Ai, a Lakes Plains language

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VaptuantaDoi
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Ai, a Lakes Plains language

Post by VaptuantaDoi »


Ai

Ai is a project I’ve been working on for a while which has of course gone through a number of major revisions; I used it for the latest conlang relay, but it’s changed significantly since then. Ai is an a posteriori member of the Lakes Plain family, which is an absolute banger of a language family, until recently pretty obscure but now gradually becoming more widely known. Unfortunately there’s still a relatively limited number of resources, especially on the reconstruction side of things, which means that Ai isn’t always consistently derived from proto-Lakes Plain, but it’s my best attempt at it. My goals for Ai are a high degree of naturalism, a deceptively complex tone system and some highly non-SAE syntax.


This first post is just about how tones behave in Ai, which is frankly more interesting than the phonology itself.
Looking at a simple sentence in Ai, each syllable is assigned a single H or L tone on the surface:

Code: Select all

L L  L  H    L
| |  |  |    |
i ɛ di baud kɛ
This is the sentence i e di báud ke “I see you!”
However, changing up a few things changes the surface tones, apparently randomly.

Code: Select all

L H  L  H   H 
| |  |  |   |
u ɛ di boud kɛ
Or, u é di bóud ké “a mosquito has bitten you!” Here the morphemes e (agentive marker) and ke (exclamatory particle) have switched tones despite the rest of the words in the sentence having exactly the same tones.


What is required for Ai is an autosegmental tone analysis to determine the surface realisations of tones. Underlyingly, syllables aren't connected to tones; instead they're connected to (some) words. All words other than clitics have one assigned tone, which is either lexical and invariant (for everything other than verbs) or dependent on aspect (for verbs); this can be H, L, LH or HL¹. Clitics are phonologically part of the word they're associated to, so they carry no tone of their own. Tones are applied based on pretty much four guiding rules:
  1. All tones drift as far rightwards in a word as permissible
  2. A monosyllable with two lexical tones chooses the left and ejects a floating tone
  3. Every syllable must have one and only one tone
  4. Syllables which are assigned two tones choose the leftmost one
Note that these apply opportunistically, not in the order given here; the numbers are just so that I can refer to them easier.
If we look at the sentence i e di báud ke from above, the morphemes have the following tones:

Code: Select all

L     L  HL   H
|  |  |  |    |
i =ɛ di baud kɛ
Within the word i e, the tones drift as far right as they can:

Code: Select all

  L    L  HL   H
|  \|  |  |    |
i  =ɛ di baud kɛ
However, this violates rule (3) - i has no tone, and baud has two tones. i simply copies the first tone to its right, while for baud rule (2) comes into action, producing

Code: Select all

L L    L  H   L  H
|  \   |  |    \ |
i  =ɛ di baud   kɛ
The floating tone L from baud conflicts with the lexical H tone of ke; rule (4) then applies:

Code: Select all

L  L   L  H   L  
|  |   |  |   | 
i =ɛ di baud kɛ



Here's another couple of examples with more complex sentences:

Code: Select all

 0    HL   L  HL HL  0  LH    >       HL  L L  H L H L  L H   >   H   HL  L L  H  L L  L H
 |    |    |  |  |   |  |     >   |   ||  | |  |  \| |  | |   >   |   ||  | |  |  | |  | |
diɛ ~dii bukɛ tɛ da =ɛ takɛ   >  diɛ~dii bukɛ tɛ  da=ɛ takɛ   >  diɛ~dii bukɛ tɛ da=ɛ takɛ
The tilde ~ between the two morphemes die and dii means that they are members of a serial verb compound which acts as a single word. Rules (1) and (2) apply, creating a floating tone following te and leaving die without a tone; then rule (3) applies, reassigning the rest of the tones. Note that the two like vowels in dii surface as a long vowel with contour tone HL. The final sentence produced is

​ ​ Dié díi buke té da e také.
​ ​​ [di̯ɛ́ɾîː ɓùkɛ̀ tɛ́ dàɛ̀ tàkɛ́]
​ ​ di̯ɛ~dii.HL bukɛL tɛHL daHL=eØ takɛ.LH
​ ​ want~make.IPFV SO.THAT fish DEMONSTR=AGT catch.PFV

​ ​ “(He) wants to make it to catch fish with.”

Code: Select all

 HL LH 0   H    0   0    HL   L    >   HL L  H      H    H  L     L    >   H LL  H  H   H   HH  L   L L
 |  |  |   |    |   |    |    |    >   | \|  |  |   |   ||  |   | |    >   | ||  |  |   |   ||  |   | |
ɡɔ ɛɛ =bu tɔi =kuɛ tii ~kei sɔkɔ   >  ɡɔ ɛɛ=bu tɔi=kuɛ tii~kɛi sɔkɔ    >  ɡɔ ɛɛ=bu tɔi=kuɛ tii~kei sɔkɔ
Note that tii~kei is treated as one word, so the HL tone (marking imperfective aspect) applies to all three syllables, not just the monosyllable of kei.

​ ​ Gó ee bú tói kué tíí kei soko
​ ​ [ɡɔ́ ɛ̀ːβú tɔ́i̯ku̯ɛ́ tíːkɛ̀i̯ sɔ̀kɔ̀]
​ ​ ɡɔHL ɛɛLH=buØ tɔi̯.H=ku̯ɛØ tii~kɛi̯.HL sɔkɔL
​ ​ middle small=TOP hold.PFV.COMPL=SEQ peel~pound.IPFV all.day

​ ​ “(They) took the small middle part and then were peeling and pounding it all day.”



