Kfadipqh language

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Omzinesý
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Kfadipqh language

Post by Omzinesý »

Kfádipqh [kfɑ˥ð̞ipχ] (The last sound is uvular, which the board seems not to understand.)

I think, it's the time open a thread for this lang, which I have been developing in some messages in my scarp thread. I named it Kfádipqh.

This is a hard project, full of features that I don't really understand.
- Much suprasegmental morphology (not too much)
- A kitchen-sinky "verb"
- Blurring the distinction between nouns and verbs
Last edited by Omzinesý on 09 Jun 2021 21:35, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Kfadipqh language

Post by Omzinesý »

Syntax

The distinction between nouns and verbs is blurred and some words just appear as arguments and some as predicates in the syntax. Usually the words appearing as arguments are static, i.e., not marked for aspect, but it is not necessary. The usual word order is VS, but it is not distinctive.


The most frequent construction is the one in (1) where (1a) a specific referent (a/the specific boy) does something indefinite (running generally) or (1b) a specific referent (a/the runner) belongs to a generic group (boys). I'm just beginning with morphology, so ATM the specific marker is the accent peak on the penultimate syllable. There will probably be some aspect marking, as well.


(1a) 'The boy is running.'
pogo tsitéa
pogo tsitea-´
run(er) boy-SPEC

(1b) 'The one running is a boy.'
tsitea pógo
tsitea pogo-´
(be)boy run(er)-SPEC

Another construction is where a generic group/thing does something generic or belongs to a generic group. In that construction, the predicate (pogo) must agree the subject (tsitea). The agreement marker for generic subject is -plh.

(2) 'Boys (generally) run.'
pogo-plh tsitea
run(er)-GENERIC.SUBJ boy


Bivalent words
Most of bivalent words are seen as verbs in SAE but there are bivalent nounlike words like kokhu.

Bivalent words are always marked for voice. There are two voices (ATM): Direct -i/-u and Inverse -a/o.
kokhu '(be) parent'
kokho '(be) child'

(3)
Kókh-ú Mâria Gêsva.
(be)parent-DIR Mary Jesus
'Mary is Jesus's parent.'

(4)
Kókh-ó Gêsva Mâria.
(be)parent-INV Jesus Mary
'Jesus is Mary's child.'

(5)
Topseg-u kókhu kókho.
breastfeed-DIR parent.SPEC child,SPEC
'Mother is breastfeeding her child.'

In (5), I don't know how bivalents work in the argument position because they should mean 'This is his mother.' and 'This is her child.'

(6)
Kókhú topségu kókhu.
'The one breastfeeding [the child] is the child's mother.'


At least, at this stage, Direct and Inverse voices work very easily. Direct makes the (subject) word following the verb the actor, and Inverse makes the word following the word the undergoer.


-----------
BUT

All of the words this-far have been static (or imperfective like 'be running'). I think, it will be evident that perfective verbs are not so naturally used as nouns, but there is no grammatical constraint for that. I'm still not sure of aspects.
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Re: Kfadipqh language

Post by WeepingElf »

Omzinesý wrote: 09 Jun 2021 19:39 Kfádipqh [kfɑ˥ð̞ipχ] (The last sound is uvular, which the board seems not to understand.)
This is a well-known font problem: in some fonts, the characters x (velar) and χ (uvular) look the same - in others not. On my machine, it displays in a font where the two letters are distinct, and yes, you have used the right one. A workaround would be to use capital X for the uvular fricative instead.
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Re: Kfadipqh language

Post by Omzinesý »

Ideas for morphological categories
Many of them are expressed supprasegmentally

Two mood slots
1) Realis/Irrealis, Positive/Negative
2) More specific moods (could, should, evidentials, "I think" etc., imperative)

No tense
Future is expressed by irrealis moods

As many as three Aspect(ish) slots (maybe distinct just theoretically)
1) (optional) Slot for resultative and volitional (a bit like control in some Native American langs): willingly, unwillingly, successfully, unsuccessfully
2) (derivational) Slot for change of state: inceptive/inchoative and cessative
3) Slot for duration: momentane, durative, iterative ...

