| Lutta Lua-ǂHera | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Type | |||
| Agglutinative (verbs), Analytic (nouns) | |||
| Alignment | |||
| Accusative | |||
| Head direction | |||
| left | |||
| Tonal | |||
| No | |||
| Declensions | |||
| No | |||
| Conjugations | |||
| Yes | |||
| Genders | |||
| No | |||
| Nouns decline according to... | |||
| Case | Number | ||
| Definiteness | Gender | ||
| Verbs conjugate according to... | |||
| Voice | Mood | ||
| Person | Number | ||
| Tense | Aspect | ||
General Information
The Lutta Language (natively Lua-ǂHera [lɯʔəǂʰerə]) is a Luttan language spoken by the Lua-Hushen, the largest group of Luttish people who live on the western steppe inland of the central sea of Aetho.
Phonology
Pulmonic Consonants
| alveolar | palatal | (post)velar | glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| nasal | n | (ɲ) | ŋ | ||
| stop | t d | c ɟ | k̙ | ʔ | |
| affricate | (ts) (dz) | (tɕ) (dʑ) | |||
| fricative | central | s z | (ɕ) (ʑ) | x̙ | h |
| lateral | ɬ | (ʎ̥˔) | |||
| approximant | ɹ l | j (ʎ) | ɰ | ||
| rhotic | r | ||||
n, ny/ngy, ng, t, d, c, j, q, 0, ts, dz, tc, dj, s, z, sh, zh, x, h, f, fy, rh, l, y, ly, w, r
- /n/, /ŋ/, /s/, /z/, /ɬ/, and /l/ become palatal consonants before /e/.
- /t/, /d/, /c/, and /ɟ/ become the corresponding affricate before /u/.
Clicks
Due to Aethos not possessing a uvula, all clicks are pronounced with the back articulation in the pharynx.
| postalveolar | lateral | palatal | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ! | ǁ | ǂ | tenuis |
| !ʰ | ǁʰ | ǂʰ | aspirated |
| ᵑ!ˀ | ᵑǁˀ | ᵑǂˀ | glottalized nasal |
!, ǁ, ǂ, !h, ǁh, ǂh, n!, nǁ, nǂ
Vowels
| front | back | |
|---|---|---|
| high | e | ɯ |
| low | ɑ̽ |
- /e/: [æ~e~ɪ]
- /u/: [ɨ~ɯ~ɯ̽]
- /a/: [ə~ä~ɑ̽]
Phonotactics
CV(N)
- /N/ is a nasal homorganic to the following consonant. It is not found before clicks.
- The syllable /wu/ doesn't occur.
- The post-alveolar and lateral clicks don't occur before /e/.
- The following consonants may be geminated between vowels: /n/, /ŋ/, /t/, /c/, /k/, /s/, /ɹ/, and /l/.
Nouns
Lutta has no grammatical gender, case, number, or definiteness. However, nouns can take many derivational affixes, and new nouns are frequently coined. For example, some common collectivizing suffixes are -n!a and -jawe found in hushen!a "a lot of people/people in general" and qarajawe "a lot of kids/kids in general".
Pronouns
| informal | respectful | hyperformal | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 | ede | |
| 1.col | nujawe | ||
| 2 | tcu | etcu | !anngu |
| 3s.an | san | esan | N/A |
| 3p.an | atta | eatta | N/A |
| 3.inan | nu | N/A | N/A |
| 3.obv | asa | N/A | N/A |
| 3.supobv | ese | N/A | N/A |
| royal | N/A | rafyen | rafyeǂungun |
- The collective first person in used to refer to one's group or company as a unified entity, ede is used as a normal plural first person.
- Second person pronouns and third person formal pronouns are usually replaced by royal, job, or family titles, which are very complex.
- The animate third person pronouns are the only ones with a proper number distinction.
- The obviative third person is used to refer to an additional person or item to one already being referred to. The superobviative is used to refer to a further person or item. for example, "the three brothers Alan, Ashelye, and Aqqaru went in separate directions. San went east, asa went west, and ese went further south. Atta would meet up in ǁHaqqandzuderun".
- The royal pronoun in used to refer to a Luttish monarch by even the monarch themself. The monarch might say, Rafyen fyeurazheluha "I have put forth a decree".
Verbs
Verbs are conjugated for voice, mood, tense, formality, and placement.
Tense
The tense affixes go immediately after the verb stem.
- present -0- ex. caqa "I'm eating"
- past -uh- ex. caquha "I ate"
- future -ej- ex. caqeja "I'll eat"
Mood
Realis verbs end in -a, irrealis in -u.
Voice
Grammatical voice is marked by prefixes. The basic voice is active, which has no prefix.
The passive (ex. haqattesuha "I was cut") is shown using the prefix hV-, with the choice of vowel typically matching the following syllable's. Irregulars must be learned, ex. hufyea "I am done".
A causative is formed with a reduplication of the first syllable of a verb (except that former initial glottal stops become /ɹ/, ex. udjua>urhudjua) being added to the beginning of the verb. This can be combined with the passive, ex. heurhudjua "I am being shaken".
Formality
There are two methods of making respectful verbforms. The first is suppletively, as in !an!a "to click" > !uǂella or rura "to copulate, mate" > watcunrha. The second is with the infix -zheC, placed as the penultimate syllable, where C geminates the following consonant, if possible.
- qattesa "to cut, split" > qattezhessa
- caqa "to eat" > cazheqqa
- fyela "to say" > fyezhella
- eǁula "to jump, hop" > eǁuzhella
- fyea "to do" > fyezhea
- udjua "to wiggle, shake" > udjuzhea
- xungyea "to swim" > xungyezhea
There is also the ultrarespectful infix, -nasshe-. For verbs with suppletive respectful forms, it is applied to the suppletive respectful form.
- qattesa > qattenasshesa
- fyea > fyenasshea
- rura > watcunnassherha
There are few irregulars, including: rha "to be" > zhea, rhanasshea
Placement
There are also optional suffixes to indicate the actions spatial placement relative to where the utterance in spoken.
- Near -ang- ex. hufyeanga "I am done here"
- Far -ar- ex. caqejara "I'll eat there"