User:Masako/sandbox

k

Pronunciation

• Where ~ appears, it indicates free variation between phonemes.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i~i: (i)		u~u: (u)
Mid	e~e: (e)		o~o: (o)
Open		a~a: (a)

Diphthongs

• Both of the falling diphthongs as well as uai and yao only occur word finally.

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)	n (n)		ɲ (ny)
Plosive	p~b (p)	t~d (t)			k~g (k)		ʔ (')
Fricative		s (s)		ʃ (s)			h~ɦ (h)
Affricate		ts (ts)	tɬ (tl)	tʃ (ts)
Approximant			l~r (l)	j (y)		w (u)

• <s> & <ts> are /ʃ/ and /tʃ/ respectively, unless immediately preceded or followed by one another, then <s> is always /s/ and <ts> is always /tʃ/.
• However, one could pronounce them either way (e.g. always /s/ & /ts/) and still be understood.

• Example:

sitsa - /'si:.tʃa/ - warmth, heat / warm, hot / to heat up

tsasu - /'tʃa:.su/ - cursive writing; having successive letters joined together

Phonotactics

• Kala phonotactics does not allow the onsets of adjacent syllables to be identical, nor both to be labialised or palatalised.
  • There are a few exceptions to this, such as tata for the informal/familiar form of father, etc.
• Syllables beginning with /l/ do not occur as the first syllable of a morpheme.

Syllable Structure

• See also: Syllables

• (N)(C)V/D(F)
  • N - nasal; prenasal; /n/ or /m/
  • C - consonant
  • V - vowel
  • D - diphthong
  • F - final; coda

• The three codas are /k/, /m/, and /n/; these only occur as a final codas to negate, pluralize or adverbialize verbs and nouns, respectively.

Stress

• In Kala stress falls on the penultimate syllable with the exceptions of negatives and words that end with a syllable onset palatal approximant, in which case stress is ultimate.

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/.

• mp /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~ᵑ/

Example: nkapa /ˈᵑka.pa/ - n - alcohol / grog

Sentence structure

See also: Kala Sentences

• Most sentences in Kala contain a verb phrase, typically denoting the occurrence of an action. A verb phrase consists of a verb plus any modifiers.

• Most sentences also contain at least one noun phrase, typically denoting a person or thing. A noun phrase consists of a noun plus any modifiers.

• The two most important noun phrases are the subject and the object. Their exact meaning depends on the choice of verb, but

loosely speaking, the subject is the person or thing that carries out the action, and the object is the person or thing that is directly affected by the action.

• Kala has an extremely regular grammar, with very few exceptions to its rules. Sentences are made up of one or more phrases. Each phrase consists of a subject (optionally followed by modifying particles) and a verb (optionally followed by modifying particles).

Word Order

• Kala phrase structure can be represented as follows:

subject-(modifier) (particle) ((object)-(modifier)) verb-(modifier) (particle)

or, more simply SOV

parts of speech

verbs

• A typical verb denotes the occurrence or abandonment of an action (run, stop), a relationship (have, lose), or a state (stand, melt). Most verbs can be reused without change as a noun.

tense

tense	suffix	gloss	example
remote past	-yeha	REM	nam inayeha We ate a long while ago.
recent past	-yehi	REC	nam inayehi We just ate.
past	-ye	PST	nam inaye We ate.
present	not marked		nam ina We eat. / We are eating. / We do eat.
future	-tli	FUT	nam inatli We will eat.
immediate future	-tlihi	IMM	nam inatlihi We will eat soon/now.
distant future	-tliha	DIS	nam inatliha We will eat a long while from now.

• Kala does not distinguish perfect and imperfect aspects of the verb (e.g. "I ate", "I used to eat", "I have eaten", "I had eaten").
• If a temporal adverb is used, the tense suffix may be omitted.

