Conlang
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Name: Sasat

Type: Semi-Synthetic

Alignment: Split-S

Head Direction: Head-Final

Number of genders: 8

Declensions: Yes

Conjugations: Yes

Nouns declined
according to
Case Number
Definitiveness Gender
Verbs conjugated
according to
Voice Mood
Person Number
Tense Aspect


General information[]

Sasat is a language isolate spoken in northern regions of Mexico and in scattered pockets throughout the southwest United States. The Southern dialect of Sasat is considered to be the most "correct" form of the language and will be the focus of this page. Sasat has been proposed to be a member of the Uto-Aztecan language family, based on lexical similarities, but these declarations have not been substantiated. Furthermore, the excessive use of articles and the infix- and consonant-based morphological peculiarities are traits not common of any local language families. The correlating series of nasals and plosives have caused some linguists to suggest a distant relation to certain Australian languages, though grammatical differences bring heavy doubt to these claims. Other linguists have suggested the possibility that Sasat is a remnant of a larger super-language family, linking the language families of northern Mexico to the languages of the Amazon. These claims are largely due to the dialectal, voiceless nasalized glottal approximant, an extremely rare phone found in parts of the western Amazon, namely within the Mura language branch. Disappointingly, the highly agglutinative nature and tonality of the Mura language branch, in addition to its whistled speech, make any relation to Sasat highly unlikely. Finally, despite any logical contact, claims have been made that Sasat is Basque's -- another language isolate's -- closest relative. Though there are many similarities, the distance between the two languages makes any relation between the two languages unbelievable. Evidence of similar phonologies and reliance on articles has been brought forth, but Sasat's system of articles is so much more extensive that the claims are hardly warranted. The lexicons of the two languages also share few, if any, similarities. For now, most linguists accept that Sasat is simply a language isolate.

Phonology[]

Dialects

There are four main dialects of Sasat: Northeastern, Northern, Central, and Southern. The Southern dialect is the most "normal," having no additional phones. The Central dialect is more strongly nasalized, having the voiceless, nasal glottal approximant as well as phonemic nasalization on all front and central vowels immediately following a nasal consonant. The Northeastern, Northern, and Southern dialects all have allophonic nasalization on all front and central vowels immediately following a nasal consonant, and they do not differentiate between the two glottal consonants. Also, the Central dialect pronounces the close-mid back vowel as the close back vowel. The Northern and Northeastern dialects are both very similar to the "correct," Southern dialect, with the exception of a few lexical items and the pronunciation of vowels.

Consonants[]

Bilabial Labio-dental Alveolar Post-Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ [h̃]
Plosive p b t d c k g
Fricative f s ʃ h
Affricate ts tʃ
Approximant ɹ j
Flap ɾ
Lateral app. l ʎ

The above graph represents the phonemes found across all four major dialects of Sasat. The phone in brackets is found only in the Central dialect of Sasat. For comprehension purposes, the IPA symbols are used.

Southern Dialect

Bilabial Labio-dental Alveolar Post-Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m n nj ng
Plosive p b t d c k g
Fricative f s x h
Affricate ts tx
Approximant rr j
Flap r
Lateral app. l lj

The above graph shows the standard, Latin-script orthography of all phonemes within the Southern dialect of the Sasat language.

Vowels[]

Front Central Back
Close i u
Close-mid e o
Open-mid ɛ
Open a

In the Central dialect of Sasat, all front and central vowels following a nasal consonant are phonemically nasalized. This nasalization is marked by a tilde over the vowel. Additionally, the close-mid back vowel is pronounced as the close back vowel in the Central dialect.


