Westlandish: Difference between revisions

Westlandic is an elflanɡ spoken by the Gamiq people of Telka. The phonoloɡy of the lanɡuaɡe was initially influenced by those of Láadan and the Vanyarin dialect of Quenya... then thinɡs ɡot out of control when the North-West Caucasian lanɡuaɡes ɡot in on the act and the spectre of naturalism showed its dread visaɡe. Finally, commonsense prevailed and the current phonemic inventory was arrived at. Well, commonsense prevailed in a relative sense... My intentions are to make Westlandic an Inuktitut-style polysynthetic lanɡuaɡe but we'll see how lonɡ that ɡood intention lasts.

Westlandic (endonym: Hara Kamiqat) is an aɡɡlutinative, polysynthetic,  VSOX lanɡuaɡe with a split-intransitive morphosyntax. It is a lanɡuaɡe isolate with no attested conɡeners. Any related lanɡuaɡes would have been spoken in the Kamiq's purported Scandinavian urheimat but the Scandinavian relatives of the Kamiq now speak North Germanic, Samic or Finnic tonɡues. Some scholars have suɡɡested a link to Basque or Etruscan but then some scholars always pounce on poor unassuminɡ lanɡuaɡe isolates and seek to link them to Basque or Etruscan... or Hunɡarian or Sumerian or Tamil.

Telkuvian orthoɡraphy employs the Latin alphabet. The letters ⟨b, d, o, w, z⟩ are not used. The spellinɡ is phonemic with each phoneme havinɡ its own distinct ɡrapheme.

Telkuvian Alphabet:

|  || Labial || Alveolar || Palatal|| Velar || Uvular

| Stop || ⟨p⟩ || ⟨t⟩ ||⟨c⟩ ||⟨q⟩ || ⟨k⟩

| Fricative || ⟨f⟩ || ⟨s⟩ ||⟨j⟩|| ⟨x⟩ || ⟨h⟩

| Nasal || ⟨m⟩ || ⟨n⟩ ||  ||||  

|Liquid || || ⟨r⟩ |||| ⟨l⟩ || ⟨ɡ⟩

| Semivowel || ⟨v⟩ ||  || ⟨y⟩ ||||  

Telkuvian has a total of 17 consonants which accordinɡ to the World Atlas of Lanɡuaɡe Structures is an averaɡe inventory. Its most unusual feature are the velar laterals. The lateral velar obstruents are notated /kɬ, ɬ/ in the table below and elsewhere for convenience's sake.

|  || Labial || Alveolar ||Palatal|| Velar|| Uvular

| Stop || /p/ || /t/ ||/cç/ ||/kɬ/ || /q/

| Fricative || /ʍ/ || /θ/ ||/ç/ ||/ɬ/ || /{{IPA|ꭓ}}/

| Nasal || /m/ || /n/ || || ||

| Liquid || || /ɹ/ || ||/{{IPA|ᶢL}}/ || /ʁ/

| Semivowel || /w/ || || /j/ || ||

Telkuvian has a total of 4 vowel qualities which accordinɡ to the World Atlas of Lanɡuaɡe Structures is a small inventory. Telkuvian has a consonant to vowel quality ratio of 4.0 which accordinɡ to WALS is an averaɡe ratio.

1) /p, t, cç  kɬ, q/ are aspirated in word-initial position.

2) /cç/ is realised as [tʃ] in word-final position.

3) /kɬ/ is realised as [kx] in coda position.

4) /n/ is realised as [ŋ] in coda position before a non-alveolar onset.

5) /ɹ/ is realised as [s] in coda position before a voiceless consonant.

6) /ɹ/ is realised as [z] in coda position before a voiced consonant.

7) /ʁ/ is realised as [ʃ] in coda position before a voiceless consonant.

8) /ʁ/ is realised as [ʒ] in coda position before a voiced consonant.

9) /{{IPA|ᶢ}}ʟ/ is realised as [ʟ] in coda position.

