Leeta language

[Omzinesý]

I once again try to make an analytic lang. It seems to be the hardest possible type of lang.
My Analytic langs are usually called Reeta, Ve'eta, Je'eta... , so let this lang be Leeta ['ɭe:ʔetə]. It's very possible this lang will be like most of my E'eta langs, but we will be.

Ta is the people speaking the language.
e means many positive things 'good', 'standard', 'respected'... Some vernaculars are called Lesuta 'Vernacular languages of the Ta'
le means language. lèngta means the country where Leeta is spoken.

In this lang "word" will mean a graphic and phonological word, which is often a compound or even a phrase. Morpheme will mean a monosyllabic entity that can be glossed.

Some basic features
- Monosyllabic words or morphemes how you want to define them
- Verbs is a closed lexical class
- Compounding and incorporation are frequent
- There is some morphology but very little.
- Right branching

[Omzinesý]

All verbs but 'to be' have a pair in which the pairing of topic and a semantic role is changed. They are formed by irregularly changing the vowel of the verb.

(1a)
Phạ́ pi xu.
sg1 make porridge.
'I am cooking porridge.'

(1b)
Xu pa (phạ́).
porridge make (sg1)
'Porridge is being cooked (by me).'

Sometimes the second arguments of the pair are not the same. In (2c) ṣa means 'to be good at something', while in (2b), the experiencer appears in the sentence-initial topic position.

(2a)
Phạ́ ṣa
sg1 be.good
'I am good.'

(2b)
Phạ́ ṣy mùttsen
sg1 like blossom-plant
'I like flowers.'

(2c)
Phạ́ ṣa ṭọṅmhùṅṭe
sg1 be.good game-ball-foot
'I am good at football.'

Other verbs are used for negation. Most verbs have clear negative counterparts.

(3a)
Phạ́ zo mhùṅṭe.
sg1 have ball-foot
'I have a football.'

(3b)
Phạ́ khi mhùṅṭe.
sg1 lack ball-foot
'I lack a football.' ~ 'I don't have a football.'

Some verbs with similar meanings (e.g. 'to make/create/produce' and 'to do/maintain/practice' (in 1a, 1c and 4) or 'to be' and 'to equal') have to do with a common negative counterpart.

(1a)
Phạ́ pi xu.
sg1 make porridge.
'I am cooking porridge.'

(1c)
Phạ́ suṭ xu.
sg1 not.do porridge.
'I am not cooking porridge.'

(4a)
ṭaṅṭṣok la ṭṣok
professional-order do order
'The police maintains order.'

(4b)
ṭaṅṭṣok suṭ ṭṣok
professional-order not.do order
'The police does not maintains order.'

[Omzinesý]

Lexicon

Verbs
di 'be small'
khi 'lack' negative of zo
khin 'be white'
la 'do, maintain, practice'
ḷọ 'know, be able to'
*ḷọzo 'find'
mhẹṅ 'dislike', NEG: ṣy
nạ 'become'
ṅe 'perceive'
pe 'go'
pi 'make, produce, create' >-< pa
pa 'get to be, be born' >-< pi
phut 'not eat', NEG: ṭṣy
ṣa 'be good' >-< ṣy
ṣy 'like, regard, want' >-< ṣa
suṭ 'negative of pi and la
ṭṣy 'eat'
zạ 'exist, be in something, belong to somebody' >-< zo
zo 'have, be there' >-< zạ

Nouns
lan 'that' a pronoun referring to abstractions
mhùṅ 'ball'
*mhùṅṭe 'football'
*mhùṅtsèn 'acorn'
mùt 'blossom'
* mùttsen 'flower'
nẹṅ 'cat'
phạ́ 'I'
phọṇ 'hunger'
set 'backside'
su 'thing, something'
ṭe 'foot'
ṭaṅ 'professional'
*ṭaṅṭṣok 'policeman'
thín 'sex act'
thìn 'sexuality'
ṭọṅ 'game'
*ṭọṅmhùṅṭe 'football'
tsék 'awake'
tsen 'plant'
tsèn 'tree'
ṭṣok 'order'
xu 'porridge'
y 'she/he/it/they'
ẓo 'species'

Adverbs
è 'but'
ṭṣù

[Omzinesý]

Once again I start translating Ossicone's "Cat and Fish".
I think I have never accomplished it.

