Kala Grammar: Difference between revisions
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== pronunciation == | == pronunciation == | ||
==== allophony ==== | ==== allophony ==== | ||
Revision as of 06:43, 17 February 2016
pronunciation
allophony
- /h/ > /ɦ/ when preceded or followed by a front vowel.
- 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.
- <s> & <ts> are /ʃ/ and /tʃ/ respectively, unless immediately preceded or followed by one another, then <s> is always /s/ and <ts> is always /tʃ/.
- However, one could pronounce them either way (e.g. always /s/ & /ts/) and still be understood.
- Example:
- sitsa - /'si:.tʃa/ - warmth, heat / warm, hot / to heat up
- tsasu - /'tʃa:.su/ - cursive writing; having successive letters joined together
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.
syllable structure
- See also: Syllables
- (N)(C)V/D(F)
- N - nasal; prenasal; /n/ or /m/
- C - consonant
- V - vowel
- D - diphthong
- F - final; coda
- The three codas are /k/, /m/, and /n/; these only occur as a final codas to negate, pluralize or adverbialize verbs and nouns, respectively.
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.
prenasalized consonants
- In Kala, almost every consonant can be prenasalized, but primarily the plosives /p/, /t/ and /k/ can be analyzed as prenasalized,while most other instances could be easily analyzed as cases of syllabic /n/ or /m/.
- mp /ᵐp~ᵐb/
- Example: mpaka /ˈᵐpa.ka/ - n - boundary / border / line
- nt /ⁿt~ⁿd/
- Example: ntama /ˈⁿta.ma/ - n - calf (a young cow or bull)
- nk /ᵑk~ᵑ/
- Example: nkapa /ˈᵑka.pa/ - n - alcohol / grog
sentence structure
word order
verbs
nouns
compound sentences (subordinate clauses)
adjectives
adverbs
prepositions & conjunctions
prepositions
conjunctions
relative clauses
interjections
cursing
numbers
cardinal numbers
- e'o - zero; null
- na'o - one
- ta'o - two
- ha'o - three
- ma'o - four
- ya'o - five
- tsa'o - six
- ka'o - seven
- pa'o - eight
- sa'o - nine
- ue'o - ten
-
- nye'o - (one) hundred; 102
- nya'o - five hundred
- tle'o - (one) thousand; 103
- mue'o - ten thousand; 104
- kye'o - (one) hundred thousand; 105
- nte'o - (one) million; 106
- hue'o - (one) billion; 109
higher numbers
- uena'o - eleven / 11
- taue'o - twenty / 20
- nyeka'o - one hundred seven / 107
- hanyetauetsa'o (long form) | hatatsa'o (short form) - three hundred twenty six / 326
- tsatletauema'o - six thousand and twenty four / 6024
expressions of time
- Tense markers are often replaced by time expressions. Here are a few of the more common ones:
- iyoma - today
- iyohua - tonight
- yomaye - yesterday
- yomatli - tomorrow
- yomua - morning
- puama - evening
- yomuatli - tomorrow morning
- yohuaye - last night
- sayo - month
- anyo - year
- anyotlipua - end of next year
- anyoye ue'o - ten years ago
- sayotli ta'o - in two months
