Qanao language/Messy

The Qanao language (Qanao: classical: qana'öžjinaet [qanaʔo.ʒ̞jɪnaət]) is an in-progress conlang.

Phonology

Consonants

p	t	ť	k	q	`
p	t	c	k	q	ʔ
b	d	ď	g
mb	nd	ɲɟ	ŋg
m	n	ň	ŋ	γ
m	n	ɲ	ŋ	ɴ
φ	c	č
pɸ	ʦ	ʧ
f	s	š			h
ɸʰ	sʰ	ʃʰ			h
v	z	ž
β̞	z̞	ʒ̞
w	r	ř	y
w	ɹ	ɹʲ	ʔj
	l	ľ
	l	ʎ

Vowels

i	í	ji	jí	e	u	ú	wu	wú
i	i:	ʲjɪ	ʲji:	ə	u	u:	ʷʊ	ʷu:
a	á	ja	já	ö	o	ó	wo	wó
a	a:	ʲja	ʲja:	o	ɔ	ɔ:	ʷɔ	ʷɔ:

• Final o is realised as [o].

Eastern sound shifts

• ji [ʲjɪ] → e [ʲe]
• jí [ʲji:] → é [ʲe:]
• e [ə] → j [ɪ] after front vowels, w [ʊ] after back vowels.
• u [u] → u [ɯ]
• ú [u] → ú [ɯ:]
• wu [ʷʊ] → ü [u]
• wú [ʷu:] → û [u:]
• ja [ʲja] → jä [ʲæ] ~ [ʲɛ]
• já [ʲja:] → jä [ʲæ:] ~ [ʲɛ:]
• ó [ɔ:] → ó [o:]
• wó [ʷɔ:] → wó [ʷo:]

• i* [i*] → j´ [j*:]
• ui [ui] → üi [yi]
• ue [uə] → üw [yʊ]
• wui [ʷʊi] → wi [ʷi]
• wue [ʷʊə] → wu [ʷu]

• causes nasalisation of previous vowel (does not operate through interword boundaries)
• b [mb] → b [b]; m [m] if preceded by nasal consonants or nasalised vowels (previous syllable starts with a nasal consonant)
• d [nd] → d [d]; n [n] if preceded by nasal consonants or nasalised vowels
• ď [ɲɟ] → ď [ɟ]; ň [ɲ] if preceded by nasal consonants or nasalised vowels
• g [ŋg] → g [g]; ŋ [ŋ] if preceded by nasal consonants or nasalised vowels

• note: following vowel has high tone
• w [w] → w [ʍ]
• r [ɹ] → r [ɹ̥]
• ř [ɹʲ] → ř [ɹ̥ʲ]

• note: following vowel has low tone
• v [β̞] → v [w]
• z [z̞] → z [ɹ]
• ž [ʒ̞] → ž [ɹʲ]

• note: following vowel has high tone
• q [q] → q [k] before front vowels, w, and finally; ` [ʔ] before back vowels.
• γ [ɴ] → ` [ʔ]; n [n] after alveolar consonants, ň after palatal consonants, ŋ after velar consonants and q.

Grammar

Word formation

Classifiers

Although changing classifiers is generally not productive, it is possible to imagine that it once was, giving rise to such sets of words as zal (water), žjil (blood), zál (lake), zil (clear), zúl (melt).

• xax - (n1) general: qanae` "Qanae"; patuek "tree"; zael "water"
• xjax - (n2) living things: qjanae` "Qjanae"
• xáx - (n3) permanent things: ázael "ocean"; ápatuek "forest"
• xjix - (n4) transcendecent: žjinaet "language"; yiôvúer "universe"; kjimi "world"
• xix - (adj) qualities: niet "to be happy"; iökiem "to be universal"
• xux - (vt) transitive actions: numúet "to cause to die"; muziel "to make clear, to declare"
• xúx - (vi) intransitive actions: múet "to die"; fúzael "to rain"

Prefixes

In contrast, prefixes are much more productive, yielding such things as muzúl (liquify), fúzal (rain), ázal (ocean).

