Añoþnın

A forum for all topics related to constructed languages
User avatar
GoshDiggityDangit
greek
greek
Posts: 549
Joined: 18 Dec 2018 21:27
Location: Oakwood OH, USA
Contact:

Re: Añoþnın

Post by GoshDiggityDangit »

VaptuantaDoi wrote: 10 Jul 2021 07:41 Cıñı ısiɂse tuɂ ñiksuþnı. Isñıne ñı kıson. Cıñı cıse ñi to cısacan bıctın: “A ñane kıson usıñca su bı!” Cısaca cıse cıñın: “Iñısiheñ bıcteñi Benunos.” Añe cıñın Benunosnı u ko ñi bot ñi. Cıse ñi to Benunosnı: “A kosañ Benunosa ñec!” Añe Benunosnı sıknan kus o cıse ñi to ñi: “Ñıneñ kın?” Cıse ñi to: “Isñınıh kısoñca.” Benunosa bıɂ cıse ñi to: “Iñısnes kıson bın” Kokneþ use cıñın un ıñan kıso.

Aa Bb Cc Ee Hh İi Iı Kk Nn Ññ Oo Ss Tt Uu Þþ Ɂɂ
With those dotless is, I can't help but think of Turkish [xP] Cool as always!
“Like billowing clouds, Like the incessant gurgle of the brook,
The longing of the spirit can never be stilled.” ― St. Hildegard von Bingen
User avatar
Omzinesý
mongolian
mongolian
Posts: 4079
Joined: 27 Aug 2010 08:17
Location: nowhere [naʊhɪɚ]

Re: Bechsukchwan Čəsač

Post by Omzinesý »

VaptuantaDoi wrote: 26 Jun 2021 02:33



əñčisəse ñəñañ ñəbneneʔ
əñə-čisəsəsə-Ø-te ñə-ñiñə-ñi ñə-bənenene-nə
NPAST.PFV-move.apart-3-PL PL-root-DIST PL-pig-DAT
"The pigs are going to disturb those roots"[/spoiler]

When these motion verbs also have an indirect or prepositional object, the dative subject comes before the true indirect object.
Spoiler:
ənañe čəsačnə ñətkenə
ən-Øanuñe-Ø čəsəkaču-nə ñə-tokene-nə
PAST.PFV-walk-3sg person-DAT PL-melon-DAT
"The person walked to the melons"
How about passive forms of these motion verbs? There aren't any. Morphologically and syntactically, these verbs are already in the passive;
So basically all arguments are in the dative. Agent, theme and goal?
Does French have something similar?
Last edited by Omzinesý on 10 Jul 2021 20:52, edited 1 time in total.
My meta-thread: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5760
User avatar
DesEsseintes
mongolian
mongolian
Posts: 4331
Joined: 31 Mar 2013 13:16

Re: Añoþnın

Post by DesEsseintes »

I like the new romo and the new name.
User avatar
VaptuantaDoi
roman
roman
Posts: 1067
Joined: 18 Nov 2019 07:35

Re: Añoþnın

Post by VaptuantaDoi »

GoshDiggityDangit wrote: 10 Jul 2021 13:27
VaptuantaDoi wrote: 10 Jul 2021 07:41 Cıñı ısiɂse tuɂ ñiksuþnı. Isñıne ñı kıson. Cıñı cıse ñi to cısacan bıctın: “A ñane kıson usıñca su bı!” Cısaca cıse cıñın: “Iñısiheñ bıcteñi Benunos.” Añe cıñın Benunosnı u ko ñi bot ñi. Cıse ñi to Benunosnı: “A kosañ Benunosa ñec!” Añe Benunosnı sıknan kus o cıse ñi to ñi: “Ñıneñ kın?” Cıse ñi to: “Isñınıh kısoñca.” Benunosa bıɂ cıse ñi to: “Iñısnes kıson bın” Kokneþ use cıñın un ıñan kıso.

