User:Masako/nkala

Nouns

Affect / Degree

• The diminutive is formed with -hi, and the augmentative with -ha.

These are respectively realized as -ki and -ka when attached to a word that has a final syllable containing h or y.

Example : ina - food, meal | inahi - snack, morsel | inaha - feast, banquet

Example : tsaka - house, home, dwelling | tsakahi - shack, hut, cabin | tsakaha - palace, mansion

• These are also used to differentiate hue, or shade.

Example : yanahi - light yellow, kuyaha - dark green

• In Kala the concepts of comparative and superlative degree of an adjective are merged into a single form, the elative. How this form is understood or translated depends upon context and definiteness. In the absence of comparison, the elative conveys the notion of “greatest”, “supreme.”

Example : tahaka - bigger/biggest | tsaka hayo ke nayo tahaka - His house is bigger than mine.

Example : yanaha - more yellow/most yellow | ke huam tayo yanaha - Your flowers are the most yellow.

Gender

• In general, nouns do not indicate their gender. To distinguish the sexes, one can use the adjectival endings -ta and -na.

Example : nikata "a male dog", nikana "a female dog".

Articles

• There is only one article in Kala, ke. It is used primarily as a "noun marker".

• It is ambi-definite, meaning it can be either definite or indefinite. The distinction is made through context.

Example : kama "village", ke kama "the/a village", ke kama'a "the villages"

Example : inahi "snack", ke inahi "the/a snack", ke inahim "the snacks"

Number

• Nouns are either singular, plural or collective.

• Concrete nouns are pluralized by suffixing -m.

Examples : kono - stone > konom - stones | naka - woman > nakam - women

• When the last syllable of a word contains an m, the plural is marked by reduplicating the final vowel.

Examples : kama - village > kama'a - villages | teyemi - phrase > teyemi'i - phrases

• Collective (plural) nouns are marked by prefixing tli-.

Examples : tsaka - house > tlitsaka - neighborhood | yama - mountain > tliyama - mountain range

• Nouns need not be marked plural if a number is used to show quantity.

Example : sahi - color > sahim - colors > sahi ya'o - five color(s)

• Adjectives do not show plural agreement. However, when an adjective is used nominally, it can be pluralized.

Example : nyeli - pink > nyelim - (the) pink (ones)

Pronouns

• Kala generally distinguishes four persons, the fourth person indicating abstract and inanimate nouns – both in the singular and plural numbers.

There is also a distinction between inclusive (I/we and you) and exclusive (we but not you) forms of the first person plural.

	Nominative	Accusative	Possessive	Reflexive	Reciprocal
1S	na	ena	nayo	na'i
2S	ta	eta	tayo	ta'i
3S	ha	eha	hayo	ha'i
4S	tla	etla	tlayo	tla'i
1P	nam	enam	namyo	nami	nanku
1P (EXCL)	na'am	ena'am	na'amyo	na'ami	na'anku
2P	tam	etam	tamyo	tami	tanku
3P	kam	ekam	kamyo	kami	kanku
4P	tlam	etlam	tlamyo	tlami	tlanku

Correlative Pronouns

sketch

Verbs

tense / aspect

The future tense is marked with the suffix -tli. Past tenses, including perfect and pluperfect, are marked with the suffix -ye. The present tense is unmarked:

• na ina - 1.S eat - I eat / I am eating.
• na inatli - 1.S eat.FUT - I will eat / I am about to eat.
• na inaye - 1.S eat.PAST - I eat / I was eating / I have eaten / I had eaten.

Kala does not distinguish perfect and imperfect aspects of the verb (e.g. ‘I ate’, ‘I used to eat’, ‘I have eaten’, ‘I had eaten’). However, one can easily clarify the temporal sequence of two actions by marking the earlier one with the adverbial tsa (‘already’).

mood

• The conditional mood is formed with the particle iya.

• iya na ina - COND 1.S eat - I might be eating.

• The imperative mood is formed with the particle kya.