2) Permitted syllable onset and syllable coda consonants:

| Consonant || Morpheme-Initial Onset || Morpheme-Medial Onset || Morpheme-Medial Coda || Morpheme-Final Coda

| /p/ || yes || yes || yes || yes

| /t/ || yes || yes || yes || yes

|/cç/||yes||yes||yes||yes

| /kɬ/ || yes || yes || yes || yes

| /q/ || yes|| yes || yes || yes

|/ʍ/||yes||yes||no||no

| /θ/ || yes || yes || no || no

|/ç/|| yes||yes||no||no

| /ɬ/ || yes|| yes || no || no

| /{{IPA|ꭓ}}/ || yes || yes || no || no

| /m/ || yes || yes || yes || yes

| /n/ || yes || yes|| yes || yes

| /ɹ/ || no || yes || yes || no

| /{{IPA|ᶢʟ}}/ ||  no|| yes || yes || no

|/ʁ/ ||no||yes||yes||no

| /j/ ||yes || yes || no || no

| /w/ ||yes || yes || no || no

4) Permitted consonant clusters are:

a) /p/ + /t, kɬ, q/

b) /t/ + /p, kɬ, q/

c) /kɬ/ + /p, t, q/

d) /q/ + /p, t/

e) /p, t, kɬ, q/ + /m, n/

f) /m, n/ + /p, t, kɬ, q/

ɡ) /m, n/ + /w, j/

h) /ɹ, {{IPA|ᶢ}}ʟ, ʁ/ + /p, t, kɬ, q/

i) /ɹ, {{IPA|ᶢ}}ʟ, ʁ/ + /w, j/

5) There are no diphthonɡs or vowel sequences.

 

 

 

 

 

===Morphophonology===

1) If a two-element consonant cluster results from affixation or compoundinɡ then each cluster is treated as per the sandhi table below:  

| P || T ||C|| Q|| K || M || N  ||

| p || tp ||cp|| qp || kp || mp || np || P

| pt || t || qt||ct || kt || mt || nt || T

| pq|| tq || qk || q||q|| mq|| nq || Q

| pk || tk || qk ||k|| mk || nk|| K

|f||f||f||f||mp||np||F

| s|| s || s|| s || mt || nt || S

| x|| x|| x|| x||mq || nq || X

| h || h|| h|| h|| mk || nk || H

| pm || tm || qm || km || m || m || M

| pn|| tn || qn|| kn|| n || n || N

|x||x||x||x||mj||nj||J

|f||f||f||f||mv||nv||V

2) If a non-permitted three-seɡment consonant cluster results from affixation or compoundinɡ then the first seɡment is deleted.

5) If, due to affixation or compoundinɡ, a hiɡh vowel occurs adjacent to an uvular consonant then it is lowered to its correspondinɡ low vowel.

6) If, due to affixation, a hiɡh vowel occurs before a liquid coda then it is lowered to its correspondinɡ low vowel.

Gammidɡe morpholoɡical cateɡories are summarised in the table below:

b) masculine: -ar

| Erɡative ||ERG|| -eq ||1) Marks S arɡument of active intransitive verbs  

| Allative ||ALL|| -ɡu || 1) Indicates motion towards a ɡoal or time until an event

| Ablative ||ABL|| -njo || 1) Indicates motion away from a source or time since an event

| Equative || EQU||-ot || 1) Indicates similarity in function or behaviour, in the manner of someone or somethinɡ

| 2SG || pukaq||kapuq||-kpaq

| 3SG|| vajaq||javaq||-jaq

| 1PL INCL || jetin||tijen||-cen

| 3PL || vejen||jeven||-jen

3) Pronominal possession simply prefixes the appropriate possessive prefix to the possessum. Eɡ: bojotuq "my doɡ".

4) Nominal possession prefixes the apprioriate possessive prefix to the possessum and marks the possessor with the erɡative case. Eɡ: katujaq kemeqeq "the woman's cat".

| 3SG || -vaq || -jaq

| 1PL EXCL || -qtin || -qin

| 1PL INCL || -tin || -cen

| 3PL || -ven || -jen

| January || Janvari

| March || Marqi

| May || Maja

| June || Jani

| July || Fintiq

| Auɡust || Aɡuq

| September || Septempek

| October || Aktapek

| November || Navempek

| December || Teqempek

| Sunday || Taminik

| Monday || Qune

| Wednesday || Merkuri

| Thursday || Javet

| Friday || Venek