User:Wattmann/Sandie

Western Mountains Qåuls is a language spoken along the ridges of the Western Mountains. It is primarily bordered on the north by Inland Qåuls (or, more commonly, Qóll), on the west by Seashore Wargish and on the south by Swamp Wargish.

Western Mountains Qåuls is a language with a very low morpheme-to-word ratio, as there are never more than two morphemes per word. The morphemes are very specialized and fusional, and there are some consonant mutations and ablauts, together grouped under stem alternations.

Western Mountains Qåuls is a language under heavy influence from Swamp Wargish, while in its earlier history more so under Woods Wargish whose speakers had migrated to the Northern Ridge.
WMQ is a language sprinkled with wargish morphology and littered with wargish loanwords, as a good portion of its lexicon is loaned from any one of a wide roster of neighbouring wargish tongues.

Phonology

/pʰ ʰp t tʰ ʰt k kʰ ʰk q qʰ ʰq/ < p' 'p t t' 't k k' 'k q q' 'q>
/s sʰ ʂ ʂʰ/ < s s' š š' >
/ɬ ɬʰ/ < ł ł' >
/t͡s t͡sʰ ʰt͡s t͡ɬ t͡ɬʰ ʰt͡ɬ/ < c c' 'c č č' 'č >
/m mʱ n nʱ/ < m mh n nh >
/ʋ r l j ɰ/ < v r l j w >

/a e ø ɨ ʉ ɒ u (ɵ ɜ)/ < a e ø i y å u (o ë) >
/a̤ e̤ ɒ̤ ṳ/ < ah eh åh uh >
/ɒ͡a e͡ɨ ɒ͡ɨ/ < åa ei åi >

The two bracketed vowels, /(ɵ ɜ)/ <(o ë)>, are found only in loans from various Wargish tongues. Wargish loans fit poorly into almost any Qåuls dialect, but western Qåuls is being continously adapted to incorporate Wargish features and phonology (fricative aspiration and ablaut, for an example, as they don't exist in any eastern Qåuls dialect)

Stem Alternations and "Bleeding"

In WMQ, there are some regular alternation sets.
The most important is aspiration reversal and bleeding. When aspiration reversal happens, post-aspirated obstruent become pre-aspirated and vice versa. Bleeding happens if the obstruents follow another obstruent that's not post-aspirated and they switch from post-aspiration to pre-aspiration. In such cases, the first consonant acquires post-aspiration and the second one loses its newly acquired pre-aspiration.

The ablaut of /a → e → ɨ → ɒ → a/ can cause a lenition of consonants in that syllable. Lenition happens this way: post-aspirates lose aspiration, unaspirates gain pre-aspiration, modal nasals become breathy. Breathy nasals trigger breathiness in vowels as an assimilation.

When followed by a nasal, breathy vowels can diphthongize during nasal syncope.
Syncope happens when a syllable is both followed and preceeded by vowels and is unstressed.
Syncopated nasals reflect themselves as length on the previous vowel which then undergoes diphthongization in the following manner: /ṳ → ɒ͡a; e̤ → e͡ɨ; ɒ̤ → ɒ͡a; a̤ → ɒ͡ɨ/. Vowels left behind in syllables after syncope, if not diphthongised or diphthonɡs already, become semivowels in the following manner: /{a ɒ ɜ} → ɰ; {e ø ɨ ɵ} → j; {u ʉ} → ʋ/.
Breathy vowels that are not phonemic can occur phonetically nonetheless.

The ablaut of /ɒ → ø → e → ɒ/ causes fortification of consonants in that syllable invariably. Fortification happens this way: all obstruents become post-aspirates, breathy nasals become modal.

Geminate lenition is a different process. Geminates can lenite in two ways: /C: → ʰC/ and /C: → Cs/. These two lenitions are seperate and occur only morphologically without any other preconditions.

Coronal nasals can fortify under the right circumstances. The fortification is always: /n → t; nʱ → st/. /nʱ/ always passes on its breathiness to the vowel.

Fortification of /ɒ̤S/ and /a̤S/ where S = {s sʰ ʂ ʂʰ} results in /eks/.
Fortification of /e̤ → jɨ/ also causes deletion of the previous consonant.

