Kala

The Kala conlang...

• calendar
• etymology
• lexicon
  • thematic lexicon
• phrases
• syllables
• word formation
• writing

introduction

Kala is a personal conlang (actually more of an artlang), not attached to any conworld or conculture.

characteristics

Kala is a context-oriented language. In most cases, the more important elements of a phrase are clustered toward the end of the sentence (e.g. verbs and their modifiers). The less important an element is to the understanding of a sentence, the more likely it is to be dropped. Consequently, many Kala sentences end-up consisting solely of a verb (or adjectival verb). More so in conversation than in written Kala, these short phrases are grammatically correct and natural. Here are some examples:

• muya ka - do Q - (What are you) doing?
• ina - eat - (I am) eating.
• tamatse - good-seem - (That looks) good.
• ueha ka - want Q - (Do you) want (some)?
• nyasak - thank-NEG - No, thank (you).

Notice that none of the above contain any pronouns, or nouns. Any contextually understood elements may be omitted unless indispensable.

parts of speech

Kala has three parts of speech, each with several subgroups. Nouns and verbs are substantive, while particles tend to be only functional. Many of the words can be used as both nouns and verbs. The best, and most common example would be ina (food; to eat).

• na ina - 1sg eat - I eat.
  • na ke ina anya - 1sg O food see - I see the food.

borrowing

Kala borrows extensively from various natural languages. This is a very small sample of borrowings:

See also: etymology

• kala – to speak, talk, converse; from Arabic takallama
• na – I, me; from Arabic ʾanā
• pato – duck (Anatidae); from Spanish pato
• tsenka – orange; from Chinese chéng
• uasi – to take, get, acquire; from Lakota wasichu
• myonta – to allow, permit; from Finnish myöntää
• a – to be, exist, yes; from Japanese aru

phonology

consonants

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

Consonants

	Labial	Alveolar		Palatal	Velar	Glottal
		central	lateral
Nasal	m (m)	n (n)		ɲ (ny)
Plosive	p~b (p)	t~d (t)			k~g (k)	ʔ (`)
Affricate		ts (ts)	t͡ɬ~tl (tl)	t͡ʃ (ts)
Continuant		s (s)	l~ɾ (l)	ʃ (s)		h~ɦ (h)
Semivowel				j (y)	w (u)

• Prenasalized: /ᵐp ⁿt ᵑk/
• Labialized:/pʷ kʷ mʷ nʷ ʃʷ hʷ t͡ʃʷ/
• Palatalized: /pʲ kʲ mʲ hʲ/

Note: Because of its small phoneme inventory, Kala allows for quite a lot of allophonic variation. For example, /p t k/ may be pronounced [b d ɡ] as well as [p t k], /s l h/ as [ʃ ɾ ɦ], and /t͡s t͡ɬ/ as [t͡ʃ t͡l]; also, vowels may be either long or short.

vowels

Vowels

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

Kala has five vowels /i/, /e/, /a/, /o/ and /u/. Each occurs in both stressed and unstressed syllables. Phonetic nasalization occurs for vowels occurring between nasal consonants or when preceding a syllable-final nasal, e.g. tsunka [ˈt͡ʃũᵑka] ('bug').

diphthongs

Phonetically, Kala has only two diphthongs, both falling; [aɪ̯] and [aʊ̯], but there are five syllables that can be analyzed as rising diphthongs; [wa], [we], [ja], [je], and [jo]. The two triphthongs [waɪ̯] and [jaʊ̯] are very rare but should be noted as possible.

syllable structure

Kala words are typically made up of open syllables of the type CV (consonant-vowel) with most words having syllables exclusively of this type. There is a limited set of syllables allowed by Kala phonotactics, similar to Japanese or Chinese. They are listed here: syllable chart, or here.

• /l/ cannot occur word initially (except in loan words and toponyms).

word order

The basic structure of a Kala sentence is:

AGENT--PATIENT--VERB (or SOV)

The agent is the person or thing doing the action described by the verb; The patient is the recipient of that action. The importance of word order can be seen by comparing the following sentences:

• mita tlaka anya - dog man see - The dog sees the man.
• tlaka mita anya - man dog see - The man sees the dog.

In both sentences, the words are identical, the only way to know who is seeing whom is by the order of the words in the sentence.

nouns

plural

• Nouns can be marked plural by -m (or -lo if the final syllable contains /m/ or /p/, or, if the word begins with a vowel).
  • In general the plural suffix is not used when the plurality of the noun is clear from context. For example, while the English sentence "there are three dogs" would use the plural "dogs" instead of the singular "dog", the Kala sentence mita ha'o a "dog three exist" keeps the word mita "dog" in its unmarked form, as the numeral makes the plural marker redundant.
  • The collective plural is marked by tli-, derived from tatli, meaning group; collection; gathering. It is mainly used to indicate collectives of animals, but can also indicate groups of flora, geographic features, and various other groupings. This is called the collective plural (COL).

• ata - name > atalo - names
• mita – dog > mitam - dogs > tlimita – pack of dogs
• yama – mountain > tliyamalo – mountain ranges
• tsaka – house > tlitsaka – neighborhood
• puku – clothing > tlipuku – wardrobe

gender

• Gender is not normally marked but can be by -na (FEM), -ta (MASC), or nouns such as naka, tlaka, nahi, or tahi (the woman, the man, the girl, the boy), etc. A gender neutral suffix, -nta may be used when the gender is unknown or ambiguous.

determiners

Determiners precede the noun they modify in Kala. Kala makes a three-way distinction. Typically there is a distinction between proximal or first person (objects near to the speaker), medial or second person (objects near to the addressee), and distal or third person (objects far from both).

• itla (i-) - this (near me)
• uatla (ua-) - that (near you)
• yetla (ye-) - that (over there)

The demonstratives can be prefixed to any noun to show deixis.