Nẹṅ zạ di khin.
cat exist be.small be.white
'There was a cat. She was small and white.'

Y nạ tsék, mhẹ̀ṅ ṭṣù.
Y nạ tsék, `,mhẹṅ phọṇ ṭṣù
sg3 become awake, CONDITION.dislike hunger much
When she woke up, she was very hungry!

"If ... then" is expressed with a low tone on the verb of the main clause.

Lan zạ, y pèṣyḷọzo suṭṣy.
lan zạ, y `.pe-ṣy-ḷọ-zo su-ṭṣy
that exist, sg3 CONDITION.go-want-know-be_there thing-eat
'So she went looking for some food.'

'Therefore' is expressed as a conditional clause "if that exist, then ...". "lan" refers to clauses and other abstractions.
'To find' is expressed "know-be.there" and 'in order to' is expressed with "want".

Y laṅe settsèn, ḷọzo mhùṅtsèn.
Y la-ṅe set-tsèn, ḷọ-zo mhùṅ-tsèn
sg3 do-perceive backside-tree, know-have ball-tree
She looked behind the tree and found an acorn.

'la" 'to do' as an auxiliary adds a volitional meaning. 'To watch'~'to look (for)' is expressed: 'do-see'.
Some words are made augmentative with the low tone: "tsen" 'plant' - "tsèn" 'tree'.

È, ẓonẹṅ phut mhùṅtsèn!
but, species-cat not.eat ball-tree
'But cats don't eat acorns!'

[To be continues!]

There was a cat.
She was small and white.
When she woke up, she was very hungry!
So she went looking for some food.
She looked behind the tree and found an acorn.
But cats don't eat acorns!
She looked under the rock and found a bug.
But cats don't eat bugs!
She looked in the house and saw something very interesting on the table.
It was a fish! And she loved to eat fish!
So she jumped on to the table and grabbed the fish.
Uh oh! A person saw her take the fish.
The little cat jump out the window and hid in the field.
She happily ate the fish.
But now she was very sleepy.

[Omzinesý]

I'm thinking about the copula.

It actually doesn't have to be a verb.
There is no need to have "voices". The topic is always the subject not the predicative.
There is no need for a negative verb either, because you can say 'X is no Y.' instead of 'X isn't a Y.'.

The copula could be a pronoun, like in Hebrew. That way Leeta could also have a minimalist noun class system.

(1)
Sut y ḍḍak.
NAME she/he woman
'Sut is a woman.'

y 'he/she/they' for animates'
eṅ 'it' for inanimates
lan 'it' for clauses and abstract characteristics

Pronouns are, of course, not followed by a pronominal copula.
(2)
Phạ́ ḍḍak.
SG1 woman
'I am a woman.'

Lack of copula also brings interesting syntactic complexity, because it cannot be compounded with an auxiliary. One cannot say 'I want [to] be Y.', but there has to be a distinct verb 'to wannabe' or a subordinate clause 'I want that I [am] Y.'.

The pronominal copula of course only expresses the relation "X is a member of the group Y". For a reciprocal relation "X equals Y" there is a verb.

[DesEsseintes]

Lack of copula also brings interesting syntactic complexity, because it cannot be compounded with an auxiliary. One cannot say 'I want [to] be Y.', but there has to be a distinct verb 'to wannabe' or a subordinate clause 'I want that I [am] Y.'.

Using the verb ‘to become’ to form the desiderative is another strategy you might consider.

[Omzinesý]

Lack of copula also brings interesting syntactic complexity, because it cannot be compounded with an auxiliary. One cannot say 'I want [to] be Y.', but there has to be a distinct verb 'to wannabe' or a subordinate clause 'I want that I [am] Y.'.

Using the verb ‘to become’ to form the desiderative is another strategy you might consider.

Thanks!
That's actually the easiest strategy.
I'll use it at least with some polysemous auxiliaries.

[Omzinesý]

I'm changing the language already, but this is a development thread.

Now, all nouns have either the high tone or the low tone.
They can be made adverbs - it's not wrong to analyse it a kind of case either, I think - by removing the tone.

The word without tone expresses:
- Manner
Leeta has very few verbs are often modified to specify them "exist standing", "go running" etc.
- Secondary predicate
"X makes Y Z"
This could also be one possibility for the problem of differentiating 'I want to be X.' and 'I like X.'
- Possible some less transitive complements
"Think about X", "be good at X"
- Modifiers in lexicalized compounds
Words get internal structure when some morphemes have the tonal form and some don't.

It's possible that I change the tones of verbs too, and find some other way for expressing clause-external relations.

[Omzinesý]

Like with all my similar langs I start the list of verbs and their uses.

--
possession, location
There is one positive "active" verb zo for 'to have' and 'to include', but there are two positive "passive" verbs zạ and zi for 'to include' and 'to belong to', respectively. There are only one negative active verb phen and one negative "passive" verb phọn.

Positive

zo
Transtive: 'There is X in Y.' 'Y has X.'
_ Phạ́ zo nẹ́n. 'I have a cat.'
_ Dè zo nẹ́n. 'There is a cat in the room.'

zạ
Intransitive: 'exist'
_ Nẹ́n zạ 'A cat exists.' ~ 'There is a cat.'
Transitive: 'be in/at...'
_ Nẹ́n zạ dè. 'A/The cat is in the house.'
Auxiliary: brings a new unknown topic into the discourse
_ Ḍḍạ́k zạṭṣy xù. 'There is/was a woman eating porridge.'

zi
Transitive: 'X belongs to Y.' 'X is owned by Y.'
Xùpat zí lèngkho. 'You life belongs to the state.'

Negative

phọn negative of zạ
_ Nẹ́n phọn dè. 'A/The cat is not in the house.'

phen
Transitive: 'not have'
_ Phạ́ phen nẹ́n. 'I have no cat.' ~ 'I don't have a cat.'

---
Emotion

ṣy
Transitive: 'like', 'love'
_ Phạ́ ṣy mùttsen. 'I like flowers.'
_ Phạ́ ṣy ḍḍạ́k thin. 'I love the woman.' Lit. 'I like the woman sexually.'
With a secondary predicate: 'regard as (positively)'
_ Phạ́ ṣy nẹ́n atsot. 'I think the cat is funny.'

ṣa
Intransitive (with an adverb): 'feel' (positive)
_ Phạ́ ṣy ġạt. 'I feel active.'
Intransitive (without an adverb): 'be OK'
_ Phạ́ ṣy. 'I'm OK.'

Antonyms

mhẹṅ negative of ṣy 'not like', 'dislike', 'feel bad'...

mhyṅ 'feel (something negative)'
-------------------------
Motion
There are four motion verbs that can be categorized with binary features: direction (to/from) and transitivity (the topic is moving/the topic is moving something). They don't have a negative counterpart, but any of them can be an abverbial argument of zạ 'to exist/stay'.

pe
Intransitive: 'to go to', 'to move' to (the goal argument without tone)
_ Phạ́ pé de. 'I went to the house.'
_ Phạ́ pé 'I'm on move.'

pẹ́
Transitive: 'to bring to/take to/move to'
_ Phạ́ pẹ́ nín de. 'I brought the child to the house.'

gon
Intransitive: 'come from'
_ Phạ́ pón de. 'I came form the house.'

gọn
Transitive 'bring from'
_ Phạ́ pẹ́ nín de. 'I took the child from the house.'

Kind of negative
zạ 'to exist/stay'
Phạ́ zạ́ pé de. 'I didn't go to the house.'

--------------------------------
With an adverb: 'be good at'
_ Phạ́ ṣa ṭọṅmhùṅṭe. 'I am good at football.'
With an adverb: 'be good looking/tasty...'
_ Ý ṣa biṭ. 'He is good looking.' (bít 'eye')

With a clausal complement: 'Think ~ IMO' (positive statement)
_ Phạ́ ṣy nẹ́n ṭṣy ġọ́n. 'I think the cat wants eats fish.'
Auxiliary: 'want'
_ Phạ́ ṣyzo nẹ́n. 'I want [to have] a cat.'
_ Phạ́ ṣyzạ ma. 'I want to sleep.' Lit. 'I want-exist sleeping.'

[Omzinesý]

Prepositions

Like most East-Asian languages, some Le'eta verbs can be used as prepositions. All verbs can be used as converbs, so the border is even more blurred.
As far as I know, there is no typological term for such polysemy. So in this Le'eta grammar, I speak about prepositions.

The most common prepositions are:

pe verb: 'to go', 'to move', preposition: GOAL 'to'
zạ verb: 'exist, be in something, belong to somebody', preposition: LOCATION 'in', 'at', 'on',
zi Verb: belongs to somebody, Preposition: POSSESSOR 'of'
ḷy verb: 'give', preposition: RECIPIENT 'to, for'
tha verb: 'use', preposition: INSTRUMENT 'with', 'by'
nhi verb: 'be alike', preposition: 'like'
khi verb: 'lack', preposition: 'without'

I'm still considering if verbs have lexical tones, but the prepositions however do have a tone. When verbs are used as participles, they lack tone/ have the neural tone.

I'm still unsure if the argument of the preposition will have a tone. In principle, it is an adverb not a direct object of the "verb", so it should not have a tone, but on the other hand, I would like to maintain the lexical distinctions expressed by tone.

(1)
Phạ́ ngé lý ḍḍak ṭọṅmhùṅṭe
SG1 express RECIPIENT woman football
'I spoke to the woman about football.'


More specific location is expressed by a noun that follows the preposition.
(2)
Phạ́ ngé zạ́ bon de.
SG1 express be_in inside house
'I'm speaking inside the house.' Lit. 'I speak being in the inside of the house.'

[Omzinesý]

Copular clauses


Primary copulae

Leeta has no copular verb. Pronouns are used instead.

Three pronouns are usually used
y 'he/she/they' for animates'
eṅ 'it' for inanimates
lan 'it' for clauses and abstract characteristics


(1)
Sut y ḍḍak.
NAME she/he woman
'Sut is a woman.'


Pronouns are, of course, not followed by a pronominal copula.
(2)
Phạ́ ḍḍak.
SG1 woman
'I am a woman.'

Copulae are negated with particle ọk 'no'. It is an interesting particle in that it always adopts the tone of its argument.

(3)
Tèn ý ọ̀xeḍḍàk.
'Tèn is no woman.'


Secondary copulae

Secondary coplulae appear in constructions like: 'to make somebody something' or 'to regard somebody something' or 'to feel something'.
Secondary copulae are adverbs and thus have no tone.

(4)
Phạ́ ṣý nẹ́n not.
sg1 consider cat amusing
'I consider the cat amusing.'

(5)
Phạ́ ṣá ġạt. 'I feel active.'

(6)
Phạ́ ṣá ọkġạt 'I feel inactive.'

[Omzinesý]

Syntax stuff

Verbs do not have lexical tones. Verbs of main clauses always have the high tone.

Complement clauses

The verb of complement clause always has the low tone.
The word order changes so that, if there is a different subject (not that of the main clause), it appears after the verb (1) and if there is a same subject (as in the main clause) the subject is not repeated (2). If the complement clause is transitive, the subject precedes the object (3).

(1)
Phạ́ lọ́ thù Tèn ṭhọng.
SG1 know make_noise Tèn bad
'I know that Tèn sings badly.'

(2)
Phạ́ lọ́ thù ṭhọng.
SG1 know make_noise bad
'I know that I sing badly.'

(3)
Ý ngé pì Tèn thásen sen.
SG3 express produce Tèn book literally
'He said that Tèn is writing a book.'

Adverbial clauses

Like all adverbials, the verb of adverbial clauses does not have a tone (in other words has the neutral tone).

i) Adverbial clauses following the main clause
There are many restrictions in adverbial clauses following the main clause. They are better classified as converbs.
* They form one phonological and graphical unit, i.e. have only on stress.
* They cannot have their subject but it can be either that of the main clause or the object of the main clause.
* They don't have any conjunction, so their semantic meaning is derived from the context.

(4)
Phạ́ thú phén tsennén.
phạ́ thú phén tsen-nén
SG1 make_noise laughter perceive-cat
'I was laughing when seeing the cat.'

ii) Adverbial clauses preceding the main clause
They are more clause-like (i.e. finite) than the adverbial clauses following the main clause. They are formed like any main clause.
The verb of an adverbial clause preceding the main clause has the low tone. (Or should it be the neutral tone???)
The verb of the main clause is followed by a conjunction that expresses their relations. Those conjunctions can however appear in a discourse although the preceding clause was not subordinate.

