Sefdaanian grammar - phonology

A DESCRIPTIVE GRAMMAR OF SENJECAS, THE LANGUAGE OF SEFDAANIA by Charles W. Brickner, M.A.

INTRODUCTION - t̬ívas

• 1. Senjecas (Ancient-Speech) is the name given to the language that was first spoken by loquent beings. It was implanted by Yumus in the Children of Air, the Ethrans, the first created of the Six Loquent Peoples when s/he sang their unique song into their ears. Subsequently s/he sang their unique songs into the ears of the other Loquent Peoples as they were created. It remained the only language spoken by the Six Loquent Peoples until the Great Sundering. After this, differences between the Peoples and regional differences within each People arose which led to the development of diverse languages, many of which became mutually unintelligible. The ability to speak Senjecas had never been lost by the Children of Wood, the Xylans, who had been unaffected by the Great Sundering, or by the Ethrans. In the renascence that began after the Children of Earth (the Humans) recovered from the Great Sundering, Senjecas was restored as the medium of communication among the Six Loquent Peoples.
• 2. The language is an isolating (analytic) language with only a very few inflections, although compounding is common. It is a Type A tonal language (register system) with an absence of velar and uvular sounds and limited consonant clusters. It is classed as a nominative-accusative language.
• 3. This grammar is divided into four sections. Part I describes the phonology of the language. In this section is discussed the writing and the sounds of the language, the syllabification and accenting of words, and punctuation. Part II describes the inflection of the words. In this section is discussed the formation of individual words in their several categories (nouns, verbs, etc.). Part III describes word formation, the way in which individual words are combined to form new words. Part IV describes the syntax. In this section are discussed the rules governing the way words are combined to form sentences.

Part I – Phonology - némos I - ṁeṙšènṁeídas

The Alphabet - ṙuuntágos

• 4. The Senjecan alphabet has 30 graphemes: 24 consonants and six vowels.
• 5. Several alphabets have been in use since the Ethrans invented graphemes for writing Senjecas. In all of them there is a one-to-one correspondence between the grapheme (letter) and the phoneme (sound).
• 6. The earliest alphabet consists of cursive graphemes which are acrophonic, i.e., they represent the object used as the name of the letter, not unlike the Phoenician alphabet at its origin. These were devised in the first era by the Ethrans for recording their great discoveries.
• 7. A second alphabet consists of symbols derived from the preceding cursive symbols, but suitable for brush strokes. These were devised in the third era by the Hydorans and continue to be used by them.
• 8. A third alphabet consists of rectilinear graphemes derived from the aforementioned cursive graphemes. These were devised in the fifth era by the Xylans for carving in wood. Because they are not symmetrical they may be used as runes. These rectilinear graphemes were adopted by the Lithans for carving in stone.
• 9. The order of the alphabet is based on articulatory phonetics: labials, dentals, alveolars and palatals, followed by the vowels.
• 10. By the time the Humans had begun writing, the Peoples were already dispersed among them. As the various human cultures began to write, the Peoples took advantage of the various alphabets for writing their own language, but at all times retaining their skill in their three original alphabets.
• 11. The Committee on Orthography of the Council of Archimages (ufsefƶúmë meðкantús ṙuunpexmás qòṁa daaṙкántïmus - UMRD) has always desired to make the various human alphabets as simple as possible by not using digraphs or diacritics. As the alphabets have developed, the UMRD has updated the orthographies to match, keeping in mind the phonemes used in Senjecas. The use of the Latin alphabet by various languages has given the committee greater freedom to represent the Senjecan phonemes. I have chosen their currently approved Latin alphabet for this work.
  • a. þ (thorn) and ð (eth) are retained from the Anglo-Saxon alphabet to represent the voiceless and voiced dental fricatives /θ/ and /ð/ respectively.
  • b. ȝ (yogh), has been retained from the Middle English alphabet for /j/ and / ȷ̊/.
  • c. ḷ is used to represent the voiceless dental lateral fricative /l̥/.
  • d. ƶ reflects an Italian use of the grapheme as used for /ʣ/.
  • e. ṁ has been taken for /m̥/ from the IPA.
• 12. Each of the graphemes is named after a natural creature whose name begins with that grapheme or whose name includes that grapheme. The long vowels are specified as ṁázda (long a), ṁázde (long e), etc. For the three weak vowels, v. #7.

