Proto-Madhainic

Proto-Madhainic is a conlang designed by Jan Strasser. It is currently in the early stages of development.
More details will be added to this description when they will have been worked out.

History and context

The Proto-Madhainic language was spoken about 4000 years ago on the plains of Daughaes, north of the Czên Mountains, in the northern part of the continent Sagorh. It is the common ancestor of the widespread Madhainic Language Family, most notably of Mojör, the language of one of Sagorh's most advanced cultures.

Phonology

Phoneme Inventory

Consonants

The term "liquid" will be used in this document when referring to both /ɾ l/ at the same time.

Vowels

Vowel rounding is not phonemic, but is allophonically linked to the [plain/labialised] distinction in consonants.
However, the above-listed are the most common vowel realisations.

There are no phonemic diphtongs in Proto-Madhainic.

Allophony

Consonants

Consonant clusters

Vowels

Sandhi Rules

Proto-Madhainic has some sandhi rules that affect the formation of medial consonant clusters on the phonemic level.
Most of these are anticipatory:

The following rules work in the opposite direction:

Syllable Structure

Syllables with coda are less frequent than CV syllables, but not a rarity either.

Only few (and only initial) syllables start with a vowel.
(These result from the loss of a phonemic glottal stop, which merged with /h/ between vowels,
and caused any consonant that directly preceded it to be interpreted as a syllable onset.
Accordingly, if vowel-final prefixes are added to such a word, there will usually be a seam /h/ as expected.)

In medial clusters, all allowable coda consonants may become geminated.

Stress

• Stress usually falls on the penultimate syllable of the stem.
• Disyllabic stems starting with a vowel are stressed on the second syllable even when prefixes are attached.
• In words with more than one suffix syllable, secondary stress is assigned to the penultimate suffix syllable.
• In words with at least two prefix syllables, the second-to-last of these also receives secondary stress.
• The negative affix -ton- is always stressed, no matter which position in the verb it occupies. Accordingly, the verb stem is demoted to secondary stress.
• Derivational affixes or compounding create a new, longer stem and consequently often cause the accent to move. Morphological affixes do not have this effect.

Romanised Orthography

• Most plain consonants are represented by their IPA equivalent, with <th> being used for /θ/, and <r> for /ɾ/.
• Palatalisation is indicated by a <j> after the consonant, while labialised consonants are followed by a <v>.
• Palatalised or labialised coda nasals are written with <i u> in front of the main letter.
• The open back vowel /ɒ/ is written <å>. All other vowels are represented by their IPA equivalent.

The resulting orthography scheme is as follows:

For geminate non-plain nasals, the coda and onset spellings are combined, e.g. /nʷnʷ/ <unnv>.

Morphology

Proto-Madhainic is a highly synthetic language with agglutinating morphology.
Nominal, pronominal and adjectival declensions are mostly suffixing, whereas verbs can also have prefixes.

Nouns

Noun Classes

Proto-Madhainic nouns divide into four different groups ('genders'), which are not themselves morphologically marked in any way, but require different affixes and pronouns in certain situations.

These are:

• Animate Masculine for males
• Animate Feminine for females
• Animate General for children, groups, animals, body parts, tools, and things considered 'alive'
• Inanimate for all other objects

The masculine/feminine distinction is exactly matched to biological gender, and in fact it is only applied when this distinction is important, that is, when referring (in either name or pronoun) to a specific person who is assumed to have passed ritual initiation to adulthood (around the age of 14). It can also be applied to children and animals if gender matters, e.g. when talking about inheritance, but not when describing the actions of under-age children. As a result of the optional nature of 'true gender' assignment, only animate and inanimate are considered lexical properties of nouns.

