Pekadja zeba

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Omzinesý
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Pekadja zeba

Post by Omzinesý »

Pekadja zeba (or pekadjazeba) is my newest project.
"Pekadja" is the name of the people. "Seba" means language. So it's just 'the language of Pekadjas'

It is a-priori.

Consonants
p t t͡ʂ k <p t ch k>
b d d͡ʐ g <b d dj g>
β ɹ ʐ ɣ <v r j q>
s h <s h>
z <z>
m n <m n>
l <l>
j w <y w>

Vowels
i u <i u>
e o <e o>
ä <a>

Syllable structure
(C(H))(S)V(N)

C - any consonant
H - a stop or nasal with the same MOA as C
S - a semi vowel
N - /n/ or /l/
My meta-thread: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5760
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Omzinesý
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Re: Pekadja zeba

Post by Omzinesý »

When a noun is preceded by a modifier, it often undergoes a initial consonant lenition. Morphologically, the lenited form could be colled Construct state, with an non-typological term.

Voiceless/aspirated stops become voiced stops.
Voiced stops become voiced fricatives.
/s/ is voiced to /z/.
Vowel-initial word gets an /h/.
Nasals and the liquid do not change. Voiced fricatives do not usually apper in the beginning of Absolute state.

Clusters of voiceless/aspirated stops become the corresponding voiced stops.
/gb/ and /bg/ become /w/.
I'm still considering the other clusters.
My meta-thread: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5760
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Omzinesý
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Re: Pekadja zeba

Post by Omzinesý »

Something about syntax

1) I'm testing a system where nouns and verbs are syntactically similar. That is, every noun can be seen as a predicate 'to be X' and every verb can be seen as a noun 'Xer'. This appears in Tongan and Salishan, so I did not invent it myself. We will see if it really succeeds. I emphasize that the words of course have different semantics and can be categorized as events and things.
2) Pekadja will also be a topic-prominent language, i.e. the theme of the sentence (what it is about) is not part of the clause, but a leftdislocated phrase. Its semantic role is usually interpreted from the context, not explicitly coded. It can be an argument or an adjunct.

(1)
Tosika, bebhano hyomu.
king fruit eat
'The king ate a/the fruit.'

(2)
Bebhano hyomu, tosika.
'The eater of a/the fruit was a king.' ~ 'It was a king who ate a/the fruit.'

(3)
Bebhano, tosika yomu.
fruit king eat
'The fruit was eaten by a/the king.'

(4)
Djogo, tosika bebhano hyomu.
tree king fruit eat
'Under the tree, a/the king ate a/the fruit.'
Literally: 'Tree, the king was the eater of a fruit.'

In (1), (2), and (4) bebhano 'fruit' is a modifier of yomu 'eat(er)'. That is why yomu has its first sound lenited. In (3) tosika 'king' is the subject (primary argument) of the predicate, and the verb is not lenited.


Defining subject

In Pekadja, subjects do not have to be topics. Topic is a distinct category. In (4), djogo is the topic but tosika is the subject. Subjects do not have to be agents either. The subject of yomu happens to be the agent, the eater. But kchitila 'to die' or 'to kill' takes the patient, the dyer, as its subject, (5). Subject is just the primary argument of the verb. If it is not, even implicitly, present, the sentence is ungrammatical. In (6), there must be a dummy subject boru 'something', to make the sentence grammatical in that meaning.

(5)
Tosiko, kchitila.
king die/kill
'The king died.'

(6)
Tosiko, boru kchitila.
king someone die/kill
'The king killed.'

Any participant can appear as the topic. In (7), the agent, which is not the subject, appears as the topic. Kchitila is not lenited because it is not preceded by a modifyer/secondary argument. In (8), the the subject appears as the topic. Gjitila is preceded by the secondary argument and thus appears lenited. In (9), the clause is "complete" so that no argument, but an adjunct, appears as the topic and all arguments appear in the clause.

(7)
Palago, tosiko kchitila.
leopard king die/kill
'The leopard killed a/the king.'

(8)
Tosiko, palago gjitila.
king leaopard die/kill
'The king was killed by a/the leopard.'

(9)
Djogo, tosiko palago gjitila.
tree king leopard die/kill
'Under the tree, a leapard killed the king.'

Topic drop

Topics can be dropped and, if there is neither topic nor argument present, the subject is interpreted to be the dropped topic, (10). If the subject is present, the dropped topic is interpreted something else, (11).

(10)
Kchitila.
'He/She/They died.'

(11)
Tosiko kchitila.
'He/She/They killed a/the king.' ~ 'There the king died.' ~ 'Therefore the king died.' etc.
My meta-thread: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5760
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