| Kughralga | |||||||||||||
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| Type | |||||||||||||
| Alignment | |||||||||||||
| Head direction | |||||||||||||
| Tonal | No | ||||||||||||
| Declensions | No | ||||||||||||
| Conjugations | No | ||||||||||||
| Genders | |||||||||||||
| Nouns decline according to... | |||||||||||||
| Case | Number | ||||||||||||
| Definiteness | Gender | ||||||||||||
| Verbs conjugate according to... | |||||||||||||
| Voice | Mood | ||||||||||||
| Person | Number | ||||||||||||
| Tense | Aspect | ||||||||||||
| Meta-information | |||||||||||||
| Progress | 0% | ||||||||||||
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| Creator | [[User:|]] | ||||||||||||
Classification and Dialects
Phonology
Kughralga has a moderate but sometimes unusual phoneme inventory. It is relatively consonant-heavy with distinguishing circa thirty consonants, but only four vowel phonemes.
Consonants
Kughralga has a moderately big consonant inventory containinɡ some rather unusual sounds like the lateral affricates [t͡ɬ] and [d͡ɮ] or the voiced uvular plosive [ɢ].
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Post-alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal |
m m |
n n |
(ŋ) n |
(ɴ) n | ||
| Plosive |
p b p b |
t d t d |
k ɡ k ɡ |
q ɢ q x | ||
| Fricative |
s z s z |
ʃ ʒ sh zh |
x ɣ kh ɡh |
χ ʁ qh xh | ||
| Affricate |
t͡s d͡z ts dz |
t͡ʃ d͡ʒ c j |
||||
| Lateral affricate |
t͡ɬ d͡ɮ tl dl |
|||||
| Approximant |
v v |
l l |
j y |
|||
| Flap or tap |
r r |
[ŋ] and [ɴ] are allophones of [n] in front of velar ([k], [ɡ], [x] and [ɣ]) or uvular ([q], [ɢ], [χ] and [ʁ]) consonants.
Vowels
Kughralga has just four vowel quantities. It lacks the mid-front [e] and the mid-back [o] often found in European languages.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High |
i i |
u u | |
| Mid |
ə e |
||
| Near-low |
(ɛ) i |
(ɔ) u | |
| Low |
a a |
[ɛ] and [ɔ] are allophones of [i] and [u] in front of uvular consonants.
Phonotactics
Voiceless prefixes or suffixes become voiced when they
Grammar
The grammar of Kughrulga is quite complex, with heavy use of prefixes and suffixes. Although mostly strongly agglutinating, it also has some undeniable polysynthetic traits. Basic word order is SOV, although variations are not unusual with the most common being OSV, SVO and OVS. Kughralga is an ergative-absolutive language.
Affixiation can lead to very long sentence-like words, e.g.:
Tsqvaghdzɡraxhzrash. - We would not have circled you (if...) [t͡sqvaɣd͡zɡraʁzraʃ]
ts-q-va-ɡh-dz-ɡraxh-zra-sh - 1ex.sg.erg-perf-neg-2.sg.abs-indirect-circle-make-pl
The most important part of Kughralga grammar - and by means the most complex - is the verb. Furthermore, Kughralga knows no adjectives; like a lot of languages, it uses intransitive verbs instead.
Nouns
The Kughralga noun shows - compared to the verb - just little and very regular inflection. Kughralga uses two cases (absolutive and ergative) several number suffixes (some of them are rather derivational suffixes) and possession circumfixes (alienability and inalienability is distinguished).
| possession prefix | STEM | alienability suffix | number suffix | ergative marker |
|---|
Number & Case
Kughralga exhibits a very simple two-case-system with an unmarked absolutive and an ergative which is indicated by the suffix -t. The absolutive, the basic form of every noun, is used for the subject of an intransitive verb, the direct object of a transitive verb, and indirect objects in general. The ergative case is solely used to indicate the subject of a transitive verb.
The generic plural suffix is -ash or -sh if the noun ends on a vowel. This suffix is used to indicate undefined generic plurality. With numerals, another suffix, the partitive suffix -va is used. The numerals then behave like normal nouns and can also be inflected. Additionally, the verb agrees now with the numeral instead of the noun. All numerals have a fixed grammatical number. Most of the quantifiers and a lot of numerals are always singular, whereas some numerals (those ending with -sh) take plural agreeement.
