Gyatalin
| Gyatalin Gjatálin | |
| Spoken in: | Gjatá |
| Timeline/Universe: | (unnamed) |
| Total speakers: | 436,391,390 |
| Genealogical classification: | (unnamed) Shalian |
| Basic word order: | SVO |
| Morphological type: | Inflecting |
| Morphosyntactic alignment: | Nominative-Accusative |
| Created by: | |
| maailmaniag | 2006 |
The language of the Gyatalin people (Eng: Gyatalin, Nat: Gjatálin) is a language spoken on the planet of Meishuko, in an alternate universe. It is spoken by approximately 436,391,390 people, and is the most widely spoken of the Shalian languages found on the planet.
The language itself superficially (and sometimes even semantically) resembles some of the Slavic languages (particularly Polish), partly due to the fact that it was, indeed, the Polish who exposed the Gyatalin people to the Latin alphabet and several semantic ideas.
Phonology/Orthography
Consonants
| Consonants | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bilabial | Labiod. | Dental | Alveolar | Retroflex | Post-alv. | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||||||||
| Nasal | m | n | ||||||||||||||||
| Plosive | p | b | t | d | k | g | ||||||||||||
| Ejective | p' | t' | k' | |||||||||||||||
| Fricative | f | w | s | z | š | ž | ś | ź | ch | h | ||||||||
| Affricate | tš | dž | tś | dź | ||||||||||||||
| Approximants | ẃ | j | ||||||||||||||||
| Lateral Approximant | l | |||||||||||||||||
Digraphs
bj bl bn bw bẃ
dj dl dw dẃ
džl džw džẃ
dźj dźw dźẃ
fj fl fẃ
gd gj gl gw gẃ
hl hm hn hẃ
kj kl kn ks kš kś kw kẃ
k’j k’l k’n k’s k’š k’ś k’w k’ẃ
lj lẃ
mj mẃ
nj nẃ
pf pj pl ps pw pẃ
p’f p’j p’l p’s p’w p’ẃ
sf sk sk’ sl sm sn sp sp’ st st’ sw sẃ
šf šk šk’ šl šm šn šp šp’ št št’ šw šẃ
śj św śẃ
tj tl ts tw tẃ
t’y t’l t’s t’w t’ẃ
tšl tšw tšẃ
tśj tśw tśẃ
w wj wl wẃ
chj chw chẃ
zd zg zj zm zn zẃ
žd žg žj žm žn žẃ
źj źw źẃ
Vowels
| Vowels | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Central | Back | ||||||||
| Close | i | ü | u | |||||||
| Lax Close | y | |||||||||
| Close-Mid | ë | o | ||||||||
| Open-Mid | e | ö | ||||||||
| Near-Open | ä | |||||||||
| Open | a | |||||||||
Diphthongs
There are six diphthongs in Gyatalin, and no more:
aj, ej, ij, oj, uj, yj /ai Ei ij oi uj yj/
Vowel Length
There are a total of 2 vowel lengths in Gyatalin: long and short. The short vowels are marked as previous, and the long vowels are marked as follows:
| Vowels | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Central | Back | ||||||||
| Close | í | ù | ú | |||||||
| Lax Close | ý | |||||||||
| Close-Mid | è | ó | ||||||||
| Open-Mid | é | ò | ||||||||
| Near-Open | à | |||||||||
| Open | á | |||||||||
Long diphthongs are formed in exactly the same way: áj éj íj ój új ýj
The Cases
Gyatalin makes use of six grammatical cases: the nominative, accusative, dative, genitive, locative, and vocative. Each case is marked, normally in with a different ending for each case.
Pronouns
Personal Pronouns
Among other things that decline into each of the six cases, the personal pronouns do.
| Personal Pronouns | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | Accusative | Dative | Genitive | Locative | Vocative | |||||||
| 1 singular | yś | mý | mny | mne | ym | moj | ||||||
| 2 singular | tü | dý | tè | ty | dá | doj | ||||||
| 3 singular m. | žoj | žë | žu | ža | žü | žu | ||||||
| 3 singular f. | žaj | žy | žä | ži | žö | žy | ||||||
| 3 singular n. | žej | žej | žu | že | žy | žo | ||||||
| 1 plural inclusive | il | il | ẃim | wi | jeg | il | ||||||
| 1 plural exclusive | yl | mü | il | mü | mil | myl | ||||||
| 2 plural | jätś | wjej | wjo | wjo | joź | joj | ||||||
| 3 plural anim. | fën | dau | dë | dë | dwò | dwo | ||||||
| 3 plural inanim. | fè | dá | dèn | dè | dwò | dwó | ||||||
Verbal Morphology
Like many Indo-European languages, verbs decline by person and number. However, Gyatalin verbs do not decline by tense; they decline somewhat by aspect, but the conjugations of the verbs don't match up exactly in meaning. The closest natural language aspect is the telicity found in Finnish or Estonian.
For the sake of neatness, already existing grammatical aspects are used to name Gyatalin aspects. However, a brief description of what the actual Gyatalin aspect is will follow the heading.
Before actually viewing the verbal morphology of Gyatalin, it is important to look at the structure of the verb infinitive (which ALWAYS ends in -t'j).
There are two classes of verbs, so aptly named Class 1 and Class 2. Class 1 verbs have either: a, y, o, u, ë, or a consonant before the typical t'j ending. Verbs in Class 2 have either: e, i, y, ü, ä, or ö before the t'j ending. It is impossible to tell whether a particular -yt'j verb is from Class 1 or Class 2.
To discover the stem of the verb, simply remove the vowel and the t'j ending. In the case of the consonant+t'j endings, only remove the t'j.
Perfective Aspect
This is the simplest of the aspects. In Gyatalin, this aspect implies that the action being referred to has been completed.
Class 1 Verbs
Yś- -u
Tü- -ešt
Žoj- -oj
Žaj- -aj
Žej- -ej
Il- -my
Yl- -li
Jätś- -é
Fën- -ju
Fè- -jut
Class 2 Verbs
Yś- -ju
Tü- -iš
žoj- -joj
žaj- -jaj
žej- -jej
Il- -ymi
Yl- -yli
Jätś- -je
Fën- -ja
Fè- -jat
Progressive Aspect
The progressive aspect implies that the verb is happening, but has not been completed. This aspect also carries the meaning of the intention of completing the action. (for example, with the verb "to go there", in the progressive aspect, English would represent the meaning as "to be on one's way there, and having an intention of reaching the final destination")
Imperfective Aspect
The imperfective aspect implies almost the opposite ot the perfective aspect. The verb is happening, and has not yet been completed, but the subject has no intention of finishing the said action.
Prospective Aspect
The prospective aspect implies to the listener that the action has not yet been started; however, the speaker has intentions of finishing the action.
