Kala

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The Kala conlang...

Introduction

Kala is a personal conlang (actually more of an artlang), based on my aesthetic preferences, not attached to any conworld or conculture. This language draws on natlangs (natural language), other conlangs, and of course imagination. Kala was started in late 2009. The phonemic inventory is based on Classical Nahuatl while the syllable structure and vowels are based on the strict (C)V structure of Japanese, and the presence of prenasalized stops is influenced by Bantu languages. Kala’s grammar was initially based on Japanese but has changed based on influence from several natural and constructed languages. Many – if not most – of Kala lexemes are derived or inspired by natural languages. A few have been taken from previous projects or constructed languages such as Ajara (a cipherlang from my youth), Qatama (a conlang that I abandoned several years ago).

Characteristics

Kala has two parts of speech. Nouns and verbs are content words, while particles (and others) tend to be only functional. Many content words can be used as both nouns and verbs. The best, and most common example would be ina /iːˈna/ ‘food; to eat’. Kala is a context-oriented language. In most cases, the more important elements of a phrase are clustered toward the end of the sentence (e.g. verbs and their modifiers). The less important an element is to the understanding of a sentence, the more likely it is to be dropped. Consequently, many Kala sentences end-up consisting solely of a verb (or adjectival verb). More so in conversation than in written Kala, these short phrases are grammatically correct and natural. Here are some examples:

  • muya ka - do Q - (What are you) doing?
  • ina - eat - (I am) eating.
  • tamatse - good-seem - (That looks) good.
  • ueha ka - want Q - (Do you) want (some)?
  • nyasak - thank-NEG - No, thank (you).

Notice that none of the above contain any pronouns, or nouns. Any contextually understood elements may be omitted unless indispensable.

Borrowing

Kala borrows extensively from various natural languages. This is a very small sample of borrowings:

See also: etymology

  • patoduck (Anatidae); from Spanish pato
  • kalato speak, talk, converse; from Arabic takallama
  • myontato allow, permit; from Finnish myöntää
  • naI, me; from Arabic ʾanā
  • tsenkaorange; from Chinese chéng
  • uasito take, get, acquire; from Lakota wasichu
  • ato be, exist, yes; from Japanese aru

Phonology

Consonants

Consonants
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m (m) n (n) ɲ (ny)
Plosive p~b (p) t~d (t) k~g (g) ʔ ( ' )
Affricate ts~t͡ʃ (ts) t͡ɬ~tl (tl)
Continuant s~ʃ (s) l~ɾ (l) 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 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

Kala words are typically made up of open syllables of the type CV (consonant-vowel) with most words having syllables exclusively of this type. There is a limited set of syllables allowed by Kala phonotactics, similar to Japanese or Chinese.

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

Syllables

the 136 basic Kala syllables
a e i o u ua ue ya ye yo ai ao uai yao
p (m)pa (m)pe (m)pi (m)po (m)pu pua pue pya pye pyo pai pao puai pyao
t (n)ta (n)te (n)ti (n)to tai tao
k (n)ka (n)ke (n)ki (n)ko (n)ku kua kue kya kye kyo kai kao kuai kyao
m ma me mi mo mu mua mue mya mye myo mai mao muai myao
n na ne ni no nu nua nue nya nye nyo nai nao nuai nyao
s sa se si so su sua sue sai sao suai
h ha he hi ho hu hua hue hya hye hyo hai hao huai hyao
ts tsa tse tsi tso tsu tsua tsue tsai tsao tsuai
tl tla tle tli tlo tlai tlao
l la le li lo lai lao
- a e i o u ua ue ya ye yo ai ao uai yao

Syllables such as nsa, ntla, or ntsa can occur but usually only in place names or loanwords. The red syllables above occur infrequently and most often as the final syllable of a word.

Stress

Stress generally falls on the penultimate syllable, which means that stress is de facto initial in most lemma given that stems are most often (CVCV).

Orthography

  • Kala conscripts are many and varied. Rather than multiple pages explaining each of them, this page serves as a working list with a consistent example across each script. The most commonly used script is the Hangul adaptation for Kala.

Morphology

Nouns

Nouns in Kala are inflected only for number. Other relevant distinctions are animacy and possession, but these are not marked on the noun itself. Animacy plays a role both for pronoun choice and for the validity of some syntactic constructions.

Number

  • Most nouns in Kala distinguish singular and plural number. There are several different “regular” ways to form the plural, which are to a certain degree predictable from the phonological shape of the singular form. Nouns can be marked plural (PL) by -m (or -lo if the final syllable contains /m/ or /p/, or, if the word begins with a vowel).
    • In general the plural suffix is not used when the plurality of the noun is clear from context. For example, while the English sentence "there are three dogs" would use the plural "dogs" instead of the singular "dog", the Kala sentence mita ha'o a "dog three exist" keeps the word mita "dog" in its unmarked form, as the numeral makes the plural marker redundant.
    • 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).
  • ata - name > atalo - names
  • mita – dog > mitam - dogs > tlimita – a pack of dogs
  • yama – mountain > tliyamalo – mountain ranges
  • tsaka – house > tlitsaka – neighborhood
  • puku – clothing > tlipuku – wardrobe

Gender

Gender is not normally marked but can be by -na (FEM), -ta (MASC), or nouns such as naka, tlaka, nahi, or tahi (the woman, the man, the girl, the boy), etc. A gender neutral suffix, -nta may be used when the gender is unknown or ambiguous.

Pronouns

Kala agent pronouns are often omitted when the person is obvious from context. There are four persons in Kala. The 4th being inanimate, or indefinite. There is a special pronoun na'am which is used as the 1st person plural exclusive, meaning "We, but not you." The 3rd person plural is irregular, all other pronoun decline regularly. 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.

Personal pronouns:

  • na - 1st person
  • ta - 2nd person
  • ha - 3rd person
  • tla - 4th person ("it", "one") (used for inanimate nouns)

Modifiers:

  • -m - plural
  • -nku - reciprocal (only attaches to plural pronouns)
  • e- - patient
  • -i - reflexive
  • -yo - possessive

Other pronouns include:

  • tlokua - everyone, everybody
  • kola - someone, somebody; whomever, anyone, anybody
  • tlok - no one, nobody
  • nokua - everything
  • nola - something; whatever, anything
  • nok - nothing


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

Determiners & Demostratives

The demonstratives can be prefixed to any noun to show deixis. Kala makes a three-way distinction. Typically there is a distinction between proximal or first person (objects near to the speaker), medial or second person (objects near to the addressee), and distal or third person (objects far from both).

  • itla (i-) - this (near me)
  • uatla (ua-) - that (near you)
  • yetla (ye-) - that (over there)

Examples:

  • imitami - PROX-dog-few - These few dogs
  • yemitampa - DIST-dog-many - Those many dogs (over there)
  • uamitali - MED-dog-each - Each dog (each of those dogs) (near you)

Quantifiers follow the noun that modify.

  • kua (-kua) - all; every; whole
  • oli (-li) - each; every
  • ula (-la) - whatever; any; some
  • mi (-mi) - few; little
  • nke (-k) - none
  • mpa (-mpa) - many; much; a lot
  • maha - more; plus
  • ohi - less; fewer


Correlatives

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

Aspect

Mood

Negative

Syntax