Yønsen

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CarsonDaConlanger
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Yønsen

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Introduction
Yønsen, or more specifically Lens Yønsen “Standard Yønsen,” is a language spoken in the Yønir Prairie by a society at a technological development roughly similar to that of Classical Greece. They live in rather large cities (for the time period), mostly farming wheat and oats, and trading with Driŋel, nomads who tend to herds of cattle and sheep on the open plains to the North. The Yøn Kingdom sits on a strategic trade location, a gap in the Auk'a mountain range, giving them access to goods from the civilizations to the South. Yønsen is written using a native syllabary using ink quills on a paper made from palm leaf-pulp, which is one of the major goods traded for with the southern people.


Table of Contents
Links to posts detailing various aspects of the grammar/phonology will be put here, as they are made.


Phonology
Here I will describe the phonemic inventory and phonological processes of Yønsen, as well as pointing out some changes from Old Yønsen. Note: While there are several contemporary dialects which vary greatly phonologically, I will be focusing on Lens Yønsen unless otherwise specified.

Consonants
Yönsen has an average sized consonant inventory, with 21 phonemes.
/m n ŋ/ m n ŋ
/p ph p' t th t' ts tsh ts' k kh k'/ b p p' d t t' z ts ts' g k k'
/s x/ s h
/w l r j/ w l r y

Vowels
Yönsen has an average sized, but asymmetrical, vowel system. This leads to lots of variation between dialects.
/ɪ i:/ i ii
/ø ø: ə ə: o o:/ ö öö e ee o oo
/a a:/ a aa
/aj ej au ou/ ay ey aw ow
Front-back harmony exists:
F: ø(:), ə(:)
B: o(:), a(:)
/ɪ/ and /i:/ are transparent neutral except when stressed. When stressed, they can be either front or back, depending on entomology.

Phonotactics and Allophony
The maximum size for a syllable is (C)(R)V(C)(C)
C=any consonant
R= n m ŋ l r j w
All consonants may appear in the coda except for tenuous stops.
All consonants may appear in the onset, including /ŋ/ with some restrictions: /ŋ/ may only appear in a word initial onset if it is in a cluster following a plosive. It may appear in the onset in all other positions.
Word initial clusters of a nasal or a liquid followed by a semivowel are permitted, but elsewhere they become a gemminate. NG > NN LG > LL /wolja/ [wolla]
Intervocalic clusters of glide + liquid or liquid plus liquid result in the latter becoming gemminated. /dajla/ [dalla]
/ɪ/ and /ə/ followed by a resonant become a syllabic consonant, even when stressed.
When /s/ is followed by an ejective, it assimilates to [ts'].
/r/ is realized as [ɣj] after /i:/
Word final plosives are always released.

Pitch Accent
The pitch accent system in relatively simple: a high pitch is placed on the first long vowel or diphthong in a word. If there is no long vowel or diphthong, accent is placed on the first vowel of the word, with a few exceptions: there are some affixes and clitics that push accent back a syllable. Accent is not marked, but morphemes that move accent back will be written with a grave when they are defined (i.e ò-), but they are not marked in standard writing.
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CarsonDaConlanger
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Re: Yønsen

Post by CarsonDaConlanger »

Grammar Part One: Typology
(I meant to add this to the introduction but I forgot lol)
Yønsen can be classified as following:
Nominative accusative
Head marking
Head final
Synthetic (agglutiative)
Primarily suffixing


Grammar Part Two: Nominals and Pronouns
Nominals (Nouns and adjectives) and pronouns work much the same way in Yønsen. All three decline for number and case. Yønsen grammar is just about entirely left branching, so articles, demonstratives, numerals, genitives, adjectives, relative clauses, precede the noun (in that order), and adpositions follow them.


