Archive:Hux Kham language

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CWS code	–

The Hux Kham language, also called the Lakelandish, is the language spoken by the Hux Kham people, it is the official language of the Republic of Hux Kham, and is one of the two official languages of the Confederation of Ebo Nganagam.

The Hux Kham language is a language isolate, the only known relatives are its predecessors in the history, like the Classical Hux Kham language.

Information below is mainly based on the Modern Standard Hux Kham language.

Phonology

Consonants

	Bilabial	Labio-dental	Dental	Alveolar	Post-alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Epiglottal	Glottal
Nasal	m			n			ȵ	ŋ
Plosive	p pʰ b			t tʰ d				k kʰ g				ʔ
Fricative				s z		ʂ ʐ	ç	x				(h)*
Affricate						ʈʂ ʈʂʰ ɖʐ	t͡ɕ t͡ɕʰ d͡ʑ
Approximant	w					ɻ	j
Trill
Flap or tap
Lateral fric.
Lateral app.				l			ȴ
Lateral flap

• [h] is an allophone of /x/ in coda position.

Vowels

	Front	Near-front	Central	Near-back	Back
Close	i				u
Near-close
Close-mid
Mid			ə
Open-mid	ɛ				ɔ
Near-open
Open			a

Phonotactics

Syllable Structure: (C)(C)V(C)(C).

Up to two consonants can start or end a syllable. when there are two consonants in the coda position, the second consonant must be a glottal consonant, that is, [ʔ] or [h].

Most roots are monosyllabic or sesquisyllabic, sesquisyllabic roots contain two syllables, the first syllable is an unstressed syllable called a minor syllable, the vowel of a minor syllable is usually /ə/ and minor syllables are always open.

/ə/ does not appear in stressed syllables in Modern Standard Hux Kham(/ə/ used to appear in the stressed syllable of Classical Hux Kham, but stressed /ə/ has merged with /i/ in Modern Standard Hux Kham), usually, /ə/ is seen as the reduced vowels, and all other vowels are seen as full vowels.

/i/ is frequently pronounced as [ɨ] after non-palatal sibilants.

Some linguistics reported that there are three tones in syllables with full vowels in Modern Standard Hux Kham: high, mid and low; However, it has been shown that tones are not distinctive phonemes in Modern Standard Hux Kham, as high tones correspond to codas containing a stop, low tones correspond to codas containing a glottal continuant, and mid tones correspond to other kinds of codas; however, in northern dialects, tones have become distinctive phonemes due to the loss of final glottal consonants.

Grammar

Morphology

Morphology, the Hux Kham language is largely analytic, however, there is still a small class of verbs that do conjugate according to persons, they are called "Conjugatable verbs".

All aux verbs and several other verbs are Conjugatable verbs, however, the class of Conjugatable verbs is a closed class, that means, there can be no new Conjugatable verbs.

The nominalization suffix -ta is also used in relative clauses, it is added to the ending of a relative clause.

Hux Kham language uses reduplication, reduplication of adjectives can intensify the meaning; reduplication of verbs can form the frequentative form of the verb; reduplication of nouns can indicate the plural or collecctive form of the noun; and reduplication of numerals can indicate the distributive numerals:

• wan - big
  • wan wan - very big

• gu - to eat
  • gu gu - to eat repeatedly/habitually

• khin - mountain
  • khin khin - mountains

• pikut - three
• pikut pikut - three each

also, there is also a l-reduplication and m-reduplication for nouns, both of them are used to form collective nouns of certain types, l-reduplication is used to indicate the meaning "a group of, a load of, etc.", m-reduplication is used to indicate the meaning "a variety of, all kinds of". In l-reduplication, the initial consonant of the second component becomes /l/ and minor syllables are dropped; in m-reduplication, the initial consonant of the second component becomes /m/ and minor syllables are dropped.

Examples of l-reduplication:

• khin - mountain
  • khin lin - mountain range

• mtak - stone
  • mtak lak - a load of stone

• troh - forest
  • troh loh - forests, jungle

• klar - bone
  • klar lar - skeleton

Examples of m-reduplication:

• sar - flower
  • sar mar - a variety of flower, all kinds of flower

• mtak - stone
  • mtak mak - a variety of stone, all kinds of stone

• nlu - person
  • nlu mu - all kinds of people, all walks of life

• truk - iron, metal
  • truk muk - metal(as a collective noun)

Conversion

Conversion, also called zero-derivation, is also a process of derivation, verbs can be directly converted into nouns to indicate the meaning "the action of...", or the meaning indicated by suffixes like "-ing" or "-tion" in English; adjectives can also be directed converted into nouns to indicate the meaning indicated by suffixes like "-ness", "-hood", etc. in English.

Below are some examples of conversion in Hux Kham:

• uk - dead (adj.)
  • uk - death (n.)

• lak - to fall (v.)
  • lak - fall (n.)

• zranx - to rise (v.)
  • zranx - rise (n.)

Syntax

Theorically, the Hux Kham language is a V2 language, finite verbs come second in main clauses, however, except for conjugatable verbs, all verbs require an aux verb, and thus Hux Kham language is effectively a SOV language.

Adpositions are postpositions, they come after the noun they modify.

Relative clauses are internally-headed.

Demonstratives usually follow the noun they modify.

Negation precedes the word it negates.

Possessors precede the possessed noun, personal pronouns are added directly before the possessed noun, and the third pronoun wa is added between the possessor and the possessed noun when the possessor is not a pronoun, the wa added between the possessor and the possessed noun does not change even the possessor is plural:

• ah sat - my house
• ir sat - our house
• an sat - your(singular) house
• in sat - your(plural) house
• wa sat - his/her/its house
• wi sat - their house
• Troh Lim Mtoh wa sat - Troh Lim Mtoh's house
• nlu hwa amta wa sat - the house of that person
• nlu hwa emta wa sat - the house of those people

There are subordinate conjunctions and adverbial conjunctions, subordinate conjunctions follow the sentence they modify and the sentence with a subordinate conjunction uses the word order of subordinate clauses; adverbial conjunctions usually come first in a sentence, and when they come first, they are seen as the first constituent of the sentence, and the V2 order rule applies.

subordinate conjunctions are listed below:

• e - after
• that - before
• te - because
• tho - if
• ar - when
• tu - and(sometimes)

adverbial conjunctions are listed below:

• paku - but
• pim - or
• wate - so, therefore

The sentence preceding the conjunction tu "and" can use the word order of subordinate clauses, or the word order of main clauses.

Examples

• nlu hwa amta ya gepta=m oh - person there be.at-NMLZ PST.3.SG spider=ACC kill(hwa amta = that) - the person killed a spider/some spiders.
• nlu hwa amta ya gepta hwa amta=m oh - person there be.at-NMLZ PST.3.SG spider there be.at-NMLZ=ACC kill(hwa amta = that) - the person killed the spider.
• nlu hwa amta ya gepta hwa amta=m ma oh - person there be.at-NMLZ PST.3.SG spider there be.at-NMLZ=ACC NEG kill(hwa amta = that) - the person didn't kill the spider.(oh "kill" is negated)
• wa ma zru tho, ma zruh ah pax-wate - 3.SG NEG go if NEG go 1.SG also - if he does not go, I won't go either.