gǂàamą́ 3oį-ʔą̀rhokìi

[Shemtov]

gǂàamą́ 3oį-ʔą̀rhokìi is a language spoken in the Northeast section of the Varatavaarano Desert, to the northwest of Fuhe, by a group of people who act as traders between what the Fuheans see as "Civilazation" and "Barbarians".

They live in villages among the oasises the dot the Northen Northeast Quarter of the Varatavaarano Desert, and the people who act as traders are sterilized/chemically castrated by eating certain potions of plants found throughout the desert, and are treated as a Third Gender, though this is voluntary, and if they wish they may take a regimen of other potions to return to their birth gender and live a "settled" life.

The language is part of the Macro-Saǃho-Gǂaamian Phylum, spoken throughout the desert.


Phonology:
p b ɓ t tʰ d ⁿd ɗ t͡s t͡sʰ d͡z ⁿd͡z t͡s' t͡ʃ t͡ʃʰ d͡ʒ t͡ʃ' ⁿd͡ʒ t͡ɬ t͡ɬʰ t͡ɬ' k k͡x g k' kʷ kʷ' q q͡χ ʔ ʔʲ ʔʷ/ <p b b' t th d nd d' c ch ż nż c' č čh ž č' tl tlh tl' k kh g k' kw kwh q qh ʔ ʔy ʔw>
/m n mʱ m̥ʰ n nʱ n̥ʰ nʲ nʲʱ ŋ ŋʱ/ <m mh hm n nh hn ny nyh ng ngh>
/f θ ð s z ɬ ʃ ʒ ç ʝ χ ʁ χʷ ħ ʕ h ɦ/ <f þ ð s z hl sh zh ś ź x gh xw ħ 3 h ɦ>
/r rʱ r̥ʰ rʲ rʲʱ/ <r rh hr ry ryh>
/l lʱ lʲ lʲʱ/ <l lh ly lyh>
/j w/ <y w>

/ǀ ᶢǀ ǀʰ ᶢǀʱ ⁿǀ ⁿǀʱ |'/ < ǀ gǀ hǀ ǀh nǀ nǀh ǀ'>
/ǃ ᶢǃ ǃʰ ᶢǃʱ ⁿǃ ⁿǃʱ ǃ'/ < ! g! h! !h n! n!h !'>
/ǁ ᶢǁ ǁʰ ᶢǁʱ ⁿǁ ⁿǁʱ ǁ'/ ǁ gǁ hǁ ǁh nǁ nǁh ǁ'
/ǂ ᶢǂ ǂʰ ⁿǂ ǂ' / <ǂ gǂ hǂ nǂ ǂ'>

/i e o a ɨ̃ ə̃/< i e o a į ą>
/i: e: o: a:/ <ii ee oo aa>
/ai oi ei ae ao eo aɨ̃ õɨ̃ ẽɨ̃ ə̃ĩ ə̃õ ə̃ẽ/ <ai oi ei ae ao eo aį oį eį ąi ąo ąe


/˩ ˧ ˥ ˩˧ ˧˥ ˥˧ ˧˩/ (shown on /a:/ <aa>) <àà aa áá àa aá áa aà>
Contour tones only occur on long vowels and diphthong.

Syllable structure: CV(:/V)

/o/ is realized as [ u ] if the nearest mora in the same word not blocked by "Strong Obstruents" (all obstruents except <ʔy ʔw ś ź ħ 3 h ɦ>) has as <i> or <ę> as the vowel, except in the same diphthong and after <kw kwh ʔw f xw>.
/jo/ is realized as [jʉ]
/wi we/ are realized as /wy wø/
/a/ is realized as [ɛ]/ after <č čh ž č ʔy ny nyh sh zh ś ź ry ryh ly lyh y.>
/a/ is realized as [ɔ]/ after <m mh hm p b b ' kw kwh ʔw f xw>
In the same word, between a nasal and a voiceless obstruent , <ą> realized as a syllabic nasal that assimilates to the nasal's POA, so <hmą́þi> "Eye" is pronounced as [m̥ʰḿ̩θī]

Nouns:
Nouns come in six classes, shown with their basic meaning, singular and plural 3P Absolutive pronouns:
Class I: Humans. Sing: 3éé Plr: 3eį̀
Class II: Most land animals, Birds, body parts: Sing: wà Plr: wàwą̀
Class III Most movable man-made objects: Sing: roí Plr: ròį
Class IV: Most movable natural objects, plants, insects, sea creatures: Sing: yáa Plr: yáyaį́
Class V: Food, liquids: Sing: wó Plr:wą́o
Class VI: Other nouns: Sing: hryìi Plr: hryìhryį

[WeepingElf]

That's a huge consonant inventory, I must say.

