Roshterian: Difference between revisions

 

|creator = [[User:IlL|IlL]]

|setting = [[Verse:Hussmauch|Hussmauch]]

|pronunciation=  /ɔɻbɪɾɔʂʈɛˈɾɪm/

|region = Northeast Cuadhlabh

|speakers = 5.1 million (about as much as Finnish)

|fam1= [[Proto-Quihum|Quihum]]

 

 

'''Roshterian''' /rɒʃˈtɛriən/ (native name: ''oṟbiros̱ṯerim'' /ɔɻbɪɾɔʂʈɛˈɾɪm/ 'The Roshterian language', ''ros̱ṯer'' from older ''*rosker-'' 'front, east') is a [[Talmic languages|Talmic language]] spoken in Northeastern Cuadhlabh. It is an official language of Roshteria (''Qaaros̱ṯerim'') and is the native language of 5.1 million people, most of which live in Roshteria. Among Cuadhlabhians, it is known for its unusual (for a Cuadhlabhian language) grammar: it is a head-initial, polysynthetic language in which verbs use polypersonal agreement, evidentials, applicative constructions and noun incorporation.

 

|quote=The Roshterian tongue is truly a marvel to behold, an infinite trove of jewels for the student of languages ... While its words and affixes display some affinity to our own language, they are even more akin to the ancient [[Thensarian]] language, indeed to such a degree that its Talmic provenance cannot be doubted ... Curiously, the Roshterian speech in particular is pronounced with consonants with tongue-curling not unlike those of the [[Maytyarri|Maytjari]] ... it has a proclivity towards using lengthy words for single utterances where a multitude of smaller words and prefixes combine in a quite volatile manner, reminding one of the language of Old Tíogall texts ... I think it proper to further study this language, for surely it will yield a great wealth of information concerning the common forebear of Talmic languages.

 

 

 

 

 

This sentence was likely written by an non-native speaker of Roshterian, seeing by the fact that he/she omitted evidentials, which would be required in this sentence.

 

 

*''qeqeqeqeqe...'' = (laughter or snickering)

 

*2: ''tixu, tixu-''

*3: ''naṟg, naṟ-''

*5: ''helix'', ''lix-'' (regular reflex ''*holix'')

*11: ''hunai''

*12: ''nai''

Roshterian uses the following 24 consonants:

| '''x''' /ɬ̪/

| '''s̱''' /ʂ/

| '''x̱''' /ɬʵ/

| '''v''' /v/

| '''r''' /ɾ/

| '''l''' /l/

'''j''' /j/ and '''z''' /z/ are used in loanwords.

 

Northeastern dialects of Roshterian fail to distinguish /ɬ̪/ from /ɬʵ/.

*The voiceless stops /p t̪ ʈ k q/ are normally aspirated to the same degree as Japanese voiceless stops; however, they are unaspirated after fricatives. (In this article /t̪/ will be transcribed /t/ for sake of convenience.)

*/ɾ/ can be an alveolar flap [ɾ], an apical retroflex flap [ɽ], or trilled [r].

*/ɳ ʈ ɖ ɭ ɬʵ/ can be realized as apical (like Hindi retroflexes) or subapical (like Tamil retroflexes). The apical realization dominates in casual speech, while the subapical realization occurs more in careful speech. After /ʂ/, /ʈ/ is always apical.

*/ʂ/ is laminal post-alveolar [s̠], but is sometimes realized as the Swedish ''sje''-sound.

There is no phonemic stress or tone; however, all words are pronounced with word-final stress.

Roshterian allows relatively few clusters compared to e.g. [[Thensarian]], but more clusters than [[Nurian]].

Allowed clusters:

 

*Not allowed initially: ''mp, mb, nt, nd, ṉṯ, ṉḏ, nc, ng, nq, nḡ, lp, lt, lc, ḻq, lb, ld, lg, ḻḡ, rp, rt, ṟṯ, rc, rq, rb, rd, rg, rḡ, rm, rn, st, s̱ṯ, sc, s̱q, ṟb, ṟḏ, ṟg, ts, tx, ṟm, ṟḏ, ṟḻ ''

*Allowed initially: ''pl, pr, bl, br, fl, fr, vl, vr, tr, ṯṟ, dr, ḏṟ, cl, cr, gl, gr''

Verb stems have a ''combining form'', also called the ''incorporating form'', which is used with object markers, negation or incorporated objects. Any noun stem can be incorporated, including proper nouns.

