Kala

• Kala is meant to be a simple and euphonic personal conlang.

• Many lexical entries are inspired/influenced/borrowed by/from any number of natlangs

Pronunciation

• Where ~ appears, it indicates free variation between phonemes.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i~i: (i)		u~u: (u)
Mid	e~e: (e)		o~o: (o)
Open		a~a: (a)

Diphthongs

falling

• [aɪ~aɪ:] - ai
• [aʊ~aʊ:] - ao

rising

• [wa~wa:] - ua
• [waɪ~waɪ:] - uai
• [ja~ja:] - ya
• [jaʊ~jaʊ:] - yao
• [je~je:] - ye
• [jo~jo:] - yo

Consonants

	Labial	Dental		Palatal	Velar		Glottal
		central	lateral		plain	labial
Nasal	m (m)	n (n)		ɲ (ny)
Plosive	p~b (p)	t~d (t)			k~g (k)	kʷ~gʷ (ku)	ʔ (')
Fricative		s (s)		ʃ (s)			h~ɦ (h)
Affricate		ts (ts)	tɬ (tl)	tʃ (ts)
Approximant			l~r (l)	j (y)		w (u)

Syllable Structure

• (N)(C)V
• N = prenasal /n/ or /m/

• The three codas are /k/, /m/, and /n/.
• /k/ only occurs as a final coda to negate verbs and nouns.

Prenasalized consonants

• In Kala, almost every consonant can be prenasalized, but primarily the plosives /p/, /t/ and /k/ can be analyzed as prenasalized,

while most other instances could be easily analyzed as cases of syllabic /n/ or /m/.

• mb /mp~mb/

Example: mpaka /ˈmpa.ka/ - n - boundary / border / line

• nt /nt~nd/

Example: ntama /ˈnta.ma/ - n - calf (a young cow or bull)

• nk /ŋk~ŋɡ/

Example: nkapa /ˈŋka.pa/ - n - alcohol / grog

Writing System

See: Moya

Grammatical Principles

• The grammar of Kala should be regarded as a guide indicating how grammatical distinctions of gender, number, tense/aspect, noun, verb and particles are made. I have adopted the Arab grammarian's division into three categories (1) Noun [no / ata] / , (2) Particle [peya] , (3) Verb [uati] . Kala does not always follow European models. It discards all redundancies. In English we say “two boys came yesterday”; in Kala “two boy come yesterday” [ta’o tahi yomaye tala] it is clear that more than one boy is already indicated by ‘two,’ while ‘yesterday’ shows the time, or tense of the verb.

Word Order

Sentence

• Basic word order is SOV and is invariable.

-

• (subject) - (object) - (verb)

tlaka (ke) naka anya

man (TOP) woman see

The man sees the woman.

• (subject) - (verb)

nahi apuaye

girl sing.PAST

The girl sang. / The girl did sing.

• (subject) - (complement) - (verb)

ina manka a

food cold COP

The food is cold.

• (subject) - (prepositional phrase) - (verb)

naka tsa'e kama yalaye

woman through village walk.PAST

The woman walked through the village.

• (subject) - (prepositional phrase) - (object) - (verb)

na'eta itla omena yeta

1s.ACC.2s this apple give

I give to you this apple.

(In this case, the prepositional phrase is replaced by the pronominal construction.)

• (subject) - (prepositional phrase) - (verb)

ta kima poto tayo tse'ek

2s like photo 2s.POSS appear.NEG

You do not look like your photo.

Clauses

• In addition to phrases, some sentences contain clauses, which resemble smaller sentences nested within the larger sentence.

They can modify noun phrases, verb phrases, or the whole of the larger sentence.

-

• (subject) - (clause) - (prepositional phrase) - (verb)

tlaka ke ko asaye hina ka'e nuyoku yalaye

man CONJ live.PAST here to New York go.PAST

The man who lived here went to New York.

• (subject) - (clause) - (verb)

na ke ha aya a omu

1s CONJ 3s beautiful COP think

I think that she is beautiful.

Questions

• There are three kinds of question: those that can be answered with a simple "yes" or "no", those that present a range of options to choose from, and those that ask for a particular piece of information.

• Additionally, questions can be direct ("Where are we going?") or indirect ("I asked you where we are going", "I don't know who I am").

Yes/No questions

• A sentence can be turned into a yes/no question by adding a? ("yes?") or ak? ("no?") just before the interrogative particle ka.