Direct and Inverse voices in bivalent words. (Possibly, other voices like causative, applicative, anticausative...)
Cross-referencing of the subject and the object - 3<3 is zero-marked because all bivalent verbs have voice markers, anyways.

Probably, some discourse-pragmatic markers
- Argument focus, Rhetoric statement ...
- Could probably also have vocative meaning, when "nouny".
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Re: Kfadipqh language

Post by Omzinesý »

Phonology

Consonants

(1) p t k q <p t k q>
(2) f θ s ɬ x χ <f th s lh kh qh>
(3) ʋ ð̞ l ɣ̞ ʁ <v d l g r>

/k, x, ɣ̞/ are post-palatals in front-vocalic environment.

All non-final syllables are open (C)(C)V.
Onset clusters are either stop + fricative ((1)(2), stop + approximant ((1)(3)), or stop fricative + approximant ((2)(3)).

Phonotactics

The last syllable can also have a coda, which can be
a) any consonant
b) a cluster of stop + approximant ((1)(3))

Vowels
i ɯ u <i y u>
(e ɤ o <î/ê ŷ/â û/ô)
æ ɑ ɒ <e a o>

Mid-vowels only appear in morpho-phonological processes.

Diphthongs do not appear.
Long vowels do not appear.

Suprasegmental features

Suprasegmental features
There are four suprasegmental features. They are mostly inflectional/derivational, but the first low-pitch domain is often lexically determined.

1) High-pitch domain
2) Glottalization
3) Nasalization
4) Vowel reduction
5) Vowel-rounding harmony

The four former ones can be described as domains. Every word is shared in one, two, or three domains. Domains can consist of one or more vowels/syllables.
Every word has a peak domain. Words can also have a pre-peak domain and a post-peak domain, which are together called non-peak domains.

1) Pitch

Kfadipqh can be described as a pitch-accent system.
There are two levels of pitch: high <á> and low <a>. Every vowel has one.
The vowels in the peak domain always have the high tone. The vowels in the non-peak domains always have the low tone.


2) Glottalization

Glottalization is surely the easiest of the suprasegmental features. It is a binary feature of every word. There can be a glottal stop in the end of the peak domain. Glottalization is marked with the grave on the last vowel of the high-pitch domain, <à>, instead of the acute.
mógûpla

3) Nasalization

Every domain is either nasal or oral. Nasalization is not as limited as pitches. A three-domain word can have any of the eight combinations of nasalization: OOO; OON, ONO, NOO; ONN, NON, NNO; NNN. Non-nasal domains are far more frequent, though.

In a nasal domain, nasalization is very overwhelming. All vowels are nasalized. The consonants following nasals vowels are nasalized, too. That is, nasalization spreads to the onset of the first syllable of the following domain as well. The onset of the first syllable can never be nasal.
Edit: I'm not sure how to mark nasalization.
I could go the Polish/Navajo way and have a small hook below the vowel.
At least /p/ and /t/ could be written <m> and <n> when nasalized.

4) Vowel reduction

Peak domains have six vowels:
i ɯ u <i y u>
æ ɑ ɒ <e a o>

Non-peak domains have nine vowels
i ɯ u <i y u>
e ɤ o <î/ê ŷ/â û/ô
æ ɑ ɒ <e a o>

No root lexeme has mid-vowels. They are created in morphophonological processes. In the process of vowel reduction high or near-low vowels become the corresponding mid-vowels. The original value is still marked and the ruducing is marked by the circumflex.

5) Vowel rounding harmony

Vowel rounding harmony can be seen as the fifth suprasegmental feature, but it is not based on the domains. A word cannot have both rounded and unrounded back-vowels. Affixes with back vowels have thus two allomorphs: a rounded one and an unrounded one.