''hoox̱iis̱yn'' 'eat fruit' < ''hoox̱i'' 'fruit' + ''caasyn'' 'eat'

The Roshterian verb has 8 slots which mark a variety of grammatical information. Slots that must be filled are in bold.

*discourse

*evidentiality

*negation/focus

*object person marker

*incorporated noun

*'''ROOT'''

*passive marker

Evidentials mark the source of the speaker's information; a ''lack'' of evidential marking signals that the verb is an imperative or a purpose clause. Other discourse affixes also go into this slot.

*''qa-'': I witnessed or otherwise directly experienced this

*''pyn-'': information I obtained from hearsay or am quoting

*''dre-'': a third-party source I consider credible

*''mei-'': my own inference, assumption or subjective opinion

*''hy-'' (< PTal ''*səni stə...'' 'tell me that...'): interrogative (used for both wh-questions and yes-no questions)

Negation is marked with the negative affix ''mis-'', ''mi-'' or ''N-'', which may alter the verb stem to its incorporating form.

 

*Negative: ''mi(s)-''

*Focused affirmative: ''fe-''

*Focused negative: ''tir-''

The causative prefixes are used in causative verbs to index the agent causing the action of the object-ROOT-subject complex. The causative person marker comes from forms of the verb ''oona'' 'to do/make' (''*oonan sy'' 'I make it that' > ''oony-'' > ''ony-'').

:'''''Qonypicaasym.'''''  

:/qonəpikaːˈsəm/

:qa-ony-pi-caasy-m

|''ni-''

|''xee-''

|+ Progressive indicative

! Person !! Affix !! ''-ḡaiman'' 'I fly' !! ''-caasyn'' "I eat"

| 1SG || ''-n'' || ''-ḡaiman'' || ''-caasyn''

| 2SG || ''-r'' || ''-ḡaimar'' || ''-caasyr''

| 3SG.M || ''-m'' || ''-ḡaimam'' || ''-caasym''

| 3SG.F || ''-s'' || ''-ḡaimas'' || ''-caasys''

| 3SG.N || ''-0'' || ''-ḡaima'' || ''-caas''

| 1EX || ''-me'' || ''-ḡaimame'' || ''-caasyme''

| 1IN || ''-nt'' || ''-ḡaimant'' || ''-caasynt''

| 2PL || ''-f'' || ''-ḡaimaf'' || ''-caasyf''

| 3PL || ''-tu'' || ''-ḡaimatu'' || ''-caasytu''

| 4 || ''-p'' || ''-ḡaimap'' || ''-caasyp''

| Who? || ''-te'' || ''-ḡaimate'' || ''-caasyte''

| What? || ''-ta'' || ''-ḡaimata'' || ''-caasyta''

|+ Perfective indicative

! Person  !! ''-ḡaiman'' "I fly" || ''-caasyn'' "I eat"

| 1SG || ''-ḡaimane'' || ''-ceesyne''

| 2SG || ''-ḡaimare''  || ''-ceesyre''

| 3SG.M || ''-ḡaimami'' || ''-ceesymi''

| 3SG.F || ''-ḡaimast'' || ''-ceesyst''

| 3SG.N || ''-ḡaimaa'' || ''-ceesyy''

| 1EX || ''-ḡaimamer'' || ''-ceesymer''

| 1IN || ''-ḡaimanter'' || ''-ceesynter''

| 2PL || ''-ḡaimafer'' || ''-ceesyfer''

| 3PL || ''-ḡaimater'' || ''-ceesyter''

| 4  || ''-ḡaimaap'' || ''-ceesyyp''

| Who? || ''-ḡaimaate'' || ''-ceesyyte''

| What? || ''-ḡaimaata'' || ''-ceesyyta''

*''-ron'' = passive suffix

*''-s̱an'': 'I want to/intend to'

:'''''Lameiteitutu.'''''

