Siųa

[MONOBA]

Siwa is spoken in a precolumbian Quebec about 4,000 years ago by a genetically european people, perhaps related to or the descendants of the posited neolithic population that would have taken up a finno-ugric language in Scandinavia who would later become the Sámis. It is part of the Alopian language family, which covers all the middle stretch of Northern Quebec. Siwa is the most conservative language of the family. It is more of a west-east dialect continuum than a single language, but this phonology and all of the Siwa grammar is based mostly on the eastern dialects (spoken inland), which have been less influenced by algonquian populations than the western dialects (spoken on the shores of the hudson bay).

Siwa is part of the Alopian language family:





Here is the Siwa Phonology.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7216892/fororogy.pdf

[Bristel]

It reminds me of the Sami languages... or a bit Arabic or Estonian... Just going by looks.

[cybrxkhan]

It made me think of Berber or some northeast African language (i.e. Ethiopian, Oromo, etc.). But yeah, it also looks kind of Uralic.

[roninbodhisattva]

Yeah, it's got some kind of Uralic flair going on, but then some other things too. It's a nice mix.

[Bristel]

Looking much more closely at the morphology, it reminds me of Sanskrit as well.

[Omzinesý]

Yes, there could be some Sami features in the language. hC vC consonant clusters mostly. But come! is Mana! in Sami not manin. hehhe. good

[Ear of the Sphinx]

It looks Uralic and a bit Baltic.

[MONOBA]

Manin is a pure coincidence, as the root of the verb is ma-, augmented by the cislocative -n, the intransitive -i and the imperative -n.

ma·n·i·n
go·cisl·assertive.intransitive.conclusive·imperative

Uralic languages are definitively a huge source of inspiration, but so is Georgian, which I'm surprised no one has mentioned so far!

[MONOBA]

Manin is a pure coincidence, as the root of the verb is ma-, augmented by the cislocative -n, the intransitive -i and the imperative -n.

ma·n·i·n
go·cisl·assertive.intransitive.conclusive·imperative
'come here!'

cf.

ma·k·i·n
go·translocative·assertive.intransitive.conclusive·imperative
'go there!/go away!'


Uralic languages are definitively a huge source of inspiration, but so is Georgian, which I'm surprised no one has mentioned so far!

[Ceresz]

Ertu Egein frá Unilang?
Are you Egein from Unilang?

Anyway, this language looks interesting. Do you have anything more to share on it?

[roninbodhisattva]

Georgian didn't really strike me at, actually. There are no ejectives and the consonant clusters aren't that striking. Are you going for georgian grammatically?

[MONOBA]

Það er ég.
I have a lot on it. Hundreds of pages.
Unfortunately I am too much of a perfectionist to share it right now. I'm trying to make what I have on verbal morphology presentable. Maybe in a few months. I can give you examples, not much more.

As for georgian, I am inspired by both the sound and the structure of the language. Specifically the verb morphology. Not only ejective consonants make Georgian phonologically interesting, to me :).

The conlang is still Siwa but it's gone through some aesthetics refinements.

Here is a sample, for your curiosity:

kỉspitta manimi; suonahta simu tįadnake da na manimi.
[ˈc ʰ i:spɪʔta ˈmɑnimi / ˈsʊɔnahda ˈsimu ˈʨaʔtnɑɟe ˈdana ˈmɑnimi]
kispid-ta Ø-ma=n-i-mi suo<n>ag-ta sim-u-Ø tįadna-ke d-a na Ø-ma=ni-mi
northern=lakes.gen-illat itr-go=trans-ass.concl.(d)itr-1p.act.ag.sg evergreen=forest.gen-illat catch-pas.act.sg find-link.purpose be.inf.temp.tr-imp ass.concl.partc itr-go=trans-ass.concl.(d)itr-ip.act.ag.sg
‘I go to the northern lakes, I go to the evergreen forest to find my catch’

[Ceresz]

I thought I recognized that avatar :-).

If you don't mind, a phonology would be nice to see at least.

[MONOBA]

I can try to very roughly fix it (since I haven't “registered” any of the changes yet) tonight, but that depends on many things.
I think all in all I've greatly simplified things. So it should be more comprehensible than earlier versions of the phonology.

If the haps want so.

[Ceresz]

Well, if you have the time to post it, I'd gladly take a look :-).

[roninbodhisattva]

I woud too! I love verbal systems. I've also liked everything I've seen you post on siwa at other places.

[Omzinesý]

Awesome, almost what I have been trying to push Omsin to.

Does it even include consonant craduation?

[MONOBA]

It does have consonant gradation, and a fairly complex system of consonant changes and vowel umlauts. The phonotactics are quite complicated. It's a lot of fun to work with, especially when working with derivation from a proto-language (proto-alopian, in this case).

[Omzinesý]

Have you happened to look at Sami consonant graduation tables. Finnish ones are easy and logical. E.g. ks becomes vss. Impossible to say via what changes.

[MONOBA]

Yes I have. Mun oahppán :).