The three levels of aspiration, pre-, post- and an-aspiration, are co-dependent and they invariably mix. Besides the phonemic variations, there also exist phonetic extensions. When two pre-aspirated consonants cluster together, such that they may be represented abstractly as /ʰCʰC/, pre-aspiration of the second consonant becomes post-aspiration of the first consonant, and the second consonant becomes technically "bare", such that the formula may thusly be represented abstractly: /ʰC-ʰC → ʰCʰ-C/. The reverse doesn't work, so that two consecutive post-aspirates are only post-aspirates.

Phonotactics

WMQ has a very specific syllable structure: it can either have onsets or codas, but not both. The maximum consonant cluster in WMQ is "CCC", that is, three consecutive consonants. Consonants must agree in suprasegmentality (presence of either aspiration or breathiness). As pre-aspiration blends with post-aspiration, pre-aspirates cannot occur cluster-finally but can occur on their own and non-finally.

There can be only two consecutive vowels.

Stress is penultimate. Secondary stress occurs every second syllable going backwards.

Morpholosyntax

Western Mountains Qåuls is a fusional language. Its morphosyntactic alignment is transitive, with ergativity in pronouns. Verbs are always initial, and heads are free. Word order is generally free.

Noun

Nouns in WMQ are most commonly bisyllabic, although both longer and shorter nouns exist. Nouns can take either one suffix or one prefix, but not both. The prefix encodes topicality conflated with focus, while the suffix encodes case, number, class and animacy conflated into one slot.

Nouns in WMQ can be either topics or comments. Topics are the head nouns of phrases, and comments function as nominal adjectives or genitives. Topics are the only noun type that can be arguments to the verb, while comments function as modifiers to the noun. They are glossed (TOP) and (COM) respectively.

Focus in WMQ is most often used in comment phrases to indicate the head of the comment phrase, while it can also be used in noun compounds to indicate the head of the compound. They are glossed (+F) and (-F) respectively.

This is the inventory of prefixes:

		Topicality
		Topic	Comment*
Focus Presence	Present*	čså-	šiip'-
	Absent	en-	q'unh-

*Focus presence triggers the first ablaut in the first syllable, and the second in the second if possible. Comments fortify /nʱ/ in the first syllable.

There are three numbers in WMQ, that is, the singular, the dual and the plural. The singular is used when there is one instance, the dual for two, and plural for more than two instances. The dual is also a collective. The three are glossed (SG) (DU) and (PL) respectively.

There are six cases in WMQ, that is, the transitive, intransitive, postpositional, genitive, dative and malefactive. The five are glossed (TRN) (ITR) (PPS) (GEN) and (DAT) respectively.

- The transitive and intransitive cases show whether the marked noun is a transitive or intransitive argument of the verb. The intransitive also serves as a commitative in transitive sentences, as does the transitive in intransitive sentences. The intransitive also marks the beneficiary recepient in transitive sentences.

- The postpositional case marks the noun as postposition-taking. There's a wide set of postpositions, and they all act as clitics.

- The genitive case primarily marks composition, habitatory and lative origin, possessorship, consequence of an action and a state of being alienably possessed. It can become an argument of the transitive verb by way of material of production (example: logs with which the house is made - the logs build the house) or produce of an action (example: trunks cut for processing - the man produces tree trunks [by cutting down trees] ). It also marks the beneficiary recepient in intransitive sentences and donor in both transitive and intransitive sentences.

- The dative case primarily marks the theme of sentences.

- The malefactive case marks the maleficiary of sentences. It also has a rare usage of a vialis.

There are two noun classes in WMQ, them being mundane and divine. The mundane represents things easily understandable and commonplace, those which are not part of the world of the supernatural, while the divie represents mysterious and supernatural things. They are glossed (MUN) and (DIV) respectively.

There are two animacies in WMQ, them being the animate and inanimate. Animacy is inherent and lexical, but suffixes have to agree with it nonetheless. The animate/inanimate split is conditioned by the ability to perform complex actions. They are glossed (ANI) and (INA) respectively.