-t 'When ... then' The clauses happen simultaneously. (5).
-ṭ 'if ... then' The nonfactual or counterfactual subordinate clause is a condition for the main clause (6).
-k 'then' The main clause temporally follows the subordinate clause (7).

(5)
Nén sìng tseng, phạ́ thút phén.
cat moves artistically, SG1 make_noise-WHEN laughter
'When the cat was dancing, I was laughing.'

(6)
Nén sìng tseng, phạ́ thúṭ phén.
cat moves artistically, SG1 make_noise-IF laughter
'If the cat danced, I would laugh.'

(7)
Nén sìng tseng, phạ́ thúk phén.
cat moves artistically, SG1 make_noise-THEN laughter
'When the cat had danced, I laughed.'

Edit: I could actually play even more with the tones of the verbs of adverbial clauses preceding the main clause. One tone could encode a factual subordinate clause, one a nonfactual subordinate clause and one a counterfactual subordinate clause.

[Omzinesý]

I once again try to make an analytic lang. It seems to be the hardest possible type of lang.
My Analytic langs are usually called Reeta, Ve'eta, Je'eta... , so let this lang be Leeta ['ɭe:ʔetə]. It's very possible this lang will be like most of my E'eta langs, but we will be.

Ta is the people speaking the language.
e means many positive things 'good', 'standard', 'respected'... Some vernaculars are called Lesuta 'Vernacular languages of the Ta'
le means language. lèngta means the country where Leeta is spoken.

In this lang "word" will mean a graphic and phonological word, which is often a compound or even a phrase. Morpheme will mean a monosyllabic entity that can be glossed.

Some basic features
- Monosyllabic words or morphemes how you want to define them
- Verbs is a closed lexical class
- Compounding and incorporation are frequent
- There is some morphology but very little.
- Right branching

Phonology

Vowels
i ɯ u
e ɘ o
æ ɑ ɒ

<i y u
e a o
ẹ ạ ọ>

There are three tones: high <á>, mid <a>, and low <à>.
Vowel length is not lexical, but the morpheme of a word has its vowel longer, which codes phrase boundaries and can be seen as a stress.

Consonants
m n ɳ ŋ <m n ṇ ṅ>
mʰ nʰ ɳʰ ŋʰ <mh nh ṇh ṅh>
pʰ tʰ t͡s ʈʰ ʈ͡ʂ kʰ <ph th ts ṭh ṭṣ kh>
p t ʈ k <p t ṭ k>
b d ɖ ɠ <b d ḍ g>
s ʂ x <s ṣ x>
z ʑ ɣ <z ẓ ġ>
l ɭ <l ḷ>

Glottal stop appears as an onset of a vowel-initial morpheme if the preceding morpheme doesn't end in a stop, which lenites. It is not written.
Consonants can be geminated word-initially. If such the morpheme appears after pausa or after a stop, /ɘ/ appear before it.

ḍḍak 'woman'
ḍḍaxeḍḍak 'hostess'

Front vowels do not appear after retroflex consonants.

Morpheme patterns
A morpheme is always of the pattern (C(:))V(K), where K stands for n ɳ ŋ or t ʈ k. The stops t ʈ k don't have an own release. If followed by a vowel the coda stops are lenited to s ʂ x respectively.
All verbs are CV.

There are 30 onset consonants (if gemination is not taken into account) and 9 vowels. That is 270 syllables without codas.
I think I'll remove the coda stops from all roots. They can only appear as suffixes.
Some nasals do still appear as codas.



Tones very rarely differentiate fully different roots. In nouns, where tones can make lexical distinctions, they usually express:
i) High tone: augmentative, Low tone: diminutive
tsén 'plant', tsèn 'tree'

ii) High tone: concrete thing, Low thing: abstract characteristic
ṣóṅ 'thought', 'idea', ṣòṅ 'ideology', 'theory'
thín 'sex act', thìn 'sexuality'


As a suffix of nouns, -t expresses focus.

(1)
Tèn pì thásen sen.
Tèn produce book literally
'Tèn is writing a book.'

(2)
Tèn-t pì thásen sen.
Tèn-FOC produce book literally
'It's Tèn who is writing a book.'

(3)
Tèn pì thásen-t sen.
Tèn produce book-FOC literally
'It's a book that Tèn is writing.'