Aa Bb Cc Ee Hh İi Iı Kk Nn Ññ Oo Ss Tt Uu Þþ Ɂɂ
With those dotless is, I can't help but think of Turkish [xP] Cool as always!
Thanks!
DesEsseintes wrote: 10 Jul 2021 16:21 I like the new romo and the new name.
And thank you too!
Omzinesý wrote: 10 Jul 2021 13:54 So basically all arguments are in the dative. Agent, theme and goal?
Does French have something similar?
The reference to French was in regards to having a divergent set of motion verbs; French has the "Dr Mrs Vandertrampp" verbs (most of which are motion verbs and all of which are intransitive) which act differently in the past perfect. None of the actual changes these verbs undergo in Añoþnın were taken from French.
Motion verbs only have two arguments, a subject and an indirect object; which are both in the case I call "dative" because that covers some of its many uses; these sentences act like intransitive passive sentences. Passive sentences I'm still confused by myself, but I'm pretty sure that the direct and indirect objects will both be in the dative; the subject will be in the direct case. I want to derive the dative passive clauses diachronically like this (Where X is the agent and Y is the undergoer):
  1. Active X verb Y is passivised with adpositions into Y verb-PASS by X-DAT
  2. The adposition and passive markers are then elipsed giving Y verb X-DAT
  3. This is then reanalysed as an indirect object verb Y X-DAT
  4. Any indirect objects are then tagged on at the end verb Y X-DAT Z-DAT
For example:

ənsəhtə nəʔ bačnonəč ñeč
ʔənsə-katə-Ø nəni bačəno-nə-nəče ñe-ča
NONP.IMPFV-tug-3SG rope mouth-DAT-MED 1DAT-PROX
"The rope is being pulled by his/her mouth to me"

Where mouth is the agent, rope is the undergoer and me is the indirect object. This basically means that the dative is used where "by" would be in English. You could form an anologous sentence in English like He was mauled by the lion by the shore; both the agent and indirect object are preceded by by.

(And thanks for the questions, cause they really help me clear things up in my head)
User avatar
Flavia
sinic
sinic
Posts: 361
Joined: 13 Apr 2021 14:53
Location: Sol III

Re: Añoþnın

Post by Flavia »

I like the turkish i-s, but the name was better before.
XIPA
:pol: > :eng: > :esp: > :lat: > :fra: > :por: > :deu:
Abaniscen cancasirnemor
User avatar
VaptuantaDoi
roman
roman
Posts: 1067
Joined: 18 Nov 2019 07:35

Re: Añoþnın

Post by VaptuantaDoi »

Another descendant

This time I'm going for something more Papuan; inspired even more by the Lakes Plain languages cause I found a bunch of resources about them. I'm calling this guy Sekai. It's characterised by an extensive diachronic loss of phonemes; e.g. proto Bechsukchwan *kaˈku̯ai̯du → /é+L/, *keuˈkedi̯a → [kê], *ˈgakigu “ear” → /áɸù/, and by being almost completely isolating and highly tonal.

Phonology
Sekai has five consonants and five vowels, with a four-tone system which carries a high functional load.

Consonants
/t d k/
/ɸ s/

There are no nasals or approximants, although [j w] occasionally occur as allophones of /i u/ pre-vocalically. Nasals don't even occur allophonically outside of paralinguistic imitations. Note that while /t/ is laminal dental [t̪̻], /d/ is apical alveolar [d̠̺], and may even be implosive [ɗ̠̺]. /ɸ/ has a limited distribution; word-initially, it occurs only before /u/; additionally the sequences /ku ti/ almost never occur.

Consonant allophony
/k d/ have the allophones [ɣ l] intervocalically; some speakers even tend to drop intervocalic /k/ altogether.
The sequence /ìk/ is often realised as [ɰ]; e.g. /dìkâɸà/ → [dɰâɸà].
The sequence /ɸu/ may be [ʍu] or [xu].
When preceding a high vowel, /t/ is fricated to [t͡s].

Vowels
/i u e ɔ a/

Note that while /e/ is high-mid, /ɔ/ is low-mid.

