Amoco

Progress 58%
	Stats Nouns 93% Verbs 80% Adjectives 67% Syntax 15% Words 0 of 1500

Amoco '
Type
Polysynthetic
Alignment
Split-S
Head direction
Final
Tonal
Yes
Declensions
Yes
Conjugations
Yes
Genders
No
Nouns decline according to...
Case	Number
Definiteness	Gender
Verbs conjugate according to...
Voice	Mood
Person	Number
Tense	Aspect

General information

Amoco is a language spoken by a small community in Paraguay. Its relationship to other languages is unknown, though it is assumed to be an isolate. Its ancestral structure appears have some similarities to Guarani, and it may additionally have been influenced by some other nearby language families. It was first described by Spanish missionaries, and its modern writing system is a subset of the Latin alphabet with grapheme values based on Spanish.

Phonology

Consonants

Amoco has 39 consonants, notable for extensive coarticulation. It historically had a simpler system with 17 consonants, but is now generally analyzed with a more complex consonant system due to mergers and a transfer of certain vowel qualities onto consonants in the form of coarticulation. In the development from Old Amoco, vowel frontness and rounding would be transferred onto the consonant, with consonants becoming palatalized before /e i/ and labialized before /o u/. Coronals and velars, as well as /h/, merged to become true palatals before front vowels. Palatalized uvular stops later became velar. /h/ became [ɸʷ] before a back round vowel and /gʷ/ became [w].

	Labial			Alveolar		Palatal	Velar			Uvular		Glottal
	Plain	Labial	Palatal	Plain	Labial	Plain	Plain	Labial	Palatal	Plain	Labial	Plain
Aspirated				tˢ	tˢʷ	cʰ	kʰ	kʷʰ	kʰʲ	qʰ	qʷʰ
Ejective	pʼ	pʷʼ	pʲʼ	tʼ	tʷʼ	cʼ	kʼ	kʷʼ	kʲʼ	qʼ	qʷ	ʔ
Voiced	b	bʷ	bʲ	d	dʷ	ɟ	g
Fricative	ɸ	ɸʷ	ɸʲ	s	sʷ	ç						h
Lateral Approximant				l	lʷ	ʎ
Approximant						j		w

Ejectives tend to be only weakly so, often pronounced tenuis in unstressed syllables. Voiced stops may become fricatives intervocalically. Every consonant in Amoco also has a nasalized variant. For most consonants, this takes the form of a prenasalization, but the voiced stops become simple nasal stops. Fricatives and tenuis stops become voiced in addition to prenasalization.

Vowels

Amoco phonetically exhibits a five vowel system /a e i o u/. It historically had a twelve-vowel system identical to that of modern Guarani, but vowel frontness, rounding, and nasalization became transferred onto consonants. It is sometimes represented as having two vowels /a ɨ/ due to morphemic patterns of consonants with a particular following vowel grade carrying meaning. In this model, [e i o u] are analyzed as realizations of underlying /a ɨ/ after particular consonant coarticulations. [i u] are realizations of /ɨ/ after a palatal and labial consonant, respectively, and [e o] are realizations of /a/ after a palatal and labial consonant. In stressed non-word-final syllables, /e/ and /o/ may be diphthongized to [jɛ] and [wɔ], respectively. Amoco also has six diphthongs, corresponding to any combination of a high vowel followed by an offglide /j w/.

Amoco still retains an archiphoneme conventionally notated /ɨ/, though it is never pronounced as such. If it is followed by a palatal consonant, it is pronounced [i]. If followed by a labial consonant, it is pronounced [u]. Word-finally following a nasal/voiced stop, a lateral, or a sibilant, as well as a non-lateral approximant where it may be transferred to the previous syllable as an offglide, it is dropped entirely. Elsewhere, it is pronounced [e].

Phonotactics

Basic Amoco syllables follow the pattern (N)CV(G), where C is a consonant, V is a vowel, (N) represents phonemic nasalization, and G is a semivowel /j w/ that may only come after high vowels. Consonant clusters may not occur in Amoco except where original /ɨ/ has been elided.

Tone

Amoco exhibits word tone in polysyllabic words. One syllable in each word carries an accent, either high or low. The accented syllable tends to be in the last three syllables. In words with high tone accent, pitch starts low, gradually rises, peaks on the accented syllable, and drops off. In words with a low tone accent, pitch starts mid, drops heavily to the accented syllable, and remains low for the rest of the rod. Low tone cannot occur word-initially.

