User:Masako/pataka

Phonology

Consonants (hapu)

	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasals	m (m)	n (n)	ɲ (ny)
Plosives	p~b (p)	t~d (t)		k~g (k)	ʔ (')
Affricates		t͡ɬ~tl (tl) / t͡ʃ~ts (ts)
Continuants		l~r (l) / s~ʃ (s)			h~ɦ (h)
Semivowels			j (y)	w (u)

Vowels (musa)

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i (i)		u (u)
Mid	e (e)		o (o)
Open		a (a)

phonotactics

Kala phonotactics does not allow the onsets of adjacent syllables to be identical, nor both to be labialized or palatalized. (There are a few exceptions to this, such as tata for the informal/familiar form of father, etc.) Syllables beginning with /l/ do not occur as the first syllable of a headword.

Much like Japanese and Chinese, Kala has a limited number of syllables.

Syllables (tloko)

	a	e	i	o	u	ai	ao
p	pa	pe	pi	po	pu	pai	pao
t	ta	te	ti	to		tai	tao
k	ka	ke	ki	ko	ku	kai	kao
m	ma	me	mi	mo	mu	mai	mao
n	na	ne	ni	no	nu	nai	nao
s	sa	se	si	so	su	sai	sao
h	ha	he	hi	ho	hu	hai	hao
ts	tsa	tse	tsi	tso	tsu	tsai	tsao
tl	tla	tle	tli	tlo		tlai	tlao
l	la	le	li	lo		lai	lao
a	a	e	i	o	u	ai	ao
mp	mpa	mpe	mpi	mpo	mpu
nt	nta	nte	nti	nto
nk	nka	nke	nki	nko	nku
pu	pua	pue				puai
ku	kua	kue				kuai
mu	mua	mue				muai
nu	nua	nue				nuai
su	sua	sue				suai
hu	hua	hue				huai
tsu	tsua	tsue				tsuai
u	ua	ue				uai
py	pya	pye		pyo			pyao
ky	kya	kye		kyo			kyao
my	mya	mye		myo			myao
ny	nya	nye		nyo			nyao
hy	hya	hye		hyo			hyao
y	ya	ye		yo			yao

allophony

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.

stress

In Kala stress is penultimate with the exceptions of negatives and words that end with a syllable onset palatal approximant, in which case stress is ultimate.

syllable structure

All syllables are of the form (N)(C)V(n, m, k), that is, optional prenasal + optional consonant + vowel + optional final, or V, NCV, CV, VF, CVF, NCVF. CV is the most common syllable type. Most content words are disyllabic; while function words tend to be monosyllables.

Word Classes

Words in Kala can be divided into three basic types, content words (uati), particles (peya) and interjections (nita). Ahu is unusual in completely lacking a lexical distinction between nouns and verbs.

Uati are a large class, making up the equivalents of the verbs, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs and even prepositions. Particles are a small, closed class of word which are used to order the interpretation of other parts of the sentence. Interjections are a small, mostly closed class of words which indicate isolated meanings, such as emotion.

content words

There are no distinct classes of nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs or prepositions in Kala. The equivalents of all of these words come in the form of content words. However, these are described here in more traditional terms.

pronouns

Pronouns (nkalo)

	Agent	Patient	Possessive	Reflexive	Reciprocal
1sg	na	ena	nayo	na'i
2sg	ta	eta	tayo	ta'i
3sg	ha	eha	hayo	ha'i
4sg	tla	etla	tlayo	tla'i
1pl	nam	enam	namyo	nami	nanku
1pl.excl	na'am	ena'am	na'amyo	na'ami	na'anku
2pl	tam	etam	tamyo	tami	tanku
3pl	kam	ekam	kamyo	kami	kanku
4pl	tlam	etlam	tlamyo	tlami	tlanku