Nāmaς

Nāmaς is an Indo- European influenced, mixed a priori - posteriori language, by Waahlis.

Introduction
Denavēnens! - Welcome!

This page uses IPA phonetic notation as standard.

Nāmaς, ([ˈnaːm.as], translates as "name, noun, meaning or thing"), or Sēnha Namēa [ˈsɛː.ŋa nam.ˈɛː.a] "'Namian' language" - is a mixed constructed a priori/ a posteriori language. It draws inspiration from mainly the Indo-European branch, yet makes a decisive stance to preserve artificial features. For the sake of simplicity I suppose it could be called the Namian language, or whatever. Doesn't really matter.

Since there is a tendency in Nāmaς to blend characteristics of both artificial and natural languages, a rather unholy mixture has arisen, for example:

It is a fusional language, like its predecessors Latin, Sanskrit, Greek and Germanic - yet displays the highly unnatural ergative-accusativ alignment, or tripartite, - which is rarely seen outside conlanging.

Concerning the vocabulary, both words derived from Indo-European stems, as well as complete a priori words, appear; such as "dhrȳa" - tree, from Indo-European *dóru, and the word for heaven, "iāmnas" - from... me.

Other than that, other, rather unique features are included, such as: Plus an extremely constructed characteristic:
 * Phonemic and manipulated stress.
 * Progressive metaphony.
 * Partial regressive metaphony.
 * Consonant harmony, based upon voicedness.
 * Distinguished transitivity

Consonants
The following table portraits Nāmaς' phonetic inventory of consonants. All consonants may be geminated, which is phonemic, and represented by doubling by the grapheme. Nota bene

The retroflex consonants, with the approximant [ɽ] as the exception, are allophones when preceded by [ɽ]. The phonemes in brackets exist only as allophones. The pairs [ɸ-β], [f-v], [ʍ-w], [h-ɦ] and [ç-ʝ] are represented by only one grapheme each, since the voiced part is an allophone.

Affricates
In addition to these, there's a multitude of digraphs with corresponding affricates. It is important to note that the four digraphs /pt/, /vt/, /kt/, and /jt/ symbolise consonant clusters with an affricate onset.

Orthography
In the orthographic table, the letters of the latin alphabet is represented.

Nota Bene
 * 1) May be written Θθ, especially initially.
 * 2) May be written Δδ, especially initally.
 * 3) May be written Σʃ, rare howeveer.
 * 4) May be written ζ in the lower case.
 * 5) May be written β in the lower case, rare however
 * 6) May be written ς when final letter, standard.

The letters and digraphs bh, v, vh/w, h, and hy, all represent two phonemes - [ɸ-β], [f-v], [ʍ-w], [h-ɦ], and [ç-ʝ] respectively. The letters c and k may be used interchangeably to represent both [c] and [k], as well as in the combination ky or cy - [c͡ç].

Allophony
All plosive consonants, the dental approximant [r] and the labiodental fricatives [v-f] have allophonical values intervocally. These are either pure fricatives, or plosives with a fricate release. However, both [r] and [v-f] become approximants. Simple.

Herefore should the word vāka- voice, speach - not be pronounced [ˈvaːka], but rather [ˈfaːxa], or [ˈfaːk͡xa]

Consonant Assimilation
Nāmaς possesses a progressive consonant assimilation word-internally, based upon voicedness.

The consequence is that a consonant, a cluster, or an affricate, is pronounced differently, depending on whether it is preceded by a voiced or voiceless consonant. There are exceptions to this rule, since the alveolar trill [r] and the retroflex tap [ɽ] do not differ between voicedness.

The nasal stops are affected quite differently, with a complete nasalisation of the preceding vowel - and loss of the stop - if the initial or first consonant is voiced. However, nasals are perceived as neutral in nature, and does therefore not affect voiceless nor voiced phonemes.

Examples:

Sandrā - [san.ˈtraː], not pronounced [san.ˈ d raː] - "moon"

Dāntis - [ˈdãːd.ɪz], not pronounced ['ˈdaː nt .ɪ s ] - "tooth"

Āsvyas - [ˈaːs.fʃas], yet again, not pronounced ''[ˈaːs. vʒ as]'' - "he owns"

Vowels
The representation of Nāmaς' vowels. There are are fourteen vowel phonemes, yet only 6 graphemes, thus, it may be assumed some are allophones during certain circumstances.

