Arayaz's thread so that she doesn't flood the forum

[Arayaz]

Makihip Verbal Affixes

I need to consolidate all the random Makihip stuff from around the forum...

-(n)atut as well, similarly
-(y)ay negation
-(e)k’i negation, but notes that the subject has the capacity to do it
-(a)mi only, nothing more than
-(w)oya to need to
-(a)pi suddenly
-(o)saw to begin
-(e)wi for now; the state will probably change in the future
-(a)xwan to be able to
-(e)yhonu regretfully

-(a)kwa the fact of
-(u)p the result of

ko- passive
teme- benefactive applicative

-(e)ti therefore
-tu however; regardless
-ma and

And one nominal suffix:

-(a)wat certain; some but not all

[Arayaz]

Swahili x Romanian x Bats: Non-Concatenative Pluralization

The idea here is that, like Swahili, there is a range of different noun classes, expressed with prefixes that change in the plural. However, as in, say, Romanian and Bats, there is not a direct correspondence between the singular classes and the plural classes. For example, Romanian has "neuter" nouns, which act like masculine nouns when singular but feminine when plural. Bats has an even more complicated system.

A random sketch for this:
SINGULAR → PLURAL
h- → m-
z- → m- or t-
sk- → t- or h-
r- → m-, t-, or h-

In addition to this, there would be a regular pluralizer suffix -i, which also geminates the root's final consonant. So for example, haŋo would pluralize to maŋŋoi.

Then, apply some tonogenesis: háŋo → maŋŋoi. Then breaking in closed syllables (including before geminates): háŋo → maəŋŋoi. Then some monophthongization: háŋo → maːŋŋø. Then loss of /h/: áŋo → maːŋŋø. Then some elision of nasal consonants between vowels, nasalizing the resulting hiatus vowels (but this wouldn't apply to geminate nasals): ã́õ pluralizes to maːŋŋø! Finish up with some nasalization shenanigans and degemination, and (in a romanization) you get ą́ǫ → bāngö! Isn't that wild?

[Arayaz]

Proto-Makihip-zAhul

I was looking through my older posts here to try to get an idea of zAhul's environment, since I want to elaborate on my previous post (Swahili x Romanian x Bats: Non-Concatenative Pluralization) for zAhul. I had decided that the gemination aspect of the pluralization would be descended from an infix (e.g. *maŋ<h>o-i → maŋŋoi), and then I noticed that I had also had infixes ─ including <h> ─ in pre-Makihip. So then I got to thinking, what if Makihip and zAhul were descended from the same protolang?

Granted, the <h> in pre-Makihip marked past tense, and I don't think there's any sort of form that could become both past tense and pluralization. But I don't mind if the gemination marks something else in zAhul.

We all know the difficulties of working backwards ─ but we also know that it can be done, so I haven't lost hope.

Phonology

It's a good thing I've defined basically nothing about zAhul phonology, or else I'd be in much hotter water here. We can also conveniently say that Makihip is more conservative than zAhul here.

Makihip's phonemic inventory has already been posted here:

Spoiler:

/p t k kʷ/
/pʰ tʰ kʰ kʷʰ/
/pʼ tʼ kʼ kʷʼ/

/s x xʷ/
/h hʷ/
/t͡sʼ k͡xʼ k͡xʷʼ/

/m n/
/m̥ n̥/
/mˀ nˀ/

/j w/
/ç hʷ/
/jˀ wˀ/

/e o/
/a/

I think the aspiration/devoicing, glottalization, and labialization all come from earlier clusters ─ Ch, Cʔ, Cw. If we get rid of them, we have:

/p t k ʔ/
/s x h/
/m n/
/j w/

/e o/
/a/

I like this, but I'd like a little more, too. I'll add an *f, which became *h in Makihip almost immediately. Perhaps there was also a *l, which later merged variously into *w or *n in Makihip (*n initially/before vowels, *w adjacent to consonants, and maybe nothing word-finally after *o.). Maybe even *b *d *ɡ ─ in Makihip, they just devoiced to *p *t *k (but were immune to aspiration and glottalization; maybe *ɡʷ → w also), but in zAhul, they became *w *ɾ *ŋ. (Does that seem naturalistic?). Maybe also a *z~ʒ, which became *s in Makihip, except for in the coda, where it became *j. And lastly, for vowels, I'm gonna just throw in a *ɨ, which became *e in Makihip ─ but maybe it was elided in certain environments, say, C_CV.