Tones
The four tones are H, L, HL and LH, written as á à â ǎ. Some words carry a floating low tone, which is attached to the following morpheme and combines with the tone of the first vowel, notated as +L. This is realised as L if the tone is L or HL; and as LH if it is H or LH. For example, the word /ě+L/ "ten" has a floating L tone:

+L/ + /tùkâ/ "breadfruit" → [ě t͡sùɣâ] "ten breadfruits"
+L/ + /ê/ "scalp" → [ě è] "ten scalps"
+L/ + /túsà/ "ankle" → [ě t͡sǔsà] "ten ankles"
+L/ + /ɸǔ/ "snake" → [ě ʍǔ] "ten snakes"

Note that if this created a sequence of two identical vowels, the first with L and the second with H, this assimilated to a single vowel with LH tone.
+L/ + /êé/ "tooth" → *[ě èé] → [ě ě] "ten teeth"

Syllable structure
The maximum syllable is CV; there are no clusters and zero-onset syllables are common both word-initially and internally. Vowel hiatus may occur between any two non-identical vowels; this may mean that HL and LH tones can be analysed as sequences of the same vowel twice, i.e. /ǎ/ is underlyingly |àá|.

Pronouns
Sekai lost number marking on pronouns; there are only three roots. However, the second person root is also used as a first-person inclusive plural. Fundamentally the three roots mean:
1. A group including the speaker, not including addressee
2. Any group which includes the addressee
3. Any group which included neither the speaker nor the addressee
For ease of glossing they're simply given as 1P 2P 3P. All are single vowels, as in proto-Bechsukchwan.

1P /á/
2P /é/
3P /í/

Number can be specified with the adjective /síkɔ́/ "group"

Numbers
/áɸè é tùkê étè ê sí áɸè-sí àí+L ɔ̌ ě+L/

Note the high functional load of tone; the three numbers /é/ "two", /ê/ "five" and /ě+L/ are distinguished only through tone. The number 7 is expressed through a transparent compound; most likely proto-Sekai * "seven" was too similar to *é "one". Higher numbers are formed through compounding:

+L áɸè/ → [ě-ǎɸè] "11"
+L é/ → [ě-ě] "12"
+L tùkê/ → [ě-t͡sǔɣê] "13"
etc.

Speakers may use borrowed numerals from the prestige language Añoþnın to express higher numbers more succinctly.
User avatar
VaptuantaDoi
roman
roman
Posts: 1067
Joined: 18 Nov 2019 07:35

Re: Añoþnın

Post by VaptuantaDoi »

Hohetłéneyéyesénı Lohılwéh

This is a co-descendant of Archaic Chusach. Hohetłéneyéyesénı Lohılwéh /hóhèt͡ɬénèd͡ʒéd͡ʒèsénì ɮóhìɮwéh/ is just a placeholder name; it means "seventeen oceans". It has a vaguely Arapaho-inspired aesthetic, notable for its bizarre sound changes and lack of low vowels, labials or velars except for the labiovelar /w/.

Phonology

Hohetłéneyéyesénı Lohılwéh has a large phonemic inventory for a Bechsukchwan language, containing nine consonants and four vowels. I'm still unsure about how to romanise /d͡ʒ/; I've switched between ⟨ʒ ȷ y⟩ but for now I'm sticking with ⟨y⟩.

/t t͡ɬ d͡ʒ ʔ/ ⟨t tł y '
/n ɮ w/ ⟨n l w
/s h/ ⟨s h

/i u e o/ ⟨ı u e o

However, the distribution of some of these phonemes is severely restricted. /ɮ/ is extremely rare, occurring only before /w u o/; currently the only three morphemes it is seen in are loh "ocean", lonu "nice" and lwélu "evil" (and in a candidate name for this lang, eyılwétenóne). /w/ is also relatively rare, only occurring before high tone /í é/ (e.g. eyénwé "eight", 'wetłe "build"). High tone /í ú/ are extremely rare and only precede /ʔ/ or /w/ (yı'u /d͡ʒíʔù/ "skin", yıwéh /d͡ʒíwéh/ "plot of land", u'u /úʔù/ "needle")

Pitch-accent
All words have underlying, partly unpredictable pitch-accent, by which all syllables are assigned either H or L tone. The first and third syllables of a word are always H, but all proceding syllables are unpredictable. Initial high tone is unmarked ı u e o; non-initial high tone, is written with an acute í ú é ó

Phonotactics
The majority of syllables are CV; however, some onset clusters and codas do occur.