Conjugation

			n.	vb.	adj.
0	Infix stem		za.l	múfú.r	iöki.m
1	Stem		zal-	múfúr-	iökim-
2	Sentence-medial		–	múfúr	iökim
3	Sentence-terminal		–
4	Infinitive	n.	–	múfúa.r-	iökia.m-
5	Approximative adjective	q.	ázai.l-	múfúi.r-	–
5-6	Approximative adverb		ázaul	múfúor
6	Adverb		–	múfór	iökium
7a	Compounding (with noun)		ázalö-	múfúrö-	iökimi-
7b	Compounding (with non-noun)				iokimö-

Particles

• pr. - predicate, any of:
  • p.t. - terminal predicate (not always - there are some auxilliaries that attach to these)
  • p.s. - stem predicate
• ⁿ - suffix attaches to base specified in superscript instead of in the base column.
• _a - vowel specified in subscript appears only to break illegal consonant clusters.

	Type	Base	1	2	3	4	5	6	7a	7b
Indicative	p.s.	vb-1	ø	ø	–	0a	0i	0o	ö
		q-1					–		i	o
Identitive	p.s.	n-1	ø	–	–	a.r	–	–	rö
		vb-1	ad			u.d			dö
		q-1				i.d			di	dö
Present	p.t.	ps-1	a	ar	a	–	ai.r	ar	ari	–
Past	p.t.	ps-1	i	id	i	–	i.r	id	idö	–
Aorist	p.t.	ps-1	á	ám	á	–	á.r	ám	ámi	–
Future	p.t.	ps-1	ja	jav	ja	–	jai.r	jav	javi	–
Irrealis	p.s.	ps-1	já	jáh	já	–	já.r	jáh	jáhi	–
Counterfactual	p.s.	ps-1	í	íf	í	–	í.r	íf	ífö	–
Approximative	q.	n-5-1	ø	–				1u	1i	ö
		vb-5-1						1o
		ps-1	is					us	si	sö
Perfective	p.s.	pr-1	ic	uc	–	cu.r	ci.r	uc	–
Negative	p.s.	pr-1	iz	uz	–	zu.r	zi.r	uz	–
Incorporative	p.s.	ps-1	av	ov	–	u.v	i.v	uv	vö
Partitive	p.s.	ps-1	oc	oc	–	u.c	i.c	uc	cö
Possessive	p.s.	pr-1	núc	on	–	ná.c	ní.c	nóc	onö
Genitive	p.s.	pr-1	súm	os	–	sá.m	sí.m	sóm	osö
Subjunctive	p.s.	pr-1	aub	aub	–	u.b	–		bi	bö
Nominative	p.s.	pr-1	la	al	–			ol	–	ol
Passive	p.s.	pr-1	ľji	jil	–			wul	–	wul
Accusative	p.s.	pr-1	li	il	–			ul	–	ul
Oblique	p.s.	pr-1	ľja	jal	–			wol	–	wol
Ablative	p.s.	pr-1	kur	iak	–	ka.r	ki.r	kor	ki
Lative	p.s.	pr-1	mud	iam	–	ma.d	mi.d	mor	mi
Locative	p.s.	pr-1	núr	ian	–	na.r	ni.r	nor	ni
Catenative	p.s.	pr-1	aq		–			uq	–

Infix particles

• e (pr+) - topical, vocative
• i (n+, vb+) - approximative (non-productive)
• u (pr+) - adverbial (non-productive)

Usage

• The incorporative particle:
  • Makes objects inalienably possessed by the complement: "A human has 2 arms"; "The bricks of a building" etc.; and
  • Indicates fundamental properties or habits: "He walks to school daily"; "All living things die eventually"; "Water is wet", "The sky is blue" etc..
• The partitive particle:
  • Makes objects classes of which the complement is a member of: "He is a student";
  • Indicates an indefinite quantity of the object: "(Any) three pages of (a) book"; "He has done (some) work"; "He ate a slice of bread" etc.
• The possessive particle makes objects alienably possessed by the complement: "He has a house"; "His ship" etc..
• The genitive particle indicates:
  • A generic relationship between the object and the complement: "Speech about truth", "His wife" etc.; and
  • Reported speech: "Good morning, said he"; "I thought it was there" etc.
• The subjunctive particle makes:
  • A temporal clause when attached to the future tense particle;
  • A conditional clause when attached to the irrealis particle or the counterfactual particle; and
  • A reason when attached to the past tense particle or the present tense particle or the stem of any verb, noun or adjective.

