Kala

The Kala conlang...

• calendar
• lexicon
  • thematic lexicon
• phrases
• syllables
• word formation
• writing

Introduction

Word Order

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:

• mita tlaka anya - dog man see - The dog sees the man.
• tlaka mita anya - man dog see - The man sees the dog.

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.

Comparisons

When things being compared have equal characteristics, the comparison of equality is used.

• mita kue tahi taha - dog like boy big - The dog is as big as the boy.
• mpa'a kue mosa niha - movie like book nice - The movie is as good as the book.

If two things are not equal, they are unequal.

• nanku ke manyo itlok - 1pl.RECP O height same-NEG - We are not the same height.
• ta kue na manyoha - 2sg like 1sg height-AUG - You are taller than I.

• ke no ta'o poku itlok - O thing two cost same-NEG - The two items do not cost the same.
• potonyo kue ninka mpahaka - photo-tool as television expensive-AUG - The camera is more expensive than the television.

Questions

There are two types of questions: Polar, those which may be answered "yes" or "no," and those which require explanations as answers. Any statement can become a polar question by adding the interrogative particle ka at the end of the sentence.

• mita ina - dog eat - The dog eats.
  • mita ina ka - dog eat Q - Does the dog eat?

The other type of question contains a question word and is followed by ka:

• ke mita ina ka - O dog eat Q - What does the dog eat?
• ko ina ka - person eat Q - Who eats?
• koyo mita ina ka - person-POSS dog eat Q - Whose dog eats?
• to mita ina ka - manner dog eat Q - How does the dog eat?
• mo mita ina ka - place dog eat Q - Where does the dog eat?
• nye mita ina ka - reason dog eat Q - Why does the dog eat?
• ama mita ina ka - time dog eat Q - When does the dog eat?
• uku mita ina ka - amount dog eat Q - How much/many does the dog eat?
• ula mita ina ka - any dog eat Q - Which dog eats?

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. Nouns and verbs are substantive, while particles tend to be only functional.

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

Phonology

• Where ~ appears, it indicates free variation between phonemes.

Consonants

Consonants

	Labial	Alveolar		Palatal	Velar	Glottal
		central	lateral
Nasal	m (m)	n (n)		ɲ (ny)
Plosive	p~b (p)	t~d (t)			k~g (k)	ʔ (`)
Affricate		ts (ts)	t͡ɬ~tl (tl)	t͡ʃ (ts)
Continuant		s (s)	l~ɾ (l)	ʃ (s)		h~ɦ (h)
Semivowel				j (y)	w (u)

• 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

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i~ɪ (i)		u~u: (u)
Mid	e~ɛ (e)		o~o: (o)
Open		a~a: (a)

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').

Diphthongs

Phonetically, Kala has only two diphthongs, both falling; [aɪ̯] and [aʊ̯], but there are five syllables that can be analyzed as rising diphthongs; [wa], [we], [ja], [je], and [jo]. The two triphthongs [waɪ̯] and [jaʊ̯] are very rare but should be noted as possible.

Phonotactics

Syllable Structure

Kala syllable structure is ((N)C)(y, u)V(F). As in most languages, CV is the most common syllable type, accounting for the majority of Kala lemmas. The finals /n/, /m/, and /k/ are grammatical and indicate adverbs, plurals, and negatives, respectively. They only occur word finally. So, nkapa (alcohol) is permitted, but nakpa is not; kyopo (fear) is acceptable, but koypo is not, etc. There is a limited set of syllables allowed by Kala phonotactics, similar to Japanese or Chinese. They are listed here: Syllable Chart, or here.

• /l/ cannot occur word initially (except in loan words and toponyms).

Morphology

Nouns

Number

general plural

Kala does not require the plural be marked if it is understood through context, and only animate pronouns are marked, whereas inanimate nouns need not be marked. General plurals are formed with –m (or –lo if the final syllable contains m).

