Raxic

Raxic raximi
Spoken in:	Ractam Empire
Timeline/Universe:	Hheergrem
Total speakers:	extinct
Genealogical classification:	Zachydic Raxo-Talsmic Ractamic Raxic
Basic word order:	SOV
Morphological type:	agglutinating and fusional
Morphosyntactic alignment:	accusative
Created by:
IlL	2013-

Raxic (/ˈræk.sɨk/) is a Zachydic language spoken in the Ractam empire in antiquity. It is a fusional language with a Nāhuatl, Navajo, and Latin flavor. It is intended to be "anti-Themsaran" in many respects, particularly in phonology and grammar (and also to guide me in putting Themsaran and the rest of Talsmic on a firm diachronic foundation).

Background

See also: sound changes from Proto-Raxo-Talsmic.

Phonology

Consonants

Raxic preserves (with some alterations) the original Zachydic three-way distinction of voiced, tenuis (realized with light aspiration) and ejective stops and affricates. Raxic merges the ancestral velar series with the uvular series, unlike Talsmic which loses the labialization distinction in ancestral dorsal stops.

Two vowels that come in hiatus with each other may be separated by [ɦ].

Consonants
		Labial	Coronal		Palatal	Velar		Glottal
			central	lateral		plain	labialized
Nasal		m /m/	n /n/			[ŋ]
Plosive	tenuis	p /p/	t /t/			c /k/	qu /kʷ/	h /ʔ/
	voiced	b /b/	d /d/			g /g/	gu /gʷ/
	ejective	ph /pʼ/	th /tʼ/			ch /kʼ/
Fricative	voiceless		s /s/	ł /ɬ/
	voiced		z /z~dz/					[ɦ]
Affricate	tenuis		tz /ts/	xł /tɬ/
	ejective		tzh /tsʼ/	xłh /tɬʼ/
Approximant				l /l/	y /j/		u /w/
Trill			r /r/

/kʷ gʷ ʔw/ is written uc ug uh syllable finally.

/z~dz/ is always pronounced [z] at the end of words.

Phonotactics

A word may not end in a consonant cluster; usually an epenthetic vowel i is inserted to resolve a consonant cluster.

A word may not begin with p or ph - in word initial position these phonemes were converted respectively to u /w/ and hu /ʔw/.

Phonological rules

c/g/ch/qu/gu + s = x /ks/

qu/gu + h = hu /ʔw/

m > n [ŋ] / _c/g/ch/qu/gu, n > m / _C[labial]

m > n / _#

non-labial plosive/x + ł/łh = xł/xłh

m/n > [ː~] / _C[sibilant/liquid]

m/n > [~ː] / V_C#

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i /ɪ/ ī /iː/		u /ʊ/ ū /uː/
Mid	e /e~ɛ/ ē /eː/		o /o~ɔ/ ō /oː/
Open		a /ɐ/ ā /aː/

Iff there are no long ē or ō in the word e and o are pronounced open.

Stress

Raxic follows the same Dreimorengesetz as Latin: the syllable containing the third-to-last mora is stressed, disregarding word-final consonants.

Orthography

Raxic is written in an adapted Antidi script. The letters of the Romanization (up to capitalization) are one-to-one counterparts of the Raxic graphemes.

Grammar

Nouns and adjectives

Genders: masculine/feminine (strictly for animates), inanimate

Numbers: singular, plural (distinction only in animates?)

Cases:

• Nominative: Subject and predicate nominals
• Accusative: Direct object, time expressions (duration, time of day), measured quantities
• Genitive: Possessor, partitive
• Dative: Indirect/benefactive object, spatial destination, purpose
• Locative: Spatial location
• Ablative-comitative: Source in space, cause, animate agent of passive, comparison, companion, predicative possession
• Instrumental: Instrument, method, adjutative (with help of someone)
• Adverbial: Manner, similarity/identity

Classifiers

Classifiers can be used with numerals (tełōz tzuz miquoh 'two houses'; whenever using a classifier in a numeral phrase the noun is in the genitive case and the numeral is case-inflected.), or alienable possession. Classifiers with possessive suffixes must be declined to agree with the noun phrase.

Classifiers must be used with headless modifiers.

Pronouns and correlatives

Declension of personal pronouns

	1		1+2	2
Number →	Singular	Plural	Plural	Singular		Plural
Case ↓				Masculine	Feminine
Nominative	hin	āmi	quīt	zī	ziuī	lītz
Accusative	hinał	āmāt	quāt	zīł	ziuīł	tzāt
Genitive	hinoh	āmih	quihuah	ziyōh	ziuīh	tzihuah
Dative	hinoz	āmīz	quihuāz	ziyōz	ziuīz	tzihuāz
Locative	hinaxī	āmixī	quihuaxī	ziyōxī	ziuīxī	tzihuaxī
Ablative-Comitative	hinān	āmīn	quihuān	ziyōn	ziuīn	tzihuān
Allative	hinatzti	āmitzti	quītzti	ziyotzti	ziuitzti	tzītzti
Instrumental	hinīlli	āmīlli	quīlli	ziyōlli	ziuīlli	tzīlli
Adverbial	hināri	āmāri	quīri	ziyōri	ziuīri	tzīri

Verbs

Verbs are conjugated for 5 categories:

• Subject agreement
• Voices: active, passive, reflexive (causative is no longer productive)
• Aspects: progressive, habitual, perfective
• Moods: indicative, subjunctive, imperative/hortative, optative, volitional
• Evidentiality: witnessed, hearsay, common knowledge?