More systematically presenting the suprasegmentals above

Code: Select all

		Spreads to	In peak		In non-peak	  
		the whole 	domain only	domain only	
		domain 						
High pitch	YES		YES 		NO
Low pitch	YES		NO		YES
Nasalization 	YES	 	NO		NO
Glottal stop  	NO		?*		NO
Vowel reduction NO		NO		YES
Vowel harmony	-		NO		NO

*The glottal stop is a possible border-line effect between the peak domain and the post-peak domain. 
Vowel harmony affects words, not just domain.
Timing
In the basic typology, I think, Kfadipqh should be analized as a syllable timed language. Most syllables are open anyways. The last syllable can have a coda but it does not affect the timing of the syllable.
Edit: The last coda could even be analyzed as a very reduced syllable. Like in French, there is a quite clear schwa is the end of acceptable.
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Re: Kfadipqh language

Post by Omzinesý »

Second attempt for aspect

Three basic aspects: Stative, Progressive, Perfective
Two/three other aspects: Basic, Inceptive 'start', Cessative 'stop'
Optional Iterative (to emphasize Stative)

Code: Select all

	BASIC		INCEPTIVE		CESSATIVE
STAT	'is a player'	'is going to play'	'has played (stopped)'  
PROG	'is playing'	'is about to play'	'is about to stop playing'   
PERFVE	'played (once)'	'started playing'	'stopped playing' 
Prospective and Perfect are formed as a combination of Stative and Inceptive or cessative, respectively.

Probably there should be distinct Stative and Iterative as basic aspects, however. Stative would describe the feature/action as an essential part of the referent of the noun and Iterative would describe it just as something the referent of the noun sometimes does.
Edit: Or probably action vs. stative aspects 'to act like a boy' vs. 'to be a boy'
Suprasegemental morphology might get too utilized if all 9 or 12 aspects are expressed by it. There might also be some suprasegment holding affixes that are added to short words to bear all the suprasegmentals.

Motion verbs will surely have more aspect-ish categories. But I've enough work with non-motion verbs ATM.
Last edited by Omzinesý on 25 Jun 2021 14:50, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Kfadipqh language

Post by Omzinesý »

Polarity/Irrealis + person agreement appear in one slot.

Polarity/Irrealis has three values
* Positive
* Negative
* Irrealis (positive)

Monovalent verbs have the following person markings:
a) 1st
b) 1+2nd
c) 2nd
d) 3rd

Bivalent verbs have the following person markings:
e) 1 => 2 or 2 => 1 ?
f) 1 => 3
g) 1+2 => 3
h) 2 => 3
i) 3 => 3

Clauses like I believe in us[you and me] are semantically possible, but I think there need not be a special morpheme for them.

Distributive and collective plurals are marked with special affixes.

a) - d) are the same morphemes as f) - i).

Code: Select all

		Positive	Irrealis	Negative 
1 (=> 3)
1+2 (=>3)
2 (=> 3)
3 (=>3) 

1 <=> 2 

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Re: Kfadipqh language

Post by Omzinesý »

"Verb" template just ideas


[-3 Polarity/Irrealis, person], [-2 modality], [-1 control], [0 stem,aspect], [1 aspect extension], [2 voice], [3 plural]



Now, I should start thinking about the history of the suprasegmentals.

- Vowel reduction (should it be called something like midding? ) is a simple unlaut phenomenon. Could there have been something like assimilation of vowel openness to a suffix with mid-vowels. The assimilation could probably be blocked by peak domain/high tones.

*kala-pe => kale-pe => kale
*kalu-pe => kalo-pe => kalo

It is easy in the post-peak domain that can be affected by suffixes but could prefixes do the same to vowels in pre-peak domains?

- The extension (which vowels it covers) of the peak domain and the glottals stop are probably part of the same phenomenon, historically. Probably 1) there was just one syllable with the high tone (a stress), 2) later another syllable gained the high tone by tonogenesis 3) all syllables between them also got high tones by assimilation. If tonogenesis in 2) was caused by a phoneme that became the glottal stop in the end, there was both the glottal stop and the right edge of the peak domain.

- Nasalization is the hard one. Probably all syllables with a nasal sound (a vowel or a consonant) just got nasal by assimilation. At that point, the domains should already exist.
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Re: Kfadipqh language

Post by Omzinesý »

Rise of peak domain - Tonogenesis

In Pre-Kfadipqh
a) Accent/high tone realized on one syllable only. There could also be words without the accent/high tone.
*tsitéa 'a boy'
*pæti '(to be) a friend'

b) Syllables were allowed to end in a stop *p, *t, *k, *q *ʔ, of which *ʔ was the most frequent one.