• Do you speak German?

ta alemanyatla kala ka

2S Germany.Language speak INT.PART

• Did you eat?

ta inaye ka

2S eat.PAST INT.PART

• We're lost, aren't we?

nam kayo ak ka

1P lost COP.NEG INT.PART

• Does she understand?

ha unya ka

3S understand INT.PART

Indirect

• I want to know whether the food has arrived.

na iya ke ina talaye unyaue

1S COND.PART TOP.PART food come.PAST know.VOL

• She asked if I could help.

ha iya ke na yotapa kanyoye

3S COND.PART TOP.PART 1S help.ABIL ask.PAST

• The answer to a yes/no question is a ("yes") or ak ("no"), a states that the possibility expressed in the question is true; ak states that it is false:

• ta nkapaue ka - 2S alcohol.VOL INT.PART – Do you want (a) beer?

• a tsa'a - yes please – Yes, please. (I do want beer)
• ak nyasa - no thank you – No, thanks. (I don't want beer)

Alternative questions

• An alternative question simply asks the listener to pick one of a number of options, usually expressed as a list joined with the conjunction ua:

• ta tsa'i ua kaua ua nkapa ueha ka - 2S tea or coffee or beer want INT.PART – Do you want tea, coffee, or beer?

• tsa'a kaua - please coffee – Coffee, please.

• ta nya tsiti ua uelo ua yala talaye ka - 2S tea or coffee or beer want INT.PART - Did you come by car, or by bicycle, or did you walk?

Other questions

• Other questions use interrogative determiners or pronouns such as ote, ko, ke, ama, ku, to, mo, and nye. The interrogative word appears at the beginning of the sentence:

• ote mosa ke ta yomu ka - which book TOP.PART 2S read INT.PART - Which book are you reading?
• ko moyako ke ta tsopo ka - person write.AG TOP.PART 2S prefer INT.PART - Who is your preferred author?
• ke itla maka kapi ka - TOP.PART this music ugly INT.PART - What is this ugly music?
• ke ta muya ka - TOP.PART 2S do INT.PART - What are you doing?
• ama ta moku ka - time 2S sleep INT.PART - When do you sleep?
• ku ta inatli ka - amount 2S eat.FUT INT.PART - How much will you eat?
• to ta yalaye ka - way 2S walk.PAST INT.PART - How did you walk?
• mo nam a ka - place 1P COP INT.PART - Where are we?
• nye ta empa ka - reason 2S run INT.PART - Why are you running?

Nouns

• Nouns include pronouns, adjectives (nouns of quality), and determiners.

Affect / Degree

• The diminutive is formed with -hi, and the augmentative with -ha.

These are respectively realized as -ki and -ka when attached to a word that has a final syllable containing h or y.

Example : ina - food, meal | inahi - snack, morsel | inaha - feast, banquet

Example : tsaka - house, home, dwelling | tsakahi - shack, hut, cabin | tsakaha - palace, mansion

• These are also used to differentiate hue, or shade.

Example : yanahi - light yellow, kuyaha - dark green

• In Kala the concepts of comparative and superlative degree of an adjective are merged into a single form, the elative. How this form is understood or translated depends upon context and definiteness. In the absence of comparison, the elative conveys the notion of “greatest”, “supreme.”

Example : tahaka - bigger/biggest | tsaka hayo ke nayo tahaka - His house is bigger than mine.

Example : yanaha - more yellow/most yellow | ke huam tayo yanaha - Your flowers are the most yellow.

Gender

• In general, nouns do not indicate their gender. To distinguish the sexes, one can use the adjectival endings -ta and -na.

Example : nikata "a male dog", nikana "a female dog".

Articles

• There is only one article in Kala, ke. It is used primarily as a "noun marker".

• It is ambi-definite, meaning it can be either definite or indefinite. The distinction is made through context.

Example : kama "village", ke kama "the/a village", ke kama'a "the villages"

Example : inahi "snack", ke inahi "the/a snack", ke inahim "the snacks"

Number

• Nouns are either singular, plural or collective.

• Concrete nouns are pluralized by suffixing -m.

Examples : kono - stone > konom - stones | naka - woman > nakam - women

• When the last syllable of a word contains an m, the plural is marked by reduplicating the final vowel.

Examples : kama - village > kama'a - villages | teyemi - phrase > teyemi'i - phrases

• Collective (plural) nouns are marked by prefixing tli-.

Examples : tsaka - house > tlitsaka - neighborhood | yama - mountain > tliyama - mountain range

• Nouns need not be marked plural if a number is used to show quantity.

Example : sahi - color > sahim - colors > sahi ya'o - five color(s)

• Adjectives do not show plural agreement. However, when an adjective is used nominally, it can be pluralized.

Example : nyeli - pink > nyelim - (the) pink (ones)

Pronouns

• Kala generally distinguishes four persons, the fourth person indicating abstract and inanimate nouns – both in the singular and plural numbers.

There is also a distinction between inclusive (I/we and you) and exclusive (we but not you) forms of the first person plural.

