Qaalr language

[Omzinesý]

I'll name this language Qālr ~ Qaalr /qa:lθ/ [qɑ:lθ].



1 p t t͡s t͡ɬ k q
2 f~v θ~ɹ s~z ɬ~ɮ x~ɣ χ~ʁ
3 m n
4 l

<p t z tł k q>
<v r s ł g x>
<m n>
<l>

i y u <i y u>
ə <e>
a <a>
Vowels can be short or long. Long vowels are historically a vowel + a constant of the row 2.
Modern coda consonants of the row 2 are lenited from plosives.


Phonotactics

Onsets
V
CV (any consonant)
CCV (plosive or nasal + fricative)
CCV (fricative + stop or nasal, but only on morpheme boundary word-initially)

Yes, an affricate can be followed by a fricative. /t͡s/+/s/ differs from /t͡s/. /t/ + /s/ though does not differ from /t͡s/ is they both are onsets.

Codas
V
VC (any consonant)
VCC (nasal or /l/ + stop or fricative)

All consonants can also be geminated. Geminates can appear in all positions of word. Word-initially, they are though preceded by a short schwa.


Allophony

- High vowels get mid-high when followed by a uvular.
/i/, /u/, /y/ => /e/, /o/, ø /_C[+uvular]

- Non-high vowels get back when followed by an uvular.
/ä/, /ə/ => ʌ, ɑ /_C[+uvular]

- /n/ assimilates in POA with a following consonant, especially if it's a stop.

Voice of fricatives has some free variation, but there are rules too.
- They are voiceless before a voiced consonant.
- They are voiced before a voiced consonant.
- They are voiceless word-finally

[Omzinesý]

Nouns:

Nominative -Ø
Accusative -Ø (stem changes)
Ergative -pe

Plural affixes and case affixes appear in the same slot. There are some rules on which of them appears.
Plural -zi/-si
Partitive Plural -an

Most bivalent verbs take a Nominative subject and an Accusative object. Causatives though take the causer in Ergative.
Many verbs that are separate lexemes in SAE languages are causatives in Qaalr, though.

Megat pxeelu. 'Megat died.'
Zsamppe Megat pxeelu. 'Zsamp killed Megat.'


Verbs:

While nouns have sometimes marking of NOM-ACC and sometimes marking or ABS-ERG alignments, verbs have a split alignment with Actor (more agent-like argument) and Undergoer (most patient-like argument) markers.
Aspect is marked in Undergoer Affixes.

Code: Select all

		Actor affixes	Imperfective undergoer affixes	Perfective undergoer affixes 
1st 		v- 		an- 				un-
2nd 		g- 		ga-				gu- 
2nd imperative	k-
1st+2nd 	veg- 		vag- 				vug-
1st+2nd imperative kve-
3rd 		s- 		-a/Ø*				-u/Ø* 	
3rd proximate 	ne- 		-an 				-un
Impersonal 	-s/-es 		-as				-us 
Reflexive 	--------	ta-				tu- 

*It depends on verb lexeme if the perfect or imperfect of 3rd person is unmarked. There are also verbs that are usually intransitive (no Undergoer marker) and need an explicit object marker -a/-u when transitive with an 3rd person object.

The order of the affixes depends on person not the syntactic role. 2nd person prefixes precede 1st person prefixes. Proximate suffix precedes impersonal suffix.

Some examples with romt 'love':
ga-v-romt 'I love you'
g-an-romt 'You love me'
an-romt 'S/he loves me'
n-an-romt 'This person loves me'
ve-romt 'I love him/her'
se-romt-en 'Somebody loves this person'

Reflexive affix is usually both Actor and Undergoer because it encodes an affected agent.
ta-romt 'S/he loves him/herself'
tu-xem 'S/he ate it' (An eater bother eats and gets full.)
v-un-xem 'I ate' (This does not mean 'I ate myself')


Pxeel-u 'S/he died.'
Se-pxeel-us 'S/he killed (somebody).'
Megat se-pxeelu 'S/he killed Megat.'
Se-pxeelu. 'S/he killed him/her.'
Tu-pxeel. 'S/he killed himself/herself.'

Tense affixes
The unmarked tenses are Present Imperfective and Past Perfective.
The Future prefix is da-
Past Imperfective affix is -in. If it appears, sg3 object marker -a does not appear.

gavromt 'I love you'
dagavromt 'I will love you'
gavromtin 'I loved you.'

daguvromt 'I will love you for X time.'
guvromt 'I loved you for X time'