Verbal arguments

	Agent	Experiencer	Patient	Recipient
Static		B
Active
Intransitive	A
Transitive	A		C / D / E
Ditransitive	A		C	D / E
Passive
Intransitive		B / E
Transitive	A / F	B / E	B / C / D
Ditransitive	A / F	B / E	C	B / C / D

• A is the nominative case.
• B is the passive case.
• C is the accusative case.
• D is the oblique case.
• E is the lative case.
• F is the ablative case.

All but cases E and F can be replaced by the topical case. Although more than one noun can be marked with any case, all cases must be used consistently within one sentence, that is, if the passive case is used to indicate the experiencer in a passive-ditransitive sentence, it cannot also be used to mark the recepient; however, two or more nouns may be marked with the passive case to indicate two or more experiencers.

There is also a very limited form of agreement between cases and nouns - when possible, people take the oblique case instead of the accusative and lative cases; and the nominative case instead of the ablative case. Paradoxically, the lative and ablative cases are also used for people as a sign of profound respect.

The choice of which case to use can slightly alter the meaning of a sentence, for instance, compare:

• röqukjil múzil. "It was made clear to Roquk."
• röqukiam múzil. "It was made clear for Roquk."

In this case, the passive case has an oblique function, and the lative case has a benefactive function. Note, the benefactive function can be positive or negative:

• röqukiam qópjiniril múzili. "Roquk benefited from his rights being made clear."
• röqukiam qópjiniril núsi. "Roquk suffered from his rights being taken away."

Miscellaneous

I want to become the person I would have become had I been born in (location).

C: 'ádinain acmúfúríbičjil múricím muaril achusa.

E: 'áninain múfûríb čel múricíjam mwaril husa.

• 'ádinain "Adin" (n-loc)
  • 'á "place" (n.pre)
  • din "peaceful" (q)
• acmúfúríbičjil "to become" (1.pre-vb-ind-cf-subj-7a-1-pass)
  • mú "to become" (vb.pre)
  • fúr "to live" (vb)
• múrcím "to become (passive)" (vb-perf-ind-cf-lat)
• muaril "to become (active)" (vb-4-acc)
• achusa "to want" (1.pre-vb-ind-pres)

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

C: ňja'imanovöpjinirosö'iökjimimuziael (ňjai'imanav pjiniros 'iökim muziael)

E: ňä'imanovöpenirosöyökemimuzjajl (ňä'imanav peniros yökim muzjajl)

• ňja'i "person" (n-5-7a)
• manovö "living thing" (n-poss-7a)
• pjinirosö "right" (n-gen-7a)
  • pji "always" (n.pre)
  • nir "permitted" (q)
• 'iökjimi "universal" (q-7a)
  • 'iö "all" (q.pre)
  • kjim "world" (n)
• muziael "declaration; clarification" (vb-4-voc)
  • mu "to cause to become" (vb.pre) +
  • zil "to be clear" (q)

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

C: ir ňja'imanoec qógúormúqdašľjiq qópjiniřľjiq liráuq 'iötiráuq múfúrá.

E: ir ňä'imanowc mav gúormúqnašľeq peniřľeq ljuriq yötjuriq múfûrá.

• 'ir "all" (q-2)
• ňja'imanoec "human being" (n-part-top)
• qógúormúqdašľjiq "dignity" (resp-vb-deg-pass-cat-2)
  • gúor "to raise" (vb-5-6)
  • múq "to be seen" (vb)
• qópjiniřľjiq "rights" (resp-n-pass-cat-2)
• liráuq "free" (q-ind-aor-concat-6)
• 'iötiráuq "completely equal" (q-ind-aor-cat-6)
  • tir "equal" (q)
• múfúrá "to be born" (vb-ind-aor)
  • mú "to become" (vb.pre)
  • fúr "to live" (vb)

C: rikö'umadliq löqjatliq ammorqutcár,

E: rikö'umanliq löqätliq mjam qutcár

• rikö'umadliq "ability to think logically" (n-acc-cat-2)
  • rikö "logical" (q-7b)
  • 'umö "to think" (vb)
  • ad "ability" (n)
• löqjatliq "conscience" (n-acc-cat-2)
  • lö "good" (n.pre)
  • qjat "heart" (n)
• ammorqutcár "to receive (from Designer)" (3.pre-ben-6-vb-perf-ind-pres-2)