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 (i', e', a', o', u').

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:

shke'nti se'kynthun riixoshigi'nv
ritaba'rdil
gilide'xi rixugu'v daxa'no

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 / __ #	shke'ⁿt seke'ⁿthuⁿ riixoshgi'ⁿv ritbr'dl gl'dex rixgu'v daxa'n
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	shke'nni se'gymmun liishoshighi'mm lidavo'ze gilize'shi lishughu'f dasha'no
Stone	tj, dj --> ch, jh 0 --> y / C __ C C --> 0 / __ # V --> 0 / V __ t,d,s,z --> ts,dz,sh,zh / __ {i,u}	shyke'nytsi se'kynythun rixoshigi'ny ritaba'rydzi gilide'xi rixugu' daxa'no
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	che'tyn se'qythynun ri'ixoshilivyn ri'qavaadil gi'lizex ri'xuluv da'xan
Fire		kshe'tni se'kuzhnu rajxoshi'n~ivu tirabra'dl glajde'xi rixugvu' daxna'w
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)
daxa'no negative particle
wa'lano question particle
ra'shino 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		-wa'x
Indefinite	A	-pe'x
	B	-de'x
	C	-me'x
	D	-se'x
Definite	Proximate	-vo'n
Definite	Distal	-vi'n
Universal		-bega'n

IV. Syntax

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

V. Examples

gili-de'x-i rixugu'v daxa'no I didn't kill anybody
shili-se'x-i samuzu'nd wa'lano did you(2) knock anything down? (formal)
shili-de'x-i tamuzu'nd wa'lano did you(2) knock anything down?
shili-pe'x-i tamuzi'nd you(2) knocked something down!
ixogi'nvig he had been killed
uxutwu'nweq (I heard) they were being made to go
ritaba'rdil I like you two
ruqo'uq > ruqo'w If we all had been...
iqaiq > jaj he is...
uqaiq > waj they are ...
se'kyn-shaj regu'min a dog bit me
se'kyn regu'min I bit a dog
se'kyn-shaj irigu'min The dog bit me
se'kyn riigu'min I bit the dog
fa'sax risha'iv > fa'sax risha'jv I want to sleep/be sleeping
se'kyn shke'nt-shaj riixigi'nv I will kill the dog with a sword
shke'nt-i se'kyn-thun riixoshigi'nv I will use the sword to kill a/the dog

VI. Sample Lexicon

VI.1 Verbs (given in present infinitive form)

zaba'v: live
fa'sax: sleep
fa'nsax: put to sleep
fa'nsaxig: be put to sleep
xaga'v: die
xaga'nv: kill
ba'rdal: love/like
ta'aq: go/walk/ride
qa'aq: be
sa'tad: stand
maza'd: fall
ga'mak: bite
sha'av: want
ka'shag: throw stones

VI.2 Numbers

kri': 1 (claw)
kikri': 2
thun: 3 (foot)
xun: 4 (hand)
kixu'n: 5
thuthu'n: 6
thoxo'n: 7
xuxu'n: 8
xuxu'n kri': 9

VI.3 Nouns, etc.

se'kyn: dog/cat/...
shke'nt: sword
shke'lent: dagger
kita'per: chosen one
nyg: again

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Apollo Hogan, Berkeley, California, USA