Nāmaς

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

Introduction
Dēna vēȷyanς! - Welcome!

This page uses IPA phonetic notation as standard.

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Nāmaς, ([ˈnaːm.as], translates as "name, noun, meaning or thing"), or Naṃkrthāvāka [ˌnã.kr̩ˑ.ˈtʰaː.faː.xa] "Named constructed 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, "ıāmnas" - 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

Phonology
The following table portraits Nāmaς' phonetic inventory of consonants. All consonants, except aspirated ones, may be geminated, which is phonemic, and represented by doubling by the grapheme. The letter /h/ represents aspiration, and breathy-voice when alone, adjacent to vowels. "Nh", is an exception, being a velar nasal.

Alphabet
Hence the alphabet of Nāmaς':

Please note that the letters /h/ and /ṃ/ are modifiers of adjacent vowels. See the Vowel Quality section.

Lenition
In addition to the consonants above, Nāmaς suffers from severe allophony, lenition, caused when:


 * Consonants lie in medial position between two vowels.
 * Consonants lie in final position in lexemes.

The aspirated consonants become completely spirantisised, whilst the unaspirated phonemes become affricates. The exceptions are the velars, which all become fricatives. The nasal consonants, affricates, trills and approximants remain unaffected.

Please note that the phonemes without brackets are the "basic" consonants.

Nota bene

There is additional allophony, regarding phonation. The pairs [c - ɟ], [ç - ɟ], [v - f], and [w - ʍ], are only represented by one grapheme each: ȷ, hy, v, and vh respectively. Their voiced counterpart is an allophone - see Consonant Assimilation.

The murmur-phonation letter /h/ receives the pronounciation [x] when final in a syllable.

Thus, our conclusion is that the word vāka- voice, speach - shouldn't be pronounced [ˈvaːka], but rather [ˈfaːxa].

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.

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

There are, however, two dialects of Nāmaς;


 * Staṇza, which means "current, dominating".

The Staṇza dialect will be featured in this article, and is the main dialect that distinguishes consonant assimilaton upon voicedness.
 * Ḷestra, which means "golden, posh".

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. 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
The Naṃkrthāvāka suffers from a certain kind of vowel harmony, called progressive vowel metaphony. This urges all vowel phonemes in a lexeme to be of the same 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. However, if the preceding vowel has the same front-back value, it's just diphtongised.


 * Horse - thētosya (abs. sing.) > thētosyoı (abs. plu.)


 * But not; "fire" - kēma (erg. sing.) > *kēmeı, but rather kēmaı (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
There are no less than six different vowel qualities: The vowels will be represented by a default /a/. Please note that any nasal can nasalise the preceding vowel, however in non-voiced environments, only the letter "ṃ" may.
 * Short and geminated Oral
 * Short and geminated Nasal
 * Short and geminated Murmured

Nota Bene

When /h + vowel/ is preceded by a vowel, a glottal stop is inserted.

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

The second structure is very uncommon, but does 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 vṙkas - wolf [ˈvr̩ˑ.kas], and ēktrva - any of them [ˈɛː.ktr̩ˑ.va]. Interestingly, all syllabic sonorants are half-geminated.

Stress
A pecurious detail of Nāmaς is that it is possible to manipulate the stress to convey different meanings. In Nāmaς' linguistics called stress apophony.

There are four diacritics in Nāmaς:


 * The acute accent, "ó", or the dot "ȯ" which marks stress on a short syllable.


 * 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 must be marked in all words.

In many of the pro-adverbs, a question may be abbreviated from "Shall I put it here?" Vērem dās sdıses 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.ʔa̤m] in Namian, while "We said" is called kahām [ ka.ˈʔa̤ːm]. 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".

Word Order
Considering the fusional nature of the Naṃkrthāvāka, the word order's rather free. It does possess tendencies towards SOV and SVO. It sould however be noted that the word order may alter depending on transitivity. Only SOV, VSO and SVO orders will be presented here.

Transitive Orders
SVO with ergative verbs is rather common, similarly to English. Since focus lies on the patient, the verb phrase often moves further back.

Intransitive Orders
Intransitive with SV(O) is not very common, yhough it occurs. Since focus lies on the verb, VS(O) is much more common. Please not that the pronoun may be dropped, but it's not custom regarding intransitive verbs.

Noun Phrase
The Naṃkrthāvāka does not possess particular positions for the adpositional phrase, hence it will be prepositional for the sake of simplicity. It is quite similar to English. Possessive noun phrases can be formed through a possessive pronoun, or a dative construction. However, they remain after the head noun.

Verb Phrase
In the Naṃkrthāvāka, adverbial phrases always precede the modified verb. The noun phrase, however, depends on the transitivity, and mere taste - see further up.

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 in form, though not always in inflection.