Pronouns
There are 4 personal pronouns, a demonstrative pronoun, an interrogative pronoun, and a relative pronoun. They decline as such:

1st person: (Singular/plural)
Encltic: r(è)-
NOM re/reŋ
ACC/DAT ren/reŋ
GEN ret/reŋt
LOC res/reŋs

2nd person:
Enclitic: ò-
NOM wa/woŋ
ACC/DAT wan/woŋ
GEN ot/oŋt
LOC os/oŋs

3rd person:
Enclitic: ì-
NOM yi/yiŋ
ACC/DAT yin/yiŋ
GEN yit/tiŋt
LOC yis/yiŋs

4th person/indefinite:
Enclitic: bò-
NOM bo/boŋ
ACC/DAT bon/boŋ
GEN bot/boŋt
LOC bos/boŋs

Demonstrative:
(the distal form is made by reduplication (gekel) and takes the same declension as kel, but is never cliticized.)
Encltic: kl(è)-
NOM kel/kleŋ
ACC/DAT klen/kleŋ
GEN kelt/keleŋt
LOC kels/keleŋs

Interrogative
Enclitic: nø̀-
NOM nø/nøŋ
ACC/DAT nøn/nøŋ
GEN nøt/nøŋt
LOC nøs/nøŋs

Relative
Enclitic: h(ì)-
NOM hii/hiiŋ
ACC/DAT hiin/hiiŋ
GEN hit/hiŋt
LOC his/hiŋs

Nominals
Nouns and adjectives decline identically, and are agglutinative:
(Singular/plural)

Example one: bor “dog”

NOM: bor/boroŋ
ACC: bonna/boranna
DAT: bork'/boranna
GEN: bort/boroŋt
LOC: boras/boroŋas

(sometimes, a nominal has a “silent vowel” at the end that appears in cases besides the nominative singular.)
Example two: tens “light, small, fragile”

NOM: tens/tenseŋ
ACC: tensen/tensenne
DAT: tensek'/tenseŋk'
GEN: tenset/tenseŋt
LOC: tenses/tenseŋes

There is no indefinite article, but definiteness is obligatorily expressed using the 2nd person genitive pronoun “ot.” To express 2nd person possession, the 2nd person plural genitive is used “oŋt.” The determiner does not agree to number or case.
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Omzinesý
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Re: Yønsen

Post by Omzinesý »

Nice, a new conlang.

I like the vowel inventory. It is strange but when I look at it deeply I cannot find any specific strange or "unnatural" feature in it.

Do you have some linguistic feeling/inspiration behind it, say it should feel like Sanskrit or a native American language or something?
What linguistic features are you going to incorporate in the language? (Just waiting for some spoiler list.)

How is Locative used? Is it governed by some verbs (to believe in, to look at...) or is it just an adjunct (Psycho killed her in bathroom. )?
My meta-thread: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5760
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Re: Yønsen

Post by Khemehekis »

Omzinesý wrote: 27 May 2020 10:23 . . . or is it just an adjunct (Psycho killed her in bathroom. )?
You're thinking of Psycho, like in the Alfred Hitchcock movie? [B)]
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Squirrels chase koi . . . chase squirrels

My Kankonian-English dictionary: 86,336 words and counting

31,416: The number of the conlanging beast!
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CarsonDaConlanger
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Re: Yønsen

Post by CarsonDaConlanger »

Omzinesý wrote: 27 May 2020 10:23 Nice, a new conlang.

I like the vowel inventory. It is strange but when I look at it deeply I cannot find any specific strange or "unnatural" feature in it.

Do you have some linguistic feeling/inspiration behind it, say it should feel like Sanskrit or a native American language or something?
Thanks! I've been in love with deriving wacky asymmetrical vowel inventories from nice inoffensive 5 vowel systems for a while. My main inspiration was Biblaridion's conlanging videos, which if you haven't seen them you should definitely check those out! I took some inspiration from Quechua a few others. To say much more would be spoilers.
Omzinesý wrote: 27 May 2020 10:23 What linguistic features are you going to incorporate in the language? (Just waiting for some spoiler list.)

How is Locative used? Is it governed by some verbs (to believe in, to look at...) or is it just an adjunct (Psycho killed her in bathroom. )?
I won't say much but I will say it's going to be aspect heavy.

