Sarim: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 13:24, 17 July 2011

Sarim (Sarim: sarimengo 'our language', sarime Kansū 'Language of Kansu') is one of the larger languages of the Ke:tic family. It is a strongly head-initial, largely agglutinating ergative language.

Phonology

Phoneme Inventory

	Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive/Affricate	b /p/ p /pʰ/	d /t/ t /tʰ/			g /k/ k /kʰ/
Fricative		th /θ/	s /s/	hy /ç/		h /h/
Nasal	m /m/		n /n/	ny /ɲ/	ŋ /ŋ/
Liquid			r /ɾ/ l /l/	y /j/	w /w/

Vowels

i /i/ ī /i:/		u /u/ ū /u:/
e /ɛ/ ē /e:/		o /ɒ/ ō/o:/
	a /ɐ/ ā /ɐ:/

Sarim also has the dipthongs ai au ei eu oi ou /ai au ei eu oi ou/, all falling.

Syllable Structure

Sarim has a (C)(C)V(C) syllable structure. Onset clusters are made up of one of /p t k pʰ tʰ kʰ θ s h/ + /r/. Only /p t k m n θ s h l/ can occur in coda position. Note that word-internally coda /θ/ merges with /s/. Note that long vowels do not occur in long syllables.

Allophony

- /n/ assimilates to the point of articulation of any following consonant, e.g. /np/ [mp]. Note that /m ŋ/ do not assimilate to the same point of articulation as the following consonant. (Note that /ŋ/ is written as n before a velar consonant, since ambiguity is not an issue).

- Coda stops are realised as unreleased.

- /k kʰ/ may be realised as [ʧ ʧʰ] before front vowels.

- /h/ often strengthens to [x] between vowels.

- /r/ is realised as a tap [ɾ] word-initially and in onset clusters, and as an approximant [ɻ] between vowels.

- Unstressed short /i ɐ u/ are realised as [ɪ ə ʊ].

Stress and Prosody

Sarim is a mora-timed language: syllables take up a certain amount of time based on their nucleus. Open syllables with a short vowel take up one mora; closed syllables with a short vowel, and open syllables with a long vowel or diphthong, take up two morae, whilst closed syllables with a diphthong take up three morae.

Stress falls on the syllable containing the antepenultimate mora, or leftmost mora in words with less than three morae.

Nominal Morphology

Sarim nouns are marked for Absolutive and Oblique cases, as well as singular and plural number. The unmarked form of the noun is the absolutive singular: yad - man, kare - sorghum ari - town, nasu - child, sau - dog, prasnā - number.

The Plural

The plural is marked with -ma: yadma, arima, nasuma, sauma, prasnā. The oblique plural is marked irregularly by -mē.

Plural marking is mandatory with animate nouns; with inanimate nouns marking plurality is option, and inanimate nouns are never marked as plural if followed by a number or an adjective marking number such as hou - many.

Absolutive Case

The absolutive case is the unmarked form of the noun. The absolutive marks the subject of an intransitive verb and the patient of a transitive verb. It is also used with certain prepositions, as noted in the syntax section.

Oblique Case

The underlying marker of the Oblique case is *-i, which manifests itself in several ways:

- After a monosyllabic word ending in a vowel, and after long vowels, it is marked with -yi: sauyi - dog-OBL; prasnāyi - number-OBL.

- Nouns ending in short a, e or o lose the final vowel and add -i: kari - sorghum-OBL

- Nouns ending in a consonant add -i: yadi - man-OBL

- Final -u and -i become -ī: arī - man-OBL;; nasī child-OBL

The oblique is used with the majority of Sarim's prepositions. Its other main use is to mark the agent of transitive verbs in most circumstances. However, in the follow circumstances the agent of a transitive verb is marked as absolutive, primarily:

- If the agent is indefinite: kithīne sau arimē see-IMPF-TRANS DOG-0 MAN-PLUR-OBL 'the men saw the dog', but: kithīne sau arima see-IMPF-TRANS DOG-0 MAN-PLUR '(some) men saw the dog'.

