Alpic
| Alpic Elbettusa | |
| Spoken in: | Switzerland (Swestazjoka) |
| Conworld: | League of Lost Languages |
| Total speakers: | ~300,000 |
| Genealogical classification: | Danubian
|
| Basic word order: | SVO |
| Morphological type: | Synthetic/Fusional |
| Morphosyntactic alignment: | Fluid-S Active-Stative |
| Writing system: | |
| Created by: | |
| Taylor Selseth | 2010 C.E. |
Alpic /ˈælpik/, natively Elbettusa /ˈɛlbɛˌtːusa/, spoken in southeastern Switzerland, with most speakers living along the Inn River and near Davos. It is the sole surviving language of the Danubian language family which was once spoken throughout the Danube River basin. The Danubian languages are part of the of the Europic Macrofamily, which consists of Indo-European, Hesperic, and Rhaeto-Etruscan. Europic itself maybe a part of an even larger language phylum called Mitian, Eurasiatic, or Core Nostratic, which also includes Uralic, Chukchi-Kamchatkan, Eskimo-Aleut, Altaic, and Kartvelian.
Phonology
The syllable structure of Alpic is (C)(F|l|m|r|w|j)V(C), where F is any fricative. CF, Cl, Cm, and Cr can only occur at the beginning of a word. Stress is moderately light and is always on the penultimate syllable of a word. Prosody is syllable-timed and Trochaic in rhythm. Intonation patterns are typical for a Western European language, with a rising intonation in questions.
Consonants
IPA
| Labial | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Palatal | Velar | ||
| Stops, fortis | p | t | ʧ | k | ||
| Stops, lenis | b | d | ʤ | g | ||
| Fricatives, unvoiced | f | s | ʃ | x | ||
| Fricatives, voiced | v | z | ʒ | |||
| Nasals | m | n | ɲ | |||
| Laterals | l | ʎ | ||||
| Trills | r | |||||
| Semivowels | w | j |
Orthographical
| Labial | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Palatal | Velar | |
| Plosives, fortis | p | t | tj | k | |
| Plosives, Lenis | b | d | dj | g | |
| Fricatives, unvoiced | f | s | sj | h/ch | |
| Fricatives, voiced | v | z | zj | ||
| Nasals | m | n | nj | ||
| Laterals | l | lj | |||
| Trills | r | ||||
| Semivowels | w | j |
Fortis plosives are aspirated when preceding a stressed vowel. /r/ is realized as the flap /ɾ/ in between vowels. /n/ assimilates to the point of articulation of the following consonant. /x/ is realized as /h/ in the syllable onset and [ɣ] between vowels, it is represented as H in the orthography in the onset and as CH in the coda. /s/ and /z/ are [ʃ] and [ʒ] when before a plosive. /kʰ/ and /k/ are [cʰ] and [c] when followed by /j/ or /i/. lenis plosives voice adjacent fricatives. final lenis plosives and voiced fricatives become their fortis and unvoiced counterparts at the end of a word, much like Final Fortition in High German.
Vowels
Alpic has a simple Spanish-style /a e i o u/ vowel system, with the vowels realized as [ɐ ɜ ɪ ɔ ʊ] in closed syllables and are pronounced shorter than in open syllables to maintain syllable-timed prosody.
Morphology and Morphosyntax
Alpic is a synthetic and fusional language with rich morphology in nouns, adjectives and verbs.
Morpheme structure
Roots
Most lexical roots in Alpic fit into the pattern (C)(C)V(C)(V). The phonemes /r/ and /l/ do not occur more than once in a root.
Affixes
Alpic is a wholly suffixing language, it has no prefixes. Most affixes are -CV, -CCV -V, or -VC, several disyllabic affixes do occur, however.
Word Formation
An Alpic word consists of one or more roots that form a stem upon which first derivational affixes and then inflectional affixes are attached. Verbs and adverbs have at least one inflectional affix, the personal inflections, but bare noun roots are common.
Compounding
Conpounding is highly productive in Alpic, with two-root and even three-root compounds not being uncommon, and even compounds of 4 or more occur. The majority of compounds are head-final, with the other lexical elements in the compound modifying the meaning of the head. Some others are double headed and have an emergent meaning. headless "bahuvrihi" compounds also occur, mainly as adjectives. Alpic is particularly rich in verb-verb compounds.
Derivation
Alpic has a very rich set of derivational affixes. Zero-derivation is very common as well.