Also, Makihip allows CV syllables plus word-final codas, which I'll say comes from an earlier CVC, but all the intervocalic clusters simplified: Ch Cʔ Cw become other series of consonants (and maybe also Cj, but the palatals eventually become velars), stops+fricatives form ejective affricates, geminates become ejectives, coda stops lost, coda sonorants elide, et cetera.

So now I'll make up proto-forms for all the Makihip lexical items:

atuk n. dust < *adok
awi n. person < *ajwɨ
awahu n. world, realm, large area < *aɡwas "place" + *-hol (augmentative)
hwan vt. 1. to kneel before, 2. to obey < *hɨwan
kah n. adult person < *tjah
kihi vi. to speak < *kefe
kut vt. to be within < *kod
kxw’u vt. to be beside < *xɨʔwo
menik n. home, dwelling, house < *meɡ "to be safe" + *nek (place-of)
m’aw n. issue, problem < *mɨʔaw
mhay n. tall person < *mɨhaz
mik n. god < *mɨɡ
nonu vi. to sing < *lolo
osu vt. to see < *oso
sam vi. to exist < *zam
tak vt. to kill < *dak
tawim n. food < *tawɨm
tim vt. to accept, to approve of < *tem
tuk vi. to go away from a deictic center < *tok
woti vt. to make < *ɡɨ- (resultative) + *lodɨ "to work on"
wik vi. to run < *wek
wiw vt. to acquire < *wɨl

Naturally, these sound changes produce some alternations and irregularities (as well as some new forms and derivational affixes), the subject of my next post. After that, zAhul!

[Arayaz]

Makihip Morphophonological Alternations

As a result of the things I outlined in the last post, a few alternations will arise in the language. Most notable is the fact that certain words will just be immune to the tense alternations due to previously having voiced stops. I'll have to find an alternative strategy, or just leave it ambiguous.

Another important thing is words that ended with *l ─ this became *w at the ends of words (and was lost after *o), but it will become *n when a suffix is added. For example, wiw (< *wɨl) becomes win before a suffix. And actually, that *ɨ would be lost, which is the next thing ─ some /e/s are weak and are lost in many positions. In this case (using the negative suffix), *wnay becomes onay, with the syllabic glide becoming a vowel. In other cases, the first consonant is often lost. I might restore most of the previous forms with analogy, but certain common forms would be irregular.

Another is *z ─ certain final ys become s when a suffix is added.

[Arayaz]

Morphology of Proto-Makihip-zAhul

I have the pronominal prefixes of Makihip defined, and just following them to the proto is:

sg/pl
1 *y(a)-/*m(a)-
2 *d(a)-/*kl(e)-
3 *l(a)-/*x(o)-

Again, Makihip is quite conservative. I'll explain that in the setting.

The passive prefix, k(o)-, hasn't changed since the proto.
The benefactive prefix, tem(e)-, was *dem(e)-, just so that it changes AT ALL.

those damn verbal affixes (pardon my Makihip )

These are all the proto-forms.

*-(l)adot as well, similarly
*-(y)az negation
*-(ɨ)tke negation, but noting the subject has the capacity to do it
*-(a)mɨ only, nothing more than
*-nom thankfully (probably also from an interjection; counterpart to -yɨfolo)
*-(w)oya volitive
*-(a)ple suddenly (from an earlier interjection *haple, expressing surprise)
*-(o)zal inceptive
*-ɡwe now, but not necessarily in the past/future
*-xɨwan to be able to
*-yɨfolo regretfully (from an earlier interjection *yɨfolo, expressing sadness)

Edit: I've gone back and added some more in the meantime.

*-(a)kwa the fact of
*-(o)p the result of, the happening of

The conjunctive suffixes were full conjunctions in the proto:

*ede therefore
*tol ignoring the previous statement
*ma and

And that lonely nominal suffix? I might kill it, to be honest. It's not in the spirit of the language.

Next up: zAhul!

[Arayaz]

zAhul

Phonology

I had a limited list of sound changes from PMZ to Makihip ─ about six, though one of them was pretty big and could count as multiple. That's a span of maybe 700-800 years for a conservative language, whereas I want zAhul to be quite innovative. Perhaps I could fit nine or even ten sound changes into that span.

• *b *d *ɡ → *w *ɾ *ŋ
• *s → *ɾ intervocalically; → *h otherwise; *z → *ɾ intervocalically also
• *Ch, *Cʔ → *CC
• *h → ∅ intervocalically
• *e → ∅ / VC_C[V, #]
• vowels break in closed syllables: *a *e *ɨ *o → *aə̯ *ia̯ *əa̯ *ua̯
• *ʔ, h, x → *ħ
• *aə̯, *əa̯ → *ə; *a → *aː
• *e ə ɨ → *ə *o *i *ə *ă *i~u
• *Tj *Kj → *C (palatal) (rj → dʒ)
• *ə → *ă
• *tʃ dʒ → ʃ ʒ → s ʝ

Now it's time to apply them.

