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łaá siri (ASCII transcription lhaa: siri) is an minimalist artlang created by Zach W. (User:SanguineEpitaph) for personal use. Interesting characteristics include deictic verbal conjugation for the subject and object, a phonological inventory of 10 (or 13, depending on your view, or maybe more depending on other views) phonemes, and a 4-way system of animacy.

Phonetics & Phonology

Consonants

	Alveolar	Palatal	Glottal
Plosive			' [ʔ]
Fricative	s [s]
Lateral Fric.	ł [ɬ]
Lateral Aff.	tł [tɬ]
Approx.	r [ɹ] - l [l]	y [j]

A note of transcription: Typically, the symbols used above will be used by default. If a system doesn't support unicode, or you're in a rush, it's okay to transcribe <ł> as <lh> and <tł> as <tlh>.

Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	i [i] ii [iː] u [y] uu [yː]
Open		a [ɑ] aa [ɑː]

^1  This phoneme may be realized as [u] or [uː].

Vowel Qualities: Glottal Reinforcement

The presence of a coda with [ʔ] is referred to as "glottal reinforcement." All vowels can be reinforced with a glottal stop at the end. This will be transcribed <a'>, <aa'>, etc. All vowels/chronemes can take on this quality, but rhotic vowels cannot. If two glottal stops approach each other at syllable boundaries, they assimilate into a single phoneme.

Vowel Qualities: Rhotacization

The only other phoneme that can fill a syllable coda is /ɹ/. This is referred to as "rhotacization." English has rhotic vowels, as in waiter. Mandarin Chinese also has this. It's referred to in Mandarin as erhua, or "er-speech" and is represented orthographically using the syllable -er, 儿.

All vowels can be rhotacized except those that are glottaly reinforced. When this does occur, the vowel melds in with the /ɹ/ phoneme, and is articulated for roughly the length of a lengthened vowel. The IPA should reflect this change with the combining hook character: [ɑ˞] or [ɑ˞ː] for <ar> and <aar> respectively. For more on rhotacization, see the Wikipedia Page

Vowel Qualities: Length

Vowels that are transcribed twice (aa, ii, uu) contrast in length with their singular counterparts. It is generally acceptable to assume that a chroneme is held for roughly the equivalent of two vowels, thus /aa/ should be as long as /a/ + /a/. Vowel length is contrastive!

Example

latła [lɑ.tɬɑ]	łatłaa [ɬɑ.tɬɑː]
to move or shift position	big

Syllable Structure

Syllables are always in a CV{ʔ, ɹ} pattern. If there is ambiguity between syllables, a hyphen can be written for purely aesthetic reasons. The hyphen must be written between two syllables, not in the middle of one: CV-CV, rather than C-VCV. Additionally, rhotacized or reinforced vowels are considered a single unit to a speaker of łaá siri, so <ar> is different from <ra>, and that is why vowels can be r-colored without violating the phonosyntactic constrictions.

Pitch-Accent System

Some syllables will take on a higher/rising pitch, which is part of łaá siri's pitch-accent system. Only the final syllable of a word can take on this feature. It is transcribed using an acute accent over the syllable's (last) vowel (á, aá). The pitch accent of a syllable can also be written (in ASCII transcriptions) using a colon (a:, aa:).

This process is grammatical, occuring in changes of evidentiality and animacy, and is also lexical (e.g., the difference between sár, sleep and sar, good). The change in pitch of a syllable is largely dependent upon the speaker – some have a slightly rising pitch, while others simply have a higher pitch relative to other syllables. It is more common in lengthened vowels for the pitch accent to change to a rising pitch as the speaker moves from low to high in their pitch (/a/ + /á/ > /aá/). In standard IPA transcriptions, pitch accent is shown as a contour pitch [˧˥].

Sound Change & Allophony

Where applicable, some rules have notes. Please note that some are variable rules, while others are obligatory.

Rule	Example
/j/ → [ɥ] / ___V[+round]	yu /jy/ → [ɥy]
/ɬ/ → [ҫ] / # ___V[-back]	/ɬisi/ → [ҫisi]
/ʔ/ → [h] / V___ ]σ	/jɑʔ.lɑ/ → [jɑh.lɑ]
/C[-voice]/ → C[+voice] / ɹ]σ ____	yaa'yirłasaa /jɑːʔ.ji˞.ɬɑ.sɑː/ → [jɑːʔ.ji˞.ɮɑ.sɑː]

^1  Non-standard sound change. Speak this way if you want to be judged! ;)

^2  Indicative of improper speech or little education. Colloquial.

Morphology

Typically, łaá siri is fairly isolating, with more synthesis shown on verbs than anywhere else. Verbal morphology utilizes prefixes only, while nominal morphology uses only suffixes.

Nominal Morphology

Nouns are only inflected for a single factor: animacy.

