| Asglian Asglëis t‘ił | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Type | |||
| Analytic | |||
| Alignment | |||
| Accusative | |||
| Head direction | |||
| left | |||
| Tonal | |||
| No | |||
| Declensions | |||
| No | |||
| Conjugations | |||
| No | |||
| Genders | |||
| No | |||
| Nouns decline according to... | |||
| Case | Number | ||
| Definiteness | Gender | ||
| Verbs conjugate according to... | |||
| Voice | Mood | ||
| Person | Number | ||
| Tense | Aspect | ||
General Information[]
Asglian (Asglëis t‘ił /ʔə̤skɺɛ̤jʃ t’iɬʲ/) is a language spoken by the Cittus, insect-looking sapients from the planet Cittus-V.
Phonology[]
Consonants[]
| alveolar | dorsal | laryngeal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| simple | palatalized | simple | palatalized | ||
| tenuis | t | tʲ | k | kʲ | ʔ |
| aspirate | tʰ | tʲʰ | kʰ | kʲʰ | |
| ejective | t’ | t’ʲ | k’ | k’ʲ | |
| fricative | s ɬ | ʃ ɬʲ | ħ h | ||
| approximant | ɹ | ʎ | ɰ | j | |
| flap | ɺ | ||||
| unpalatalized | palatalized | unpalatalized | palatalized | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| t | tʲ | k | kʲ | |
| tʰ | tʲʰ | kʰ | kʲʰ | |
| t’ | t’ʲ | k’ | k’ʲ | |
| s | ʃ | ɬ | ɬʲ | |
| ɺ | ʎ | ɰ | j |
- /ʔ/, /ħ/, /h/, and /ɹ/ are unpalatalized without any palatalized counterparts.
Vowels[]
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | ʲi (ʲɪ) | (ɯ̽) ɯ | |
| Low | ɛ | (ə) (ʲə) | ʌ ʲʌ |
- The vowels in parenthesis are reduced vowels which only appear in unstressed syllables.
- Diphthongs are /ɯj/, /ɛj/, /ɛɰ/, /ʌj/, /ʌɰ/, /ʲʌj/, /ʲʌɰ/. They are only found in stressed syllables.
Phonotactics[]
C(C)V(F)
- Final consonants allowed are /s/, /ʃ/, /ɬ/, /ɬʲ/, /ħ/, /ɹ/, /ʔ/, /ɺ/, and /ʎ/.
- Consonants labeled "palatalized" can only occur before the palatalizing vowels: /ʲʌ/, /ʲi/, /ʲɪ/, or /ʲə/; before another "palatalized" consonant; or on the end of a word after /ʲʌ/, /ʲi/, /ʲɪ/, /ʲə/, or /j/.
- Nonpalatalized consonants (except for the glottal stop /ʔ/) cannot occur before palatalized ones, before a palatalizing vowel, or after a word final /ʲi/, /ʲɪ/, or /j/.
Phonation[]
While Asglian has no phonemic tone, it does have phonemic phonation. There are three distinguished phonations: modal, breathy, and creaky. Reduced vowels obtain the phonation of their neighboring vowels.
| Phonation | Example 1 | Example 2 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Modal | ji | "in" | kʲʰʌɰ | "bright" |
| Breathy | ji̤ | "sky" | kʲʰʌ̤ɰ | "child" |
| Creaky | jḭ | "coin" | kʲʌ̰ɰ | "weapon" |
Parts of Speech[]
- Nouns: person, place, or thing
- Pronouns: pro-forms of nouns
- Adjectives/Adverb: descriptors
- Postpositions: signify various nominal functions, ex. i "in"
- Attitudinals: marks attitude
- Aspectual particles: marks grammatical aspect
- Verbs: closed class with very basic meanings
- Coverbs: open class with very specific meanings
- Ideophones: invoke ideas in sound
Word order[]
Subject-Adverb-Coverb-Verb-Postpositional phrase-Object-Particles
Nouns[]
Plurality[]
Plurality formed by reduplication, not used if a quantity is provided.
- kyäu /kʲʰʌ̤ɰ/ "child" > kyakyäu /kʲʰə̤kʲʰʌ̤ɰ/ "children"
Pronouns[]
| sg | pl | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | łui | łułui |
| 2 | ħãu | ħaħãu |
| 3 | de | dede |
Adjectives and Adverbs[]
Adjectives are always placed before the noun they modify, whereas adverbs are always placed before the coverb or after the object or verb, this difference in placement is the only way to distinguish the two.
- kyau ĩ t‘it‘ïs e. "The bright coin shimmered." vs. ĩ kyau t‘it‘ïs e. "The coin shimmered brightly"
Verbs and Coverbs[]
Verbs[]
There are only fifty-odd verbs in Asglian. Verbs typically have very broad meanings, for example yã’ "come, go, move".
Coverbs[]
There are many more coverbs in Asglian and they have much more specific meanings which can be further influenced by the verb they accompany.
Particles[]
Attudinals[]
Asglians end most spoken sentences with particles which serve emotional purposes, some of these purposes are:
- assert a point: sãu
- emphasize obviousness:
- emphasize unimportance:
- ask a question:
- ask for agreement:
- express anger:
- express disbelief:
- express pity:
- express lamentation: