Tsaqʼma

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Tsaqʼma

Post by Void »

Tsaqʼma [ˈtsɑqʼmɒ] is an agglutinative language spoken by the Tsaqʼar people who live in and around Ithirimakkhâr MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON, a vast mountain range with snowy peaks, a day's walk from the Western Shores. The Tsaqʼar are proficient metalworkers and skilled sorcerers, but decent farmers at best. They rear mostly sheep, goats, pigs, and chickens while lacking beasts of burden, and their main crop are potatoes, carrots, and cabbages. They are, however, quite good with minerals and metals, favouring iron, jade, bone, and obsidian.

The only bovine animal found in the Tsaqʼma region of Ithirimakkhâr is the âsrhaun, a massive, hairy bison-like animal worshipped by the Tsaqʼar; the horned-god Khapâsh, deity of night, sorcery, and poetry, is often depicted as an âsrhaun.

Phonology

Tsaqʼma has 25 consonants and 6 vowels.

nasal: /m n ŋ/ m n nh
stop: /p pʼ t tʼ k kʼ q qʼ/ p pʼ t tʼ k kʼ q qʼ
fricative: /f θ s ʃ x/ f th s sh kh
affricate: /ts tsʼ tʃ tʃʼ/ ts tsʼ ch chʼ
approximant: /w j ɰ/ w j g
rhotic: /r̥ r/ rh r
vowels: /i iː u uː a aː/ i î u û a â

The following diphthongs are allowed: /iw iɰ uj uɰ aj aw/ iu ia ui ua ai au

Allophony

C[plosive, placei] + [plosive, -ejective, placei] → hC[placei]
→ C[placei] /C_
C[plosive, -ej., placei] + C[fricative, placei] → Cː[fricative]
C[plosive, +ej., placei] + C[fricative, placei] → Cː[affricate, +ej., placei]
C[plosive, placei] + [+ej., placei] → ʔC[+ej., placei]
→ C[placei] /C_
/n ŋ/ → [placei] /_C[+placei]
/n/ → [ŋ] /_{C[+rh.])
/s/ → [ʃ] /_{[ɲ c cʼ ç j]}
/jː wː ɰː/ → [htʃ fː χː]
/r/ → [r̥] /_]W
/n k kʼ x ɰ/ → [ɲ c cʼ ç j] /_{/i j/}

VC[approximant] → Vː /_CC
/i u a/ → [ɪ ʊ ɑ]
/a aː/ → [ɒ ɒː] / {q qʼ ɰ C[+lab.]}_
→ [æ æː] /C[+pal.]_
/u uː/ → [ʏ yː] /C[+pal.]_

Ejective harmony: if an ejective consonant is followed by a non-ejective stop or affricate, then the ejective quality is lost. If an ejective consonant is followed by a different ejective stop or affricate, however, then only the final element is ejective.

Diphthongs typically alternate between glide-initial and glide-final (if such a diphthong exists). Glide-initial are found after a single consonant, while glide-final after a consonant cluster, or word-initially after a single vowel. These are sensitive to morphophonological processes. a- initial diphthongs are an exception, as they always remain glide-final.For example:

kjakʼ MAN [cjækʼ] → ashkiakʼûs WARBAND [ɑʃˈcɪɰku:s]
swar HEART [swɒr̥] → assuarûs ZEITGEIST [ɑˈsːʊɰruːs]

/iw iɰ uj uɰ/ → [jʏ jæ wɪ wɒ] /W[(C)_, [ɪw ɪɰ ʊj ʊɰ] /elsewhere

A diphthong may collapse into a long vowel if it preceeds a consonant cluster. For example: swar HEARTunsûrqi VILLAIN [ʊnˈsuːrqɪ] (rather than #unsuarqi).

Phonotactics

Maximally complex syllable permitted in Tsaqʼma is CCVC. Thus, consonant clusters may contain up to three consonants obeying a loose sonority hierarchy: the least sonorous, non-obstruent consonant must be on either extreme of the cluster. So clusters like /tkm/, /ksk/ or /sfr/ are allowed, while /rmk/, /kŋs/ or /tʃʼnj/ aren't.

Prosody

Tsaqʼma divides syllables into two categories: light and heavy. Light syllables contain a short vowel preceeding a single consonant. Heavy syllables contain either a long vowel or a vowel before a consonant cluster. Diphthongs are either light or heavy, based on whether they precede a consonant. Stress is placed on the first syllable in mono- and di-syllabic words. In words with three or more syllables, the stress is placed on the penult; if the penult is light while the antepenult is heavy, the stress is placed on the antepenult.
Last edited by Void on 25 Jan 2020 02:09, edited 4 times in total.
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Re: Tsaqʼma

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Morphology

Tsaqʼma distinguishes between three classes of words: nominals, verbs, and particles. Nominals include nouns and adjectives, distinguished for animacy: animacy is often reflected semantically, and many nominals may be split-animate. For example, swar means HEART when inanimate, but DEAR (as a term of endearment) when animate. Animacy is reflected in verbs, plurality, and certain cases.

As mentioned above, Tsaqʼma does not properly distinguish nouns and adjectives; the latter are commonly termed attributive nominals, modifying other nominals through compounding. A standalone attributive nominal is split-animate, contingent on the reference in the world. The word suqʼmûranh, for example, may either refer to a dark, mystic individual or a black, cimmerian object.

Verbs are inflected for agent, patient, and recipient, tense (non-future and future), voice, and mood. Other information, such as aspects, is encoded in various bases, usually postbases.

Syntax

The word order is free, however VSO is the most common one. Tsaqʼma is typically head-initial clause-wise, in the sense that other phrases modifying the head typically follow it. There are many exceptions to this, however, particularly in interactions between nominals such as compounding.

Sâprafâmur.
snow:bear
"Snow-bear."

Susauthum gârhakskuam shjûnhrhammâkhsan.
1SG-travel-PRF mountain-PL-SUPEL friend-PL-COM-1SG.POSS
"I've travelled beyond the mountains with my friends."

Morphosyntax

Tsaqʼma has a split-ergative morphosyntactic alignment which is animacy-contingent: the absolutive is used to mark the subject of intransitive verbs, patient of transitive verbs, and the thematic role of stimulus in certain transitive verbs; the ergative is used to mark the agent of transitive verbs; the dative is used to mark the recipient in ditransitive verbs and the thematic role of experiencer in certain transitive verbs. Basically, Tsaqʼma's morphosyntax is more accurately described as distinguishing between agent/patient and stimulus/experiencer.

Ancharh qwathur.
3SG.AN-hide-N.FUT snake-ABS
"The snake hides."

Wîkhriu sûkhtsirk qthûp.
3SG.AN>3SG.IN-write-N.FUT philosopher-ERG book-ABS
"The philosopher is writing a book."

Urhumiskʼar qargata sâpraf.
3SG.IN>3SG.AN.DAT-hate-N.FUT raven-DAT snow-ABS
"The raven hates snow."

Split-ergativity occurs in verbs where the agent is an inanimate nominal while the patient is an animate one. In such cases, the antipassive is applied to the verb: the agent takes the absolutive while the patient takes the dative (the verb does not receive dative marking, however).

Ûqûnqsham wîjas qârtaman.
3SG.INAN-kill-ANTIPAS-PRF storm-ABS victim-DAT-1PL.POSS
"The storm killed our sacrificial victim."

Lexicon

swar "heart" in., "dear" an.
suqʼmûranh "(something) of a deep, black colour" an./in.
sâpraf "snow" in.
âmur "bear" an.
sauth "to travel" intr.
gârh "mountain" in.
shjûnhrham "friend" an.
ancharh "to hide" intr.
qwathur "snake" an.
îkhriu "to write" tr.
sûkhtsir "philosopher" an.
qthûp "book" in.
miskʼar "to hate" tr.
qarga "raven" an.
uqûnh "to kill" tr.
wîjas "storm" in.
qaur "sacrificial victim" an.
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Re: Tsaqʼma

Post by Void »

A more refined nominal morphology in Tsaqʼma:

Nominals are a complex concept in Tsaqʼma as essentially every nominal may stand on its own as a clause in an existential sense. For example, the nominal warkh is commonly translated as WOLF, but a more accurate translation would be HE IS A WOLF or THERE IS A WOLF.

Tsaqʼma distinguishes animate and inanimate nominals. Animacy is semantic and reflected morphologically; that is to say, many nominals are split-animate, meaning that they can either, but refer to a different concept in reality.
sirts RATIONAL BEING an. / MIND in.
assarksûs MAN an. / BODY in.

There are three numbers: singular, dual, and plural. The dual is formed via reduplication of the initial syllable with a lengthened vowel and the suffix -i; if the stem vowel is long, it becomes short. The plural distinguishes animacy: animate nominals take the suffix -ar, while inanimate nominals take the suffix -Vk, where V is the vowel in the last syllable of the nominal.
qaur VICTIM, qâqauri A PAIR OF VICTIMS, qaurar VICTIMS an.
qthûp BOOK, qûqthupi TWO BOOKS, qthûpuk BOOKS in.

Vowel-initial stems have the first VC syllable reduplicated similarly to the scheme above. Cluster-initial stems reduplicate only the first consonant (as seen in the example for BOOK above).
âk EYE, âkaki A PAIR OF EYES, âkak EYES in.
ithir MOON, îthithiri TWO MOONS, ithirar MOONS an.

The case suffix is attached onto the plural:
thjurhthrân TEMPLE; thjurhthrânak TEMPLES → thjurhthrânakkha WITHIN THE TEMPLES

Case

Tsaqʼma is an absolutive-ergative language and has 16 cases. The morphosyntactic cases have animacy contingent suffixes, while certainspatio-temporal and adpositional ones don't.
There are three morphosyntactic cases:
  • Absolutive – lemma, patient/stimulus, no suffix
  • Ergative – agent, marked with -k an., -t in.
  • Dative – recipient/experiencer, marked with -ta an., -pʼa in.
There are nine spatio-temporal cases:
  • Adessive – the state of being at, by, or near something, marked with -kû an., -tû in.
  • Allative – the state of moving towards or to something, marked with -ju.
  • Ablative – the state of moving from something, typically its exterior, marked with -kûr an., -tûr in.
  • Inessive – the state of in, within, or during something, marked with -mi an., -kha in.
  • Illative – the state of moving into something, marked with -its.
  • Intrative – the state of moving from within something or certain instances of causality or origin; marked with -mjarr an., -khâr in.
  • Superessive – the state of being on or beyond something, marked with -pan.
  • Superlative – the state of moving onto or beyond something, marked with -panau.
  • Elative – the state of moving from atop or beyond something, marked with -panhri.
There are further four adpositional cases:
  • Instrumental – marks the tool of a particular instance, mirroring the English prepositions "with, by means of." Marked with -ksV for all animacy classes, where V is the vowel in the preceding syllable.
  • Comitative – indicates the companionship of a particular nominal. Marked with -mâkh.
  • Abessive – indicates the lack of something. Marked with -shtʼa.
  • Terminative – indicates a particular goal in space or time, as well as the benefactor of a particular situation or support for a cause. Marked with -sut.
The derivational suffix -ir may be used with most non-morphosyntactic cases to form an active nominal related to the function of the case.
khshathra POWER → khshathraksîr HERO (← khshathraksa WITH POWER + -ir)
jûkhrham FOOD → jûkhrhammâkhir COMRADE (← jûkhrhammâkh WITH FOOD + -ir)

Certain derivational elements are sometimes removed:
uqmai CORPSE → uqpanir BURIAL SHROUD (← uqmaipan ON THE CORPSE + -ir)

Possession

Tsaqʼma does not have free morphemes indicating possession. Instead, all possession is done by means of pronominal possessive suffixes. The head is always marked with the possessor suffix, preceeding it in most cases, other than for emphasis and poetry. The possessive suffix is always the final element in a nominal chain, other than enclitics.
  • first person singular -san MINE
  • second person singular -qan THINE
  • animate third person singular -in HERS/HIS (-jan after vowels)
  • inanimate third person singular -un ITS (-jun after vowels)
  • first person plural -nhran OURS (-nhian after /r/)
  • second person plural -qran YOURS (-qian after /r/)
  • third person plural -ran THEIRS
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Re: Tsaqʼma

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Verbal Morphology in Tsaqʼma

Like nominals, verbs are complex entities in Tsaqʼma, inflected for arguments, tense, voice, mood, and aspect. Tsaqʼma is an animacy-contingent split-ergative language: the standard morphosyntactic absolutive-ergative alignment is used in most cases, but the anticausative is required whenever the agent is inanimate and the patient is animate (this is not so with experiential verbs).

Personal Pronominals
Tsaqʼma distinguishes three types of transitivity, relevant to personal inflection:
  • In intransitive verbs, the subject is marked with the absolutive person.
  • In transitive verbs, the agent is marked with the ergative while the patient/theme is marked with the absolutive. In experiencer/stimulus verbs, the stimulus is marked with the absolutive while the experiencer is marked with the dative.
  • In ditransitive verbs, the agent is marked with the ergative, the patient/theme with the absolutive, and the recipient with the dative.
The following are the pronominal prefixes for intransitive verbs (absolutive):
  • first person singular s- I
  • second person singular q- thou
  • animate third person singular Ø- s/he
  • inanimate third person singular w- it
  • first person plural m- we
  • second person plural t- you
  • third person plural ar- they
The epenthetic vowel -u- is used to prevent illegal consonant clusters; the inanimate third person singular is u- before consonants.

The agentive (or ergative) marking is prefixed before the patientive prefix, giving rise to seemingly irregular (but consistent) compound prefixes.
Spoiler:
first person singular agent:
Spoiler:
  • second person singular siq-, squ- I, thee
  • animate third person singular si-, shj- I, her/him
  • inanimate third person singular siw-, shju- I, it
  • second person plural sit-, stu- I, you
  • third person plural shjar- I, them
  • reflexive sith-, sithu- myself
second person singular agent:
Spoiler:
  • first person singular qis-, qsu- thou, me
  • animate third person singular qi-, qj- thou, her/him
  • inanimate third person singular qiw-, qju- thou, it
  • first person plural qim-, qmu- thou, us
  • third person plural qjar- thou, them
  • reflexive qith-, qthu- thyself
animate third person singular agent:
Spoiler:
  • first person singular is- s/he, me
  • second person singular iq- s/he, thee
  • animate third person singular i-, j- s/he, her/him
  • inanimate third person singular iw-, ju- s/he, it
  • first person plural im- s/he, us
  • second person plural it- s/he, you
  • third person plural jar- s/he, them
  • reflexive ith- her/himself
inanimate third person singular agent:
Spoiler:
  • inanimate third person singular fi-, fj- it, it
  • third person plural war- it, them
  • reflexive uth- itself
first person plural agent:
Spoiler:
  • second person singular miq- we, thee
  • animate third person singular mi-, mj- we, her/him
  • inanimate third person singular miw-, mju- we, it
  • second person plural mit- we, you
  • third person plural mjar- we, them
  • reflexive mith- ourselves
second person plural agent:
Spoiler:
  • first person singular ts- you, me
  • animate third person singular tiq-, tqu- you, her/him
  • inanimate third person singular tiw-, tju- you, it
  • first person plural tim-, tmu- you, us
  • third person plural tjar- you, them
  • reflexive itth- yourselves
third person plural agent:
Spoiler:
  • first person singular ris- they, me
  • second person singular riq- they, thee
  • animate third person singular ri-, rj- they, her/him
  • inanimate third person singular riw-, rju- they, it
  • first person plural rim- they, us
  • second person plural rit- they, you
  • third person plural rjar- they, them
  • reflexive arth- themselves
Tense and mood
Tsaqʼma distinguishes two tenses: non-future and future. The non-future is unmarked, while the future is marked with the suffix -is or -sa.

