Leonine
Leonine is a language spoken by people who have taken the Lion morph, following the spread of the Neo-Mutant virus. The main lexical base is Japanese, but a large amount of Chinese, Romance and Germanic roots and untraceable new words have made it into the vocabulary. The language is also known as "Leonian".
| File:Flag-Leonine.png | |
|---|---|
| Leonine Reoni | |
| Pronounced: | /ɾeoni/ |
| Spoken: | Leonine |
| Writing system: | Latin |
| Genealogy: | Japonic
|
| Typology | |
| Morphological type: | Fusional and agglutinative |
| Morphosyntactic alignment: | Theme-based alignment (similar to Austronesian alignment) |
| Basic word order: | SOV |
| Credits | |
| Creator: | User:Madbrain |
History
The Neo-Mutant virus, after spreading through humans, turned them into various "morphs". People with similar morphs tended to congregate together, and ended up creating new languages starting from creoles based on the various human languages they spoke. Japanese was a particularly important source, forming the base for all the Feline Neo-Mutant varieties. The Feline languages are characterized by their use of supra-segmental phonetic distinctions (length, tone, accent, etc) as a basis for their grammatical inflections.
Phonology
Consonants
The consonants in Leonine follow the rough structure of Japanese and Indo-European languages.
| Labial | Dental | Palatal | Dorsal | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | p b | t d | k g | ||
| Affricate | ts dz | tʃ dʒ | |||
| Fricative | f v | s z | ʃ ʒ | h | |
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ ɴ | ||
| Liquid | w | l ɾ | j |
The orthography is similar to Japanese Romanization, with the following conventions: the affricates /ts dz tʃ dʒ/ are written "ts dz ch dj", /ʃ ʒ/ are written "sh j", /ŋ ɴ/ are written "ng nr", and /j/ is written as "y".
Non-initial consonants can also be long (written as pp, tt, kk, tts, cch, ssh etc). This is often produced by grammatical processes. The exception to this is "r" (/ɾ/), which cannot be lengthened.
Vowels
Short vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | ɨᵝ | u |
| Mid | e~ɛ | o~ɔ | |
| Open | a |
The vowel /ɨᵝ/ is written as "u". In turn, /u/ is written as 'û' except when combined with a tone, in which case it is written as 'uh' with the tone mark added (resulting in "úh üh ùh" for the high, dipping and falling tone).
Long vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | iː | ɨᵝː | uː |
| Mid | eː | oː | |
| Open | aː | ɑˤː |
The lexical long vowels /eː oː ɑˤː/ are the result of diphthongs "ei ou ao" turning into monophthongs, and are written that way.
The other long vowels are the result of grammatical elongation or borrowing, are are written with double letters (aa ee ii oo uu ûû).
Nasal vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | ɪ̃ː | ɨ̃ᵝː | ʊ̃ː |
| Mid | ɛ̃ː | ɔ̃ː | |
| Open | ãː |
Nasal vowels are somewhat rare, and are written as vowel+n (an en in on un ûn). In particular, /ɪ̃ː ɨ̃ᵝː ʊ̃ː/ are very rare.
Diphthong
| Front | |
|---|---|
| Open to close | ai |
The diphthong /ai/ can be turned into the vowel sequence /a.i/ by grammatical processes.
Tones
Leonine uses tone strictly as a grammatical process. Only a few syllables are marked for tone, which spreads to adjacent syllables.
| Name | Spelling | IPA | Contour | Use in Nouns | Use in Verbs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plain | a | (˧ ˩ etc) | Very variable, depends on intonation | Non-theme non-qualified nouns | 3rd person present |
| High (final) | ...á | ...˥ | High last syllable | Theme and qualified nouns | 3rd person past |
| High (right-spreading) | á... | ˥˥˥... | High first syllable, spreads to whole word | Implicit possessive | Imperative (2nd person) |
| Dipping | ä | ˨˩˦ | Falls low and rises, similar to Mandarin 3rd tone | (never used) | 1st person present |
| Dipping + High | ä...á | ˨˩˦...˥ | Initial dipping tone + high tone on final syllable | (never used) | 1st person past |
| Falling | à | ˥˩ | Falls from high to low (like Mandarin 4th tone) | (never used) | 2st person present |
| Falling + High | à...á | ˥˩...˥ | Initial falling tone + high tone on final syllable | (never used) | 2st person past |
The final high tone on theme/qualified nouns is not written. Instead, when the noun not the theme and isn't qualified but the context implies that it should, the next word is written with an initial capital letter.
