Project Clickbait

[Knox Adjacent]

So an old conlang of mine that's lingered since 2017, there's actually a fair chunk to copy-paste to here.
The project isn't an exercise in phonological minimalism.

Pulmonic
m n ɲ ŋ
p t c k q ʔ
pʰ tʰ cʰ kʰ qʰ
pʼ tʼ cʼ kʼ qʼ
b d ɟ g ɢ
b͡pʰ d͡tʰ ɟ͡cʰ g͡kʰ ɢ͡qʰ
b͡pʼ d͡tʼ ɟ͡cʼ g͡kʼ ɢ͡qʼ
f s ç x χ h

Labial pulmonics before front vowels become linguolabial.

Click
ʘ̬̃ ǃ̬̃ ǂ̬̃ ǁ̬̃
ʘ ǃ ǂ ǁ
ʘʰ ǃʰ ǂʰ ǁʰ
ʘʼ ǃʼ ǂʼ ǁʼ
ʘ̬ ǃ̬ ǂ̬ ǁ̬
ʘ̬͡ʘʰ ǃ̬͡ǃʰ ǂ̬͡ǂʰ ǁ̬͡ǁʰ
ʘ̬͡ʘʼ ǃ̬͡ǃʼ ǂ̬͡ǂʼ ǁ̬͡ǁʼ

Click-Pulmonic contour
ʘ͡q ǃ͡q ǂ͡q ǁ͡q
ʘ͡qʰ ǃ͡qʰ ǂ͡qʰ ǁ͡qʰ
ʘ͡qʼ ǃ͡qʼ ǂ͡qʼ ǁ͡qʼ
ʘ̬͡ɢ ǃ̬͡ɢ ǂ̬͡ɢ ǁ̬͡ɢ
ʘ̬͡qʰ ǃ̬͡qʰ ǂ̬͡qʰ ǁ̬͡qʰ
ʘ̬͡qʼ ǃ̬͡qʼ ǂ̬͡qʼ ǁ̬͡qʼ
ʘ͡χ ǃ͡χ ǂ͡χ ǁ͡χ
ʘ͡χʰ ǃ͡χʰ ǂ͡χʰ ǁ͡χʰ
ʘ͡χʼ ǃ͡χʼ ǂ͡χʼ ǁ͡χʼ
ʘ̬͡ʁ̞ ǃ̬͡ʁ̞ ǂ̬͡ʁ̞ ǁ̬͡ʁ̞
ʘ̬͡χʰ ǃ̬͡χʰ ǂ̬͡χʰ ǁ̬͡χʰ
ʘ̬͡χʼ ǃ̬͡χʼ ǂ̬͡χʼ ǁ̬͡χʼ

Labial clicks before front vowels become dental clicks.

The voiced consonants with aspirated or ejective release contour into a voiceless consonant first before release.

Romanization notes
Glottalization as <C'>
Cʰ aspiration as <Ch>
The unvoiced portion of the mixed voicing to produce voiced aspirated and glottalized consonants is unwritten.
Clicks are romanized by combinations of regular letters and !: /ʘ͡/ <p!>, /ǃ/ <t!>,/ǂ/ <c!, /ǁ/ <l!>, etc.
The full romanization is probably due never due to the voiced uvulars.

[Knox Adjacent]

Vowels are such much simpler.

Monophthongs
I u
e o
a

Diphthongs
ai au
ae ao

For clarity the diphthongs ai and ae don't count as front vowels for consonant allophony purposes.
/a/ preceded by a palatal consonant within the same syllable becomes [æ]
Vowels preceded by a nasal consonant within the same syllable are weakly nasalized.

[Knox Adjacent]

Supersegmentals definitely occurs.

Vowel length is contrastive and is binary.
Examples of contrast:

a: xa˥ "follow"
xaː˥ "cough"

e: g͡kʰe˨ "letter"
g͡kʰeː˨ "before"

i: si˥ "say"
siː˥ "see"

o: ǂo˦ "walking stick"
ǂoː˦ "hour"

u: cʼu˧˥ "forehead"
cʼuː˧˥ "modest"

ae: ʘ̬̃ae˨ "square"
ʘ̬̃aeː˨ "net"

ai: ǃʰai˥˧ "cornbread"
ǃʰaːi˥˧ "female maternal parallel cousin"

ao: ǃʼao˦ "blue
ǃʼaːo˦ "paternal aunt"

au: χau˥˧ "earwax"
χaːu˥˧ "steal"

