Coastal Jutean

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Jutean
Coastal Jutean
Tahivi a net / Jute
Pronunciation/tahiʋi a net/ / /jute/
EthnicityCoastal Juteans (native), River Juteans, Klambari, Samwati (common second language)
Native speakers1,780,000  (no date)
Language family
Nguto-Jutanic
  • Proto-Jutic
    • Jutean
Early forms:
Ancient Jutean
  • Middle Jutean
    • Reformed Jutean
      • Colonial Jutean
        • Jutean
Official status
Official language inJute
CWS code
[[File:Languages.png|]]

Background

Origin and goal

Started out as a language developed for a nation on Nationstates (a political simulator and rp platform for nation-rps). It can be found at nationstates.net/jute. The goal was (and is) to create a language that can be used for most purposes and that at least short texts can easily be translated to it to give the nation more depth.

Setting and inspiration

Since it's a tropical island and I had gotten interested in Hawaii and Hawaiian, the compact phonology is inspired by it, though of course with some changes. For example, it lacks the glottal stop, but has a /j/ and a /ʋ/.

Peculiarities

To make sure the language doesn't up being to similar to Indo-European ones, the Austronesian alignment from Tagalog was adopted, adjectives as a separate part of speech dropped, as well as marked tense, articles, and number (except for pronouns). Later on, separate voices were dropped in favor of triggers.

Possessive pronouns were excluded, too, in an effort to show the different concepts of the speakers of the language regarding ownership. A genitive-like construction is solely used for inalienable possession, for alienable ones relative nominalizations are used, such as "the land I live on", or "the boat I'm sailing" rather than "my land" or "my boat".

The language has three genders, or noun classes. Common, abstract/immaterial and "wilderness". Common includes everything related to daily life in a village or city, humans, and things made by humans. Abstract/immaterial is largely self-explaining, used for ideas and concepts, intangible as well as unknown things or sometimes for generic terms. "Wilderness" includes everything that has to do, or can be found with the jungle, the ocean or anything else seen as "wild". This includes animals, plants as well as some inanimate items. It can also be used in a more poetic way, for example for the subconscious, the "wild, untamed" part of the mind.

Personal pronouns, while having the standard 1st/2nd/3rd person, are unusual when it comes to other aspects. There are three numbers (arguably four in 1P), clusitivity, gender and animacy distinctions.

Person 1st 2nd 3rd 3rd (plants and animals) 3rd (inanimate)
Singular ta na la uvu ehi, aha, ohu
Plural fa (incl.), fanal (excl. SG),

fanafal (excl. PL)

naf laf uvuf ehif, ahaf, ohuf
Collective fa (incl.) fafanal (excl.) fan fal uvuf, (fuvu) ehif, ahaf, ohuf (a af/efi/uf)



Phonology

Consonants

Bilabial Labio-dental Dental Alveolar Post-alveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal Epiglottal Glottal
Nasal m n [ŋ]
Plosive t, d k
Fricative f s [ʃ] h
Affricate
Approximant ʋ j
Trill
Flap or tap
Lateral fric.
Lateral app. l
Lateral flap

[] signify allophones

Vowels

Front Near-front Central Near-back Back
Close i, i: u, u:
Near-close
Close-mid e, e:
Mid
Open-mid
Near-open
Open a, a: ɑ, ɑ:

Diphthongs

ɑi ɑe ɑa ie ui ue ua iɑ iu ia

eɑ eu ei ea au ai ae

Phonotactics

(C)V(C), though CVC is used sparingly. CV or VC are preferred. Stress is mostly on the penultimate syllable, but it's not fixed and can also be used to emphasize a part of the word.

Orthography

Aa /a/ Dd /d/ Ee /e/ Ff /f/ Hh /h/ Ii /i/ Jj /j/ Kk /k/

Ll /l/ Mm /m/ Nn /n/, /ŋ/ Oo /ɑ/ Ss /s/, /ʃ/ Tt /t/ Uu /u/ Vv /ʋ/

First word of a sentence has a capital letter, as do names.

Morphology

To be expanded.

Nouns

Nouns have a gender and decline for three cases, with some exceptions.

Gender Common Abstract (-i) Wilderness (-u)
Noun dova (tree) dovi (tower, height) dovu (jungle tree)


Case Direct Indirect Oblique
ending in consonant dovan (forest) dovaniti dovanede
ending in vowel saini (person, mind) sainiti sainide


Adjectives

They don't have a distinct morphology and are seen as nouns. The only difference is that some adjectival nouns don't decline, like for example haad "bigness". Comparative of a adjectival noun is formed by adding a haada "of biggerness", and superlative with a haadat "of biggestness".

Verbs

Verbs always end in -o and have no tense, number, voice or transitivity marked. Similar to ergative verbs in English like "break", the meaning often changes based on whether the sentence has an object or not, for example deko means 'to hear' in transitive sentences, but 'to listen' in intransitive sentences. Some verbs, like 'mihinido' (to sleep) are always intransitive.

There are also five moods, Indicative, Imperative, Conditional, Subjunctive and Hortative.

Indicative

Used for describing reality, general truths and statements proven or, based on some kind of evidence, very likely to be true. It is the default mood and has no suffix.

Vuho vuha ido vuhade a ji. The sun shines at this day

No nova un havande. Animals live in the wilderness

Saiho ta, ivusaie no na. I think, therefore I am.

Imperative

For commands and urges. It is formed by reduplicating the infinitive. The personal pronoun can be omitted in this case, or included for emphasis or clarification.

Atoato (na) lin hen! Come here!

Foofool (fan) maja a me fan ma! Don't open your (pl) eyes!

Conditional

In Jutean it's used for the hypothetical result of an assumed change in conditions of the world, or, in some cases, for the polite expression of instructions or wishes you don't have much confidence or interest in becoming reality or that are more or less impossible. It's generally seen as the "humble" mood used when talking to someone of high respect or someone you just like that much. It can also be used for exaggerations that are supposed to be a proof of that or just joking. Formed by adding -k to the end of the infinitive.

Hokedo no mekoi nuhe hemede ajavi, saimok to na ido saanuti u teko uvaf a saanuvati. For there to be fish for food today, you would want to go to the sea and get them from below the surface.

Saimok ta to li neteti. I would like to go to the coast [but if it's not possible, that's fine, too]

Hedok la ooneti nuhe me ta ma. He/She/Sg. They would take down the moon for me.

Subjunctive

Among other things used for energetic proposals, declarations, resolutions, or wishes you have absolute or near absolute faith in becoming true at some point or the time you mentioned. Also a more polite way to command someone to do something. Formed from infinitives with the -t suffix

Not ta a meodukide te. I shall be honest from now on.

Hortative

This mood can often be seen as being somewhere between the two last ones, used for example for unbinding, but nevertheless assertive or affirmative suggestions, reminders or instructions. This would be translated into English with an auxiliary like "let" or "should". Formed with the -fe suffix attached to the infinitive.

Tofe fa tuuve. Let us go down.

Saavofe na ja. You should clean this.


Adverbs

Pronouns

Adpositions

Derivational morphology

Syntax

Featuring VSO and Austronesian alignment. Adverbs come last, with locations preceding time adverbs.