Quai'op

I made this language purely to keep the amount of syllables to a minimum.

Oh yeah, I'm really into this absolutive-ergative...thingy.

=Phonetics=

Vowels:

a [â]

e [ǝ]

i  [i], [ɛ] after q, qh, c, ch, ɣ'

o [ɑ]

u [u], [ɔ] after q, qh, c, ch, ɣ'

y [y], [œ] after q, qh, c, ch, ɣ'

Consonants:

'  [ʔ]

c [k]

f [f]

h [x]

j [ʧ]

m [m]

n  [ŋ]

p [p]

q [q]

r  [r], [j] as a medial (between initial consonant and nuclear vowel)

s [θ]

t [t]

Digraphs:

ch [kʱ]

jh  [ʧ ʱ]

ph [pʱ]

qh [qʱ]

th  [tʱ]

ɣ'   [h]

c'h [kx]

pfh [pfʱ]

tsh [tsʱ]

All other consonants written in succession are pronounced separately.

Syllable Structure
-The fundamental unit of Quaj'op is the syllable.

-A syllable must begin with a consonant. Any above consonant can begin a word. Other consonant clusters can begin a word: c', ch', f', h', j', p', q', s', t', cr, fr, jr, pr, qr, tr, chr, jhr, phr, qhr, thr, ɣ'r, pf, ts.

-A syllable must have a nuclear vowel, a main vowel, usually a, e, or o.

-If the nuclear is not a, e, or o, it should have an accent on it.

-Any vowel except a or e can be a medial, or a vowel before the main vowel. A medial vowel can only come after consonants and consonant clusters that do not contain ' or r (although ɣ', r, and ' can have medial vowels)

-Only vowels i, u, and y or unaspirated (not digraphs ending in h) consonants listed under "consonants" can be used to end a word. A noun can be glottalized (cut off with the back of the throat), marked by a ' after the vowel.

Examples of Syllables:

Thrún

Pyúh

Cay'

Nyeu

Jya's

Qruí

Not Syllables:

Thin (missing accent)

Ay (must begin with consonant)

Phryan (medial vowels not allowed after consonant clusters except r, ɣ', or ')

Tiún' (apostrophe goes after vowel)

Timing and Stress
-Syllables with a nuclear "a" recieve a heavy stress, similar to the falling tone in Mandarin Chinese, or a single-syllable sharp command in English.

-Syllables with a nuclear "a" are twice as long as other syllables.

-At the end of a syllable, c, j, p, q, and t ar treated as a syllable.

=Basic Grammar=

Being a syllable-conserving language, there are several parts of speech:

Nouns:

-Absolutive-Ergative Noun: subject or object of a verb

-Dative/Genitive Noun: the reciever of the object, or the owner of the object that preceeds it

-Instructive Noun Dative: the instrument or method used to preform the action

-Topical Noun: what the topic of the conversation is

-Distributive Noun: for every "whatever"

-Benefactive Noun: whatever the verb is benefitting

-Aversive Noun: whatever is trying to be avoided by the verb

-Adessive Noun: whatever the object represented by the preceeding noun noun is on top of

-Apudessive Noun: whatever the object represented by the preceeding noun is next to

-Elative Noun: whatever the object represented by the preceeding noun noun is outside of

-Appositive Noun: renames the noun that comes before it

-Locative Noun: where the object represented by the preceeding noun is

-Comparative Noun 1: whatever [verb]s more than the preceeding noun

-Comparative Noun 2: whatever [verb]s the same amount as the preceeding noun

-Comparative Noun 3: whatever [verb]s less than the preceeding noun

-Temporal Noun 1: whatever [verb]s after than the preceeding noun

-Temporal Noun 2: whatever [verb]s before than the preceeding noun

-Temporal Noun 3: whatever [verb]s at the time of the preceeding noun

-Multiplicative Noun: shows unit of measure

-Two Nouns in One Syllable (i.e. cruon, meaning subj: I, obj: you)

-Terminative Noun: up until whatever

-Causative Noun

Verbs

Adjectives/Adverbs

Grammatical Particles

-Prepositions: used only when there is no prepositional phrase syllable

-Non-Desctiptive Adjectives

-Part of Speech-Modifiers

-Tense, Mood-Modifiers

-Random Sentence Information

Numbers

Nouns are always glottalized. Other rules that determine the exact part of speech of a noun are loosely followed.

Word Order
The basic word order is:

Absolutive

Verb

Instructive

Dative

Ergative

Changing Parts of Speech
Verb to-

-noun: súq (noun as agent), 'op (noun as patient), thuar (noun as instrument), hou (noun as place), 'iap (act or state/infinitive)

-adjective: 'yet

Noun to-

-verb: juín

-adjective: thoh

Adjective to-

-noun: c'hum

-verb: jhoi

Absolutive-Ergative Particles
In Quaj'op, the ergative comes after the verb. The ergative tells what is undergoing most of the action. For example, in the sentence, "I broke the pencil," the pencil is undergoing the action, so it is the ergative. In the sentence, "The pencil broke," the ergative is the pencil.

In Quaj'op, the aboslutive comes before the verb. The absolutive is the agent, or what does the action to something else.

For linking verbs, the linked nouns are listed after the verb.

The table below shows the nouns that contain two pronouns, serving different purposes.


 * {| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"

! colspan= 6 | Absolutive



! rowspan= 4| Ergative

! colspan= 1|

! colspan= 1| First Person (I/we)

! colspan= 1| Second Person (you)

! colspan= 1| Third Person (he/she/it/they)

! colspan= 1| Reflexive (oneself)



! First Person


 * phau


 * phún


 * phyop


 * phuec



! Second Person


 * chau


 * chún


 * chyop


 * chuec



!Third Person


 * jhau


 * jhún


 * jhyop


 * jhuec


 * }

=Example text=

Quaj'op:

'U. Peh jhier 'ú qyo' 'ú quaj thuar pie'p.

Qie. Chuec pro's ɣ'et qho'h myet qo'h siúm qho'p.

Gloss:

one. only exist one language one speak-ACT earth-LOC

two. it.turns.out.that migration-TEMP3 find plain arrive plain-TERM settle plain-LOC.

English:

1. And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.

2. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.