Xongeith

Information
'''Made for the August Challenge. I will do this bit later.'''

Consonants
Nasals will always assimilate in place to a following plosive, fricative or trill. The uvular plosive may be pronounced pro-uvular depending on the speaker, but is normally a plain uvular.

Vowels
At the start or ends of words, vowels are automatically surrounded with a glottal stop on their open side: /qa/ would be realized as [qaʔ], and /aq/ would be realized as [ʔaq].

Vowels will assimilate in nasality to a following nasal consonant if it is at the end of a word: /qanan/ would be realized as [qanɑ̃n], and /qa nan/ would be realized as [qaʔ nɑ̃n].

Romanization
Here is a copy and paste friendly version of the romanization: m = m	n = n	ɴ = ng	p = p pʰ = ph	b = b	t = t	tʰ = th d = d	k = k	kʰ = kh	q = q qʰ = qh	ɸ = f	β = v	s = s z = z	ɕ = sh	ʑ = zh	χ = x ʁ = gh	ʜ = h	j = j	r = r ʀ = rr	l = l	a = a	e = e i = i	y = y	o = o	u = u ə = é	ʉ = ú	ɢ = g

Phonotactics
(C)V(V)((f/v)C(f/v)).

The consonant cluster in a coda must follow these rules: It may only have one or two consonants; all the consonants must have the same voice; the f/v may only come before the other consonant if the other consonant is aspirated, and it may only come after the other consonant if that consonant is not aspirated; the syllable with the cluster must be at the end of the word.

Most words have two syllables, but there are some exceptions. The only legal diphthongs are 'ai', 'au', 'ei', and 'ou'. No word roots may end with a trill consonant. For words with two syllables, the stress comes on the first one. With other words the stress is left up to the speaker.

If two vowels find themselves next to eachother, they must be broken up with a ' which represents a glottal stop.

The uvular consonants are the most common in the language.

Example Words
Keikyz = /keikyz/

Ghunúj = /ʁunʉj/

Thúxosf = /tʰʉχosf/

Ghél = /ʁəl/

Kairéfqh = /kairəfqʰ/

Nouns
Nouns are declined according to their gender. The three genders are based upon the three Gods, Tashéth (the God of Water), Néxéx (the God of Land), and Myrref (the God of Sky); therefore, the genders are water, land and sky. Each of the Gods is believed to have created all concepts/objects that have words assigned to them.

There are five different cases: ergative, accusative, absolutive, locative and instrumental. The usage of each will be explained in the syntax section. All of these cases apart from the accusative have singular and plural forms. In the accusative there are singular, plural and dual forms; there used to be dual forms of the other cases in Old-Xongeith, but these fell out of common usage and soon merged with the plural forms. Using the accusative dual is also quite uncommon but it should be used in formal situations.

To decline an noun, one must first apply the case using the following prefixes: (the accusative is the plain form) To create a plural, one must add a bilabial fricative to the end of the last syllable in the word. It must have the same voice as the consonant it is next to (or vowel where it will always be voiced), and if it is next to a aspirated stop it must come before that consonant in order to follow the phonotactics. If the last consonant of the word is already a bilabial fricative, then one must add the vowel '-ú' after that consonant instead of adding another bilabial fricative. Note: in extremely formal, many plurals may be formed by adding '-vu', from which the modern pluralization methods were derived.

Finally, to create the dual accusative, one must add the suffix '-fe' for water and sky nouns, or '-fo' for land nouns.

Here are some examples of declined nouns: To show indefiniteness a noun may recieve the suffix '-i'. This is not required and only used to solve problems of ambiguity, thus a more correct transliteration for it than the English 'a(n)' would be the word 'another'. This is placed after any plural markers.

Here is a list of the common derivational suffixes, applied to the root before any declension. New words may also be created through compounding, however sound change has introduced extra parts between the original words. For example, 'Xongeith' is made from 'Xo' and 'Eith' which means 'person language', but the 'ng' has appeared seemingly without reason.

Adpositional Suffixes
Adpositions are treated as suffixes for nouns and must agree with the gender of the constituent to which they are connected. For example, 'in' in the sentence 'I read the book in the library' could agree with the gender of the words 'book' or 'read', depending on to which it applied. The word 'library' would have the 'in' suffix attached and would be in the accusative case. They also must agree in number with the noun of the prepositional phrase: 'in' would be singular, dual or plural depending on whether 'library' was singular, dual or plural.

Here are the endings for regular adpositions. (Note the many adpositions are irregular and have their forms noted in the lexicon, while the regular ones have their water singular form given only.) Unlike the nouns the dual is still used, even if the noun is actually in the plural.

To clarify: an adpositional suffix must agree with the noun that is part of the PP in number, and the word to which the PP is attached in gender.



In example 1, the PP 'in the library' is attached to the VP with the head 'read', so 'in' would have to agree in gender with 'read'. In example 2, the PP 'in the library' is attached to the NP with the head 'book', so 'in' would have to agree in gender with 'book'. In both examples, 'in' would also have to agree with 'library' in number.

Pronouns
There are four persons, three numbers (singular, dual and plural), four cases and two levels of respect shown in the pronouns. Similar the nouns, the dual forms have started to collapse into the plural, but more forms remain where this has not happened. As far as gender agreement is concerned, all pronouns are land nouns aside from the third person which is explained below.

