basics, and the affixes closest to the root, that is, subject, voice, and valency. Then I will go into the aspectual system, and maybe some about tense and mood.
You wrote "Antative" twice, in the second one it should be "tergative" as well.
Sorry, I'll fix that.
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Re: Modern Lyran (NP: Intro and Phonology)

Post by Osia »

Another edit, I'm gutting the syllabic consonants, the syllabic nasals /n/ and /m/ merge with nasalized /i/ and /u/ respectively, and the syllabic /r/ and /l/ become /ri~ii/, and /li~ii/. I never made any words with them anyway, but they will still exist in related dialects/languages.
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Re: Modern Lyran (NP: Intro and Phonology)

Post by Osia »

Editors Note: I haven’t been able to work on this for a while due to school reasons, but I’m thinking of getting back on it. During this time I’ve redone some of the verbal system, especially the moods and the voice/valency system, which I’ll be discussing in this post. I’ll change the big verb paradigm I have set up in the second post.

Slots -2 through +2: Subjects, Negatives, Roots, Valency, Voice, and Derivation

The ensuing posts will go through the verbal system slot by slot, starting with those closest to the root, and expanding outward. This post will describe the subject markers, how to form negatives, and the Athabaskan "classifier" inspired valency system.

Root

The root is the simplest of these, and houses the semantic information of the verbs. They are highly monosyllabic, the only polysyllabic roots being loanwords and derived verbs. The phonological form of roots can be V, CV, VC, and CVC. Note the distinction between V and CV. In phonological words, no word can begin with a vowel, and a glottal stop is inserted otherwise, but in roots, there can be a distinction between glottal initial and vowel initial roots. For example the otherwise homophonous roots √i and √ʔi, meaning "to go" and "to break" respectively.

ni
1. SING.SUB-go
n-i
"I go."

n'i
1.SING.SUB-break
n-ʔi
"I break (something)."

The verb root to break glottalizes the preceding consonant, unless it is already glottalized.

q'i
3.DU.SUB-go
q'-i
"They two go."

q'i
3.DU.SUB-break
q'-ʔi
"They two break (something)."

This also happens with roots with an initial /h/, as seen below.

nʰįį
1.SING.SUB-hear
n-hįį
"I hear (something)."

Aside from this, roots are relatively simple.

Derivation

Derivation is an affix attached to a verb to change the meaning or make it into a noun. Most common however, is the highly productive process of zero derivation, where roots can be used as either nouns or verbs.

ak'ááłka kʰų
3.SING.AN-be.red-OBJ.INTRS fire
a-k'ááł-ka kʰų
“The fire is red.”

akʰųka k'ááλ
3.SING.AN-fire-OBJ.INTRS be.red
a-kʰų-ka k'ááł
“The red thing is a fire/is burning.”

Lyran is a class IV language according to Dixon and Aikhenvald’s four-term classification of languages based on word class distinctions. This means that noun roots can easily function as verb roots and vice versa and still remain grammatical. However, a distinction is still made between these two word classes because many roots are much more common as nouns and verbs as the other. Usually a noun root used as a verb will be common in copular constructions and a verb root used as a noun will mean “the X-ing thing”, but this can vary as seen in the example above, where the root kʰų can mean both “be a fire” and “to burn”.

Other derivational processes exist, and will be explained further.

Verb Derivation

-kV̨-: Patient derivation, a now mostly extinct suffix that appears in a few words.
qʷ’uu > qʷ’uuqų
"kill/die" > "murder victim"

-u~ʔu-: Patient derivation, very productive
f'áá > f'ááʔu
"breathe" > "breath"

-z~za-: Instrument derivation, very productive.
ją́ą́ > ją́ą́za
"count" > "number"

-ʔV́-: Instrument derivation, somewhat productive.
łíč > łíč'í
"fix" > "tool (generic)"

-li~l-: Action derivation, somewhat productive, derived from an earlier gerund.
"kʰąą" > "kʰąąli"
eat > meal

I may add to this list later, but this is all it has for now. There is little derivation beyond this, and zero derivation is by far the most common.

Subjects and Negatives

I’m combining these because negatives probably won’t take long.