There are three moods in Tsaqʼma: the standard, unmarked indicative; the subjunctive, a general irrealis usually used for verbs that do not necessarily reflect reality, indicating desire, hope, etc.; the vetitive, a negative irrealis mood, indicates verbs that are not desired, warned against, etc. The subjunctive is marked with the suffix -tan while the vetitive with -sikh. The subjunctive -tan becomes -tamma in the perfect aspect.

The necessative mood is not a separate mood in Tsaqʼma; it is formed with the prefix far- in conjunction with the other two irrealis moods.

Voice
There are two voices in Tsaqʼma: active and antipassive. The antipassive is used to deemphasize the agent/stimulus in transitive verbs (as transitive verbs have an obligatory patient/experiencer marking), as well as to form transitive clauses with animate patients and inanimate agents. Stimulus/experiencer marking is active for animate experiencers and inanimate stimuli.

The antipassive is marked with the suffix -qsha: the agent is marked with the absolutive while the patient, if not dropped, is marked with the dative. The patient can also stand alone. For example:
ujuqûnhum takramâkʼant thurjh THE DESERT KILLED GOD (3SG.INAN>3SG.AN-kill-PRF desert-ERG god-ABS) is ungrammatical; the correct form would be:
utʼuqûnqsham takramâkʼan thjurhta THE DESERT KILLED GOD (3SG.INAN.STIM>3SG.AN.EXP-kill-ANTICAUS-PRF desert-ABS god-DAT)

The anticausative is also used for desired, transitive actions.
wamkharkû surûn muqûnhqshatan WE WANT TO KILL (3SG.INAN.COP-1PL-ADES desire-3SG.INAN.POSS 1PL-kill-ANTICAUS-SUBJ)
uchamgurkû surûn jûkhqshatan THE DOG WANTS TO EAT (3SG.INAN.COP-dog-ADES desire-3SG.INAN.POSS 3SG.AN-eat-ANTICAUS-SUBJ)
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Re: Tsaqʼma

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I have translated the opening chapter of Thus Spake Zarathustra, and I will post a detailed post soon, but in the meanwhile, I have contemplated on how different orthographies (not to mention writing systems) influence how we perceive languages. This is not as relevant with natural languages as it is with conlangs, which are shared mainly via text.

Anyway, here're the first three lines of Thus Spake Zarathustra in three different orthographies:

Standard
Tʼmukhain tqʼauqûthur qʼjûthukkha Khushtakhrâm, jarâthfanh mwaqʼ ja kjunhunun mwaqʼin jakh ikhfanh askʼanhûsarju. Trhâthrân, artsʼûf psûkhrham ja khutsjâ, ja ash atruttuska trhaukhâr qûf ârhqiuthikkha. Pkûmkha mûswaruth, ja qaiwarakhajan skhûnhanh khkannhrhîrmâkh gînthiska anhrhîmkû ja rûksa tûshunh krhausut —

Afro-Asiaticish
Ṭmuḥayn tq̇awqūθur q̇yūθuḥḥa Ḥuštaḥrām, yarāθfaṇ mwaq̇ ya kyuṇunun mwaq̇in yaḥ iḥfaṇ asḳaṇūsaryu. Tṛāθrān, arc̣ūf psūḥṛam ya ḥucyā, ya aš atruttuska tṛawḥār qūf āṛqiuθiḥḥa. Pkūmḥa mūswaruθ, ya qaywaraḥayan sḥūṇaṇ ḥkaṇṛīrmāḥ gīnθiska aṇṛīmkū ya rūksa tūšuṇ kṛawsut —

Hungarianesque
Tʼmuhajn tqʼavqútzur qʼjútzuhha Husztahrám, jarátzfaŋ mvaqʼ ja kjuŋunun mvaqʼin jah ihfaŋ askʼaŋúsarju. Trzátzrán, arcúf psúhrzam ja hucjá, ja asz atruttuska trzavhar qúf árzqivtzihha. Pkúmha músvarutz, ja qajvarahajan skúŋaŋ hkaŋŋrzírmáh gíntziska aŋrzímkú ja rúksa túszuŋ krzavsut —
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