- If the agent is nullar in number: makithīne sau ari mau NEG-see-IMPF-TRANS dog-0 man-0 NEG 'no men saw the dog'.

- If the agent is significantly more animate than the patient: ramnagin kare ari harvest-PERF-TRANS sorghum-0 man-0 'the man harvested the sorghum', but nawēne hrath arī love-IMPF-TRANS woman-0 man-ERG 'the man loves the woman'.

Possession Marking

Sarim has a range of possessive suffixes, from previously cliticised pronouns. Vowels in brackets are used if the clitics follow a consonants, whilst the third person possessive marker has three allomorphs: it lengthens final short vowels, is -a after consonants, and -ya after long vowels and dipthongs. Long vowels before -n and -th become short.

Singular	Plural
1st Person	-(e)n	-(e)ngo
2nd Person	-(e)th	-(e)sgo
3rd Person	-(y)a/:	-(y)a/:

The possessive suffixes follow case and plural marking:

hrathen 'my wife' nasumango 'our children' karē 'his sorghum' ti saumeth 'from your dogs (OBL)'

Verbal Morphology

The citation form of Sarim verbs is the root, which may end in a vowel, a consonant, or a permissible medial cluster: kithi- 'look at, see'; edn- 'go'; aut- 'eat', mo- 'break'.

The Infinitive

The infinitive is the only non-finite form a Sarim verb has. The infinitive always ends in -ni, and has three allomorphs:

-After a monosyllabic root ending in a vowel, -yini: moyini - to break.

- After a consonant, -ini: autini - to eat; ednini - to go.

- After a vowel, -ni: kithini - to look at, to see.

Voice

As well as the unmarked active voice, Sarim has antipassive and a reflexive voices marked on the verb. Voice marking always immediately follows the verb stem.

- The antipassive is marked by -ū', which displaces any stem-final short vowel. Monosyllabic stems ending in a vowel and stems ending in diphthongs or long vowels have -yū instead: kithū- 'see something', ednū- - make someone go, autū- 'eat something, moyū 'break something'.

- The reflexive is marked by -(a)s-, with an epenthetic -a- only occuring if the stem ends in a cluster or a consonant that does not occur in coda position: kithis- 'see oneself', ednas- 'go', autas- 'eat oneself', mos- 'break oneself'.

Because verbs marked for a voice other than active can take the infinitive too (e.g. kithūni - to see something), it has been argued that voice is really more of a feature of derivational morphology.

Aspect

Sarim verbs are marked for three aspects: perfective, imperfective, and habitual.

- The imperfective is marked by -a. Stem final short vowels are lengthened, and the imperfective is zero-marked after stems ending in a long vowel or diphthong: kithī 'it is seen'; edna 'it goes'; auta 'it is eaten'; mō 'it breaks'.

- The perfective is marked by -(i)gi: kithigi 'it was looked at'; ednigi 'it went'; autigi 'all of it is eaten'; mogi 'it broke completely'.