¹ HL and LH count as single tones when they're assigned lexically, but in the autosegmental analysis they behave like sequences of two tones.
Last edited by VaptuantaDoi on 04 Feb 2024 04:53, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Ai, a Lakes Plains language

Post by Nel Fie »

Looks very interesting! I'm quite curious to see the syntax (and grammar in general).
As for the tone system, it's indeed quite complex - insofar that I would have to use the four rules myself to get a good sense of how it works. One thing I'm curious about: how does this system arise, diachronically speaking? I don't know if any Lakes Plain languages already have something similar, but since you mention it as a language goal, I assume you developed it yourself?
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Re: Ai, a Lakes Plains language

Post by Creyeditor »

I really like a carefully crafted tone system. Reminds me of Bantu (the simple tone system, nouns vs. verbs, tone shift). I especially like the tone copying repair rule. It's like a reverse echo vowel but for tone.
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Re: Ai, a Lakes Plains language

Post by VaptuantaDoi »

Phonology

The rest of Ai's phonology isn't particularly interesting. Ai has a typical LP phonemic inventory consisting of seven consonants, with no nasals or liquids:

/b t d k ɡ/
/s h/

By far the rarest of these is /ɡ/, although it forms a couple of minimal pairs with all other consonants. The voiced plosives tend to be slightly implosive word-initially, especially /b/, which is characteristic of LP. /h/ may become labial [ɸ] especially in the vicinity of back vowels.
The vowel system is the standard 5 cardinal vowels, although with a tendency towards low-mid rather than high-mid vowels:

/i u/
/ɛ ɔ/
/a/

A number of diphthongs occur, namely /ai̯ au̯ ɛi̯ ɛu̯ ɔi̯ ɔu̯/, as well as triphthongs (at least /u̯ɛi̯ u̯ai̯/, possibly others). Before a vowel, low-tone /i u/ become [j w], but where tone processes make this vowel high it regains its syllabicity. Long vowels occur on the surface, but as I mentioned before these are best analysed as two syllables for tone distribution.
Syllable structure is maximally CVd, where C is any consonant, V is any vowel, diphthong or triphthong and d is /d/ (who'd of guessed?). In non-initial position /b d ɡ/ are lenided to [β ɾ ɣ], which includes in the coda (although /d.d/ becomes [ɾ.d]). Before the coda, /ɛ ɔ/ are raised to [e o]. Note than unlike in Obokuitai, but as in Sikaritai, coda /d/ can occur following any vowel (although it's disproportionately common after high vowels).
(I'm thinking of losing the coda and adding in /i̝ u̝/ <i’ u’>, but I'm still on the fence about it)


Historical phonology

Ai is a member of the East Tariku (ET) branch of the LP languages, alongside Doutai, Kai, Waritai, Biritai, Obokuitai and Sikaritai.
Proto-Lakes Plain (PLP for short) had a very normal, unremarkable consonant inventory, reconstructed by Duane Clouse:

*/p b t d k/

Clouse notes that */j w/ may have existed, but only ever occur as allophones of /i u/ in descendants and were likely also allophonic in PLP. The vowels were almost certainly the cardinal vowels:

*/i u e o a/

Although there's a good change /e o/ were actually low-mid. Many descendants show a tendency to switch /i/ and /u/, both diachronically and synchronically, especially in word-final position; to a much lesser extent the same goes for /e/ and /o/. Also a lot of variation between /d/ and /t/; with more research these might prove to be regular developments.
Syllable structure was (C)(d)V. Closed syllables definitely occurred at some early stage of LP, but their typological weirdness¹ suggests that they were a secondary formation, probably from earlier *CVCV → *CVC; this means that a lot of PLP terms are reconstructed with an unidentifiable *CV at the end.
There was definitely some kind of tone system at play as well (definitely H, L, likely HL, LH as well), but this is currently unreconstructable.

Proto-Tariku (PT) underwent a number of phonological changes; due to the nature of the material it's hard to derive any consistent rules, but changes include:
  • *d becomes */ɾ/ intervocalically or in C2 position, but not over a morpheme boundary
  • *t split into */s/ either allophonically or phonemically, most likely from the sequence *ti
  • *p definitely gained a fricated allophone *[ɸ], possibly even all the way to *[h]. This may have only been intervocalic at first
  • Final vowels may have been lost; at any rate some kind of coda consonants were innovated
Proto-East Tariku (PET) likely underwent some further changes. These are very difficult to define²; instead I'll just move on to the changes I've added for Ai. Bear in mind that these rules won't always apply very consistently, and given the level to which PLP has been reconstructed it would be unrealistic if they did; these are just some of the general tendencies.
  • All reflexes of *p in any position are debuccalised to /h/
  • /s/ becomes fully phonemic, probably supplemented through borrowing
  • Onsets of the form *CɾV insert an echo vowel, with subsequent loss of /ɾ/, creating like vowel sequences
  • *b d~ɾ are generally lost intervocalically, sometimes *t as well
  • *k voices to /ɡ/ intervocalically and sometimes word-initially; sometimes *t voices to /d/ as well
  • All codas become /d/, sometimes raising the preceding vowel
Here's a short comparative vocabulary chart between Ai and the other LP languages, taken from Clouse and supplemented by whatever other sources I could get my hands on:

Code: Select all

Ai       English    PLP       Obokuitai    Sikaritai Doutai     Abawiri   Edopi     Kirikiri   Duvle     Iau

