Emmese

Emmese is a language isolate.

Phonology

Phonemic Inventory

Consonants

	Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Dorsal	Glottal
Plosive	p  b	t̪  d̪	t  d	c  ɟ	k  g	ʔ
Fricative	ɸ  β	θ  ð	s  z	ʃ  ʒ	χ	h
Nasal	m	n̪,	n	ɲ	ŋ
Trill			r
Approximant			l	j	w

Many of these consonants are found only in Sandhi or other similar contexts.

	Front	Central	Back
Close	y  ɪ		u  ʊ
Mid	e	ə	o
Open		a  ɐ

Emmese has tense-lax vowel harmony throughout its verbal chains, although there are exceptions to this rule.

Grammar

Emmese forms sentences using so-called 'verbal chains'. As an ergative-absolutive language, these usually consist of a patient pronoun and a verb. Emmese has mostly invariable lexemes (other than the addition of a few regular suffixes or prefixes) and makes heavy use of syntax, auxiliaries, particles and serial verb constructions to enhance meaning. It has no real concept of nouns or adjectives, which are generally achieved with the combination of a stative verb and a pronoun.

Dynamic verbs

Dynamic verbs describe actions - to eat, to go, to dance. They have two forms - personal and impersonal. They are divided into four general classes, based on which prefix they take to form the impersonal: ba-, ban-, ta- or an-. The first two classes are transitive or intransitive verbs and are still open classes; the latter two classes are closed to new additions and are generally frozen reciprocal or reflexive forms.

Personal form

Personal forms must always take, at the very least, a patient. They can be interpreted as either active or passive:

şemi iş - he smokes/it is smoked.

şemi iş-iş - he smokes it, it is smoked by him.

Impersonal form

The impersonal is formed by the addition of a prefix. Impersonals never take arguments. They can act as verbs which in English would take a dummy subject (verbs such as an-naşa, 'to rain', are never found in personal forms except in poetry) and similar, as extremely emphatic verbal forms (generally when the arguments are already understood), as emphatic passives, as supines and in idiomatic usage implying that one cannot affect the progress of the action:

an-naşa - it's raining.

ta-faha - it smells.

ba-goma - (someone) comes (and we can't do anything about it)

ba-şemi - it is smoked

an-ttat yuur iş - cheese for eating

Stative verbs

These are extremely important in linguistic terms. They are effectively Emmese's equivalent of adjectives and nouns (combined with a pronoun). For example:

yuur iş - cheese (it is cheese)

immi yuur iş - red cheese (it is cheese is red)

These can be stacked to any chosen degree and combined with dynamic verbs, so:

şemi immi yuur iş - the red cheese smokes

Impersonal forms

Far fewer stative verbs have productive impersonals in Emmese. They are generally archaic forms frozen in phrases, created by vowel change or the prefix ta-:

tamatta - it is possible

Serial verbs

As has already been seen, Emmese makes heavy use of serial verb forms. They are also commonly used to mark the direction of verbs:

şemi aşt immi yuur iş - the red cheese (blows its) smoke towards (me)

In this case, aşt, referred to as the 'ventive verb', which always indicates movement towards the speaker (and is used alone to mean 'come here'), is used to add a meaning of 'in my direction' to the verb şemi.

These verbs also sometimes replace English prepositions, although Emmese also has a large amount of postpositions which it uses in many contexts. Generally, they are used when the object of the preposition is not specified:

şemi uşuu! - smoke inside!

iş-u itim şemi ut!- smoke inside the temple!

The latter uses a preposition, the former a serial verb construction. Serial verbs also add different meanings or are required with some verbs:

goma eeşi iş - he goes out

Subordinate clauses

Personal verbs are made subordinate by a change in word order - from VPA to PAV:

şemi iş - he smokes

iş şemi - that he smokes

Impersonal verbs change their prefix: an- and ban- become en-, ba- becomes ve- and ta- becomes de-:

an-naşa - it's raining

en-naşa - that it's raining

Subordinate clauses modify to the left of the verb, so:

iş-u itim tey-si yeşş - he sees him when he is in the temple

note the deletion of unneeded arguments in the above sentence, and the placement of -si - a complementising particle which has recently developed in spoken Emmese from the question particle si?, 'where'. Also note the use of subordinate word order in the postpositional phrase. This always applies, so:

itim iş - the temple

iş-u itim - in the temple

Aspects and mood

There is no explicit tense marking in Emmese, but there is marking for three aspects and one mood (the irrealis). The default form is the aorist, which has no particular timeframe involved, and describes events generally. The imperfect is formed using the particle uy, following the verb, the perfect using şaş:

an-naşa uy - it has been raining/it's raining (now)/it will be raining

an-naşa şaş - it had rained/it has rained/it will have rained

The irrealis mood is used for anything theoretical that hasn't occurred, and is marked with the particle an, which cannot coexist with aspects:

an-naşa an - it could rain, it might rain.