• kya ina - IMP eat - Eat!

• The negative mood is formed with the suffix -k.

• na inak - 1.S eat.NEG - I do not eat / I am not eating.

• The volitive mood is formed with the suffix -ue (from ueha - to want, desire).

• na inaue - 1.S eat.VOL - I want to eat.

• The necessitative mood is formed with the suffix -he (from heya - to need, require).

• na inahe - 1.S eat.NEC - I need to eat.

• The abilitative mood is formed with the suffix -pa (from pala - to be able).

• na inapa - 1.S eat.ABIL - I am able to eat./ I can eat.

voice

• The passive voice is formed by attaching the accusative prefix e- to the pronoun.

• ena ina - ACC.1.S eat - I am eaten. / I am being eaten.

Numbers

Cardinal Numbers

• e'o - zero / nothing
• na'o - one
• ta'o - two
• ha'o - three
• ma'o - four
• ya'o - five
• tsa'o - six
• ka'o - seven
• pa'o - eight
• sa'o - nine
• ue'o - ten
• nye'o - (one) hundred
• tle'o - (one) thousand
• mue'o - ten thousand
• kye'o - (one) hundred thousand
• nte'o - (one) million

Higher Numbers

• uena'o - eleven / 11

• taue'o - twenty / 20

• nyeka'o - one hundred seven / 107

• hanyetauetsa'o (long form) | hatatsa'o (short form) - three hundred twenty six / 326

• tsatletauema'o - six thousand and twenty four / 6024

Ordinal Numbers

• ki- - ordinal prefix

Example : kisa'o - ninth (in a sequence)

Example : kiyanyepa'o - 508^th

Fractions

• i- - fractional prefix

Example : isa'o - a ninth, 1/9

Example : iha'o te pa'o - three eighths, 3/8 [lit: a third of eight]

outline

For instance, in

아이들이	김에게	빵을	많이	주었어요
ai tuli	kimuy key-0	ppang ul-0	manhi-0	cwue-ss-e-0
aideuri	gimege	bbangeul	manhi	jueosseo
child-pl-nom	Kim-to	bread-acc	a_lot	give-pret-int,

Tul could also occur at any of the 0's. If it did, it would not be redundant with the plural marking on the subject. For example, in,

Kala

phonology

• Where ~ appears, it indicates free variation between phonemes.

consonants

	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stops	p~b (p)	t~d (t)		k~g (k)	ʔ (')
Fricatives		s (s)	ʃ (s)		h~ɦ (h)
Affricates		t͡ɬ (tl) / t͡s (ts)	t͡ʃ (ts)
Approximants	w (u)	l~r (l)	j (y)
Nasals	m (m)	n (n)	ɲ (ny)

vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i (i)		u (u)
Mid	e (e)		o (o)
Open		a (a)

diphthongs

• Both of the falling diphthongs as well as uai and yao only occur word finally.

falling

• [aɪ~aɪ:] - ai
• [aʊ~aʊ:] - ao

rising

• [wa~wa:] - ua
• [waɪ~waɪ:] - uai
• [ja~ja:] - ya
• [jaʊ~jaʊ:] - yao
• [je~je:] - ye
• [jo~jo:] - yo

allophony

• /ʔ/ is not phonemic and only occurs between non-diphthong vowel pairs.
• /h/ > [ɦ] when immediately preceded or followed by /e i/.
• /s/ > [ʃ] except when preceded or followed by onset /tʃ/

phonotactics

• Kala phonotactics does not allow the onsets of adjacent syllables to be identical, nor both to be labialized or palatalized.
• Syllables beginning with /l/ do not occur as the first syllable of a morpheme.

syllable structure

• (N)(C)V/D(F)
  • N - nasal; prenasal; /n/ or /m/
  • C - consonant
  • V - vowel
  • D - diphthong
  • F - final; coda

• The three codas are /k/, /m/, and /n/; these only occur as a final codas to negate, pluralize or adverbialize verbs and nouns, respectively.

stress

• In Kala stress falls on the penultimate syllable with the exceptions of negatives and words that end with a syllable onset palatal approximant, in which case stress is ultimate.

prenasalized consonants

• In Kala, almost every consonant can be prenasalized, but primarily the plosives /p/, /t/ and /k/ can be analyzed as prenasalized, while most other instances could be easily analyzed as cases of syllabic /n/ or /m/.