ked      ant        *keCV     tódud        kig       tgadi      ---       ê         ke         ---       e⁵
hóó      arrow      *poka     hóu          písa      su’da      obi       hou       ɸou        ---       fav⁵
badu     bad        ---       asaikedi     puriako   pdu        kou       auai      ɸei        toɣou     fe⁷be⁴
ákúíd    ballsack   *kudiCV   a-kuid       awíd      ---        ---       tou       kwi’       ---       tef⁷⁻⁸
kííd     banana     *kdiCV    kdíd         kíd       kdi’       kraryi    kidi, oi  kdi’       kdi’      oe⁷
du       bird       †du       du           du        dù         dúke      ?desi otu du         ɸu’da     du³si⁷
kád      black      *kVCa     kid          kigje     ki’        tukare    hede      ko-we      gobe      fe⁹de⁹
behud    blow       *pudV     bohudo       kepíg     bopudu     ---       boitai    uwa        ---       fai⁵
hii      body hair  *kdV      a-kdi        udi       kasu       tori      tòua      kdu’       ekdi      su³
abáid    bone       ---       a-baid       ?akad     sobogu     kre       i         ki’        ke-di-a   i⁸
tóud     breast     *touCV    tóud         tó        wei’a      ---       tue       tu         do        tui⁷
díé      cassowary  *diadi    kú           ---       kû         fiare     dai       dei        koβiso    dai³
tebií    child      *tau-bdi  tèi(d)       túé       tebi       dèbi      sàu       ti         sokdi’    so⁶
akouddé  chin       *kuaukadi a-boud'adi   aweapid   weku’      ---       bobe      kwawa      ---       baui⁴
atúd     cock       *tiuCV    a-tud        ---       ---        ---       tuda      tu’        ---       sui⁹
dád      dog        †dabi     dàu          súá       dâi’       die       debe      dabi       ɸedi      da⁷
bad      dull       *baCu     abditu       ?apuid    ouku’      kyu       ?ba-wei   maku-we    ouku      bo⁸be⁷
ákúádi   eye        *kudatiCV au           apatíg    uda        àryu      hede      kda        gadi      fe⁶
áid      father     †aite     ái           awag      bǎi’       ayite     aua       ai         aitie     a⁴
kuái     fire       *kudaide  ku(d)e       kúré      kwde       dou       be        kue        bo        be⁸
bó       firewood   *bodi     ---          ---       bo         bu        bodi      bo         ---       boi⁸
dé       fish       *tie      tè           ded       te         tīe       hia       ɸia        te        fi⁹
kúai     fly (n.)   *kubadi   kuáde        kwápu     du’adi     bribri    badi      kuadi      feia gadi bai⁸
ato      foot       †to       a-to         ató       ---        rakre     ada       tou’wa     ---       e⁸
a        go/walk    *kidia    do           tigwá/keé sa         fì        ja        ki’a       da/tou    i⁹
saa      grab       *tiadado  doud         do        do         ---       detedi    ɸdike      sese      fui⁸
kuei     hear       *kuedi    kuedi        kúe       bgodu      ate       jebedi    beika      bou/bei   bi⁸bay⁵
kúái     house      *kuadV    kuedi        kwá       kwadi      ou        uda       kua        boɣoia    ui⁸
i        1SG        †a/i      i            i         i          a         a         a          e         a⁹
túúd     ironwood   ---       tokoud       túóg      du’i       sȳure     bidi      dí’        pdiya     fy³
haa      land       *pdV      hda          igjé      pda        sòri      kua       ɸda        pia       a⁵
kíí      leech      †kíbí     kíbí         kébí      ---        túbì      ?aau      ki         kabi      ki⁵
ahií     leg        †pdia     a-híd        apiá      gadu       ebri      obe       ɸa         ɸdia      tai⁷
kueid    long       †kuedeCV  kuedid       kwed      kwedi’     fròku     behebei   ude-we     ɸdaɣa     be⁸
híí      louse      *pdi      hdi          prí       pdi        ---       ?doou     ɸdi        pdi       i⁶bv⁹
táá      meat       *tV       a-kda        atá       ---        wori      ?taa      do         odidi     ta⁹
so kad   moon       ---       só           awedta    sádô       frāre     ?badadedi kda-ko     βdisa     bai³ (da⁹ki³)
u        mosquito   *tide     u            ú         du’(g)wi’  tere      te        te         bidadu    te⁸
id       mother     ---       óid          awed      odua       ǎi        ja        ia         i’sa/ayo  a⁶ty⁹
akué     mouth      *kukadV   a-kue        awé       wêbó       yabrei    bu        bodakwadi  odaɣa     by⁹
adia     nail       *pV       a-dia        ?aped     e-dia      ?weriebi  ho        edia-ɸo    ---       oi⁷⁻⁸ fo⁸
akoo     neck       *kukdo    a-kdotei     ---       godi       rakai     hua       kokai      goudaɣai  ae⁹
áhóusid  nose       ---       a-hodusid    apod      bodu’      gwēbi     todo      ɸaisia     βdi goide to⁶
kaid     one        †kekV(CV) kode-kekaid  ?kgig     keiki      kíài      busu-we   suo-we     sɣoye     bi⁷si⁹
kuai     path       *kuadi    kuéi         kwákad    kwai       eigwre    bada      kuadi      ioɣoia    be⁶
té       person     †tai      tá           tró       tai        dȳi       te        te         oide      te⁷
díd      pig        †dida     id, did      díg       i’         sō        di        si’e       di’da     to⁸
sid      piss       *tiCi     sid'de       sig       si’        ---       si (badie)ti         ---       si⁹
béd      rain       *kudide   sebeid       wa priwa  ---        dù        bi        ui         ɸeya      bi⁸
bekid    scrape     *kiCi     bekdid'de    bgiju     ---        fwà       idia      kdia       ---       i³
bua      search     ---       akueseido    akasidju  bdei’      bro, ādri butetai   boka       didado    bv⁸ tai⁷
adíd     seed       †atiCV    atíd         atig      ebi’       ---       hede      kua        ede       fe⁶
hai      shit       *pade     hade         pade      padi       syu       ha        ɸa         ---       fa⁹
udso     sit        *pupu     behid        ugsód     wei        bworyu    baua      boko       dedi/dodu bau⁴ de⁸
ahid     skin       *pidi     a-sai        aped      basi’      gujekare  idi       ɸi’e       abasi     i⁸
dihed    split      ---       kdi-do-      piro      ---        gyu       dukadi    kuda/ɸikda zai       du⁶ki⁹
gasaid   stand      *dia-dau  kuite-adid   ugtá      kou        yuta      bidadi    di’ade     tou       ui⁷⁻³
akud     stomach    *kudia    aud          awiá      ówi/ai’    woru      tao       tau        odi       ai⁴
kuíd     stone      *kuipade  kuíd         wíd       wi’        foi       biho      ɸai        peki’     fe³ki⁹
besuu    suck       *tau      betudu       botuwo    bosudu     ---       ---       sa         dia       tui⁵
so       sun        *tio      sukuid       sejá      kodu       ?gwari    su        to         ?βeiɾ     bai³ (o³tu⁷ bv⁹)
átíd     tail       *tiCa     a-tid        atíg      ?ekiyai    wèi       si (tài)  ɸuo        eɣai      si⁹ tae⁶
kue      thorn      *kude     kudei        kure      kêi’       fwrē      bè        kue        ɸde       be⁵
abiid    tooth      *bdi      a-bdid       apid      ebdi’      wei       bidi      udi        ebidi     bi⁴
kúd      tree       †kuda     kud          kúg       kú’        yure      u         du         uda       u⁸
tiá      two        †tia      tio          betíá     tiba       ta        bodo-bei  odo-we     teye      bo⁴
kuu      vomit      *kadudu   kdud'de      kuúdówa   ku doa     ---       u-badi    u          i-edi     u⁸ toe⁵
díd      water      *deida    ádíd         wá        wadi       die       ida       da         de        y⁷
é        1PL        *ai       e, ai        a         a          e         e         e          a         y⁸
bááde    wide       ---       ---          sgapia    sa         sore      tetodadi  ---        odiɸua    ba⁴bo⁷
áud      wing       *auCo     a-daud       asóod     bidako     ---       ape       ---        bidaɣai   o⁷ki⁹
di       2SG        *de       di           di        ---        du        di        de         do        di⁹
dé       2PL        †da       dai          dad       ---        de        ---       ---        da        da⁹
Spoiler:
Reconstructions with * are from Clouse, those with are from any other source, mostly my own. Any terms preceded by ? are dubious and only attested in one source.
The Abawiri and Iau lists are the highest quality ones. Obokuitai is generally good but a couple of words have unknown tones. Generally ´ ` ^ ˇ represent H, L, HL and LH tones; in Edopi ^ ˇ are L H and ´ ` are LH HL, in Obokuitai <á a à> are H L HL. Abawiri is written according to Yoder's grammar; the others are written how they appear in any works, or as close to phonemically as possible. Extra-high vowels are written <i’ u’> (<yi yu> in Abawiri). Obokuitai <d’> represents coda [b̚~ɡ̚] where syllable structure is ambiguous.
This provides a nice example of a four-way minimal pair for tone: kúái "house" (H) ~ kuai "path" (L) ~kúai "fly" (HL) ~ kuái "fire" (LH).