In conjunction with the orthographic table. It is obvious that many of the vowel graphemes are recycled, since many phonemes are allophones. The background is covered in the "Metaphony" section.

Diphtongs
There are a limited number of diphtongs in Nāmaς, with few more rising than falling diphtongs. [ɪ̯] is most often equivalent to [j], and [u̯] is often just [w]. The left diftong is its front value, and the right one is the back value. All other vowel clusters are diaeresis. The main phoneme in all diphtongs may be geminated.

Nota Bene

No diphtongs occur inter consonants, as a nucleus, nor do the falling diphtongs appear geminated in open coda position. They are transformed into geminated, or short monophtongs - and are inconsistently written as monophtongs (the graphemes in brackets), however it isn't compulsory. The allophony according to this schedule:

Front diphtongs on the left, back ones at the right.

Nota Bene

For the sake of simplicity, all phonemes and graphemes have been marked as geminated, even though they need only to be in between consonants to become monophtongs.

Vowel Metaphony
Sēnha namēa suffers from a certain kind of vowel harmony, called progressive vowel metaphony. This urges all vowel phonemes in a lexeme to be of the sam kind of the preceding one. That is: Va = type-a vowel, Vb = type-b vowel, C = consonant: VaVb Vb > VaVa Va

There is one exception, when the metaphony is regressive instead, when a word is initialised by an /e/. The /e/ the gets assimilated by the succeeding consonant: Vb Va Vb > VaVa Va

The metaphony is present, and affect for example the plural endings of many case declensions, where the coda vowel gets completely assimilated by the former.

Horse - thētosya (abs. sing.) > thētosyoi (abs. plu.)

But not; "fire" - kēma (erg. sing.) > *kēmei, but rather kēmai (erg. plu.)'

Nāmaς' metaphony is based upon backness, with eceptions being when /e/, /y/ and /o/ are followed by an [r], which ignores the harmony, and modifies the phoneme.

Vowel Quality
In Sēnha namēa, all vowels possess four full qualities; they may be short and voiced, geminated and voiced, short and nasalised as well as geminated and nasalised. Since nasalisation occurs as a consequence of voiced consonant assimilation and a nasal succeding the vowel, the "r" - phonemes can't be nasalised. A default nasal /m/ will represent the nasalisation.

Phonotactics

 * Any consonant - C
 * Sonorant - S
 * Fricative - F
 * Nasal - N
 * Vowel, also diphtong when final - V

{C}{C A Namian syllable have two different maximal syllabic structures, the by far most common structure is (F)(C)(C)V(C)(F/N) initially, and (F)(C)CV(C)(F/N) medially and finally. The conclusion is that a syllable's maximal consonant cluster is FCC, that a medial and final syllable minimally must look like CV, and that all syllables must terminate in either a F, fricative, a nasal- N, or a vowel - V. Since most lexemes in Nāmaς are disyllabic, a common lexeme might look like this: SCVN.CV, like stānta - state [ˈstaːn.ta]. It should herefore be noted that ēkva - either, is pronounced [ˈɛː.kfa], and not [ˈɛːk.fa].

The second structure is very uncommon, but do occur: (C)CS(C), and sometimes (C)CVS(C), where a sonorant occupy the syllable nucleus. Most of the syllables are free, that is, without the coda. Examples include vŕkaς - wolf [ˈvr̩ˑ.kas], and ēktrva - any of them [ˈɛː.ktr̩ˑ.va]. Interestingly, all syllabic sonorants are half-geminated.

Pro-forms
Out of simplicity, a number of the proforms are represented below. It is basically the famous "table of correlatives for constructed languages". The words listed below, however, does not symbolise the entire inventory. They are all relatively irregular.

Nota Bene

The pronoun section (Masculine, Feminine, Neutral, Dual, Plural) all decline according their phonological attributes, see the "Declension" section. However, the demonstratives, which roughly correspond to the English third person, and the interrogative-relative, are irregular, and follow their own declension. The rest remain in their original form.

