Well, it's been freaking YEARS since I've posted anything on a conlang I've worked on, so here goes. Tl'acho is a vaguely North American language, with bits taken from Penutian, Algonquian, Muskogean, and others. I've been working on a grammatical sketch forever, but I think it might be more interesting and perhaps clearer if I introduced Tl'acho through examples. So, here goes (NB: I'll probably fuck up the glossing tags at first. Bear with!):
/d-3.Sg.O(e)nitl=sleepane/near.visual
[de.nee.tla.ne]
"S/he is sleeping (I see it)"
Morphosyntax:
- 'sleep' /(e)nitl/ is a stative root, so it takes a single, O-marked agreement (in this case 3rd singular /d-/). Tl'acho is Split-S (but with some degree of fluidity), and distinguishes O-marking (stative subjects, active objects) prefixes from A-marking (active subjects) suffixes.
- the 'near.visual' /ane/ is a tense/evidentiality suffix (i.e., a suffix that marks both tense and evidentiality), which is obligatory on verbs. The "near" tense can be recent past, recent future, or present; with a stative root, the default reading is present imperfective. "visual" evidentiality contrasts with "auditory", "other senses" and "reported" evidentiality for near tense.
Morphophonology: /d-(e)nitl=ane/ -> [de.nee.tla.ne]
- The parenthesized (e) vowel in /(e)nitl/ only appears when needed to satisfy disyllabic minimality on the Stem. Since the only other Stem morpheme is /d-/, the (e) vowel appears.
- Tl'acho parses the Stem into iambic feet, and always lengthens stressed vowels in open syllables. Lengthened /i/ gets regularly lowered to [e:]
/d-3.Sg.O(e)nitl-sleepha=causativeno-2.Sg.Aet/near.reported
[dineetlaano'te]
"You put her/him to bed (so you said)"
Morphosyntax:
- The causative /ha=/ adds an A-marked argument to the stative root 'sleep' /(e)nitl/. A-marking suffixes (here, the 2nd singular /-no-/) are outside the Stem.
- The causative also makes the Stem telic, so that the "near" tense is a recent past perfective.
Morphophonology: /d-(e)nitl-ha=no-et/ -> [dineetlaano'te]
- Because the causative suffix /-ha=/ is within the Stem, the (e) vowel of the root does not surface. Instead, the front vowel [ i ] is inserted to break up the illegal /d-n/ cluster.
- The /tl-h/ cluster is also illegal, but is resolved by coalescence, not vowel epenthesis. A coalesced /h/ typically aspirates an obstruent, but /tl/ is already aspirated.
- The /o-e/ hiatus is fixed with glottal stop epenthesis (/no-et/ -> [no'et])
- This word is in isolation, so it counts as a phrase. Obstruents are illegal in phrase-final position, so a vowel is epenthesized after /t/. Because /t/ is alveolar, the epenthetic vowel is [e] (/-et/ -> [ete])
- These two changes create the environment for syncope of the underlying /e/ vowel: /no-et/ -> [no'ete] -> [no'te].
Here's where it gets even interestinger!
/wón-bedd-3.Sg.O(e)nitl-sleepha=causativela-potentialn,non.pastgi1.Sg.As/near.direct
wúúnineetlaalangise
"I might be sleeping in my bed soon (I know this)" OR "I might put someone in my bed soon"
Morphosyntax:
- The incorporated object /wón/ 'bed' messes with the syntax and creates an ambiguity here. The bed in this case is definite (interpreted as "my bed" because of the 1st singular subject), so it requires O-marking agreement. In order to express the subject of 'sleep', the causative /ha=/ is needed to add an another argument. This causative may be here only to allow A-marking agreement, and be semantically vacuous; this is the "I might be sleeping in my bed" reading." Alternatively, the causative may be "real", and the causee is left out due to syntactic reasons (only two arguments can be marked).
- The combination of the potential (aspect/mood), the non.past (mood/tense), and the near.direct (tense/evidentiality) give the meaning "might do something soon". The non.past plus near tense plus telic Stem gives the recent future reading "will do soon", while the potential gives the existential modal (here with an epistemic reading). Direct evidentiality is used when an event is neither reported nor directly sensed through vision or hearing, in this case since it's a plan in the speaker's head.
Morphophonology: /wón-d-(e)nitl-ha=la-n,gi-s/ -> wúúnineetlaalangise
- The acute accent in /wón/ is high tone. Since /wón/ is a prefix, the tone is fixed in position, and surfaces on the stressed vowel of the foot that the tonal vowel is in (here, it's the same vowel /o/).
- The /n-d/ cluster coalesces to [n], and also nasalizes the preceding vowel to [ u ] (the sole nasal vowel in Tl'acho).