¹ i.e. Where they do occur in present-day LP languages, they're only voiced obstruents, which is an odd class to have as the only codas. Except Iau, which only has /f/ in the coda, because Iau's built different.
² Clouse says that PET was the most conservative of the Tariku languages, noting that "One minor difference is that PT *tiV is retained in a very few instances in east Tariku languages (on numbers), except in Sikaritai where it has been completely replaced by sV."
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Re: Ai, a Lakes Plains language

Post by VaptuantaDoi »

Nel Fie wrote: 27 Nov 2022 21:30 Looks very interesting! I'm quite curious to see the syntax (and grammar in general).
As for the tone system, it's indeed quite complex - insofar that I would have to use the four rules myself to get a good sense of how it works. One thing I'm curious about: how does this system arise, diachronically speaking? I don't know if any Lakes Plain languages already have something similar, but since you mention it as a language goal, I assume you developed it yourself?
The tone system is motivated by a cross-linguistic tendency for tones to drift rightwards within a word as much as possible. This exact kind of tone system isn't found in LP, although it's somewhat similar to some of the Skou languages.
Creyeditor wrote: 27 Nov 2022 23:56 I really like a carefully crafted tone system. Reminds me of Bantu (the simple tone system, nouns vs. verbs, tone shift). I especially like the tone copying repair rule. It's like a reverse echo vowel but for tone.
Thanks! You're right about the Bantu influence; this system was partly inspired by Kikuyu. The tone copying rule is I believe a Skou feature.
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Re: Ai, a Lakes Plains language

Post by Man in Space »

I don't think I've ever seen a Lakes Plain fanlang before. I never would've even given it a thought…this interests me quite a bit.
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CC = Common Caber
CK = Classical Khaya
CT = Classical Ĝare n Tim Ar
Kg = Kgáweq'
PB = Proto-Beheic
PO = Proto-O
PTa = Proto-Taltic
STK = Sisỏk Tlar Kyanà
Tm = Təmattwəspwaypksma
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Re: Ai, a Lakes Plains language

Post by Creyeditor »

Just a quick question on the rone copy rule again, just out of curiosity. Is there a reason that it's copying and not spreading? No, is definitely an acceptable answery though.
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Re: Ai, a Lakes Plains language

Post by VaptuantaDoi »

Man in Space wrote: 30 Nov 2022 05:00 I don't think I've ever seen a Lakes Plain fanlang before. I never would've even given it a thought…this interests me quite a bit.
I'm pretty sure this is the first. Closest thing I know of is this, but that's from a better-described family.
Creyeditor wrote: 30 Nov 2022 06:27 Just a quick question on the rone copy rule again, just out of curiosity. Is there a reason that it's copying and not spreading? No, is definitely an acceptable answery though.
The short answer, no. Without contour tones it's just a matter of terminology really. I think of it more like tone spreading in my head.
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Re: Ai, a Lakes Plains language

Post by VaptuantaDoi »

Morphosyntactic alignment

Ai is very lax in marking any arguments of a clause, either syntactically or morphologically. Constituent order is rigidly verb-final, but the order of A and O is approximately equally weighted between AOV and OAV, even without any marking. The assignment of these roles is based on the context they are presented in and the assumptions made by the listener:

1) Kud bo i hád kúddé.
kùd=bɔ ì had~kuddɛ-´
branch=TOP 1SG fall~hit-PFV.COMPL

“A branch fell and hit me.”

2) Iúdiádu kud hád kúddé.
i̯údi̯ádù kùd had~kuddɛ-´
(PN) branch fall~hit-PFV.COMPL

“The branch fell and hit Iúdiádu (as well).”

There are two enclitics which can be used to disambiguate between A and O. The instrumental =de (cognate to Obokuitai de) doubles as an agentive marker, which can be used to mark either A or S:

3) I de kud kúé béhad.
ì=dɛ kùd kuɛ=bɛ-had-´`
1SG=AGT branch DOWN=APPL=fall-PFV

“I fell down and hit the branch.”

4) I de kúé had.
ì=dɛ kuɛ=had-´`
1SG=AGT DOWN=fall-PFV

“I fell down.”

Although this has semantic implications of agency as well; i de kúé had is better translated as “I (tripped myself and) fell down” or “I knocked myself down.” This is most marked in intransitive clauses. Note that the instrumental sense is common, especially in anti-topic (postverbal) position:

5) Haa ie hóu sói dé.
haa iɛ=hɔu̯-`´ sɔ́i̯=dɛ
ground UP=dig-IPFV stick=INSTR

“The ground is dug up with a stick.”

There is also a patientive marker =gu (possibly cognate to Duvle recipient marker -ɡu) used for explicit marking of O and S roles, although again in intransitive clauses especially it implies lower agency.

6) I gu di kúé gékád.
ì=ɡu dì kuɛ=ɡɛ-kad-´
1SG=PAT 2SG DOWN=CAUS-sleep-PFV.COMPL

“I got knocked out by you.”

7) I gu táágud.
ì=ɡu taagud-´`
1SG=PAT yawn-PFV

“I coughed”, “I had to cough.”

