The Languages of Serran

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GoshDiggityDangit
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The Languages of Serran

Post by GoshDiggityDangit »

“The Languages of Serran" is a world-building and conlanging project I began for myself about a month ago. It was a challenge for myself to do some heavy diachronics, and a little world-building (which I don't do often). The basic premise is that a generation-ship filled with Homo Novis (which are basically Homo Sapiens but taller, balder, and without a pinkie toe or appendix) flies through space for 200,000 years from Earth to the distant planet Serran. The project is very language centric, so the actual cultures are generally not very developed. As of yet, I have roughed out Proto-Serran's phonology and morphology, and will soon begin the development of the four daughter proto-langs, Proto-Western, Proto-Southern, Proto-Eastern, and Proto-Central. I plan to have ~5 generations of language change, and 7 modern languages.
Last edited by GoshDiggityDangit on 20 Nov 2019 13:25, edited 1 time in total.
“Like billowing clouds, Like the incessant gurgle of the brook,
The longing of the spirit can never be stilled.” ― St. Hildegard von Bingen
Khemehekis
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Re: The Languages of Serran

Post by Khemehekis »

Cool! So the languages of Serran start out from a Terran language (or multiple Terran languages)?
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Re: The Languages of Serran

Post by GoshDiggityDangit »

Khemehekis wrote: 16 Aug 2019 05:33 Cool! So the languages of Serran start out from a Terran language (or multiple Terran languages)?
Technically, yes! However, due to the great amount of time, they're not recognizable (hand-waving on my part).
“Like billowing clouds, Like the incessant gurgle of the brook,
The longing of the spirit can never be stilled.” ― St. Hildegard von Bingen
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Re: The Languages of Serran

Post by GoshDiggityDangit »

1: Proto-Serran

As stated previously, I have done only the phonology, morphology, and a small wordlist for Proto-Serran. This is because the syntax is going to be rather different in the two main branches of the Serrinian languages, South-Eastern and North-Western.

Phonology, Phonotactics, Allophony, et Prosody

The consonant inventory of Proto-Serran is not very interesting, and it has the classical 5 vowel system.

/phoneme/ <romanization>
/p t d k/ <p t d c>
/m n/ <m n>
/ɸ s h/ <f s h>
/l j ɰ/ <l y~j w>

/i u/ <i~ee u~oo>
/ɛ ɔ/ <e o>
/a/ <a>

To make up for the uninspired phonology, I added some allophony.

d->ð/V_V
p->v/V_V
P{-voice}->ʔ/_#
h->x/_#
i->ɪ/j_
a->æ/(C)(G)i
ɛ->e/(C)(G)i
l->ʟ/_K
n->ŋ/_K
i->ɪ/${-stress}
u->ʊ/${-stress}
a,ɛ,ɔ->ə/${-stress}
ɛ->ɛ̃/_n
d->z/_h
h->Ø/C_

The syllable structure is (C)(G)V(C). G includes both approximants and fricatives. Two phonemic fricatives cannot follow one another. In the event that two fricatives collide, the first will dissimilate to the corresponding voiceless plosive.

Stress is variable. The hierarchy of stress follows as such:
CGVC > CGV > Ultimate

In the next reply (because this took me a while to write) I will go over the morphology and lexicon.
Last edited by GoshDiggityDangit on 20 Nov 2019 13:26, edited 1 time in total.
“Like billowing clouds, Like the incessant gurgle of the brook,
The longing of the spirit can never be stilled.” ― St. Hildegard von Bingen
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Re: The Languages of Serran

Post by GoshDiggityDangit »

I am working on the morphology and lexicon post. It's a long one, so expect it maybe Saturday or Sunday.
Last edited by GoshDiggityDangit on 20 Nov 2019 13:27, edited 1 time in total.
“Like billowing clouds, Like the incessant gurgle of the brook,
The longing of the spirit can never be stilled.” ― St. Hildegard von Bingen
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Re: The Languages of Serran

Post by GoshDiggityDangit »

Morphology

Proto-Serran is a head marking language in regards to possessive and verb phrases, but dependent-marking in adpositional phrases. The possessed noun is marked with the respective marking form of the pronoun of the possessor. Here are two examples, followed by the marking pronouns as a table:

Teliwcsána Ndáhan
/tə.lɪɰˈksa.nə ˈnda.hən/
teliwcsa-na nda-han
blood-3SG man-ACC
The Blood of the Man

Dléiscsasu
/ˈdleis.ksə.sʊ/
dléiscsa-su
family-1SG
My Family/Lineage

Sg/Pl
1 -su/-nu
2 -ya/-ho
3 -na/Ø

The marking pronouns are used for possessive phrases, and to mark the subject and object of a transitive sentence (not in ditransitive or intransitive ones).

As you can see, there is no third person plural. This is the same in the non-marking forms. Here they are:

Sg/Pl
1 Su/Nus
2 Aya/Hou
3 Nay/Ø

The non-marking forms are used in relative clauses, and intransitive and ditransitive sentences. In impersonal sentences, the 3 person pronoun is used, like in English.

Nouns have two cases, the nominative and accusative. The nominative marks the subject of a sentence, and the accusative marks the objects(s). The accusative also marks the possessor in a possessive phrase.

Nom. = Ø
Acc. = -han/-an

Nouns reduplicate their final syllable for number and to derive a verb from a noun. The definite is default, and the indefinite is marked by the numeral "ne" if it is singular, and "tainu" if it is plural ('ne'='one', 'tainu'='many').

Verbs mark for tense and mood.

Pst. = -don/-ado
Npst. = Ø

Dacádon su
/dəˈka.ðən su/
eat-PST 1.SG
I ate

Ind. = Ø
Sub. = -ma

Nanoudénmaya
/nə.nəʊˈðɛ̃n.ma.ja/
3-see-SUB-2.SG
It/They may see you

Verbs are reduplicated for the frequentive (to do something repeatedly).

Clacla-claclá su
/klə.klə.kləˈkla su/
leg~VRB-FRQ 1.SG
I run and run
“Like billowing clouds, Like the incessant gurgle of the brook,
The longing of the spirit can never be stilled.” ― St. Hildegard von Bingen
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Re: The Languages of Serran

Post by GoshDiggityDangit »

The whole idea of Serran has got me excited as of late. I'm going to re-do the whole thing, starting with the Proto-language. I think I'm going to go with a sort of mix between Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Uralic. I've started to love the diachronic process, so this ought to be fun with me. I'll probably make a new thread.
“Like billowing clouds, Like the incessant gurgle of the brook,
The longing of the spirit can never be stilled.” ― St. Hildegard von Bingen
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