The Consonants - àṙgëšenóes

• 13. The consonants are divided, according to the organs of speech by which they are produced, into plosives or stops, spirants or fricatives, and approximants. In Senjecas these organs include the lips (labials), the teeth (dentals), the alveolus (alveolars), and the palate (palatals). Each consonant may be either voiced or unvoiced. There are no geminate consonants.
• 14. Senjecan linguists speak of two types of consonants, male and female. The occlusives

  are male consonants; they must undergo lenition when followed by another consonant. The fricatives <f/v, þ/ð, x/q, s/z> and the approximants <ṁ/m, ḷ/l, ṙ/n, ȝ̇/ȝ> are female. They do not undergo lenition.

• 15. In the case of the approximants, voicelessness is indicated with a dot above or below the letter: ṁ, ḷ, ṙ, ȝ̇. If the dot is not available, a digraph with <h> may be used: mh, lh, rh, yh.
• 16. Labialized and palatalized consonants are not considered to be separate graphemes, e.g., dúta, ḑóqos, d̬ó.
• 17. When using the Latin alphabet, labialization is indicated by placing a caron over or under a consonant (č, d̬). Palatalization is indicated by placing a cedilla under or over a consonant (ç, ģ).
• 18. There are three other graphemes used in Senjecas which are not considered to be separate letters.
  • a. The pépe (weak e, ë) is used to prevent disallowed consonant clusters, e.g., ḷéṙnësos, torch).
  • b. The pépi (weak i, ï) is used when a palatalized consonant is followed by a consonant, e.g., кóŗ̇a, wage war; кòṙïnááṁos, warship).
  • c. The pépu (weak u, ü) used when a labialized consonant is followed by a consonant, e.g., óĸ̌os, eye; òкüкáðos, eyelid).

Vowels and Diphthongs - šèvšenóesĸ̌e d̬opèlṙuunóesĸ̌e

• 19. Transliterating the Senjecan alphabets into the Latin alphabet for the speaker of English requires a few modifications. In this case, Senjecas has six vowel phonemes, while the Latin alphabet has but five graphemes with which to represent them. Since one of these Senjecan phonemes does not have its own grapheme in English, the ɔ grapheme from the IPA was adopted to represent the open mid-back rounded vowel /ɔ/. The vowels are ordered from front non-rounded closed to back rounded closed, i, e, a, ɔ, o, and u.

front near-front central near-back back close i/i u/u near-close ï/ɪ ü/ʊ close mid e/e ë/ə o/o open a/a ɔ/ɒ

• 20. The vowels are the pure vowels found in Italian or Spanish. Remember to keep the e and the o pure, without the i or u glides that occur in the English pronunciation of these phonemes.
• 21. The Senjecan vowel can be either long or short. The long vowels are indicated by doubling: ii, ee, aa, ɔɔ, oo, and uu. The quality of the long vowel is not changed, but it is pronounced for a longer time than the short vowel.
• 22. There are no diphthongs in Senjecas. Each vowel is syllablic and the tone is placed on every vowel according to the rules for tone.

