Giantish

I. Phonology/Orthography

I.1 Vowels

Practical Orthography

X-Sampa

	Front			Back
High	i		y		u
Mid		e		o
Low	a

	Front			Back
High	i		1		u
Mid		e		o
Low	6

Stress is indicated with an acute accent (í, é, á, ó, ú).

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	p b		t d		k g	q
Fricative	f v	th	s z	sh	x
Nasal	m		n
Approximant	w		r	j
Liquid			l

	Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	p b		t d		k g	?
Fricative	f v	T	s z	S	x
Nasal	m		n
Approximant	w		r\	j
Liquid			l

I.3 Dialectal Variation

There are eight major dialects of Giantish: Cloud, Hill, Stone, Frost, Fire, Storm, Forest, Sun, all derived from the Classical Giantish described herein. We will focus solely on the phonetic differences. Classical Giantish is the dialect described in the rest of the document All dialects will be described by their derivation from Classical Giantish. The samples of dialectical speech:

shkénti sékynthun riixoshigínv
ritabárdil
gilidéxi rixugúv daxáno

Dialect	Sound Changes	Sample Speech
Cloud	V --> 0 / V(C) __ (C)V y --> a / #(C) __ y --> V' / V' (C*) __ V --> 0 / __ (C) V' VN --> V'[+nasalized] / __ . Vl --> l'[+syllabic] / __ . Vr --> r'[+syllabic] / __ . V --> 0 / __ #	shkéⁿt sekéⁿthuⁿ riixoshgíⁿv ritbŕdl gĺdex rixgúv daxán
Forest	th,q,x,r --> f,0,sh,l l --> w / __ . obstruent --> [-voice] / __ # aj,aw --> e,o b,d,g --> v,z,gh / V __ V p,t,k --> b,d,g / V __ V nt,ns,nd, ms, ... --> nn nv, nth, mp,mv,mb, ... --> mm	shkénni ségymmun liishoshighímm lidavóze gilizéshi lishughúf dasháno
Stone	tj, dj --> ch, jh 0 --> y / C __ C C --> 0 / __ # V --> 0 / V __ t,d,s,z --> ts,dz,sh,zh / __ {i,u}	shykénytsi sékynythun rixoshigíny ritabárydzi gilidéxi rixugú daxáno
Hill	p,t,k --> w,q,q / V __ V b,d,g --> v,z,l / V __ V V --> 0 / V'(C) __ . V --> V' / # (C) __ Vr --> VV shp, sht, shk --> ch zhb, zhd, zhg --> jh N C --> C y N	chétyn séqythynun ríixoshilivyn ríqavaadil gílizex ríxuluv dáxan
Fire		kshétni sékuzhnu rajxoshín~ivu tirabrádl glajdéxi rixugvú daxnáw
Storm	V -->[+front] / __ (C) + (C) i V -->[+back] / __ (C) + (C) u aw,aj,ej,ow --> o,e,i,u ew,oj --> ewo,oji p,b --> k,g / __ V[+front,-low] k,g --> ch,jh / __ V[+back,-low] i,a,u[-stress] --> e,y,o a',e',i',o',u',y' --> aj,i,iw,u,uj,a 0 --> h / # __ V V --> 0 / __ #

New sounds: gh = /G/, ch = /tS/, jh = /dZ/, zh = /Z/,

II. Verbal Morphology

Verb stems are CC*C forms.

CV₁C*V₂C
Vowel	V₁	V₂
a	present	infinitive/participle
i	future	simple
e	future perfective	habitual/repetitive/continuative
u	past	irrealis/hypothetical
o	past perfective	prophetic/historical

XjVXjVX doubtful/scornful
XwVXwVX hearsay/reported speech
-n- causative infix (added immediately after stressed vowel)
-ig passive suffix
-(o)sh- applicative (inserted before unstressed vowel)
daxáno negative particle
wálano question particle
ráshino imperative particle

Person Markers
	Number
Person	Sing	Dual	Plur
1	ri-	ra-	ru-
2	ti-	ta-	thu-
2(formal)	si-	sa-	shu-
3	i-	a-	u-
3(formal)	ixi-	axa-	uxu-

III. Nominal Morphology

"Cases" marked by postposed clitics:

Case	Enclitic
Ergative/Instrumental	=shaj
Absolutive	=i / =j
Dative/Benefactive	=thun
Genitive	=lo

-Vl- diminutive infix (insert before the stressed vowel with reduplication of the vowel)

Definitiness of NP is marked by having person marker on verb.

Indefinite (A): specific-known; specific-unknown; irrealis/non-specific; conditional
Indefinite (B): irrealis/non-specific; conditional; question; indirect-negation; direct-negation
Indefinite (C): free-choice; comparison; indirect-negation
Indefinite (D): question(formal/...)

Person	gili-
Thing	shili-
Time	thuli-
Place, to	dili-
Place, at	duli-
Place, from	dawali-
Manner	fali-
Reason	qali-
Property	tikli-
Color	binali-
"Type"	zivali-
Height	nisali-

Question		-wáx
Indefinite	A	-péx
	B	-déx
	C	-méx
	D	-séx
Definite	Proximate	-vón
Definite	Distal	-vín
Universal		-begán

IV. Syntax

Basic Sentence Order: Absolutive Ergative Verb Auxiliaries
the question particle always goes sentence-final

V. Examples

gili-déx-i rixugúv daxáno I didn't kill anybody
shili-séx-i samuzúnd wálano did you(2) knock anything down? (formal)
shili-déx-i tamuzúnd wálano did you(2) knock anything down?
shili-péx-i tamuzínd you(2) knocked something down!
ixogínvig he had been killed
uxutwúnweq (I heard) they were being made to go
ritabárdil I like you two
ruqóuq > ruqów If we all had been...
iqaiq > jaj he is...
uqaiq > waj they are ...
sékyn-shaj regúmin a dog bit me
sékyn regúmin I bit a dog
sékyn-shaj irigúmin The dog bit me
sékyn riigúmin I bit the dog
fásax risháiv > fásax rishájv I want to sleep/be sleeping
sékyn shként-shaj riixigínv I will kill the dog with a sword
shként-i sékyn-thun riixoshigínv I will use the sword to kill a/the dog

VI. Sample Lexicon

VI.1 Verbs (given in present infinitive form)

zabáv: live
fásax: sleep
fánsax: put to sleep
fánsaxig: be put to sleep
xagáv: die
xagánv: kill
bárdal: love/like
táaq: go/walk/ride
qáaq: be
sátad: stand
mazád: fall
gámak: bite
sháav: want
káshag: throw stones

VI.2 Numbers

krí: 1 (claw)
kikrí: 2
thun: 3 (foot)
xun: 4 (hand)
kixún: 5
thuthún: 6
thoxón: 7
xuxún: 8
xuxún krí: 9

VI.3 Nouns, etc.

sékyn: dog/cat/...
shként: sword
shkélent: dagger
kitáper: chosen one
nyg: again

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Apollo Hogan, Berkeley, California, USA