Both the goal and the source, adhere to the location, being the benefactive and ablative case respectively. Derivation along the columns is usually made through the relative.
 * 1) Used in fixed phrases: Erēς hāmaron? "It came from somwhere ?" [ærˈ.ɛːs ˈʔaː.ma.rœn].
 * 2) Used in fixed phrases: Vejyīn sajāron! "They're came from everywhere !" [fɛˈ.c͡çɪːn saˈ.caː.rœn]
 * 3) Used in fixed phrases:  Kēnem am sājanna eroς! "I want to go everywhere!" [ˈkɛ.nɛm am saˈ.caː.nːa ə.rɔs]
 * 4) - By some reason.
 * 5) - By any reason.
 * 6) Used in fixed phrases: Sāmma! "By all reasons", "by all means", "you're welcome" [ˈsaː.mːa]
 * 7) Used in fixed phrases: Kīma kēς megōς?' - Nēma. "Why did you do it? -<span id="cke_bm_165S" style="display: none;">  <span id="cke_bm_162S" style="display: none;">  <span id="cke_bm_166S" style="display: none;">  For no reason." [ˈkɪː.ma kɛːs məˈ.ɣɔːs ˈnɛː.ma]<span id="cke_bm_165E" style="display: none;"> <span id="cke_bm_162E" style="display: none;"> <span id="cke_bm_166E" style="display: none;">
 * 8) - For some other reason.

Pronouns
There are three kinds of pronouns in the language, the first person, the second, and the impersonal. Since Nāmaς actually doesn't possess a passive voice, it relies on the impersonal pronoun, which only gives an approximation of passivity. The impersonal is also merged with the reflexive pronouns, whilst the remaining persons use their accusative - the passive conjugation later formed the subjunctive conjugation. Also, the pronominal declension distinguishes the dual number. The declension is irregular. Note that the pronouns here are irregular, the rest, including those in the correlatives table, decline normally.

Exemplum gratia

Sva am vīdhia edoς, svārar kanaς."One can eat, should he want to." [sfa am ˈfɪː.θɪ̯a ˈəð.ɔz, ˈsfaː.rar ˈka.nas]


 * 1) A more formal form of the first person accusative is: mēga
 * 2) A more formal form of the second person accusative is: dāga
 * 3) A more formal form of the impersonal accusative is: sēga

Demonstratives
Since Nāmaς does not have a third person pronoun in the English sense, its demonstratives fulfil this function instead by standing independently without a modified substantive. The demonstratives exist per gender and number. The declension is irregular, but declines relatively well according to the other declensions. The demonstratives are equivalent to English he, she and it, and will in the conjugations be called the third person.

The distal, or normal declension correspond either to he, she and it, or that man, that woman, and that.

The proximal declension differ only with the proximal prefix he, in the masculine and feminine, whilst the neutral gender has the prefix a. They correspond rather well with this man, this woman, and this.

Interrogative
The interrogative pronouns number three, and congruate with the gender, but does not distinguish the dual number. It is rather irregular. It resembles a mixture between the first declension and the demonstratives.

Stress
A pecurious detail of Nāmaς is that it is possible to manipulate the stress to convey different meanings.

There are three diacritics in Nāmaς: The acute accent, "ó" which marks stress on a short syllable, the the grave accent "ò" which may be used to replace the macron "ō". These indicate geminated stress. Stress must always be marked in polysyllabic words, except verbs in the infinitive, and gemination in all words.

In many of the pro-adverbs, a question may be abbreviated from "Shall I put it here?" Vērem dās sdises hyāra? [ˈfɛːr.ɛm daːz ˈstis.ɛs ˈçɛː.ra] into "Here?" in English and "Hyar ā ?", not ''"Hy ā ra?" ''in Namian. By moving the stress to the ultimate syllable in adverbs and nouns, you may produce an interrogative meaning.

Concerning nouns in the nominative case, all stress is irregular, and a multitude of minimal pairs exist: such as "burden" nāutoς [ˈnœːθ.œs], and "meaning" nautōς [nœˈθ.œːs]. Only in certain cases is the stress moved from one syllable to another - "snake" nāga [ˈnaː.ɣa], in the nominative, becomes in the genitive; naganēς [na.ɣa.ˈnɛːs] "snake's".

In verbs, the stress plays an important part in the conjugations: Stress is for example never marked in the infinitive, and always occurs on the first syllable. It also denotes the transition from present tense to the preterite, in all aspects: "We say" means kāham [ˈkaː.ham] in Namian, while "We said" is called kahām [ ka.ˈhaːm]. The stress on all verb conjugations are always regular.

If there are two geminated syllables in one lexeme, the second one's stressed, for example pāraktīra [paː.ra.ˈt͡ʃtɪː.ra], which means "torso".

Voice
Nāmaς only possess one voice, the active. In the Indo-European language, the passive and medio-passive voices merged, only to produce an impersonal pronoun, instead of a voice.