Syllable Structure
The syllable structure of Leonine strictly (C)V, where C stands for a consonant and V stands for a vowel or the /ai/ diphthong. If the /ai/ diphthong is followed by a vowel, it is resyllabified as /a.jV/ (where V is the vowel). Various vowel sequences are possible. Sequences of a nasal vowel followed by another vowel are generally disallowed, and are normally transformed into /V.nV/ (where V V are non-nasal vowels). In spellings, apostrophes are used to break up ambiguous spellings (ex: /ao/ is written as "a'o").
The following syllables are not used outside of loanwords: /ti, tɨᵝ, tu, di, dɨᵝ, du, tse, tsa, tso, tsai, ji, wo, wɨᵝ, wu/, plus long and nasal versions of these.
Prosody
The concept of stress doesn't apply very well to Leonine, but generally you could describe the process as a right-leaning accent on the last syllable of the word. The syllable rhythm is moraic.
Grammar
The Leonine language is morphologically rich. Morphological processes fall into two categories: supra-segmental (where a tone, long vowels/consonants or extra syllable boundaries are added), and agglutinative suffixing. It's not clear if the suffixes are independent words, clitics or true affixes.
Nouns
Leonine nouns are declined for number (singular, plural), qualified/possessive state (normal, qualified, implicitly possessed), and theme vs non-theme (roughly equivalent to accusative vs non-accusative case). Using the noun oto ("car") as an example, the following forms can be seen:
| Singular | Plural (1) | Plural (2) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Normal state | Non-theme | Oto | Otoe | Ootoo | |
| Theme | Otó | Otoé | Ootóo | ||
| Qualified | Non-theme | Otó | Otoé | Ootóo | |
| Theme | Otó | Otoé | Ootóo | ||
| Implicity possessed | Non-theme | Ótó | Ótoé | Óotóo | |
| Theme | Ótó | Ótoé | Óotóo | ||
(Note: nouns with a final acute accent are not written as such. Instead, the following word is not capitalized.)
Plural takes two forms: either an -e suffix (-ne if the noun ends in -e), or elongation of the vowels (generally only applied to the first two syllables). Ex: oto -> otoe or ootoo.
The qualified state indicates that a noun is further qualified by adjectives, possessive pronouns, possessive nouns, relative clauses, demonstratives (nra) etc., which are added after the noun. The qualified state is indicated by an absence of break in the intonation after the noun, which generally means that the last syllable takes a high tone. Ex: oto -> oto me (as opposed to oto Me).
By putting a noun in qualified state and adding a pronoun, you can form pronominal possessives:
| Person | Example | Gloss |
|---|---|---|
| 1st person singular | oto me | "my car" |
| 2nd person singular | oto ne/te | "your car (singular)" |
| 3rd person | oto a | "his/her/its/their car" |
| 1st person plural | oto mou | "our car" |
| 2nd person plural | oto nou | "your car (plural)" |
The implicit possessive indicates that the noun has a pronominal possessor, and while the person is left implicit, most of the time it is the same as the verb subject. It is roughly equivalent to the changing "house" into "home", "father" into "dad" etc. It is indicated by giving a high tone to all the syllables (written as a high tone on the first syllable).
Nouns which are used as verbal theme (generally equivalent to the object in nominative-accusative languages) appear directly in front of the verb in the sentence, and are linked to the verb by removing the intonation break between the noun and the verb, which generally results in a high tone on the last syllable of the noun. This process is similar to verb incorporation, and the distinction often translates into a subject vs object distinction:
| Noun Thematicity | Example | Gloss |
|---|---|---|
| Non-thematic | Sente Doubu. | "The body moves." |
| Thematic | Sente doubu. | "He moves his body." |
Adjectives
Adjectives in Leonine are generally invariable, aside from intonation changes. They always follow the noun.