However, the animacy distinction is not always predictable. With natural phenomena the important question is usually, is this thing capable of acting on its own? This applies, for example, to the sun and moon because they can move and shine, to flowers because they can grow and blossom, and for a field because it can grow vegetables and cereals. However, soil in general is inanimate, as are most of the plants used in agriculture, and food (including fruit) as well. Most clothing items are inanimate, but shoes are animate - probably because they are regarded as tools. Weather terms are animate, while day and night are inanimate because they occur predictably. Snow as a substance is also inanimate, while water is animate. Many cultural phenomena such as language, legends, and music are animate.

Compounds - with a few exceptions - take their animacy value from the second component.

Nominal Morphology: Overview

Nouns can take one suffix from each of the following groups:

If more than one marker is present, left comes before right.

Intensity

From the 'normal' unmarked state, nouns (but not adjectives!) can be intensified or attenuated by adding the appropriate suffixes -påin (Augmentative) or -pvu (Diminutive). These markers are also used for comparisons, where the property in question is shown by a topicality marker. Augmented inanimates behave as if they belonged to the animate class.

Association

If two or more nouns, or a noun and an adjective, must be marked as belonging together in a way not covered by the other affixes (for example, in attributive subclauses embedded in a statement that involves one of the arguments, but not the other(s); when the constituents of a group are being listed; or when reflexive action must be indicated), they become connected with the suffix -kjå.

Possession

Although possession is indicated by morphological affixes, these do not constitute true genitive or possessive cases since their use does not depend on syntactic relationships at all. On the contrary, every type of possessive marker can be combined with both absolutive and ergative case.

The Possessor is marked with -tvi if the possessed is animate, and with -the if the possessed is inanimate.

The Possessed (called Property in glosses for the sake of clarity) is marked with -fa if the possessor is male, with -får if the possessor is female, with -faŋ if the possessor is a group containing at least one adult person, and with -fvol if the possessor is under-age or non-human.

In chains of multiple possession relationships, the possessor marker comes before the property marker.
 

Case

Proto-Madhainic has only two syntactic cases, the Absolutive and the Ergative. The absolutive is the (unmarked) citation form, while the ergative, which is used for agents and donors, is marked with the suffix -ha.

Number

Proto-Madhainic has three numbers: Singular, Paucal, and Plural.

The singular is unmarked.

The paucal number is used for small groups, usually ranging from 2 to 5 members (countable with one hand), but sometimes also for groups of up to 10 members (two hands). It is marked by the suffix -ŋa.

The plural number is used for groups that are considered 'large', that is, for groups of more than approximately five members, for groups whose number of members is not known, and also for statements about a category of people or things in general. It is formed with the suffix -sa.

Topicality

If a noun phrase is specifically mentioned as being talked about, it can be topicalised by being moved to the beginning of the clause and being marked with the suffix -nve on the head noun or pronoun, and optionally on adjectives.

Adjectives

Adjectives in Proto-Madhainic largely behave like nouns. In fact, adjectives can stand in for any noun if the reference is clear from context, and they can take the full set of nominal suffixes when used in such a way.

If used attributively, however, adjectives only agree with the head noun in number. Animacy and topicality congruence can be added if necessary, but is often left out, especially in casual speech. As adjectives usually come immediately after the noun they modify, word order generally suffices to tell which noun the adjective is referring to. However, religious and diplomatic registers require animacy marking or augmentation for adjectives referring to gods and humans. The animacy affixes (which come before any other affix) are -ŋji for animate and -ŋje for inanimate. The same affixes can also be used derivationally on nouns to create an adjective with a meaning of "-like".

Verbs

Due to the agglutinative nature of the language, Proto-Madhainic verb forms can become highly complex.

Verbal Morphology: Overview

Every verb form contains exactly one element from each of these columns, with two exceptions:

• Mood and aspect prefixes can be combined with each other. The interrogative particle is always the first element of the verb, whereas the aspects may be combined differently to yield additional semantic options.
• The negative particle ton is special in that it can be inserted almost anywhere in a verbal construction (but not between subject person/number markers), negating the particle that immediately follows it. Accordingly its most common position is right before the root, where it negates the verb as a whole.