Moods
Nāmaς possesses four moods, which all verbs conjugate by: "I eat." -  Ēdem ēha [ˈɛːð.ɛ̃ ˈɛːɦ.a] "I eat if I am hungry." - Ēdem iaς ēha kānhar [ˈɛːð.ɛ̃i̯as ˈɛːɦ.a ˈkaːŋ.ar]. "I would eat, if I were hungry." -  Ēder iaς ēha kānhar [ˈɛːð.ɛr i̯as ˈɛːɦ.a ˈkaːŋ.ar]. "I should eat, if I were hungry." -  Ēdentem iaς ēha kānhar [ˈɛːdɛ̃dɛ̃ i̯as ˈɛːɦ.a ˈkaːŋ.ar]
 * Indicative - Dīkanta
 * Subjunctive - Sāmmegānta
 * Conditional - Vēranta
 * Optative - Nōmosya

Tenses
In Nāmaς there are three tenses, which denote the temporal place. The difference between present and preterite, past tense, is simply pushed stress. All tenses are dependent on the aspects.

"I talk." - Kāhem ēha [ˈkaː.ɦɛ ˈɛːɦ.a]
 * Present - Prēsens

"I talked" - Kahēm ēha [ka.ˈɦɛː ˈɛːɦ.a]
 * Preterite - Pretēritum

"I will talk" - Kāhesyim ēha [ˈkaː.ɦɛs.ʃɪm ˈɛːɦ.a
 * Future - Vutūrum

Aspects
There are three aspects in the Namian language, and please note that in combination with some moods and tenses, no conjugational forms exists. "I stand up" - Mai sdēsoi [ˈmaɪ̯ ˈstəːsɔɪ̯] "I stand up and talk" - Mai sdēso ia kāhem [ˈmaɪ̯ ˈstəːsɔ ɪ̯a ˈkaː.ɦɛm]
 * Perfective - Mēgasya
 * Imperfective - Sēmasya

"I am active" - Māgoi [ˈmaː.ɣœɪ̯] "I have seen" - Sēhesm [ˈsɛː.ɦɛsm̊]
 * Retrospective - Kātasēhon

Nouns
Nouns in Nāmaς are declined by three genders masculine, feminine and neuter. They are also declined by no less than 9 cases, and the single number, and a simple plural, except in the pronouns, which preserve the dual number.

Genders
The genders in Nāmaς are three in number. The genders are masculine, feminine and neuter. There is no way to predict the class of a noun, except for the fact that female and male humans and animals are included in the feminine and masculin genders, respectively. There is however, a tendency towards abstract nouns to be feminine, and objects tend to be neuter.

Cases
Nāmaς possesses nine cases, and all nouns in a clause must be declined by one, and one only. The cases are rarely followed by a particle, but there are exceptions, since the instrumental and locative cases are often preceded or replaced by such particles as sām [saːm] "with" and im [ɪm] "in, within". The links will display the usage of each case. The cursive text is the native name.
 * 1) Absolutive - Dēkanta
 * 2) Ergative - Mēganta
 * 3) Accusative - Sdīsanta
 * 4) Dative - Dātyas
 * 5) Instrumental - Nīhtyas
 * 6) Locative - Sēdhanta
 * 7) Genitive - Āsvyas
 * 8) Benefactive - Kāryanta
 * 9) Ablative - Kēhon

Declension
There are four declensions in Nāmaς, each declined separately by phonemic differences. Please note that noun endings sometimes are a consequence of vowel metaphony, and diphtongisation. Stress falls on the same syllable no matter case or number, with a few exceptions.

First Declension
The characteristic of this declension are the vowel stems. Nouns decline rather similar between genders, with the exception the instrumental case, and the feminine dative. Please note that the plural of many cases, is a assimilation of the preceeding vowel, and diphtongisation. Since the accusative ends in a bilabial nasal, plural is formed through the third declension of nasal stems. The locative modifies the root in singular, but the stem in plural.

Second declension
Second declension always end a closed fricative coda. The second declension accusative and ablative are always indentical across genders. The accusative plural, and the feminine dative plural, is actually formed through diphtongisation > monophtongisation, [aːɪ̯] > [ɛː], since the coda is'nt open - nor short. The feminine instrumental is declined according to the third nasal declension. The genitive is special and "irregular". Front vowels become /i/ and back vowels becom /u/.

Third Declension
The third declension is based upon nasal stems, and have peculiar function, since it affects the other declensions, especially in the accusative.