User:Masako/pataka
A short primer for Kala grammar. The full grammar can be found here:
Han Moya
Han Moya is an adaptation of Hangul for writing Kala. It is written horizontally, in lines running from left to right. It can also be written vertically in columns.
Consonants
- ㄱㄲㄴㄷㄸㄹㅁㅂㅃㅅㅆㅇㅈㅉㅊㅋㅌㅍㅎ
- k nk n t nt l m p mp s ns a ts nts ts` k` tl p` h
- /k~g ᵑk~ⁿg n t~d ⁿt~ⁿd l~ɾ m p~b ᵐp~ᵐb s~ʃ ⁿs~ⁿʃ - ts~t͡ʃ ⁿts~ⁿt͡ʃ tsʰ~t͡ʃʰ kʰ t͡ɬ~tl pʰ h~ɦ/
The adaptations of doubled consonants are used word initially to indicate prenasalization. Medial occurrences of nasalized syllables are written across syllables.
Vowels
- ㅏ ᅶ ㅐ ㅑ ᅸ ㅓ ㅕ ㅗ ㅛ ㅜ ㅟ ㅠ ㅡ ㅣ
- a ao ai ya yao e ye o ao yo ua uai ue u i
- /a~a: aʊ̯ aɪ̯ ja~ʲa: jaʊ̯~ʲaʊ̯ e~ɛ je~ʲɛ o~o: jo~ʲo: wa~ʷa: waɪ̯~ʷaɪ̯ we~ʷe: u~u: i~ɪ/
- ㅘ This is pronounced /we/ in Korean because of the order of the vowels; however, because obsolete jamo are difficult to type and look junky as images, in Kala, this is used for /aʊ̯/ when typing. It is rarely seen due to the diphthong itself being uncommon.
Word order
SUBJECT - OBJECT - VERB
- naka ke mita itsa
- woman O dog love
- The woman loves the dog.
Kala lacks morphological adjectives and instead uses attributive verbs.
- ke tsaka taha
- O house be.big
- The big house / The house is big
Kala lacks morphological adverbs, verbs modified with the adverbial ending -n tend to precede the verb phrase they modify.
- tsumun nam yokone
- cautious-ADV 1pl swim-SUG
- We should swim cautiously.
Kala lacks morphological prepositions and instead uses locational and relational verbs.
- mita ke yempa tahe
- dog O table be.under
- The dog is under the table.
Nouns
Nouns are marked for number; plural and collective:
- mita - dog - a dog
- mitam - dog-PL - dogs
- tlimita - COL-dog - a dog pack / a pack of dogs
- tlimitam - COL-dog-PL - dog packs / packs of dogs
When the final syllable of a word contains an m, mp, and sometimes a p the plural marking changes to -lo.
- yama - mountain - a mountain
- yamalo - mountain-PL - mountains
- tliyama - COL-mountain - a mountain range / range of mountains
- tliyamalo - COL-mountain-PL - mountain ranges / ranges of mountains
Gender is not normally marked but can be with the endings -na and -ta to mark the feminine and masculine, respectively.
- uma - horse - a horse
- umana - horse-FEM - mare
- umata - horse-MASC - stallion
Determiners & Demostratives
The demonstratives can be prefixed to any noun to show deixis. 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).
Examples:
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Quantifier suffixes follow the noun that modify.
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Pronouns
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Personal pronouns:
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Modifiers:
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Other pronouns include:
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Verbs
Verbs are marked for tense, aspect, and mood.
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Tense: Simple past, present, and future.
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Aspect: Continuous, Perfective, Inchoative, and Frequentative.
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Mood: Abilitative, Attemptative, Hortative, Precative, Dubitative, Propositive,
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The modals and tense affixes can be added in different order to a verb to create a new meaning; their placement is not always fixed. The negative, adverbial, and plural endings are always final, while other affixes can be varied, but in general they should be ordered:
Example:
| Verb Stem | Size/Importance | Mood | Aspect | Tense | Negative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| empa | -hi | -pa | -nko | -ye | -k |
| run | DIM | ABIL | PROG | PST | NEG |
- na empahipankoyek
- 1SG run-DIM-able-PROG-PST-NEG
- I was not able to keep jogging.
