Ko

Kurmian/Swadesh list

Ko (natively an dûaigh Cùm /ʔan dˠûəj kʰūːm/) is a monosyllabic tonal language with an Irish aesthetic. Like Irish, it has initial consonant mutations.

Phonology

Phonotactics

The maximal syllable structure is C(r/l)VC. A syllable is not allowed to terminate in a short vowel except in some function words.

Allowed initial clusters (not counting mutations): pr tr cr br dr gr fr ngr spr str scr pl cl bl gl fl spl ngl

Initials

Consonant phonemes

		Labial		Alveolar		Velar		Laryngeal
		broad	slender	broad	slender	slender	broad
Nasal	voiceless	ʰmˠ	ʰmʲ	ʰn̪ˠ	ʰnʲ	ʰɲ	ʰŋ
	voiced	mˠ	mʲ	n̪ˠ	nʲ	ɲ	ŋ
Stop /Affricate	plain	pˠ	pʲ	t̪ˠ	tʲ	c	k	ʔ
	tense	pˠ˭	pʲ˭	t̪ˠ˭	tʲ˭	c˭	k˭
	voiced	bˠ	bʲ	d̪ˠ	dʲ	ɟ	g
Fricative	voiceless	fˠ	fʲ	sˠ	ɕ	ç	x	h
	voiced	vˠ	vʲ			j	ɣ
Trill	voiceless			ʰrˠ	ʰrʲ
	voiced			rˠ	rʲ
Lateral	voiceless			ʰl̪ˠ	ʰlʲ
	voiced			l̪ˠ	lʲ

• /ʰm ʰn ʰŋ ʰl ʰr/ are written sm sn sng sl sr.
• /p˭ t˭ k˭/ are written sp st sc.

Vowels

/ˠa ˠɪ ˠɔ ˠʊ ˠaː ˠeː ˠiː ˠoː ˠuː ˠuə/ a oi/ui o u à aè aoì ò ù ua

/ʲa ʲi ʲaː ʲeː ʲiː ʲoː ʲuː ʲiə/ ea i eà è/èi ì eò iù ia

Finals

The allowed finals are: /t k m n ŋ l r j w/ ⟨d g m n ng l r igh bh⟩. Final d g are unreleased stops [-t̚ -k̚]. Final l is velarized [ɫ].

Tones

Ko has three phonemic tones: high, low, falling (á, à/unmarked, â). Only long vowels have tones.

Tone	Example		Notes
Short	gran (petal)	/gˠrˠan/
High	teó (stretch)	/tʲoː˥/
Low	lùm (mold)	/lˠuːm˨˩/	May be slightly breathy voiced.
Falling	sêigh (dough)	/sʲeːj˥˩/

Mutations

The following initials can undergo lenition or eclipsis:

Initial mutations

Grapheme	m	p	b	f	t	d	s	c	g	∅
IPA	/m/	/p/	/b/	/f/	/t/	/d/	/s/	/k/	/g/	/ʔ/
Lenited	mh	ph	bh	fh	th	dh	sh	ch	gh	∅
IPA	/v/	/f/	/v/	/h/	/h/	/ɣ/, /j/	/h/	/x/	/ɣ/, /j/	/ʔ/
Eclipsed	-	bp	mb	bhf	dt	nd	'-	gc	n-g	n-
IPA	-	/b/	/m/	/v/	/d/	/n/	-	/g/	/ŋ/	/n/

In addition, h-prothesis adds h- to the beginning of a word beginning with a vowel.

Morphology

Nouns

Compound words are head-final: seól-trù = 'agenda book' (lit. 'check-book', i.e. a book that one checks)

Attributive adjectives precede the noun and take the same mutation as the noun. Examples:

• an gò gaoì 'the tall tree' (nominative)
• an n-gò dtrù 'the long book' (nominative)

Definite mutations

Masculine definite mutations
	Singular	Plural
Def. nom.	h-prothesis	lenition
Def. acc.	eclipsis	h-prothesis
Def. gen.	lenition	eclipsis

Feminine definite mutations
	Singular	Plural
Def. nom.	lenition	eclipsis
Def. acc.	h-prothesis	lenition
Def. gen.	eclipsis	h-prothesis

Neuter definite mutations
	Singular	Plural
Def. nom.	eclipsis	h-prothesis
Def. acc.	lenition	eclipsis
Def. gen.	h-prothesis	lenition

gaoì 'tree' - masculine
	Singular	Plural
Def. nom.	an gaoì	na ghaoì
Def. acc.	an ngaoì	na gaoì
Def. gen.	an ghaoì	na ngaoì

crûaigh 'thought' - feminine
	Singular	Plural
Def. nom.	an chrûaigh	na gcrûaigh
Def. acc.	an crûaigh	na chrûaigh
Def. gen.	an gcrûaigh	na crûaigh

trù 'book' - neuter
	Singular	Plural
Def. nom.	an dtrù	na trù
Def. acc.	an thrù	na dtrù
Def. gen.	an trù	na thrù

Verb phrase

Verbs do not inflect for subject agreement or tense; however, preverbal tense/discourse/connective markers trigger mutations on the verb. Unusually, connectives come immediately after the verb.

Tense:

• present: no marker
  • sèin = 'dies', eic /ʔɛk/ = 'buys'
• past: scuil + lenition
  • scuil shèin = 'died', scuil eic = 'bought'
• future: ngê + h-prothesis
  • ngê sèin = 'will die', ngê h-eic 'will buy'
• infinitive: go + lenition (from ge-)
  • go shèin = 'to die'

Connectives:

• geár: 'when'
• daoìgh + eclipsis: 'because' (< AW deichen)
• spàl: 'but, however'

Derivational morphology

• ba- + lenition: verbalizer
  • ba-thì: 'nasalize' < tì 'nose'
• go- + lenition (from ge-): nominalizer
  • also cor-
• inn-: increments a verb's valency
• sar-: decrements a verb's velency

Phrases

• Thank you = Gôr-má thà gad!

Sample texts

UDHR, Article 1

Scuil shéibh bî-bî na fà go thúa mâ dè bân chor-stuid thàn creó dè thàn chor-cing. Séibh mî go [endowed with reason and conscience], dè [they should act toward one another in a spirit of brotherhood].