Elision - dų́ṙas

• 23. Elision is the omission of a word-final vowel when the next word begins with a vowel. The two words are written separately and an apostrophe marks the omission. When writing with the various Senjecan alphabets, no apostrophe is used.
• 24. Elision occurs with the negating adverbs ne and me, which are always elided with a following initial vowel, e.g., n' ìðu, not here.
• 25. Elision occurs when the final vowel of a word is the same as the initial vowel of the following word, e.g., ṁùm cemelós èn' atá, our father in heaven.
• 26. Elision occurs when a postposition is followed by a word beginning with a vowel, e.g., nùes tèèmvi véṙso cúṙĸom ànt' éṙa, they are paddling futilely against the swift current.
• 27. The following table gives the relationship of these consonants, as understood by the speakers of Senjecas, with their pronunciation.

labial dental alveolar palatal plosives p/b t/d c/ ƶ ĸ/g spirants f/v þ/ð s/z x/q sonorants ṁ/m ḷ/l ṙ/n ȝ̇/ȝ

• 28. These consonants are pronounced as in English, with the following exceptions:
  • a. f and v are bilabials as in Spanish, not labiodentals as in English.
  • b. ṁ represents the voiceless counterpart of the English m. It occurs in English after a voiceless consonant, e.g., smoke (cf. mutt).
  • c. þ and ð represent the sounds th as in thigh, and th as in thy, which are interdental in English, but dental in Senjecas.
  • d. ṙ represents the voiceless counterpart of the Spanish tap <r>, /ɾ/. A trilled, but still voiceless, <r>, /r,/ is allophonic and often used for the interrogative -r at the end of a question.
  • e. ḷ represents the voiceless counterpart of l. It occurs in English after a voiceless consonanct, e.g., pleat (cf. bleat).
  • f. l represents the clear l of light, never the dark l of dull.
  • g. x represents the sound ch as in the German ich, not the ch as in the German bach.
  • h. q represents the voiced counterpart of x, as found in Spanish intervocalic g, haga.
  • i. ȝ̇ represents the voiceless counterpart of j. It occurs in English after a voiceless consonant, e.g., the y-glide between the p and the u in puny (cf. beauty).
• 29. Labialized and palatalized consonants are ordered immediately after the letter they affect, e.g., s, ş, š, t, etc.
• 30. Only consonant clusters of two consonants are permitted in Senjecas.
• 31. When it happens that the addition of a morpheme would result in a three-consonant cluster, an epenthetic ë is inserted for euphony, e.g., álvis, barley; àlvëȝǫúsos, barley broth. This epenthetic ë is ordered after e in an alphabetical listing.
• 32. Consonant clusters may not contain two stops, e.g., gb. In order to prevent this, when a morpheme with an initial stop is added to a base with a final stop, the final stop is muted to the corresponding affricate in a process known as lenition. Thus, odégos, stem, + bólos, lump, = òdeqbólos, tuber.

Syllabification - šenlęƶós ṁéṙƶas

• 33. A Senjecan word has as many syllables as it has vowels. The last syllable is called the ultima. The syllable next to the last is called the penult(ima[te]). The one before the penult is called the antepenult(imate).
• 34. A single consonant between two vowels belongs to the following vowel, e.g., a-pé-los, force.
• 35. Two contiguous consonants are separated with the first consonant going with the preceding syllable, e.g., sél-ĸ̌es, seal.

