Kijeb (Sohlob)
Introduction
| Language | |
| Spoken in: | Dlofiçtir Mountains |
| Timeline/Universe: | Sohlodar |
| Total speakers: | Unknown |
| Genealogical classification: | Sohlob languages Kijeb |
| Basic word order: | SOV |
| Morphological type: | Agglutinating, with mild fusion due to sandhi |
| Morphosyntactic alignment: | Nominative-accusative |
| Created by: | |
| BPJ | 2001—2006 |
Kijeb [kidʑɨb̥] "the ancient language" is the oldest attested Sohlob language, and regarded by the native grammatical tradition as the mother language of the later languages or dialects Classical Sohlob, Heleb, Kidilib and Linjeb. In reality Kijeb may be the direct ancestor only of Kidilib, while Classical Sohlob, Heleb and Linjeb may be descended from other closely related dialects — dialect which in any case cannot have been very much different, given the great similarity between Classical Sohlob, Heleb and Kidilib, and the relatively long time (above a thousand years) which is estimated to separate Kijeb from the beginning of the Sohloçan grammatical tradition.
It is not known what the speakers of Kijeb called themselves or their language. The name Kijeb is a Classical Sohlob term, although its phonetic form has evidently been influenced by its unrecorded Kidilib cognate. It is in any case not likely that the speakers of Kijeb called their own contemporary language *kidipa "ancient language".
Kijeb is attested in the form of mostly short inscriptions written in a syllabic script, mostly formal religious, commemorative, dedicative and funerary inscriptions on stone and metal. There is evidence that there existed other writings in Kijeb language and script, since Sohloçan grammarians mention finds of pottery with Kijeb inscriptions in ancient graves. It seems clear however that with few exceptions the preserved Kijeb texts derive from the area where Kidilib was spoken in classical times.
Despite the written attestation Kijeb is largely a reconstructed language, since the Kijeb syllabary is partly defective in ignoring the distinctions between palatalized and unpalatalized consonants, between voiced and voiceless stops, and mostly also between stops and fricatives, and since the vocabulary of the inscriptions is limited. The reconstruction of Kijeb was made by Sohloçan priest grammarians striving to understand ancient religious inscriptions in the hope of improving their theology and the wording of their liturgical texts. Fortunately some of them got hooked on the study of language and language history in its own right and delved deeper in the history of their languages than those who were merely motivated by religious conservatism and purism.
Kijeb (Proto-Sohlob) grammar
Sound system
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
| High | i | u | |
| Low | a |
Consonants
| Labial | Dental or Alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | Labiovelar | |
| Voiceless stops | p py | t ty | ky | k | kw |
| Voiced stops | b by | d dy | gy | g | gw |
| Voiceless fricatives | f fy | s sy | xy | x | |
| Nasals | m my | n ny [nʲ] | (ŋy [ɲ]) | ŋ | ŋw |
| Liquid | r ry | ||||
| Semivowels | y [j] | w wy |
The absence of **xw is somewhat remarkable. Some Sohloçan grammarians note that Heleb and Kidilib x was in fact redundantly labialized, and suppose that this was the case also in Kijeb. Others propose a Pre-Kijeb merger with f; there are however no homonyms with f to support this theory.
The cardinal palatal nasal ŋy [ɲ] does not contrast with the dental/alveolar ny [nʲ] in roots, but appears in inflexion and derivation. This is shown by the fact that its reflex in the daughter languages is [j], e.g. tataŋya > CS: taday "my own", while the reflex of ny is [ɲ], brunya > CS: brony [brɒɲ] "hatchet".
Palatalization
An y after a consonant or cluster is realized as palatalization of the consonant, or all consonants throughout the cluster.
Sandhi
There were some assimilatory and dissimilatory changes that probably applied synchronically in Kijeb:
| Underlying | Condition | Result | Example(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| t | before voiced stops and nasals | d |
kitbyu > *xidbyu > CS: xefd, K: sijd, L: xirz; |
| y | between a vowel and an i | g | |
| y | between an i and an a or u | gy | |
| w | between a vowel and an u | b | |
| w | between an u and an a or i | gw | |
| n | before p, b, f, m | m | |
| n | before k, g, x, ŋ | ŋ | |
| mm | in inflection | mb | |
| nn | in inflection | nd | |
| ŋŋ | in inflection | ŋg | |
| rr | in inflection | dr | |
| m, n, ŋ | between an t, d or s and a consonant other than r, w, y | deletes | |
| tt, dd | in inflection | st, [z]d | |
| r | between an s and a consonant other than r, w, y | ir | |
| s | before voiced stops | [z] | sasbinta > *sazbinta > CS: hæzbænd, K: hejdehn, L: hezbent. |
Root structure
A Kijeb nominal or verbal root has the following structure:
- (s) (C) (r) (y) V (D) C (r) (y)
where
- slots in parentheses are optional
- V is any vowel (a, i, u)
- C is any consonant
- D is any dental (t/d, n, s, r)
There are some restrictions on possible phoneme sequences, including:
- Geminates do not occur. Thus e.g. if there is an s in a C slot there can be no s in the preceding s or D slot, resulting in an *ss, and similarly no *rr, *ww, *yy, *tt. *dd, *nn.