Number

Number is marked in exactly the same way as with nouns: unmarked for singular, -ŋa for paucal, and -sa for plural.
It should be noted that 1st person verb forms cannot take plural number (instead, paucal is used).

Person

The subject person markers -rå (1st), -li (2nd) and -hå (3rd) work just as expected. However, they are often omitted when the subject is explicitly named. Conversely, subject nouns or pronouns can also be omitted if clear from context and marked on the verb.

Location

One of the most characteristic features of Proto-Madhainic is that locational information about the action is encoded in the verb.

• If none of the locational markers is present, the action is assumed to take place very close to the speaker (Locative). This does not necessarily refer to the location of the utterance, but can also mean the place where the speaker was when the action occurred.If this connotation is not desirable, one of the locational suffixes must be used at least in the main verb of a sentence. Sub- and coordinate verbs may provide a locational marker of their own; if they do not, they are assumed to refer to the same location as the main verb.

The marked locational categories are:

• Proximative (-pe), used either for actions at locations nearby (anything from five metres to five miles, depending on context) or for actions close to the listener (especially in 2nd person conversation). It can also indicate that the place of action is nearer than before.
• Distantive (-fi), used for all actions that are assumed to take place "far away". This applies to most reports of events that happened outside the immediate vicinity of the speaker's location, and accordingly the distantive is the verb form most frequently found in legends and storytelling. It can also be used to indicate that an action occurs farther away than previously assumed.
• Global (-hvu), used whenever the place of action is either unknown or completely irrelevant. It is also used for general statements, often coupled with the habitual aspect.

Aspect

• The Imperfective is unmarked. It indicates a single action whose outcome is not known or irrelevant at the time referred to.
• The Perfective aspect (-te) signals that the action is known to have been completed. For most past events, it is more common to use the perfective aspect instead of the past tense.
• The Habitual (-ne) indicates that the action occurs regularly.
• The Repetitive (-sje) indicates that the action is repeated. It can also be used to refer to multiple actions of the same type at once.
• The Futilitive (-ke) indicates that the action was not successful, i.e. could not be completed.


• The habitual is often used to characterise people in narration by mentioning what they frequently do:
  Kvane thjålnehå "Kvane is a hunter" (Kvane hunt-hab-3sg)
  In fact, personal names are often formed from the habitual form of a verb,
  e.g. Kvane "smiling one" and Thjålne "hunter".


• The futilitive usually implies past tense, except in curses or blessings:
  thjålkerå "I failed to hunt (I did not catch anything)" (hunt-ftl-1sg)
  tjathjålkehvuli "May you never hunt successfully!" (lit. "You shall fail to hunt everywhere!") (obl-hunt-ftl-glob-2sg)

Auxiliaries

Three common auxiliary verbs have become incorporated into the verbal prefix repertoire. However, all of them can still appear on their own, especially when their subject and/or object is different from that of the main verb, e.g. tjaråthur lisurå "I will make you love me" (obl-1sg.obj-love 2sg.obj-cause-1sg).

• The Causative (su-) indicates that the action does not just occur, but is instigated by an external cause.
• The Disjunctive (thån-) signifies that the speaker does not completely agree with the action described. This can express quite a number of things, for example indicating that the action is not done voluntarily, that the speaker is sorry about the action, that he fears the results of the action, or that the statement is meant ironically.
• The Negative (ton-) corresponds almost exactly to logical negation. In the context of verbal morphology it has the unique feature that it can move within the verb, always negating just the particle that immediately follows it.
  
  
  It can even be legal to have two negative particles in one verb form where it makes semantic sense,
  e.g. litonthultonrå "It's not me who doesn't like you" (2sg.obj-neg-love-neg-1sg").

Tense

Tense-marking is optional in Proto-Madhainic. Tense-marked forms usually only occur in combination with aspectual, modal and/or locational morphology, not without it. It is grammatical to use tense markers alone, but generally considered sloppy and imprecise.