• mp /ᵐp~ᵐb/

Example: mpaka /ˈᵐpa.ka/ - n - boundary; border; line

• nt /ⁿt~ⁿd/

Example: ntama /ˈⁿta.ma/ - n - calf (a young cow or bull)

• nk /ᵑk~ᵑ/

Example: nkapa /ˈᵑka.pa/ - n - alcohol; grog

nouns

plurality

• A countable noun (or "count noun") can be modified by a number, and can accept the plural. Typical countable nouns represent objects that are clearly individual entities, such as houses, cats, and thoughts. For example:

	root	usage	example
-m	ma	general plural	tsakam houses
-mha	ma + -ha	indefinite abundance	tsakamha many/a lot houses
-mi	ma + -hi	indefinite insufficiency	tsakami few houses
tli-		collective plural	tlikuma sleuth of bears
-lo	ma	alternative to -m	yamalo mountains

• When modified by a number, general plurals need not be marked. Example:

tsaka ta'o - Two houses.

gender

• Nouns do not normally indicate their gender. To distinguish the sexes, the suffixes -ta and -na are used:

• uma - horse

umata - a male horse, a stallion

umana - a female horse, a mare

noun phrases

pronouns

• Kala generally distinguishes four persons, the fourth person indicating abstract and inanimate nouns – both in the singular and plural numbers.
• There is also a distinction between inclusive (I/we and you) and exclusive (we but not you) forms of the first person plural.

	Nominative	Accusative	Possessive	Reflexive	Reciprocal
1S	na	ena	nayo	na'i
2S	ta	eta	tayo	ta'i
3S	ha	eha	hayo	ha'i
4S	tla	etla	tlayo	tla'i
1P	nam	enam	namyo	nami	nanku
1P (EXCL)	na'am	ena'am	na'amyo	na'ami	na'anku
2P	tam	etam	tamyo	tami	tanku
3P	kam	ekam	kamyo	kami	kanku
4P	tlam	etlam	tlamyo	tlami	tlanku

determiners

• itla, itlam – this, these (near speaker)
• uatla, uatlam – that, those (near listener)
• yetla, yetlam – that, those (away from speaker and listener)
• ua, uam – other, others
• ula, ote – any, whichever, whatever
• – each
• iha – some
• amha – much, many
• ahi – little, few
• maha – more, most
• ohi – fewer, less, fewest, least
• kua – all
• yema – both

interrogative and relative pronouns

	query	proximal	medial	distal	indefinite	negative	ambiguous	universal	generalized
adjective	ote which	itla this	uatla that	yetla that (there)	iha some	-k none	ula any	kua every	ote whichever
person	ko who	iko this person	uako that person	yeko that person (there)	hyako someone	tlok no one	kola anyone	tlokua everyone	teko who(m)ever
thing	ke what	itla this	uatla that	yetla that (there)	hyano something	nok no thing	nola anything	nokua everything	ote whatever
time	ama when	ima now	uama then	yeme then (yon)	hyama sometime	amak never	tlama anytime	kuama always	tema whenever
place	mo where	hina here	uana there	yemo there (away)	hyamo somewhere	mok nowhere	mola anywhere	mokua everywhere	temo wherever
way	to how	yoto thus			hyato somehow	tok no way			heto however
amount	uku how many					ok none			teku however much/many
reason	nye why								tenye whyever

• To form a question, the queries are placed at the begining of a phrase and ka is placed at the end. Example:

• tam yala - 2PL go - You all are going.

ama tam yala ka - time 2PL go Q - When are you going?