[Shemtov]

That's a huge consonant inventory, I must say.

That's what happens when you take the already large inventory of Khoesan languages and add some distinctive consonants of Afro-Asiatic, all while keeping it a coherent system. Plus, going crazy with the nasals.

[eldin raigmore]

I like your noun-class Class VI. in my opinion every noun-classification scheme needs one like that!

[Shemtov]

NB: The name of language has changed, due to the fact that I made a grammatical mistake! In my own conlang!

[Shemtov]

The language has an Ergative-absolutive alignment. The following are the ergative pronouns for each noun class:
Class I: . Sing: 3éhǀí Plr: 3ąíhǀí
Class II: Sing: wanǁí Plr: wànǁąí
Class III Sing: ríǃí Plr: róǃé
Class IV: Sing: yágǂį́ Plr: yágǂáį́
Class V: Food, liquids: Sing: wóǀí Plr:wą́ǀį́
Class VI: Other nouns: Sing: shihǂé Plr: Shíhǂį

Except in the absolutive singular, where they are unmarked, nouns are marked for case and number by using the corresponding pronoun as a postclitic:


Example: poǀ'ào "foreigner" (Class I
Absolutive singular: poǀ'ào
Abs. Plr: poǀ'ào-3eį̀
Erg. Sing: poǀ'ào-3éhǀí
Erg. Plr. poǀ'ào-3ąíhǀí

Example: gǂà3òį "ostrich" (class II)
Absolutive singular: gǂà3òį
Abs. Plr:gǂà3òį-wàwą̀
Erg. Sing: gǂà3òį-wanǁí
Erg. Plr. gǂà3òį-wànǁąí

Example ɦaðààshó "Lentil Stew" (Class V)
Absolutive singular: ɦaðààshó
Abs. Plr: ɦaðààshó-wą́o
Erg. Sing: ɦaðààshó-wóǀí
Erg. Plr. ɦaðààshó-wą́ǀį́

[Shemtov]

UPDATE: I have been having health issues, and then my computer crashed, leaving me with only the back-up notes to this language, which are woefully incomplete compared to what I was actually going to post over the past week. I am reconstructing this language based on the incomplete notes, but am afraid the canonical version might have significant differences from my original vision. This conlang is very important in my worldbuilding, so I definitely want to recreate it, and will do so, but it will take me longer then expected.

[eldin raigmore]

I wish you good health!
I also wish your computer “good health”!

[Shemtov]

Personal pronouns, 1p and 2p:
1P Sing: Nái
1P Plr: Naħąó
2P Sing: Tá
2P Plr: Tèę

Verbs:
The canonical shape of verbs is CV(:/V)CV(:/V)CV(:/V). The finite verb comes in three forms: The Imperfective, the Perfective and the Subjunctive.

The Imperfective is the "Base Stem" of the verb. Take Yàśonheè "Sleep".
To form the Perfective, the last syllable is reduplicated, with the tone raised if possible: Yàśonheènhée
To form the Subjunctive the syllable h‖ó is prefixed, and the penultimate syllable undergoes the following vowel changes:
i>ii
e>ei
o>oi
a>ai
į>eį
ą>ąi
ee>ei
oo>oi
aa>ai
ae>ai
ao>oi
eo>eį
eį >ei
ąo>ąe
ąe>ąi
If the penult cannot change, verbs of that type fall into three subclasses: 2a, where the syllable <ye> is inserted after the normal penult, 2b, where <gǂií> is inserted, and 2c, where only the prefixation occurs.

Thus, the subjunctive form of the example verb is h‖óyàśoinheè


The exact use of the three forms will be explained in the next post, where I will introduce the idea of the postverbal element.