Quantifiers follow the noun that modify.

• kua (-kua) - all; every; whole
• oli (-li) - each; every
• ula (-la) - whatever; any; some
• mi (-mi) - few; little
• nke (-k) - none
• mpa (-mpa) - many; much; a lot
• maha - more; plus
• ohi - less; fewer

pronouns

...

verbs

...

particles

ke

• The patient, or object (O) marker.

conjunctions

There are three coordinating conjunctions in Kala and three correlative conjunctions:

coordinating

• ma - and; also

mita ina ma moku - dog eat and sleep - The dog eats and sleeps.

• ua - or

mita ina ua moku - dog eat or sleep - The dog eats or sleeps.

• ehe (me) - but; yet

mita ina ma mokunke - dog eat but sleep-NEG - The dog eats but does not sleep.

correlative

• yema - both X and Y

mita ina yema empa - dog eat both.X.and.Y run - The dog eats and runs.

• ue - either X or Y

mita ina ue empa - dog eat either.X.or.Y run - The dog is either eating or running.

• uenke (uek) - neither X nor Y

mita ina uenke empa - dog eat neither.X.nor.Y run - The dog is neither eating nor running.

prepositions

Kala does not have prepositions as a distinct part of speech. Instead, many locative verbs can be used as prepositions, in which case they precede the noun they modify. There is one general locative (-hue) which is affixed to nouns (and occasionally verbs) to indicate the sense of “at; in; on”.

adjectives

...

adverbs

Temporal adverbs in Kala precede the verb phrase they modify. Other adverbs follow the verb or adjective they modify and are explicitly marked by -n.

questions

There are two types of questions: Polar, those which may be answered "yes" or "no," and those which require explanations as answers. Any statement can become a polar question by adding the interrogative particle ka at the end of the sentence.

• mita ina - dog eat - The dog eats.
  • mita ina ka - dog eat Q - Does the dog eat?

The other type contains a question word and is followed by ka:

kanyo

	Kala	gloss	English
object	ke mita ina ka	O dog eat Q	What does the dog eat?
person	ko ina ka	person eat Q	Who eats?
possession	koyo mita ina ka	person-POSS dog eat Q	Whose dog eats?
manner	to mita ina ka	manner dog eat Q	How does the dog eat?
place	mo mita ina ka	place dog eat Q	Where does the dog eat?
reason	nye mita ina ka	reason dog eat Q	Why does the dog eat?
time	ama mita ina ka	time dog eat Q	When does the dog eat?
amount	uku mita ina ka	amount dog eat Q	How much/many does the dog eat?
which	ula mita ina ka	any dog eat Q	Which dog eats?

clauses

comparative

In Kala the concepts of comparative and superlative degree of an adjective (verb) 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.”

• tsaka hayo ke nayo tahaka

house 3sg.POSS O 1sg.POSS big-AUG

His house is bigger than mine.

• ke mauam tayo yanaha

O flower.PL 2sg.POSS yellow-AUG

Your flowers are the most yellow.

• iyapo ke tsaka tayo pakoha

PROX-building O home 2sg new-AUG

This building is newer than your home.

relative

In a relative clause, the verb has the suffix -tle (or -le if the final syllable contains /tl/) added to it. The order of the words in relative clauses remains the same as in regular clauses. The use of participles in Kala is rather different than in English and at first sight is difficult to understand. This is mainly due to the fact that the relative pronouns who, what, which, where are not used in Kala as in English.

• yalapa - to be able to walk produces: yalapatle - who/which/that can walk
• yalapak - not to be able to walk produces: yalapanketle - who/which/that can't walk

This nominalizes the verb in some cases, and makes it possible for it to be either the subject or the object.

• na ke tlaka nya inama talatle unya

1sg O man for eat-time come-REL know

I know the man who is coming to lunch.

• ke naka patlole pako

O woman sweep-REL young

The woman who is sweeping is young.

The relative suffix is most often in the final position. In some cases, it may be followed by the negative -k.

• itsaka na sutahuetle

PROX-house 1sg reside-LOC-REL

This is the house in which I live.

• itsaka na sutahueyetle

PROX-house 1sg reside-LOC-PST-REL

This is the house in which I lived.

numbers

uku

Kala	number	English	Kala	number	English	Kala	number	English
ye'o	0	zero	tsa'o	6	six	nya'o	500	five hundred
na'o	1	one	ka'o	7	seven	tle'o	103	(one) thousand
ta'o	2	two	pa'o	8	eight	mue'o	104	ten thousand
ha'o	3	three	sa'o	9	nine	kye'o	105	(one) hundred thousand
ma'o	4	four	ue'o	10	ten	nte'o	106	(one) million
ya'o	5	five	nye'o	100	(one) hundred	hue'o	109	(one) billion

forming larger numbers

• uena'o - eleven / 11
• taue'o - twenty / 20
• nyeka'o - one hundred seven / 107
• hanyetauetsa'o (long form) / hatatsa'o (short form) - three hundred twenty six / 326
• tsatletauema'o - six thousand and twenty four / 6024

other number forms

Kala	number	English	ordinal	multiple	fractional
na'o	1	one	kina'o first	tina'o once	-
ueta'o	12	twelve	kiueta'o twelfth	tiueta'o twelve times	iueta'o a twelfth
yauema'o (yama'o)	54	fifty four	kiyama'o fifty fourth	tiyama'o 54 times	iyama'o a fifty fourth
nyetsa'o	106	one hundred (and) six	kinyetsa'o 106th	tinyetsa'o 106 times	inyetsa'o a 106th
katle'o	7000	seven thousand	kikatle'o seven thousandth	tikatle'o 7000 times	ikatle'o 1/7000