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Name: Leyshasky

Type: Agglutinating Polysynthetic

Alignment: Nominative Accusative

Head Direction: Final

Number of genders: 0

Declensions: Yes

Conjugations: Yes

Nouns declined
according to
Case Number
Definitiveness Gender
Verbs conjugated
according to
Voice Mood
Person Number
Tense Aspect

Leyshasky, Lxeįsxaski, is a native American language isolate found in Southern Texas. The Leshaskian name for Leyshasky, Lxeįshaski, is a compound, meaning Tree sound, due to the tall, thin trees of the forest from which the Leyshaskian tribe hailed from.

Leyshasky contains many interesting features, such as topic-conjugation, the retention of a dual number, and a nominative-accusative alignment. Leyshasky possesses three cases, and suffixes postpositions, rather than have them as particles or as separate cases. Another feature are the postpositional suffixes in Leyshasky, which are an opened class, meaning new postpositional meanings can be made by combining existing affixes. Leyshasky is highly agglutinative, as it conjugates its verbs for subject, object, number, topic, mode, tense, telicity, aspect and mood. Leyshasky lacks adverbs, and their meaning is instead coveyed using topic and aspectual suffixes. Leyshasky also has a relatively low number of adjectives, instead utilizing affixes, much like topic affixes, which attach to nouns to modify them.

Leyshasky's main feature, however, is its incredible lack of verbs. Most verbs and actions in Leyshasky are expressed with the verb Magxa, or to be, and a combination of topics. Leyskasky is rich in topics, thus leaving most verbs to be used by magxa. Note the following five verbs in English, and then their Leyshasky counterparts.

  • To walk, Magxamete'a, be(magxa)-motion(me)-ground(te'a)
  • To run, Magxameyate'a, be(magxa)-motion:fast(me:ya)-ground(te'a)
  • To swim, Magxamesuyu, be(magxa)-motion(me)-water(suyu)
  • To sing, Magxañemasxaskistlxu, be(magxa)-culture(ñema)-sound(sxaski)-productive(stlxu)
  • To fly, Magxameflo'a, be(magxa)-motion(me)-wind(flo'a)

Clearly, verbs in general reach long lengths, as they conjugate using topics to change meaning. Note the English phrase,

I kept chasing the bear but I lost it.

and its translation in Leyshasky,

Magxameyate'atlxõ'etemyedxẽ'ne'a kolumsilat'yįt.

A closer translation to the phrase above would look more like "I chased the bear but didn't exceed". Many things come into play that are conjugated into the verb. Note the gloss:

Be-motion-fast-ground-attentively-me-past-iterative-atelic bear-prepositional-to-definite.

Phonology[]

Consonants[]

Bilabial Labiodental Dental Alveolar Post-alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
plain lateral
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ*
Plosive p b t̪ d̪ c ɟ k ɡ ʔ
Fricative f v s z ɬ ʃ ʒ x h
Affricate t͡ɬ t͡ʃ d͡ʒ
Approximant Vocal j w
Nasalized
Trill r
Flap / Tap ɾ*
Lateral l l

Ejected voiceless plosives are allophones of glottalized voiceless plosives. The phoneme [ŋ] is an allophone of denasalized approximants, that is, [j̃] and [w̃] can appear to be [jŋ] and [wŋ]. The phoneme [ɾ] is an allophone of [r] when after consonants and is intervocalic.

Vowels[]

Vocal Nasalized
Monophthongs Front Back Front Back
Close i u
Close-mid
Near-close ɪ
Open-mid ɛ ɔ ɛ̃̃ ɔ̃
Open a ã

Nasalized Diphthongs[]

IPA Allophones Grapheme IPA Allophones Grapheme
aj̃ aɪŋ aw̃ aʊŋ
ɛj̃ ɛɪŋ ɛw̃ ɛʊŋ
ɔj̃ ɔɪŋ ɔw̃ ɔʊŋ
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