When used in noun phrases (as epithets), the intonation of the adjective depends on if there are further qualifiers applied to the noun - in which case there is no intonation break after the adjective and the last syllable generally has a high tone (and the next word is not written with an initial Capital letter). Ex: oto hao me (as opposed to oto hao Me).
When used with the verb da (to be) as an attribute, the adjective becomes a verbal theme and there is no intonation break either (so the verb da doesn't start with a Capital). In some sentences, this intonation change is meaningful:
| Adjective Thematicity | Example | Gloss |
|---|---|---|
| Non-thematic | Oto hao Da. | "The good car is (like that)." |
| Thematic | Oto Hao da. | "The car is good." |
| Thematic | Oto hao da. | "It's a good car." |
The adjective can be used as an adverb by adding the -ki suffix. This can be used either as a theme or not:
| Adverbial Thematicity | Example | Gloss |
|---|---|---|
| Non-thematic | Haoki Tsuté. | "Well he/she/it/they did it!" |
| Thematic | Haoki tsuté. | "He/she/it/they did it well." |
Verbs
Verbs in Leonine are complex and are made out of two parts:
Inner Core
The inner core is formed by the verb root and the verb tone, which indicates the verbal person (1st, 2nd or 3rd person) and core tenses (present, past or imperative). Along with the plural subject suffix (which is part of the outer section), the base verb conjugation forms a simple paradigm, which can be shown using the verb mita (see):
| Subject | Present | Past | Imperative |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person singular | Mitä. (I see) | Mïtá. (I saw) | |
| 2st person singular | Mità. (You see) | Mìtá. (You saw) | Míta! (See!) |
| 3rd person | Mita. (He/she/it/they see) | Mitá. (He/she/it/they saw) | |
| 1st person plural | Mitä you. (We see) | Mïtá you. (We saw) | |
| 2nd person plural | Mità you. (You(pl) see) | Mìtá you. (You(pl) saw) | Míta you! (See!(pl)) |
Outer Section
The verb's outer section is made out of suffixes added after the verb. They include object pronouns, auxiliary verbs (including the negative auxiliary) and the 1st/2nd person subject pluralizer (you). Using mita as an example:
| Object | Example | Gloss | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person singular | Mita me. | "He* sees me." | Before auxiliaries |
| 2nd person singular | Mita ne/te. | "He* sees you." | Before auxiliaries |
| 3rd person | Mita (n)a. | "He* sees him*." | *After auxiliaries and you* |
| 3rd person reflective | Mita i. | "He* sees himself*." | Before auxiliaries |
| 1st person plural | Mita mou. | "He* sees me." | Before auxiliaries |
| 2nd person plural | Mita nou. | "He* sees you(pl)." | Before auxiliaries |
(* "He" can be replaced by "he/she/it/they" and so forth, since the 3rd person is not distinguished by gender or number.)
The 3rd person object pronoun "a" can generally be dropped and is usually implied by context. The pronouns a/i become na/ni if the verb ends in a/i respectively. A second object pronoun can be used: Mita me a. ("he sees mine") etc. This second object pronoun logically is always a. In trivalent verbs such as "to give", the first object is the recipient (benefactive), and the second object is the thing that is being given.
The verbal auxiliaries are added to form a wide variety of tenses, moods, voices, valency changes, aspects, and the negative. Here are the most common auxiliaries:
| Auxiliary | Example | Gloss |
|---|---|---|
| ba | Mitä bá. | "I was seen." |
| tsu | Mitä tsu a. | "I make him see." |
| ku | Mitä ku. | "I will see." |
| kai | Mitä kai. | "I'm starting to see." |
| hai | Mitä hai. | "I've stopped seeing." |
| rai | Mitä rai. | "I can see." |
| nai | Mitä nai. | "I don't see." |
The auxiliary rai becomes ra when used in the negative: Mita ra nai. "I can't see". When an auxiliary in -ai is combined with -you (subject pluralizer), they are phonetically combined: Mita rai you. /mita ɾa joː/ ("They can see").
