Kart'eruuṭii

[Shemtov]

Because I can't stop making new conlangs, I now present my 5th concurrent project: Kartgeruutrii.
Kart'eruuṭii[kar.tˤe.ru: ʈi:] is an extinct language which was spoken in a city-state called Kartgeruutr, located in the northern part of the Thrissur district in the Indian stae of Kerala.
Interestingly, it is a Cannaanite-Semitic Language, brought to India by a group of escaped slaves from the Edomite city of Eilath c.875 BCE, and it lasted until c. 450 CE. The language I will be creating was spoken around the beginning of the Common era, when the Kartgeruutrii epic, "Ṭiperaaṭibaalahaii" was written.


Phonology and my Orthog (Redone)
m n̪ ɳ <m n ṇ>
p b t̪ d̪ ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ʔ <p b t d ṭ ḍ c j k ∅>
s ʂ ç h <s ṣ ś h>
β z ʐ ɦ <v z ẓ ḩ>
tˤ ʈˤ <t' ṭ' >
sˤ ʂˤ <s' ṣ'>
r <r>
l ɭ <l ḷ>



i u <i u>
e o <e o>
a <a>
i: u: <ii uu>
a: <aa>

Here's a sample, an oath of loyalty to the king of the city, which is recorded as being required from all accused of treason, so as to get them to confess/add extra charges if they were found guilty:
Hu melecahaa, vaaciriṇ. Hiṇ, hu malcii, baḩalii vaaḍuṇii, vaaciriṇ. Hu ḩāl cuḷ kart'eruuṭ malac, vaaciriṇ.
[hu melecaha:, βa:ciriɳ. hiɳ, hu malci, baɦali βa:ɖ uɳi, βa:ciriɳ. hu ɦa:l cuɭ kartˤeru:ʈ malac, βa:ciriɳ]
Hu melec-ahaa, va-acir-iṇ. Hiṇ, hu malc-ii, baḩal-ii vaaḍuṇ-ii, va-acir-iṇ
he king-the and-other-NEG. Indeed, he king-my master-my and-lord-my and-other-NEG
Hu ḩaal cuḷ kart'eruuṭ malac, vaa-cir-iṇ
he over alll Kartgeruutr reign.he.PRS and-other-NEG.
"He is the King, and there is no other. Indeed he is my king, my master and my lord, and there is no other. He reigns over all Kartgeruutr, and there is no other."

[kanejam]

This is interesting, I would love to see some diachronics and how the local languages influenced it, other than SOV word order.

In this alternate reality, would there be no voiceless aspirated or voiced murmured consonants in the Indian subcontinent at all?

[Shemtov]

In this alternate reality, would there be no voiceless aspirated or voiced murmured consonants in the Indian subcontinent at all?

Well, they arrived in India after the Indo-Aryans had been there a long time, but perhaps Malayam wouldn't have developed aspirated consonants when it split off from Tamil.
My only question is, given that it's a extinct language in-universe, should I make the orthography more wieldy, eliminating digraphs and trigraphs if possible?

[kanejam]

Oh right, I was picturing a scenario along the lines of 'what if Sanskrit were Semitic'. As any orthography would be a transliteration from whatever script it was written in, it would either have an Indic transliteration or Semitic transliteration

Example: Hu melecaha, vāciriṇ. Hiṇ, hu malci, baḥali vāḍ uṇ, vāciriṇ. Hu ḥāl cuḷ kartherūṭ malac, vāciriṇ.

Try giving the phonology to the Romanisation thread on the other board for more ideas.

[Shemtov]

Oh right, I was picturing a scenario along the lines of 'what if Sanskrit were Semitic'. As any orthography would be a transliteration from whatever script it was written in, it would either have an Indic transliteration or Semitic transliteration

Example: Hu melecaha, vāciriṇ. Hiṇ, hu malci, baḥali vāḍ uṇ, vāciriṇ. Hu ḥāl cuḷ kartherūṭ malac, vāciriṇ.

Try giving the phonology to the Romanisation thread on the other board for more ideas.