In Old Yønsen, the locative had a lot more uses. It was the object of all locative related post positions (in on under etc.) as well as being governed by some verbs. But in modern Yønsen, the dative absorbed all postpositions, and the verbs that governed the locative were (mostly) replaced with applicative constructions. But, the use stays in a few marginal verbs as well as a few idioms. A common one being “Ot yøses inalan.” “they look to the sky” meaning someone is hoping for a miracle.
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CarsonDaConlanger
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Re: Yønsen

Post by CarsonDaConlanger »

Grammar Part Three: Verbs (Part One)
Yønsen verbs mostly distinguish aspect over tense, although a future tense can be indicated using the auxiliary verb “rya” meaning to come. Verbs are conjugated to imperfective and perfective, as well as habitual, inchoative, and cessative. Likewise there is a distinction between active and mediopassive.


Aspect
Aspect refers to the way an action or state extends through time. Many languages conflate it with tense but in Yønsen they are quite separate.

The plain imperfective aspect, referred to as continuous, refers to actions/states that are ongoing, and is used similarly to English -ing.
The perfective aspect is used to signify actions/states with no internal structure, or complete actions. There is no reference to time flowing during the action.
The imperfective habitual is used for actions/states that are continuous through time, and/or are repeated. It is also used as a gnomic, denoting timeless truths.
The perfective habitual is used for repeated actions that have no internal structure.
The imperfective inchoative is used for the beginning an action, or the act of starting.
The perfective inchoative is used for the beginning of an action, when it has no internal structure.
The imperfective cessative aspect is used for the ending of an action.
And finally, the perfective cessative aspect is used for the ending of an action, when it has not internal structure.

Voice
Voice expresses how the agent and patient of a verb relate to each other. There are two main voices in Yønsen: active and mediepassive.

The active voice is used when the subject of the verb is the one carrying out the action, and the object (if applicable) is something else.
The mediopassive voice is used when the subject of a verb is the recipient of the action or, when the subject acts upon itself. When the agent is reintroduced using the dative case, it implies that the agent did the action for their benefit. Miik yan snarin.
There is also two applicative voices, formed with the prefixes ep- and in-, which I will explain more about in a the next post.

Future Tense
There is no distinction between past and present tense, combinations of aspect and adverbs can be used to indicate time if necessary. However, the future tense can be indicated by putting the lexical verb in the infinitive and then conjugating the auxiliary verb "rya." All person marking still goes on the lexical verb.

Examples
Example One: zas "to walk"
(active/mediopassive)
Imperfective: zasan/zasin
Perfective: zasaan/zaswaan
Habitual: zasgo/zasigo
Habitual perfective: zasaago/zaswaago
Inchoative: zaslo/zasil
Inchoative perfective: zasaal/zaswaal
Cessative: zask/zasik
Cessative perfective: zasaak/zaswaak

Example Two: rya "to come/auxiliary"
(active/mediopassive)
Imperfective: ryan/ryon
Perfective: ryaan/rwon
Habitual: ryago/ryogo
Habitual perfective: ryaago/ryoogo
Inchoative: ryal/ryol
Inchoative perfective: ryaal/ryool
Cessative: ryak/ryok
Cessative perfective: ryaak/ryook
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Omzinesý
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Re: Yønsen

Post by Omzinesý »

CarsonDaConlanger wrote: 28 May 2020 04:15 When the agent is reintroduced using the dative case, it implies that the agent did the action for their benefit. Miik yan snarin.
Do you mean that the subject appears in Dative
noun-DAT verb-MEDPASS

or that there is a distinct dative argument
noun-NOM verb-MEDPASS noun-DAT
?
My meta-thread: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5760
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CarsonDaConlanger
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Re: Yønsen

Post by CarsonDaConlanger »

Omzinesý wrote: 03 Jun 2020 18:41
CarsonDaConlanger wrote: 28 May 2020 04:15 When the agent is reintroduced using the dative case, it implies that the agent did the action for their benefit. Miik yan snarin.
Do you mean that the subject appears in Dative
noun-DAT verb-MEDPASS

or that there is a distinct dative argument
noun-NOM verb-MEDPASS noun-DAT
?
Sorry for the confusion, the mediopassive voice obfuscates the agent of the verb and focuses on the object, promoting it to the nominative, like a passive. However it can also be used for reflexive statements. Like the passive in English, the "subject" of the verb can be reintroduced using an oblique case, in this case pun intended the dative. When that occurs, it carries the implication that the reintroduced subject performed the action for their own benefit/gain.
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