Morphology

I'm not gonna be able to work in any of the fun stuff I had planned yet, but it'll come in the descendents of zAhul. We still have polypersonal agreement:

sg/pl
1 y(a/ă)-/m(a/ă)-
2 r(a/ă)-/kl(ă/ia)-
3 l(a/ă)-/ħ(o/ua)-

The second vowels are used in closed syllables, including before geminated consonants.

yă-wk (causing elision of the stem's ă)
1sg-run
I run

ya-r-ără
1sg-2sg-see
I see you

Tense is indicated via an infix <ħ> after (future) or gemination of (past) the stem's final consonant, which may cause other changes, especially to the previous vowel:

ya-r-uassă
1sg-2sg-see.PST
I saw you

ya-r-uasħă
1sg-2sg-see.FUT
I will see you

There are some additional suffixes, although these are rarer:

y-ăywă-tkă
1sg-person-can
I can be a person

y-ăywu-yăz
1sg-person-NEG
I am not a person

I have to go, so that's the end of this post. I'll do a follow-up shortly.

[Arayaz]

I have decided to revise the above vowel shift. Rather than *e ə ɨ → *ə *o *i, zAhul shall undergo *e ə ɨ → *ə *a *i~u; the frontness of the final one will be entirely allophonic, depending on something, perhaps the preceding vowel.

In fact, why not follow that up with *ə → ă, contrasting with *a → aː? And the original schwa only occurs in diphthongs, but those only occur in closed syllables, so they're probably quite short ─ they can have schwa as their reflex as well.

[Arayaz]

zAhul Articles

I think zAhul shall develop a system of articles, which can become the noun classes and stuff later.

For these to be noun-class-related, they might need classifiers as well... But I don't know a lot about classifiers and their usage. However, I think in many language, they are used with demonstratives.

I'll invent a PMZ demonstrative system, then. I never really discussed word order, but I think there's a head-initial preference. Thus the demonstratives follow the classifiers, but both precede the nouns.

proximal: *ʔoɡ
distal: *ʔal

In Makihip, nothing special happens to these; they just become uk and aw. They were probably suffixed to words like *aɡwas "place" also. That'd give awats’uk and awats’aw for "here" and "there."

Meanwhile, in zAhul, some nouns started being used in the construction classifier-ʔal-N. (I'll put this right after *Ch → *CC.) For example, rather than *tawɨm "food," one might say *ŋoh-ʔal tawɨm, literally "that food-clump" (with ŋoh, < *ɡos "clump," being used for objects of that shape). Then we shorten this to *ŋohal-tawɨm; *h is lost intervocalically around this time, so we get *ŋoal-tawɨm. That l is quite a lot of work, though, so I'll drop it. Vowel breaking gives *ŋotawăm.

But if it was plural, we might use a different word, say, *yen "pile." *yenʔal-tawɨm, and eventually this will become yiannăl-tawăm with regular sound changes, though I think it'll reduce, perhaps to *yian-tawăm.

Not quite the way I thought it'd work out, but it's fine!

[Arayaz]

English
These are all of my languages right now.

Ruykkarraber
Ette isas sdesdi in gasgasek.
I have worked hard on them.

Rü’ravesh
Nus vrekh vasa vadhu ve’ tash.
It has been a long time since I began.

Ngama
Kú ʔovem cèpha mahóm ravo.
Many have helped me along the way.

Haesičáéyae
Lhi háénitáéw̌aemaelh.
You all are the most important component of me.

Lhvọvaever
Áélilen; naeli áédonoluf.
I admire all of you, and aspire to be that skilled.

Talhelạrriler
A ạwạkạḥ 1,300 ertef.
And now I've made it to 1,300 posts.

Erụụrhangụšerụ
Wụmetwụụtwụụloluf, lụwụyesemayoluf.
I hope they were good ones, and you like them.

Arskiilz
Ztindaz ztiḷṭṭi kool.
Being too self-conscious only hurts someone.

Kahóra
Cáho kosàhohôxa.
But I do still worry.

Makihip
Pku yaxowotewoya.
I need to create exquisite things.

zAhul
Ma klǎlatiam.
And you all facilitate that.

2c2ef0
■■■■■■ (7072a0a690f899a9fd000000c9dc0f01115d)
Thank you, and thus ends my ramble!

Edit: This isn't my 1300th post; that one was announcing Kahóra. This is number 1303.

