User:Masako/naho

grammar outline and resources

• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingua_Franca_Nova_grammar
• zompist.com/virtuver.htm
• languagesgulper.com/eng/languages.html

Introduction (soka)

Kala is a personal conlang (actually more of an artlang), based on my aesthetic preferences, not attached to any conworld or conculture. This language draws on natlangs (natural language), other conlangs, and of course imagination. Kala was started in late 2009. The phonemic inventory is based on Classical Nahuatl while the syllable structure and vowels are based on the strict (C)V structure of Japanese, and the presence of prenasalized stops is influenced by Bantu languages. Kala’s grammar was initially based on Japanese but has changed based on influence from several natural and constructed languages. Many – if not most – of Kala lexemes are derived from or inspired by natural languages. A few have been taken from previous projects or constructed languages such as Ajara (a cipherlang from my youth), Qatama (a conlang that I abandoned several years ago).

Characteristics (tomilo)

Kala is a mostly agglutinative language that makes extensive use of compounding, incorporation, and derivation. That is, it can add many different prefixes and suffixes to a root until very long words are formed, and a single word can sometimes constitute an entire sentence. Kala has two parts of speech. Nouns and verbs are content words, while particles (and others) tend to be only functional. Many content words can be used as both nouns and verbs. The best and most common example would be ina /iːˈna/ "food; to eat". 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 - /muˌja gaː/ - do Q - (What are you) doing?
• ina - /iːˈna/ - eat - (I am) eating.
• tamatse - /tamaːˌt͡ʃɛ/ - good-seem - (That looks) good.
• ueha ka - /weːɦa kaː/ - want Q - (Do you) want (some)?
• nyasak - /ɲaːʃak/ - thank-NEG - No, thank (you).

Notice that none of the above contains any pronouns, or nouns. Any contextually understood elements may be omitted unless indispensable. There can be considerable divergence from what is grammatical, and what is acceptably idiomatic. The spectrum of formality and grammatical to idiomatic can be seen in the example below:

• na’etla muyaye – 1s-P.4s do-PST – I did it. > [grammatical, formal]
• etla muyaye – P.4s do-PST – (I) did it. >> It was done. > [grammatical, formal, passive]
• na muyaye – 1s do-PST – I did (it). > [grammatical, informal]
• muyaye – do-PST – (I) did (it). > [semi-grammatical, idiomatic]
• muyye – /muːjjɛ/ – do-PST – (I) did (it). > [ungrammatical, idiomatic]

Borrowing (kasu)

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

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

Syntax / Word order

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 verb (optionally followed by modifying particles) and a subject (optionally followed by modifying particles). The subject, if understood, can be omitted at the end of an utterance: pana = "It is raining." pana! = "Rain!" An utterance can be anything from an interjection to a story.

Morphology

adjectives

• Attributes
  • Adjectives used attributively appear after the noun, without modification: nahi aya 'a beautiful girl'; paka hikya 'an old idiot'.

• Predicates
  • As predicates they are a bit more complicated; in effect they are partially converted into verbs. No copula is used. In the simplest form, the adjective simply appears after the noun, in verbal position:

adverbs

• japaneselanguageguide.com/grammar/adverb.asp
• bruce-the-korean.blogspot.com/2015/11/adverbs-and-adverbials.html