:la-mei-teit-utu

:'''''Hyroṉḏuar, hybreituar?'''''

:Hy-roṉḏ-uar, hy-breit-uar

:Q-man-COP.2SG, Q-woman-COP.PRES.2SG

:''Are you a man or a woman?''

:'''''Meixuumi bastaim.'''''

:mei-xuu-mi bast-aim

| 1EX || ''-(l)ume''  

| 3PL || ''-(l)utu''  

| 1EX || ''-(q)aime''  

Nouns are marked with a singular-plural distinction, and may also take possessive suffixes. However, the lemma form of a noun is typically its combining form, which is the incorporated form of a noun and is also used to form possessed forms and compounds. Unlike in [[Thensarian]] and its descendants, the [[Proto-Talmic]] grammatical gender was lost; gendered pronouns and verb affixes no longer mark grammatical gender, but natural gender (as in [[Naquian]]). There is no article.

The plural form is inherited from the Proto-Talmic reduplicated collective; some irregularities may be present due to the retention of the original single consonant in the reduplicant, as opposed to the stem-initial cluster where the consonants interacted to produce new consonants and clusters.

|+ ''veiny-'' 'brother'

| ''veiny-'' || ''vein'' || ''vevein''

|''veinyn''||''veveinyn''

|''veinys''||''veveinys''

!|his/her (3)

|''veinyti''||''veveinyti''

|''veinyt''||''veveinyt''

|''veinym''||''veveinym''

|''veinys̱''||''veveinys̱''

|''veinyc''||''veveinyc''

|''veinytu''||''veveinytu''

|''veinypi''||''veveinypi''

|+ ''loiro-'' 'bird'

| ''loiro-'' || ''loir'' || ''leloir''

|''loiron''||''leloiron''

|''loiros''||''leloiros''

!|his/her

|''loiroti''||''leloiroti''

|''loirot''||''leloirot''

|''loirom''||''leloirom''

|''loiros̱''||''leloiros̱''

|''loiroc''||''leloiroc''

|''loirotu''||''leloirotu''

|''loiropi''||''leloiropi''

| ''ṟiidi-'' || ''ṟiid'' || '''''qe'''ṟiid''  

!|his/her

|''ṟiiditi''||''qeṟiiditi''

|''ṟiidis̱''||''qeṟiidis̱''

===Adjectives===

Predicative adjectives work the same way as predicative nouns in that they must take the copula. Attributive adjectives, on the other hand, are compounded after the noun.

*''bryn'' 'red': ''Brynua hoged.'' 'The apple is red.'; ''hoodibryn'' 'red apple'

*''ṉii'' 'big': ''Ṉiilua huaryn.'' 'My house is big.'; ''huaryṉii'' 'big house'

*''ros̱ṯerim'' 'Roshterian': ''Ros̱ṯerimutu.'' 'They're Roshterian.'; ''Qaaros̱ṯerim'' 'Roshteria' (lit. 'Roshterian country')

Prepositions are inflected for person similarly to nouns; when a preposition is followed by a noun, the preposition ''must'' take the corresponding 3rd or 4th person suffix.

*''le-'' = 'towards, to'

|''pyd''

|''veer''

|''cyvi''

|''hiim''

Roshterian is a verb-initial, head-marking polysynthetic language. Verbs take both subject and object affixes, and complex morphophonemic alternations are common. Where Roshterian deviates from typical Cuadhlabh (or even Talmic) typology are features such as obviation, noun incorporation and evidential marking, making Roshterian resemble Native American languages such as Blackfoot or Ojibwe.

:'''''Qatiraḏan.'''''

:/qat̪ɪraˈɖan/

:qa-ti-raḏa-n

"X of Y" = X-3SG Y or X-Y (e.g. ''veinyti clofabim'' 'the Clofabian's brother' or ''xafut huar'' = 'the color of the house')