[_Just_A_Sketch]

This is a really sweet post milestone celebration, I love it :)

[Arayaz]

This is a really sweet post milestone celebration, I love it :)

Thank you :3

A Proper zAhul Article Post

sg/pl
Class 1: [a/ă](yy)- / zh[o/ua]l- (humans)
Class 2: ħiak- / ħo(n)- (animals)
Class 3: ŋo(l)- / yă(n)- (food, earth, malleable things, plants)
Class 4: pă(ħ)- / yă(n)- (manmade or refined objects)
Class 5: uakka(l)- / no plural (reduced or destroyed versions of other things)
Class 6: ħw(a)- / no plural (pejorative or derogatory)
Class 7: ŋa(l)- / no plural (honorific)
Class 8: [a/ă]ħ- / m[a/ă]l- body parts, miscellaneous

Examples of usage:

asăħ "person" → zhualsăħ "people"
asăħ "person" → ŋasăħ "great person, respected person"
asăħ "person" → ħwasăħ "useless person, disrespected person"
asăħ "person" → ħiaksăħ "someone who is like an animal"

I'm not sure what ħiaksăħ should *actually* mean in-world. Could be a mythical being, could be a derogatory name for the Mawep ...

[Arayaz]

Yeah, having easter eggs for people who supported you is really fun for both them and you. I have a lot in Ruykkarraber, but I didn't make a note of them so I'd have to dig them up.

I have dug them up (and added a couple new ones):

aser name (from my new name)
batag to admire (from an abbreviation of a tumblr user I follow's name)
dabit resolute, stubborn (from David J. Peterson)
etan to focus all of one's attention on (from a friend's name)
keme to depict (from Khemehekis)
kiukan to fascinate (from kiwikami)
sarnu improvement, correction (from Salmoneus)
sketi to assist, to help (from Sketch)
sima to play a game (from zyma)

[Khemehekis]

keme to depict (from Khemehekis)

This comes from my AI art, right?

[Arayaz]

keme to depict (from Khemehekis)

This comes from my AI art, right?

Yeah, and the CBBMLLFPD.

[_Just_A_Sketch]

Yeah, having easter eggs for people who supported you is really fun for both them and you. I have a lot in Ruykkarraber, but I didn't make a note of them so I'd have to dig them up.

I have dug them up (and added a couple new ones):

aser name (from my new name)
batag to admire (from an abbreviation of a tumblr user I follow's name)
dabit resolute, stubborn (from David J. Peterson)
etan to focus all of one's attention on (from a friend's name)
keme to depict (from Khemehekis)
kiukan to fascinate (from kiwikami)
sarnu improvement, correction (from Salmoneus)
sketi to assist, to help (from Sketch)
sima to play a game (from zyma)

These make me so happy :D
Especially mine lol
But even Easter eggs not related to me re very cool

[Arayaz]

Tense in Makihip Part II

Certain verbs in Makihip aren't affected by my current schema for tense inflection, so I need an alternative. It'll be pretty simple; I'll just grammaticalize some other constructions.

I'll definitely make use of verb serialization here. A construction like SUBJ-go.away-(OBJ)-V, in fact, is already valid for "go and V," which is a classic future tense. So -tok- between the subject and object works for future tense. But perhaps I'll reduce that to -to-.

So now words like *meɡ "to be safe" that aren't affected by the consonant alternations for tense found in modern Makihip have an alternate future tense strategy ─ ya-to-mik "I will be safe."

We still need a past tense, though, and using the opposite of -tok-, -yawo-, wouldn't achieve that meaning (it would be more like "come here to X"). But we have all these lovely verbal suffixes. Perhaps using a resultative on the verb, followed by the verb "to exist," could be a past tense ─ if the result exists, it must have already happened. So that'd be a suffix *-(o)pnazam, but to find its modern form, we have to check when the new tense affixes were brought into play. It would be after the simplification of internal clusters, since that's what produced the problem we're solving ─ which means the -pn- wouldn't be simplified during that sound change. But we should probably reduce the suffix nonetheless, perhaps to ─ *-(o)pnam. And maybe we can kill that -n-, producing -(o)pam.

So now we also have a past tense ─ ya-mek-opam "I was safe." This probably leans a bit towards a perfect/resultative meaning as well ─ perhaps it can be used on other verbs and keep that meaning, for example, ya-tok-opam "I have left (so I'm not there)."