Unmarked verb forms are assumed to have Generic tense, which refers to the time specified through context. Mostly, past events are referred to using the perfective aspect, and future events using the obligative or speculative mood. In some cases, the time of the action can even be specified by using locational morphology, especially when one of the locational paradigms has been associated with certain place-and-time coordinates.

The Present marker (ŋje-) is mostly used for specifying that one action occurs at the same time as another, which can also be the action of talking. This is similar to the use of the progressive aspect in English, but only possible when talking about present events.

The Past (hju-) and Future (se-) markers are mostly used for specifying complex time structures that would be hard to express with just the aspectual, modal and/or locational affixes.

Object

If it is clear from context who is being referred to, Proto-Madhainic often marks the direct object of a transitive verb with a prefix instead of using a seperate pronoun. With ditransitive verbs, the same prefixes refer to indirect objects (recipients), while direct objects (themes) must be named as a separate word.

1st Person objects are marked with rå- in the singular and raŋ- in the paucal (there is no plural number for the 1st person).

2nd Person objects are marked with li- in the singular, liŋ- in the paucal, and lis- in the plural.

3rd Person objects in the singular are marked with hi- if they are animate, and he- if they are inanimate. Paucal 3rd person objects are marked with hiŋ-, and plural 3rd person objects with his-.

There is also an Indefinite Object marker thu-, which is used when the nature of the object is not known or irrelevant (i.e. where English would use "somebody/something"). If it references to an unknown high number of objects, it can be made plural by adding -s: thus-. Note that for unknown small groups of objects (which would normally take paucal number) the morphological singular form is used.

Mood

There are four true verbal moods in Proto-Madhainic (as opposed to those quasi-moods expressed by the "Auxiliary prefixes"). The simplest and most widespread of these is the unmarked Indicative, used for any statement that doesn't require one of the following special mood markers:

• The Interrogative (fe-) is used in questions. It may sometimes be omitted because many question types require a mandatory interrogative pronoun at the beginning of the phrase, but only few speakers do so.
• The Obligative mood (tja-) shows desire and/or commitment. It is also used for expressing plans for the future. In the 2nd and 3rd person forms it is often the equivalent of an imperative, and together with a negated verb root (or with a 1st person disjunctive) it shows prohibition or veto.
• The Speculative mood (nuun-) is mostly used for hypothetical (also: future) events that the speaker is not emotionally attached to. If the discussed action is favourable to the speaker, the obligative is usually preferred; if the outcome is unwanted, the disjunctive is used.

Example verb forms

Verbal Nouns

Abstract verbal nouns

An abstract verbal noun denoting the action in general can be formed from the pure verbal root by adding the suffix -nu. It can be used like a normal noun (and it can act as a topical adjectivial noun for comparisons), except for the fact that it can only take singular number.

Participles

Participles can be formed for any of the verbal aspects (although many verbs don't have all of them).
They are constructed from [verbal root] + [aspect suffix] and decline exactly like nouns.

Nominalised Finite Verbs

It is possible in Proto-Madhainic to turn almost any verb form into a noun by appending one of the following nominalizing suffixes:

Predicates

Copulative constructions can be formed in two ways:

• The "implicit" method is to group nouns (and adjectives) using the associative or topic marker without any verb.
• The "explicit" method is to employ a dummy verb with a null stem; i.e. to simply couple verbal pre- and suffixes with nothing in between.
  
  This method is very common for locative or temporal statements:
  ŋjerå "I'm here" (pres-loc-1sg)
  tjatherå "I'll be there (with you)" (obl-prox-1sg)
  fehjufili "Have you been there?" (q-pst-dist-2sg)
  ŋjeterå suhåŋa "They made me come here" (pres-perf-loc-1sg cause-3pc)

Derivational morphology

There are many affixes that can be used for lexical derivation:

Syntax

Basic Word Order

Subject (+Possessor) DirectObject (+Possessor) (IndirectObject) Verb

(ObjectTopic) Subject (FurtherObjects) Verb

(Topic) Subject Object Verb

FullSubclause (Subject) (Object) Verb

(RelativeSubjectClause) Subject (RelativeObjectClause) Object Verb

Samples

The Tower of Babel (Gen 11, 1-9)