Alphabet[]

ba 1 /b/ English "boat"

se 2 /s/ English "sit"

arro 3 /rr/ Alveolar Approximant

da 4 /d/ "dog"

he 5 /h/ English "hello"

pa 6 /p/ English "peach"

ɛ 7 /ɛ/ English "pen"

ne 8 /n/ English "next"

ma 9 /m/ English "muffin"

lo 10 /l/ English "lake," but further back along the alveolar ridge

a 20 /a/ English "father"

nga 30 /ng/ English "sing"

xi 40 /x/ English "shake"

ka 50 /k/ English "king"

cɛ 60 /c/ Palatalized "k;" kyet

tsa 70 /ts/ Romanian "preţ"

fa 80 /f/ English "fire"

ljɛ 90 /lj/ Slovenian "ljubljana"

i 100 /i/ English "eat"

te 200 /t/ English "tail"

ara 300 /r/ English "udder"

jɛ 400 /j/ English "yet"

e 500 /e/ English "mate"

txi 600 /tx/ English "check"

ga 700 /nc/ English "get"

u 800 /u/ Spanish "la trucha"

njɛ 900 /nj/ Spanish "la niña"

o 1000 /o/ English "boat"


Phonotactics[]

All words must contain at least a vowel.

(C)V(V)(C)(C)(V)(V)(C)...

Though nonsense words and onamatopoeias have as many as four vowels in a row, no standard words contain more than two vowels in a sequence, and having only one vowel in a row is most common. The same vowel may not appear twice in a row, and vowel length is allophonic. /nj/, /c/, /lj/, and /r/ may not be the end of a syllable. Additionally, /r/ may not appear word-initially; /r/ may not follow a lateral approximant; and /r/ following /rr/ becomes the alveolar trill [r]. Word-final /h/ is allophonically epiglottal.

Stress

Stress is on the penultimate syllable.

For words ending in two vowels (ia, oa, ea, au), the stress is on the prepenultimate syllable.

For words ending in two vowels and a /k/ (iak, eak), the stress is the prepenultimate syllable.

Sound Change

Syllable-final nasals and plosives have no audible release. Both vowels and consonants have very irregular and complex rules for sound change as a result of morphological changes. Consonants, especially, are liable to undergo lenition as a result of morphological change.

Gemination is another popular feature in Sasat. Two adjacent consonants that are the same will form a geminated version of the consonant. All geminated consonants are held slightly longer than the non-geminated consonants. Plosives and glottals, especially, become highly aspirated and very breathy during gemination. Gemination also exists across word boundaries, even after morphological changes have taken place. In these instances, the final consonant remains ungeminated, while the beginning of the subsequent word becomes geminated. When a syllable-final /h/ precedes a syllable-initial nasal, plosive, affricate, approximant, or flap, the /h/ becomes a pre-aspiration for the following consonant.

Grammar[]

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


Word Order

[Adjective/Number] [Article] [Agent] [Adverb] [Verb] [Adjective/Number] [Article] [Object]

Participles and non-grammatical-case nouns have fairly loose word order.

Articles always immediately precede their noun; the few adpositions are all postpositions and all immediately follow their nouns.

Noun Number

Singular Dual Paucal Plural
Noun be ta koa
Woman (Kira) Kirabe Kirata Kirakoa
Horn (Kitit) Kitibe Kititta Kitokkoa
Bird (Hutsu) Hutsebe Hutsuta Hutsukoa
Fruit (Nane) Nanebe Naneta Nanokoa
Stick (Tsasɛn) Tsasɛmbe Tsasɛnta Tsasongkoa
Fingernail (Makusua) Makusuabe Makusuata Makusukoa

Diminutives

Diminutives have tens of uses in written Sasat and tens, if not hundreds, of uses in colloquial Sasat. To name a few of diminutives purposes in speech, diminutives show: smallness, cuteness, intimacy, endearment, nicknames, weakness, and helplessness. Diminutives can be used as a taunt, an insult, or as a sign of deep affection or brotherhood. In rhetoric, diminutives are often used in irony or sarcasm; they can show false smallness, cuteness, intamcy, weakness, etc. Diminutives are frequently employed in satire and comedy and can be used to uplay or downplay any noun or its characteristics. Both in serious and lighthearded affairs, diminutives are frequently used, and there is possibly no setting that diminutives cannot be present in within the modern version of Southern Sasat.

