Roshterian
Introduction
The Roshterian tongue is truly a marvel to behold, an infinite trove of jewels for the student of languages ... While its words and affixes display some affinity to our own language, 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 tongue-curling not unlike those of the Gulyasj language ... noit has a proclivity towards using lengthy words for single utterances where a multitude of smaller words and prefixes combine in a quite volatile manner, reminding one of the language of Old Tíogall texts ... I think it proper to further study this language, for surely it will yield a great wealth of information concerning the common forebear of Talmic languages.
Roshterian /rɒʃˈtɛriən/ (native name: eṟbiros̱ṯerim /ɛɻbɪɾɔʂʈɛˈɾɪm/ 'The Roshterian language', ros̱ṯer from older *rosker- 'front, east'; Clofabosin: rosterosin) is a Talmic language spoken in Northeastern Cuadhlabh, inspired partly by Welsh and Tamil. It is head-initial and polysynthetic; verbs use bipersonal conjugation, evidentials, applicative constructions and noun incorporation.
Todo
- Suffixed copula for predicatives.
- func = page
- eṟbitamiṟim = Tamil language (not used in Hussmauch)
- caamu 'wife'
- ooxus /oːˈɬus/ 'wave'
- roṉḏ, roṉḏo- /rɔɳɖ/ = man (male) (*rondwom?)
- breit, breity- /brɛɪt/ (< boni-teit 'AGT-child') = woman
- bo- = profession
- bopenicili-, bopenicili /bopɛnikiˈli/ = penicillin player
- nys̱-, henys̱ /hɛˈnəʂ/ = water, liquid
- nys̱ṉoq = sauce (noqa-, noq = 'top')
- nys̱oox̱i = fruit juice
- viip = eye
- nys̱viip = tears
- qeqeqeqeqe... = (laughter or snickering)
- hox̱i-, hoox̱i = fruit
- qaaṟan = laugh
Numbers
TODO: Combining forms, ordinals, distributives
- 1: peem
- 2: tixu
- 3: naṟg
- 4: loob
- 5: helix, lix- (regular reflex *holix)
- 6: ṯiam
- 7: ruad
- 8: lored
- 9: baṟ
- 10: ḡir
- 11: hunai
- 12: nai
Phonology
Among Talmic languages, Roshterian is notable for having retroflex consonants, uvular consonants and multiple liquids.
Consonants
| Labial | Dental/Alveolar | Retroflex | 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/ | x /ɬ/ | s̱ /ʂ/ | x̱ /ɬʵ/ | h /h/ | ||
| voiced | v /v/ | r /ɾ~ɽ/ | l /l/ | ṟ /ɻ/ | ḻ /ɭ/ | ḡ /ʁ/ | |||
j /j/ and z /z/ are used in loanwords.
- Notes
- [ŋ] and [ɴ] are allophones of /n̪/ before velar and uvular consonants, respectively.
- Northeastern dialects fail to distinguish /ɭ/ from /ɬʵ/.
- The retroflex consonants are subapical or apical.
Vowels
ɪ i: ʊ u: ɛ e: ə ə: ɔ o: a a: aɪ ɛɪ iə ɛʊ uə ɔɪ ɪʊ
⟨i i u uu e ee y yy o oo a aa ai ei ia au ua oi iu⟩
Stress
There is no phonemic stress or tone; however, all words are pronounced with word-final stress.
Phonotactics
Roshterian allows relatively few clusters compared to e.g. Thensarian, but more clusters than Nurian.
Allowed clusters:
- Not allowed initially: mp, mb, nt, nd, ṉṯ, ṉḏ, nc, ng, nq, nḡ, lp, lt, lc, lq, lb, ld, lg, lḡ, rp, rt, ṟṯ, rc, rq, rb, rd, rg, rgh, rm, rn, st, s̱ṯ, sv, sc, s̱q, ṟb, ṟḏ, ṟg, ts, tx, tx̱, ṟm, ṟn, ṟḻ ...
- Allowed initially: pl, pr, bl, br, fr, vr, tr, ṯr, dr, (ḏr), cl, cr, gl, gr
Sandhi
Sound changes
The most significant changes characterizing Roshterian are coalescing and altering of consonant clusters, often creating retroflex consonants.