Animacy

There are four possible degrees: sentient (human), animal (non-human), inanimate (non-living), and abstract. In some cases, the animacy of an object may be arbitrary (i.e., the brain being considered abstract). In the case of a sentient inflection, if the root's last syllable is open (ending in a vowel), then that vowel is replaced by –aá, otherwise, the nucleus and coda are replaced. Nouns are typically glossed in their most basic, uninflected form because animacy is not a noun's defining characteristic. Nouns can switch between animacies, often predictably (i.e., child can be marked as sentient or as animal) so it is not useful to add them to a lexicon after inflection. However, some nouns, like those pertaining to a specific human or animal, are expected to be in a certain animacy.

Side Note: Animacy is a fun way to derive insults.

Inflection	Animacy
-aá	sentient (animate human)
-ła	animal (animate non-human)
-layaa	inanimate
-saá	abstract

Nouns can become different animacies if they are inflected as such. So, yi, man, is ordinarily yaá, but might also be yilayaa if referring to, for example, a statue of a man. If it were yisaá, one would be referring to an abstract man. Yiła would have a pejorative connotation.

Example (The root of woman is 'aru.)

'araá	li'la'aalitłá'
woman-SENT.	PERF.-PROX.-PROX.-cause-harm

The woman has hurt me.

Pronouns

łaá siri has two distinct pronominal forms (subjective and objective) and uses reduplication to indicate plurality (if at all). Pronouns are complemented by the verbal conjugation of proximity, which indicates the location of the subject/object in relation to the speaker. Pronouns, when used, do not take on gender declensions, and can also be omitted entirely is the context of a phrase is understood. The following forms don't often occur.

Subjective

	sg.	pl.
1	łi	lili [inc.] / liili [exc.]
2	tłayir	tłayiryir
3	suri	suriri

Objective

	sg.	pl.
1	ła'la	ła'ła [inc.] / tła'la [exc.]
2	tłasila	tłasilala
3	sir	sirir

For more on pronoun dropping, see Verbal Morphology – Proximity.

Verbal Morphology

Verb conjugation is templatic and agglutinative. Typically, the verb root comes at the end of the string of morphemes, which stack on as prefixes. Verbs conjugate for proximity (a type of person), evidentiality, and aspect.

Proximity of Subject

Proximity refers to the verbal conjugation for spatial deixies, that is, how near or far an object or person is from the speaker. If at all, a morpheme marking the proximity of the subject is necessary. There are five proximities recognized by łaá siri: immediate, near, distant, absent, and abstract. When speaking, the verb is conjugated based on the subject's proximity from the speaker. For example, if I were to say, "The cat is eating a mouse," and the cat is in another room, the verb could be conjugated in the distant or near proximity.

Proximity can also be used to stress the relevancy or "newness" a topic is to the discussion. For instance, if we were discussing the cat from the previous example sentence, but it was new to the discourse, it is more likely that it will be marked in the near proximity as a form of stressing it. This would be semantically acceptable because there is no clear boundary between "distant" and "near" when the cat is in another room in the same house. Alternatively, if the cat were outside, even if it were new to the discussion, the distal conjugation would be more acceptable.

Morpheme	Proximity
łu-	immediate
la-	near
tła-	distant
ra-	absent
li-	abstract

When glossing proximity, it is acceptable to use PROX., or to specify the proximity using the following abbreviations: IMM., NEAR, DIST., ABSENT, ABSTR.

Examples

łusií
IMM.-speak(EVID.)

This one right here (I) speak.

rasií
ABS.-speak(EVID.)

One not in this vicinity (he, she, it, they, that one) speaks.

Note: This example would need contextual information surrounding it.

Notice that these proximity markers have implied meanings about the subject of the verb – for instance, using łu- implies the self without actually stating it. Furthermore, when paired with non-linguistic information, like gestures, the verbs could even mean, "That plant right there is talking," without explicitly stating anything other than, "that thing nearby is speaking."

Proximity of Object

If a transitive verb is being used, the proximity of the direct object in relation to the speaker is also shown on the verb. This morpheme appears after that marking the subject (mirroring łaá siri's SOV word order).

Morpheme	Proximity
-'aa-	immediate
-ri-	near
-rii-	distant
-lir-	absent
-tła-	abstract

Example:

łurisií
IMM.-NEAR-speak(EVID.)

This one right here (I) is speaking to that one right there (you, etc.).

Evidentiality

Verbs also are marked based on the truth value of a statement. The four degrees of truth are: hearsay ("I hear that…"), sure, general knowledge, factual ("I know that…"), learned knowledge through an inanimate source ("I read that…"), and a guess/speculation ("I think that…"). Evidentiality is always marked after all proximity morphemes. Of all the conjugal processes on verbs, evidentiality is the only one which can change the verb phonetically.

