The Yonala Language

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LinguoFranco
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The Yonala Language

Post by LinguoFranco »

Yonala is a language spoken by people in a tropical rainforest. They sustain themselves primarily by foraging and occasionally hunting.

The language isn't spoken outside of a few villages.

Let's move on to the phonology.

Consonants:

/m n ɲ/
/p t t͡s~t͡ʃ c k/
/s x/
/l ʎ j w~ʋ/

Vowels:

/a aː i iː o oː/

Yonala has a (C)V(V) syllable structure and weight sensitive stress. Stress can fall on either the penultimate or final syllable of a word, depending on which is heavier. If they are both light, then the penult takes the stress.

A light syllable contains a short vowel, and a heavy syllable contains a long vowel.

The word is verb initial. Normally, it's VSO, although VOS is used if the speaker wants to emphasize the object, or as a form of topicalization.

I don't have much in the way of vocabulary or grammar, so I shall post updates as I further develop it.
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Creyeditor
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Re: The Yonala Language

Post by Creyeditor »

LinguoFranco wrote: 29 Apr 2021 17:50 The word is verb initial. Normally, it's VSO, although VOS is used if the speaker wants to emphasize the object, or as a form of topicalization.
Is this post on morphology or syntax? VSO word order is nice, but polypersonal agreement suffixes are also cool.
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LinguoFranco
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Re: The Yonala Language

Post by LinguoFranco »

Creyeditor wrote: 29 Apr 2021 20:13
LinguoFranco wrote: 29 Apr 2021 17:50 The word is verb initial. Normally, it's VSO, although VOS is used if the speaker wants to emphasize the object, or as a form of topicalization.
Is this post on morphology or syntax? VSO word order is nice, but polypersonal agreement suffixes are also cool.
For now, just syntax, but I intend to flesh out the morphology in a later post.

I do intend for it to have polypersonal agreement. Since it's VSO, I presume it'll be largely head-marking.
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