Tone is contrastive and eleven occur. Each occurs on long or short vowels

V˩ <ȁ> <ȅ> <ȉ> <ȍ> <ȕ> <a¹> <e¹> <i¹> <o¹> <u¹>
V˨ <à> <è> <ì> <ò> <ù> <a²> <e²> <i²> <o²> <u²>
V˧ <a> <e> <i> <o> <u> <a³> <e³> <i³> <o³> <u³>
V˦ <á> <é> <í> <ó> <ú> <a⁴> <e⁴> <i⁴> <o⁴> <u⁴>
V˥ <a̋> <e̋> <i̋> <ő> <ű> <a⁵> <e⁵> <i⁵> <o⁵> <u⁵>
V˧˩ <a᷆> <e᷆> <i᷆> <o᷆> <u᷆> <a³¹> <e³¹> <i³¹> <o³¹> <u³¹>
V˥˧ <â> <ê> <î> <ô> <û> <a⁵³> <e⁵³> <i⁵³> <o⁵³> <u⁵³>
V˩˧ <ǎ> <ě> <ǐ> <ǒ> <ǔ> <a¹³> <e¹³> <i¹³> <o¹³> <u¹³>
V˧˥ <a᷄> <e᷄> <i᷄> <o᷄> <u᷄> <a³⁵> <e³⁵> <i³⁵> <o³⁵> <u³⁵>
V˥˨˦ <a᷉> <e᷉> <i᷉> <o᷉> <u᷉> <a⁵²⁴> <e⁵²⁴> <i⁵²⁴> <o⁵²⁴> <u⁵²⁴>
V˩˦˨ <a᷈> <e᷈> <i᷈> <o᷈> <u᷈> <a¹⁴²> <e¹⁴²> <i¹⁴²> <o¹⁴²> <u¹⁴²>

A choice of Romanization occurs. I favor the latter with numbers more and will probably use it exclusively.

Examples of contrast:
ǂʼe:¹ "breathe in"
ǂʼe:² "cut off"
ǂʼe:³ "swim"
ǂʼe:⁴ "petal"
ǂʼe:⁵ "?"
ǂʼe:³¹ "already"
ǂʼe:⁵³ "sleep"
ǂʼe:¹³ "sewing needle"
ǂʼe:³⁵ "son-in-law"
ǂʼe:⁵²⁴ "?"
ǂʼe:¹⁴² "blackjack oak"


Forgive the formatting. I'm on an old laptop of dubious display.

[Knox Adjacent]

The syllable:

All syllables start with a lone consonant.
All syllables have a single vowel.
No syllable ends in consonant.

Syllabic nasals exist. After a vowel within the same word, an optional homologous voiced stop is inserted.

So CV or N.

[Arayaz]

This is great. Awaiting more.

[Khemehekis]

You know, when I first saw the thread title, I thought, "Wait, why is Knox Adjacent calling it Project Clickbait? Is this a gimmick to get everyone to open the thread?"

Then, when I saw the first post, I figured it out.

[TBPO]

I was terrified when I saw this phonology.

I am terrified when I speculate about grammar.

[WeepingElf]

[Arayaz]

Is this an insinuation that the project will be a kitchen sink, or a reference to the "kitchen sink" spambots?

[WeepingElf]

Is this an insinuation that the project will be a kitchen sink, or a reference to the "kitchen sink" spambots?

The former. This is clearly a kitchen sink phonology.

[Khemehekis]

Wow. The largest phonemic inventory I ever created was for qh-xh-hw-h-f-dd-s’.

[Knox Adjacent]

*Being helpful*

Thank you for informing me I had a large phonological inventory. I was totes unaware. I shall dial back the fun factor.

But seriously. Being an advanced conlanger is knowing you can break the rules. Rules being generous because I only have more tones than Khoisan.

[Arayaz]

Okay, let's try to keep down the sardony (on both sides). Most large phonological inventories get there by having a large number of contrasts; that doesn't necessarily make it a kitchen sink.

[WeepingElf]

Sorry.

[Knox Adjacent]

It's probably prudent to cover parts of speech.
They include nominals, verbals, mimetics, conjunctions, interjections.
Adjectives and adpositions are lumped into verbals.
I'm having a hard time finding any adverbs which aren't just verbal adjuncts.

Nominal: ʘ͡qʼi² "dust"
Verbal: ʔae² "wide"
Mimetic: hi³ʘ̬a³ (mimetic of pull-tab of drink can being opened)
Conjunction: ki¹bi² "because"
Particle: ɢo⁵³ (tag question marker)
Interjection: ʘ̬͡ʘʰae⁵ "Ow!"