*lɑ́qðɑ 'to play/ a player (like children)'


Some old suffixes
-k 'PERFECTIVE'

-------------------
Changes towards modern Kfadipqh
1) All, coda plosives made the syllable to have a high tone.
2) *ʔ => ∅ the glottal stop was lost, all other coda plosives became glottal stop *p, *t, *k, *q => *ʔ

*pæti-k => pætíʔ 'was a friend for a while'
*tsitǽ.ɑ-k => tsitǽ.ɑ́ʔ 'was a boy for a while' (whatever that means)
*lɑ́qðɑ => lɑ́ʔðɑ 'to play/ a player (like children)'

Changes that emphasized the domains. After these changes, it is not important to know which syllables have the high tone or glottal stop but rather where the edges of the domains are and if the right edge has the glottal stop.
3) The new glottal stop was lost if the following syllable had a high tone. (That simplified syllable structure of words so that within a domain there could be no codas.)
4) Words without accent/high tone got one on penultimate syllable.
5) Syllables between accented/high tone syllables also got the high tone. (Tonal assimilation. That created a continuous peak domain).

*lɑ́qðɑ-k => lɑ́ʔðɑ́ʔ => lɑ́ðɑ́ʔ 'played for a while'
*pæti => pǽti '(to be) a friend'

Some preliminary aspect morphology

Code: Select all

	STATIVE				PERFECTIVE
boy	tsitǽ.ɑ (pre-p peak post-p)	tsitǽ.ɑ́ʔ (pre-p peak)
player	lɑ́ʔðɑ (peak post-p)		lɑ́ðɑ́ʔ (peak)
friend	pǽti (peak post-p)		pætíʔ (pre-p peak)

Those are just stems. Prefixes and suffixes usually make longer words be (pre-p peak post-p).

Edit: To think about:
How do I explain modern consonant clusters. There must have been some difference between *li.ksi and *lik.si.
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Re: Kfadipqh language

Post by teotlxixtli »

Omzinesý wrote: 25 Jun 2021 14:11 *tsitǽ.ɑ-k => tsitǽ.ɑ́ʔ 'was a boy for a while' (whatever that means)
This made me laugh when I read it, but it also made me think of the potential for the con culture to have non-Western ideas about gender and sex. And trans people exist, of course
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Re: Kfadipqh language

Post by Omzinesý »

teotlxixtli wrote: 25 Jun 2021 19:15
Omzinesý wrote: 25 Jun 2021 14:11 *tsitǽ.ɑ-k => tsitǽ.ɑ́ʔ 'was a boy for a while' (whatever that means)
This made me laugh when I read it, but it also made me think of the potential for the con culture to have non-Western ideas about gender and sex. And trans people exist, of course
Actually, it is any limited time. 'He was a boy whole his life.' I haven't made conworlds for a while, but I could play with social roles in the following one.
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Re: Kfadipqh language

Post by Omzinesý »

Progressive aspect is marked with masalization on the pre-peak domain.
If there is no pre-verb domain, e- is added as an augment without any own meaning.

Progressives of the words above
boy tsintǽ.ɑ (pre-p peak post-p)
player enlɑ́ʔðɑ (pre-p peak post-p)
friend pæntí (pre-peak peak)
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Re: Kfadipqh language

Post by teotlxixtli »

Omzinesý wrote: 04 Jul 2021 19:54
teotlxixtli wrote: 25 Jun 2021 19:15
Omzinesý wrote: 25 Jun 2021 14:11 *tsitǽ.ɑ-k => tsitǽ.ɑ́ʔ 'was a boy for a while' (whatever that means)
This made me laugh when I read it, but it also made me think of the potential for the con culture to have non-Western ideas about gender and sex. And trans people exist, of course
Actually, it is any limited time. 'He was a boy whole his life.' I haven't made conworlds for a while, but I could play with social roles in the following one.
I see, cool construction.
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