Tzapalian (IPA: /ˈtsapali/) also known as Tzapali, is an language isolate spoken in Tzapalia, a conminimunicipality in León, Mexico by about 261,700 people, with 144,000 2L speakers worldwide. Tzapalian has its own language family and is not related to other languages.
Over the years, it has been considered a language isolate, though current consensus and research now confirms that it has been related to Nahuatl (but other analyses reject it).
History[]
Historical flag of Tzapali and the Tzapalian folk.
Speakers used to live in Oklahoma, North America, but when the Mexicans had invaded the Apache, most of them moved to Mexico instead.
| Tzapalian Tzapalitoli | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type | Fusional | ||||||||||||
| Alignment | None | ||||||||||||
| Head direction | Head-final | ||||||||||||
| Tonal | Yes | ||||||||||||
| Declensions | No | ||||||||||||
| Conjugations | Yes | ||||||||||||
| Genders | None | ||||||||||||
| Nouns decline according to... | |||||||||||||
| Case | Number | ||||||||||||
| Definiteness | Gender | ||||||||||||
| Verbs conjugate according to... | |||||||||||||
| Voice | Mood | ||||||||||||
| Person | Number | ||||||||||||
| Tense | Aspect | ||||||||||||
| Meta-information | |||||||||||||
| Progress | 70% | ||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| Creator | [[User:|]] | ||||||||||||
Geographic distribution[]
Official status[]
Tzapalian is one of the de facto languages of Mexico, along with Spanish and other indigenous languages. Some speakers still live in Oklahoma today.
Dialects[]
Tzapalian is classified into 2 dialects:
- northern; which is the most spoken by about 172,700 people
- southern; which is spoken by 89,000 people.
Creole[]
Spanish-Algonquian Tzapalian Pidgin, also known as Pichingw or SATP, is a pidgin spoken by the Spanish Tzapalians of Spain. The Spanish Tzapalians were founded when the Tzapalians invaded Spain, making the use of the creole.
Sample words[]
| Pichingw | Borrowing | English translation |
|---|---|---|
| normandi | Spanish Normandía | French |
| matagi | Ojibwe ᒥᑎᒃ mitig | tree |
| mitzo | Tzapalian metziu | cat |
| ielocomidi | Spanish calque of Tzapalian cetl itaca | ice cream |
| ijau | Spanish hijo | nephew |
| pesi | pes (Romance) | fish |
| uava | Spanish huevo | egg |
Phonology[]
Consonants[]
The table below shows the IPA symbols and orthography used for transcribing Tzapalian.
| Bilabial | Dental | Alveolar | Post-alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | laminal | palatalized |
plain |
labialized | ||||||||
| plain | lateral | |||||||||||
| Nasal | m | n | ng [ŋ] | ngu [ŋʷ] | ||||||||
| Plosive | p | t [t̪] | ti [tʲ] | c, cc [k] | qu [kʷ] | h [ʔ] | ||||||
| Fricative | v [β] | d [ð] | (z [s̻]) | s, ce, ci [s] | lh [ɬ] | x [ʃ] | g [ɣ] | j [h] | ||||
| Affricate | tz [ts] | tl [tɬ] | ch [tʃ] | |||||||||
| Approximant | y [j] | hu [w] | ||||||||||
| Trill | r | l | ||||||||||
Notes[]
- [β] mostly appears in Spanish loanwords, but can be also found as an allophone of [w] in native words such as huatietl /ˈβɐtʲetɬ/.
- [ð] is often closer an approximant [ð̞] than a fricative.
- [s̻] (z) is only used in loanwords from Basque.
Vowels[]
The vowel inventory of Tzapalian as followed is:
| Front | Near-front | Central | Near-back | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| High | ī [iː] | ū [uː] | |||
| Near-high | i [ɪ] | u [ʊ] | |||
| High-mid | ē [eː] | ō [oː] | |||
| Mid | ë [ə] | ||||
| Low-mid | e [ɛ] | o [ɔ] | |||
| Near-low | a [ɐ] | ||||
| Low | ā [aː] |
Notes[]
- [aː] is phonemically central [äː].
Phonotactics[]
The default syllable structure is simple; it is (C)V(V)(C), where C stands for a consonant and V stands for a vowel.
Stress pattern[]
Stress usually drops from the first to the third syllables. Recent loanwords often retain their original stress.
Morphology[]
Tzapalian is an agglutinative language, where it uses morphemes to modify the meaning of words.
The words of Tzapalian can be divided into three basic functional cases: verbs, nouns and particles. Adjectives exist, but they generally behave like nouns and there are very few adjectives that are not derived from either verbal or nominal roots. The very few adverbs that can be said to exist fall into the class of particles.
Nouns[]
Tzapalian nouns don't distinguish between case and gender, but has a complex 4-way noun number distinction.