I was thinking something like this:
m n̪ ɳ <m n ṇ>
p b t̪ d̪ ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ʔ <p b t d ṭ ḍ c j k ∅>
s ʂ ç ħ h <s ṣ x ḥ h>
β z ʐ ʕ <v z ẓ ḩ>
tˤ ʈˤ <t' ṭ' >
sˤ ʂˤ <s' ṣ'>
r <r>
l ɭ <l ḷ>



i u <i u>
e o <e o>
a <a>
i: u: <ii uu>
a: <aa>

Hu melecaha, vaaciriṇ. Hiṇ, hu malcii, baḩalii vaaḍuṇii, vaaciriṇ. Hu ḩāl cuḷ kart'eruuṭ malac, vaaciriṇ.

[kanejam]

I wouldn't use <x> - it's a letter without real phonetic value and isn't (I don't think) used in the area. <ś> would work a lot better and give the lang a more Indic feel. Also macroned letters for the long vowels would fit in with both Semitic transcription and Indic transciption, but it's up to you.

You're in a slight pickle with the two pharyngeal consonants so really anything would work. Maybe ġ for the voiced one? What script is it written in, because that would probably give an idea of how the locals would try to render the sounds and thus how they would end up in roman script.

Also, I would still love to see some diachronics and grammar etc. I only have a vague vague knowledge of Canaanite~Phoenician~Hebrew.

[Nortaneous]

just use <g>, unless /g/ ends up in it through borrowings, as it probably would, so <ġ>

[Shemtov]

You're in a slight pickle with the two pharyngeal consonants so really anything would work. Maybe ġ for the voiced one? What script is it written in, because that would probably give an idea of how the locals would try to render the sounds and thus how they would end up in roman script.

I was thinking that I could say that the pharyngeal became Glottal.
So no /ʕ/ but /ɦ/ instead.
What do you think?

[Shemtov]

I redid the phonology.

[Shemtov]

Phonological Changes from Canaanite:
NB: I am assuming that the Canaanite language that : Kart'eruuṭii is descended from had very few differences with Biblical Hebrew, as seems to be the case in most Canaanite langs.

Coronals, in the presence of /u/ and /i/ became retroflex. Does NOT apply across morpheme boundaries.

Velar Stops became Palatals.

The Uvular stop became velar.

ʃ>ç

Pharyngeal fricatives became glottal.

w>β

j>ç


i>i:
u>u:
e>i
o>u
a>a:
ɛ>e
/ɔ/ in stressed syllables>/o/, otherwise became /a/

[Shemtov]

Notes on Nominal Morphology:
Gender:
Most nouns are masculine. However, the following kinds of nouns are feminine:
-Those that end in <aha> or <oha>
-Those that end in <t> or <ṭ>
There are some eceptions to the rules.

Thus Labanaha (Moon) is feminine.

The Plural:
Masculine Plural:
2 Forms of Masc. Plural:
If the masculine noun is one syllable, or its first vowel is <a> or <aa> or if it begins with a glottal stop, the Plural is the noun with the suffix <iim> attached to it.
Otherwise, the first vowel is replaced by <a> and the suffix <iiṇ> is attached.
(The singular's vowels determine vowel-based sound changes.)

Thus:
<aaha> "Brother" <aahiim> "brothers" <baḩal> "Master" <Baḩaliim> Masters
Celeb "Dog" <Calebiiṇ> "Dogs" <melec> "king" <maleciiṇ> "Kings"

Female Plural:
The suffix <uṭ> is attached, unless it already ends in <ṭ> or <t> in which case the last vowel is replaced by <u>.

[Shemtov]

Notes on The Maḍbuukiṇ (sing.Muuḍbuuk)- The Nominal affixes.

"And" is a prefix: <Va>
"Melec vaaḍun"
Melec va-aḍun
"king and-lord"

The rest are suffixes:
Definite Article: -(a)haa
Melecahaa
"The King"

In,with, by, on: -(a)ba:
Kart'eruuṭaba
"In Kart'eruuṭ"

From:- -(a)ma:
Kart'eruuṭama
"From Kart'eruuṭ"

to:- (a)la
Kart'eruuṭala
"To Kart'eruuṭ"

For:- (a)ḷi
Melecahaaḷi
"For the King"

like, as- -(a)ca
Melecahaaca
"Like the king"