Morpheme	Proximity
-raa-	guess, unsure, speculative
-raa'-	hearsay
-'aa'-	learned through inanimate source
verb's final vowel changes from either no pitch to a rising pitch, or vice-versa.	general knowledge, fact, known, etc.

Someone who uses the surest form of evidentiality and tells a false statement, even if accidentally, is considered a liar. Evidentiality also interacts with forming questions and some grammatical patterns.

Example:

łurisií

IMM.-NEAR-speak(EVID.)

one’s self speaks to us/them/you/y’all, and is sure of it

The verb sii ordinarily has no pitch-accent. Had this been, łuriraasii, the speaker is unsure if s/he spoke, perhaps it was during a dream!

Negation

To negate a verb, its evidentiality marker is removed. Thus, there is no negative particle (i.e., 'no').

Example:

łusií
IMM.-speak(EVID)

I speak/I'm speaking.

łusii (more commonly sałusii )
IMM.-speak

I'm not speaking/I don't speak.

Aspect

Verbs take an optional third morpheme to show aspect. The aspects that can be conveyed are: perfect, habitual, and progressive, all in relation to the time of speaking. The perfect indicates the an action has occurred in the past, and does not, will not, or is not occurring at the present time. The habitual indicates that action used to occur frequently (as a matter of habit). It also implies that what used to happen was because the speaker made it happen. Finally, the progressive, which can be used in conjunction with the other two aspects or alone, indicates that an action is ongoing, was ongoing, or used to be ongoing. The progressive, when used alone, both implies that an action is occurring right now and that it will continue into the future as well. Morphemes that mark aspect are placed initially, before all other prefixes.

Morpheme	Aspect
li'-	PERF.
si'-	HAB.
sa-	PROG.
sali-	PERF. + PROG.
sasi-	HAB. + PROG.

Example:

li'łusií
PERF.-IMM.-speak(EVID.)

I have spoken.

si'łusií
HAB.-IMM.-speak(EVID.)

I usually speak.

sałusií
PROG.-IMM.-speak(EVID.)

I'm speaking.

Note: The progressive aspect is the preferred way of indicate that an action is occurring in the present, eg "I'm writing," rather than, "I write."

Descriptive Morphology

Adjectives and adverbs are very closely related, to the point that one may be derived to or from the other. These descriptive words show their relationship to their complement using the attributive particle li. The form [adjective] + li is considered a complete phrase, but interestingly enough, they can be translated to either side of their complement, as long as li is adjacent to the complement. For instance, this is the typical structure:

łatłaa	li	yaá
big	ATTR.	man-SENT.

The man is big. OR The big man.

Can also be phrased:

yaá	li	łatłaa
man-SENT.	ATTR.	big

And this is semantically acceptable. There is a slight tendency to use this pattern to topicalize something; if "big" is more pertinent than "man," it may come first.

The paradigm is different when describing something or someone as "both x and y." When discussing two characteristics (or more, even) of one thing, the descriptive phrase cannot be moved on either side of the complement. Furthermore, the descriptive phrase is encompassed by the "circum-attributive," 'a...lur.

yaá	'a	łatłaa	yu	lur
man-SENT.	ATTR.	big	tall	ATTR.

The big, tall man, OR The man is big and tall.

As you can see from the examples above, adjectives and attributives are either predicative or attributive. They can also become nominal, acting as a sort of pronoun for an elided antecedent. In this case, they are inflected with their antecedent's animacy. See the following sample conversation:

A: yaá	li	łatłaa	'aa!
man-SENT.	ATTR.	big	EXCL.
B: łatłaá	li	łi	riilalaá	yií
big-SENT.	COP.	1sg.subj.	friend-SENT.	GEN.

A: That man is tall!

B: That tall (man) is my friend.

This discourse introduces two new phenomena: copular li and intensifiers.

li can not only act as an attributive between an adjective and a noun, but it can also behave similarly to English's "to be." In the sample conversation above, speaker B replies, "łatłaá li łi riilalaá yií." What it means is more like, "my-friend-like tall (man)." Rather than using "to be," łaá siri turns the copula into an adjectival phrase. In glosses, it is describes as COP. rather than ATTR. to reflect its behavior more accurately. Notice that it doesn't conjugate, nor does it occupy the position of a verb.

Intensifiers do exactly what their name implies. 'a is a fairly popular one. Here is a table that models all intensifiers and what they imply (note that intensifiers must always come directly after an adjectival phrase in order to behave this way!):

Intensifier	Implication
'a	in relation to other things, this is more so (superlative, i.e., the best, the longest)
'aa	in relation to other similar things, this is unique
sa	as far as these things go, this is more intense (used with colors)
laa'	as far as these things go, this is more desirable (laudative)
lar	this is exceptionally so as compared to things around the speaker
saryaa'tła	used infrequently; in relation to other things, this is over the top/too much

Example:

yaá	li	łatłaa	lar!
man-SENT.	ATTR.	big	INT.

