Roshterian: Difference between revisions
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**{{recon|neqtə}} > ''neeṯ'' /neːʈ/ 'cloud' | **{{recon|neqtə}} > ''neeṯ'' /neːʈ/ 'cloud' | ||
*{{recon|ks, qs}} > /js, ːʂ/ | *{{recon|ks, qs}} > /js, ːʂ/ | ||
*{{recon|kn, gn, kʷn, gʷn, qn, ql, qr}} > /jn, jn, | *{{recon|kn, gn, kʷn, gʷn, qn, ql, qr}} > /jn, jn, pr, br, :ɳ, :ɻ, :ɻ/ (with **/uj/ > /uː/ ) | ||
**''sφugnus'' > ''s̱uun'' 'root' ~ Thn. ''sφugnus'' | **''sφugnus'' > ''s̱uun'' 'root' ~ Thn. ''sφugnus'' | ||
**''leqnos'' > ''leeṉ'' 'river' ~ Thn. ''leānos''? | **''leqnos'' > ''leeṉ'' 'river' ~ Thn. ''leānos''? | ||
Revision as of 23:08, 18 October 2017
| Roshterian | |
|---|---|
| oṟbiros̱ṯerim | |
| Pronunciation | [/ɔɻbɪɾɔʂʈɛˈɾɪm/] |
| Created by | IlL |
| Setting | Verse:Tricin |
| Native speakers | 5.1 million (about as much as Finnish) (fT 11E0dd) |
| Official status | |
Official language in | Roshteria |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | qrh |
Roshterian /rɒʃˈtɛriən/ (native name: oṟbiros̱ṯerim /ɔɻbɪɾɔʂʈɛˈɾɪm/ 'The Roshterian language') is a Talmic language inspired by P-Celtic (particularly Welsh). It is an official language of Roshteria (Qaaros̱ṯerim) and is the native language of 5.1 million people, most of which live in Roshteria. Among Etalocians, it is famous for its grammar: it is a head-initial, polysynthetic language in which verbs use polypersonal agreement, evidentials, applicative constructions and noun incorporation.
History
- See also: Old Roshterian
The Roshterian tongue is surely among the most bountiful of troves for the student of languages. No Talman can but marvel at this language's great depth and uncanny familiarity to him ... While its words and forms display some affinity to our own language [Eevo], they are even more akin to the ancient Thensarian language, indeed to such a degree that its Talmic provenance cannot be doubted ... Curiously, the Roshterian speech in particular is pronounced with consonants with strong tongue-curling not unlike those of the Maisári ... it has a proclivity towards using lengthy words for single utterances where a succession of smaller words and prefixes combine in a quite volatile manner, reminding one of the language of old Eevo texts ... I think it proper to further study this curious language, wherein is sure to lie solutions to great mysteries surrounding the common forebear of Talmic languages.
The ancestors of modern-day Roshterians are hypothesized to have been an autochthonous people who gradually adopted a Talmic superstrate language. Until relatively recent times little was known of the language to outsiders (save for a handful of legends of a race of "backwards-talking" people with bodies of reversed chirality).
The first written example of a complete Roshterian sentence is found in a Clofabian travel journal dating to ca. fT 830dd (in Clofabic script):
- olbiroaxterem taicaxan habo metuperen
- I would like to speak Roshterian; alas, I cannot.
(In modern Roshterian orthography: Bys oṟbiros̱ṯerimytaicyn, boorimituperen. 'gladly-language-Roshterian-speak-1SG but-EVID.DIR-NEG-do-can-1SG')
This sentence was likely written by a non-native speaker of Roshterian, seeing by the fact that he/she omitted evidentials, which would be required in the second clause.
The significance of Roshterian for Talmic linguistics was first noted by the Eevo linguist Bolltind. He proposed that it reflected all four dorsal series of Proto-Talmic differently, unlike the (in Talma) hitherto known Thensaric languages:
- *k, g > Roshterian c, g; Thensarian c, g
- *kʷ, gʷ > Rosh. p, b; Thn. c, g
- *q, ʁ > Rosh. q, ḡ; Thn. ȝ, ħ
- *qʷ, ʁʷ > Rosh. s̱, ṟ; Thn. c, g
Todo
Affix fusion rules!!!
- How do I say "cozy"?
- Siis̱i = a female name
- In prefixes, ni- > i- (important!)
