Natalician: Difference between revisions

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Natalician orthography reflects voice sandhi voicing, a form of consonant mutation with two consonants that meet, and the second is voiced and the first is unvoiced. The first unvoiced consonant {{IPA|[p t f ʃ t͡ʃ θ k s]}} is voiced to {{IPA|[b d v ʒ d͡ʒ ð ɡ z]}}, but the orthography remains unchanged. This usually does not include load words.

=== Vowel harmony ===

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center; margin-left: 1em"

! rowspan="2" | Natalician Vowel Harmony

! colspan="5" | Front Vowels || colspan="3" | Back Vowels

|-

! colspan="3" | Unrounded || colspan="2" | Rounded || colspan="1" | Unrounded || colspan="2" | Rounded

|-

! Vowel

| style="border-right: 0;" | '''ä''' || '''e''' || '''i''' || '''ö'''

| style="border-left: 0;" | '''ü''' || '''a''' || '''o'''

| style="border-left: 0;" | '''u'''

|- style="text-align: center;"

! Type Ĭ (Backness + Rounding)

| colspan="3" | '''i''' || colspan="2" | '''ü''' || colspan="1" | '''a''' || colspan="2" | '''u'''

|-

! Type Ĕ (Backness)

| colspan="5" | '''e''' || colspan="5" | '''o'''

|- style="text-align: center;"

|}

====The principle of vowel harmony====

# If the first vowel of a word is a back vowel, any subsequent vowel is also a back vowel; if the first is a front vowel, any subsequent vowel is also a front vowel.

# If the first vowel is unrounded, so too are subsequent vowels.

The second and third rules minimize muscular effort during speech. More specifically, they are related to the phenomenon of labial assimilation: If the lips are '''rounded''' (a process that requires muscular effort) for the first vowel they may stay rounded for subsequent vowels. If they are '''unrounded''' for the first vowel, the speaker does not make the additional muscular effort to round them subsequently.

Grammatical affixes have "a chameleon-like quality" and obey one of the following patterns of vowel harmony:

* '''Twofold (''-e/-o'')''': The article, for example, is ''-(v)e'' after front vowels and ''-(v)o'' after back vowels.

* '''Fourfold (''-i/-a/-ü/-u'')''': The verb infinitive suffix, for example, is ''-i'' or ''-a'' after unrounded vowels (front or back respectively); and ''-ü'' or ''-u'' after the corresponding rounded vowels.

* '''Type & 'and'''': The adjectival passive voice suffix, for example, is ''-t&t'', the ''&'' being the same vowel as the previous one.

Practically, the twofold pattern (usually referred to as the type Ĕ) means that in the environment where the vowel in the word stem is formed in the front of the mouth, the suffix will take the '''e''' form, while if it is formed in the back it will take the '''o''' form. The fourfold pattern (also called the type Ĭ) accounts for rounding as well as for front/back. The type & pattern is the reppetition of the same last vowel.

The following examples, based on the nominal suffix ''-zĭk'', illustrate the principles of type Ĭ vowel harmony in practice: ''Čikel'''zik''''' ("Wellness"), ''Ok'''zuk''''' ("Knowledge"), ''Ian'''zak''''' ("Food"), ''Nör'''zük''''' ("Living").

==== Exceptions to vowel harmony ====

These are four word-classes that are exceptions to the rules of vowel harmony:

# '''Native, non-compound words''', e.g. ''Ela'' "then", ''Čela'' "drink", ''Äga'' "by"

# '''Native compound words''', e.g. ''Pave'' "for what"

# '''Foreign words''', e.g. many English loanwords such as '''Sertifikäht''' (certificate), '''Hospital''' (hospital), '''Komphuter''' (computer)

# '''Invariable prefixes / suffixes:'''

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;"

! scope="col" | Invariable prefix or suffix

! scope="col" | Natalician example

! scope="col" | Meaning in English

! scope="col" | Remarks

|-

| '''–(v)iš'''

| ''üčiš'' || "exit"

| From ''üč'' "leave"

|-

| '''öz-'''

| ''özhaša'' || "to return"

| From ''haša'' "to come"

|-

| '''gik-'''

| ''gikögültüt'' || "unwanted"

| From ''ögültüt'' "wanted"

|}

====Note====

* A native compound does not obey vowel harmony: ''Ras+cezil'' ("city center"—a place name)

* Loanwords also disobeys vowel harmony: ''Kofi'' ("Coffee")

* Every grammatical prefix disobeys the vowel harmony aswell.

