Classical Diūn

Classical Diūn
Spoken in:	Diūn City-States
Time Period:	200 BNH - 200 NH(200 AD - 600 AD)
Total speakers:	extinct
Genealogical classification:	Proto-Diūn   Classical Diūn
Basic word order:	SOV
Morphological type:	semi-fusional
Morphosyntactic alignment:	Ergative-Absolutive
Created by:
Sæm Hopping	February 8, 2007-

Classical Diūn was born on February 8, 2007 as Djun. Recently I have done some major tweaking on it. So I thought I'd just post the language in its most recent incarnation.

I. Phonology:

A. Phoneme Inventory:

a. Plosives: /p b t d t` d` k g/ <p b t d th dh c g>

b. Nasals: /m n n` [N]/ <m n nh n>

c. Fricatives: /p\ B s z s` z` C/ <ph,f bh,v s z sh zh h>

d. Affricates: /ts [tts] tS [ttS] [dZ]/ <cc,ċ cc,ċ ch ch g>

e. Lateral Approximants: /l/ <l>

f. Approximants: /r\ j/ <r i>

g. Vowels: /a e i o u a: e: i: o: u: ai au oi/ <a e i o u ā ē ī ō ū ai au oi>

B. Allophones:

a. [N] occurs medially as an allophone of /n/

b. [tts] occurs medially as an allophone of /ts/

c. [ttS] occurs medially as an allophone of /tS/

d. [dZ] occurs medially as an allophone of /g/

C. Phonotactics

a. No consonant clusters consisting of only fricatives,plosives or approximants

b. The coda and onset cannot consist of more than two consonant sounds

c. Approximants cannot begin a word. Approximants also have to have a Plosive or only the following fricatives infront of them /f v s z h/.

d. /r\/ cannot come after /p b k s z g/

e. retroflex consonants can only come at the end of a word

D. Syllable Structure

a. CV(C)

II.Grammar:

A. Nominal Morphology

a. Classical Diūn nouns are inflected for the Ergative Case or if definiteness needs to be distinguished.

b.Classical Diūn is an Ergative_Absolutive Language. The Ergative case marks the subject of a transative verb.

c. the suffix -(o)m is added to the noun to mark the Ergative case while no suffix is needed to mark the Absolutive case.

d. the suffix -(i)d marks the plural. It comes before the Ergative suffix and after the root.

e. -(o)n marks a noun as definite. When the word is marked for Ergativity the definite article is not marked or if not marking definiteness doesn't cause ambiguity.

f. Examples:

Vinidom toi vini nīven

(The) Boys want to kill me

Boy.plur.erg me.abs kill.3P want.inf

Tia vinidon gin sīho sōnen

I can not find the boys

I.erg boy.plur.def negator find.1P can.inf

B. Verbal Morphology

a. Diūn Verbs are inflected for person. The Diūn tenses (past and future) are expressed by separate particles. The Present does not need a separate particle. <mo> is the past particle and <mu> is the future morpheme. <mi> is also used to emphasize the present. The tense particles follow the verb. Adverbs can be placed between the verb and the tense particle

b.

infinitive: suffix root + -en

1st Person: root + -(h)o

2nd Person: root + -(h)a

3rd Person: root + -(h)i

All-Persons Plural: root + -(h)e

c. Examples:

No dinid va he cephe mu

We will seize your things(possessions)

We.ERG thing.plur you.abs of seize.plur future-particle

Tia ga hado cīvi mo (or) Tia ga hado mo cīvi

I did that easily

I.erg it/him.abs do.1P easy past-particle (or) I.erg it/him.abs do.1P past-particle easy

C. Adjectival and Adverbial Morphology

a. Classical Diūn has four adverbial and adjectival degrees: The bare root is considered the first degree. The second degree, like the English -er suffix, is marked by the -(h)et suffix. The third degree, like the English -est suffix, is marked by the -(h)ec suffix. The third degree, meaning "ultimate" or "extremely" is marked by the -(h)idh suffix.

b. Examples:

Ci gahlo nomi

It/He is red

It/he.erg red is.3P

Ci gahlohec nomi

It/He is (the) reddest

It/he.erg red.3rd is.3P

D. Syntax

a. Classical Diūn is an SOV language.

b. Verbal moods are distinguished by word order:

The Djūn verbal moods are:

Subject-Object-Verb - indictive

Verb-Object-Subject - interrogative

Subject-Verb-Object - subjunctive

Verb-Object-Subject - imperative, -im suffix is added to the verb which is not inflected.

Subject-Object-Verb- conditional, -ta suffix is added to the verb which in uniflected. <Vis> is used between the condition and the event.

c. The indicative mood is the default mood. It is used when the speaker wants to convey a fact. The interrogative mood is used when the speaker is asking a question. The subjunctive is used when the speaker is speaking about a hypothetical event. The imperative is used to state a command. The conditional mood is used to state a condition of another event.

d. Examples:

The Indicative: Tia gīmos toi he phīho

I love my family

I.erg family me.abs of love.1P

The Interrogative: Phīha gīmos vo he?

Do you love your family?

Love.2P family you.erg of

The Subjunctive: Tia phīho gīmos toi he, pe toi phīhe habhi mu.

Should I love my family, They will love me too.

I.erg love.1P family me.abs of, they.erg me.abs love.plur also future particle

The Imperative: Phīhenim gīmos vo he!

Love your family!

Love.inf.imp family you.erg of

The Conditional: Tia gīmos toi he phīhenta vis pe toi phīhenta habhi mu.

If I loved my family, they would love me too

I.erg family me.abs of love.inf.con that they.erg me.abs love.inf.con also future-particle

e. Adjectives and Adverbs follow the noun or verb they modify. The adverbs can come after the verb or after the tense particle(if there is one).

f. Classical Diūn uses postpositions rather than prepositions

g. Modals always come at the end of the phrase in infinitive form when another verb is present.

h. Examples:

Tia vecia ga he vivi vōmo nīven mo

I wanted to hit him in the face

I.erg face.abs him.abs of on hit.1P want.inf past-particle