Numbers
TODO: Combining forms, ordinals, distributives
- 1: peem, peemy-
- 2: ṯitu, ṯitu-
- 3: naṟg, naṟ-
- 4: loob, loo-
- 5: helit, lit-
- 6: ṯiam
- 7: ruad
- 8: loṟ
- 9: baṟ
- 10: ḡiṟ
- 11: huprai
- 12: prai
Phonology
Consonants
Roshterian uses the following consonants:
| Labial | Dental/Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| central | lateral | central | lateral | |||||||
| Nasal | m /m/ | n /n̪/ | ṉ /ɳ/ | [ŋ] | [ɴ] | |||||
| Stop | voiceless | p /p/ | t /t̪/ | ṯ /ʈ/ | c /k/ | q /q/ | ||||
| voiced | b /b/ | d /d̪/ | ḏ /ɖ/ | g /g/ | ||||||
| Continuant | voiceless | f /f/ | s /s̪/ | s̱ /ʂ/ | h /h/ | |||||
| voiced | w /w/ | r /r/ | l /l̪/ | ṟ /ɻ/ | ḻ /ɭ/ | ḡ /ʁ/ | ||||
j z /j z/ are used in loanwords.
- Notes
- The voiceless stops /p t̪ ʈ k q/ are normally aspirated as much as Japanese voiceless stops; however, they are unaspirated after fricatives.
- /n̪ t̪ d̪ l̪/ are dental; /s̪/ is dentalized alveolar (transcribed /n t d s l/ for sake of convenience).
- [ŋ] and [ɴ] are allophones of /n̪/ before velar and uvular consonants, respectively.
- /r/ can be an alveolar flap [ɾ], an apical retroflex flap [ɽ], or trilled [r].
- /ɳ ʈ ɖ ɭ/ can be realized as apical-postalveolar (like Hindi retroflexes) or subapical-palatal (like Tamil retroflexes). The apical realization dominates in casual speech, while the subapical realization occurs more in careful speech. After /ʂ/, /ʈ/ is always apical.
- /ʂ/ is laminal post-alveolar [s̠] or sometimes [ɧ].
- /ɻ/ can be post-alveolar [ɹ̠] or truly retroflex [ɻ].
- /ʁ/ is a voiced uvular fricative [ʁ] or a trill [ʀ].
- /w/ may be [v] in some dialects.
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| short | long | short | long | short | long | |
| Close | i /ɪ/ | ii /iː/ | u /ʊ/ | uu /uː/ | ||
| Mid | e /ɛ/ | ee /eː/ | y /ə/ | yy /əː/ | o /ɔ/ | oo /oː/ |
| Open | a /a/ | aa /aː/ | ||||
In addition, the following diphthongs are used: ⟨ai ei ia au ua oi iu⟩ /aɪ ɛɪ iə ɛʊ uə ɔɪ ɪʊ/
- Notes
- /ɪ, iː/ are centralized after retroflex consonants to [ɪ̈, ɨː]; for example, ṉii 'big' is pronounced [ɳɨː]
- /eː, oː/ are lowered to [ɛː, ɔː] before retroflexes and uvulars.
Stress
There is no phonemic stress or tone; all words are pronounced with word-final stress.
Phonotactics
Roshterian allows fewer clusters than Proto-Talmic.
Allowed clusters:
- Not allowed initially: mp, mb, nt, nd, ṉṯ, ṉḏ, nc, ng, nq, nḡ, ns, nx, ns̱, nx̱, lp, lt, lc, ḻq, lb, ld, lg, ḻḡ, rp, rt, ṟṯ, rc, rq, rb, rd, rg, rḡ, rm, rn, st, s̱ṯ, sc, s̱q, ṟb, ṟḏ, ṟg, ts, tx, ṟm, ṟḏ, ṟḻ
- Allowed initially: pl, pr, bl, br, fl, fr, tr, dr, ṯr, ḏr, cl, cr
- Some dialects may have ṯṟ, ḏṟ for ṯr, ḏr
- Some dialects always use Cḻ or Cṟ for Cr
Sandhi
Sound changes
The most significant change characterizing Roshterian is the coalescing and altering of consonant clusters, often creating retroflex consonants.