	Nominative	Accusative	Possessive	Reflexive	Reciprocal
1S	na	ena	nayo	na'i
2S	ta	eta	tayo	ta'i
3S	ha	eha	hayo	ha'i
4S	tla	etla	tlayo	tla'i
1P	nam	enam	namyo	nami	nanku
1P (EXCL)	na'am	ena'am	na'amyo	na'ami	na'anku
2P	tam	etam	tamyo	tami	tanku
3P	kam	ekam	kamyo	kami	kanku
4P	tlam	etlam	tlamyo	tlami	tlanku

• A chart of the agent-patient transitivity constructions;

A-P construction

	1st sing	2nd sing	3rd sing	1st plu	2nd plu	3rd plu
1st sing	-	na'eta	na'eha	-	na'etam	na'ekam
2nd sing	ta'ena	-	ta'eha	ta'enam	-	ta'ekam
3rd sing	ha'ena	ha'eta	-	ha'enam	ha'etam	ha'ekam
1st plu	-	nameta	nameha	-	nametam	namekam
2nd plu	tamena	-	tameha	tamenam	-	tamekam
3rd plu	kamena	kameta	kameha	kamenam	kametam	-

Correlative Pronouns

	query	this	that	some	none	any	every	whichever
adjective	ka	itla	uatla	iha	ak	ula	kua	ote
person	ko...ka	iko	uako	ihako	hok	kola	kohua	oteko
thing	no...ka	itla	uatla	ihano	nok	nola	nokua	oteno
time	ama/tsima...ka	ima	uama	ihama	amak	amala	kuama	otema
place	mo...ka	hina	uana	ihamo	mok	mola	mokua	otemo
way	to...ka	yoto	uato	ihato	tok	tola	tokua	oheto
amount	ku/o...ka	iku	uaku	ihaku	huk/ok	kula	hukua/okua	oteku
reason	nye...ka	inye	uanye	ihanye	nyek	ulanye	nyekua	otenye
kind	su...ka	isu	uasu	ihasu	suk	sula	sukua	otesu

Verbs

tense / aspect

The future tense is marked with the suffix -tli. Past tenses, including perfect and pluperfect, are marked with the suffix -ye. The present tense is unmarked:

• na ina - 1.S eat - I eat / I am eating.
• na inatli - 1.S eat.FUT - I will eat / I am about to eat.
• na inaye - 1.S eat.PAST - I eat / I was eating / I have eaten / I had eaten.

Kala does not distinguish perfect and imperfect aspects of the verb (e.g. ‘I ate’, ‘I used to eat’, ‘I have eaten’, ‘I had eaten’). However, one can easily clarify the temporal sequence of two actions by marking the earlier one with the adverbial tsa (‘already’).

mood

• The conditional mood is formed with the particle iya.

• iya na ina - COND 1.S eat - I might be eating.

• The imperative mood is formed with the particle kya.

• kya ina - IMP eat - Eat!

• The negative mood is formed with the suffix -k.

• na inak - 1.S eat.NEG - I do not eat / I am not eating.

• The volitive mood is formed with the suffix -ue (from ueha - to want, desire).

• na inaue - 1.S eat.VOL - I want to eat.

• The necessitative mood is formed with the suffix -he (from heya - to need, require).

• na inahe - 1.S eat.NEC - I need to eat.

• The abilitative mood is formed with the suffix -pa (from pala - to be able).

• na inapa - 1.S eat.ABIL - I am able to eat./ I can eat.

voice

• The passive voice is formed by attaching the accusative prefix e- to the pronoun.

• ena ina - ACC.1.S eat - I am eaten. / I am being eaten.

Numbers

Cardinal Numbers

• e'o - zero / nothing
• na'o - one
• ta'o - two
• ha'o - three
• ma'o - four
• ya'o - five
• tsa'o - six
• ka'o - seven
• pa'o - eight
• sa'o - nine
• ue'o - ten
• nye'o - (one) hundred
• tle'o - (one) thousand
• mue'o - ten thousand
• kye'o - (one) hundred thousand
• nte'o - (one) million

Higher Numbers

• uena'o - eleven / 11

• taue'o - twenty / 20

• nyeka'o - one hundred seven / 107

• hanyetauetsa'o (long form) | hatatsa'o (short form) - three hundred twenty six / 326

• tsatletauema'o - six thousand and twenty four / 6024

Ordinal Numbers

• ki- - ordinal prefix

Example : kisa'o - ninth (in a sequence)

Example : kiyanyepa'o - 508^th

Fractions

• i- - fractional prefix

Example : isa'o - a ninth, 1/9

Example : iha'o te pa'o - three eighths, 3/8 [lit: a third of eight]

Index

grammar outline | sentences | questions | lexicon | thematic lexicon | writing