- kw, gw > p, b
- *ā > ia (*nā > nia 'I'); *ō > ua; *au > ô; *ou > û; *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 > bax̱i 'neck, throat' ~ Thn. gaθuā 'throat (also language)'
- *sl-, sm-, sn- > ḻ-, m-, ṉ-
- *sɸ-, sr-, sw- > s̱-, ṟ-, s̱-
- *st, sk, skʷ, sq > t-/st, ṯ-/s̱ṯ-, v-/sv-, q-/s̱q
- stas- > tetsil 'gathering' (~ Thn. Stasnyssōs)
- skəttā > ṯyyti 'body' ~ Thn. scyttā
- *bastom > bast 'king' ~ Thn. bastom 'head'
- *sb, sd, sg > ṟb, ṟḏ, ṟg
- *nasg- > naṟg '3'
- *φn, tn, φl, tl > /ːn, s-/ts, ːɬ, tɬ/
- 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, :m, :m, :ɳ, :ɻ, :ɻ/ (with **/uj/ > /uː/ )
- sφugnus > s̱uun 'root' ~ Thn. sφugnus
- leqnos > leeṉ 'river' ~ Thn. leānos?
- qrīdis > ṟiid 'knife' ~ Thn. ȝrīdis 'edge'
- gʷnūnum > miin 'scar' ~ Thn. gnūnum 'scar', Tíogall gnúinte 'remains'
- *φj, tj, kj, qj > pt s s-/ts ḡ
- *φ-, j-, s- > h-
- *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
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 in Thensarian and its descendants, the Proto-Talmic grammatical gender was lost; gendered pronouns and verb affixes no longer mark grammatical gender, but natural gender (as in Naquian).
The plural form is inherited from the Proto-Talmic reduplicated collective; 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
Adjectives
Prepositions
Verbs
Object incorporation
Verb stems have a combining form, also called the incorporating form, which is used with object markers, negation or incorporated objects.
hoox̱iis̱yn 'eat fruit' < hoox̱i 'fruit' + caasyn 'eat'
Verb template
- evidential
- negation/focus
- causative
- object
- incorporated noun
- ROOT
- passive marker
- auxiliary
- subject+TAM
Evidentiality affixes
Evidentials mark the source of the speaker's information; evidential marking is mandatory for all verbs. Other discourse affixes also go into this slot.
- qa-: I witnessed or otherwise directly experienced this
- pyn-: information I obtained from hearsay or am quoting
- dre-: a third-party source I consider credible
- mei-: my own inference, assumption or subjective opinion
- hy- (< 'pray tell'): interrogative
Negative/focus affixes
Negation is marked with the negative affix mis- or mi-, 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.
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 i 'I make it that' > ooni- > oni-).
For example:
- Qonipicaasym.
- /qonipikaːˈsəm/
- ca-oni-pi-caasy-m
- DIR-CAUS.1SG-OBJ.4-eat-PROG.SUBJ.3SG.M
- I'm feeding it to him.
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | oni- | ome- |
| 1 + 2 | - | onti- |
| 2 | ori- | ofi- |
| 3 (male) | omi- | oti- |
| 3 (female) | osi- | |
| 3 (inanimate) | oi- | |
| 4 (obviative) | opi- | |
| Who? | ote- | |
| What? | ota- | |
Object person markers
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ni- | mee- |
| 1 + 2 | - | xee- |
| 2 | ti- | hee- |
| 3 (proximate) | bi- | nee- |
| 4 (obviative) | pi- | |
| Whom?/Someone | tei- | |
| What?/Something | taa- | |
Subject+TAM markers
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Habitual indicative: Reduplicate the progressive indicative with Ce-. (can be irregular) |
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Habitual subjunctive: Reduplicate the progressive subjunctive with Ce-. (can be irregular) |
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Voice affixes
- -ron = passive suffix
Modal auxiliaries
Copula
To express "is an X", the copula -puan 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.
- Lameiteitutu.
- la-mei-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.
- Meixuumi bastaim.
- mei-xuu-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 present indicative and past indicative forms.
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Independent pronouns
Independent pronouns are not used except for emphasis.
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | nia | caam |
| 1 + 2 | pyd | |
| 2 | veer | hyvi |
| 3 (masculine) | hiim | sia |
| 3 (feminine) | hii | |
| 3 (inanimate) | han | |
| 4 (obviative) | pii | |
Syntax
Roshterian is a head-initial, head-marking polysynthetic language. Verbs take both subject and object affixes, and complex morphophonemic alternations are common. Where Roshterian deviates from typical Cuadhlabh (or even Talmic) typology are features such as obviation, noun incorporation and evidential marking, making Roshterian resemble Native American languages such as Blackfoot or Ojibwe.
- Qatiraḏan.
- /qat̪ɪraˈɖan/
- qa-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. veinyti clofabim 'the Clofabian's brother' or xafut huar = 'the color of the house')