Hjulkjuhkja Papelkja

1. Såkåtilnve saŋ kontatho hjiŋ hjunutnehvu, the lentu ruunnu thiin.
2. The nvåthaŋa sjakonvu hat pjukvåhåŋa luunfi, sjuttonnve tånkja Sjinarkja saŋ leuntehåŋa, the fjoun saŋ kjunåne.
3. The nveiŋte ŋvastefihåŋa, the ruunte, "Tjathjenlåŋa, theŋŋapjossa sjaŋsa tjatjuråŋa, the njepnjåttåsa tjahissufjathlåŋa."
   The pjothufaŋsanve tjil, theŋŋapjossa nåiŋtefihåŋa, the lentu hjehjunlan hekelupårrahranfaŋ tjil.
4. The ruuntefihåŋa, "Tjathjenlåŋa, tatjuunpuro tjahekellåŋa, the lentu hjulkjuhpåinkjå hepåinkjåho lokvu tjaruuŋtehå.
   The kin kohvolnepåin fjouŋpåin tjaraŋthaslåŋa, pjesji hanil: to hat hvilitsa siŋsa tjes raŋthånsone tjakihkehvuhåsa."
5. The pjesji tatjuunpurofaŋ kjerefo hjulkjuhfaŋ nvåthatheŋa kusjonhå, tareiŋpåinho nokatefihå.
6. The ruuntehå, "Iiŋŋanve, nvåthahaŋa kekkar nåiŋnehåŋa, the kontatho thiin nutne.
   The fvillåti, thushekelusjehvu thjenhåŋa. Tjanjekrå, afjato såkå thåŋkihtoŋkehvuhåŋa."
7. "Tjathjenlå, houn tjes tjanokaperå, the kontathofaŋ hitheŋa tjahekerorå, pjesji:
   nveiŋke tjasetoŋŋvashvuråŋa, the ruunnufaŋ tjasetonlåuŋhvuråŋa."
8. The nvåthaŋanve, tareiŋpåinho kin pe hat såkåtir thotu hvilitsa tjes hiŋsonetefihå.
   The hihaŋa tatjuunpuro hekelke sjeppvatefihåŋa.
9. The iiŋnve pvenor, tatjuunpuro Papel kohvolnehvu.
   Likji fjoun ŋos, tareiŋpåinho kontathofaŋ nvåthatheŋa kerotefihå, the lentu fjoun hat såkåtir thotu hvilitsa tjes hiŋsonetefihå.

[ ˈçulkʲuxkʲæ ˈpæpɛlkʲæ ]

