Classical Wisconsin

Classical Wisconsin (natively: Mascodudûstiquamovem MASCAVA("solid")+DUDUS("milk")+TIQUAM("head")+MOVEM("speech")3sg, of obscure meaning was the classical speech of the Wisconsin Empire, which at its greatest extent in the first century CE extended through most of the northern shores of the Great Lakes through Quebec and into New England.

Classification and Dialects
Classical Wisconsin is an Algonquian trade language. The bulk of the lexicon is Ojibwe, but the language draws on Cree, Natick, and other Algonquian languages of the northeastern Americas.

Vowels
There are two diphthongs, /ai/, written ae, and /aʊ/. written au.

Historical phonology
The phonology of Classical Wisconsin is fairly simple and sonorous. It generally continues to map well into the source Algonquian languages. But there have been a number of significant changes.

Consonants
A chain shift has altered the realization of a number of fricative sounds inherited by the language. Originally, voiced sounds were distinguished from voiceless sounds by strong aspiration and pre-aspiration in addition to voicing. Some of the voiceless aspirated sounds become consonant clusters in Classical Wisconsin.


 * 1) ʃ > s
 * 2) ʰs > st*
 * 3) ʧ > ts*
 * 4) ʒ > r
 * 5) ʤ > tr*
 * 6) ʔ > h or 0

* The outcome of these changes can be altered by rules that require distance between consonant clusters.

Other sound changes include:


 * 1) Between vowels, b > f
 * 2) Word-final -n > -m; -in > -em; -on > -um

Classical Wisconsin often preserves proto-Central Algonquian *l where Ojibwe has n. Classical Wisconsin also frequently shows voiceless stops where Ojibwe has voiced stops.

Vowels
The inherited vowels from Proto-Algonquian were short a e i o and long ā ē ī ō. This set is expanded to a full set of both short and long a e i o u in Classical Wisconsin. First, ō > u. Then, all vowels became subject to shortening or lengthening by virtue of the language's one-two prosodic rules, in which vowels in stressed syllables were potentially lengthened and vowels in unstressed syllables were nearly always reduced.

Consonant clusters
The following combinations are the permitted consonant clusters in Classical Wisconsin. When the cluster appears different in writing, this is noted in parentheses:
 * bl, br, cl, cn, cr, cs (x), ct, cv (qu), dr, dv, fv, gl, gn, gr, gs, gv (gu), lc, ld, lf, lm, ls, lt, lv. mb, mp, mv, nc, nd, ns, nt, nv, pl, pr, ps, pt, pv, rb, rc, rd, rg, rm, rn, rp, rs, rt, rv, sb, sc, scl, scr, scv (squ) sl, sm, sn, sp, st, str, sv, tc, tl, tr, ts.

Clusters that are otherwise not allowed are simplified; the non-plosive element is often dropped, or the entire cluster is devoiced. Generally, only one consonant cluster can appear in a syllable; a syllable is not permitted to both start and end with an otherwise permitted cluster. Groups with the semivowel v are an exception to this rule.

Word finals
Consonants appearing word finally are routinely devoiced unless protected by a nasal. The following consonants and clusters can appear word-finally:


 * c, f, h, l, m, p, r, s, t, nd, ns, nt, st. Only invariant words may end in -n,

The groups -im and -om change to -em and -um. -Om may appear in the group -vom.

Prosodic features
The stressed syllables of Classical Wisconsin are quite regular and follow metrical principles. Generally speaking, stressed and unstressed syllables alternate, giving each word either an iambic (common) or trochaic (rare) rhythm. For example, the native name of the language follows this pattern:

Bowel length is impacted by these prosodic patterns. Vowels that find themselves in a stressed position are subjected to lengthening, especially if that is also an open syllable. Long vowels in a weak position are invariably shortened.

When in a weakened position:
 * 1) originally short a is unchanged
 * 2) originally short e becomes i
 * 3) originally short i is unchanged
 * 4) originally short o becomes u
 * 5) originally short u is unchanged.

The diphthong ae becomes e when shortened by weak position. The diphthong au typically becomes o in any combining position.

Vowel on vowel

 * 1) a + a > &acirc; if strong, a if weak.
 * 2) a + e, i > ae /aɪ/ if strong, e if weak
 * 3) a + o, u > au /aʊ/ if strong, o if weak
 * 4) au often > o in combinations regardless of syllable strength
 * 5) e + a, o, u > ia, io, iu.
 * 6) e + e, i > &ecirc; if strong, e if weak
 * 7) i + a, o, u > ia, io, iu.
 * 8) i + e, i > &icirc; if strong, i if weak
 * 9) o + a, e, i > va, ve, vi
 * 10) o + o, u > &ocirc; if strong, u if weak
 * 11) u + a, e, i > ''va, ve, vi
 * 12) o + o, u > &ucirc; if strong, u if weak

Vowel and consonant

 * 1) Vb + V > VfV
 * 2) c + i > ci /ʦɪ/
 * coV, cuV > quV unless the V is u.
 * co, cu + u > c&ucirc if strong, cu if weak

Consonant on consonant''

 * m, n + f ? mb
 * m, n + c, d, g, t ? nC
 * m, when word final, may become n when suffixes are added

Basic grammatical categories
Classical Wisconsin words inflect in a number of grammatical categories. Both nouns and verbs inflect for gender, number, and person.