I am seeing a reindeer. > Mixh dzbaitlak. [mɛʁ dzbajtɬak]
- mixh-ø dz-ba-i-tlak > reindeer-abs 1.sg.erg-cont-3.sg.abs-see
I am seeing reindeers. > Mixhash dzbaintlak. [mɛʁaʃ dzbajntɬak]
- mixh-ash-ø dz-ba-in-tlak > reindeer-pl-ø 1.sg.erg-cont-3.pl.abs-see
I am seeing a lot of reindeers. > Khul mixhva dzbaitlak. [xul mɛʁva dzbajtɬak]
- khul-ø mixh-va dz-ba-i-tlak > lots.of-abs reindeer-part 1.sg.erg-cont-3.sg.abs-see
I am seeing three reindeers. > Sqesh mixhva dzbaintlak. [sqəʃ mɛʁva dzbajntɬak]
- sqe-sh-ø mixh-va dz-ba-in-tlak > three-pl-abs reindeer-part 1.sg.erg-cont-3.pl.abs-see
A lot of hunters are looking for reindeers. > Khult jirtva mixhash baincurt. [xult dʒirtva mɛʁaʃ bajntʃurt]
- khul-t jirt-va mixh-ash-ø ba-in-ts-shur-t > lots.of-erg hunter-part reindeer-pl-abs cont-3.pl.abs-indirect-search-3.sg.erg
|
noun |
absolutive | ergative | partitive | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| singular | plural | sinɡular | plural | |||
| final consonant | mixh
(reindeer) |
mixh | mixhash | mixhd | mixhasht | mixhva |
| final vowel | udlu
(pebble) |
udlu | udlush | udlut | udlusht | udluva |
| schwa dropping | jiret
(huntsman) |
jiret | jirtash | jiretst | jirtasht | jirtva |
Possession
Possession is indicated by prefixes indicating the possessing person and suffixes indicating alienability and agrees with the number of the possessed noun.
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st exclusive | an- | nun- |
| 1st inclusive | kun- | |
| 2nd | akh- | cin- |
| 3rd | u- | un- |
| singular | plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| alienable | non-possessed | -ø | |
| possessed | -ø | -n- | |
| inalienable | non-possessed | -kek | -ɡ- |
| possessed | -(e)k | ||
Genitive construction
The genitive phrase of Kughralga ressembles the Mayan or Hungarian way to express the genitive: While the possessing noun remains unmarked, the possessed noun takes one of the third person possession prefixes (depending on the number of the possessing noun).
kuleq ujirtnash > the huntsmen of the chief [kuləq udʒirtaʃ]
- kuleq u-jirt-n-ash > chief 3.sg.poss-huntsman-poss-pl
quqhash unxudnash > the huts of the villages [qɔχaʃ ɔɴɢudnaʃ]
- quqh-ash un-xud-n-ash > village-pl 3.pl.poss-hut-poss-pl
Postpositions
Kughralga uses postpositions rather than prepositions. The noun remains in the unmarked absolutive.
Verbs
The verb is by far the most complex part of Kughralga morphology. It is inflected for person (1st, 2nd, 3rd) and number (singular and plural) of both subject and object, tense (present, past, future) and aspect (imperfective, perfective, continuous), mood (indicative, subjunctive, optative, narrative, imperative, permittive) and voice (active, passive, reflexive).
| relative/interrogative | erg. agreement | tense/aspect | negation | abs. agreement | VERB STEM | mood | plurality | diathesis |
|---|
Ergative and absolutive agreement
| absolutive | singular | plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st ex | N- | naN- |
| 1st in | kaN- | |
| 2nd | kh- | caN- |
| 3rd | i- | iN- |
| rel | u- | |
| ergative | singular | plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st ex | dz- | dz-, -(e)sh |
| 1st in | k(e)-, -(e)sh | |
| 2nd | k(e)- | c(e)-, -(e)sh |
| 3rd | ø-, -t | ø-, -(e)sh-t |
| rel | ø- | |
-(e)sh is the plurality marker of the verb. The third person suffix -t is placed in the diathesis slot.
The relative prefix is used when an interrogative or relative marker is prefixed.
Tense/Aspect (and Negation)
Tense and aspect are expressed through one single morpheme which stands between the ergative and the absolutive marker.
| tense/aspect | affirmative | negative | |
|---|---|---|---|
| indicative
subjunctive |
continuous | be- | ma- |
| aorist | u- | va- | |
| imperfect | na- | ne-va- | |
| perfect | qe- | q-va- | |
| future | tla- | tle-va- | |
| future perfect | qla- | qle-va- | |
| narrative | imperfective | da- | de-va- |
| perfective | xhda- | xhde-va- | |
| optative | imperfective | ga- | ge-va- |
| perfective | xa- | xe-va- |
As we can see, different moods acquire different tense markers.