Intonation - šenós ṁéṙƶas

• 36. In many modern languages, such as English, the accent is known as stress accent in which the accented syllable is pronounced more intensely than the other syllables. In Senjecas, as in some modern languages, the accent is known as register pitch accent in which the vowel of the primary syllable is pronounced on a higher pitch. The Senjecas accent was thus a musical one. This is called intonation. There are three pitches in Senjecas, the primary, the secondary, and the basal. These are relative pitches and their absolute pitch will vary with the individual speaker.
• 37. Accent marks are not used when writing in any of the Senjecan alphabets. More for the sake of the non-Senjecan reader than anything else, accent marks are used with the Latin alphabet. An acute accent marks the primary pitch, e.g., sénta, travel. A grave accent marks the secondary pitch, e.g., sèntëmáĸos, backpack. The basal pitch is unmarked.
• 38. For purposes of intonation, Senjecan words are placed into two categories: those which take the primary pitch (verbs, nouns, adjectives, and interjections) and those which do not (the other words).
• 39. Monosyllables, except for interjections and numerals, are pronounced on the basal pitch.
• 40. The primary accent regularly stands on the penult. When the verb is finite, the accent remains on the penult, e.g., mümúda. With the participles, the accent is shifted so as to remain on the stem vowel, e.g., múdantis, múdaþus.
• 41. The primary accent may not be any farther back than the antepenult. Therefore, when the participles are declined in the plural, the accent must be shifted forward. The primary accent is then replaced by the secondary accent, e.g., múdaþus, mùdaþúes.
• 42. Nouns and adjectives take the primary accent on the penult, e.g., ĸónmos, shin; molóndos, millstone. When they are declined in the plural, the primary accent remains on the penult, e.g., ĸonmóes, fronts; mòlondóes, millstones.
• 43. When nouns and/or adjectives are compounded, the root word retains the primary accent and secondary accents are placed on every other syllable backward, e.g., táses, animal, + ṁeídas, knowledge, + the agentive suffix –áágus , = tasṁèidáágus, zoologist.
• 44. Some monosyllables attach themselves so closely to the preceding word that they lose their own accent. These are called enclitics and comprise an exception to the regular accent pattern. They include the conjunction -ĸ̌e, and, and the disjunction -ṁo, or, e.g., ṁiṙúesĸ̌e ǧenúesĸ̌e, men and women.

Punctuation – páкas

• 45. The following punctuation is used with the three Senjecan alphabets.
  • a. An interpunct (⋅) (ṁiispáĸos) is used instead of spaces between words. This is no longer used in contemporary scripts, although it may be seen in formal writing.
  • b. The function of the comma to set off vocative exclamations is taken by a period (.) (dèṙvëspáĸos).
  • c. The function of the comma to set off dependent clauses, is taken by a hyphen (—) (ĸ̌iilsëspáĸos).
  • d. The function of the period is taken by two raised dots (:) (d̬ispáĸos).
  • e. The end of a paragraph is marked by three dots (⋮) (tìṙëspáĸos).
  • f. The function of quotation marks is taken by the quotative particle ṁa(ṙ) placed before and after the quoted words.
  • g. Question marks and exclamation points are not used.
  • h. The spelling of Senjecas is unicameral, i.e., there are no capital letters. Thus, capital letters are not used when the language is transliterated.

=Tables of Other Alphabets=

a. The Labials. Latin Greek Cyrillic IPA X-SAMPA Name p π п p p pádos b β б b b béȝus f ɸ ф ɸ p\ v ϐ в β B váṙis ṁ ϝ м̇ m̥ m_0 ṁeúṙos m μ м m m mános

b. The Dentals. Latin Greek Cyrillic IPA X-SAMPA Name t τ т t t taúṙes d δ д d d démos þ θ ҫ θ T þlááĸes ð ϑ ҙ ð D ḷ λ̣ ԓ l̥ l_0 l λ л l l láĸos

c. The Alveolars. Latin Greek Cyrillic IPA X-SAMPA Name c ϻ ц ʦ ts céȝos ƶ ϫ ж ʣ dz ƶélos s ς с s s súúṁes z ζ з z z ṙ ρ р ɾ̥ 4 ṙs n ν н n n nééþṙes

d. The Palatals. Latin Greek Cyrillic IPA X-SAMPA Names ĸ κ к c k ĸuȝíles g γ г ɟ g ǧíȝes x χ х ç C q ϙ ғ ʝ j\ qaídes ȝ̇ ⱶ һ ȷ̊ j_0 ȝ̇évlos ȝ ϳ й j j ȝóṙĸes

e. The Vowels. Latin Greek Cyrillic IPA X-SAMPA Names i ι и i i e η э e e ečes a α а a a aṙĸúṙos ɔ ο о ɒ Q ɔ́des o ω ѡ o o oṁéṙes u υ у u u údes ï ϊ ӥ ɪ I pépi ë ε ӭ ɛ E pépe ü ϋ ӱ ʊ U pépu