The first two persons are just like in English (I, me, we, us and you). The third and fourth persons cover the third person in English. The third person is used for an object that has already been written out in full, while the fourth person is used for an object that has not yet been specified. For example, in the sentences "I sleep in my bed. It is very warm." the pronoun 'it' references the bed. However in the sentences "Go to this café. They say it is good." the pronoun 'they' is not shown to reference anything (it doesn't have an antecedent). In the first example, one would use the third person, and in the second example one would use the fourth person. Since one knows the gender of the object being linked to be a third person pronoun, gender agreement may no longer have to assume they are always land nouns. Thus, a third person pronoun's gender is the same as the object's to which it refers.

Here are the respectful forms (used in most situations): Here are the plain forms (used only with close friends); note how the accusative and absolutive have joined together to create a ergative-absolutive morphosyntatic alignment:

Verbs
Verbs fall into five different conjugations of which the first two are most common. There are three tenses: the far past, the close past and the present/future. There are two aspects: the progressive and the aorist. There are several moods, but these are not shown in the morphology.

To negate a verb, one must replace the start of the word with its corresponding negative form. Since verbs must start with an obstruent (i.e. a plosive or fricative) or vowel there are twenty-one ways to negate a verb. If it starts with a vowel, add the prefix 'qh-'; otherwise, use these changes (e.g. f- becomes af-):

Here are some common suffixes for verbs (note the first four can be used as both nouns and adjectives):

Copulas
To show equality between two objects, a prepositional phrase is used with the other object. The PP is placed directly after the noun, which will be in the accusative case if the sentence does not have anything else to it. Here is an example:

I am a boy. am geqau. 1S.ACC boy.AS.

The irregular preposition 'ou' can also mean 'as'. In a sentence like, 'We must work as a team.", the PP 'as a team' would use the preposition 'ou' and be placed after the word 'we'. Here is the translation:

We must work as a team. '''ngasf vésuau kimú mat. '1P.ABS team.AS.LAND.SING work.ú IMP.''

Adjectives and Adverbs
Adjectives come straight after nouns and adverbs come straight after verbs.

Clauses
Clauses usually follow the word VSO. Pronouns and shorter arguments that need to be emphasized are commonly placed before the verb. For transitive verbs, the actor is placed in the ergative case and the object is put into the accusative case. For intrasitive verbs, the subject takes on the absolutive case. These cases change for negative clauses: see the section on negativity. Here is an example of a transitive clause:

We played a game with the footballs. '''jav dénau dénatú phathegasf. '1P.ERG play.AOR.PST  game.ACC football.PLU.INS''

Here is a intransitive clause:

The girl is jumping. '''xirat shamarri. 'jump girl.ABS''

Stative Verbs
Unlike dynamic verbs, stative verbs are created using the regular verb 'iri'. The 'state' is placed after 'iri', which may be then followed by adverbs and the clause's arguments. Here is an example:

I love you. '''ira kheqosu am xed. 'do.AOR.PRES love 1S.ERG 2S.ACC''

Negativity
Sentence that have a negative verb take their arguments in different cases. For example, in the negative clause the actor is no longer doing anything; they cannot be put in the ergative case because that is reserved for arguments that are doing something, so they are put into a different case.

Here are the rules:

1. The subject of a negative intransitive verb is put in the accusative.

2. The actor of a negative transitive verb is put in the absolutive.

3. The object of a negative transitive verb is kept in the accusative.

View these example sentences:

The boy loves the girl. '''ira kheqosu sageq marri. 'do.AOR.PRES love boy.ERG girl.ACC''

The girl doesn't like the boy. '''qhira kheqosu shamarri geq. 'do.NEG.AOR.PRES love girl.ABS boy.ACC''

I jumped. '''xirau ngas. 'jump.PST.AOR 1S.ABS''

I didn't jump. '''ghirrif am. 'jump.PST.AOR.NEG 1S.ACC''

To emphasize the positivity of a clause, reduplication of the first syllable of the verb is used.

I definately jumped. '''xixirau ngas. 'jump.PST.POS 1S.ABS''

Moods
Moods are always shown by using an auxillary verb. Auxillary verbs come just after the verb they correspond to and are not conjugated; conjugation is still shown on the main verb. The main verb becomes just its root plus the suffix -ú, and the auxillary verb is used to show inflection.

There are six moods: the indicative (to state a fact), the mirative (to show suprise), the imperative (to command someone to do somethine), the cohortative (to encourage an action), the subjunctive (to talk about the concept of an action) and the potential (to show a likely action). Each of these have their own auxillary verb, which can be found in the lexicon.

Here is an example of a mirative sentence.

You didn't jump?!? '''edav xirú sapif. '2P.ABS jump.ú MIR.PST.AOR.NEG''

If the verb is 'iri' plus a state then the mood auxillary is put at the start of the clause.

Let him love her. '''mat iru kheqosu je nét. 'IMP state.ú love 4S.ERG 4S.ACC''

Vocabulary
http://conlang.wikia.com/wiki/Xongeith/Vocabulary

Names

In Xongeith names are composed of three parts. The father's family name comes first, then the mother's family name, and then finally the actual name itself. People who have lots of nasal consonants in their name are considered lucky, so a very common name is 'Mana'. Men are usually referred to by their father's family name, and girls are usually referred to by their mother's family name. In informal contexts the actual names are used. Names have genders applied to them; for example, 'Mana' is a water name.

Example text
I am a boy. am geqau.

We two are boys. amva geqauve.

We are boys. av geqauf.

Article 1
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 2
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.