- The relative position of the suffixes /n/ 'non.past' and /gi/ '1.Sg.A' is determined by sonority and phonotactics. With a different selection of mood/tense and A-agreement suffixes, you could get the opposite order.
Ok, enjoy this. I will hopefully post more in the coming days ... weeks ... months.
/d-3.Sg.O(e)nitl=sleepane/near.visual
[de.nee.tla.ne]
"S/he is sleeping (I see it)"
Morphosyntax:
- 'sleep' /(e)nitl/ is a stative root, so it takes a single, O-marked agreement (in this case 3rd singular /d-/). Tl'acho is Split-S (but with some degree of fluidity), and distinguishes O-marking (stative subjects, active objects) prefixes from A-marking (active subjects) suffixes.
- the 'near.visual' /ane/ is a tense/evidentiality suffix (i.e., a suffix that marks both tense and evidentiality), which is obligatory on verbs. The "near" tense can be recent past, recent future, or present; with a stative root, the default reading is present imperfective. "visual" evidentiality contrasts with "auditory", "other senses" and "reported" evidentiality for near tense.
Morphophonology: /d-(e)nitl=ane/ -> [de.nee.tla.ne]
- The parenthesized (e) vowel in /(e)nitl/ only appears when needed to satisfy disyllabic minimality on the Stem. Since the only other Stem morpheme is /d-/, the (e) vowel appears.
- Tl'acho parses the Stem into iambic feet, and always lengthens stressed vowels in open syllables. Lengthened /i/ gets regularly lowered to [e:]
/d-3.Sg.O(e)nitl-sleepha=causativeno-2.Sg.Aet/near.reported
[dineetlaano'te]
"You put her/him to bed (so you said)"
Morphosyntax:
- The causative /ha=/ adds an A-marked argument to the stative root 'sleep' /(e)nitl/. A-marking suffixes (here, the 2nd singular /-no-/) are outside the Stem.
- The causative also makes the Stem telic, so that the "near" tense is a recent past perfective.
Morphophonology: /d-(e)nitl-ha=no-et/ -> [dineetlaano'te]
- Because the causative suffix /-ha=/ is within the Stem, the (e) vowel of the root does not surface. Instead, the front vowel [ i ] is inserted to break up the illegal /d-n/ cluster.
- The /tl-h/ cluster is also illegal, but is resolved by coalescence, not vowel epenthesis. A coalesced /h/ typically aspirates an obstruent, but /tl/ is already aspirated.
- The /o-e/ hiatus is fixed with glottal stop epenthesis (/no-et/ -> [no'et])
- This word is in isolation, so it counts as a phrase. Obstruents are illegal in phrase-final position, so a vowel is epenthesized after /t/. Because /t/ is alveolar, the epenthetic vowel is [e] (/-et/ -> [ete])
- These two changes create the environment for syncope of the underlying /e/ vowel: /no-et/ -> [no'ete] -> [no'te].
Here's where it gets even interestinger!
/wón-bedd-3.Sg.O(e)nitl-sleepha=causativela-potentialn,non.pastgi1.Sg.As/near.direct
wúúnineetlaalangise
"I might be sleeping in my bed soon (I know this)" OR "I might put someone in my bed soon"
Morphosyntax:
- The incorporated object /wón/ 'bed' messes with the syntax and creates an ambiguity here. The bed in this case is definite (interpreted as "my bed" because of the 1st singular subject), so it requires O-marking agreement. In order to express the subject of 'sleep', the causative /ha=/ is needed to add an another argument. This causative may be here only to allow A-marking agreement, and be semantically vacuous; this is the "I might be sleeping in my bed" reading." Alternatively, the causative may be "real", and the causee is left out due to syntactic reasons (only two arguments can be marked).
- The combination of the potential (aspect/mood), the non.past (mood/tense), and the near.direct (tense/evidentiality) give the meaning "might do something soon". The non.past plus near tense plus telic Stem gives the recent future reading "will do soon", while the potential gives the existential modal (here with an epistemic reading). Direct evidentiality is used when an event is neither reported nor directly sensed through vision or hearing, in this case since it's a plan in the speaker's head.
Morphophonology: /wón-d-(e)nitl-ha=la-n,gi-s/ -> wúúnineetlaalangise
- The acute accent in /wón/ is high tone. Since /wón/ is a prefix, the tone is fixed in position, and surfaces on the stressed vowel of the foot that the tonal vowel is in (here, it's the same vowel /o/).
- The /n-d/ cluster coalesces to [n], and also nasalizes the preceding vowel to [ u ] (the sole nasal vowel in Tl'acho).
- The relative position of the suffixes /n/ 'non.past' and /gi/ '1.Sg.A' is determined by sonority and phonotactics. With a different selection of mood/tense and A-agreement suffixes, you could get the opposite order.
Ok, enjoy this. I will hopefully post more in the coming days ... weeks ... months.