Kala: Difference between revisions
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* Kala phonotactics does not allow the onsets of adjacent syllables to be identical, nor both to be labialised or palatalised. | * Kala phonotactics does not allow the onsets of adjacent syllables to be identical, nor both to be labialised or palatalised. | ||
* Syllables beginning with /l/ do not occur as the first syllable of a morpheme. | * Syllables beginning with /l/ do not occur as the first syllable of a morpheme. | ||
==== Syllable Structure ==== | ==== Syllable Structure ==== |
Revision as of 03:48, 11 February 2011
- 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
Phonotactics
- Kala phonotactics does not allow the onsets of adjacent syllables to be identical, nor both to be labialised or palatalised.
- Syllables beginning with /l/ do not occur as the first syllable of a morpheme.
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.
Sentences
See: Kala Sentences
Nouns
See: Kala Nouns
Verbs
See: Kala Verbs
Particles
Prepositions
Conjunctions
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?
- tsepa a - please yes – Yes, please. (I do want beer)
- nyasak - thank you.NEG – 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?
- tsepa 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?
Clauses
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 - 508th
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]
Word formation
Punctuation
See: Moya