In this way Ai could be thought of as a very loose direct/inverse language; arguments are only explicitly marked when they are not logically expected (or for purposes of emphasis). However, the transparent origin of the agentive marker in the instrumental¹, along with its distribution in both transitive and intransitive sentences and its semantic implications, suggests that this is primarily semantic rather than grammatical. In Yoder’s Abawiri grammar, he makes the claim that Abawiri has no conventional grammatical relations and is instead based on topic-comment structures. This is also somewhat true of Ai; the first argument in a clause is generally the argument with the newest or least expected information, for example in (1), the branch which appears and hits the speaker is the newest actor within the narrative, and is thus fronted; in (2), the branch is no longer new, but Iudahida’s status as the object of hitting is novel and thus topicalised (fronted). As shown in (1) above and (8) below, there’s also an explicit topic marker =bo (cf. Obokuitai bu, Abawiri bo). =bo can also be used to mark relative clauses, which I will discuss is a future post.

8) Túd bó hí á kúi.
túd=bɔ hí a~kui=´`
woman=TOP sago go~take=IPFV

“As for the women, they get the sago.”

This can be combined with either =de or =gu:

9) Dád dé bo id o bóud.
dád`=dɛ=bɔ ìd ɔ̀ bɔu̯d-´
dog=AGT=TOP pig 2SG.POSS bite-PFV.COMPL

“This is the dog that bit your pig.”

10) Tíá ahid gu bo kui.
tíá ahid=ɡu=bɔ kui-`
palm skin=PAT=TOP take=IPFV.COMPL

“It is the palm bark that we take.”

Ultimately, I'd follow Yoder and suggest that grammatical relations don't play a very important role in Ai grammar, or at least they're not really required for analysis. I'll post more on anti-topics and more complex syntactic structures later.




¹ You could argue that the instrumental usage is just an extension of the agentive usage, but comparing it to other LP languages its origin is clearly instrumental; e.g. Obokuitai instrumental de is in clear contrast to ergative e.
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Re: Ai, a Lakes Plains language

Post by Omzinesý »

/d/ as the only allowed coda sounds unintuitive to me. Is it a thing in the family, or how did choose it?
My meta-thread: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5760
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Re: Ai, a Lakes Plains language

Post by Nel Fie »

VaptuantaDoi wrote: 29 Nov 2022 12:31 The tone system is motivated by a cross-linguistic tendency for tones to drift rightwards within a word as much as possible. This exact kind of tone system isn't found in LP, although it's somewhat similar to some of the Skou languages.
Ok!Do you plan to post the exact diachronic sound changes that lead to Ai?
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Re: Ai, a Lakes Plains language

Post by Creyeditor »

I am interested in hearing the relation between anti topic and [focus and non-topics].
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Re: Ai, a Lakes Plains language

Post by VaptuantaDoi »

Omzinesý wrote: 01 Dec 2022 14:14 /d/ as the only allowed coda sounds unintuitive to me. Is it a thing in the family, or how did choose it?
It's a thing in the family. For reference here's a tree diagram:

Code: Select all

                    Lakes Plain
                         |
      +––––––––––––––––––+––––––––––––––+
      |                                 |
   Far West                           Tariku
      |                                 |
      |           +-–––––––––+––––––––––+––––––––––+
      |           |          |          |          |
      |        West T.    Central T.  East T.      |
      |           |          |          |          |
   Rasawa,      Fayu,      Edopi,    Doutai,     Duvle
   Saponi,    Kirikiri      Iau        Kai,
   Awera                             Waritai,
                                     Biritai,
                                     Eritai,
                                    Obokuitai,
                                    Sikaritai
                                      (Ai)
It goes back to Proto-Tariku, which had closed syllables ending only in voiced obstruents (probably *d *g). Amongst the descendants, Sikaritai preserves coda /d ɡ/ after any vowel, Obokuitai has coda [ɡ̚] after extra-high fricated [i̝] and [b̚] after [u̝]. Other than that, all the Tariku languages reflect them as just extra-high vowels. Ai retained codas but only as /d/.
Complicating the issue, there's Iau which only has [p] in the coda, which I've never seen diachronically explained, and Abawiri which is also quite divergent and only has /ɾ/ in the coda, and only word-internally at that.

Nel Fie wrote: 01 Dec 2022 16:30
VaptuantaDoi wrote: 29 Nov 2022 12:31 The tone system is motivated by a cross-linguistic tendency for tones to drift rightwards within a word as much as possible. This exact kind of tone system isn't found in LP, although it's somewhat similar to some of the Skou languages.
Ok!Do you plan to post the exact diachronic sound changes that lead to Ai?
We don't know what PLP tone was like, so sadly I can't. Most of the tones are derived sideways in the family from Obokuitai, Sikaritai, Doutai, Abawiri or Iau (in that order of preference). Like Iau, Ai collapsed all the tonemic information of a word into a single tone, although it simplified these subsequent tones a lot more than Iau did. For example, as a cognate to Obokuitai ádíkei "kind of snake", I collapse all the tones into one contour, giving the Ai word /aikei HL/.
Creyeditor wrote: 01 Dec 2022 18:57 I am interested in hearing the relation between anti topic and [focus and non-topics].
That will be coming soon (hopefully). I'm far from confident on syntax but.
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Re: Ai, a Lakes Plains language

Post by VaptuantaDoi »

I've made a couple of changes to Ai phonology. Coda consonants are out, and a seven-vowel system is now in:

Code: Select all

i y
 e             ʊ
              ɔ
   æ     a
I don't really know how to romanise this, probably <iy uy i u o e a>. Consonants are slightly changed, dropping /ɡ/ and retaining *p as /p/ [p~ɸ] rather than /h/ [h~ɸ]. Also phonemic /j/ may be required.