[Ælfwine]

Well you got me to click on this so I'd say project success!

That's one funky inventory too.

[Knox Adjacent]

I knew it'd be a hurdle, but people really oughtta play with a few dozen clicks every now and then.

[Knox Adjacent]

Grammatical Relations

The determining of who is doing what to who is achieved by word order.
Clauses are either intransitive or monotransitive.

Intransitive clauses have the subject precede the predicate.
hai⁵ de³ ǁqʼaa⁵³
father ASP sing
The father is singing

Transitive clauses have the agent precede the verb of the predicate which in turn precedes the patient.
ʘ̬ʘʼii² ci⁵ hi⁴ ʘʼii³⁵ ǂ̃oo¹³ ǂe⁵ tʰi⁴
coyote PST make dead goat family 1
Coyotes killed the family goats.

Would-be ditransitive clauses are handled in one of two ways:
The recipient is treated as an attributive possessor of the theme, or is marked as a recipient with an appropriate verb.
tʰi⁴ ǃ̃ao³¹ fai³¹ ǃai⁵ ma⁴
1 FUT give rope 2
I'll give you a rope

OR

tʰi⁴ ǃ̃ao³¹ fai³¹ ǃai⁵ ǃqo³¹ ma⁴
1 FUT give rope give.to 2
I'll give you a rope

A clause must have at least an overt subject (or agent) and a predicate.
Patients of semantically transitive verbs may be elided. ("I ate (it)" is as far as pro-drop goes)

[Knox Adjacent]

Related to grammatical relations, now on to voice.

Active voice is the default unmarked voice for transitive clauses.
ɲaː˦ fa˦ ʘeː˥˧ na˥˧
man PROG eat chicken
The man is eating chicken

The passive voice is for promoting the object as being more important. It's marked with the auxiliary ti˦ before a verb.
na˥˧ fa˦ ti˦ ʘeː˥˧
chicken PROG PASS eat
The chicken is being eaten

The demoted agent is mentioned optionally and if so is marked with the verbal mo˨he˨:
(no agent)
kʼoː˧˩ ci˥ ti˦ sao˥˧
A.crow PST PASS chase.away
The crow was chased off.

(with agent)
kʼoː˧˩ ci˥ ti˦ sao˥˧ mo˨he˨ sao˥˧kʼoː˧˩
A.crow PST PASS chase.away by n.mockingbird
The crow was chased off by a mockingbird.

An antipassive voice equivalent exists. It's marked solely by deleting the patient of a transitive verb. The construction is used when the identity of the patient is unknown or unimportant even if known. Unlike the demoted agent, the demoted patient may not be mentioned optionally via oblique phrase.
ɲaː˦ fa˦ ʘeː˥˧
man PROG eat
The man is eating (something).

Reciprocal
The reciprocal is where the agent and patient mutually act upon each other. It may be encoded iconically with two clauses joined by parataxis and with the role of agent and patient switched between them.
A VERB B B VERB A

ɲaː˦ ǁʼaː˧˩ ku˧˥ ku˧˥ ǁʼaː˧˩ ɲaː˦
man hate woman woman hate man
The man and woman hate each other

Reflexive voice construction is formed by repetition of the pronominal subject as the pronominal object or the nominal subject repeated by an appropriate pronominal object.

kʰu˦ ci˥ ǃ̬͡ǃʰae˧˥ kʰu˦
1 PST hear 1
I heard myself.

ɲaː˦ ci˥ ǃ̬͡ǃʰae˧˥ ko˦
man PST hear 3
The man heard himself.

This is ambiguous with a third person subject and third person pronominal object.

ɲaː˦ ci˥ ǃ̬͡ǃʰae˧˥ ko˦
man PST hear 3
The man heard him (a different man).

Use of a nominal object with a nonbody part referent is inherently nonreflexive.
ɲaː˦ ci˥ ǃ̬͡ǃʰae˧˥ ɲaː˦
man PST hear man
The man heard a man. (not himself)

A body part object with unspecified possessor allows ambiguity between reflexive and nonreflexive meaning, but by default is reflexive.
ku˧˥ ci˥ nu˧çi˦ ǃ̬͡ǃʰe˦
woman PST CAUS-bent knee
The woman kneeled (Lit. bent (her) knees) OR The woman made them kneel