This is the inventory of suffixes in WMQ:

		Transitive (TRN)		Intransitive (ITR)		Postpositional (PPS)		Genitive (GEN)		Dative (DAT)		Malefactive (MAL)
		(ANI)	(INA)	(ANI)	(INA)	(ANI)	(INA)	(ANI)	(INA)	(ANI)	(INA)	(ANI)	(INA)
Singular (SG)	(MUN)	-Ø	-i[1]	-sšo	-mhi[1]	-'qp'u[2]	-s'i[1]	-un	-łi[1]	-jsø	-jsø	-jne	-i
	(DIV)	-vore	-vore	-vurå	-vårå	-we	-we	-'qs'y[2]	-nuqu	-če[2]	-nå[2]	-we[2]	-we
Dual (DU)	(MUN)	-e	-'kø	-tø	-'tø	-tø[1]	-ał'js[2]	-tå	-emen	-aspp	-øjl	-ykkø	-økk
	(DIV)	-a	-'kå	-tå	-'tå	-tå[1]	-uł'js[2]	-tå	-mnåa	-åp	-nku	-rsu	-nkå
Plural (PL)	Universal	-wåi[3]	-p'u	-ce	-ce[3]	-ssa	-ømhp'	-ssa	-øš	-ssa	-øš[3]	-nkse	-ip'ps'[3]

^[1] These trigger the second ablaut in the first syllable and breathy vowel fortification whenever possible.
^[2] These trigger the first ablaut in the first syllable and the second gemination lenition whenever possible.
^[3] These trigger the second ablaut in the first syllable, the first ablaut in the second syllable and first gemination lenition whenever possible.

Pronoun

Pronouns in WMQ are actually nouns, and they decline as nouns. Their original meaning is lost in WMQ.

	First Person	Second Person		Third Person		Fourth Person
		Proximate	Distal	Proximate	Obivate
(SG) Stem	nhå	as'	nøš	jvi	vsu	nëë
(DU) Stem	mhå	aš'	møš	svi	ssu	noka
(PL) Stem	nså	as'	nøs	jsi	vsu	nëën

They take the suffixes for their respective number.
The first and second person are universally animate, while the third and fourth persons are of a variable animacy. Class is chosen by the speaker. It is common to hubrotify oneself by agreeing the first person pronoun with the divine class, and it is common to humble oneself by agreeing the second person pronoun with the divine whilst the first person pronoun is mundane.
If both are divine, it is a sign of respect, but not of humility, and is used by high-ranking officials when communicating with one another.

Verb

There are two classes of verb in WMQ - the function and content verb.
Their main difference is their wideness of meaning and their use in the language, not their conjugations.

Function Verb

Function verbs are the "clutter" category, as they encompass copulas, verbal conjuctions et cetera of other languages. The four main function verbs in WMQ are:

- nyhsø (to be)

- nyhnsa (to wear, be in the state of)

- såhøw (to co-exist [functional "and", "nand" when negative])

- ëmat' (to be exclusive with [functional "or", "xor" when negative])

They conjugate as content verbs, but their uses are slightly different.

Content Verb

Content verbs are the actual meat of WMQ's class of verbs. They describe actual actions, as opposed to function verbs which describe relation types. An example content verb is "šusku" (to eat meat of non-friendly creatures).

Conjugation

Verbs in WMQ conjugate in two ways - by way of suffix and by way of clitic.

Suffixes replace the last vowel of the verb if it ends bare. The replacements are prone to ablaut.

The most important distinction in verbs is the attribute of transitivity, followed by tense. Transitivity and tense are conflated into one suffix, and all forms cause the second ablaut in both syllables and breathy vowel fortification.

The suffix containing transitivity and tense conflated can be replaced with the one conflating evidentiality and aspect. All forms cause the first ablaut in both syllables.

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The dimension of transitivity has two values - transitive and intransitive, glossed (TRN) and (ITR) respectively. The transitive denotes that there are two and more arguments for the verb, each marked with its appropriate case, and intransitive denotes that there is only one argument for the verb. If the verbs are impersonal, the fourth person pronoun is used.