Code: Select all

p b    t d           k
       s
               (j)
The vowels /y i/ arise from lost coda consonants:

*touCV > /dɔ́y̯/ "breast"
*tiuCV > /tý/ "penis"
*tiCi > /ti/ "urine"
†dida > /di/ "pig"

Otherwise *i u are reflected as /e ʊ/, and *e as /æ/:

†pi > /pe/ "sago"
*tia > /tea/ "two"
*du > /dʊ/ "bird"
*kdu > *kuɾu > /ydʊ/ "body hair"
*kude > /ydæ/ "thorn"
*kuipade > /ípádǽ/ "stone"

I've also decided to retain almost all instances of PLP *ti as /t/, although /s/ will still be phonemic from loans:

*tie > /tǽ/ "fish"
*tiadado > /taa/ "grab"
*tio > /tɔ/ "sun/moon"
*tia > /tea/ "two"
Bauzi dɛgɔsɔ > /dækɔsɔ/ "tail"

There's now a shift of *kV → /i y/:

*kudia > /idea/ "stomach"
*kdiCV > *kiɾi̝ > /iji/ "banana"
*kudatiCV > /ýdáti/ "eye"
*kukadV > /ykǽ/ "mouth"

*p is retained as /p/ with intervocalic allophone [ɸ]:

*pidi > /pi/ "skin"
*pdV > /paa/ "land"
*pade > /pæ/ "shit"

And voiceless */p t/ were voiced to */b d/ in word-initial high-tone syllables:

*poka > *boka > /bɔ́ká/ "arrow"
*tVCV(CV) > *dVCVCV > /dʊ́ʊ́/ "ironwood"

Although the distinction was retained with the loss of some hiatus vowels:

*tiuCV > /tý/ "penis"
†tuCV > /dý/ "woman"

Allophony is:
/p b d k/ > [ɸ β l ɣ] /V_V
/b d/ > [m n] /#_a
/j/ > [d͡ʒ] /i_
/e ʊ/ > [ɪ~e ʊ~o]
/æ ɔ/ > [ɛ~æ ɔ~ɒ]

The tone system is unchanged
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Re: Ai, a Lakes Plains language

Post by VaptuantaDoi »

Topic-comment structure

Basic sentences in Ai consist of a topic, a commend and an anti-topic. The topic is an emphasised element which is considered a more important or novel actor in the event described, regardless of which argument of the verb it is. The comment is something said about the topic, which can be either a lone verb or a noun phrase followed by a verb. Generally Ai sentences require both a topic and a comment (1,2). Zero-reference is quite common, but generally the topic is not dropped (3).

1. E tadúy.
​ ​ ​ ​ æL tady-LH
​ ​ ​ ​ 1SG cough-PFV
​ ​ ​ ​ "I (topic) coughed (comment)." (or "as for me, I coughed" or "it was me who coughed")

2. Díé apouy dá-uyde.
​ ​ ​ ​ dejæH apɔy̯L da-y̯dæHL
​ ​ ​ ​ cassowary fruit eat-IPFV
​ ​ ​ ​ "Cassowaries (topic) eat fruit (comment)."

3. Koiy Túy íytíy bédí-úyde. [...] Íytíy uyé-iy.
​ ​ ​ ​ kɔi̯LH tyL itiH bɛ-di-ydæHL [...] itiH yjæ-i̯LH
​ ​ ​ ​ PN PN kangaroo APPL-run-IPFV [...] kangaroo shoot-PFV
​ ​ ​ ​ "Koiy Túy was hunting kangaroos [...] The kangaroo got shot (by Koiy Túy)."

However, comments can stand alone only if no argument (S, A or O) of the verb is specified.

4. Buyé-iy.
​ ​ ​ ​ b-yjæ-i̯LH
​ ​ ​ ​ APPL-shoot-PFV
​ ​ ​ ​ "(He) shot at (it)."

Note that in clause chaining, a repeated topic can be dropped from the second clause (5), or simply the topic marker bo alone can be used (6).


5. Tíyá piy bo uydi-poiy tá békíydé békíydé-uyde.
​ ​ ​ ​ tijaH piL=bɔ yde-pɔi̯L taH Ø bæ-kidæ~bæ-kidæ-y̯dæHL
​ ​ ​ ​ palm.tree skin=TOP get-IPFV.COMPL after Ø APPL-hit~APPL-hit-IPFV
​ ​ ​ ​ "The palm tree bark is gotten, after which (it is) pounded repeatedly."

6. Dá uy uydí-pí káu kó tá bo uyé-iy.
​ ​ ​ ​ daHL=y̯ yde-peH kaʊ̯H=kɔ taH bɔL yjæ-i̯LH
​ ​ ​ ​ DEMONSTR=PAT take-PFV.COMPL jungle=OBL after TOP shoot-PFV
​ ​ ​ ​ "They took him into the jungle then they shot (him)."


Anti-topics

Anti-topics are phrases which follow the comment and describe additional information about the event; these can be oblique noun phrases (7) or adverbial phrases (8).

7. Iy ta ái da-poiy iyto ko.
​ ​ ​ ​ iL taL ae̯HL da-pɔi̯L itɔL=kɔ
​ ​ ​ ​ snake muscle 1PL eat-IPFV.COMPL tomorrow=OBL
​ ​ ​ ​ "We will have finished eating the snake meat by tomorrow."

8. Ái uyúyó bétíy-úyde tédíté.
​ ​ ​ ​ ae̯HL yjyjɔH bɛ-ti-ydæHL tædetæH
​ ​ ​ ​ 1PL village APPL-go-IPFV together
​ ​ ​ ​ "We'll go to the village together."

Anti-topics can be stacked practically indefinitely:

9. Dáu pebiyá pé-uyde iydiba ko iyto ko.
​ ​ ​ ​ daʊ̯HL pæbijaLH pæ-y̯dæHL idebaL=kɔ itɔL=kɔ
​ ​ ​ ​ dog many exist-IPFV clearing=OBL tomorrow=OBL
​ ​ ​ ​ "There will be many dogs in the clearing tomorrow."

10. Áiy dó e tédé bádúy-de dá ko dí uydei ko e úydátí e íyóde.
​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ai̯H=dɔ æL tædæ~bady-dæHL daHL=kɔ diH ydæe̯L=kɔ æL ydatiHL=æ ijɔdæHL
​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ father=2SG.POSS 1SG hold~see-IPFV DEMONSTR=OBL water forehead=OBL 1SG eye=INSTR now
​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ "I can see your father over there on the river bank with my own eyes right now."


Anti-topic fronting

Constructions that look like antitopics using the postpositions e (instrumental) and uy (patientive) can be placed in topic position:

11. Ata e bepuy-poi.
​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ataL=æ bæ-py-pɔi̯L
​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ wind=INSTR APPL-blow-IPFV.COMPL
​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ "The wind had been blowing."

12. Úydá pebiya úy pé puy pé.
​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ydaH pæbijaLH=y pæHL py-pæH
​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ tree many=PAT DOWN blow-PFV.COMPL
​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ "Many trees had been blow over."