Gender
Classical Wisconsin has two genders: animate and inanimate. Genders are semantic and largely natural rather than grammatical. Some nouns may switch genders or be ambiguous as to gender. Often, there is a change in meaning. For example, mitiqua can be either animate or inanimate. The animate version means "tree" and has the plural mitiquac; the inanimate version means "wood, timber, lumber" and has the plural mitiqual.
 * People, animals, large trees, rivers, astronomical features like the sun and moon, vehicles, and just about anything that moves on its own initiative or power are animate.
 * All other words are inanimate.

Number
All Classical Wisconsin nouns are obligately marked for singular or plural.

Person
Taeocitsitavam HORSE(tae).WARRIOR(ocitsita).3obv "Sir Not Appearing In This Film." Person is a more expansive category in Classical Wisconsin than it is in Indo-European languages.

The first person plural contains exclusive and inclusive forms. The inclusive forms typically combine first and second person forms.

The third person, both singular and plural, contains two forms, an "proximate" form for the narrator or point of view character, and an "obviate" form for other third person characters, or unspecified persons. The proximate and obviate forms are obligatory, and answer the same purpose as do nominative and accusative forms in other language; they are used to specify who acts and who is acted on.

Hierarchy of persons
Transitive verbs may take arguments that specify two persons. When they do, there is a hierarchy that indicates a presumptive order as to who does what to whom; this is the hierarchy of persons. The hierarchy goes:


 * 2 > 1 > 3.prox > 3.obv

This hierarchy takes the place of nominative and accusative marking. In the absence of specific marking, if the arguments of a verb "hit" specify "you" and "me", the hierarchy makes the unmarked form mean "you hit me". To specify "I hit you", a suffix (usuall -ar) is added to indicate that the order presumed by the hierarchy is not being followed.

Nouns
All nouns in Classical Wisconsin are marked as being singular or plural. Plural nouns are identified by gender as well as number; the plural suffix for animate nouns is -c (-ac after consonants) and the plural suffix for inanimate nouns is -l (-al after consonants).

Possessives
The inflexions for possessive nouns resemble those for verbs.

Inanimate: maxem "shoe"
There are several things to note about these paradigms that are generally true throughout the inflectional system of Classical Wisconsin. The main inflections consist of reduced pronouns prefixed to the nouns, and suffixes that complete the specification of person and of number, both of the possessor and the underlying noun.

The personal prefixes do not occur in every form; in subordinated forms they are entirely absent, for example. When they occur, they take the forms:


 * 1) 1p. ni-, nir- before vowels;
 * 2) 2p. ci-, cir- before vowels; note also that this prefix is used for the inclusive first person;
 * 3) 3p. o-, or- before unstressed vowels, v- before initially stressed vowels.

The obviate third person form does not take a pronominal prefix, but takes a suffix marking the noun as obviate. The obviate form serves both for singular and plural third persons.

Because the other possessed forms take prefixes but the obviate does not, casting the noun into the obviate form alters the rhythm (CW giv&ocirc;n, "heartbeat") of the word, and changes the stressed syllables. This is a regular phonological process. The differences between a one syllable root (vos) and a two syllable root (maxem) change the realization of some of the string of suffixes; here, they regularly change -lau- to lo-. All of these processes will reappear throughout the inflections of Classical Wisconsin.

Nouns possessing other nouns appear in apposition: nivos taeanac Ip.FATHER.sg 3p.obv.HORSE.pl "my father's horses."

Diminutive
Other Classical Wisconsin noun inflections are less complicated. There are diminutives formed by the suffix -ns (-ens after a consonant:


 * maqua "bear" > maquans "little bear"
 * cinefic "snake" > cineficens "little snake"
 * ileni "man" > ilenins "little man"

Pejorative
The pejorative suffix is -is:
 * cetic "knee" > ceticis "good-for-nothing knee"; niceticisac "my good for nothing knees".
 * ileni > ilenis "good for nothing men"

Locative
The locative suffix is -ni, after consonants -eni


 * nipi "water" > nipini "by, on, in the water"
 * ciric "sky" > ciriceni "by, on, in the sky"; civosalau ciriceni /ʦɪ.'wo.sə.laʊ ʦɪ.'ri.kɛ.ni/ "Our Father in heaven"

Verbs
The basic structure of a Classical Wisconson verb contains the following parts:


 * 1) PERSONAL PREFIX.  Not present in all tenses or constructions.  Usually 0 in the third person.
 * 2) TENSE MARKER. 0 in the present tense.
 * 3) MODAL PREFIXES. Optional.  May be more than one.
 * 4) ROOT.  May be compound, in which case it may incorporate an object.
 * 5) Certain MODAL SUFFIXES go here.
 * 6) ARGUMENT. Specifies the person acting, and the person acted upon.

Verbs fall into four conjugations, defined not by the phonetic shape of the root, but by the arguments they can take:


 * 1) Intransitive verbs with animate subjects (VIA)
 * 2) Intransitive verbs with inanimate subjects (VII)
 * 3) Transitive verbs with animate objects (VTA)
 * 4) Transitive verbs with inanimate objects (VTI)

The lemma, or citation form, of a Classical Wisconsin verb is the third person proximate singular present. This form typically has no personal prefix and the simplest arguments. Generally speaking the animate verbs have more complex forms than the inanimate verbs, and the transitive verbs have more complex forms than the intransitive ones.