- kw, gw > p, b
- gl-, gr- > l, r
- *ā > ia (*nā > nia 'I'); *ō > ua; *au > oo; *ou > uu; *ū > ii
- *qʷ > /χʷ/ > /ɧ/ > s̱; *ʁʷ > /ζ/ > ṟ
- ʁʷelinə ("6 parts [of 12]") > ṟelin 'half'
- *nw, tw, dw, sw, łw, lw, rw > ṉ, ṯ, ḏ, s̱, x̱, ḻ, ṟ /ɳ, ʈ, ɖ, ʂ, ɬ̠, ʐ~ɻ~ɭ, ʐ~ɻ~ɭ/
- gʷałwā > bati 'neck, throat' ~ Thn. gaθvā 'throat (also language)'
- *sl-, sm-, sn- > ḻ-, m-, ṉ-
- *sɸ-, sr-, sw- > s̱-, ṟ-, s̱-
- *st, sk, skʷ, sq > t-/st, ṯ-/s̱ṯ-, f, q-/s̱q
- stas- > tetsil 'gathering' (~ Thn. Stasnyssōs > Tíogall Stánsa, Clofabosin stannsin 'a holiday')
- skəttā > ṯyyti 'body' ~ Thn. scyttā
- *bastom > bast 'king' ~ Thn. bastom 'head'
- *sb, sd, sg > ṟb, ṟḏ, ṟg
- *nasg- > naṟg '3'
- *φn, tn, φl, tl/dl > /ːn, s-/ts, ːɬ, ɖ/
- łnāgin > xiagin 'I believe' ~ Thn. θnāginis
- oφlutsus > ooxus 'wave'
- *kt, qt > /jt, ːʈ/
- *tektə > teit /teit/ 'child'
- *neqtə > neeṯ /neːʈ/ 'cloud'
- *ks, qs > /js, ːʂ/
- *kn, gn, kʷn, gʷn, qn, ql, qr > /jn, jn, pr, br, :ɳ, :ɻ, :ɻ/ (with **/uj/ > /uː/ )
- sφugnus > s̱uun 'root' ~ Thn. sφugnus
- leqnos > leeṉ 'river' ~ Thn. leānos?
- qrīdis > ṟiid 'knife' ~ Thn. ȝrīdis 'edge'
- gʷnūnum > briin 'scar' ~ Thn. gnūnum 'scar', Tíogall gnúinte 'scar'
- *φj, tj, kj, qj > pt s s-/ts ḡ
- *j-, s- > h-
- *φ- > ∅-
- Initial short vowels drop
- *skj, stj > ṯ-/s̱ṯ, s-/ːs
- final short vowels lost; final -m, -r, -s, -t lost; final long vowels shorten (ia, ua > i, u)
- i-affection: The following changes affect V1 in sequences of the form V1 + consonant cluster + ultimate (*i/*ī/*j) unless the consonant cluster after V1 contains a retroflex consonant.
- a > e
- e > i
- Stress shifts to final
- Some combining forms and combined forms are altered due to the stress shift - conjunct forms for verbs arise when there is an antepenultimate syllable
Morphology
Verbs
Each verb has 3 principal parts: the progressive stem, the habitual stem and the preterite stem.
Object incorporation
Verb stems have a combining form, also called the incorporating form, which is used with object markers, negation or incorporated objects. Any noun stem can be incorporated, including proper nouns.
hoox̱iis̱yn 'eat fruit' < hoox̱i 'fruit' + caasyn 'eat'
Verb template
The Roshterian verb has 9 slots which mark a variety of grammatical information. Slots that must be filled are in bold.
- (discourse)
- evidentiality
- negation/focus
- causative person marker
- object person marker/passive marker
- incorporated noun
- applicative
- ROOT
- auxiliary
- subject+aspect
Discourse markers
Discourse markers are often connecting words for clauses, or particles that display the speaker's emotional reaction to an event.
- bys- = 'gladly'
- boo- = 'but'
- yṟ/ṟy- = (softening marker)
Evidentiality affixes
Evidentials mark the source of the speaker's information; a lack of evidential marking signals that the verb is an imperative or a purpose clause. Some other discourse affixes (which are in complementary distribution with evidentials) also go into this slot.
- i- (before C), r- (before V) = I witnessed or otherwise directly experienced this
- pyn- = information I obtained from hearsay or am quoting
- dre- = a third-party source I consider credible
- me- = my own inference, assumption or subjective opinion
- hy- (< PTal *səni stə... 'tell me if...') = interrogative (used for both wh-questions and yes-no questions)
- eb- = if
Negative/focus affixes
Negation is marked with the negative affix mis- (before V), or mi-/N- (before C), which may alter the verb stem to its incorporating form.
There's also focused affirmative ("yes, X is true") and focused negative ("no, X isn't true") affixes, used e.g. when answering questions.
