Vethari: Difference between revisions
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Affricates /ʧ/ and /ʤ/ only occur syllable-initially, never in codas or clusters. They are often used in expressive or ideophonic vocabulary. Fricatives are more flexible: /f/, /s/, /ʂ/, /θ/, and /x/ can occur in both onset and coda positions, while their voiced counterparts /v/, /z/, /ð/, and /ʒ/ are mostly restricted to onsets. Palatal fricatives /ç/ and /ʃ/—written as cy and sy—appear only before front vowels and cannot occur after back vowels. The voiced palatal fricative /ʝ/ (gy) and the approximants /ɻ/, /j/, and /ɰ/ appear frequently in medial position, helping to transition between vowels. | Affricates /ʧ/ and /ʤ/ only occur syllable-initially, never in codas or clusters. They are often used in expressive or ideophonic vocabulary. Fricatives are more flexible: /f/, /s/, /ʂ/, /θ/, and /x/ can occur in both onset and coda positions, while their voiced counterparts /v/, /z/, /ð/, and /ʒ/ are mostly restricted to onsets. Palatal fricatives /ç/ and /ʃ/—written as cy and sy—appear only before front vowels and cannot occur after back vowels. The voiced palatal fricative /ʝ/ (gy) and the approximants /ɻ/, /j/, and /ɰ/ appear frequently in medial position, helping to transition between vowels. | ||
Nasals play a central role in phonotactics. The contrast between /n/, /ɲ/, and /ɳ/ is fully phonemic and occurs in all positions. The retroflex nasal /ɳ/ usually appears in environments where other retroflex consonants are also present, often due to regressive assimilation. The palatal nasal /ɲ/ commonly appears before front vowels, and is usually represented as ny. Approximants such as /w/, /j/, and /ɰ/ cannot appear in syllable-final position, and /ɻ/ | Nasals play a central role in phonotactics. The contrast between /n/, /ɲ/, and /ɳ/ is fully phonemic and occurs in all positions. The retroflex nasal /ɳ/ usually appears in environments where other retroflex consonants are also present, often due to regressive assimilation. The palatal nasal /ɲ/ commonly appears before front vowels, and is usually represented as ny. Approximants such as /w/, /j/, and /ɰ/ cannot appear in syllable-final position, and /ɻ/ usually appears on stressed onsets. | ||
Lateral consonants /l/, /ʎ/, and /ɭ/ have strict distribution. The plain /l/ is the most common and occurs freely in onsets and codas. The palatal lateral /ʎ/ (ly) only occurs before /i/ or /e/, and never after back vowels. The retroflex lateral /ɭ/ (rl) occurs almost exclusively in medial position, often within roots or compounds, and avoids front vowels entirely. These laterals never appear geminated or in complex clusters. Morphophonemic processes involving these sounds tend to preserve their quality rather than undergo assimilation. | Lateral consonants /l/, /ʎ/, and /ɭ/ have strict distribution. The plain /l/ is the most common and occurs freely in onsets and codas. The palatal lateral /ʎ/ (ly) only occurs before /i/ or /e/, and never after back vowels. The retroflex lateral /ɭ/ (rl) occurs almost exclusively in medial position, often within roots or compounds, and avoids front vowels entirely. These laterals never appear geminated or in complex clusters. Morphophonemic processes involving these sounds tend to preserve their quality rather than undergo assimilation. | ||
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Vethari is a largely idiomatic language. For foreign speakers, even though they understand every single word, it might be difficult to understand its meaning. for example, instead of saying “Cheese!” when taking a photo, people say ''Reutthisimagemonutai/Foutthisimagemonutai'', literally “Show me half”, from the smile being like a ''half-circle''. Other example is Vimomasumu?: literally “Can’t you roar?”(ironically). Equivalent to “It’s all Greek to me”. | Vethari is a largely idiomatic language. For foreign speakers, even though they understand every single word, it might be difficult to understand its meaning. for example, instead of saying “Cheese!” when taking a photo, people say ''Reutthisimagemonutai/Foutthisimagemonutai'', literally “Show me half”, from the smile being like a ''half-circle''. Other example is Vimomasumu?: literally “Can’t you roar?”(ironically). Equivalent to “It’s all Greek to me”. | ||
=== Measure Words === | |||
In Vethari, some nouns require measure words to refer to them, the same way English uses, for instance, 'a ''carton'' of milk' and not just simply 'a milk'. | |||
Measure words don’t decline and sometimes don’t have a translation to English. | |||
Not every noun require a measure words, however, there’s a set of 81 nouns that need those, for example: | |||
: Bomolukritil dyemi finigoporditri. | |||
: two-DEF-PL-AGT Ø bird-DEF-PL-AGT | |||
: Two birds. | |||
In this case, ''dyemi'' is the measure word for bird, which means this noun always need to be accompanied by this word. | |||
=== Swadesh List === | === Swadesh List === | ||
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|- | |- | ||
! *Mood | ! *Mood | ||
| ''-cyi-'' (indicative)<br>''-cye-'' (subjunctive)<br>''-tthi-'' (imperative)<br>''-gyu-'' (conditional)<br>''-mo-'' (jussive)<br>''-sorlì-'' (optative) <br>''-ppu-'' (vetitive) | | ''-cyi-'' (indicative)<br>''-cye-'' (subjunctive)<br>''-tthi-'' (imperative)<br>''-gyu-'' (conditional)<br>''-mo-'' (jussive)<br>''-sorlì-'' (optative) <br>''-ppu-'' (vetitive) <br> ''-wes-'' (Desiderative) | ||
|- | |- | ||
! Voice | ! Voice | ||
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: 2SG.AGT-IND-cry-NEG | : 2SG.AGT-IND-cry-NEG | ||
: Don’t cry! | : Don’t cry! | ||
The Vetitive mood is used only when warning someone that there’ll be consequences for something like prohibiting from doing something, or constructions like: “Beware …”. It’s also used to show impossible things like imagining something that will never happen or a dream. It’s also functions like a “mustn’t”. Negation like “-mu-“ is used for more brief and superficial cases, when nothing big happens. | |||
==== Adjectives ==== | ==== Adjectives ==== | ||
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== Syntax == | == Syntax == | ||
=== Word Order === | === Word Order === | ||
The standard word order is SVO, when using the verb complex as a full phrase, however, when more than this, other categories are usually arranged the same way as in English so: | |||
: Tawesrjawomalit-u imaudauri kima tuppulyefimo… | |||
: 1SG.AGT-DES-AOR-love-3SG.AGT-1SG.PAT unfortunately this 1SG.PAT-VET-FUT-happen | |||
: I wish he loved me, but unfortunately this won’t happen… | |||
On full noun phrases, the nouns may be on the Patientive case. The adjectives usually come after the noun, so: Noun + Adjective + Relative Clause. | |||
=== Conjunctions === | === Conjunctions === | ||
=== Relative and Independent Clauses === | === Relative and Independent Clauses === | ||