Diminutives are formed by leniting all consonants within a fully-declined noun. Lenition follows a set of fully regular rules:

/b/ > no change

/s/ > /h/ (debuccalization)

/rr/ > no change

/d/ > /r/ (spirantization); if /d/ is word-initial, /ts/ (affrication)

/h/ > total elision

/p/ > /f/ (accelerated spirantization)

/n/ > no change

/m/ > no change

/l/ > no change

/ng/ > no change

/x/ > /h^j/ (debuccalization)

/k/ > no change

/c/ > no change

/ts/ > /s/ (spirantization)

/f/ > /h/ (debuccalization)

/lj/ > no change

/t/ > /s/ (accelerated spirantization)

/r/ > /rr/ (approximation)

/j/ > total elision

/tx/ > /x/ (spirantization)

/g/ > /j/ (accelerated approximation)

/nj/ > no change

Vocabulary[]

/f/ rarely appears in words, due to the fact that it only recently arose from the [p] phone. /f/ appears more frequently in /p/ that has undergone lenition as a result of morphological change. Alternately, /nj/ has, for the most part, degraded into /n/; and /ng/ has denasalized into /g/ in most phonological environments.


No. English Sasat
1Ine
2you (singular)ka
3hee
4wenen
5you (plural)kan
6theyhe
7thisat
8thatod
9hereɛme
10therehod
11whomi
12whattse
13wherecema
14whennos
15hownala
16notki
17allatsi
18manyaso
19somesat
20fewgotxi
21otherbɛsɛ
22onebat
23twobi
24threeifo
25fourna
26fivebos
27bighandɛ
28longhese
29widesaba
30thicksutɛ
31heavygarits
32smalltxiki
33shorttxabi
34narrowetsua
35thinmɛtse
36womankira
37man (adult male)kina
38man (human being)apa (Sasat), atxa (all)
39childebe
40wifeima (wife), kema (wife and mother)
41husbandsina (husband), kɛnja (husband and father)
42motherama
43fatherada
44animalsat
45fishpaki (freshwater, river), peki (freshwater, lake, sea), otxi (saltwater, ocean)
46birdhutsu (land), tsiru (song), txuru (sea)
47dogtxaku (companion), tsari (hunt), poko (stray), kotxi (guard)
48louseinjakɛ
49snakesɛsɛt (garden), seseg (wild), kasina (deadly), taho (bright, poisonous), sinoi (dark, poisonous)
50wormara
51treesoha (big, tall species), hopi (little species)
52forestbasɛ
53sticktsasɛn (stick), darra (branch)
54fruitnane
55seedatsi (edible), nita (inedible)
56leafotso
57rootitse (tree root, inedible), kume (edible)
58barkatsa
59flowertosa (bright, delicate), otsija (pastel, dark, hardy)
60grasssɛ (grass), berra (brush, tough grass)
61ropeljakat (lasso, used for tying/securing), soka (decorative, bridge rope)
62skinhuɛtɛf (human), sala (animal)
63meatkica (small animal, bird), girra (big animal)
64bloodatacɛ (human, tracking blood), dula (edible, animal)
65boneelɛ (small bone), etso (big bone, big animal), tsunipi (fossil, skeleton)
66fatganis
67eggcaton (chicken), arauts (other animal)
68hornkitit, darres
69tailtanaju (animal tail), butsan (position (tail of the pack))
70featherpasɛtan (eagle, hawk, swan), sia (small bird, duck)
71hairljia (human, head), kupa (animal), pet (human, body)
72headoja (human), aka (big animal, enemy), boro (bird, small animal)
73earnaka, arramɛk, naki
74eyebusi, ɛrem, poi
75nosetxoma, nenjɛ
76mouthahoa, katap, tupe
77toothhotxa, taxa
78tonguetietu, hiskuntxa
