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= | = Introduction = | ||
Kala is a personal [[Wikipedia:Constructed_language|conlang]], not attached to any [[Wikipedia:Worldbuilding|conworld]] or conculture. | |||
== Borrowing == | |||
Kala borrows extensively from various natural languages. This is a very small sample of borrowings: | |||
* '''kala''' – ''to speak, talk, converse''; from Arabic [[Wiktionary:تكلم|''takallama'']] | |||
* '''na''' – ''I, me''; from Arabic [[Wiktionary:أنا|''ʾanā'']] | |||
* '''pato''' – ''duck (Anatidae)''; from Spanish [[Wiktionary:pato|''pato'']] | |||
* '''tsenka''' – ''orange''; from Chinese [[Wiktionary:橙|''chéng'']] | |||
* '''uasi''' – ''to take, get, acquire''; from Lakota [[Wiktionary:wasi'chu|''wasichu'']] | |||
* '''myonta''' – ''to allow, permit''; from Finnish [[Wiktionary:myöntää|''myöntää'']] | |||
* '''a''' – ''to be, exist, yes''; from Japanese [[Wiktionary:ある|''aru'']] | |||
= Phonology = | = Phonology = |
Revision as of 09:43, 2 March 2016
Introduction
Kala is a personal conlang, not attached to any conworld or conculture.
Borrowing
Kala borrows extensively from various natural languages. 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
- Where ~ appears, it indicates free variation between phonemes.
Consonants
Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
central | lateral | |||||
Nasal | m (m) | n (n) | ɲ (ny) | |||
Plosive | p~b (p) | t~d (t) | k~g (k) | ʔ (`) | ||
Affricate | ts (ts) | t͡ɬ~tl (tl) | t͡ʃ (ts) | |||
Continuant | s (s) | l~ɾ (l) | ʃ (s) | h~ɦ (h) | ||
Semivowel | j (y) | w (u) |
- Prenasalized: /ᵐp ⁿt ᵑk/
- Labialized:/pʷ kʷ mʷ nʷ ʃʷ hʷ t͡ʃʷ/
- Palatalized: /pʲ kʲ mʲ hʲ/
Note: Because of its small phoneme inventory, 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], /s l h/ as [ʃ ɾ ɦ], and /t͡s t͡ɬ/ as [t͡ʃ t͡l]; also, vowels may be either long or short.
Vowels
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | i~ɪ (i) | u~u: (u) | |
Mid | e~ɛ (e) | o~o: (o) | |
Open | a~a: (a) |
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 [ˈt͡ʃũᵑka] ('bug').
Diphthongs
Phonetically, Kala has only two diphthongs, both falling; [aɪ̯] and [aʊ̯], but there are five syllables that can be analyzed as rising diphthongs; [wa], [we], [ja], [je], and [jo]. The two triphthongs [waɪ̯] and [jaʊ̯] are very rare but should be noted as possible.
syllable structure
Kala syllable structure is ((N)C)(y, u)V(F). As in most languages, CV is the most common syllable type, accounting for the majority of Kala lemmas. The finals /n/, /m/, and /k/ are grammatical and indicate adverbs, plurals, and negatives, respectively. They only occur word finally. So, nkapa (alcohol) is permitted, but nakpa is not; kyopo (fear) is acceptable, but koypo is not, etc. There is a limited set of syllables allowed by Kala phonotactics, similar to Japanese or Chinese. They are listed here: Syllable Chart, or here.
- /l/ cannot occur word initially (except in loan words and toponyms).
allophony
stress
grammar
noun phrases
The basic noun phrase in Kala is PREPOSITION DETERMINER NOUN DESCRIPTIVE-VERB RELATIVE-CLAUSE. Depending on context, this is fairly predominant with a few exceptions.
determiners
Determiners includes various particles, demonstratives, and quantifiers. Most nouns will have exactly one of these. They usually come before their nouns. Possessives are semantically determiners, but they can't carry determiner inflections, so an appropriate particle or pronoun is brought in for them.
demonstratives
Kala makes a three-way distinction. Typically there is a distinction between proximal or first person (objects near to the speaker), medial or second person (objects near to the addressee), and distal or third person (objects far from both).