- Negative: mis-, mi-, N-
- Focused affirmative: fe-
- Focused negative: tir-
Causative person markers
The causative prefixes are used in causative verbs to index the agent causing the action of the object-ROOT-subject complex. The causative person marker comes from forms of the verb oona 'to do/make' (*oonan sy 'I make it that' > oony- > ony-).
For example:
- Ronypicaasym.
- /ronəpikaːˈsəm/
- r-ony-pi-caasy-m
- DIR-CAUS.1SG-OBJ.4-eat-PROG.SUBJ.3SG.M
- I'm feeding it to him.
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ony- | ome- |
| 1 + 2 | - | onty- |
| 2 | ory- | ofy- |
| 3 (male) | omy- | oty- |
| 3 (female) | osy- | |
| 3 (inanimate) | oo- | |
| 4 (obviative) | opy- | |
| Who? | ote- | |
| What? | ota- | |
Object person markers
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | in- | mee- |
| 1 + 2 | - | xee- |
| 2 | ti- | hee- |
| 3 (proximate) | bi- | nee- |
| 4 (obviative) | pi- | |
| Whom?/Someone | tei- | |
| What?/Something | taa- | |
Applicatives
- di- = at, in, by
- hee- = about
Subject+TAM markers
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Habitual indicative: Reduplicate the progressive indicative with Ce-. (the reduplicant can be irregular) |
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Voice affixes
- ṯy- = mediopassive (< "body, self")
- rab/raa- = reciprocal
Auxiliaries
- -dunqan: 'I must/have to' (negated: 'I don't have to')
- -peren: 'I can/I'm able to'
- -ṯysin: 'I may/I have permission to' (negated: 'I must not')
- -s̱an: 'I want to/intend to'
Copula
To express "is a [NOUN]" or "is [ADJ]", the copula -(l)uan is suffixed to the bare stem of X; X plus the copula then goes to the normal stem slot for purposes of verb inflection. The noun itself doesn't go into the plural even when the subject is plural.
- Lameteitutu.
- la-me-teit-utu
- merely-INFERRED-child-COP.PRES.3PL
- In my opinion, they are mere children.
- Hyroṉḏuar, hybreituar?
- Hy-roṉḏ-uar, hy-breit-uar
- Q-man-COP.2SG, Q-woman-COP.PRES.2SG
- Are you a man or a woman?
When the copula is added on nouns without an evidential, it emphasizes the noun or simply indicates the tense of an action (either past or non-past).
- Metuumi bastaim.
- me-tuu-mi bast-aim
- INFERRED-do-3SG.M.PFV king-COP.PST.3SG.M
- It was apparently the king who did it. / The king apparently did it.
Inflection
The copula is suppletive; it also has only non-past indicative and past indicative forms.
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Nouns
Nouns are marked with a singular-plural distinction, and may also take possessive suffixes. However, the lemma form of a noun is typically its combining form, which is the incorporated form of a noun and is also used to form possessed forms and compounds. Unlike Thensarian, Roshterian lost the Proto-Talmic grammatical gender; gendered pronouns and verb affixes no longer mark grammatical gender, but natural gender (as in Naquian). There is no definite or indefinite article.
The plural form is inherited from the Proto-Talmic reduplicated collective, and is often formed by reduplication. Example: breit /bɾɛit/ 'woman', bebreit /bɛˈbɾɛit/ 'women'. Some irregularities may be present due to the retention of the original single consonant in the reduplicant, as opposed to the stem-initial cluster where the consonants interacted to produce new consonants and clusters.
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Demonstrative suffixes
Deixis or demonstratives (such as 'this' or 'that') are marked with a suffix added to the combining form of the noun.
- this: -ma
- that: -pa
Adjectives
Predicative adjectives work the same way as predicative nouns in that they must take the copula. The class of adjectives is actually a small, closed subclass of nouns, usually relating to shape, color, size, texture, and other concrete properties of objects.
Attributive adjectives are compounded after the noun.
A more analytic construction can also be used: the 3rd person singular inanimate possessive suffix is added to the noun, and the adjective comes after.
- bryn 'red': Ibrynua hoget. 'The apple is red.'; hootibryn or hootit bryn 'red apple'
- pant 'big': Ipantua huaryn. 'My house is big.'; huarypant or huaryt pant 'big house'
- ros̱ṯerim 'Roshterian': Iros̱ṯerimutu. 'They're Roshterian.'; Qaaros̱ṯerim 'Roshteria' (lit. 'Roshterian country')
Prepositions
Prepositions are inflected for person similarly to nouns; when a preposition is followed by a noun, the preposition must take the corresponding 3rd or 4th person suffix.
