Coastal Jutean

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Revision as of 09:45, 30 December 2015 by Jute (talk | contribs) (Various updates to morphology, added possession and more)
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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 speakers1,570,000  (no date)
Language family
Juto-Ngutanic
  • Proto-Jutic
    • Ancient 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. See below, 3.6 Pronouns.


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" after it.

Negation

Negation of a noun or verb is formed by adding -l (if the word ends in a vowel) or -al (if the word ends in a consonant) to the end of the word. If the verb already has a mood or trigger suffix, the 'al' particle is postponed instead. This can also be done with nouns with a case ending or gerund forms, however it is also possible to add -l to the end (however this is somewhat uncommon with declined nouns)

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. This is often used in lieu of a proper passive voice. Some verbs, like 'mihinido' (to sleep) are always intransitive, and thus always convey an active meaning, and would need a more complicated construction to render a sentence passive-like, noitono mihinido ('be made to sleep', literally 'be lead to sleep), which use a patient suffix as a trigger on an auxiliary verb, but more on that later.

Several aspects exist: habitual, progressive/continuous and perfective are the most common ones. They are usually indicated by adverbs, but sometimes verbs or nouns can also be used for that.

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 first two syllables of the infinitive, however some verbs are irregular here and only reduplicate part of the second syllable. The personal pronoun can be omitted in this case, or included for emphasis or clarification.

Atoato (na) lin hen!

Come here!

Tatatataimo (fan) a he la!

Forget about him! (formal 'you')

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 -ke to the end of the infinitive, which becomes -k in front of words starting with 'h' or in front of verbal particles.

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.


Triggers include patient (-no),agent (-mo), causative (-vo), reciprocal (-hut) and reflexive (-he). Instrumental (-de) and Locative (-hen) exist, but are used rarely. They are also attached to the verb. In intransitive sentences the patient-trigger is default and unmarked, the -no is only used in transitive sentences. In transitive sentences, the agent-trigger is default and unmarked, with -mo only used in intransitive sentences or for emphasis.

A gerund form exists, formed via suffixing -hi, and used to create nominalized subclauses. (See below)

If multiple suffixes would have to be added, for example mood and trigger or trigger and negation, only one of them is attached to the verb, with the other ones forming a particle. Which one is added to the verb is decided based on their position in this order: Mood < Trigger < Gerund suffix < Negation, meaning that if a mood morpheme is present, it will be the one added to the verb, with the other one or two forming a particle. If only the trigger and the negation are present, the trigger will be attached and the negation become a particle directly after the verb.


Adverbs

To follow.

Pronouns

Personal pronouns are rather complex, and some forms are thought to be almost unique to Jutean. The inanimate pronouns are gendered, the 3rd person pronoun referring to humans however doesn't make distinctions.

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

fanafal (excl. of 2PL)

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

For the indirect case, the particle he is put in front of the pronoun, for the oblique case the circumferential particle me ... ma is used.

Example: ta I, he ta me, to me, me ta ma for me, of me, by me (etc.)

Demonstrative pronouns

They are distinguished by gender and distance (proximal, medial and distal).

Possessive pronouns don't exist. See "Possession" below on how possession is expressed. Other pronouns to follow. AdpositionsQuestion particlesDerivational morphology

Possession

Since possessive pronouns are nonexistent, a + personal pronoun in the oblique case are used for inalienable possession, relationship or authorship.


Vunam a he laf ha "Their parent" ("Parent of them")

Hotif a he ta ha "My book" [a book that I wrote] ("Book of me")

Ova a vuhatatede "The top of the mountain" ("Top of mountain")

For alienable possession, a relative nominalization is used, for example vailita a vohi a me ha ma "vehicle that I use" (literally "vehicle of using of me").

Syntax

VSO in main clauses. Adverbs come last, with locations preceding time adverbs. Auxiliary verbs precede the other verb directly. Subclauses are usually nominalized, especially relative ones.

The complete order would be:

1. Conjunction (if two main clauses are connected)

2. Auxiliary verb

3. Auxiliary verb particle

4. Verb

5. Verb particle

6. Subject (Noun/pronoun in direct case)

7. Direct object (takes the indirect case)

8. Oblique/indirect object (takes the oblique case)

9. Adverbs (manner - place - time)

10. Question particle (separated by comma)

However, if the oblique object is animate, and the direct object is inanimate, sometimes the oblique object can come before the direct object.

Numerals

To be added.

Gender Common Abstract/Immaterial Wilderness
Proximal ja ji ju
Medial jam jim jum
Distal jaha jahi jahu