- The habitual

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-'''Sarim''' (Sarim: '''Abar Sarim''') is one of the most widely spoken of the Ke:tic languages.
+'''Sarim''' (Sarim: '''sarimengo''' 'our language', '''sarime Kansū''' 'Language of Kansu') is one of the larger languages of the Ke:tic family. It is a strongly head-initial, largely agglutinating ergative language.
 == Phonology ==
-'''Consonants'''
+===Phoneme Inventory===
-NB: Sarim has possibly one of the most boring phonologies in the history of conlanging.
+{| border="1" cellpadding="2"
+|-
+|
+|'''Labial'''
+|'''Dental'''
+|'''Alveolar'''
+|'''Palatal'''
+|'''Velar'''
+|'''Glottal'''
+|-
+|'''Plosive/Affricate'''
+|'''b''' /p/ '''p''' /pʰ/
+|'''d''' /t/ '''t''' /tʰ/
+|
+|
+|'''g''' /k/ '''k''' /kʰ/
+|-
+|'''Fricative'''
+|
+|'''th''' /θ/
+|'''s''' /s/
+|'''hy''' /ç/
+|
+|'''h''' /h/
+|-
+|'''Nasal'''
+|'''m''' /m/
+|
+|'''n''' /n/
+|'''ny''' /ɲ/
+|'''ŋ''' /ŋ/
+|
+|-
+|'''Liquid'''
+|
+|
+|'''r''' /ɾ/ '''l''' /l/
+|'''y''' /j/
+|'''w''' /w/
+|
+|}
--Plosives <nowiki>/p b t d k g/ <p b t d k g> </nowiki>
--Nasals <nowiki>/m n/ <m n> </nowiki>
--Fricatives <nowiki> /f v θ s x/ <f v th s h> </nowiki>
+'''Vowels'''
--Rhotic/Approximants: <nowiki> /r ɫ j/ <r l y> </nowiki>
+<table><tr><td>'''i''' /i/ '''ī''' /i:/ </td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td>'''u''' /u/ '''ū''' /u:/</td></tr>
+<tr><td>'''e''' /ɛ/ '''ē''' /e:/ </td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td>'''o''' /ɒ/ '''ō'''/o:/</td></tr>
+<tr><td></td><td></td><td></td><td>'''a''' /ɐ/ '''ā''' /ɐ:/</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></table>
+Sarim also has the dipthongs '''ai au ei eu oi ou''' /ai au ei eu oi ou/, all falling.
-'''Vowels'''
+===Syllable Structure===
-<nowiki> /i e a o u/ <i e a o u> </nowiki>
+Sarim has a (C)(C)V(C) syllable structure. Onset clusters are made up of one of /p t k pʰ tʰ kʰ θ s h/ + /r/. Only /p t k m n θ s h l/ can occur in coda position. Note that word-internally coda /θ/ merges with /s/. Note that long vowels do not occur in long syllables.
+===Allophony===
+- /n/ assimilates to the point of articulation of any following consonant, e.g. /np/ [mp]. Note that /m ŋ/ do not assimilate to the same point of articulation as the following consonant. (Note that /ŋ/ is written as '''n''' before a velar consonant, since ambiguity is not an issue).
-'''Syllable Structure'''
+- Coda stops are realised as unreleased.
-The basic syllable structure in Sarim is (C)(C)V(V)(C), with the monovocalic nucleus being the only compulsory component, with the following caveats:
+- /k kʰ/ may be realised as [ʧ ʧʰ] before front vowels.
-No nucleus with two vowels of the same quality occurs.
+- /h/ often strengthens to [x] between vowels.
+- /r/ is realised as a tap [ɾ] word-initially and in onset clusters, and as an approximant [ɻ] between vowels.
-Coda consonants only occur word finally, and then can only be one of /t k θ s x r j m n/.
+- Unstressed short /i ɐ u/ are realised as [ɪ ə ʊ].
-Word-initial clusters to not occur. Word-internally, clusters are organised into several series:
+===Stress and Prosody===
--the '''h''' series: /xp xt xk/
+Sarim is a mora-timed language: syllables take up a certain amount of time based on their nucleus. Open syllables with a short vowel take up one mora; closed syllables with a short vowel, and open syllables with a long vowel or diphthong, take up two morae, whilst closed syllables with a diphthong take up three morae.
--the '''s''' series: /sp st sk sn sm/
--the '''n''' series: /nt nd nk ng nv ns nθ nm nn/
+Stress falls on the syllable containing the antepenultimate mora, or leftmost mora in words with less than three morae.
--the '''m''' series: /mp mt md mk mg ms mθ mr mm mn/
--the '''stop''' series:  /ps ts ks/
