User:Masako/pataka

Introduction

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]

Parts of Speech

Kala has three parts of speech, each with several subgroups.

1. noma - nouns
   1. nkalo - pronouns
   2. uatse - demonstratives
2. uati - verbs
   1. tatse - locative verbs (prepositions)
   2. keyo - descriptive verbs (adjectives)
3. peya - particles
   1. nita - interjections
   2. eka - affixes

Phonology

Consonants

• Plosives: /p t k ʔ/ [b d g ɢ]
• Nasals: /m n ɲ/
• Continuants: /s l h/ [ʃ ɾ ɦ]
• Affricates: /t͡s t͡ɬ/ [t͡ʃ t͡l]
• Semivowels: /j w/

• 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

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').

Morphology

Nouns

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.

nkalo

	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

Demonstratives

uatse

	Proximal i-	Medial ua-	Distal ye-	Inclusive -kua	Negative -k	Indefinite -la
mo place	hina	uana	yemua	mokua	mok	mola
ko person	iko	uako	yeko	tlokua	tlok	kola
uku amount	iku	uaku	-	kua	ok	ula
ama time	ima	uama	-	kuama	amak	tlama
so kind, type	iso	so'o	yeso	sokua	sok	sola
no thing	itla	uatla	yetla	nokua	nok	nola
to manner, method, way	yoto	uato	ato	tokua	tok	tola

Syntax

Sentence	na nyoma ina
Words	na		nyoma		ina
Gloss	I	(AG)	rice	(P)	eat	(pres)
Parts	Agent		Patient		Verb
Translation	I eat rice.