Note that all of these particles are usually deleted when another construction indicating theoretical things is present:

an-naşa 'eez? - Could it rain?

tamatta en-naşa - It is possible that it will rain

Interrogatives

Yes/no questions are formed using one of four particles, which agrees with the aspect/mood:

ann is used in aorist questions: şemi iş ann? - Does he smoke?

bbaj is used in imperfect questions: tamatta bbaj? - Is it currently/regularly possible?

anj is used in perfect questions: tamatta anj? - Was it possible?

'eez is used in irrealis questions: an-naşa 'eez? - Could it rain?

Emmese is wh-in-situ, and so generally, interrogative pronouns are placed in their standard location in the sentence. The interrogative pronouns are si, 'when', tu, 'how', jate, 'where' and jja, 'who' or 'what':

si goma iş? - when does he go?

tu goma iş? - how does he go?

jate goma iş? - where does he go?

goma jja? - who goes?

In the first three examples, the pronouns are placed first because they are in fact replacing a subordinate clause which modifies the verb. However:

iş si goma? - That he goes where?

Negatives

Negatives are formed by the post-verbal particle ik:

goma eeşi ik iş - He doesn't go out

Normally, double-negatives are employed with an object or complement, using the particle ja (şa following another ş):

goma ik iş itim iş-şa - He doesn't go out any(no)where

Pronouns and definiteness

The full pronoun paradigm is us, ut, iş, un, utta, işşa, with no case distinction. Plurals are usually only used for emphasis, singulars are far more common even when describing multiple objects.

Although textbook word order is either VPA or PAV, any of the arguments can be moved to initial position for the purposes of emphasis or topicality (in effect, similar to the use of the definite article in English). This forces the emphatic forms of the pronouns to be used. This effectively involves voicing all of the consonants (which are then immune to the rules of consonant harmony), as well as including a particle which marks agents (although this almost always elided in speech):

iş şemi tabahi iş - he smokes tobacco

ij tabahi iş şemi - it's tobacco he smokes, he smokes the tobacco

ij şemi tabahi iş - HE smokes tobacco

Politeness

To distinguish between different levels of formality, Emmese uses different pronouns. This is used as a kind of inflection - for example, one would always describe a god or another religious figure with ye.

Informal pronouns

English	Emmese
I	Us
you (sing.)	Ut
he/she/it	Iş
we	Un
you (plu.)	Utta
they	Işşa

The informal pronouns are the most commonly used in speech, and generally pronouns in this paradigm are used in other places as well (for example, even when humble speech is being utilised, Iş is used to refer to third person individuals). Two friends speaking to one another about another friend would refer to themselves, one another and their friend with the informal pronouns.

Humble pronouns

English	Emmese
I	Ar
you (sing.)	At
we	An
you (plu.)	Atta

The humble pronouns consist only of first person and second person forms, and are used to refer to oneself directly when talking to someone highly superior (now generally dialectal, almost unused in the standard language) or when asking a favour (now the only real use for them). Traditionally, the second person forms were used by lords when speaking to their servants, but they are now semi-archaisms the use of which is extremely insulting. They are only ever used in direct reference in conversation.

Formal pronouns

English	Emmese
I	Uz
you (sing.)	Étidar
he/she/it	Iz
we	Ur
you (plu.)	Étidaz
they	Iri

The formal pronouns were traditionally used to refer to anyone you didn't know, both in direct conversation and in reference. However, in modern practice, younger people (below the age of thirty or so) tend to refer to people of a similar or younger age with the informal pronouns from initial meeting (or even before meeting). The formal pronouns are restricted to occasional use within families (some grandparents, for example, insist on étidar) and formal relationships, such as workers speaking to one another. Older people maintain the older usage. The formal pronoun might be used to refer to a respected boss in conversation with a friend, or face-to-face, in reference to both onesself and the boss.

Religious pronouns

English	Emmese
I	Yu
you (sing.)	Yed
he/she/it	Ye
we	Yut
you (plu.)	Yedat
they	Yet

The religious pronouns are now almost dead, and are used only in older prayers. Modern prayers tend to favour informality. The religious first-person pronoun is used by deities to refer to themselves, and ye is restricted almost totally to biblical verses about God.

Conjunctions

Conjunctions are generally suffixed to verbs:

-si - when - iş-u itim tey-si - when he's in the temple

-ayt - and (linking clauses) - şemi iş-ayt an-naşa-ayt - he's smoking and it's raining

-op - but - şemi iş-op an-naşa-op - he's smoking, but it's raining

Compound verbs and linked verbs

Verbs with the same subject may be linked in compound verb constructions or using the -ak' suffix. The former implies that one does something at the same time:

şemittat iş - he smokes and eats (at the same time)

şemi ttat-ak' iş - he smokes and (then) eats, he smokes and eats generally

Adverbs

Any verb can be modified using a stative verb, such as yiişu ('to be fast'), placed before the verb:

yiişu ttat iş - he eats quickly

Many serial verbs are also analysed as adverbs, although these are placed following the verb:

şemi aşt iş - he smokes towards me