I kind of botched the last attempt at this language, so I'm overhauling it and starting a new thread. It's still the same backstory, but the language is going to be changed to better suit my goals. My goals for Kumarian are:
- Look and sound like languages of India (Tamil, Sinhala, Hindi, etc).
- Include a base-20 (vigesimal) numeral system, with numeral classifiers.
- Include noun case and articles
- Mark verbs for evidentiality~mood, aspect, and person
- Develope a lexicon of 150≤ words
- Translate 3 texts of various lengths
This thread will act as a scratchpad and update board, and I would be elated to receive input from y'all. I hope to post soon with the phonology and orthography.
Kumarian Revisited
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GoshDiggityDangit
- greek
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Kumarian Revisited
“Like billowing clouds, Like the incessant gurgle of the brook,
The longing of the spirit can never be stilled.” ― St. Hildegard von Bingen
The longing of the spirit can never be stilled.” ― St. Hildegard von Bingen
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GoshDiggityDangit
- greek
- Posts: 559
- Joined: 18 Dec 2018 21:27
- Location: Oakwood OH, USA
- Contact:
Re: Kumarian Revisited
Though I am determined to keep the project a-priori, I have thought of an interesting direction I could take this language. I could make it either a descendant of Tamil, or a divergent Dravidian language. The people of Kumari Nadu were supposedly Tamil.
“Like billowing clouds, Like the incessant gurgle of the brook,
The longing of the spirit can never be stilled.” ― St. Hildegard von Bingen
The longing of the spirit can never be stilled.” ― St. Hildegard von Bingen
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GoshDiggityDangit
- greek
- Posts: 559
- Joined: 18 Dec 2018 21:27
- Location: Oakwood OH, USA
- Contact:
Re: Kumarian Revisited
PHONOLOGY
It should be noted that all Kumarian samples are in Germā's idiolect, and so may not be representative of the rest of the language.
Consonant Inventory
IPA | Romanization | Sinhala Script
/p b t d ʈ ɖ t͡ʃ d͡ʒ k g q~qʰ/ <p b t d ṭ ḍ c j k g q> <ප බ ත ද ට ඩ ච ජ ක ග ඛ>
/m n ɳ ŋ/ <m n ṇ ng> <ම න ණ ඞ>
/s h x/ <s h kh> <ස හ ඝ>
/ɾ/ <r> <ර>
/ʋ j/ <v y> <ව ය>
/l ɭ/ <l ḷ> <ල ළ>
Vowel Inventory
IPA | Romanization | Sinhala Script (Independant | Diacritic)
/i i: u u:/ <i ī u ū> <ඉ ඊ උ ඌ> <ි ී ු* ූ*>
/e e: o o:/ <e ē o ō> <එ ඒ ඔ ඕ> <ෙ ේ ො ෝ>
/a a:/ <a ā> <අ ආ> <Ø ා>
*irregular on ක, ග, ත, and ර
Allophony
• Germā seems to consistently drop nasals at the end of words, nasalizing the previous vowel and lengthening it. This is written in Sinhala as an independant vowel + ඤ්. I.e <takam> = තකඅඤ් /takãː/, from තක + ම්(ඉ), my bowl. Unfortuantely, many grammatical endings are just nasals.
• Germā turns /r/s into /d/s between long vowels. I.e ගමාරීජු <gamārīju> /ɡamaːdiːdʒu/, person from Gamā.
Writing Sample
"අ ණොනුමිඉඤ් සීත් දාවතඅඤ්. අ ණොනුමාජඅඤ් නිඉඤ් චුබීඉඤ් ණේමෙතීඉඤ්."
A ṇonuming sīt ḍāvatang. A ṇonumājang nim cubīm ṇēmetīm.
/a ɳonumĩː siː daːʋatãː | a ɳonumaːdʒãː nĩː tʃubĩː ɳemetĩː/
1 home-1-DEF that regret-1.PFV. 1 home-1-NOM-DEF now-1 happy-1.IPFV live.here-1.IPFV
"I missed my home. Now I am happy where I live."
It should be noted that all Kumarian samples are in Germā's idiolect, and so may not be representative of the rest of the language.
Consonant Inventory
IPA | Romanization | Sinhala Script
/p b t d ʈ ɖ t͡ʃ d͡ʒ k g q~qʰ/ <p b t d ṭ ḍ c j k g q> <ප බ ත ද ට ඩ ච ජ ක ග ඛ>
/m n ɳ ŋ/ <m n ṇ ng> <ම න ණ ඞ>
/s h x/ <s h kh> <ස හ ඝ>
/ɾ/ <r> <ර>
/ʋ j/ <v y> <ව ය>
/l ɭ/ <l ḷ> <ල ළ>
Vowel Inventory
IPA | Romanization | Sinhala Script (Independant | Diacritic)
/i i: u u:/ <i ī u ū> <ඉ ඊ උ ඌ> <ි ී ු* ූ*>
/e e: o o:/ <e ē o ō> <එ ඒ ඔ ඕ> <ෙ ේ ො ෝ>
/a a:/ <a ā> <අ ආ> <Ø ා>
*irregular on ක, ග, ත, and ර
Allophony
• Germā seems to consistently drop nasals at the end of words, nasalizing the previous vowel and lengthening it. This is written in Sinhala as an independant vowel + ඤ්. I.e <takam> = තකඅඤ් /takãː/, from තක + ම්(ඉ), my bowl. Unfortuantely, many grammatical endings are just nasals.
• Germā turns /r/s into /d/s between long vowels. I.e ගමාරීජු <gamārīju> /ɡamaːdiːdʒu/, person from Gamā.
Writing Sample
"අ ණොනුමිඉඤ් සීත් දාවතඅඤ්. අ ණොනුමාජඅඤ් නිඉඤ් චුබීඉඤ් ණේමෙතීඉඤ්."
A ṇonuming sīt ḍāvatang. A ṇonumājang nim cubīm ṇēmetīm.
/a ɳonumĩː siː daːʋatãː | a ɳonumaːdʒãː nĩː tʃubĩː ɳemetĩː/
1 home-1-DEF that regret-1.PFV. 1 home-1-NOM-DEF now-1 happy-1.IPFV live.here-1.IPFV
"I missed my home. Now I am happy where I live."
“Like billowing clouds, Like the incessant gurgle of the brook,
The longing of the spirit can never be stilled.” ― St. Hildegard von Bingen
The longing of the spirit can never be stilled.” ― St. Hildegard von Bingen
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eldin raigmore
- korean
- Posts: 6354
- Joined: 14 Aug 2010 19:38
- Location: SouthEast Michigan
Re: Kumarian Revisited
Your writing system isn’t Tamil; what is it?
My minicity is http://gonabebig1day.myminicity.com/xml
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GoshDiggityDangit
- greek
- Posts: 559
- Joined: 18 Dec 2018 21:27
- Location: Oakwood OH, USA
- Contact:
Re: Kumarian Revisited
It's the Sinhala writing system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinhala_script.
Last edited by GoshDiggityDangit on 07 Sep 2020 03:45, edited 1 time in total.
“Like billowing clouds, Like the incessant gurgle of the brook,
The longing of the spirit can never be stilled.” ― St. Hildegard von Bingen
The longing of the spirit can never be stilled.” ― St. Hildegard von Bingen