- n + a nasal does not occur (no *nn, *nm, *nŋ).
- Labial + w does not occur.
- None of *yi, *iy, *wu, *uw can occur.
- Palatalization or y may occur either in the consonant(s) before the V or in the consonant(s) after the V or not at all, but not both before and after the V. A cluster is either palatalized throughout or not at all.
- In nominal and verbal roots
- the same consonant may not occur twice,
- no two stops or fricatives (other than s) at the same point of articulation may occur within a single root,
- no two nasals may occur within a single root.
- The nominal stems mama "mother" and papa "father" are the only known exceptions to these restrictions among nominal and verbal roots. In pronoun and determiner stems, on the other hand, shapes like tat, kak, nan, sas are allowed and even favored. (There is also the numeral stem sas "one", but this may be a determiner in origin.) It may be that these stems were originally CV stems that became reduplicated.
- Roots consisting only of VC are extremely rare.
- Roots with a heavy cluster both before and after the V are rare.
In order to function as a stem such a root must be followed by a vowel. In nouns (including adjectives) this second vowel is a random extension, while in verbs it is an inflectional morpheme.
Morphology
Unlike the daughter languages, which are split-ergative, Kijeb is entirely nominative-accusative.
Nominal morphology
Core cases
| Singular | Animate plural | Inanimate plural | |
| Nominative | -Ø (unmarked) | -n | -r |
| Accusative | -s | -ns | -rs |
| Dative | -t | -nt | -rt |
(In the daughter languages the accusative is derived from *-si and the dative from *-tu.)
It is not certain that the inanimate plural accusative and dative were distinguished from the singular. In any case the Kijeb syllabary could not distinguish word-final -rs, -rt from word-final -s, -t, while in the animate plural the diacritic for syllable-final -n could be added to CVs and CVt characters to indicate word-final -ns, -nt.
Other cases
| Singular | Animate plural | Inanimate plural | |
| Locative | -tyu | -ntyu | -rtyu |
| Allative | -sya | -nsya | -rsya |
| Ablative | -yu | -nyu | -ryu |
| Instrumental | -ri | -nri | -dri |
The ergative of the daughter languages derives from *-rya and is certainly derived from the instrumental.
Adverbs
Local adverbs
Local adverbs are formed by adding local case endings to the three deictic roots proximal *i "this", medial *a "that" and distal *u "yon".
| ityu | "here" | atyu | "there" | utyu | "yonder" |
| isya | "to here" | asya | "to there" | usya | "to yonder" |
| igyu | "from here" | ayu | "from there" | uyu | "from yonder" |
Pronouns
Kijeb pronouns have several unique morphological characteristics. Most basic pronoun roots have the shape CV. Such a root cannot stand on its own, but attaches clitically to a noun or verb stem. A clitic pronoun functions as a possessive marker when attached to a noun and as a person agreement marker when attached to a verb.
Free standing pronouns are emphatic, and are formed by reduplicating the CV root.
Plural pronouns are formed either suppletively or by infixation of the plural marker -n or -r between the syllables of the reduplicated CV root. For this reason plural emphatic pronouns take simple case markers -s, -t etc., thus the accusative of anda is andas rather than **anans or **andans.