An interesting construction is one in which there is a topic in the expected position, but the same nominal (or a different nominal, especially with instrumental or possessive sense) is repeated in anti-topic position with e or uy:

13. E titedí úyépé e uy.
​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ æL tetædeLH yjæ-pæH æL=y̯
​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ 1SG man shoot-PFV.COMPL 1SG=PAT[/size]
​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ "It was me who had been shot by the man."

14. De dá baduy-íy bi de úydátíy e?
​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ dæL daHL bady-iLH biL dæL ydatiHL=æ
​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ 2SG DEMONSTR see-PFV YES/NO.Q 2SG eye=INSTR
​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ "Was it you who saw him there?"

This prompts an analysis of sentence-initial anti-topic-like constructions as being a result of fronting of the antitopic followed by zero-reference of the now reduntant original topic, i.e.:

15. 1SG 2SG hit-PFV 1SG=PAT
​ ​ ​ ​ ​→ * 1SG=PAT 1SG 2SG hit-PFV
​ ​ ​ ​ ​→ ✓1SG=PAT 2SG hit-PFV

While this analysis does require an unattested intermediate stage, it does simplify a number of things. It means that the underlying structure of TOP-COM-ANT is retained with a simple shift, and it also explains why nominals in the comment slot cannot be marked with e or uy.
In fact in certain constructions an anti-topic can appear fronted with a distinct topic – this only happens with imperative constructions and requires a noticeable pause between the fronted anti-topic and the topic (16). Fronted anti-topics can even be stacked (17).

16. Puyo kó, dá tuy dé!
​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ pyjɔLH=kɔ | daHL ty-LH dæH
​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ seat=OBL | DEMONSTR put-PFV IMPER
​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ "Put that on the seat!"

17. Iyto ko ái ko, i bo uykeé dé!
​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ itɔL=kɔ ae̯HL=kɔ | iL=bɔ ykææ-LH dæH
​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ tomorrow=OBL 1PL=OBL | pig=TOP kill-PFV IMPER
​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ "Tomorrow, kill a pig for us."



Hopefully that post makes sense and clears up some of the confusion about terminology. Before anyone asks, this was loosely inspired by Abawiri and Obokuitai, but (like with most of the language) some parts were flat made up.
In order to prevent this post from getting too long, I'll make another post about how serial verb compounds fit into this. Of course feel free to ask me any questions and I'll answer them as best as I can.
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Re: Ai, a Lakes Plains language

Post by Creyeditor »

Oh, so an anti-topic is kind of like an afterthought then? That's intriguing.
And the 'topic' is the term used in 'topic vs. comment' not the one used in 'topic vs. focus', right? Because new actors are usually introduced as a focus, IIRC.
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Re: Ai, a Lakes Plains language

Post by VaptuantaDoi »

Creyeditor wrote: 11 Dec 2022 18:07 Oh, so an anti-topic is kind of like an afterthought then? That's intriguing.
And the 'topic' is the term used in 'topic vs. comment' not the one used in 'topic vs. focus', right? Because new actors are usually introduced as a focus, IIRC.
Hmm... I'm not too good with syntactic terminology. I think what Ai does is syntactically mark topics and focuses in the same way. I'll have to think about how it can mark a focus which is distinct from the topic (or maybe I've actually been talking about focuses when I said topics). I'm gonna re-read the syntax section in the Abawiri and Iau grammars and see how they do.
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Re: Ai, a Lakes Plains language

Post by Salmoneus »

This would have been my concern, too: "novel", "emphasised" and "important" are all words that seem to describe the focus, not the topic!

Are there any distinctively topic-comment structures, like double-headed clauses? [eg: "Bob dog eat entrails" for "As for Bob, a dog ate his entrails"?] If not, what makes this topic-comment rather than just fronting of a focused argument?


I'm also not sure why you talk of "anti-topics", rather than just, say, "oblique argument". It particularly seems odd when it seems as though anti-topics can simultaneously be topics!

But I don't know anything about New Guinean languages and their linguists.
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Re: Ai, a Lakes Plains language

Post by Creyeditor »

I guess a more constructive question might be the following: where do you place given or old information in a sentence? Stuff that is neither novel nor important but links the sentence to previous discourse, definite noun phrases, pronouns, demonstratives, etc. In your structure it looks like it would neither be the topic (not novel or important), nor comment (nothing is said about the topic), nor an anti-topic (doesn't provide additional infornation). Take for example the following small text fragment.


I saw a man and a woman yesterday. The man had a dog on his head. The dog bit me.

In the first sentence 'man and woman' are 'novel actors' and 'important'. In the second sentence another 'novel actor' is introduced: 'the dog' (crucial for the third sentence). But 'the man' in the second sentence is neither additional information nor 'something said about' the dog. What would Ai do?
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Re: Ai, a Lakes Plains language

Post by VaptuantaDoi »

Verb morphology

I'll give syntax a break cos I'm too dumb for that shit. Instead, I'll start on verbal morphology. The Ai verb is relatively simple:

Directionals
Valency
Root 1
Root 2
Root 3
Aspect
Discourse markers

Of these, directionals and discourse markers take tones and are thus considered separate words; valency prefixes and aspect suffixes are toneless. The three roots refer to serial verb compounds, which can act as single words phonologically (more on SVCs later). In this post I'll briefly discuss the directional particles. I'm not sure what to call them exactly, because they're grammatically bound to the verb, but phonologically separate, like the inverse of a clitic. Particles will do for now.

Directional Particles

There are six of these, with a contrast of up/down, upstream/downstream, and towards/away. Each of these pairs will get a few notes of their own.


Up/down

Looking at cognates across the other LP languages, as far as I can find we have:

Obokuitai: kudé "up", kuè "down"
Doutai: udik, ?
Sikaritai: ug-/ke-, pa-/we-
Abawiri: yu-, bu-

These both seem to be cognate; I'm going to take the proto-forms to be something like †(k)udeCV- and †kue-. There's also Sikaritai kuré "above" which is weird (maybe the Obokuitai form isn't cognate to the last three after all). Anyway, here's the Ai forms:

uydé "up" (LH)
"down" (HL)

Neatly (although somewhat coincidentally), "up" has a rising tone while "down" has a falling tone.
The usage of these is generally quite literal:
Spoiler:
Biy Te badíy uydé piy dú do-iy.
[ɓi˧ tæ˧ ma˧li˥ y˧læ˥ pi˧ ɗu˥ ɗɔi̯˧˩]
biL tæL badiHL ydæLH pi-LH dʊL dɔ-i̯LH
PN PN mountain up go.up-PFV bird hold-PFV

"Biy Te went up the mountain and got the bird."