That man is so tall (in this area)! Note: 'a and 'aa are used so frequently that their meaning isn't quite as intense as in English.

Alternatively, there are "deintensifiers," called diminutizers (DIM.) that have the opposite effect of the the intensifiers listed above.

Diminutizer	Implication
su	in relation to other things, this is not as much (diminutive)
si'ya	this quality is bad (pejorative)
'iryi	as far as these things go, this is not very intense (used with colors)

Example:

yaá	li	łatłaa	su!
man-SENT.	ATTR.	big	DIM.

That man isn't too big.

Negating Adjectives

To say that something is not ADJ., the patterns mentioned above apply, the only difference being that the attributive used is 'i rather than li.

Example:

yaá	'i	łatłaa
man-SENT.	NEG.ATTR.	big

That man is big. OR The un-big man... (e.g., small)

The negative attributive (NEG.ATTR.) also replaces 'a in the construction 'a...lur.

Example:

yaá	'i	łatłaa	yu	lur
man-SENT.	NEG.ATTR.	big	tall	ATTR.

The man is neither big, nor tall. OR The man that is both un-big and un-tall... (e.g., small and short).

Typically the first translation of the examples above are preferred unless a word for un-ADJ. is unavailable. In other words, since "un-big" is "small," it doesn’t make sense to translate the phrase as "un-big," even though that is most compositional.

Using diminutizers with 'i is considered ill form.

Forming Interrogatives with Adjectives

There is no real "to be" verb when dealing with adjectives, so there is no verb to conjugate for evidentiality or proximity. Alternatively, the only way to ask, "Is X ADJ.?" is to say, "X is ADJ. and isn’t ADJ."

Example:

yaá	li	łatłaa	'i	łatłaa
man-SENT.	ATTR.	big	NEG.ATTR.	big.

Is the man big? (lit. "The man is big, isn't big.")

Optionally questions can take on ri or sałaa'. See Syntax - Questions for more.

Colloquialisms

Because colloquialisms between languages are rarely mutually intelligible and often rooted in culture, the closest English equivalent to the succeeding phrases has been provided as well. This is often not a direct translation, but something that carries a similar connotation in English.

Colloquial Phrases

The following phrases are idiomatic; their meaning cannot be attained by simply looking at their translation.

--

si 'a [si↗ ↘ʔɑ] Literal translation: GEN. EXCL.

The closest English phrase to this is, "Oh my god!" It's used in various ways, from shock to horror or disappointment.

Example:

A:	si 'a,	laritłá!
A:	{Oh my god},	NEAR-NEAR-EVID.-hit(EVID.)

A: Oh my god, he hit you!

Colloquial Interjections

The following interjections are phonetically non-standard in the way that Standard English speakers use [!] (disappointment) or [ʘ] (kissy noises).

--

tłtł [ʘ~ǃ]

Used similarly to English's "tsktsk." It can be used to show disagreement, disappointment, or confusion.

Example:

A:	ri	lariraatła?
A:	INTER.	NEAR-NEAR-EVID.-hit
B:	tłtł,	la'aatła!
B:	INTERJ.	NEAR-IMMED.-hit

A: Did s/he hit you?

B: No, she didn't! (And you're silly for thinking so.)

--

'ła [hɑː↘]

This is often accompanied with shaking your head or closing your eyes briefly. It's exclusively used to show (more extreme) disappointment or sadness than tłtł. It might even come out more as a sigh than a word.

A:	si 'a,	łi	'arusasaá	yií	'i	saá	'ła!
A:	{Oh my god},	1sg.subj.	mother-SENT.	POSS.	NEG.-ATTR.	real	'ła

A: Oh my god, my mother is dead! [lit. Mine(!!), my mother isn't real!]

Literary łaá siri

Most prevalent in łaá siri are numerous constructions and names of constructions used in poetry. Because of the minimal phonetic inventory of vowels, rhyme is very common, but beyond acoustic properties of poetry are many metaphorical constructions.

Sa'rasar'asaá

This term is used to refer to a word that contains the same vowel phoneme in every syllable. The word itself is composed of "many" and "same," but is not an ideal case of a sa'rasar'a relationship because of glottal reinforcement. An ideal example of a word that is a sa'rasar'asaá is silisi, which is "house/home." This distinction goes away when used in speech because of the animacy inflection, as in silisilayaa. In poetry, it is considered favorable to unambiguously omit inflections for animacy, or switch inflections to create a sa'rasar'a relationship.

łi	silisi	sisí	li	ya'a'i	'i	ya'a'i	'a?
1sg.subj.	home	GEN.	ATTR.	true	NEG.-ATTR.	true	EXCL.

Does my home really exist?

Counting

łaá siri uses a base-5 (quinary) number system.