Coastal Jutean
Jutean | |
---|---|
Coastal Jutean Tahivi a net / Jute | |
Pronunciation | /tahiʋi a net/ / /jute/ |
Ethnicity | Coastal Juteans (native), River Juteans, Klambari, Samwati (common second language) |
Native speakers | 1,780,000 (no date) |
Language family | Nguto-Jutanic
|
Early forms: | Ancient Jutean
|
Official status | |
Official language in | Jute |
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: |
Phonotactics
(C)V(C), though CVC is used sparingly. CV or VC are preferred.
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/
Grammar
Morphology
To be added.
Nouns
Nouns have a gender and decline for three cases, with some exceptions.
Gender | Common | Abstract | Wilderness |
---|---|---|---|
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
Verbs
Adverbs
Pronouns
Adpositions
Derivational morphology
Syntax
Featuring VSO and Austronesian alignment. Adverbs come last, with locations preceding time adverbs.