Permissible word-final codas are /ʔ h/. /h/ is the more common of the two.
tłohıh /t͡ɬó.hìh/ "be tall"
hetotłé' /hé.tò.t͡ɬéʔ/ "rancid"

Word-final /h/ may metathesise with the previous vowel if it's following one of /t t͡ɬ s/, creating clusters [th t͡ɬh sh] or strongly aspirated [tʰ t͡ɬʰ sʰ]
toh /tóh/ ~ [tʰó] "go away from"
tłoh /t͡ɬóh/ ~ [t͡ɬʰó] "four"
seh /séh/ ~ [sʰé] "oar"

Word-internally, coda /n h/ occur before /w/; in this position /h/ is velarised and /nw/ becomes [ŋ.kw].
esénwé [é.séŋ.kwé] "friend"
tłehwéh [t͡ɬéx.wéh] "foot"

Edit: I'm considering adding /nw/ → /kʷ/ intervocalically as a sound change, which would give me words like esékwé 'osikwé tłetłókwé nwenokwéno and fill in the velars a bit.

/ɮw/ also occurs intervocalically in some derived forms (and potentially in some unanalysable forms, but I haven't found any yet)
lonulwénu /ɮónùɮwénù/ "kind people"

Only three onset clusters occur, and only word-initial before /í é/; these are /ʔw ɮw nw/.
'wetłetłé' /ʔwé.t͡ɬè.t͡ɬéʔ/ "adult man"
lwelu /ɮwé.ɮù/ "evil"
nweno /nwé.nò/ "language"


Numbers
The numbers one to ten are as follows (the fact that "one" is 'one is just a coincidence)

/ʔónè t͡ɬó hésé t͡ɬóh né hénèt͡ɬé ʔó éd͡ʒénwé ót͡ɬè d͡ʒésè/
'one tło hesé tłoh ne henetłé 'o eyénwé otłe yese

Eleven to twenty:
/d͡ʒénóné d͡ʒét͡ɬó d͡ʒétùsé d͡ʒét͡ɬóhé d͡ʒéné t͡ɬóhèt͡ɬénèd͡ʒéd͡ʒèsénì hóhèt͡ɬénèd͡ʒéd͡ʒèsénì t͡ɬót͡ɬènéd͡ʒìd͡ʒésèʔé ʔónèt͡ɬénèd͡ʒéd͡ʒèsénì t͡ɬód͡ʒèsénì/
yenóné yetłó yetusé yetłóhé yené tłohetłéneyéyesénı hohetłéneyéyesénı tłotłenéyıyése'é 'onetłéneyéyesénı tłoyesénı

Twenty, thirty ... ninety:
/héséd͡ʒésèd͡ʒì t͡ɬóhèd͡ʒésèd͡ʒì néd͡ʒèséd͡ʒì hénèt͡ɬéd͡ʒèsèd͡ʒì ʔód͡ʒèséd͡ʒì éd͡ʒénúd͡ʒèsèd͡ʒì ót͡ɬèd͡ʒésèd͡ʒì/
heséyéseyı tłoheyéseyi neyeséyi henetłéyeseyi 'oyeséyi eyénúyeseyi otłeyéseyi

One hundred
/énwénénè/
énwénéne


Personal pronouns
Third person pronouns have three degrees of proximity.