Personal and demonstrative pronouns
First and second person
| Singular | Plural (animate) | |||||
| Clitic | Emphatic | Clitic | Emphatic | |||
| First person | -ta | tata | "I" | -di | didi | "we (exclusive)" |
| -pu | pupu | "we (inclusive)" | ||||
| Second person | -ba | baba | "thou" | -gi | gigi | "you (pl.)" |
Third person clitic pronouns
| Singular | Plural | |
| Masculine | -na | -nda |
| Feminine | -mi | -mbi |
| Rational | -ŋka | |
| Irrational | -ŋu | -ŋgu |
| Inanimate | -ru/-ur | -dru |
Third person emphatic pronouns
These are formed by compounding three deictic roots — proximal *i "this", medial *a "that" and distal *u "yon" — with the third person pronominal stems. These deictic roots do not occur independently, although they are also used in local adverbs, and neither are there any non-clitic third person pronouns not including these deictic stems.
| Proximal "this" | Medial "that" | Distal "yon" | ||||
| Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | |
| Masculine | ina | inda | ana | anda | una | unda |
| Feminine | imi | imbi | ami | ambi | umi | umbi |
| Rational | iŋka | aŋka | uŋka | |||
| Irrational | iŋu | iŋgu | aŋu | aŋgu | uŋu | uŋgu |
| Inanimate | iru | idru | aru | adru | uru | udru |
Possessive pronouns
There are no special clitic forms for possessive pronouns. The clitics listed above have a possessive meaning when attached to nouns.
First and second person emphatic
| Singular | Plural (animate) | |||
| First person | tatya | "my, mine" | didya | "our (exclusive)" |
| pupa | "our (inclusive)" | |||
| Second person | babya | "thy, thine" | gigya | "your (pl.)" |
Third person emphatic
| Proximal "of this" | Medial "of that" | Distal "of yon" | ||||
| Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | |
| Masculine | inya | indya | anya | andya | unya | undya |
| Feminine | imya | imbya | amya | ambya | umya | umbya |
| Rational | iŋkya | aŋkya | uŋkya | |||
| Irrational | iŋwa | inŋgwa | aŋwa | aŋgwa | uŋwa | uŋgwa |
| Inanimate | irwa | idrwa | arwa | adrwa | urwa | udrwa |
Reflexive pronouns
Reflexive pronouns are formed by adding the clitic -ŋi to the personal and demonstrative pronouns, e.g. tataŋi "myself" anaŋi "himself". There is also a possessive version -ŋya, e.g. tataŋya "my own", anaŋya "his own". These clitics can also be attached to nouns, e.g. snupuŋi "the man himself", snupuŋya "the man's own".
"Each other" is -ŋgi and "each other's" is -ŋgya.
Interrogative pronouns
| Basic | Possessive | ||||||
| Emphatic | Clitic | Emphatic | Clitic | ||||
| Animate | singular | gwigwi | -gwi | "who?" | gwigwa | -gwa | "of whom? |
| plural | gwiŋgwi | -ŋgwi | gwiŋgwa | -ŋgwa | |||
| Inanimate | singular | gugu | -gu | "what?, which?" | gugwa | -gwa | "of what?, of which?" |
| plural | gurgu | -rgu | gurgwa | -rgwa | |||
Note that the clitic singular possessive is the same for animate and inanimate. There is no trace of them ever having been differentiated.
Indefinite pronouns
Indefinite pronouns are formed by adding the clitic -fu to the interrogatives: gwigifu "someone" gugufu "something". This clitic can also be attached to nouns, e.g. snupufu "some man".
Verbs
Finite verb forms
Verbs are inflected for aspect, inverseness, tense, mood or mood and person, all of which are expressed as suffixes to the verb root. The buildup of the verb word is:
- root - aspect - (inverseness) - (tense/mood/voice) - subject - (direct object) - (indirect object)
Aspect
There are two aspects in Kijeb, viz. perfect, marked by -u-, and imperfect or non-perfect, marked by -i-.
Inverseness
The inverse marker -s-/-z- signals that the subject of the verb is inanimate and the direct object animate. A verb that is not inverse is said to be direct, but there is no overt directness marker in Kijeb.
Tense and mood and voice
There are two tenses, present and past, and three moods, realis and irrealis and imperative. However marking of tense and mood overlap, so that any given verb form is marked either for present tense -n-/-na-, past tense -r-/-ri- or irrealis mood -t-/-s-/-z-.
A verb form marked for tense cannot be marked for mood, but is always realis, and a verb form marked for irrealis mood cannot be marked for tense, but can function as any tense. The irrealis performs such functions as future, subjunctive, optative and hortative.
The only voice distinction in Kijeb is between non-imperative and imperative. The imperative is signalled by the absence of inverseness and tense/mood markers, and that the only person marking is an animate plural marker -n if the injunction is adressed to a group. An imperative can only be addressed to animate adresses. To express a "command" or wish concerning inanimates the irrealis must be used.