1. [ sɑˈkɑtɪlˌnʷø sæŋ kʌnˈtæθɤ ˌçiŋ çuˈnutnewu | θe ˈlɛntɯ ˈruːmːu ˌθiːɲ ]
2. [ θe ˈnʷɒθæŋɐ ɕæˈkonʷu ħæt ˈpʲukʷɒˌħɑŋɐ ˈluːnvɪ | ˈɕutːʌnːwø ˌtɑnkʲæ ˈɕinæɾkʲæ sæŋ ˈlɛʊntʷœˌħɑŋɐ | θe ˈfʲɔʊn sæŋ ˈkʲunɑne ]
3. [ θe ˈnʷœɪɲtʲe ˈmæstefiˌħɑŋɐ | θe ˈruːntʷø ‖ tçæˈθʲɛnlɑŋɐ | ˌθɛŋːæˈpʲɔsːɐ ˌɕæŋzɐ tçæˈtçuɾɑŋɐ | θe ˌɲɛpˈɲɑtːɑsɐ tçæˌhɪsːɯˈfʲæːɬɑŋɐ ‖
   θe ˈpʲɔθɯfæŋˌzænʷø ˈtçil | ˌθɛŋːæˈpʲɔsːɐ ˈnɑɪɲtʲefiˌħɑŋɐ | θe ˈlɛntɯ çeˈçɯnlæn heˌkelupɑˈræxɾænˌvæŋ ˈtçil ]
4. [ θe ˈruːntefiˌħɑŋɐ ‖ tçæˈθʲɛnlɑŋɐ | ˈtætçuːmˌpuɾo ˌtçæheˈkɛl.lɑŋɐ | θe ˈlɛntɯ ˈçulkʲuxˌpɒɪɲcɑ ‖ ˈhepɒɪɲˌcɑhɤ ˌlokʷu tçæˈruːmteˌhɑ ‖
   θe ˌkɪŋ koˈʍɔlneˌpɒɪɲ ˈfʲɔʊmpɒɪɲ ˌtçæɾæŋˈθæslɑŋɐ | ˌpʲeɕi ˈħanil ‖ ˈtɤ hat ˌʍylɪtsɐ ˈsɪŋzɐ tçɛs | ˌlæŋθɑnˈzone tçæˈkɪxkeˌwuhɒsɐ ]
5. [ θe ˌpʲeɕi ˈtætçuːmˌpuɾofæŋ kʲeˌrefo ˈçulkʲuxfæŋ ˈnʷɒθæˌθeŋɐ ˈkɯɕɔnhɑ | ˈtæɾɛɪɲˌpʲɑɪɲʝo ˈnɤkæteˌfihɑ ]
6. [ θe ˈruːntehɑ ‖ ˈiːɲːæˌnʷø | ˈnʷɒθæˌhæŋɐ ˈkɛkːal ˈnɑɪɲːeˌħɑŋɐ | θe kʌnˈtæθɤ θiːɲ ˈɲutne ‖
   θe ˈɸʏlːɑti | ˌθɯsheˈkɛluˌɕewu ˈθʲɛnhɑŋɐ ‖ tçæˈɲɛkɾɑ | ʔæˈʝætɤ ˌsɑkɑ θɑŋˌkixˈtʌŋkewuˌhɑŋɐ ]
7. [ tçæˈθʲɛnlɑ ‖ ˌhɔʊn tçɛs tçæˈnɤkæˌpeɾɑ | θe kʌnˈtæθɤfæŋ ˌhiθeŋɐ ˌtçæheˈkeɾoɾɑ | ˈpʲeɕi ‖
   ˌnʷœɪŋkʲe tçæˌsetʌŋˈŋʷæswuˌɾɑŋɐ | θe ˈruːmːufæŋ tçæˌsetʌnˈlɒʊŋwuˌɾɑŋɐ ]
8. [ θe ˈnʷɒθæˌŋænʷø | ˈtæɾɛɪɲˌpʲɑɪɲʝo kɪn ˌpe hæt sɑˈkɑtɪɾ ˌθɤtɯ ˈʍylɪtsɐ ˌtçɛs hɪŋˈsɤneteˌfihɑ ‖
   θe ˌhihæŋɐ ˈtætçuːmˌpuɾo heˈkɛlke ˈɕɛpːɸɶˌtefiˌhɑŋɐ ]
9. [ θe ˌʔiːɲːʷø ˈpɸønɤɾ | ˌtætçuːmˌpuɾo ˈpæpɛl ˌkoʍɔlˌneʍu ‖
   ˌliɡʲi ˈfʲɔʊŋ ŋʌs | ˈtæɾɛɪɲˌpʲɑɪɲʝo kʌnˈtæθɤfæŋ ˈnʷɒθæˌθeŋɐ ˈkeɾoteˌfihɑ | θe ˈlɛntɯ ˌfʲɔʊn hæt sɑˈkɑtɪɾ ˌθɤtɯ ˈʍylɪtsɐ ˌtçɛs hɪŋˈsɤneteˌfihɑ ]

Interlinear gloss

Lexicon

• Proto-Madhainic Lexicon

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• Proto-Madhainic Nominal Morphology
• Proto-Madhainic Verbal Morphology
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