grammar outline and resources

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingua_Franca_Nova_grammar
zompist.com/virtuver.htm
languagesgulper.com/eng/languages.html

Introduction (soka)

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 from 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 (tomilo)

Kala is a mostly agglutinative language that makes extensive use of compounding, incorporation, and derivation. That is, it can add many different prefixes and suffixes to a root until very long words are formed, and a single word can sometimes constitute an entire sentence. 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 - /muˌja gaː/ - do Q - (What are you) doing?
ina - /iːˈna/ - eat - (I am) eating.
tamatse - /tamaːˌt͡ʃɛ/ - good-seem - (That looks) good.
ueha ka - /weːɦa kaː/ - want Q - (Do you) want (some)?
nyasak - /ɲaːʃak/ - thank-NEG - No, thank (you).

Notice that none of the above contains any pronouns, or nouns. Any contextually understood elements may be omitted unless indispensable. There can be considerable divergence from what is grammatical, and what is acceptably idiomatic. The spectrum of formality and grammatical to idiomatic can be seen in the example below:

na’etla muyaye – 1s-P.4s do-PST – I did it. > [grammatical, formal]
etla muyaye – P.4s do-PST – (I) did it. >> It was done. > [grammatical, formal, passive]
na muyaye – 1s do-PST – I did (it). > [grammatical, informal]
muyaye – do-PST – (I) did (it). > [semi-grammatical, idiomatic]
muyye – /muːjjɛ/ – do-PST – (I) did (it). > [ungrammatical, idiomatic]

Borrowing (kasu)

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

pato – duck (Anatidae); from Spanish pato
kala – to speak, talk, converse; from Arabic takallama
myonta – to allow, permit; from Finnish myöntää
na – I, me; from Arabic ʾanā
tsenka – orange; from Chinese chéng
uasi – to take, get, acquire; from Lakota wasichu
a – to be, exist, yes; from Japanese aru

Phonology (otonaho)

Consonants (hapu)

Where ~ appears, it indicates free variation between phonemes.

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)

The glottal stop is not phonemic but is included in the chart above for completeness. It is only ever intervocalic, meaning it is pronounced between two vowels and/or diphthongs that are not connected. Where ~ appears, it indicates free variation between phonemes. However, certain sounds change in a predictable way. For example, /h/ becomes [ɦ] when preceded or followed by a front vowel, including when labialized or palatalized. The alveolar affricates are most often /t͡ʃ/ and /t͡ɬ/. The “s” is almost always /ʃ/ unless preceded or followed by a syllable with the onset /t͡ʃ/, in which case “s” becomes /s/. So, sama (sun; star; solar) is /ˈʃaːma/ where sitsa (heat; hot) is /ˈsiːt͡ʃa/ and tsisi (embroider; embroidery) is /t͡ʃiːsi/.

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 (musa)

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 (umomusa)

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 (otomato)

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 (tloko)

Syllable structure in Kala is typically made up of open syllables of the type CV (consonant-vowel) with most lexemes having syllables exclusively of this type. The exception to this rule are the endings –m (indicating general plural), -n (indicating adverbial or adjectival use), and –k (indicating negative mood). These endings all are word final. In detail a Kala syllable can be analyzed thusly: (N)(C)(u, y)V(a, i) where (N) indicates nasalization, and u and y indicate labialization and palatalization respectively.

Syllable Chart (ualitloko)

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.

Collating Order (pataka)

The collating sequence (alphabetical order) is based on the order established in the Naua script.

Consonants	p	t	k	m	n	s	h	ts	tl	l
Vowels	a	e	i	o	u	ua	ue	ya	ye	yo

Based on this order, ma would come before ha, etc. Prenasalized syllables are ordered after their non-prenasalized counterparts, i.e. mpa comes after pyo but before ta.

Stress (otomana)

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) with the exceptions of negatives and words that end with a syllable onset palatal approximant, in which case stress is ultimate.

Syntax (teyeto)

Kala has an extremely regular grammar, with very few exceptions to its rules. Sentences are made up of one or more phrases. Each phrase consists of a verb (optionally followed by modifying particles) and a subject (optionally followed by modifying particles).

The subject, if understood, can be omitted at the end of an utterance: pana ("It is raining.") pana! ("Rain!") An utterance can be anything from an interjection to a story.

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.

The use of the object marker ke indicates the recipient of the action.

naka ke mita itsa

woman O dog love

The woman loves the dog.

Kala lacks morphological adjectives and instead uses predicative verbs.

ke tsaka taha

O house be.big

The big house / The house is big

Kala lacks morphological adverbs, verbs modified with the adverbial ending -n tend to precede the verb phrase they modify.

tsumun nam yokone

cautious-ADV 1pl swim-SUG

We should swim cautiously.

Kala lacks morphological prepositions and instead uses locational and relational verbs.

mita ke yempa tahe

dog O table be.under

The dog is under the table.

Morphology (umpu)

Nouns (noma)

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 (uku)

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.

Nouns are marked for number; plural and collective:

mita - dog - a dog
- mitam - dog-PL - dogs
- tlimita - COL-dog - a dog pack / a pack of dogs
- tlimitam - COL-dog-PL - dog packs / packs of dogs

When the final syllable of a word contains an m, mp, and sometimes a p the plural marking changes to -lo.

yama - mountain - a mountain
- yamalo - mountain-PL - mountains
- tliyama - COL-mountain - a mountain range / range of mountains
- tliyamalo - COL-mountain-PL - mountain ranges / ranges of mountains

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).

Gender (saka)

Gender is not normally marked but can be with the endings -na and -ta to mark the feminine and masculine, respectively 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.

uma - horse - a horse
- umana - horse-FEM - mare
- umata - horse-MASC - stallion

Pronouns (nkalo)

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)

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

adjectives

Attributes
- Adjectives used attributively appear after the noun, without modification: nahi aya 'a beautiful girl'; paka hikya 'an old idiot'.

Predicates
- As predicates they are a bit more complicated; in effect they are partially converted into verbs. No copula is used. In the simplest form, the adjective simply appears after the noun, in verbal position:

User:Masako/naho