Salura

Progress 8%
	Stats Nouns 15% Verbs 0% Adjectives 0% Syntax 20% Words 10 of 1500

Salura Salura
Type
Polysynthetic fusional
Alignment
Ergative
Head direction
Left
Tonal
Yes
Declensions
Yes
Conjugations
Yes
Genders
Yes
Nouns decline according to...
Case	Number
Definiteness	Gender
Verbs conjugate according to...
Voice	Mood
Person	Number
Tense	Aspect

General information

 Salura is a conlang spoken by alien crustacean-taurs on the planet Ysla. It is unique in that, like its speakers, it 'amphibious' ; it appears both on land and in the water, and differently in each. On land, it is called tapa'a, or "rhythm-talk," and it is fairly similar in many aspects to human languages. In the water, however, where it is called Soila'a, the same words and sentence structure are mapped to corresponding phonemes based around an absolute pitch system; in other words, it is a sung language.

Since the pitch is absolute, members of the species without perfect musical pitch are unable to communicate effectively in Soila'a, and it would be unconvenable to learning for most humans.

Phonology

The main differences between Tapa'a and Soila'a is in the phonology.

The Saru do not have a nasal cavity, but they do have a secondary resonating chamber behind the gills ('vents', hence 'ventral') that is used in some sounds, which are written with nasal and glide symbols for convenience. 

The topmost row below indicates the phonemic pitch in note (and the solfège names for each) for Soila'a consonants that correspond to the Tapa'a place of articulation. On top of this pitch there are also microtonal variations at the offset of the consonant which indicate the vowel.

Consonants

	Soila'a	F pa	D ti	C ji	A ku	G qa
Tapa'a		Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Radical
Ventral	Ventral	m	n	y	w
Stop	Simple	p	t	c	k	q
Voiced stop	Crackling	b	d	j	g	`
Fricative	Long	f	s	z	x	h
Long fric	Twice		ss	zz	xx	hh
Liquid	Thrice		l	r

There are also two Tapa'a approximants, [w] and [j], written "o" and "e" respectively. In Soila'a, these do not correspond to an absolute pitch, but instead to a modification of the onset with a short trill; a sharp trill indicates [j] and a flat trill [w].

'Crackling' is a sound that is produced by forcing water through the vocal tract

Vowels

Tapa'a	Front	Central	Back
Soila'a	Rise	Stay	Dip
	i	a	u

Vowels are expressed in Soila'a as a microtonal rise or dip at the end of the consonant segment. If it is a sharp offest (rise), it indicates /i/ ; flat offsets are /u/; and no tone change at offset indicates /a/.

Examples

The IPA rising/falling tonal symbols will be used below; if they are written before their note, it indicates an initial trill on the note. Colons indicate long sounds, dots underneath crackled ones, and umlauts ventrals.

Meaning	Tapa'a	Soila'a
land	baleu	F̤ ˧˦˧DDD˥˩
to kill	kasili	A D:˩˥ DDD˩˥
air	cimoi	C˩˥ ˥˩˩˥C̈˩˥

As can be seen, it is much more economical to write Salura in Tapa'a, or perhaps with proper musical notation. Similarly, Tapa'a is also much more economical to speak, as words can be produced much more quickly with much less weight on duration and repetition.

Grammar

	Gender	Cases	Numbers	Tenses	Persons	Moods	Voices	Aspects
Verb	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Nouns	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Adjectives	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Numbers	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Participles	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Adverb	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Pronouns	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Adpositions	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Article	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Particle	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No

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	dog	—
48	louse	—
49	snake	—
50	worm	—
51	tree	—
52	forest	—
53	stick	—
54	fruit	—
55	seed	—
56	leaf	—
57	root	—
58	bark	—
59	flower	—
60	grass	—
61	rope	—
62	skin	—
63	meat	—
64	blood	—
65	bone	—
66	fat	—
67	egg	—
68	horn	—
69	tail	—
70	feather	—
71	hair	—
72	head	—
73	ear	—
74	eye	—
75	nose	—
76	mouth	—
77	tooth	—
78	tongue	—
79	fingernail	—
80	foot	—
81	leg	—
82	knee	—
83	hand	—
84	wing	—
85	belly	—
86	guts	—
87	neck	—
88	back	—
89	breast	—
90	heart	—
91	liver	—
92	drink	—
93	eat	—
94	bite	—
95	suck	—
96	spit	—
97	vomit	—
98	blow	—
99	breathe	—
100	laugh	—
101	see	—
102	hear	—
103	know	—
104	think	—
105	smell	—
106	fear	—
107	sleep	—
108	live	—
109	die	—
110	kill	—
111	fight	—
112	hunt	—
113	hit	—
114	cut	—
115	split	—
116	stab	—
117	scratch	—
118	dig	—
119	swim	—
120	fly	—
121	walk	—
122	come	—
123	lie	—
124	sit	—
125	stand	—
126	turn	—
127	fall	—
128	give	—
129	hold	—
130	squeeze	—
131	rub	—
132	wash	—
133	wipe	—
134	pull	—
135	push	—
136	throw	—
137	tie	—
138	sew	—
139	count	—
140	say	—
141	sing	—
142	play	—
143	float	—
144	flow	—
145	freeze	—
146	swell	—
147	sun	—
148	moon	—
149	star	—
150	water	—
151	rain	—
152	river	—
153	lake	—
154	sea	—
155	salt	—
156	stone	—
157	sand	—
158	dust	—
159	earth	—
160	cloud	—
161	fog	—
162	sky	—
163	wind	—
164	snow	—
165	ice	—
166	smoke	—
167	fire	—
168	ash	—
169	burn	—
170	road	—
171	mountain	—
172	red	—
173	green	—
174	yellow	—
175	white	—
176	black	—
177	night	—
178	day	—
179	year	—
180	warm	—
181	cold	—
182	full	—
183	new	—
184	old	—
185	good	—
186	bad	—
187	rotten	—
188	dirty	—
189	straight	—
190	round	—
191	sharp	—
192	dull	—
193	smooth	—
194	wet	—
195	dry	—
196	correct	—
197	near	—
198	far	—
199	right	—
200	left	—
201	at	—
202	in	—
203	with	—
204	and	—
205	if	—
206	because	—
207	name	—