Examples:
(1) sab -u -Ø -r -na -ru -mi give -PERF -DIR -PAST -3.sg.masc. -3.sg.inan. -3.sg.fem. saburnarumi
"He had given it to her"
(2) sazb -i -Ø -n -ta -ŋka see -IMPF -DIR -PRES -1.sg. -3.pl.rat. sazbintaŋka
"I see/am seeing them"
(3) pant -i -s -n -ur -ba hit -IMPF -INV -PRES -3.sg.inan. -2.sg. pantisnurba
"It hits you"
(4) dirn -u -Ø -t -ur fall down -PERF -DIR -IRREALIS -3.sg.inan. dirnutur
"It will/might/should have fallen down"
(5) basn -u -Ø -Ø -n go out -PERF -DIR -IMP -PL basnugi
"Go out, you all!"
The only constituents that are really "optional" are object markers. The absence of the inversion marker is best seen as the presence of a zero directness marker, and the absence of a tense/mood marker is best seen as the presence of a zero imperative marker.
Note that the third person singular inanimate ending takes the allomorph -ur when in subject position, except before plural agreement markers beginning in two consonants.
Sandhi in verb forms
The sequence of morphemes is often obscured by sandhi, giving rise to portmanteau morphemes, e.g.
| Underlying form | Surface form | Gloss |
|---|---|---|
| **pant-i-s-r-ru-n-ka | pantizdruŋka | "It hit them" |
| **pant-i-s-r-r-ru-n-ka | pantisridruŋka | "They (inanimate) hit (past) them" |
| **pant-i-s-n-r-ru-n-ka | pantizdruŋka | "They (inanimate) hit (present) them" |
| **sasb-i-Ø-t-n-na-ta | sazbizdata | "the men will see me" |
| **sasb-i-Ø-t-ta | sazbista | "I will/should/would/might/ see" |
| sasb-i-n-na | sazbinda | "He sees" |
| sasb-i-n-n-na | sazbinanda | "The men see" |
| sasb-i-n-mi | sazbimbi | "She sees" |
| sasb-i-n-n-mi | sazbinambi | "The women see" |
| sasb-i-n-ŋu | sazbiŋgu | "It (animate) sees" |
| sasb-i-n-n-ŋu | sazbinaŋgu | "They (animate) see" |
| sasb-i-n-n-ka | sazbiŋka | "The men and women see" |
The past tense allomorph -ri- arises as a sandhi phenomenon when the past tense morpheme -r- is preceded by the inverseness marker -s- and followed by the inanimate plural subject marker -dru- (itself ultimately a sandhi of *-r-ru-). Apparently the past-tense -r- which had come to stand between the two non-sonorant consonants s and d became realized as a syllabic [r̩] which then in turn resolved into [ri].
The -na- allomorph of the present tense morpheme on the other hand defies a purely phonetic explanation. It is clear however that it arises in order to prevent present forms with animate plural suffixes from becoming identical to present forms with animate singular suffixes.
The irrealis allomorphs -s- and -z- arise when the irrealis marker is followed by a subject marker beginning in a dental stop (**-t-t- > -s-t- and **-t-d- > **-d-d- > -z-d-). It is not really possible to confuse them with the inverseness marker, since the latter always takes inanimate subject markers.
Infinite verb forms
The infinitive or gerund
There is also an infinitive or gerund stem formed by adding -a to the verb root. By taking different case endings this stem can express various infinite functions.
Participles
Participles are verb forms inflected for aspect and tense/mood, but which take nominal number and case endings rather than person suffixes. Pariciples are used chiefly to form relative clauses, as there are no relative pronouns in Kijeb, and each sentence may have only one finite verb. Examples are sabura "Having given", pantina "hitting" and basnura "gone out".
Syntax
(Scattered notes so far)
Word order is SOV, with everything that entails.
The "rational" plural gender is used for mixed masculine/feminine groups. The reason it isn't called "human" is that it is used for gods, ghosts, demons and the like as well as for humans. Besides I'm not sure yet if the Sohloçan are human!
There is no genitive case. The possessive construction is like this:
- giwri-t tyadgu-na-n king-DAT elephant-his-PL "The king's elephants".
Negation is made with the auxiliary paxya "not do", e.g. sazba paxintaŋka "I don't see them". This is quite possibly the main use of the infinitive/gerund!
Do predicate nominals/adjectives require a copular verb or not?
- If not will the verb una only mean "be" or also "exist", or not exist! ☺ It will probably be needed for other aspects/tenses than imperfective present.
- Note the conflict with the pronoun una!
- Will ufa "not be" be in complementary or partially alternating distribution with paxya "not do"?