Subject agreement markers are rather similar to object and possessive subject markers, but are different in a few forms and alternations, partially due to being prefixes and not suffixes. The markers are displayed below.

Code: Select all

       SIN       DU         PLU
1      -cʰ-      -ł’~łá-    -z’i~z’-
12               -káhu~káh- -q~qa-
2      -šĭ-     -čii~č-    -ma~m
3.AN   -a-           -w~u-  
3.INAN -0-           -ç~xi- 
These are rather similar, but the more common forms like the first and third person forms are different.

Negatives are rather simple, formed with the affix /f~fu/, varying to /fu/ if the next segment is a consonant. Negation on the verb applies to the entire clause, negation on nouns and adjectives are expressed by the clitic /=fuka/, which is also used to form negative indefinites like nobody and nothing.

Valency and Voice

This is partially inspired by the “classifier” system of Athabaskan languages. The first determines the valency of the verb, which can be intransitive, transitive, stative, and middle. The forms for these are shown below.

INTRANS: -0-
STATE: -kĭ-
TRANS: -ł-
MIDDLE:-s-

Like the Athabaskan language Tlingit, Lyran has no ditransitive verbs; these are expressed with an allative. The intransitive is the default and is used for most verbs where the subject has influence over the outcome of the event. These are mostly verbs that describe an activity, like to work, and can be used with transitive verbs to express a kind of antipassive. Statives express most stative verbs and verbs that would correspond to adjectives in English. Transitive is rather simple, and corresponds to most standard transitive verbs. Middle is somewhat more complex, and behaves similarly to Spanish reflexive verbs, where they would correspond to transitive verbs in English where an agent is acting upon themselves. Many verbs vary depending on their meanings depending on what valency they are placed in, for example, the verb root √wáá means both to wash in transitive, to wash oneself in middle, and to be clean in stative. Changing the voice marker can also change the “voice” of the verb. Putting a normally intransitive active verb in the transitive can form a sort of antipassive, but this depends on the semantics of the verb.

Next come the voice markers, which are merged with the valency markers. There are four voices as well, active, passive, causative, and self-benefactive. The last one is not technically a voice, but it is placed here because it is derived from an earlier reflexive. There are also other applicative voices in a further slot. The forms of the voices and the forms combined with the valency markers are shown below.

Code: Select all

Valency:         Intrans Stative Trans  Middle
Active           -0-     -kĭ-    -ł-    -s-
Passive          ---     ---     -λ’-   --- 
Causative        -t-     -kt-   ---    ---
Self-Benefactive –q’a-   -kq’a- -łq’a- –sq’a-
The active is the most common and is simply a null, where the valency affixes are used unchanged. The passive can be used to decrease the valency of a verb, putting the former subject in an object slot in person marking. The causative has separate roots for some common verbs, but is morphological for most. Transitive verbs with causative constructions use a serial verb with the root √ta, which takes transitive marking. The self-benefactive is technically not a voice, but is derived from an earlier reflexive, and is used for any action done for the benefit of the subject, even if there is no specified benefactive argument.
Last edited by Osia on 13 Oct 2017 23:52, edited 6 times in total.
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Re: Modern Lyran (NP: Intro and Phonology)

Post by DesEsseintes »

Minor nitpick: Tlingit is Na-Dene but not Athabaskan.

I'm enjoying this, because it has many parallels with my conlang TLFKAT, which is also heavily influenced by the Na-Dene verb template. I've struggled for a long time trying to overcome the desire to copy the classifier system (partly because I already did it in another conlang of mine), so seeing you use it here tickles me pink.
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Re: Modern Lyran (NP: Intro and Phonology)

Post by Frislander »

I will second Des' sentiment; this language is overwhelming and beautiful. I too have a great fondness for the Na-Dené verb template and I kind of wish I had a language which handled things like that (though I probably wouldn't go with that phonology; glorious as it is, it's a bit unweildy for my taste).

The presence of a dual in the third person only, particularly the inanimate, but also the presence of an inclusive 1st person strikes me as a little odd, but I guess I wouldn't be surprised if it is attested in a natlang.
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