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==Questions==
==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.
''See'': [[Kala Questions]]
 
*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'''
:<tt>2S Germany.Language speak INT.PART</tt>
 
* Did you eat?
:'''ta inaye ka'''
:<tt>2S eat.PAST INT.PART</tt>
 
* We're lost, aren't we?
:'''nam kayo ak ka'''
:<tt>1P lost COP.NEG INT.PART</tt>
 
* Does she understand?
:'''ha unya ka'''
:<tt>3S understand INT.PART</tt>
 
====Indirect====
 
* I want to know whether the food has arrived.
:'''na iya ke ina talaye unyaue'''
:<tt>1S COND.PART TOP.PART food come.PAST know.VOL</tt>
 
* She asked if I could help.
:'''ha iya ke na yotapa kanyoye'''
:<tt>3S COND.PART TOP.PART 1S help.ABIL ask.PAST</tt>
 
* 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''' - <tt>2S alcohol.VOL INT.PART</tt> – Do you want (a) beer?
:* '''tsepa a''' - <tt>please yes</tt> – Yes, please. (I do want beer)
:* '''nyasak''' - <tt>thank you.NEG</tt> – 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''' - <tt>2S tea or coffee or beer want INT.PART</tt> – Do you want tea, coffee, or beer?
:* '''tsepa kaua''' - <tt>please coffee</tt> – Coffee, please.
 
* '''ta nya tsiti ua uelo ua yala talaye ka''' - <tt>2S tea or coffee or beer want INT.PART</tt> - 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''' - <tt>which book TOP.PART 2S read INT.PART</tt> - Which book are you reading?
* '''ko moyako ke ta tsopo ka''' - <tt>person write.AG TOP.PART 2S prefer INT.PART</tt> - Who is your preferred author?
* '''ke itla maka kapi ka''' - <tt>TOP.PART this music ugly INT.PART</tt> - What is this ugly music?
* '''ke ta muya ka''' - <tt>TOP.PART 2S do INT.PART</tt> - What are you doing?
* '''ama ta moku ka''' - <tt>time 2S sleep INT.PART</tt> - When do you sleep?
* '''ku ta inatli ka''' - <tt>amount 2S eat.FUT INT.PART</tt> - How much will you eat?
* '''to ta yalaye ka''' - <tt>way 2S walk.PAST INT.PART</tt> - How did you walk?
* '''mo nam a ka''' - <tt>place 1P COP INT.PART</tt> - Where are we?
* '''nye ta empa ka''' - <tt>reason 2S run INT.PART</tt> - Why are you running?


===Clauses===
===Clauses===

Revision as of 03:54, 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

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) Naua ma.png n (n) Naua na.png ɲ (ny) Naua nya.png
Plosive p~b (p) Naua pa.png t~d (t) Naua ta.png k~g (k) Naua ka.png kʷ~gʷ (ku) Naua kua.png ʔ (')
Fricative s (s) Naua sa2.png ʃ (s) Naua sa2.png h~ɦ (h) Naua ha.png
Affricate ts (ts) Naua tsa.png tɬ (tl) Naua tla.png tʃ (ts) Naua tsa.png
Approximant l~r (l) Naua la.png j (y) Naua ya.png w (u) Naua ua.png

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] Naua no.png / Naua ata.png, (2) Particle [peya] Naua peya.png, (3) Verb [uati] Naua uati.png. 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

See: Kala Questions

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

Index

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