Nouns and Adjectives
Nouns inflect for Possession, Case, and Number. Adjectives and the Definite and Indefinite Articles agree with their host nouns in Case and Number. The order of suffixes are:
1. Nominal Stem
2. Possessive Suffix
3. Case-Number Suffix
Nouns fall into 3 classes, Animate, Inanimate, and Collective.
Collective Class: ethic and political units, organizations, settlements, sports teams, etc
Animate Class: people, animals, deities, natural forces
Inanimate Class: everything else
Possessive suffixes
Possessive Suffixes function like the Possessive Adjectives in other European languages, marking who possesses the marked noun
| 1st Person | 2nd Person | 3rd Animate | 3rd Inanimate | Impersonal | |
| Singular | -mi- | -di- | -ye- | -si- | -pa- |
| Plural | -vi- | -wa- | -tje- | -sja- |
Attami
atta-mi
"My father"
Case and Number
Case and Number marking is fusional. There are two numbers: singular and plural. There are 4 cases: Direct, Genitive, Dative, and Instrumental. The Direct Case is the unmarked case for the Agent or Patient of the sentence. The Genitive marks that the noun possesses or has a relation of some kind to another noun. The Dative marks the Direct Object of the sentence. The Instrumental marks by which means a verb is done as well as the demoted agent of a passive voice sentence.
| Direct | Genitive | Dative | Instrumental | |
| Singular | -Ø | -s | -n | -t |
| Plural | -t | -sa | -r | -ta |
Articles
Alpic has 3 articles, the Definite Article, the Indefinite Article, and the Partitive Article. All agree with their nouns in, case and number. The Definite Article also agrees with it's noun in Noun Class. All are regularly declined, though the Partitive has no plural form. The article precedes the noun.
Definite
The Definite Article indicates that its noun is a particular thing identifiable to the listener. It may be the same thing that the speaker has already mentioned, or it may be something uniquely specified. A noun marked with a possessive suffix always has the Definite Article.
| Direct | Genitive | Dative | Instrumental | |
| Singular Animate | da | das | dan | dat |
| Plural Animate | dat | dasja | dar | datta |
| Singular Inanimate | do | dos | don | dot |
| Plural Inanimate | dot | dosja | dor | dotta |
| Collective | dje | djes | djin | djet |
Indefinite
The Indefinite Article indicates that its noun is not yet a particular thing identifiable to the listener. It may be something that the speaker is mentioning for the first time, or its precise identity may be irrelevant or hypothetical, or the speaker may be making a general statement about a particular thing.
| Direct | Genitive | Dative | Instrumental | |
| Singular | zo | zos | zon | zot |
| Plural | zot | zosja | zor | zotta |
Partitive
The Partitive article indicates a non-specific quantity of a mass noun. It is not unlike the English determiner "some", but acts grammatically like an article since it agrees with it's noun in case.
| Direct | Genitive | Dative | Instrumental | |
| Singular | ni | nis | nin | nit |
Demonstratives
Alpic has a 2-way Proximal-Distal demonstrative system, like English's "This-These" and "That-Those. It also has locative demonstratives like English's "Here-There"
Proximal
| Direct | Genitive | Dative | Instrumental | |
| Singular Animate | sa | sas | san | sat |
| Plural Animate | sat | sasja | sar | satta |
| Singular Inanimate | so | sos | son | sot |
| Plural Inanimate | sot | sosja | sor | sotta |
Distal
| Direct | Genitive | Dative | Instrumental | |
| Singular Animate | dwe | dwes | dwen | dwet |
| Plural Animate | dwet | dwesja | dwer | dwetta |
| Singular Inanimate | dwa | dwas | dwan | dwat |
| Plural Inanimate | dwat | dwasja | dwar | dwatta |
Locative
| Direct | Genitive | Dative | Instrumental | |
| Proximal | swa | swas | swan | swat |
| Distal | ga | gas | gar | gat |
Adjectives
Adjectives have comparative and superlative inflections that precede the case-number inflection.
Comparative: -ra-
Superlative: -dja-
Pronouns
Alpic pronouns are thus:
| Agent | Patient | Genitive | Dative | Instrumental | |
| 1SG | mu | mi | mwe | mim | mit |
| 2SG | du | di | dwe | dim | dit |
| 3SG Animate | e | em | es | im | et |
| 3SG Inanimate | sa | sa | sis | sim | sit |
| 1PL | vu | vi | ve | vir | vit |
| 2PL | dju | dje | wa | wor | wat |
| 3PL | ge | gem | ges | ger | get |
| Relative | zje | zjem | zjis | zjin | zjit |
| Interrogative | ko | kom | kis | kin | kit |
| Impersonal | pa | pam | pas | pan | pat |
The relative pronoun precedes all relative clauses, it cannot be dropped as it can in English. The impersonal pronoun is similar to English "one", German "Man", and French "on".
