Tsakxa
| Tsakxa Tsakxa Тсакъа | |
| Spoken in: | Russia (Русэйa - Ruseya) |
| Conworld: | Earth |
| Total speakers: | ~1,500 |
| Genealogical classification: |
|
| Basic word order: | SOV |
| Morphological type: | Agglutinative |
| Morphosyntactic alignment: | Fluid-S saliency-based |
| Writing system: | |
| Created by: | |
| Welshy | 2010 C.E. |
Tsakxa (Тсакъа, IPA: [tsɑkǃa]) is a language isolate, or dialect continuum, spoken by the Tsakxa people of central Siberia. Although typically written using Bokanovsky's Cyrillic alphabet, this and related articles will use Dawkins' romanised writing system.
Phonology
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | [u] <u у> | ||
| Mid | [e] <e э> | ||
| Open | [a] <a> |
Allophony
Vowel allophony is not very advanced in most Tsakxa dialects. Before the dental click, /e/ is usually realised as allophonic [ɤ] in stressed syllables or [ɘ] in unstressed syllables and /a/ as, almost universally, [ɑ].
Consonants
Tsakxa is most notable for its system of clicks, which are otherwise unknown outside of the continent of Africa and the ritual languages of Australia. Its click system is not particularly advanced, however.
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | [m] <m м> | [n] <n н> [nǀ] <nx нъ> | [ŋ] <ng ң> [ŋǃ] <ngx ңъ> [ŋǀ] <ngq ңь> | |||
| Plosive | [p] <p п> | [t] <t т> | [k] <k к> [kǃ] <kx къ> [ǀk] <kq кь> | [ʔ] <ʔ ъ> | ||
| Fricative | [ɸ] <f ф> | [s] <s с> | [ʃ] <sh ш> | [ç] | [h] <h x> | |
| Approximant | [l] <l л> | [j] <y й> | [w] <w в> | |||
| Trill | [r] <r р> |
Grammar
Tsakxa is an agglutinative, topic-prominent language with active alignment.
Pronouns
- Main article: Tsakxa pronouns
Nouns
- Main article: Tsakxa nouns
Tsakxa nouns are inflected by number into singular, dual and plural and, it is sometimes argued, for case (there are a large number of morphemes analysed variously as clitics and case inflection).
Verbs
- Main article: Tsakxa verbs
Tsakxa verbs are inflected for aspect and mood. Certain verbs can also inflect, to a very restricted degree, to show person, but this is non-productive, erratic and irregular.
Syntax
- Main article: Tsakxa syntax
Animacy
- Main article: Tsakxa animacy
Lexicon and derivative morphology
- Main article: Tsakxa lexicon
