Tanemantin: Difference between revisions
| Line 18: | Line 18: | ||
|'''Plosive/Affricate''' | |'''Plosive/Affricate''' | ||
|'''p''' /p/ | |'''p''' /p/ | ||
|'''t''' /t/ ''' | |'''t''' /t/ | ||
|'''ts''' /ts/ | |||
|'''ch''' /c/ | |'''ch''' /c/ | ||
|'''c''' /k | |'''c''' /k/ | ||
| | | | ||
|- | |- | ||
|'''Fricative''' | |'''Fricative''' | ||
|''' | |'''ph''' /ɸ/ | ||
|'''th''' /θ/ | |'''th''' /θ/ | ||
|'''s''' /s/ | |'''s''' /s/ | ||
| Line 49: | Line 49: | ||
|} | |} | ||
There are | There are five vowel phonemes /i e a o u/. Length is phonemic, and long vowels are distinguished with macrons. There are also three diphthongs, all falling: /ai au ei eu oi ou/. | ||
===Stress=== | ===Stress=== | ||
| Line 57: | Line 57: | ||
===Syllable Structure=== | ===Syllable Structure=== | ||
Tanemantin has a (C)V( | Tanemantin has a (C)V(C) syllable structure. Word-internally, /n/ is the only coda consonant that occurs. Word-finally, /m n t θ s h/ are permissible coda consonants. | ||
===Allophony=== | ===Allophony=== | ||
- /n | - Word-internal coda /n/ is realised as a nasal at the same point of articulation as the following consonant, e.g. /inɸe/ [ɪm'ɸe]; /ankas/ [ɐŋgɐs]. | ||
- Tanemantin has only voiceless stops. They are realised as either plain or lightly aspirated in most environments, except after a nasal where they are realised as voiced. Word final /t/ is realised as unreleased as unreleased. | |||
- | - /h/ may be realised [x] word-finally. | ||
- The short vowels /a e i o/ tend to be realised as [ɐ ɛ ɪ ɒ] | - The short vowels /a e i o u/ tend to be realised as [ɐ ɛ ɪ ɒ ʊ] except word-finally, where they are realised closer to their cardinal values. | ||
- The long vowels /a: e: i: o:/ have a tendency to develop a schwa-like glide: [aə eə iə oə]. | - The long vowels /a: e: i: o: u:/ have a tendency to develop a schwa-like glide: [aə eə iə oə uə]. | ||
== Nominal Morphology == | == Nominal Morphology == | ||
Revision as of 12:00, 31 March 2009
Tanemantin is one of the Ke:tic languages and a descendent of the classical language Sarim.
Phonology
Tanemantin distinguishes between 17 consonant phonemes
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
| Plosive/Affricate | p /p/ | t /t/ | ts /ts/ | ch /c/ | c /k/ | |
| Fricative | ph /ɸ/ | th /θ/ | s /s/ | h /h/ | ||
| Nasal | m /m/ | n /n/ | ny /ɲ/ | |||
| Liquid | w /w/ | l /l/ | r /ɾ/ | y /j/ |
There are five vowel phonemes /i e a o u/. Length is phonemic, and long vowels are distinguished with macrons. There are also three diphthongs, all falling: /ai au ei eu oi ou/.
Stress
Stress in Tanemantin is non-phonemic, always falling on the penultimate syllable of the word unless an adjacent syllable has a long vowel nucleus, in which case the stress shifts to that syllable. If both the final and antepenultimate vowels are long, stress falls on the final vowel. Monosyllabic semantic words are stressed, grammatical particles are not.
Syllable Structure
Tanemantin has a (C)V(C) syllable structure. Word-internally, /n/ is the only coda consonant that occurs. Word-finally, /m n t θ s h/ are permissible coda consonants.
Allophony
- Word-internal coda /n/ is realised as a nasal at the same point of articulation as the following consonant, e.g. /inɸe/ [ɪm'ɸe]; /ankas/ [ɐŋgɐs].
- Tanemantin has only voiceless stops. They are realised as either plain or lightly aspirated in most environments, except after a nasal where they are realised as voiced. Word final /t/ is realised as unreleased as unreleased.
- /h/ may be realised [x] word-finally.
- The short vowels /a e i o u/ tend to be realised as [ɐ ɛ ɪ ɒ ʊ] except word-finally, where they are realised closer to their cardinal values.
- The long vowels /a: e: i: o: u:/ have a tendency to develop a schwa-like glide: [aə eə iə oə uə].
Nominal Morphology
Noun Classes
Tanemantin has two noun classes: animate nouns include humans, animals, deities and spirits, aswell as certain other bodies such as inim 'the Sun' and lō 'fire'. Inanimate nouns are everything else.
Number
Tanemantin nouns are marked for singular, plural, and nullar numbers.
The plural morpheme differs with noun class:
The nullar is a fairly recent innovation, from the Sarim partitive case, the use of which was largely limited to the patient of negative verbs and *m(ə)ruʔ 'none' (cf. Tanemantin mai 'nothing'). By the time of Middle Tanemantin the old partitive had come to be the nullar number. Note that for this reason nullar nouns are not marked for case.
Cases
Tanemantin nouns are marked for two cases: the Absolutive and the Ergative.
Pronouns
Personal Pronouns
Tanemantin has the usual run of first, second, and third person pronouns in singular and plural. It also has an obviate "fourth person" pronoun, which is not declined for number. Unlike nouns, Tanemantin pronouns have a distinct genitive case in addition to the normal six cases, and for the first and second person pronouns the ergative, not the absolutive, is the base form of the pronoun.
First Person:
| Singular | Plural | |
| Absolutive | nan | nagan |
| Lative | nethī | negī |
| Locative | nā | nagā |
| Ablative | nam | nagum |
| Partitive | nānu | naganu |
| Ergative | nā | naga |
| Genitive | nar | nagā |
Second Person:
| Singular | Plural | |
| Absolutive | lī | ligan |
| Lative | lithī | ligī |
| Locative | lī | ligā |
| Ablative | liyum | ligum |
| Partitive | līnu | liganu |
| Ergative | li | liga |
| Genitive | lir | ligā |
Third Person:
| Singular | Plural | |
| Absolutive | un | ini |
| Lative | unī | inithī |
| Locative | una | inī |
| Ablative | unum | inim |
| Partitive | uneu | iniu |
| Ergative | us | inī |
| Genitive | una | inī |
Fourth Person (Obviate):
| Singular | Plural | |
| Absolutive | thi | |
| Lative | thī | |
| Locative | thī | |
| Ablative | thiyum | |
| Partitive | thinu | |
| Ergative | thī | |
| Genitive | thī |