Verbs
The Alpic verb is highly synthetic. The verb is inflected for Voice, Mood, Tense, Inferentiality, Polarity, volition or activeness of the intransitive subject, person, and number. There is both partial and full reduplication. The morphological structure of the verb is:
1. Verb Stem
2. Adverbal affixes
3. Voice-Mood-Tense
4. Inferentiality-Polarity
5. Person-Number-Volition
Person-Number-Volition Inflection
Alpic has two sets of personal endings in intransitive sentences, one for an agent-like subject and a patient-like subject. Fluid Verbs can take either forms depending of the volition the intransitive subject has over the process described by the verb. Accusative Verbs only have agentive intransitive subjects. Ergative Verbs only have patientive intransitive subjects.
Consonantal Conjugation
| 1st SG | 2nd SG | 3rd SG | 1st PL | 2nd PL | 3rd PL | Impersonal | |
| Agentive | -am | -at | -as | -me | -te | -se | -ap |
| Patientive | -a | -ak | -Ø | -ach | -ke | -da | -ap |
A Conjugation
| 1st SG | 2nd SG | 3rd SG | 1st PL | 2nd PL | 3rd PL | Impersonal | |
| Agentive | -am | -at | -as | -me | -te | -se | -ap |
| Patientive | -a | -ak | -e | -ach | -ke | -da | -ap |
E Conjugation
| 1st SG | 2nd SG | 3rd SG | 1st PL | 2nd PL | 3rd PL | Impersonal | |
| Agentive | -em | -et | -es | -me | -te | -se | -ep |
| Patientive | -a | -ek | -e | -ach | -ke | -da | -ep |
I Conjugation
| 1st SG | 2nd SG | 3rd SG | 1st PL | 2nd PL | 3rd PL | Impersonal | |
| Agentive | -im | -it | -is | -mi | -ti | -si | -ip |
| Patientive | -e | -ik | -i | -ach | -ke | -da | -ip |
O Conjugation
| 1st SG | 2nd SG | 3rd SG | 1st PL | 2nd PL | 3rd PL | Impersonal | |
| Agentive | -om | -ot | -os | -mo | -to | -so | -op |
| Patientive | -a | -ok | -o | -ach | -ko | -da | -op |
U Conjugation
| 1st SG | 2nd SG | 3rd SG | 1st PL | 2nd PL | 3rd PL | Impersonal | |
| Agentive | -um | -ut | -us | -mo | -to | -so | -up |
| Patientive | -o | -uk | -u | -ach | -ko | -da | -up |
Voice, Mood, and Tense
Tense, mood, and voice marking is highly fusional, all 3 categories are indicated on a single morpheme.
| Indicative | Subjunctive | Conditional | Optative | Imperative | |
| Active Non-Past | -Ø | -va | -fe | -na | -ba |
| Active Past | -lu | -lo | -vo | -no | |
| Mediopassive Non-Past | -ri | -we | -ve | -ne | -be |
| Mediopassive Past | -li | -dlu | -vru | -nu |
Tense Usage
The Non-Past Tense is used for actions occurring at the utterance, at a future time, things done habitually, or "generic" statements of truth ("birds have feathers").
Ibim da merkado. "I'm going to the store."
Ibim da merkado, sadja. "I'm going to the store, today."
Ibim da merkado ha savadot. I go to the store on Saturdays."
The Past Tense is used for actions occurring before the time of utterance.
Ilubim da merkado, jodja. "I went to the store, yesterday."
Reduplication
Alpic has 2 types of reduplication, partial and full. Partial republication is in the form of a |Ca-| prefix, where C is the first consonant of the root. When the word begins with a vowel the prefix is |ah-|. Full reduplication involves the complete repetition of the root.
Nouns and Adjectives Reduplication
Nouns and Adjectives do not have full reduplication. Partial reduplication has an augmentative function; so that ma-merkado means "supermarket", ra-riksa means "emperor", and ta-duppo "very stupid". note that if the root starts with an unvoiced consonant the consonant becomes voiced: tuppo → ta-duppo.
Verb Reduplication
In verbs, partial reduplication indicates the intensive aspect while full reduplication indicates the continuative aspect. The voicing rules in nouns and adjectives also apply in verbal reduplication. bodje- "walk", ba-bodje- "run", bodje-bodje-, "keep on walking"