Plurals[]
Tzapalian has a complex singular / dual / paucal / plural number system (as in Fijian). A paucal number of things is a very small amount of them (e.g. a few nuts, fruit, e.g.) while the dual number is two things of them (e.g. two birds, cats, e.g.). This table below shows the number types of the noun metziu 'cat'.
| Singular | Paucal | Dual | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|
| metziu | metziurī | metziume | metziuhuō |
| the cat | those few cats | the two cats | the cats |
Possessedness[]
Tzapalian's possessedness can be formed with suffixes. This table below shows how affixes affect the possessedness of the noun metziu 'cat'.
| Possessive | metziuōtl |
|---|---|
| Pl. possessive | metziuxōtl |
Definiteness[]
Tzapalian does not utilize determiners to define the definiteness of nouns, but it uses affixes instead. This table below shows how nouns show their definiteness using the word metziu 'cat'.
| Definite | Indefinite |
|---|---|
| metziu | metziuque |
| the cat | a cat |
Verbs[]
Tenses[]
Tzapalian has 12 tenses, far more in any Uto-Aztecan language. It features 3 basic tenses (present, past, future), and their progressive, perfect and conditional forms. This table below shows the verb conjugation of the phrasal verb niquō 'I eat'.
| Simple | Progressive | Perfect | Conditional | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Present | niquō | niquōpi | niquōche | niquōdāē |
| I eat | I am eating | I have eaten | If I eat | |
| Past | niquōlī | niquōlhē | niquōage | niquoni |
| I ate | I was eating | I had eaten | If I ate | |
| Future | niquōtzū | niquōxi | niquōhuat | niquōt |
| I will eat | I will be eating | I will have eaten | If I would eat |
Copula[]
The verb lū 'to be' can be put into 3 grammatical aspects (simple, progressive, conditional) and 3 moods (indicative, subjunctive, imperative). This table below shows all the possible forms of this verb.
| Mood | Tense | Form |
|---|---|---|
| Indicative | Present | lū |
| Present perfect | lūpi | |
| Conditional present | lupōxu | |
| Past | lūchi | |
| Pluperfect | lūnu | |
| Conditional past | lūduco | |
| Future | lūxo | |
| Future perfect | lūcin | |
| Conditional future | lūtexi | |
| Subjunctive | Present | lūxūli |
| Present conditional | lūxae | |
| Future | lūxūo | |
| Imperative | Present | lūpet! |
| Future | lūnoqui |
[]
Verbal person[]
This table below shows by number and person, the verbal prefixes which act as pronouns using the verb quō 'to eat'.
| Number | Person | Prefix |
|---|---|---|
| Singular | 1st | ni- |
| I | ||
| 2nd | ti- | |
| you | ||
| 3rd | mi- | |
| he/she/it | ||
| Dual | 1st | omu- |
| we (two) | ||
| 2nd | ochi- | |
| you (two) | ||
| 3rd | achē- | |
| they (two) | ||
| Plural | 1st | tela- |
| we | ||
| 2nd | tetli- | |
| you (all) | ||
| 3rd | coxi- | |
| they |
Voice[]
Tzapalian has 2 voices: active and passive. This table below shows how voice affects the verb quō 'eat'.
| Active | Passive |
|---|---|
| quō | quōri |
| sub. eat obj. | obj. is eaten by sub. |
Morphological derivation[]
- -quia comes from noun X a verb to mean 'to make X'.
- -tōa comes from noun X a verb to mean 'to provide X'.
- -kitia comes from verb X a noun to mean 'act of X'.
- -tasia comes from verb X a noun to mean 'person who X'.
- -tolli comes from noun X a noun to mean 'language of X'.
Syntax[]
Word order[]
As Tzapalian is highly fusional, word order is completely free. To say 'The dog caught the cat' in Tzapalian, one speaker may use any of the following orders, with slight pragmatic differences:
- SOV: Chechu metziu challelī.
- SVO: Chechu challelī metziu.
- VSO: Challelī chechu metziu.
- VOS: Challelī metziu chechu.
- OVS: Metziu challelī chechu.
- OSV: Metziu chechu challelī.
But the most common and default word order is SOV.
Adjective and preposition position[]
In Tzapalian, the adjective can either go before or after the noun. To say 'the big cat' in Tzapalian, one speaker may use any of the following phrases:
- AN: huai metziu
- NA: metziu huai
However, the adjective mostly comes before the noun.
Preposition order is also free too:
- prepositions: piccē apūchēti
- postpositions: apūchēti piccē
Possession order[]
The phrase 'Benny's coat' can be translated into Tzapalian into 2 different ways:
- Possessor-possessee: Beni capacōtl
- Possessee-possessor: Capacōtl Beni
Lexicon[]
Historical phonology and grammar[]
Phonology[]
Unlike Modern Tzapalian, Classical Tzapalian did not contain the palatalized stop [tʲ]. Also, Classical Tzapalian had a series of ejective consonants /pʼ tʼ kʼ, tsʼ/, orthographically ph, th, cch and tzh respectively that only appeared at the end of syllables before the latter had been merged into separate phonemes /p.ʔ, t.ʔ, k.ʔ, ts.ʔ/. Thus, cutōcchayec 'forest' /ˈkʊtoːkʼɐjɛk/ became /ˈkʊtoːk.ʔɐjɛk/. This table below shows the orthography and phonology of Classical Tzapalian.
| Bilabial | Dental | Alveolar | Post-alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
central |
labialized | |||||||||
| central | lateral | |||||||||
| Nasal | m | n | ng [ŋ] | ngu [ŋʷ] | ||||||
| Plosive | p ph [pʼ] | t [t̪] | th [tʼ] | c, cc [k]
cch [kʼ] |
qu [kʷ] | h [ʔ] | ||||
| Fricative | b [β] | d [ð] | z, ce, ci [s] | lh [ɬ] | x [ʃ] | g [ɣ] | j [h] | |||
| Affricate | tz [ts]
tzh [tsʼ] |
tl [tɬ] | ch [tʃ] | |||||||
| Approximant | y [j] | hu [w] | ||||||||
| Trill | r | |||||||||
| Lateral app. | l | |||||||||
Example text[]
totidi-hūo quacō. bird-PL sing-PRE 'Birds sing.'