User:Masako/pataka

introduction

This is the grammar of Kala. A personal constructed language based on aesthetic preferences and a desire to understand more deeply the linguistic and cognitive process. The name of the language is taken from the Arabic verb [takallama] meaning “to talk, to have a discussion or conversation”. This description of Kala is meant to be simultaneously simple and thorough as to engage the linguistically inclined yet be accessible to those less so. There are three basic parts of speech in Kala: noun, verb, and particle.

borrowing

Kala borrows from various natural languages. Roughly speaking, about 75% of Kala lexemes are borrowed from natural languages. This borrowing is sometimes phonetic, orthographic, semantic, or derivational. This is a very small sample of borrowings:

• 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

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 plosives is influenced by Bantu languages.

vowels

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 [ˈʧũŋka] ('bug').

diphthongs

Both of the falling diphthongs, ai [a͜ɪ] and ao [a͜ʊ], as well as uai [ʷ~wa͜ɪ] and yao [ʲ~ja͜ʊ] only occur word finally, and very infrequently.

consonants

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

• Nasals: m – /m/, n – /n/, ny – /ɲ/
• Plosives: p – /p~b/, t – /t~d/, k – /k~g/, ‘ /ʔ/
• Affricates: ts – /t͡s~t͡ʃ/, tl – /t͡l~ t͡ɬ/
• Continuants: s – /s~ʃ/, h – /h~ɦ/, l – /l~r/
• Semivowels: u – /w/, y – /j/

NOTE: The glottal stop is not phonemic but is included in the chart above. It is pronounced between two vowels and/or diphthongs that are not connected.

labialization

Labialized consonants: /pʷ/, /kʷ/, /mʷ/, /nʷ/, /sʷ/, /hʷ/, /t͡ʃʷ/

nasalization

Prenasalized plosives: /ᵐp~ᵐb/, /ⁿt~ⁿd/, /ᵑk~ᵑ/

palatalization

Palatalized consonants: /pʲ/, /kʲ/, /mʲ/, /hʲ/

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.

• ˈtaku - brother
• muˈyak - not do; not make
• naˈyo - my; mine

allophones

The nasal at the end of a syllable can be pronounced as any nasal stop, though it is normally assimilated to the following consonant. That is, it typically occurs as an [n] before /t/ or /s/, as an [m] before /p/, as an [ŋ] before /k/, and as an [ɲ] before /j/. 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], /ts/ as [dz] or [tʃ] as well as [ts], /s/ as [z] or [ʃ] as well as [s], /l/ as [ɾ] as well as [l], and vowels may be either long or short.

phonotactics

Kala has a fairly simple phonological system. It allows only syllables with maximally one initial and one final consonant. Consonant clusters only occur word-medially and over syllable boundaries, with the exception of prenasalized plosive which can start a word.

syllable structure

word order

The only strict rule of word order is that the verb must be placed at the end of a sentence (possibly followed by sentence-end particles). This is because Kala sentence elements tend to be marked with particles that identify their grammatical functions. Kala is a subject-object-verb (SOV) language (e.g., mikelo amenyatla onyo “Michael German studies”). In Kala, verbs and adjectives appear at the end of the sentence. All other elements such as nouns (e.g., subject and/or object), adverbs, and numbers, appear before verbs and/or adjectives. In addition, modifiers (e.g., adverbs, demonstratives, and relative clauses) appear before the modified words.

For instance, let us consider the following English sentence: “Michael studies history at the library in the afternoon.” We know that “Peter” is the subject since it comes before the verb “studies,” and “history” is the object as it appears after the verb. Notice that extra elements such as “at the library” and “in the afternoon” are placed after the object. In addition, English prepositions always appear before nouns, as in “at the library.” However, the word order of Kala would be mikelo mosamohue ke saha onyo “Michael library-at history studies.”

Consider another example: mikelo tsakahue ke katsoyotso ina - “Michael eats lunch at home”

The locative suffix -hue marks tsaka (home) as the location. In addition, the object particle ke marks katsoyotso (lunch) as the object of the sentence.

context

In Kala the most important elements tend to cluster to the end of the sentence. The further the word is from the end of the sentence, the less important the element is and more likely it is to be dropped. In other words, what appears at the very end of the sentence (e.g., verbs) is most important. Consequently, Kala sentences that have no subject or object but just a verb or an adjective, such as in ina “eat,” are grammatically correct and natural in conversation.

Here are more examples:

• to ka - “How are you?” - manner Q
• onyo ka - “What do you study?” - study Q
• nyasa - “Thank you” - thank

Notice that none of the above expressions contains the first or second person pronoun. What determines the omission is the context. Kala is a context-oriented language in that any contextually understood elements may be omitted unless they are indispensable.

locative verbs

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”.

• na tsakahue – 1SG house-LOC – I am at home
• iyoma tahi nayo hakyohue – today son 1SG.POSS school-LOC – My son is in school today

Almost any locative verb can be used in the preposition role.

• mita tsakam maye – dog house be.among – The dog is among the houses
• mita naye yohua inak – dog during night eat-NEG – The dog does not eat during the night
• mita tsaka nahe – dog house inside – The dog is inside the house
• mita nahe tsaka ina – dog inside house eat – The dog is eating inside the house

There is a special suffix (-la) to indicate motion. It can be added to a locative verb only in the verb role and is never affixed to –hue.

• mita tsaka ka’ela – dog house toward-go – The dog is going toward the house
• mita ka’e tsaka yala – dog toward house go – The dog is going toward the house
• mita yempa tahelaye – dog table under-MOT-PST – The dog went under the table

In certain expressions a preposition is unnecessary. Most often this is because of the pronominal constructions.

• kamena ke mita yetaye – 3PL-P.1SG O dog give-PST – They gave me a dog. / They gave the dog to me.
• na’ameta ke apua tayo makatli – 1PL.EXCL-P.2SG TOP song 2SG.POSS play.music-FUT – We will play your song to/for you.

A list of some common locative verbs:

• ma’a – with [accompanied by / furnished with]
• ma’ak – without; with no…
• nyahe – by means of; per; via
• pahe – against; touching
• sahe – across; opposite; other side
• saye – along; following [a line]
• tsa’e – across; through
• ma’e – before; in front
• pue – after; back; behind; rear
• ua’e – above; over / on
• tahe – below; beneath; under
• ka’e – to; towards; at [moving toward]
• uaye – from [moving out of or away from]
• nahe – in [located inside of]; internal
• nyaue – outside of; exterior to
• ya’e – near; close to
• mahe – around; approximate; close to
• maye – between; among
• kaye – around; encircling; surrounding
• tsaye – since; until; up to; as far as
• paye – beyond; exceeding; farther than

conjunctions

Kala conjunctions are simple: any constituents can be joined with a conjunction. Informal variants appear in parenthesis.

• kue – in the same way
• ma – and; also; too; as well
• nya’e – in order that
• nye – because
• ehe (me) – but; however; yet
• ua (u) – or (inclusive; X and/or Y)
• uahe – instead of; rather than
• ue – or; either (exclusive; either X or Y)
• uenke (uek) – nor; neither (exclusive; neither X nor Y)
• yatli – therefore (if X then Y)
• yema – both (both X and Y)

In the coordinating role, a few of these have specific functions:

• ha tala yatli na yala – 3SG come if.X.then.Y 1SG go – If he comes then I go.
• mita pomalo uek mputsa ina – dog apple-PL neither/nor cheese eat – The dog is eating neither apples nor cheese.