-- the '''r''' series: /rt rd rk rg rr/
+== Nominal Morphology ==
-'''Allophony'''
+Sarim nouns are marked for Absolutive and Oblique cases, as well as singular and plural number. The unmarked form of the noun is the absolutive singular: '''yad''' - man, '''kare''' - sorghum '''ari''' - town, '''nasu''' - child, '''sau''' - dog, '''prasnā''' - number.
+===The Plural===
--/r/ is realised as an approximant [ɻ] before a vowel or word-finally, but [ɦ] before another consonangt.
-- The voiceless stops are often realised as lightly aspirated.
+The plural is marked with '''-ma''': '''yadma, arima, nasuma, sauma, prasnā'''.  The oblique plural is marked irregularly by '''-mē'''.
-- /n/ is realised at the same point of articulation as a following consonant: /nk/ = [ŋg]
+Plural marking is mandatory with animate nouns; with inanimate nouns marking plurality is option, and inanimate nouns are never marked as plural if followed by a number or an adjective marking number such as '''hou''' - many.
--Before /s/, nasals tend to be realised as a sequence nasal+voiceless stop, e.g. /ms/ = [mps].
+===Absolutive Case===
--All vowels are pronounced lax: [ɪ ɛ ɐ ɔ ʊ] when not part of a two-vowel nucleus.
+The absolutive case is the unmarked form of the noun. The absolutive marks the subject of an intransitive verb and the patient of a transitive verb. It is also used with certain prepositions, as noted in the syntax section.
+===Oblique Case===
-'''Stress'''
+The underlying marker of the Oblique case is *'''-i''', which manifests itself in several ways:
-Stress in Sarim is non-phonemic ,always falling on the final syllable of a word. Monosyllabic lexemes are stressed; grammatical particles are not.
+- After a monosyllabic word ending in a vowel, and after long vowels, it is marked with -yi: '''sauyi''' - dog-OBL; '''prasnāyi''' - number-OBL.
-'''Morphophonological Processes'''
+- Nouns ending in short '''a, e''' or '''o''' lose the final vowel and add -i: '''kari''' - sorghum-OBL
-If two vowels of the same quality would occur within the same nucleus, the second is lost.
+- Nouns ending in a consonant add -i: '''yadi''' - man-OBL
-In word-final position, /p b t d/ merge to /t/; /g f v x/ merge to /x/, and /ɫ/ merges with /r/.
+- Final -u and -i become -ī: '''arī''' - man-OBL;; '''nasī''' child-OBL
-If a plosive would be followed by a nasal, that plosive becomes a nasal. /p b/ become /m/; and /t d k g/, /n/. /f θ/ deriving from older */pʰ tʰ/, behave in the same way.
+The oblique is used with the majority of Sarim's prepositions. Its other main use is to mark the agent of transitive verbs in most circumstances. However, in the follow circumstances the agent of a transitive verb is marked as absolutive, primarily:
-==Nominal Morphology==
+- If the agent is indefinite: '''kithīne sau arimē''' ''see-IMPF-TRANS DOG-0 MAN-PLUR-OBL'' 'the men saw the dog', but: '''kithīne sau arima''' ''see-IMPF-TRANS DOG-0 MAN-PLUR'' '(some) men saw the dog'.
+- If the agent is nullar in number: '''makithīne sau ari mau''' ''NEG-see-IMPF-TRANS dog-0 man-0 NEG''  'no men saw the dog'.
-Sarim nouns are one of two genders, '''animate''' and '''inanimate'''. To a great extent, the two categories are semantic: people, animals, deities and spirits, celestial bodies, and certain body parts(notably the hand, tongue, eyes, liver, and heart) are animate, and all other nouns are inanimate. Nouns are declined for '''singular''' and '''plural''' numbers, and '''absolutive''', '''ergative''' and '''oblique''' cases. However, in inanimate nouns the ergative and oblique have collapsed into a single case. In this outline the citation form will be the noun ''stem''. Sarim grammarians prefer to give the absolutive singular and plural, however.