The field of tense has three values marked - present, non-present and ancestral, glossed (PRS) (NPS) and (ACS) respectively. The present denotes actions happening in the close temporal proximity of now, the non-present the opposite, and the ancestral actions happening in the distant past.

The field of evidentiality has three values marked - visual, reported and kinetic, glossed (VIS) (REP) and (KIN) respectively. The visual denotes visual evidence on behalf of the speaker for the action's happening, the reported evidence of a more-than-firsthanded origin, the kinetic evidence based on actual physical contact.

The field of aspect has four values marked - gnomic, cessative, defective and punctual, glossed (GNM) (CST) (DFC) and (PNC). The gnomic denotes general truths and observations, the cessative actions and their ends, the defective actions incomplete, the punctual actions without a measurable duration.

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Vowels in brackets are inserted when the last vowel of the verb had held three initial consonants in its syllable. The first class suffix inventory is:

	Ancestral (ACS)	Present (PRS)	Non-Present (NPS)
Transitive (TRN)	-(a)mhs'a	-(a)niwe	-ëwe
Intransitive (INT)	-(å)nhes'a	-(å)nëwe

The second class suffix inventory is:

	Gnomic (GNM)	Cessative (CST)	Defective (DFC)	Punctual (PNC)
Visual (VIS)	-u'pe	-eł'i	-(o)'qa	-(a)nøeč
Reported (REP)	-us'a	-ep'a		-uttuh
Kinetic (KIN)	-us'å	-eł'å		-ånøč

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Clitics in WMQ align to different categories. The three marked are mood, telicity and bias.

Translation

The Bee and the Wolfmother

A Bee of Nåamhq'ačnuqu, the Wall of Stone, the queen of the hive, ventured forth into the Swamps of Creation; to face the Wolfmother, she brought an offering of honey. The Wolfmother, enjoying the sacrifice of honey, promised to make so whatever the Bee ask. The Bee thus replied, "Give me, I pray you, Mother Below, a sting, that if any warg or man shall approach to take my honey, I may steal his soul." The Wolfmother was of fury, for hers was greater the love for warg and man than for bee, but her words were spun of truth and of silver worth. Thus the Wolfmother replied, "Your wish is grant, yet thou shall rejoice naught; for when thou stingst man or warg, thy sting shall remain behind, and it is so that thou must die and return to the Swamps of Night."

Tšåånë šiip'nhahamhq'ač, q'unhlemje jvi nyhsëwe š'ehi s'ehssuun, åanysep'a ewo šiip'ååp 'qåvsuł'js nse; t'ucnhe-anhas'erjawe k'i nëë sšëtå enqe'sč'ø pussåëwe-ëë'p. Anhas'erja, mhøvimhs'a jvi enqe'sč'ø, usu'ččuuttuh-ëë'p tšåånëjne (bee(honey.is.being.made)-TRN.MUN.ANI.SG COM.+F-white-wall-rock, COM.-F-RTV.TRN 3SG.TRN.MUN.ANI.SG be-TRN.NPS hive-TRN.MUN.INA.SG queen-GEN.MUN.ANI.SG enter-REP.CES DIR.FOR COM.+F-create swamp-PPS.DIV.INA.DU ITR meet-mother-wolf-PPS.DIV.ANI.SG INS.BEN 4TH-SG.INT honey-GEN.MUN.DU(INAN) TOP-tribute make-NPS=ENG. mother-wolf, enjoy-TRN.ACS 3PX-TRN honey-GEN.MUN.DU(INAN), say-REP.PUN=ENG bee-MAL.MUN.ANI.SG== Bee of White Rock Wall, she which is hive queen of, entered forwards into the Swamps of Creation; to assist meeting the Wolfmother a honey tribute was that which was made. The Wolfmother, she had enjoyed of honey, emphatically said (promised), to the bee's misfortune)

Dictionary

WMQ	English	Properties
nå	white (n.)	(INA, MUN; n.)
s'ejru	(dire)wolf	(ANI, DIV; n.)
anha	mother, older sister	(ANI, MUN; n.)
'pp'øt	father, uncle, older brother	(ANI, MUN; n.)