Adjectives
Kala does not have morphologically distinct adjectives. Stative verbs are the words that modify nouns in an attributive and often adjectival way. They often express a state like a quality or result.
- tsaka ketla
- house be.red
- The house is red.
The comparative is made by using the augmentative or diminutive ending on the verb.
- tsaka hayo ke nayo ketlaha
- house 3s.GEN O 1s.GEN be.red-AUG
- His house is more red than mine.
Equivalence is indicated with either kue (as, like), or mya (as...as).
- tsaka hayo kue nayo ketla
- house 3s.GEN as 1s.GEN be.red
- His house is red like mine.
- tsaka hayo mya nayo ketla
- house 3s.GEN as.X.as 1s.GEN be.red
- His house is as red as mine.
Like verbs, adjectives can be used as nouns. For example, aya means "beautiful", but ayako means "a beautiful one" or "a beauty." An adjective can be made into an abstract noun by adding -n (-ity, -ness, -ship, -hood). In this way aya becomes ayan, meaning "beauty". This can also be used with nouns: ona (mother) becomes onan (motherhood).
Adverbs
Kala does not have morphologically distinct adverbs. Adverbs can be formed from all adjectives (or stative verbs) by adding -n to the root. Since this rule is regular, it is not generally indicated in grammatical examples or in the lexicon.
- aya - beautiful >> ayan - beautifully
- tama - good >> taman - well
- poyo - rich >> poyon - richly
- tsipue - slow >> tsipuen - slowly (this can also be marked on the main verb with -tsue)
- tlaki - fluent >> tlakin - fluently
Prepositions
Kala does not have prepositions (or postpositions) as a distinct part of speech. Instead, many locative verbs can be used as adpositionals, 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”. Here are some common verbs used as adpositions:
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- na ke ito yamahue anyapa
- 1sg O tree hill-LOC see-ABIL
- I can see a tree on the hill.
- ntahim nyaue tsaka yoti
- child-PL outside.of house play
- The children are playing outside of the house.
Conjunctions
Words and phrases may be coordinated in Kala with the following words:
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Questions
There are two types of questions: Polar, those which may be answered "yes" or "no," and those which require explanations as answers.
polar questions
Any statement can become a polar question by adding the interrogative particle ka at the end of the sentence.
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content questions
Questions that give a list of possible answers are formed like polar questions, with the conjunction ue ‘or’ introducing each alternative (which must appear in the form of a noun phrase).
- ta ke nkapa ue maya inuue ka
- 2SG O beer or.EXCL water drink-VOL Q
- Do you want to drink beer or water?
- uala ta ke sinka mataye ue empa ma koma ka
- truly 2sg O lion kill-PST or.EXCL flee CONJ hide Q
- Did you really kill the lion, or did you run away and hide?
Open content questions are most easily formed with the correlatives, such as ko ‘person’, mo ‘place’, to ‘manner’, etc. These correlatives always appear clause-initially:
- ko ta ka
- person 2sg Q
- Who are you?
- itla ka
- this Q
- What is this?
- to kihu ka
- manner weather Q
- What's the weather like?
The other type contains a question word and is followed by ka:
| Kala | gloss | English | |
|---|---|---|---|
| object | ke mita ina ka | O dog eat Q | What does the dog eat? |
| person | ko ina ka | person eat Q | Who eats? |
| possession | koyo mita ina ka | person-POSS dog eat Q | Whose dog eats? |
| manner | to mita ina ka | manner dog eat Q | How does the dog eat? |
| place | mo mita ina ka | place dog eat Q | Where does the dog eat? |
| reason | nye mita ina ka | reason dog eat Q | Why does the dog eat? |
| time | ama mita ina ka | time dog eat Q | When does the dog eat? |
| amount | uku mita ina ka | amount dog eat Q | How much/many does the dog eat? |
| which | ula mita ina ka | any dog eat Q | Which dog eats? |