Code: Select all

      plain         possessive
      sg   pl       sg    pl
1ex   o    ye       'o    'oye
1in        one            'oye
2     'o   'o       'one
3pr   se   sese     'ose  'osesé
3me   ne   nesésí   'one  'onesésı
3di   ye   yeyı     'oyı  'oyıyéyı
User avatar
DesEsseintes
mongolian
mongolian
Posts: 4331
Joined: 31 Mar 2013 13:16

Re: Añoþnın

Post by DesEsseintes »

Lovely stuff [<3]
User avatar
Flavia
sinic
sinic
Posts: 361
Joined: 13 Apr 2021 14:53
Location: Sol III

Re: Añoþnın

Post by Flavia »

DesEsseintes wrote: 31 Oct 2021 04:34 Lovely stuff [<3]
[+1]
XIPA
:pol: > :eng: > :esp: > :lat: > :fra: > :por: > :deu:
Abaniscen cancasirnemor
Backstroke_Italics
hieroglyphic
hieroglyphic
Posts: 58
Joined: 27 Nov 2019 19:48

Re: Añoþnın

Post by Backstroke_Italics »

Came for the weird Papuan-inspired lang, stayed for the weird Arapaho-inspired lang.
I did it. I made the world's worst book blog.
User avatar
VaptuantaDoi
roman
roman
Posts: 1067
Joined: 18 Nov 2019 07:35

Re: Añoþnın

Post by VaptuantaDoi »

Thanks everyone! Here's some more stuff about Hohetłéneyéyesénı:

Verbs
As in Añoþnın, Hohetłéneyéyesénı verbs mark only the subject and tense/aspect. Other things like modality, more complicated aspectual distinctions and evidentiality are shown with SVCs, which are prolific in all Bechsukchwan languages (although they’re quite different to Añoþnın SVCs, which I’ll be discussing in an upcoming post).

Subject marking
Person and number are marked for the subject through a series of suffixes. These have two different forms (I guess you could call them conjugation classes); the second are used for a lexical subclass (originally a phonological one, consisting of Archaic Chusach bisyllabic words) in the non-perfect, and the first are used for everything else. Additionally, originally monosyllabic verbs have irregular forms in the plural non-perfect, although this is now considered just to be an irregularity.

The first type
These are used when the second or third type doesn’t apply – i.e. always in the perfect, for all verbs of more than two syllable in the non-perfect, and some bisyllabic words in the non-perfect.

Code: Select all

    sing   plur
1   -'     -'u'
2   -yo    -yo'
3   Ø      -'
For example, here’s the verb tłonénwé (also tłonékwé) “know someone”:

Code: Select all

    sing         plur
1   tłonénwé'    tłonénwé'u'
2   tłonénwéyo   tłonénwéyo'
3   tłonénwé     tłonénwé'
Verbs which end in /ʔ h/ change to /t h/ + a low-tone vowel when these suffixes (other than third-person singular) are added. This vowel is unpredictable from the root form; here’s for example sehıhéh “loosen”.

Code: Select all

    sing         plur
1   sehıhéhı'    sehıhéhı'u'
2   sehıhéhıyo   sehıhéhıyo'
3   sehıhéh      sehıhéhı'

The second type
These are:

Code: Select all

    sing   plur
1   -'wé   -'wé'
2   -yó    -yó'
3   Ø      -tó
Most disyllabic words use these suffixes, such as setłé “hunt”.

Code: Select all

    sing         plur
1   setłé'wé     setłé'wé'
2   setłéyó      setłéyó'
3   setłé        setłétó
Monosyllabic words ending in a consonant also use these suffixes, with the same alterations as consonant-final verbs of the first type; here’s seh “speak”.

Code: Select all

    sing         plur
1   seho'wé      seho'wé'
2   sehoyó       sehoyó'
3   seh          sehotó
Some other monosyllables (unpredictably) also use these suffixes, such as nwe “push”.

Code: Select all

    sing     plur
1   nwe'wé   nwe'wé'
2   nweyó    nweyó'
3   nwe      nwetó

Monosyllables
These differ from the first type only in the 1pl and 2pl forms. All monosyllables which end in a vowel use these suffixes apart from those few in the second class like nwe; and again only in the non-perfect.