(4)
Tèn pì thásen sen-t.
Tèn produce book literally-FOC
'Tèn is WRITING a book.'

(5)
Tèn pìt thásen sen.
Tèn produce-FOC book literally
'Tèn is really writing a book.'

[Omzinesý]

Leeta has many interesting features

- Verbs are a closed class
- Negation is expressed supletively for every verbal lexeme
- Tone expresses some kind of finiteness
- Diathesis is expressed in the verb
- The boundary between verbs and prepositions is vague

But Leeta still lacks something.
What could it be?

[Omzinesý]

New version of phonology
(This resembles much some my older langs. No matter.)

Vowels
i ɯ u
e ɘ o
æ ɑ ɒ

<i y u
e a o
ẹ ạ ọ>

Vowel length is not lexical, but the first morpheme of a word has its vowel longer, which codes phrase boundaries and can be seen as a stress.

Onset consonants
m n ɳ ŋ <m n ṇ ṅ>
mʰ nʰ ɳʰ ŋʰ <mh nh ṇh ṅh>
pʰ tʰ t͡s ʈʰ ʈ͡ʂ kʰ <ph th ts ṭh ṭṣ kh>
p t ʈ k <p t ṭ k>
b d ɖ ɠ <b d ḍ g>
s ʂ x <s ṣ x>
z ʑ ɣ <z ẓ ġ>
l ɭ <l ḷ>


Suprasegmentals

- Nasalization <Vn>
- Creaky voice <Vc>
- Breathy voice <Vh>
If the syllable following a vowel with one of the supprasegmentals above starts with the glottal stop, the glottal stop is written <'>.

- Three mostly morphological tones: high <á>, mid <a>, and low <à>.
Tone can co-appear with nasalization or creaky or breathy voice.

Phonotactics
All syllables are C(C)V.
Consonant clusters are always of the same MOA. A retroflex and a dental cannot form a cluster.
Possible clusters are thus:

Code: Select all

ptʰ, pt͡s, pʈʰ, pʈ͡ʂ, pkʰ,- tpʰ, tkʰ,- ʈpʰ, ʈkʰ,-kpʰ, ktʰ, kt͡s, kʈʰ, kʈ͡ʂ
pt, pʈ, pk,- tp, tk,- ʈp, ʈk,-kp, kt, kʈ
bd, bɖ, bg,- db, dg,- ɖb, ɖg, gb, gd, gɖ 
mnʰ, mɳʰ, mŋʰ,- nmʰ, nŋʰ,- ɳmʰ, ɳŋʰ,- ŋmʰ, ŋnʰ, ŋɳʰ 
mn, mɳ, mŋ,- nm, nŋ,- ɳm, ɳŋ,- ŋm, ŋn, ŋɳ 

The old phonology

Phonology

Vowels
i ɯ u
e ɘ o
æ ɑ ɒ

<i y u
e a o
ẹ ạ ọ>

There are three tones: high <á>, mid <a>, and low <à>.
Vowel length is not lexical, but the morpheme of a word has its vowel longer, which codes phrase boundaries and can be seen as a stress.

Consonants
m n ɳ ŋ <m n ṇ ṅ>
mʰ nʰ ɳʰ ŋʰ <mh nh ṇh ṅh>
pʰ tʰ t͡s ʈʰ ʈ͡ʂ kʰ <ph th ts ṭh ṭṣ kh>
p t ʈ k <p t ṭ k>
b d ɖ ɠ <b d ḍ g>
s ʂ x <s ṣ x>
z ʑ ɣ <z ẓ ġ>
l ɭ <l ḷ>

Glottal stop appears as an onset of a vowel-initial morpheme if the preceding morpheme doesn't end in a stop, which lenites. It is not written.
Consonants can be geminated word-initially. If such the morpheme appears after pausa or after a stop, /ɘ/ appear before it.

ḍḍak 'woman'
ḍḍaxeḍḍak 'hostess'

Front vowels do not appear after retroflex consonants.

Morpheme patterns
A morpheme is always of the pattern (C(:))V(K), where K stands for n ɳ ŋ or t ʈ k. The stops t ʈ k don't have an own release. If followed by a vowel the coda stops are lenited to s ʂ x respectively.
All verbs are CV.