79fingernailhax, makusua, karrɛt
80footnape, rrare, ines, lɛpɛ
81legkasi, omo, anga, jara
82kneebeluna, ofɛn
83handcana, sika, batetik
84wingineu, egalja
85bellyrroba, sabela, korrok
86gutshetxeak, kungung, tipak
87neckɛlut, lɛpoa
88backitxuli, naja
89breasttare, buare
90heartbihotxa, pahi, hemo
91liverɛkɛmɛt, gibe
92drinkedan, lɛ
93eatse, jan
94bitesixadak, sipa
95sucksasa, surrupat
96spitpet
97vomitbeherakoa, njuitik
98blowatem, puts
99breatheconɛ, anasa
100laughhehi, bare
101seeikusi, sut
102hearcakak, ɛtxun
103knowljuɛ, jakin
104thinkɛljos, ustɛ
105smellusaina, namase
106fearkilɛsɛ, beldura
107sleepametsa, o
108livebisi, sɛtu
109diecana, heriotxa
110killsɛsik, hitxeko
111fightake, borokatxeko
112huntkuana, ehisa
113hitirabiatu, pɛt
114cutmutsu, tase
115splitajing, satitu
116stabteke, labana
117scratchrrapa, uratu
118diglicɛ
119swimhocam, igeri
120flyhegan, jofa
121walkines, ampun
122comecema, etori
123lieacumɛ, gɛsura
124sitce, eseri
125standcɛfa, sosena
126turnpistu, mɛnjata
127falleset, errri
128giveeman, no
129holdeutsi, tɛm
130squeezeɛtsotu, cutcɛ
131rubmat, igotxi
132washrrɛra, gabitu
133wipeataneik, gabitu
134pulltira, rot
135pushbultxa, rruna
136throwbota, jip
137tiealjakak, ibilgetxen
138sewihham, josi
139countsenbatu, pifen
140sayesan, tan
141singanap
142playcen, erepodus
143floatljɛsat
144flowmohhi
145freezeisoxu, xacela
146swellisik, igotsen
147suntabe
148moonmua, juni
149startatsinupi, saleja
150waterna, ura
151raineuri, umaru, onaf
152riveribairen, fenjɛ
153lakeaintxira, oncaf
154seaitsasoa, isara
155saltgatxa, onabi
156stoneharia
157sandharea
158dusthautsa
159earthurra
160cloudode
161fogpakunaipu, lainoa
162skyserua
163windhaixea
164snowelurra
165iceixots
166smokeeretxen
167firesua
168ashlisara
169burnɛrrɛ
170roadpidea, bidea
171mountaintomolua
172redgoria, palang
173greenmoking, berdea
174yellowsikang, horia
175whitekotsa, suria
176blackkomfi, belxa
177nightgau
178dayegun
179yearurteko
180warmepela
181coldhoxa
182fullosoa
183newberria
184oldsaharra
185goodonak
186badtsara
187rottenutsel
188dirtysigina
189straightsosen
190roundbiribitxɛk
191sharpsorox
192dulladaso
193smootheunde
194wethesea
195dryehortsen
196correctsusentxeko
197nearnjondik
198farurruti
199righteskubidea
200leftutxi
201atnorabidean
202inɛnabidean
203withduten
204andeta
205ifba
206becausede, ko
207nameisena


More Vocabulary[]

# English Sasat
1 horse tuhuja, saldi, kate
2 deer orenak, aruko
3 buck kumari, sotɛnga
4 rabbit tavo, tabukina, rroti
5 hare ebia
6 wolf otsoa, naibotxi
7 female wolf ketu
8 coyote basatxi, kutsena
9 bear kotua, ohui
10 female bear ohui, honat
11 cougar maija, basatua, toho
12 crow kɛratxi, andus
13 owl hontxa, hoxko
14 eagle kitihnai, arrano
15 frog gimo, igɛl
16 bee momo, elea, sori
17 bison mosaju, taso
18 fox letajo
19 porcupine mongaw
20 beaver pahona, hani
21 squirrel utxintxa, sakuna
22 turtle jongoson, takar, dotoka
23 gray masi
24 brown tasik
25 blue sakta
26 purple tsorong
27 baby ona, hatxoa
28 ball nasupe
29 bed kotxo, kahpe, solaruan
30 book tunihat

Example text[]

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