Rajat

Rajat is spoken in much of the Measceineafh, as it is rapidly becoming a local lingua franca, largely because of indigenous political control.

Phonology

	Bilabial	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stop	p  b	t  d	ɖ	ɟ	k
Fricative	f	s		ç		h
Nasal	m	n
Approximant		l	ɻ  ɭ

• Vowels: /a e i o u/

• Consonantal Allophony:
  • /ti te di de si se ni ne/ > [tʲi tʲe dʲi dʲe sʲi sʲe nʲi nʲe]
  • /ɖi ɖe ɻi ɻe ɭi ɭe li le/ > [ɖʲi ɖʲe ɻʲi ɻʲe ɭʲi ɭʲe lʲi lʲe]

• Vowel Allophony:
  • /en em in im/ > [en em en em]
  • /on om un um/ > [on om on om]
  • /i u e o a/ > [ə ɵ ɛ ɔ ɐ]
  • /i u e o a/ and [ə ɵ ɛ ɔ ɐ] > [i: u: e: o: a: ə: ɵ: ɛ: ɔ: ɐ:] when in an open syllable

Morphology

Nominal Morphology

Five major cases are distinguished morphologically - nominative, accusative, genitive, instrumental, and dative. Nominative is the base form, while the suffix -i is added to regular nouns to form the accusative. Meanwhile, the other cases are formed by what were prepositions (and now are prefixes), those being fi- (genitive), di- (instrumental), and ni- (dative).

uteɻ fia uteɻi eoon difanot
uteɻ fi-a uteɻ-i e-o-on di-fanot
dog GEN-man dog-ACC PROG-3-see INSTR-field
(The) man's dog sees (the) dog across the field.

Or, to give a proper example of the declension:

uteɻ - uteɻi -- fiuteɻ -- diuteɻ --- niuteɻ
uteɻ - uteɻ-i - fi-uteɻ - di-uteɻ -- ni-uteɻ
dog    dog-ACC  GEN-dog   INSTR-dog  DAT-dog

=The Accusative

This presentation of the accusative is dangerously deceptive, however, as a secondary declension exists which differs in its form. Nouns which end in /p b f m k ç h/ in the nominative experience a form of i-mutation. For instance:

daun         deini            uoon
daun         dein-i           u-   o-on
3.S.ANI.NOM  3.S.ANI/ACC-ACC  PAST-3-see
(S)He sees him/her.

Daun (*/dæun/ > /daun/) mutates (in this case, fronts and unrounds) to deini because of the terminal i. This process affects all vowels or vowel clusters prior to an /i/ if they are in the same morpheme or the morpheme prior. Word boundaries are not crossed by this affect. The pattern is exceedingly regular, all of the vowels from that time have their specific pattern- /æ a e i o u ə/ became /e æ i i e i ɛ/.

Mutations also occur when the noun ends in a vowel, here a second set of problems evolved, as when the /i/ is actually in contact with another vowel, it disappeared. For example:

ækænæ + i > ækænei > *ækæne (ACC), *ækænæ (NOM) > (modern acc /akane/, nom /akana/)
bæunə + i > bæunɛi > *bæunɛ (ACC), *bæunə (NOM) > (modern /bauna/)
æmɑu + i > æmæii > *æmæi (ACC), *æmɑu (NOM) > (modern acc /amai/, nom /amau/)

The paradigm is precisely the same, but the /i/ which triggered the mutation deletes.

The greatest complications emerge later because /æ a ɛ/ all merged to /a/ following this event, producing pairs like kam (promise, from *kæm) and kam (breath, from *kam), which are homophones except in the accusative. For example:

a        kemi             eefad        ninoɻ
a        kem-i            e-e-fad      ni- noɻ
1.S.NOM  promise/ACC-ACC  PROG-1-give  DAT-2.INF
I'm giving you my promise/word.

is distinct from

a        kami        eefad        ninoɻ
a        kam-i       e-e-fad      ni- noɻ
1.S.NOM  breath-ACC  PROG-1-give  DAT-2.INF
I'm giving you my breath (performing CPR).

Yet,

kam  zeti         eobeli
kam  zet-    i    e-   o-beli
???  nothing-ACC  PROG-3-mean
???  means nothing.

This could mean either "breath/breathing means nothing" or "promise(s)/promising means nothing". Naturally, there are ways around such ambiguity, but this basic confusion still exists.

Similarly, nouns which previously ended in ə continue to make no distinction between the accusative and nominative (outside of syntactical markings). For example:

bauna  amai           eonibad
bauna  amai-          e-   o-nibad
eat    strength/ACC-  PROG-3-make
Eating produces strength.

While, in the accusitive, bauna changes not at all:

daun         bauna   eove
daun         bauna-  e-   o-ve
3.S.ANI.NOM  eat     PROG-3-enjoy
(S)He enjoys eating.

"Oblique" Cases

Regarding the other cases, the terms "instrumental", "genitive", and "dative" only partially capture the uses of the various cases, however. Dative is strictly reserved for andative complements and most indirect objects.

a        uepa       niuteɻ
a        u-   e-pa  ni- uteɻ
1.S.NOM  PAST-1-go  DAT-dog
I        went       to the dog.

