Cobber

Sample Text

I. Phonology

I.1 Vowels

Practical Orthography

X-Sampa

	Front			Back
High	i		y		u
Mid		e	v	o
Low	a

	Front			Back
High	i		1		u
Mid		e	@	o
Low	6

Vowels can have 5 distinct qualities, or can be unmarked for quality. This is notated as follows:

Quality	Notation	X-SAMPA
Unmarked	I, E, A, O, U, Y, V
Plain	i, e, a, o, u, y, v	i e 6 o u 1 @
Creaky	i^x, e^x, a^x, o^x, u^x, y^x, v^x	i_k e_k 6_k o_k u_k 1_k @_k
Breathy	i^h, e^h, a^h, o^h, u^h, y^h, v^h	i_t e_t 6_t o_t u_t 1_t @_t
Pharyngealized	i^r, e^r, a^r, o^r, u^r, y^r, v^r	i_?\ e_?\ 6_?\ o_?\ u_?\ 1_?\ @_?\
Nasalized	iⁿ, eⁿ, aⁿ, oⁿ, uⁿ, yⁿ, vⁿ	i~ e~ 6~ o~ u~ 1~ @~

I.2 Consonants

In the tables below, where appropriate, pairs are given of voiceless and voiced.

Practical Orthography

X-Sampa

	Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	b		t d	c	k g	q
Fricative		f	s	x	kh
Affricate		tf	ts	tx		qh
Nasal	m			n	j

	Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	b		t d	c	k g	?
Fricative		T	s	S	x
Affricate		t_T	t_s	t_S		?_h
Nasal	m			J	N

I.3 Remarks

Syllable canon is (C)(N)V(C) for word-initial syllables; CV(C) for word-medial syllables; and, CV for word-final syllables (maintained by appending -Y where necessary).

The vowel qualities, Creaky, Breathy, Nasalized, Pharyngealized, spread in a left-to-right fashion through any unmarked vowels. The spread of any quality will be blocked by a marked vowel, or by certain consonants. Also, some consonants bear these qualities inherently and will initiate marking of the nearest vowel to the right of them, if that vowel is not already marked and if there is not already a quality spreading that is not blocked by that consonant. (This vowel will then spread the quality rightward as usual.) The following table gives the blocking and initiating consonants for each of the qualities. (Note that plain is the default quality for a vowel to have if it does not get marked via some process.)

		Blocking	Initiating
Quality	Creaky (-o^x)	t, c, k, q, tf, ts, tx, q^h	q, b, d
	Breathy (-o^h)	f, s, x, k^h, tf, ts, tx	q^h, c
	Pharyngealized (-o^r)	q, q^h	k, g
	Nasalized (-oⁿ)	b, d, g	m, n, j

Here are some examples (with nonsense words) to illustrate:

Underlying Form	Surface Form	Spreading Domains
m A t I q O s U	m aⁿ t iⁿ q oⁿ s uⁿ	(m aⁿ t iⁿ q oⁿ s uⁿ)
m A t I q o s U	m aⁿ t iⁿ q o s u	(m aⁿ t iⁿ) q o s u
m A t i q O s U	m aⁿ t i q o^x s u^x	(m aⁿ) t i (q o^x s u^x)
m a t I q O s U	m a t i q o^x s u^x	m a t i (q o^x s u^x)
b Y c O k U	b y^x c o^h k u^r	(b y^x) (c o^h) (k u^r)
q m Y g c E s A	q m yⁿ g c e^h s a	q (m yⁿ) g (c e^h) s a
q O m Y g c E s A	q o^x m y^x g c e^h s a	(q o^x m y^x g) (c e^h) s a
s O tf I j A t g Y	s o tf i j aⁿ t g y^r	s o tf i (j aⁿ t) (g y^r)
s o^x tf I j A t g Y	s o^x tf i j aⁿ t g y^r	s o^x tf i (j aⁿ t) (g y^r)
s o^h tf I j A t g Y	s o^h tf i j aⁿ t g y^r	s o^h tf i (j aⁿ t) (g y^r)
s o^r tf I j A t g Y	s o^r tf i^r j a^r t g y^r	(s o^r tf i^r j a^r t g y^r)
s oⁿ tf I j A t g Y	s oⁿ tf iⁿ j aⁿ t g y^r	(s oⁿ tf iⁿ j aⁿ t) (g y^r)

In order to help read the rather obscure orthography, syllable boundaries will be marked with a period (.) in some instances.

II. Nominal Morphology

Nouns are marked via: Noun - (Deriv) - Case - Number - (Article)
Case markings:

Case	Suffix
Agent	-nV
Patient	-xA
Dative	-nU
Genitive	-txOj
Experiencer	-xE
Source	-tU
Comitative	-bo^r
Instrumental	-qo^x
Locative	-kvf
Temporal	-bu^hs
Allative	-dI
Ablative	-qa^x
Partitive	-tu^x
Cause	-k^hYs
Vialis	-tfA
Equative/Comparative	-te^r

Number markings:

Number	Suffix
Singular	--
Dual	-nu
Trial	-xy
Paucal	-dV
Plural	-fA
Collective	-moⁿ
Distributive	-qe^x

Article markings:

Article	Suffix
Definite	-sI
Indefinite	-kE
"Known"	-se
Unknown	-gv

Derivational markings:

Meaning	Suffix
Diminutive	-k^hAtf
Augmentative	-da^r
	-gVd

III. Verbal Morphology

IV. Syntax

Basic SOV word order.
Discourse Particles:

=noⁿm.faⁿ Focus
=jqi^r.ji^r Defocus

V. Examples

xme^xnv^xse

fnv^hxxaⁿdvke^r

xmi^xftxiq^he^hma^hkbeqqv^x

xme^x

fnv^hx

xaⁿ

xmi^xf

txI

q^hE

mAk

beq

spider

AGT

"known"

two-legger

PAT

PAUC

INDEF

eat.agt=spider

REAL

FEW

COMPLET

PAST

ASSERT

That spider (that we know) ate a few two-leggers.

VI. Sample Lexicon

Nouns

xme^x: spider
fnvx: two-legger

Verbs

xmi^xf: eat (spider agent)

Main Conlang Page

Apollo Hogan, Berkeley, California, USA