Difference between revisions of "Letilan"
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*nd' -- Prenasalized d' /n_d_</ | *nd' -- Prenasalized d' /n_d_</ | ||
*ng' -- Prenasalized g' /N_g_</ | *ng' -- Prenasalized g' /N_g_</ | ||
| + | *s -- As in ''s''ee /s/ | ||
| + | *x -- As in Ba''ch'' /x/ | ||
*m -- As in ''m''e /m/ | *m -- As in ''m''e /m/ | ||
*n -- As in ''n''ice /n/ | *n -- As in ''n''ice /n/ | ||
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On implosives: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Implosive | On implosives: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Implosive | ||
| − | Prenasalized consonants just have a short nasal sound (m or n) that merges into them. | + | Prenasalized consonants just have a short nasal sound (m or n) that merges into them. For example, try saying "uhmbah" and and removing the begining "uh"- but not the "m". The result should be something like "mbah". |
| + | |||
| + | If all this sounds confusing, there is one good thing about Letilan and that is that it lacks any real consonant clusters or unusual vowel combinations, not to mention the spelling is much mire | ||
==Grammar== | ==Grammar== | ||
| + | |||
| + | Letilan is very fond of suffixes and words can reach unspeakable (no pun intended) lengths if you know what you are doing. In linguistics, the term for languages that pile on prefixes or suffixes is agglutinative, meaning "gluing" or "attaching". Letilan uses suffixes for a variety of reasons and can do a lot with them. | ||
| + | |||
| + | To start, a basic word will be used, bèsi, the word for coffee. Bèsi is a mass noun. It has no plural. Anaki (anarchy) is also a mass noun. However, the ending can be changed from -i to -ai, shifting it to the "person" class. The resulting word is now anakai, meaning anarchist. To make it plural, the ending -ai is changed to -ui, forming anakui or anarchists. | ||
| + | |||
| + | This can be done with many nouns to change their meaning from one class to another and of course, all nouns outside the mass-noun class can be made plural. | ||
| + | |||
| + | '''Class:''' sing. plural | ||
| + | '''people:''' -ai -ui | ||
| + | '''animals:''' -u -è | ||
| + | '''plants:''' -uo -e | ||
| + | '''mass nouns:''' -i — | ||
==Vocabulary== | ==Vocabulary== | ||
| + | |||
| + | *bèsi -- coffee<br> | ||
| + | *ndami -- tea<br> | ||
| + | *nawi -- water<br> | ||
| + | *seli -- beer | ||
| + | |||
| + | *anaki -- anarchy<br> | ||
| + | *ndòmoli -- government<br> | ||
| + | *b'undi -- property, theft<br> | ||
| + | *nd'ayi -- freedom | ||
[[Category:Languages]] | [[Category:Languages]] | ||
Revision as of 00:56, 8 July 2005
Letilan is one of the languages of Letila. It is characterized by very long words and a love of suffixes.
OOC: Letilan is of a language category known as polysynthetic. It is influenced heavily by the Bantu languages of Africa as well as by Inuktitut.
Alphabet
- p -- As in spot /p/
- t -- As in step /t/
- k -- As in scar /k/
- b -- As in bed /b/
- d -- As in dog /d/
- g -- As in game /g/
- b' -- Implosive b /b_</
- d' -- Implosive d /d_</
- g' -- Implosive g /g_</
- mb -- Prenasalized b /m_b/
- nd -- Prenasalized d /n_d/
- ng -- Prenasalized g /N_g/
- mb' -- Prenasalized b' /m_b_</
- nd' -- Prenasalized d' /n_d_</
- ng' -- Prenasalized g' /N_g_</
- s -- As in see /s/
- x -- As in Bach /x/
- m -- As in me /m/
- n -- As in nice /n/
- l -- As in leaf /l/
- w -- As in wonder /w/
- y -- As in yellow /j/
- a -- As in father /a/
- i -- As in Misato /i/
- u -- As in flute /u/
- e -- As in café /e/
- o -- As in Misato /o/
- è -- As in bed /E/
- ò -- As in dog /O/
These descriptions not exact to be honest. If you want exact values for the sounds, the letters inclosed in the slashes are X-SAMPA and correspond more correctly than the "as in X" descriptions.
On implosives: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Implosive
Prenasalized consonants just have a short nasal sound (m or n) that merges into them. For example, try saying "uhmbah" and and removing the begining "uh"- but not the "m". The result should be something like "mbah".
If all this sounds confusing, there is one good thing about Letilan and that is that it lacks any real consonant clusters or unusual vowel combinations, not to mention the spelling is much mire
Grammar
Letilan is very fond of suffixes and words can reach unspeakable (no pun intended) lengths if you know what you are doing. In linguistics, the term for languages that pile on prefixes or suffixes is agglutinative, meaning "gluing" or "attaching". Letilan uses suffixes for a variety of reasons and can do a lot with them.
To start, a basic word will be used, bèsi, the word for coffee. Bèsi is a mass noun. It has no plural. Anaki (anarchy) is also a mass noun. However, the ending can be changed from -i to -ai, shifting it to the "person" class. The resulting word is now anakai, meaning anarchist. To make it plural, the ending -ai is changed to -ui, forming anakui or anarchists.
This can be done with many nouns to change their meaning from one class to another and of course, all nouns outside the mass-noun class can be made plural.
Class: sing. plural people: -ai -ui animals: -u -è plants: -uo -e mass nouns: -i —
Vocabulary
- bèsi -- coffee
- ndami -- tea
- nawi -- water
- seli -- beer
- anaki -- anarchy
- ndòmoli -- government
- b'undi -- property, theft
- nd'ayi -- freedom