The genitive meanwhile has a broader meaning than is typically used. For instance, it is used where many other languages would use a locative case:

a        iebauna      fifanot
a        i-  e-bauna  fi- fanot
1.S.NOM  FUT-1-eat    GEN-field
I        will eat     in the field.

Naturally, the genitive is also used to denote ownership or composition.

a        iebauna      fifanot         fiapudi     fiar
a        i-  e-bauna  fi- fanot       fi- apudi   fi-ar
1.S.NOM  FUT-1-eat    GEN-field       GEN-root    GEN-woman
I        will eat     in (the) field  of root(s)  of (the) woman.
I will eat in the woman's root-field.

The instrumental case is also somewhat expanded from conventional definitions. It is used in the context of not only something used to achieve something, but also for movement through something (combining the meanings of what are often called perlative, prolative, prosecutive, and vialis cases).

a        aiepa      difanot
a        ai- e-pa   di-   fanot
1.S.NOM  IMP-1-go   INSTR-field
I        was going  along/through (the) field

Verbal Morphology

Verbs conjugate for tense, mood, person, and number in a somewhat agglutinative fashion.

a deimi aiebauna
a deim-i ai-e-bauna
1.S.NOM 3.S.INANI.STR/ACC-ACC IMP-1-eat
I was eating that.

This is roughly one of the most simple conjugations, as the mood is realis and the subject's number is singular (although, even if it was plural it would be marked without that because the subject is not in first person). For a more complex example:

ti deimi inababauna
ti deim-i i-n-a-ba-bauna
3.P.NOM 3.S.INANI.STR/ACC-ACC FUT-IRR-2-P-eat
They might go and eat that.

To begin, the tense and aspect section proceeds all others, then the mood-encoding morphemes (or a null), then the obligatory person marker, and then the plural marker, if necessary, and finally the root noun-verb.

Starting with tense, four major distinctions are made - perfect, past imperfect, present progressive, and future. Each has its own marker on regular verbs, and these are virtually always distinct on irregulars as well. For example:

a uebauna
a u-e-bauna
1.S.NOM PRF-1-eat
I ate.

a aiebauna
a ai-e-bauna
1.S.NOM IMP-1-eat
I was eating.

a eebauna
a e-e-bauna
1.S.NOM PROG-1-eat
I'm eating.

a iebauna
a i-e-bauna
1.S.NOM FUT-1-eat
I will/shall eat.

Moving on to mood, four moods are distinguished. These are the realis (null), irrealis (-n-), negative (-z-), and emphatic (-t-). Realis functions similarly to the indicative of other languages, but is used for statements that are known to be true or would be true given the correct changes (the then clause in and if-then construction). Irrealis mirrors this, being used for statements that may be true, could be true, or are unknown as to their validity, as well as in the if-clause in said constructions. Negative is used obviously to mark a statement as false. Meanwhile, the emphatic has a more convoluted meaning. Used for all imperatives (even negatives, which mark their negativity in a different manner), it is associated with things that should or must or otherwise have some requirement to be true.

a aiebauna
a ai-0-e-bauna
1.S.NOM IMP-REAL-1-eat
I was eating.

a ainebauna
a ai-n-e-bauna
1.S.NOM IMP-IRR-1-eat
I may have been eating.

a aizebauna
a ai-z-e-bauna
1.S.NOM IMP-NEG-1-eat
I wasn't eating.

a aitebauna
a ai-t-e-bauna
1.S.NOM IMP-EMPH-1-eat
I needed to eat.

As for person, it's relatively simple, as there are only three versions: -e- for first person, -a- for second, and -o- for third.

a eebauna
a e-e-bauna
1.S.NOM PROG-1-eat
I'm eating.

noɻ eabauna
noɻ e-a-bauna
1.S.NOM PROG-2-eat
You're eating.

daun eobauna
daun e-o-bauna
3.S.ANI.NOM PROG-3-eat
(S)He's eating.

The plurality of the subject is only encoded for third person (and then the singular is marked with a null, so marking in total is very limited). For example:

daun eobauna
daun e-o-bauna
3.S.ANI.NOM PROG-3-eat
(S)He's eating.

ti eobabauna
ti e-o-ba-bauna
3.P.NOM PROG-3-P-eat
They're eating.

Changes from Central Measceineafh

• p > f word terminally
• f v ʒ x > DELETE
• z > ɻ
• θ > f
• ei ou > e o when unstressed
• f# v# s# z# > DELETE
• ɟʝ) > ɟ
• æi ɑi ei oi ui əi > e æ i ø y ɛ > e æ i e i ɛ
• æCi ɑCi eCi oCi uCi > eCi æCi iCi eCi iCi
  • Where C is /p b f m k h ɟ ç/
• æ ɑ > a
• e [-stress|+closed syllable] > ɛ > ə > a
• ʃ > ç
• q > h
• l ɭ ɻ > DELETE when syllable final
• Stress regularizes to intial where there are three or fewer syllables; penultimate where there are more.
• Fusion of fi (genitive), di (instrumental), and ni (dative) to beginning of nouns produces further cases and pushes stress back to second syllable, when it then regularizes again to penultimate in all words (except nouns, where it is initial for nominative and accusative (prior to the adding of the prefixes).