Nota Bene

The pronoun rows (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 ˈa̤ː.ma.rœn].
 * 2) Used in fixed phrases: Veȷyīn saȷāron! "They're came from everywhere !" [fɛˈ.c͡çɪːn saˈ.caː.rœn]
 * 3) Used in fixed phrases:  Kēnem am sāȷanna 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", "excuse me" [ˈsaː.mːa]
 * 7) Used in fixed phrases: "No reason", "You're welcome" [ˈnɛː.ma]
 * 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.

Pronominal Declension

 * 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.

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

Proximal Declension
The proximal declension differ only with the proximal prefix he, in the masculine and feminine, whilst the neutral gender dual gets 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.

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) Absolutive1 - Dēkanta
 * 2) Ergative1 - Mēganta
 * 3) Accusative - Sdīsanta
 * 4) Dative - Dātyas
 * 5) Instrumental - Nīhtyas
 * 6) Locative - Sēdhanta
 * 7) Genitive - Āsvyas
 * 8) Benefactive - Kāryanta
 * 9) Ablative - Kēhon


 * 1) The ergative and absolutive cases are not distinguished in the nominal declension, hence they form the Nominative case.

Nominal 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.

Nota bene

Please note that all neuter nouns with the "-ns" ending also decline by this table. This includes the supine, which is formed through this declension. It is declined identically to the neuter "-n,m,nh" ending.

It is however called the "Special Neuter", hence "s"-neuter.

Fourth Declension
The fourth declension is by far the smallest, with a minority of the nouns. All of the words end in a diphtong, but not all diphtongs are present as lexeme codas. There are three possible diphtongs that may terminate a word, the rest form hiatus: -au, -eı, -aı. All will be displayed in this table. There is no difference between genders.

Please note that there is no distinction of plural in the nominative, nor in the ablative.

Forms
Nāmaς distinguishes five different adjectival forms, which are all perceived as functions of the corresponding noun in Nāmaς: Predicative adjectives are conjuncted to the object with copulae or another verb, that is, a predicate. The adjectival predicative is indeclineable to case and number, but not gender. It can be compared. Please note that the adjectival predicative above in reality is derived from the nominal predicative, declined to the accusative case. The nominal form stands independently with a demonstrative, to represent the full object. In Nāmaς it's identical to the nominative attributive form.
 * Predicative
 * Nominal

The modifier form is as close to the noun as possible, in usage where the object is not only described, but modified with another noun. It is common for this form to merge wıth the modified object, in which case the objects original stress is preserved. Uncomfortably long compund words, are instinctively avoided. This form is identical to the nominative attributive singular form - and sometimes the original noun, and is dependent upon the genera.
 * Modifier

Attributive adjectives differ in the sense that they congruate with the nouns regarding case, number and gender. They describe a feature of the object in a state. The last form describes a verb, in which manner it's conducted. It is not perceived as a lexical category in Neumatic linguistics. Please note that adverbs decline by gender and number of the verbs subject.
 * Attributive
 * Adverbial

Adjectival Declension
The adjectival declensions are similar to the nominal ones; there are four of them, declined according to phonological features. However, they are not similar considering the vowel metaphony - adjectival āryasto becomes āryastoı, whilst the expected nominal āryasta would become āryastaı. The inserted /o/ is a relic from the older languages, where gender played bigger role in declension.

First Declension
The first declension adjectives, just like their nominal counterparts, have an open lexeme coda. Their predicative ending is always /-m/. Nota Bene
 * 1) The attributive forms are identical to the nominal ones.
 * 2) The predicative is the cognate noun's accusative case.
 * 3) The ergative attributive forms the modifiers.

Second Declension
Second declension adjectives are formed by second declension nouns, which possess fricative lexeme codas.

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, and the optative may be combinated with other moods:

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.

Aspects
There are four aspects in the Namian language, and please note that in combination with some moods and tenses, no conjugational forms exists. The present imperfect fits the the description "Gnomic" aspect rather than "Imperfect", and features obvious facts, as well as use for stating general occurrences.

Transitivity
Specifically, Nāmaς possesses an unique trait - it distinguishes transitivity, not just dynamic and stative verbs, but transitivity. The characteristic is known foremostly in Uralic languages and Siberian ones. Transitivity is, how many, and if, a verb accepts a direct object. If it doesn't, it is called an intransitive verb. This is Nāmaς' basic verb form. The transitive verbs however, can take atleast one direct object, they are formed through vowel apophony, where the first vowel of the root is altered, according to a pattern. Nevertheless, the language's finesse is the fact that the absolute majority of all Nāmaς' verbs, are ambitransitive, and can stand both with and without an object. However, since the transitivity is marked morphologically on the verb it doesn't count as ambitransitive - but in Nāmaς it's perceived as the same verb. Sometimes the conjugation distinguishes the intransitive-transitive states: "Dekaς" hēnta "Dıkeς" [ˈdɛ.ɣaz ˈʔɛ̤ːnta ˈdı.ɣɛz]
 * "I go" - Ērem eha [ˈæːr.ɛm ˈɛː.ʔa̤ ]
 * "I kill the man" - Mērthoı o anthrās [ˈməːr.tʰɔɪ̯ ɔ an.ˈtʰraːs]
 * "To instruct" versus "to show".

