Kala

The Kala conlang...

• calendar
• lexicon
• phrases
• syllables
• word formation
• writing

Introduction

Borrowing

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

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

Parts of Speech

Kala has three parts of speech, each with several subgroups. Nouns and verbs are substantive, while particles tend to be only functional.

1. noma - nouns
   1. nkalo - personal pronouns
   2. uatse - demonstratives
2. uati - verbs
   1. pusa - adverbials
   2. tatse - locative verbs (prepositions)
   3. keyo - descriptive verbs (adjectives)
3. peya - particles
   1. nita - interjections
   2. eka - affixes

Phonology

Consonants

Consonants

	Labial	Alveolar		Palatal	Velar	Glottal
		central	lateral
Nasal	m (m)	n (n)		ɲ (ny)
Plosive	p~b (p)	t~d (t)			k~g (k)	ʔ (`)
Affricate		ts (ts)	t͡ɬ~tl (tl)	t͡ʃ (ts)
Continuant		s (s)	l~ɾ (l)	ʃ (s)		h~ɦ (h)
Semivowel				j (y)	w (u)

• 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

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e		o
Open		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

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

Syllable Structure

Kala syllable structure is ((N)C)(y, u)V(F). As in most languages, CV is the most common syllable type, accounting for the majority of Kala lemmas. The finals /n/, /m/, and /k/ are grammatical and indicate adverbs, plurals, and negatives, respectively. They only occur word finally. So, nkapa (alcohol) is permitted, but nakpa is not; kyopo (fear) is acceptable, but koypo is not, etc. There is a limited set of syllables allowed by Kala phonotactics, similar to Japanese or Chinese. They are listed here: Syllable Chart, or here.

• Only /l/ cannot occur word initially (except in loan words and toponyms).

Morphology

Nouns

Number

general plural

Kala does not require the plural be marked if it is understood through context, and only inanimate pronouns are marked, whereas inanimate nouns need not be marked. General plurals are formed with –m (or –lo if the final syllable contains m).

• mita / mitam - dog / dogs
• kuma / kumalo - bear / bears

mass nouns

Mass nouns include liquids, powders, and substances, such as maya (water), hyeka (sand), and tleno (wood). They do not normally require determiners or the plural. However, one may add these to indicate specific examples or different types:

• tlenom – woods (e.g. various kinds)
• mayam - waters (e.g. various locations)

collective

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).

• mita – dog / tlimita – pack of dogs
• yama – mountain / tliyamalo – mountain range
• tsaka – house / tlitsaka – neighborhood
• puku – clothing / tlipuku – wardrobe

Personal Pronouns

Kala agent pronouns are often omitted when the person is obvious from context. Kala personal pronouns also encode clusivity. That is, there are different words for "we" depending on whether the speaker is including the person spoken to or not. 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.

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

Demonstratives

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

Kala has three simple tenses; past, present, and future. Present tense is unmarked. However, past and future tenses can be modified to include immediate future ("is about to..."), distant future ("will...in a long while"), recent past ("just ..."), and remote past ("...a long while ago"). These distinctions are made with the augmentative and diminutive endings -ha and -hi.

tense	suffix	gloss	example
remote past	-yeha	REM	nam inayeha We ate a long while ago.
recent past	-yehi	REC	nam inayehi We just ate.
past	-ye	PST	nam inaye We ate.
present	not marked		nam ina We eat. / We are eating. / We do eat.
future	-tli	FUT	nam inatli We will eat.
immediate future	-tlihi	IMM	nam inatlihi We will eat soon/now.
distant future	-tliha	DIS	nam inatliha We will eat a long while from now.

• 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").
• If a temporal adverb is used, the tense suffix may be omitted.

Example: yomaye nam ina - yesterday 1pl eat - We ate yesterday.

present

The present tense can show immediacy by using the adverb ima, "now; at this time".

• mita ina - dog eat - The dog eats.
• ima mita ina - now dog eat - The dog is eating right now.

past

The past tense is marked with -ye, from aye - "it was".

• mita inaye - dog eat-PST - The dog ate.
• mita inayeha - dog eat-PST-AUG - The dog ate a long while ago.
• mita inayehi - dog eat-PST-DIM - The dog just ate.

can be marked with -hye

future

The future tense is marked with -tli, from atli - "it will be".

• mita inatli - dog eat-FUT - The dog will eat.
• mita inatliha - dog eat-FUT-AUG - The dog will eat in a long while.
• mita inatlihi - dog eat-FUT-DIM - The dog is about to eat (will eat soon).

can be marked with -tlai {except when followed by a modal affix)

Aspect

progressive

Also called the continuous [CONT], this is used to express an incomplete action or state in progress at a specific time. It is marked with -nko, from nkoso - "to continue; proceed; progress".

• mita inanko - dog eat-CONT - The dog is eating.
• mita inankoye - dog eat-CONT-PST - The dog was eating.
• mita inankotli - dog eat-CONT-FUT - The dog will be eating.

perfective

This aspect indicates that an action is completed [PFV]. It is often translated by the English present perfect (have done some-thing). It is marked with -pua, from opua - "to end; finish; complete".

• mita inapua - dog eat-PFV - The dog has eaten.
• mita inapuaye - dog eat-PFV-PST - The dog had eaten.
• mita inapuatli - dog eat-PFV-FUT - The dog will have eaten.

inchoative

This aspect refers to the beginning of a state [INCH]. It is marked with -mu, from mula - "to begin; start; initiate".

• mita inamu - dog eat-INCH - The dog is beginning to eat.
• mita inamuye - dog eat-INCH-PST - The dog started to eat.
• mita inamutli - dog eat-INCH-FUT - The dog will begin to eat

frequentative

This aspect refers to a repeated action [FREQ]. It is marked with -nua, from nua - "frequent; often; regular".

• mita inanua - dog eat-FREQ - The dog eats often.
• mita inanuaye - dog eat-FREQ-PST - The dog ate regularly.
• mita inanuatli - dog eat-FREQ-FUT - The dog will eat often.

Mood

negative

The negative mood (always marked finally) is indicated by the suffix –k or –nke (when the last syllable contains /k/).

• mita inayek - dog eat-PST-NEG - The dog did not eat.
• mita mokunke - dog sleep-NEG - The dog does not sleep.

Syntax

The basic structure of a Kala sentence is:

AGENT--PATIENT--VERB

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.

Comparisons

When things being compared have equal characteristics, the comparison of equality is used.

• mita kue tahi taha - dog like boy big - The dog is as big as the boy.
• mpa'a kue mosa niha - movie like book nice - The movie is as good as the book.

If two things are not equal, they are unequal.

• We are not the same height.
• You are taller than I.

• The two items do not cost the same.
• The camera is more expensive than the television.

Questions

There are two types of questions: Polar, those which may be answered "yes" or "no," and those which require explanations as answers. Any statement can become a polar question by adding the interrogative particle ka at the end of the sentence.

• mita ina - dog eat - The dog eats.
  • mita ina ka - dog eat Q - Does the dog eat?

The other type of question contains a question word and is followed by ka:

• ke mita ina ka - O dog eat Q - What does the dog eat?
• ko ina ka - person eat Q - Who eats?
• koyo mita ina ka - person-POSS dog eat Q - Whose dog eats?
• to mita ina ka - manner dog eat Q - How does the dog eat?
• mo mita ina ka - place dog eat Q - Where does the dog eat?
• nye mita ina ka - reason dog eat Q - Why does the dog eat?
• ama mita ina ka - time dog eat Q - When does the dog eat?
• uku mita ina ka - amount dog eat Q - How much/many does the dog eat?