The indicative mood is negated with hiri (~ Thm. tír < *ʔeti-ʔiri), while all other moods take the negation particle an (~ Thm. hám).

Subject/TAM affixes

Indicative mood
Habitual/gnomic
	Singular	Plural
1.ex	-īn	-mē
1.in	-	*-ntzi > -~ːtzi
2.m	-iz	*-ltzi > -utzi
3/4.m	*-m > -in	-guī
3/4.f	-itzin
3/4.n	-i
Progressive
	Singular	Plural
1.ex	*-īn-xłi > -īxłi	*-mē-xłi > -mēxłi
1.in	-	*-ntzi-xłi > -~ːtzixłi
2.m	*-z-xłi > -sxłi	*-ltzi-xłi > -utzxłi
3/4.m	*-m-xłi > -(n)xłi	*-guī-xł > -guīxłi
3/4.f	*-itzin-xłi > -itzīxłi
3/4.n	*-i-xłi > -ixłi
Perfective
	Singular	Plural
1.ex	*-īn-hin > -īhin	*-mē-hin > -mēhin
1.in	-	*-ntzi-hin > -~ːtzhin
2.m	*-z-hin > -zhin	*-ltzi-hin > -utzhin
3/4.m	*-m-hin > -īhin	*-guī-hin > -guīhin
3/4.f	*-itzi-hin > -itzhin
3/4.n	*-i-hin > -ihin, -hin

The mood suffixes combine thus:

Subjunctive -(i)s: the vowel is inserted after a consonant.

Imperative -ti:

Imperative mood
Habitual/gnomic
	Singular	Plural
1.ex	*-īn-ti > -īti	*-mē-ti > -mēti
1.in	-	*-ntzi-ti > -~ːtzti
2.m	*-iz-ti > -isti	*-ltzi-ti > -utzti
3/4.m	*-m-ti > -~ːti	*-guī-ti > -guīti
3/4.f	*-itzin-ti > -itzīti
3/4.n	-iti
Progressive
	Singular	Plural
1.ex	-īxłti	-mēxłti
1.in	-	-~ːtzixłti
2.m	-zixłti	-utzixłti
3/4.m	-~ːxłti	-guīxłti
3/4.f	-itzīxłi
3/4.n	-ixłti
Perfective
	Singular	Plural
1.ex	-īhīti	-mēhīti
1.in	-	-~ːtzhīti
2.m	-zhīti	-utzhīti
3/4.m	-~ːhīti	-guīhiti
3/4.f	-itzhīti
3/4.n	-ihīti, -hīti

Optative -oh:

Optative mood
Habitual/gnomic
	Singular	Plural
1.ex	-īnoh	-mēh
1.in	-	-~ːtzoh
2.m	-izoh	-utzoh
3/4.m	-moh	-guīyoh
3/4.f	-itzoh
3/4.n	-iyoh
Progressive
	Singular	Plural
1.ex	-īxłoh	-mēxłoh
1.in	-	-~ːtzixłoh
2.m	-sxłoh	-utzixłoh
3/4.m	-~ːxłoh	-guīxłoh
3/4.f	-itzīxłoh
3/4.n	-ixłoh
Perfective
	Singular	Plural
1.ex	-īhinoh	-mēhinoh
1.in	-	-~ːtzhinoh
2.m	-zhinoh	-utzhinoh
3/4.m	-~ːhinoh	-guīhinoh
3/4.f	-itzhinoh
3/4.n	-ihinoh, -hinoh

Volitional -he:

Volitional mood
Habitual/gnomic
	Singular	Plural
1.ex	-īhe	-mēhe
1.in	-	-~ːtzhe
2.m	-izhe	-utzhe
3/4.m	-~ːhe	-guīhe
3/4.f	-itzīhe
3/4.n	-ihe
Progressive
	Singular	Plural
1.ex	-īxłhe	-mēxłhe
1.in	-	-~ːtzixłhe
2.m	-zixłhe	-utzixłhe
3/4.m	-~ːxłhe	-guīxłhe
3/4.f	-itzīxłhe
3/4.n	-ixłhe
Perfective
	Singular	Plural
1.ex	-īhyē	-mēhyē
1.in	-	-~ːtzhyē
2.m	-zhyē	-utzhyē
3/4.m	-~ːhyē	-guīhyē
3/4.f	-itzhyē
3/4.n	-ihyē, -hyē

Syntax

Basic word order

SOV, VO in relative clauses with head as subject

Both pre- and postpositions (serving as pseudo-cases), adjective-noun, genitive-noun, noun-relative clause