Kala Grammar

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pronunciation

allophony

  • /h/ > /ɦ/ when preceded or followed by a front vowel.
  • The glottal stop is not phonemic but is included in the chart above. It is pronounced between two vowels and/or diphthongs that are not connected.
  • <s> & <ts> are /ʃ/ and /tʃ/ respectively, unless immediately preceded or followed by one another, then <s> is always /s/ and <ts> is always /tʃ/.
  • However, one could pronounce them either way (e.g. always /s/ & /ts/) and still be understood.
  • Example:
sitsa - /'si:.tʃa/ - warmth, heat / warm, hot / to heat up
tsasu - /'tʃa:.su/ - cursive writing; having successive letters joined together

phonotactics

  • Kala phonotactics does not allow the onsets of adjacent syllables to be identical, nor both to be labialized or palatalized.
    • There are a few exceptions to this, such as tata for the informal/familiar form of father, etc.
  • Syllables beginning with /l/ do not occur as the first syllable of a headword.

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

sentence structure

word order

verbs

nouns

compound sentences (subordinate clauses)

adjectives

adverbs

prepositions & conjunctions

prepositions

conjunctions

relative clauses

interjections

cursing

numbers

cardinal numbers

  • e'o - zero; null
  • 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; 102
  • nya'o - five hundred
  • tle'o - (one) thousand; 103
  • mue'o - ten thousand; 104
  • kye'o - (one) hundred thousand; 105
  • nte'o - (one) million; 106
  • hue'o - (one) billion; 109

expressions of time

  • Tense markers are often replaced by time expressions. Here are a few of the more common ones:
  • iyoma - today
  • iyohua - tonight
  • yomaye - yesterday
  • yomatli - tomorrow
  • yomua - morning
  • puama - evening
  • yomuatli - tomorrow morning
  • yohuaye - last night
  • sayo - month
  • anyo - year
  • anyotlipua - end of next year
  • anyoye ue'o - ten years ago
  • sayotli ta'o - in two months

ordering of phrases

causative constructions

compounding

creating nouns from verbs

Index

grammar outline | sentences | questions | lexicon | thematic lexicon | writing