Code: Select all

    sing   plur
1   -'     -'utó
2   -yo    -yotó
3   Ø      -to
Here’s ne “wash”:

Code: Select all

    sing     plur
1   ne'      ne'utó
2   neyo     neyotó
3   ne       neto

Tense and aspect
Hohetłéneywéyesénı has reduced the tense-aspect combinations to a simple binary perfect vs. non-perfect. The perfect is marked, referring to any event in the past which is viewed as a whole; the non-perfect refers to any present or future event, or an ongoing or incomplete (imperfective) past event. The perfect prefix is eno-; it causes quite a lot of stem alterations.

First-syllable accent
The first syllable of verb roots take an acute accent in the perfect; this is just an orthographic convention (initial syllables are always high tone so it’s unmarked; the verb then keeps the high tone in the conjugated form).

ne “wash” > enoné “washed”
setłé “hunt” > enosétłé “hunted”

First-syllable ablaut
Some verbs which have an /é/ in the first syllable change this to /ó/ in the perfect.

enu “move” > enoónu “moved”
teh “leave” > enotóh “left”

Second-syllable ablaut
A few verbs which have /è ù/ in the second syllable change this to /é wé/ in the perfect.

henu “sow” > enohónwé “sowed”
'une “sort” > eno'úné “sorted”

Third-syllable ablaut
The majority of verbs with high tone in the third syllable change this to low tone in the perfect. If the vowel is /wé/, it shifts to /ù/; sometimes /é/ shifts to /ì/ or /ù/ as well.

seneyé “be cold” > enoséneye “was cold”
tłonénwé “know” > enotłónénu “knew”
honwéyé “poke” > enohónwéyı “poked”
nı'uhé “pinch between two fingers” > enoní'usu “pinched”

If this vowel is word-final, and following one of /h ʔ t/, it generally drops off, and /t/ becomes /ʔ/ – this happens with almost all verbs like this, but occasionally it doesn’t. The sequence /we/ can also drop off.

'wehéhé “start” > eno'wéhéh “started”
tete'wé “run one’s finger along” > enotéte' “ran”
lonohó “appear” > enolónoh “appeared”

Suppletion
Some verbs have a suppletive perfect stem, such as yo'éh "swim", perfect enowénwé (or enowékwé). Additionally, some verbs are confined entirely to the perfect, and others entirely to the non-perfect. This reflects the ongoing lexicalisation of aspect in Hohetłéneyéyesénı; as perfect forms become more irregular, they begin to get encoded lexically rather than morphologically. In the future, Hohetłéneyéyesénı aspect will likely be entirely lexical.

Example
Here's an example which illustrates many of the things above; the verb henu "sow". This takes the second type of subject suffixes in the non-perfect, and it displays first- and second-syllable ablaut.

Code: Select all

       PERFECT             NON-PERFECT
    SING     PLUR        SING       PLUR
1   henu'wé  henu'wé'    enohónwé'  enohónwé'u'
2   henuyó   henuyó'     enohónwéyo enohónwéyo'
3   henu     henu'       enohónwé   enohónwé'
User avatar
VaptuantaDoi
roman
roman
Posts: 1067
Joined: 18 Nov 2019 07:35

Re: Añoþnın

Post by VaptuantaDoi »

It's been a while since I worked on this family. Here's a sketch of a couple of ideas I have for Eastern Jee, a language of the Xikik branch of the Dau Ring sub-family. It's quite distantly related to the other three languages I've described so far. It also displays a complex system of ablaut; there are over a hundred theoretically possible ablaut patterns which occur semi-predictably. It is almost entirely monosyllabic outside of compounds.

Phonology
This ended up being quite big for a Bechsukchwan lang; with 11 consonants and 20 vowels. Some dialects merge /w/ to /ŋ/.

