User:Kalathei95/sandbox/CGAW/Test-List-Countries/Islo-Chamic languages/Kalamese language
Kalamese language
[edit]Kalamese is a group of languages spoken by the Kata Avians of the Narachia desert of the continent of Besatra. The language is divided into five mutually intelligible language varieties: Hashankon, Ganalidon, Osoxi, Viotsi and Xacani, of which Kata Avians consider all to be dialects of Kalamese. Kalamese is an official language in the kingdoms of Aduba, Erayan, Kamaat, Osoxi, Nimiza, Paradat and Zankag, as well as the numerous polities of Narachia. There is no standard language or prestige dialect of Kalamese, though the Kamaat variety is considered as the primary working dialect amongst merchants, traders and businesses.
Kalamese was first attested in the 13th century PV when vernacular inscriptions and literature of an old Narachoid language began appearing in archaeological findings, now known as Old Kalamese. Today, Kalamese is written in the Kata Desert script, a Onóch-based writing system developed specifically for the Kata Avians, and is heavily standardised by the Priestly Scribes of Osoxi.
Kalamese is an analytic language with a fairly strict SOV word order. Social standing, caste and honour are integrated into the language's grammatical paradigm.
Phonology
[edit]Consonants
[edit]| Bilabial* | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Pharyngeal | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | phar. | plain | phar. | plain | phar. | plain | phar. | plain | phar. | plain | phar. | |||
| Stop | voiceless | p | pˤ | t | tˤ | ʈ | ʈˤ | k | kˤ | q | qˤ | ʡ | ||
| pre-glottal. | ˀp | ˀpˤ | ˀt | ˀtˤ | ˀʈ | ˀʈˤ | ˀk | ˀkˤ | ˀq | ˀqˤ | ||||
| voiced | b | bˤ | d | dˤ | ɖ | ɖˤ | ɡ | ɡˤ | ||||||
| Co-articulated | voiceless | k͡p | k͡pˤ | |||||||||||
| pre-glottal. | ˀk͡p | ˀk͡pˤ | ||||||||||||
| voiced | ɡ͡b | ɡ͡bˤ | ||||||||||||
| Affricate | voiceless | t͡s | t͡sˤ | ʈ͡ʂ | ʈ͡ʂˤ | ħ | ||||||||
| voiced | dz | d͡zˤ | ɖ͡ʐ | ɖ͡ʐˤ | ʕ | |||||||||
| pre-glottal. | ˀt͡s | ˀt͡sˤ | ˀʈ͡ʂ | ˀʈ͡ʂˤ | ||||||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | s | ʂ | x | χ | |||||||||
| voiced | z | ɣ | ||||||||||||
| Liquids | nasals | m | n | ɳ | ɲ | ŋ | ||||||||
| approx. | ɹ | j | w | |||||||||||
| laterals | l | ɭ | ||||||||||||
| ɬ | ꞎ | 𝼄 | ||||||||||||
| Rhotic | r | ɽ | ʁ | |||||||||||
| *As avians do not have lips (but beaks), bilabial consonants are not produced bilabially, but are articulated by the syrinx. | ||||||||||||||
Vowels
[edit]| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | i iː | u uː |
| Open | a aː |
Diphthongs
[edit]| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | ai | iu |
| Open | au | ui |
Morphology
[edit]Kalamese is an analytic language with extensive derivational morphology through nominal and verbal compounding. Like many of its Kalamo-Loghonian language siblings, Kalamese has a strict subject-verb-object word order, while other word orders convey voice, valency, subordination and other prosodic information. Verbs has no inflectional synthesis, and nouns do not mark for case, number or possession. Instead, Kalamese uses an extensive list of auxiliary and postpositional particles to convey grammatical relationships. As a topic-focus language, subjects are marked with a topic particle, while objects are unmarked. Dative and genitive constructions also rely on particles.
Transitivity
[edit]A core feature of Kalamese is transitivity. Historically, Proto-Narachoid used to have separate particles for marking transitivity and passive voice. These were *qnwadre and *gŋurta. The two once independent words collapsed to nurrṭ which in modern times simultaneously marks transitivity and the passive voice. Nurrṭ has also taken on pronominal functions, occasionally assuming the role of a dummy pronoun equivalent of "thingy", "one" or "somebody".
xi
CL(vehicles)
diiksa
wagon
pṛuṭa
roll
∅
matu
hill
ja
xi
CL(vehicles)
zu'a.
crash.
The wagon rolled down the hill and crashed.
Subordinate clauses
[edit]Subordination in Kalamese is marked by the relativiser particle bari or tsuqau, followed by a noun classifier of the subordinate argument's topic. Bari is by far the most commonly used subordinator, while tsuqau is regarded as more formal and literary, and generally not used in casual speech.
ṣaa
who
'taʕna
visit
kpi
CL(building)
sa’aptuu
temple
bari
ku
CL(exalted)
Ayagawan
Aigawan
yinisa
complete
uḷarku.
blessing
Who is going to the temple with me so as to complete the blessings of Aigawan?
Pronouns
[edit]Independent pronouns in Kalamese have singular, dual, trial and plural forms. Kalamese uses demonstratives in place of third person pronouns and there are no gender distinctions. Clusivity used be a feature in Old Kalamese, but was reanalysed as the trial, though a few dialects of Kalamese, namely Osoxi and Xacani, still use the trial to mark clusivity in any plural number above three.
| Single | Dual | Trial | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zero | nurrṭ | ||||
| 1p | gi | 'c̣uk | kpa | nay | |
| 2p | may | rra | injit | ṣṛiya | |
| 3rd/Demonstrative | Proximal | qul | aj̣am | mant | |
| Distal | ʕami | xuł | ŋagłi | gay | |
| Obviate | kaḷpʕu | ||||
Gurdama
Gurdama
'ta
Wita
Wita
haḷi
reside
'iłqa=ġabjut
mountain=castle
xuł
nkḷis=tui
cowry=many
Gurdama and Wita reside in a mountain castle, and he's rich.
ŋu
COP(belong)
Uḷḷ=qwałaz=di'=tʕunsric='ca'k'pasu
Ocean=South=all=Meŋrchant=Guild.
The members of this trio are part of the All Merchant's Southern Ocean Guild.
Verbs
[edit]There are no verbal inflections in Kalamese. Auxiliary verbs, including copula, are necessary to convey additional meaning in verbs. Some verbs, especially stative ones in nature, can also function as verbal nouns, such as egit "spill", but when used as a noun, it means "spillage".
Verbs can be compounded with other words and particles through agglutination. Such words may include a'kwaʕuaqiŋkklut "internationalise" or 'kumuḷḷtuixa "drown".
Reduplication is extensive in Kalamese verbs, both partially and fully to mark emphasis, or form an imperative statement.
Whole words may be reduplicated for emphasis.
Derivation
[edit]Verbs can be compounded of affixed with other lexical elements to create complex verbs. Sometimes whole verb phrases can be combine to become single verbs with the copula ṭṣi (be) preceding said verb.
a'ḍuq=qaiŋ
magic=gemstone
buği
trade
ṭṣu
COP(be)
haṛṇ=ṭuʕaq
grand=allow
ḷu
PREP(from)
pu'un='isnuqʕar.
elder=council
The trading of magical gemstones has been legalised by the council of elders.
Ŋu
PREP(in)
gʕuakak
lot~REDP
laay
day
ʕami
3SG.DIST
'ṭṣum=paahi=prach.
worry=silver=head
He has been suffering from headaches for many days.
Numerical multipliers are fairly extensive in verb derivation (e.g. twofold, threefold, fourfold, etc.)