Writing System

The writing system of Amoco is based on Spanish orthography. It does not reflect word tone or the distinction between aspirated and ejective stops.

a [a]

b [b]

c [kʰ],[kʼ] (used before <a o u>)

ch [cʰ],[cʼ]

d [d]

e [e]

f [ɸ]

g [g] (used before <a o u>)

hi [j]

hu [w]

i [i]

j [h]

l [l],[ʎ]

m [m]

n [n]

ñ [ɲ]

ng [ŋ]

o [o]

p [pʰ],[pʼ]

q [qʰ],[qʼ]

qu [kʰ],[kʼ] (used before <e i>)

s [s]

sh [ç]

t [tʼ]

ts [tˢ]

u [u]

y [ɟ]

Grammar

Nouns

Nouns in Amoco belong to one of five featural classes optionally marked by prefixing. The prefixes carry grouping information, being marked for singular, dual, or collective grouping, and can be used for derivation or establishing a referent for anaphora. Some of the prefixes decline according to a historical paradigm of alternation between aspirates and nasals.

Class No.	Semantics	Sing.	Dual	Coll.
1	males, tools	sʷo	sʷulʷu	ʔa
2	females, plants, places, large objects	mʲe	mʲiʎi	ɸʲe
3	fire, water, alcohol, fluids	a	ɨlɨ	-
4	food, objects	nʷo	nʷulʷu	tˢʷo
5	containers, units	ŋʲe	ŋʲiʎi	qʼɨ

The quantities marked by prefixes are not true grammatical numbers. They are called groupings because of the way that they behave with quantifiers. Inflecting the prefix indicates a pair or group of things, and any cardinal number or other quantifier will count the number of pairs/groups rather than the number of objects.

Vocabulary

No.	English
1	I	—
2	you (singular)	—
3	he	—
4	we	—
5	you (plural)	—
6	they	—
7	this	—
8	that	—
9	here	—
10	there	—
11	who	—
12	what	—
13	where	—
14	when	—
15	how	—
16	not	—
17	all	—
18	many	—
19	some	—
20	few	—
21	other	—
22	one	—
23	two	—
24	three	—
25	four	—
26	five	—
27	big	—
28	long	—
29	wide	—
30	thick	—
31	heavy	—
32	small	—
33	short	—
34	narrow	—
35	thin	—
36	woman	—
37	man (adult male)	—
38	man (human being)	—
39	child	—
40	wife	—
41	husband	—
42	mother	—
43	father	—
44	animal	—
45	fish	—
46	bird	—
47	cat	—
48	dog	—
49	louse	—
50	snake	—
51	worm	—
52	tree	—
53	forest	—
54	stick	—
55	fruit	—
56	seed	—
57	leaf	—
58	root	—
59	bark	—
60	flower	—
61	grass	—
62	rope	—
63	skin	—
64	meat	—
65	blood	—
66	bone	—
67	fat	—
68	egg	—
69	horn	—
70	tail	—
71	feather	—
72	hair	—
73	head	—
74	ear	—
75	eye	—
76	nose	—
77	mouth	—
78	tooth	—
79	tongue	—
80	fingernail	—
81	foot	—
82	leg	—
83	knee	—
84	hand	—
85	wing	—
86	belly	—
87	guts	—
88	neck	—
89	back	—
90	breast	—
91	heart	—
92	liver	—
93	drink	—
94	eat	—
95	bite	—
96	suck	—
97	spit	—
98	vomit	—
99	blow	—
100	breathe	—
101	laugh	—
102	see	—
103	hear	—
104	know	—
105	think	—
106	smell	—
107	fear	—
108	sleep	—
109	live	—
110	die	—
111	kill	—
112	fight	—
113	hunt	—
114	hit	—
115	cut	—
116	split	—
117	stab	—
118	scratch	—
119	dig	—
120	swim	—
121	fly	—
122	walk	—
123	come	—
124	lie	—
125	sit	—
126	stand	—
127	turn	—
128	fall	—
129	give	—
130	hold	—
131	squeeze	—
132	rub	—
133	wash	—
134	wipe	—
135	pull	—
136	push	—
137	throw	—
138	tie	—
139	sew	—
140	count	—
141	say	—
142	sing	—
143	play	—
144	float	—
145	flow	—
146	freeze	—
147	swell	—
148	sun	—
149	moon	—
150	star	—
151	water	—
151	rain	—
152	river	—
153	lake	—
154	sea	—
155	salt	—
156	stone	—
157	sand	—
158	dust	—
160	earth	—
161	cloud	—
162	fog	—
163	sky	—
164	wind	—
165	snow	—
166	ice	—
167	smoke	—
168	fire	—
169	ash	—
170	burn	—
171	road	—
172	mountain	—
173	red	—
174	green	—
175	yellow	—
176	white	—
177	black	—
178	night	—
179	day	—
180	year	—
181	warm	—
182	cold	—
183	full	—
184	new	—
185	old	—
186	good	—
187	bad	—
188	rotten	—
189	dirty	—
190	straight	—
191	round	—
192	sharp	—
193	dull	—
194	smooth	—
195	wet	—
196	dry	—
197	correct	—
198	near	—
199	far	—
200	right	—
201	left	—
202	at	—
203	in	—
204	with	—
205	and	—
206	if	—
207	because	—
208	name	—