[Arayaz]

Tense in zAhul ŋAħual

That's right, I'm renaming zAhul to ŋAhul, since there is no z- class prefix. It's in the honorific class for now. ahul just means "mouth," and I realize I don't have a "body parts" class. I'm not sure what noun would evolve into a prefix for that class, but I'll give it the proto-form *ake, so the original prefix is *akeʔal, which becomes *ăkħ[a/ă]l-, which I'll reduce to ăħ(a/ă)-. So "mouth" is ăħah─ oh wait, there's no <h> in the modern language. So it's ŋAħul now. And "mouth" is ăħaħul. Oh also, no /u/ in closed syllables like that. So finally is the placeholder replaced by an actual name ─ an aħual name.

I almost just posted that with no tense information lol

Anyway, both the original past and future have the same reflex in modern ŋAħual: gemination and vowel breaking. So we should probably replace both of them, right? But if one of them was replaced before they merged, the other wouldn't have to be. I feel like the future tense is more likely to be replaced, and perhaps I could just use the same strategy for future tense as Makihip does with class 2 verbs, suggesting that that was an option basically sense the protolanguage. So that's *-tok- between the subject and object, which becomes t[o/ua]k in ŋAħual.

Thus:

yă-wk
1sg-run
I run

ya-wiakk (preventing vowel loss here, since it no longer satisfies the condition VC_C[#, V])
1sg-run.PST
I ran

ya-tuak-wiak (also preventing vowel loss here, since there are now two consonants before it)
1sg-FUT-run
I will run

ya-r-oro
1sg-2sg-see
I see you

ya-r-uasso
1sg-2sg-see.PST
I saw you

ya-tuak-r-oro
1sg-FUT-2sg-see
I will see you

[Arayaz]

UC1 Linguistic Landscape

Continent 1
Rü’ravesh dialect continuum on its own large island off the coast of the mainland
Descendents of Ngama across the mainland
Arskiilz languages mostly across the northern islands, but also a substrate for some Ngama descendents in the north

Continent 2
Makihip languages in the steppe of the southern continent
zAħual languages in the rainforest of the southern continent

[Arayaz]

Hejísas: Shelik Revived

Shelik was a language I made a long time ago for a D&D campaign. I posted about it on this forum, I think, under multiple other names, such as Telago and Chalég. It was also an influence on Yoshó. Despite being awful, there are certain aspects of it that are, to me, worth saving.

For example, I like this paradigm prediction system:

Final consonant, ultimate stress: Paradigm II
Final consonant, penultimate stress: Paradigm I
Final vowel, ultimate stress: Paradigm I
Final vowel, penultimate stress: Paradigm II

This derived from a regular proto-system of Paradigm II on vowel-final words, Paradigm I on consonant-final words, and stress before the last consonant, and then loss of certain final consonants and all final vowels.

I'm also a fan of the vowels, which are roughly /a ɛ jɛ o wo u/, with the onglides being lost in most environments. I like the prevalent geminates, too, and the tame grammar, which is fusional.

I'm following tradition with its name ─ Yoshó's name came from a word in Shelik I liked, and so I'm doing the same now, with hejísas.

Anyway, this is a descendant of Ruykkarraber, spoken on the mainland shore instead of the dialect continuum island. SCs in the next post.

[Arayaz]

ŋAħual Lexicon

Dashes precede nouns to indicate that that place would be filled by a noun class prefix.

-aruak n. 3 dust, sand; shore < *adok "dust"
-ăŋwăħ n. 3 place < *aɡwas
ħăħwo vt. to accompany < *xɨʔwo "to be beside"
-ħuan n. 2 group, collection, herd < *son "herd"
ħuwăn vt. to kneel before < *hɨwan
kăfă vi. to speak < *kefe
kuar vt. to be inside, to be part of < *kod "to be inside"
-săħ n. 1 person < *tyah "adult"
lolo vi. to sing < *lolo < imitative
lori vt. to change, to affect, to damage < *lodɨ "to work on"
-măŋŋual n. 7 god < *mɨɡ "god" + -hol "augmentative"
miaŋ vi. to be safe < *meɡ
-muħăw n. difficult, full of work, intensive < *mɨʔaw "problem"
-muħăz n. tall, large < *mɨhaz "tall"
oro vt. to see < *oso
-păŋŋual n. exquisite, impressive < *pɨɡ "well-made" + -hol "augmentative"
răk vt. to kill < *dak
-tawăm n. food < *tawɨm
tuak vi. to go away from a deictic center < *tok
-uazho n. 4 household, home < *odyo "family"
wăl vt. to acquire < *wɨl
wiak vi. to run < *wek
yawo vi. to go towards a deictic center < *yawo
zăm vi. to exist, to be there < *zam

*Note to self: *tem causative.