- di- = 'in'
- bel- = 'from'
Pronouns
Personal pronouns
Independent pronouns are not used except for emphasis.
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | nia | iam |
| 1 + 2 | pyd | |
| 2 | weer | cyvi |
| 3 (masculine) | hum | sia |
| 3 (feminine) | hii | |
| 3 (inanimate) | ha | |
| 4 (obviative) | pii | |
Demonstrative pronouns
Independent demonstratives look like:
- this: amac
- that: apac
Interrogatives
Derivational morphology
- bo- = associated person
- bopenicili-, bopenicili /bɔpɛnɪkɪˈlɪ/ = penicillin player
- brei- = -ess, feminine counterpart to bo- (not common in modern Roshterian)
- -ait (not productive) = forms adjectives
- [NOUN]-ṯobyn = to resemble a NOUN (the noun is incorporated)
Syntax
Roshterian is a verb-initial, head-marking polysynthetic language. Verbs take both subject and object affixes, and complex morphophonemic alternations are common. Where Roshterian deviates from typical Etalocian (or even typical Talmic) typology are features such as obviation, noun incorporation and evidential marking, making Roshterian resemble Native American languages such as Blackfoot or Ojibwe.
- Itiraḏan.
- I-ti-raḏa-n
- EVID_DIR-2SG.OBJ-love-1SG.SUBJ
- I love you.
Possession
"X of Y" = X-3SG Y or X-Y (e.g. weinyti boclofabim 'the Clofabian's brother' or xafut huar = 'the color of the house')
Obviation
Applicatives
Applicative affixes make a verb's prepositional or oblique object into its direct object (cf. be- in English bemoan 'to complain about'). Applicatives are as much a stylistic or pragmatic choice as syntactic (see below) or lexical. Some verbs may use multiple applicative prefixes, when they do so is difficult to predict.
Examples:
- Iheeditaicyn raḏi am ḡiaf.
- I'm talking about love and hate. (lit. I bespeak love and hate)
Sometimes not using applicatives is preferred, sometimes vice versa:
- Idis̱oorin Qaaros̱ṯerim.
- 'I live in Roshteria.' (lit. I inhabit Roshteria)
- Is̱oorin dit ḡeeliaṉ.
- 'I live in a city.'
Applicatives are not only useful for emphasizing or topicalizing the oblique argument but in fact are necessary for certain syntactic constructions (and for just sounding natural). When an applicative is used, the original direct object (when used) takes the instrumental preposition nai.
Clause types
Time clauses
Relative clauses
There are no relative pronouns or resumptive pronouns in Roshterian. Only the gap strategy is available, and only a subject or an object of the relative clause can be a head. This is where applicatives come in handy, as applicatives promote oblique arguments to direct objects, thus allow oblique arguments of a verb to used as relative clause heads.
The relative clause is marked by a nominalizing affix ped-.
- Meiḻicort ḡeeliaṉ pedidis̱oorin.
- me-eiḻi-cort-0 ḡeeliaṉ ped-i-di-s̱oor-in
- EVID_SUBJ-heart-embrace-3SG.N city NMLZ-EV.DIR-APP.LOC-live-PRES.1SG
- The city that I live in is cozy. (lit. The city that I inhabit embraces the heart.)
Complement clauses
Reason clauses
Purpose clauses
Sample texts
Tower of Babel
Snake Lemma
- Professor Kate Gunzinger proves the Snake Lemma in the film It's My Turn (1980). I'm skipping the proof, which is less linguistically uninteresting.
- Yṟonypinoofer has̱upimyṯrut pedipainywelip s, biṉṯylaḡilcama peeṯypryṉifiaqalip, ḻe?
- Yṟ-ony-pi-noo-fer has̱u-pi-myṯru-t ped-ipai-weli-p s bin-ṯy-laḡ-ilcam-a ped-ṯy-pryṉi-fia-qali-p ḻe
- DISC_SOFTEN-CAUS.1SG-4-see-2PL.SUBJ.PERF way-4-build-CONST NOMZ-object-to_name-4 s, DISC_SHOULD_BE_OBVIOUS-PASS-APPL_TELIC-sow-3SG.N NOMZ-PASS-examine-show-at_first-4 TAG
- Let me just show you how to construct the map s, which is the fun of the lemma anyhow, okay?