- itla (i-) - this (near me)
- uatla (ua-) - that (near you)
- yetla (ye-) - that (over there)
The demonstratives can be prefixed to any noun to show deixis.
- imita taha
- PROX-dog be.big
- This dog is big.
- uaneko tamyo ka
- MED-cat 2pl.POSS Q
- Is that cat (near you) yours?
- yetsakam ahi
- DIST-house-PL be.small
- Those houses (over there) are small.
quantifiers
pronouns
Kala agent pronouns are often omitted when the person is obvious from context. Kala personal pronouns also encode clusivity. That is, there are different words for "we" depending on whether the speaker is including the person spoken to or not. Pronouns do not inflect for gender; if gender is significant, one can use words like naka, tlaka, nahi, tahi (the woman, the man, the girl, the boy), etc.
Agent | Patient | Reflexive | Possessive | Reciprocal | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1sg | na | ena | na'i | nayo | |
2sg | ta | eta | ta'i | tayo | |
3sg | ha | eha | ha'i | hayo | |
4sg | tla | etla | tla'i | tlayo | |
1pl 1pl exclusive |
nam na'am |
enam ena'am |
nami na'ami |
namyo na'amyo |
nanku na'anku |
2pl | tam | etam | tami | tamyo | tanku |
3pl | kam | ekam | kami | kamyo | kanku |
4pl | tlam | etlam | tlami | tlamyo | tlanku |
examples
correlative pronouns
verbs
tense
Kala has three simple tenses; past, present, and future. Present tense is unmarked. However, past and future tenses can be modified to include immediate future ("is about to..."), distant future ("will...in a long while"), recent past ("just ..."), and remote past ("...a long while ago"). These distinctions are made with the augmentative and diminutive endings -ha and -hi.
- The present tense can show immediacy by using the adverb ima, "now; at this time":
- ima mita ina - now dog eat - The dog is eating right now.
- If a temporal adverb is used, the tense suffix may be omitted.
- Example: yomaye nam ina - yesterday 1pl eat - We ate yesterday.
Kala | gloss | English | |
---|---|---|---|
Present | mita ina | dog eat | The dog eats. |
Past | mita inaye | dog eat-PST | The dog ate. |
Recent Past | mita inayehi or -hye |
dog eat-REC | The dog just ate. |
Remote Past | mita inayeha | dog eat-REM | The dog ate a long while ago. |
Future | mita inatli | dog eat-FUT | The dog will eat. |
Immediate Future | mita inatlihi or -tlai |
dog eat-IMM | The dog will eat soon. |
Distant Future | mita inatliha | dog eat-DIS | The dog will eat a long while from now. |
aspect
The progressive, also called the continuous [CONT], this is used to express an incomplete action or state in progress at a specific time. It is marked with -nko, from nkoso - "to continue; proceed; progress". The perfecive aspect indicates that an action is completed [PFV]. It is often translated by the English present perfect (have done some-thing). It is marked with -pua, from opua - "to end; finish; complete". The inchoative aspect refers to the beginning of a state [INCH]. It is marked with -mu, from mula - "to begin; start; initiate". The frequentative aspect refers to a repeated action [FREQ]. It is marked with -nua, from nua - "frequent; often; regular".
Kala | gloss | English | |
---|---|---|---|
Progressive | mita inanko | dog eat-CONT | The dog is eating. |
Perfective | mita inapua | dog eat-PFV | The dog has eaten. |
Inchoative | mita inamu | dog eat-INCH | The dog begins to eat. |
Frequentative | mita inanua | dog eat-FREQ | The dog eats often. |
mood
The negative mood (always marked finally) is indicated by the suffix –k or –nke (when the last syllable contains /k/).
- mita inayek - dog eat-PST-NEG - The dog did not eat.
- mita mokunke - dog sleep-NEG - The dog does not sleep.
copula
adjectives
adpositions
syntax
The basic structure of a Kala sentence is:
AGENT--PATIENT--VERB (or SOV)
The agent is the person or thing doing the action described by the verb; The patient is the recipient of that action. The importance of word order can be seen by comparing the following sentences:
- mita tlaka anya - dog man see - The dog sees the man.
- tlaka mita anya - man dog see - The man sees the dog.
In both sentences, the words are identical, the only way to know who is seeing whom is by the order of the words in the sentence.