/t d k/ ⟨t d k⟩
/m n ŋ/ ⟨m n g⟩
/s ð x h/ ⟨ð s j h⟩
/w~ɣ/ ⟨w⟩

/i iː y yː u uː/ ⟨i ii y yy u uu⟩
/e eː ø øː o oː/ ⟨e ee ø øø o oo⟩
/ɛ ɛː œ œː ɔ ɔː/ ⟨æ ææ œ œœ å åå⟩
/a aː/ ⟨a aa⟩
Spoiler:
Here's a little table:

Code: Select all

  m     n     ŋ
      t d   k
      s ð   x w   h

i iː y yː      u uː
e eː ø øː      o oː
ɛ ɛː œ œː      ɔ ɔː
          a aː
Syllable structure
Yet to be determined; most likely it will favour CVC with some clusters being allowed. Long vowels can only appear in open syllables, and possibly only word-finally. Once (if) I work out more of the lexicon I'll update this. Notably geminate /nn ŋŋ/ can occur word-initially and do so quite often; word-final clusters seem to often be /m n ŋ/ + /t k/. /d/ cannot occur in the coda, so I guess techinically you could analyse all the long vowels as /Vd/ sequences, but they're not really.

Ablaut
The ablaut variation arose from vowel breaking in stressed syllables and vowel loss in unstressed syllables. At the time of proto-Dau Ring, this was transparent and involved a system of syllabic consonants similar to proto-Indo European. However, in Jee it has been greatly obscured by sound changes including umlaut and diphthong hardening. Vowel length is a very recent development which doesn't affect ablaut patterns. The ablaut shifts are traditionally divided into three different general types; within these types, there are exactly 182 theoretically possible alterations. However, class 3 is entirely predictable from word shape, and words in class 1 and class 2 almost always follow the first sub-type. The rest of the sub-types mostly contain only a few words each, and native speaker would probably just lump these all as "irregular". However, it's still useful to categorise them this way for some purposes.

Class 1
The first is referred to as the "diphthong" type, which is a term used throughout the Dau Ring family even though in this case there are no diphthongs involved. Jee has split this into two sub-types, each of which is divided into three sub-sub-types; in total twenty alterations are contained in this set. The basic alterations are:

Code: Select all

plain   ablauted
ø, øø   u, uu
u, uu   i, ii
y, yy   i, ii
This makes more sense when viewed diachronically; in Old Jee the alterations were /eu̯ ~ u/, /oi̯ ~ i/ and /i̯u ~ i/. Jee also underwent a three-way ablaut caused by post-tonic vowels, which created three new types of alteration:

Code: Select all

o-umlaut:        | e-umlaut:        | a-umlaut:
plain   ablauted | plain   ablauted | plain   ablauted
o, oo   o, oo    | e, ee   y, yy    | œ, œœ   o, oo
o, oo   y, yy    | y, yy   e, ee    | o, oo   e, ee
u, uu   y, yy    | i, ii   e, ee    | ø, øø   e, ee
Under some conditions, the diphthongs /oi̯ ei̯/ were hardened (before the two merged together) into /oz ez/, which eventually became /oð eð/. Due to the way in which vowel length developed, these only occurred in short form. Additionally, they could only occur when followed by post-tonic vowels, so they were always umlauted.

Code: Select all

o-umlaut:        | e-umlaut:        | a-umlaut:
plain   ablauted | plain   ablauted | plain   ablauted
oð      y        | øð      e        | åð      e
øð      y        | eð      e        | æð      e
Class 2
This class arose from simple stress alternations between mid and high vowels.

Code: Select all

plain   ablauted
e, ee   i, ii
o, oo   u, uu
These were similarly affected by umlaut:

Code: Select all

o-umlaut:        | e-umlaut:        | a-umlaut:
plain   ablauted | plain   ablauted | plain   ablauted
ø, øø   y, yy    | e, ee   e, ee    | æ, ææ   e, ee
o, oo   o, oo    | ø, øø   y, yy    | å, åå   o, oo
Note that the o-umlauted forms of the e/i alteration are identical to the e-umlauted o/u alteration. I only distinguish between them because historically these have different origins, but synchronically they are indistinguishable.