Example: We ate yesterday.

yomaye	nam	ina
day-pst	1pl	eat

modifiers

usage	suffix	from	example
ability, can	-pa	pala to be able, can	na yalapa I am able to go.
attempt, try	-pya	upya to attempt; to try	na yalapya I am trying to leave.
negation	-k	nke no, not; negative	na yalak I am not going.
beginning, initiate	-mu	mula start; begin	na yalamu I begin to go. / I'm starting to leave.
permission; allow	-myo	myonta to allow; permit	na yalamyo I am allowed to go.
should, ought to	-ne	neya should, to ought to	na yalane I should go.
need, necessity	-he	heya to need; require	na yalahe I need to go.
deintensify	-hi	ahi small; little	na inahi I am snacking.
appear, seem	-tse	tse'e to seem; appearance	ha yalatse He seems to be going.
want, desire	-ue	ueha to want; desire	na yalaue I want to go.
intention, volition	-ue	ueyo to intend to	na yalaue I intend to go.

nouns

• Nouns include pronouns, adjectives (nouns of quality), and determiners.

plurality

• A countable noun (or "count noun") can be modified by a number, and can accept the plural. Typical countable nouns represent objects that are clearly individual entities, such as houses, cats, and thoughts. For example:

	root	usage	example
-m	ma	general plural	tsakam houses
-mha	ma + -ha	indefinite abundance	tsakamha many/a lot houses
-mi	ma + -hi	indefinite insufficiency	tsakami few houses
tli-	tatli	collective plural	tlikuma sleuth of bears
-lo	ma	alternative to -m	yamalo mountains

• When modified by a number, general plurals need not be marked. Example:

tsaka ta'o - Two houses.

affect / degree

• The diminutive is formed with -hi, and the augmentative with -ha.

These are respectively realized as -ki and -ka when attached to a word that has a final syllable onset is /h/.

Example : ina - food, meal | inahi - snack, morsel | inaha - feast, banquet

Example : tsaka - house, home, dwelling | tsakahi - shack, hut, cabin | tsakaha - palace, mansion

• These are also used to differentiate hue, or shade.

Example : yanahi - light yellow, kuyaha - dark green

• In Kala the concepts of comparative and superlative degree of an adjective are merged into a single form, the elative.

How this form is understood or translated depends upon context and definiteness. In the absence of comparison, the elative conveys the notion of “greatest”, “supreme.”

Example : tahaka - bigger/biggest

tsaka hayo ke nayo tahaka - His house is bigger than mine.

Example : yanaha - more yellow/most yellow

ke mauam tayo yanaha - Your flowers are the most yellow.

gender

• Nouns do not normally indicate their gender. To distinguish the sexes, the suffixes -ta and -na are used:

• uma - horse

umata - a male horse, a stallion

umana - a female horse, a mare

pronouns

• Kala generally distinguishes four persons, the fourth person indicating abstract and inanimate nouns – both in the singular and plural numbers.

There is also a distinction between inclusive (I/we and you) and exclusive (we but not you) forms of the first person plural.

• na - 1sg
• ta - 2sg
• ha - 3sg
• tla - 4sg

-

• The two irregular pronouns:
  • na'am - 1pl exclusive
  • kam - 3pl

inflectional affixes

• -m - plural
• -nku - reciprocal
• e- - accusative
• -i - reflexive
• -yo - possessive

-

• Example:

eta	nahe	tsaka	hayo	a
acc-2sg	inside	house	3sg-poss	be

correlative pronouns

	query	this proximal	that medial	that (over there) distal	some	none	any	every	whichever
adjective	ke...ka which	itla this	uatla that	yetla that (over there)	iha some	ok none	ula any	kua every, all	ote whichever
person	ko...ka who	iko this person	uako that person	yeko that person (over there)	hyako someone	tlok no one	kola anyone	tlokua everyone	teko whoever
thing	ke...ka what	itla this	uatla that	yetla that (over there)	hyano something	nok nothing	nola anything	nokua everything	teno whatever
time	ama...ka when	ima now	uama then	yeme then	hyamo sometime	amak never, at no time	tlama anytime	kuama always	tema whenever
place	mo...ka where	hina here	uana there (near you)	yemo there (away from us)	hyamo somewhere	mok nowhere	mola anywhere	mokua everywhere	temo wherever
way	to...ka how	yoto thus			hyato somehow				heto however
amount	uku...ka how much					ok none			teku however much
reason	nye...ka why								tenye why ever