Petíy pé ebapíy déi!
[pæ˧ti˥ pæ˥ æ˧ma˧ɸi˥ ɗæe̯˥˧]
pætiLH pæHL æ-bapi-LH dæe̯H
cloth down CAUS-sit-PFV IMPER

"Put the clothes down!"
They can also have metaphorical implications, especially in fixed expressions like:
Spoiler:
E uy uydé tíy-úyde.
[æ˧ y˧ y˧læ˥ ti˥y˥læ˧˩]
æL yL ydæLH ti-ydæHL
1SG heart up go-IPFV

"Become happy."

E uy pé tiy-úyde.
[æ˧ y˧ pæ˥ ti˧y˥læ˧˩]
æL yL pæHL ti-ydæHL
1SG heart down go-IPFV

"Become sad."
With some verbs the semantics are somewhat more specific, for example:
Spoiler:
bádúy-úyde "flow" → pé badúy-úyde "drip down (of sweat)"
bétáá-uyde "stab" → uydé bétáá-uyde "slit the throat of", pé betáá-úyde "disembowel"
úyúydú-úyde "vomit" → pé uyúydú-úyde "swallow down vomit"
kúyíyé-uyde "kick" → pé kuyíyé-uyde "stamp down flat"
báuydíy-úyde "point at" → uydé báuydíy-úyde "point out a bird to be shot"
can also imply a sense of completion of a task:
Spoiler:
pé ta-uyde "eat up, eat completely"
pé buútá-uyde "harvest completely"
pé takáké-uyde "completely hide oneself"
pé kaiy-úyde "rub off"
pé tedé-uyde "spin all the way around"

Upstream/downstream

Obokuitai: kuíd "upstream", bèi "downstream"
Iau: bui˥˩˨, by˨˩bai˥˩
Abawiri: jwa, bra

Here the cognates also seem surprisingly good between Obokuitai and Iau; kuVbV is regular in Iau, while the element bVi even shows falling tones in both languages. I'm going to ignore Abawiri because even basic sound changes haven't been worked out for it; so I'll assume proto-LP †kuiHCVLH and †baiHL. This gives Ai:

íy "upstream" H
béi "downstream" HL

These aren't used all that often, but they appear pretty frequently with verbs of motion:
Spoiler:
Tiy e íy tiy bá!
[ti˧æ˧ i˥ ti˧ ma˥˧]
tiL=æ iH ti-LH baH
canoe=INSTR upstream go-PFV PROHIB

"Don't go upstream in the canoe."

Ébádu béi peti-poiy ádíy da uy.
[æ˥ma˥lʊ˧ ɓæe̯˥ pæ˧te˧ɸɔi̯˧ a˥li˥ nay̯˧˩]
æbadʊHL bæe̯HL pæte-pɔi̯L adiH daL=y̯
fish.sp downstream swim-IPFV.COMPL water PROX=OBL

"The fish have been swimming downstream into this part of the river."

Towards/away

I've decided here to use the cognate sets for "inside" vs. "outside", with Ai having undergone a semantic shift.

Sikaritai: akad̚ko "inside", asitako "outside"
Doutai: ɛsî, wɾiako
Kaiy: kwitɛɾi, kwɛiso
Waritai: kako, wɾiako
Eritai: okwitaɾuko, iɾeiko
Papasena: aˈgaraˈkɛ, aˈwaɸug̚to

Again these look cognate but they're messy; I'll go with PLP †(a)kuitadi, †(k)udai (ignoring all instances of final ko because Obokuitai has an oblique marker ko and these might all be cognates to that). The Ai forms are:

iyte "towards" (L)
úyai "away" (HL)

These can indicate motion towards or away from a place:
Spoiler:
Iyte tuyí déi!
[i˧tæ˧ ty˧ji˥ dæe̯˥˧]
itæL tyje-LH dæe̯H
towards carry-PFV IMPER

"Bring it over here."

Dá di úyai túyí-pí aiy do ia.
[na˥ de˧ y˥jae̯˧ ty˥ji˥ɸe˥ ai̯˧lɔ˧ e˧ja˧˩]
daH deL yjae̯HL tyje-peH ai̯L=dɔ ejaL
meat 2SG away carry-PFV.COMPL father=2SG.POSS CERT

"You certainly took the meat over to your father."
They can also specifically refer to motion inland/away from land.
Spoiler:
Uy Asa tiy iyte etiy-poiy íyá é.
[y˧ a˧sa˧ ti˧ i˧tæ˧ æ˧ti˧ɸɔi̯˧ i˥ja˥ æ˥˧]
yL asaL tiL itæL æ-ti-pɔi̯L ijaH=æ
PN PN canoe toward CAUS-go-IPFV.COMPL paddle=INSTR

"Uy Asa finished paddling the canoe back to shore."

Íy uyai úái-pí.
[i˥ y˧jae̯˧ ʊ˥ae̯˥ɸe˥˧]
iHL yjae̯HL ʊae̯-peH
coconut away float-PFV.COMPL

"The coconuts had drifted out into the river."
iyte can also be used to reinforce reciprocal constructions:
Spoiler:
Iyte pébáiydú-úyde.
[i˧tæ˧ pɛ˥mai̯˥lʊ˥y˥læ˧˩]
itæL p-æ-bai̯dʊ-ydæHL
towards RECIP-CAUS-learn-IPFV

"They are teaching each other (one-on-one)."

Dé dei iyte puy bá!
[dæ˥ dæe̯˧ i˧tæ˧ py˧ ma˥˧]
dæHL dæe̯L itæL p-y-LH baH
2PL good towards RECIP-tell-PFV PROHIB

"Don't congratulate yourselves!"


I'm also thinking about even more phonological changes. If I merge /i y/, then I'm left with a vowel system like this:

Code: Select all

i         ʊ
 e       ɔ
  æ
     a
Which can then be manhandled into the rather neat system shown below with some consonants for company

Code: Select all

i         u            p     t     k
 e                     b     d
  ɛ      ɔ                   s
     a
And I can write this <i u y e o a> (with <y> borrowed from Iau where /ɪ/ is <y>), which makes Ai look a lot less messy. I'll try this out for a while and see how it goes, feel free to let me know your thoughts about it.
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