Class 3
This class arose from alternation between consonant + vowel combinations and syllabic consonants. Proto-Dau Ring had three syllabic consonants, *ṃ ṇ ṣ, which became /o a e/ in Jee. The plain form can consist of a combination of /m n s/ and any vowel in either order; so technically, 90 alterations could exist in theory (some vowels are quite rare, so this number would be much lower in practice). This is a productive and predictable class; whenever the plain form has one of /m n s/, the ablauted form will have /o a e/. This applies to borrowed terms as well, for example Añoþnın sekte was borrowed as sej ~ ej "type of arrowhead". Note that in a RVR sequence (e.g. /mVm/, /sVn/ etc.) the second R would be syllabified; momt ~ mot "pig".

Code: Select all

plain   ablauted
mV, mVː o, oo
nV, nVː a, aa
sV, sVː e, ee
Vm      o
Vn      a
Vs      e
Note how long vowels cannot occur in VR sequences. Also umlaut does not apply.

What is ablaut used for?
Ablaut was historically a stress alteration. This arose due to the fact that at an early point in proto-Dau Ring, all prefixes gained stress¹, so roots became unstressed following a prefix. This means that ablauted forms are used with all prefixes. Additionally, the accusative prefix *de- was eventually dropped, meaning that the bare ablauted form was used as the accusative. This was generalised to adjectives, numbers and pronouns as well. With verbs, the four-way tense distinction was reduced to a binary past/non-past, with the past marked with a prefix (probably *oi̯-) which was then lost. This means that bare ablauted roots form the past tense of verbs. Additionally, ablauted forms often occur in compounds.

Examples
Spoiler:
Class 1:
høø ~ huu "one"
et ~ yt "spread apart"
~ "sweet potato"
ðæð ~ ði "eight"
kœg ~ kog "gullet"

Class 2:
ðee ~ ðii "ten"
hogt ~ hugt "poor person"
ho ~ hu "hand"
øð ~ "bird"
ggeð ~ ggið "tree bark"

Class 3:
døs ~ de "blow"
muk ~ ok "four"
ðno ~ ða "draw near"
ont ~ at "walk"
kys ~ ke "loosen"
Numbers
The numbers one to ten are:
1: høø ~ huu
2: me ~ o
3: ~ ju
4: muk ~ ok
5: ~ hu
6: son ~ sa
7: sonhuu ~ enhuu
8: ðæð ~ ði
9: ðæðhuu ~ ðihuu
10: ðee ~ ðii
Spoiler:
Apart from 7 and 9, these are direct cognates to Añoþnın; that shows how distantly related they are.

1: høø ~ huu vs. bıɂ
2: me ~ o vs. ke
3: ~ ju vs. toč
4: muk ~ ok vs. kıs
5: ~ hu vs. na
6: son ~ sa vs. siɂke
8: ðæð ~ ði vs. ıño
10: ðee ~ ðii vs. ñak

Pronouns
Jee retains the pronominal system from proto-Bechsukchwan with remarkably little change, having a number distinction only in the first person. The nominative forms are:

1sg: o
1pl: e
2: wo
3: u

The accusative forms are predictable. The second person form would have been *u by regular sound change, but it analogised to not merge with 1sg and conform to a normal ablaut pattern. The 1pl/3sg syncretism is a coincidence.

1sg: u
1pl: i
2: we
3: i

There are also a series of possessive forms, which have nominative and accusative variants. Typical of Bechsukchwan languages, these all end up being almost the same.

1sg: moð ~ my
1pl: møð ~ me
2: muw ~ miw
3: mu ~ o



1) Probably because in a large chunk of the lexicon they were stressed anyway. Proto-Bechsukchwan had obligatory stress on one of the first two syllables, so when a prefix was added to roots with second-syllable stress, it stole the stress. Proto-Dau Ring then generalised this to all roots.
Post Reply