• mita / mitam - dog / dogs
• kuma / kumalo - bear / bears

mass nouns

Mass nouns include liquids, powders, and substances, such as maya (water), hyeka (sand), and tleno (wood). They do not normally require determiners or the plural. However, one may add these to indicate specific examples or different types:

• tlenom – woods (e.g. various kinds)
• mayam - waters (e.g. various locations)

collective

The collective plural is marked by tli-, derived from tatli, meaning group; collection; gathering. It is mainly used to indicate collectives of animals, but can also indicate groups of flora, geographic features, and various other groupings. This is called the collective plural (COL).

• mita – dog / tlimita – pack of dogs
• yama – mountain / tliyamalo – mountain range
• tsaka – house / tlitsaka – neighborhood
• puku – clothing / tlipuku – wardrobe

Personal 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 here	uana there	yemua over there	mokua everywhere	mok nowhere	mola somewhere; anywhere
ko person	iko this person	uako that person	yeko that person (over there)	tlokua everyone	tlok no one	kola someone; anyone
uku amount	iku this much	uaku that much	-	kua all; every	ok none	ula some; any
ama time	ima now, at present	uama then; at that time	-	kuama always	amak never	tlama sometime; anytime
so kind, type	iso this kind	so'o that kind	yeso that kind (over there)	sokua all kinds	sok no kind (at all)	sola some/any kind
no thing	itla this	uatla that	yetla that (over there)	nokua everything	nok nothing; none	nola something; anything
to manner, way	yoto thus; like this; this way	uato that way	ato that way (over there)	tokua every way	tok no way	tola somehow; anyway

Verbs

Tense

Kala has three simple tenses; past, present, and future. Present tense is unmarked. However, past and future tenses can be modified to include immediate future ("is about to..."), distant future ("will...in a long while"), recent past ("just ..."), and remote past ("...a long while ago"). These distinctions are made with the augmentative and diminutive endings -ha and -hi.

• The present tense can show immediacy by using the adverb ima, "now; at this time":

ima mita ina - now dog eat - The dog is eating right now.

• If a temporal adverb is used, the tense suffix may be omitted.

Example: yomaye nam ina - yesterday 1pl eat - We ate yesterday.

eme

	Kala	gloss	English
Present	mita ina	dog eat	The dog eats.
Past	mita inaye	dog eat-PST	The dog ate.
Recent Past	mita inayehi or -hye	dog eat-REC	The dog just ate.
Remote Past	mita inayeha	dog eat-REM	The dog ate a long while ago.
Future	mita inatli	dog eat-FUT	The dog will eat.
Immediate Future	mita inatlihi or -tlai	dog eat-IMM	The dog will eat soon.
Distant Future	mita inatliha	dog eat-DIS	The dog will eat a long while from now.

Aspect

The progressive, also called the continuous [CONT], this is used to express an incomplete action or state in progress at a specific time. It is marked with -nko, from nkoso - "to continue; proceed; progress". The perfecive aspect indicates that an action is completed [PFV]. It is often translated by the English present perfect (have done some-thing). It is marked with -pua, from opua - "to end; finish; complete". The inchoative aspect refers to the beginning of a state [INCH]. It is marked with -mu, from mula - "to begin; start; initiate". The frequentative aspect refers to a repeated action [FREQ]. It is marked with -nua, from nua - "frequent; often; regular".

ti'a

	Kala	gloss	English
Progressive	mita inanko	dog eat-CONT	The dog is eating.
Perfective	mita inapua	dog eat-PFV	The dog has eaten.
Inchoative	mita inamu	dog eat-INCH	The dog begins to eat.
Frequentative	mita inanua	dog eat-FREQ	The dog eats often.

Mood

negative

The negative mood (always marked finally) is indicated by the suffix –k or –nke (when the last syllable contains /k/).

• mita inayek - dog eat-PST-NEG - The dog did not eat.
• mita mokunke - dog sleep-NEG - The dog does not sleep.