Kala
The Kala conlang...
Introduction
Orthography
Phonology
Morphology
Derivational morphology
Syntax
Kala has an extremely regular grammar, with very few exceptions to its rules. Sentences are made up of one or more phrases. Each phrase consists of a verb (optionally followed by modifying particles) and a subject (optionally followed by modifying particles). The subject, if understood, can be omitted at the end of an utterance: pana ("It is raining.") pana! ("Rain!") An utterance can be anything from an interjection to a story.
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:
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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.
The use of the object marker ke indicates the recipient of the action.
- naka ke mita itsa
- woman O dog love
- The woman loves the dog.
Kala lacks morphological adjectives and instead uses predicative 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.
Clauses
Relative clauses (or adjective clauses) function like adjectives. Relative clauses follow the noun or noun phrase that they modify:
- naka ke na itsatle te ameyo
- woman O 1s love-REL from America
- The woman (that) I love comes from America.
- mayo ke na kitlayetle muyak
- tool O 1s create-PST-REL do-NEG
- The tool (that) I built doesn't function.
- na ke ta yani unyak / na ke yani tayo unyak
- 1s O 2s mean know-NEG / 1s O meaning 2s.GEN know-NEG
- I don't understand what you mean.
Subordinate clauses rely on conjunctions and other particles.
- eya ta ke mpeka inaye yatli ta pasala
- maybe 2s O toad eat-PST therefore 2s nauseous-become
- If you ate the toad (which you might have), you might get sick.
- naye na tasa ke masa okyohue anyaye
- while 1s hunt O deer clearing-LOC see-PST
- While hunting, I saw a deer in a clearing.
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).
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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:
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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? |
Numbers
Kala uses a base 10 number system. The basic numbers are as follows:
| Kala | number | English | Kala | number | English | Kala | number | English |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ye'o | 0 | zero | tsa'o | 6 | six | nya'o | 500 | five hundred |
| na'o | 1 | one | ka'o | 7 | seven | tle'o | 103 | (one) thousand |
| ta'o | 2 | two | pa'o | 8 | eight | mue'o | 104 | ten thousand |
| ha'o | 3 | three | sa'o | 9 | nine | kye'o | 105 | (one) hundred thousand |
| ma'o | 4 | four | ue'o | 10 | ten | nte'o | 106 | (one) million |
| ya'o | 5 | five | nye'o | 100 | (one) hundred | hue'o | 109 | (one) billion |
Forming Larger 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
Long form numbers are used in formal situations, including financial transactions, especially involving large sums. Short form numbers are used in everyday speech and when calculating basic math.
Other Number Forms
| Kala | number | English | ordinal | multiple | fractional |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| na'o | 1 | one | kina'o first |
tina'o once |
- |
| ueta'o | 12 | twelve | kiueta'o twelfth |
tiueta'o duodecuple |
iueta'o a twelfth |
| yauema'o (yama'o) |
54 | fifty four | kiyama'o fifty fourth |
tiyama'o 54 times |
iyama'o a fifty fourth |
| nyetsa'o | 106 | one hundred (and) six | kinyetsa'o 106th |
tinyetsa'o 106 times |
inyetsa'o a 106th |
| katle'o | 7000 | seven thousand | kikatle'o seven thousandth |
tikatle'o 7000 times |
ikatle'o 1/7000 |
Math Operations
Kala math is fairly basic and relies on particles and verbs to express functions.
Addition uses ma (and; also). There is no specific order to the numbers in the phrase/equation.
- ha'o ma ya'o ke pa'o a
- 3 and 5 O 8 COP
- Three plus five is eight.
Subtraction uses ma (and; also) and a negative form of the smaller integer. There is no specific order to the numbers in the phrase/equation.
- tsa'o ma ya'ok ke na'o a
- 6 and 5-NEG O 1 COP
- Six and five-less is one.
Multiplication uses ma (and; also) and a multiple form of one of the integers. There is no specific order to the numbers in the phrase/equation.
- ha'o ma tima'o ke ueta'o a
- 3 and multiple-4 O 12 COP
- Three times four is twelve.
Division uses yeka (divide; separate; partition), or ma (and; also) and a multiple-negative form of one of the integers. There is no specific order to the numbers in the phrase/equation.
- tama'o ma ha'o ke pa'o yeka
- 24 and 3 O 8 division
- Twenty-four divided by three is eight.