And sometimes stative-dynamic verbs: "Magaς hēnta "Megeς" [ˈma.ɣaz ˈʔɛ̤ːnta ˈmɛɣ.ɛz]
 * "To be active" versus "to do".

Some verbs distinguishes both of the above, depending on context: "Vedhaς" hēnta "Vıdhıς" [ˈfɛ.θas ˈʔɛ̤ːnta ˈfıθ.ıs]
 * "To know" or "to be able" versus "To know (someone)".

Supine
The Namian supine is equivalent of that of the English gerund. It is essentially the verbal noun of Nāmaς, and can be found in phrases such as: In Nāmaς, the supine is used to form both the verbal nouns, as well as the optative mood, and the three participles. Since the supine always terminate in "-nς", it is classed as third declension, and thus declined thereafter. The formations then come from the third declension special neuter accusative.
 * "I like dancing"
 * "It's important to know" - "To know is important"

Please note that no matter it declines and acts like a noun, it is perceived as a verbal form, hence you use the intransitive when it is the object:

Kānem nākantam - "I like dancing" [ˈkaː.nɛm ˈnaː.kan.ta]

Participle
In Nāmaς there are three active participles, since no passive voice exists. They all decline according to normal adjective or adverb declensions, depending on context. The meaning is displayed in English with relative clauses.

Infinitive
In Nāmaς no true infinite form exists, all forms are conjugated, and where English uses an infinitive to represent the main verb, and and conjugate the auxiliary verb, Nāmaς uses the perfective subjunctive form, conjugated accordingly. Please consider the following example:

In more colloquial language, it is possible to completely ignore any inflection of the main verb, and instead rely on the bare stem. In the above mentioned sentence, a youngster would perhaps express it: "Ēha kāhem vedh". Please note that the pure stem is "ved-", but the aspiration - and spirantisation - cannot contradict the Phonotactics.

Intransitive
The indicative intransitive conjugation forms verbs to fit into factual main clauses, however, without any direct objects. For the optative mood, insert "-ant-" onto the stem.

The subjunctive intransitive formations of the verb, form hypothetical actions in dependent clauses, and bound actions in the main clauses - with no direct objects involved. There is no distinction between the perfect and imperfect aspects in the subjunctive.

Please note that all "-r" endings depende on whether the verb is transitive or not, as well as if it has an intitial back or front vowel. Front intransitive gives: -ar, back intransitive gives: - or, whilst you get an -ir and -er with front and back transitive verbs, respectively.

Interestingly, the subjunctive also happens to be the remaining of the passive voice - without the uses.

Intransitive Conjugation of ved-

Transitive
The transitive indicative is used to form main clauses with factual content, with a direct object. The transitive stem is constructed through vowel apophony in the stem. The apophony is identical to that of the monophtongisation of diphtongs, in the "Diphtongs" section.

The subjunctive intransitive formations of the verb, form hypothetical actions in dependent clauses, and bound actions in the main clauses - with at least one direct object. There is no distinction between the perfect and imperfect aspects in the subjunctive.

Interestingly, the subjunctive also happens to be the remaining of the passive voice - without the uses.

Intransitive Conjugation of vıd-

Irregular verbs
Other than these conjugations, Nāmaς possesses a number of irregular conjugations. Considering the fact that is an artificial language, there ought to be more than a "number". These have so far been mapped:
 * Eos - the copula "to be"
 * Kara- to be active, to do
 * Vaga - to speak, to say
 * Vega - to go, travel, come
 * Daha - to be generous, to give

Adpositions
Nāmaς has a relatively free word order, thus it would be incorrect to call the words "prepositions", or "postpositions". There is a tendency towards placing an adposition before the modified nouns, though it isn't compulsory.

Adpositions in Nāmaς are declineable, but decline not to case, but rather gender, person - and number. There are two forms of the adpositions - the independent form: And the bound form, which replace and decline with the person: Please note that the dependent form at times include an additional consonant, should the independent form terminate in a vowel. This form is used in the first person and impersonal declension.
 * Ērem na vyīa - I walk on the street [ˈæː.rɛm na ˈfʂɪː.a]
 * Is hāmem - You're next to me [ɪs ˈa̤ː.mɛm]

There is no first or second person neuter singular. The plural neuter refers to mixed collectives of men and women. Nota Bene

All the objects of the adpositions must decline by case - should they not have been declined, the meaning could turn ambiguous:

"Haı na vya", can, when declined accordingly, mean both:
 * Haı na vyīa - It is on the street. [a̤i̯ na fʂɪː.a]
 * Haı na vya - It is the street's. [a̤i̯ na fʂa]

Composition
Compound words, in all lexical categories alike (except adpositions), form according to set number of rules, depending on the nature of the compound.

Appendices
A number of appendices gives a quick reach to Nāmaς in depth.
 * Nāmaς - Copulae
 * Nāmaς - Adpositions
 * Nāmaς - Expressions
 * Nāmaς - Numerals