===Pronouns===

@@ Line 390: / Line 390: @@
 Natalician orthography reflects voice sandhi voicing, a form of consonant mutation with two consonants that meet, and the second is voiced and the first is unvoiced. The first unvoiced consonant {{IPA|[p t f ʃ t͡ʃ θ k s]}} is voiced to {{IPA|[b d v ʒ d͡ʒ ð ɡ z]}}, but the orthography remains unchanged. This usually does not include load words.
+=== Vowel harmony ===
+{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center; margin-left: 1em"
+! rowspan="2" | Natalician Vowel Harmony
+! colspan="5" | Front Vowels || colspan="3" | Back Vowels
+|-
+! colspan="3" | Unrounded || colspan="2" | Rounded || colspan="1" | Unrounded || colspan="2" | Rounded
+|-
+! Vowel
+| style="border-right: 0;" | '''ä''' || '''e''' || '''i''' || '''ö'''
+| style="border-left: 0;" | '''ü''' || '''a''' || '''o'''
+| style="border-left: 0;" | '''u'''
+|- style="text-align: center;"
+! Type Ĭ (Backness + Rounding)
+| colspan="3" | '''i''' || colspan="2" | '''ü''' || colspan="1" | '''a''' || colspan="2" | '''u'''
+|-
+! Type Ĕ (Backness)
+| colspan="5" | '''e''' || colspan="5" | '''o'''
+|- style="text-align: center;"
+|}
+====The principle of vowel harmony====
+# If the first vowel of a word is a back vowel, any subsequent vowel is also a back vowel; if the first is a front vowel, any subsequent vowel is also a front vowel.
+# If the first vowel is unrounded, so too are subsequent vowels.
+The second and third rules minimize muscular effort during speech. More specifically, they are related to the phenomenon of labial assimilation: If the lips are '''rounded''' (a process that requires muscular effort) for the first vowel they may stay rounded for subsequent vowels. If they are '''unrounded''' for the first vowel, the speaker does not make the additional muscular effort to round them subsequently.
+Grammatical affixes have "a chameleon-like quality" and obey one of the following patterns of vowel harmony:
+* '''Twofold (''-e/-o'')''': The article, for example, is ''-(v)e'' after front vowels and ''-(v)o'' after back vowels.
+* '''Fourfold (''-i/-a/-ü/-u'')''': The verb infinitive suffix, for example, is ''-i'' or ''-a'' after unrounded vowels (front or back respectively); and ''-ü'' or ''-u'' after the corresponding rounded vowels.
+* '''Type & 'and'''': The adjectival passive voice suffix, for example, is ''-t&t'', the ''&'' being the same vowel as the previous one.
+Practically, the twofold pattern (usually referred to as the type Ĕ) means that in the environment where the vowel in the word stem is formed in the front of the mouth, the suffix will take the '''e''' form, while if it is formed in the back it will take the '''o''' form. The fourfold pattern (also called the type Ĭ) accounts for rounding as well as for front/back. The type & pattern is the reppetition of the same last vowel.
+The following examples, based on the nominal suffix ''-zĭk'', illustrate the principles of type Ĭ vowel harmony in practice: ''Čikel'''zik''''' ("Wellness"), ''Ok'''zuk''''' ("Knowledge"), ''Ian'''zak''''' ("Food"), ''Nör'''zük''''' ("Living").
+==== Exceptions to vowel harmony ====
+These are four word-classes that are exceptions to the rules of vowel harmony:
+# '''Native, non-compound words''', e.g. ''Ela'' "then", ''Čela'' "drink", ''Äga'' "by"
+# '''Native compound words''', e.g. ''Pave'' "for what"
+# '''Foreign words''', e.g. many English loanwords such as '''Sertifikäht''' (certificate), '''Hospital''' (hospital), '''Komphuter''' (computer)
+# '''Invariable prefixes / suffixes:'''
+{| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;"
+! scope="col" | Invariable prefix or suffix
+! scope="col" | Natalician example
+! scope="col" | Meaning in English
+! scope="col" | Remarks
+|-
+| '''–(v)iš'''
+| ''üčiš'' || "exit"
+| From ''üč'' "leave"
+|-
+| '''öz-'''
+| ''özhaša'' || "to return"
+| From ''haša'' "to come"
+|-
+| '''gik-'''
+| ''gikögültüt'' || "unwanted"
+| From ''ögültüt'' "wanted"
+|}
+====Note====
+* A native compound does not obey vowel harmony: ''Ras+cezil'' ("city center"—a place name)
+* Loanwords also disobeys vowel harmony: ''Kofi'' ("Coffee")
+* Every grammatical prefix disobeys the vowel harmony aswell.
 ===Pronouns===