+- If the agent is significantly more animate than the patient: '''ramnagin kare ari''' ''harvest-PERF-TRANS sorghum-0 man-0'' 'the man harvested the sorghum', but '''nawēne hrath arī''' ''love-IMPF-TRANS woman-0 man-ERG'' 'the man loves the woman'.
-'''Animate Nouns'''
+===Possession Marking===
-Where two forms divided by a slash are given, the first is used after stems ending in a consonant, the second after stems ending in a vowel.
+Sarim has a range of possessive suffixes, from previously cliticised pronouns. Vowels in brackets are used if the clitics follow a consonants, whilst the third person possessive marker has three allomorphs: it lengthens final short vowels, is '''-a''' after consonants, and '''-ya''' after long vowels and dipthongs. Long vowels before '''-n''' and '''-th''' become short.
 {|
-|| ||Singular ||Plural
+| | Singular || Plural
-|-
-||Absolutive ||'''-0(-a*)''' ||'''-o/-n'''
 |-
-||Ergative ||'''-a/-n''' ||'''-on/-ma'''
+||1st Person || '''-(e)n''' ||'''-(e)ngo
 |-
-||Oblique ||'''-e/-0''' ||'''-(a*)me'''
+||2nd Person ||'''-(e)th''' ||'''-(e)sgo'''
+|-
+||3rd Person ||'''-(y)a/:''' ||'''-(y)a/:'''
 |}
-*-a is an epenthetic vowel, used after a noun stem ending in two consonants, e.g. '''int-''' "the Sun", absolutive singular '''inta'''.
+The possessive suffixes follow case and plural marking:
+'''hrathen''' 'my wife'
+'''nasumango''' 'our children'
+'''karē''' 'his sorghum'
+'''ti saumeth''' 'from your dogs (OBL)'
+==Verbal Morphology==
+The citation form of Sarim verbs is the root, which may end in a vowel, a consonant, or a permissible medial cluster: '''kithi-''' 'look at, see'; '''edn-''' 'go'; '''aut-''' 'eat', '''mo-''' 'break'.
+===The Infinitive===
+The infinitive is the only non-finite form a Sarim verb has. The infinitive always ends in '''-ni''', and has three allomorphs:
+-After a monosyllabic root ending in a vowel, -'''yini''': '''moyini''' - to break.
+- After a consonant, '''-ini''': '''autini''' - to eat; '''ednini''' - to go.
+- After a vowel, '''-ni''': '''kithini''' - to look at, to see.
-'''yat-''' - farmer
+===Voice===
-'''kari-''' - man
-'''noht-''' - fish
-{|
+As well as the unmarked active voice, Sarim has antipassive and a reflexive voices marked on the verb. Voice marking always immediately follows the verb stem.
-|| ||Singular ||Plural
-|-
+- The '''antipassive''' is marked by '''-ū'''', which displaces any stem-final short vowel. Monosyllabic stems ending in a vowel and stems ending in diphthongs or long vowels have '''-yū''' instead: '''kithū-''' 'see something', '''ednū-''' - make someone go, '''autū-''' 'eat something, '''moyū''' 'break something'.
-||Absolutive ||'''yat, kari, nohta''' ||'''yato, karin, nohto'''
-|-
+- The '''reflexive''' is marked by '''-(a)s-''', with an epenthetic '''-a-''' only occuring if the stem ends in a cluster or a consonant that does not occur in coda position: '''kithis-''' 'see oneself', '''ednas-''' 'go', '''autas-''' 'eat oneself', '''mos-''' 'break oneself'.
-||Ergative ||'''yata, karin, nohta''' ||'''yaton, karima, nohton'''
-|-
+Because verbs marked for a voice other than active can take the infinitive too (e.g. '''kithūni''' - to see something), it has been argued that voice is really more of a feature of derivational morphology.
-||Oblique ||'''yate, kari, nohte''' ||'''yanme, karime, nohtame'''
-|}
+===Aspect===
+Sarim verbs are marked for three aspects: perfective, imperfective, and habitual.
+- The imperfective is marked by '''-a'''. Stem final short vowels are lengthened, and the imperfective is zero-marked after stems ending in a long vowel or diphthong: '''kithī''' 'it is seen'; '''edna''' 'it goes'; '''auta''' 'it is eaten'; '''mō''' 'it breaks'.
+- The perfective is marked by '''-(i)gi''': '''kithigi''' 'it was looked at'; '''ednigi''' 'it went'; '''autigi''' 'all of it is eaten'; '''mogi''' 'it broke completely'.
+- The habitual
+[[Category: Conlangs]]