Kltatlta

Kltatlta Vocabulary

=Phonology=

Phonotactics
Allophony


 * Mid vowels /e ie/ become [ie iæ] before a semivowel. If also after a consonant then /ie/ becomes [æi̯]
 * The vowels and semivowels [j w {i æ}] become [e̯ o̯ e] after a non-near high vowel. If word final then /æ/ becomes [i].
 * When before a nasal consonant or word finally before a word intiial /b/, plosives have a nasal release except /t/ which becomes the geminate version of said nasal consonant.

Lenition


 * From PNS *q

Examples:
 * pnt ("to drop") > lefnt ("dropping")
 * bucl ("to decorate") > lvucl ("decorating")
 * tmpn ("to swim") > lþmpn ("swimming")
 * drl ("to throw") > lðrl ("throwing")
 * czdnx ("to influence") > lšzdnx ("influencing")
 * juom ("to insert") > lšuom ("inserting")
 * ceiž ("to want") > ljoeiž ("wanting"), þuoeiž ("to reject, to refuse")
 * jieri ("to climb") > lžieri ("climbing"), þñieri ("to descend")
 * juopš ("to render, to cause to be") > þñuopš ("to prevent")
 * gietz ("to think") > lnietz ("thinking")

Morphophonology

When a stem ending in /ɲ/ takes on a suffix begining with a front vowel, then the final consonant becomes /ʒ/:

Vowel Development

 * EB → jB
 * V → Ø/#_CC
 * V → Ø/F_F
 * {j w ɾ l F N}VC CV{j w ɾ l F N}→ {i u r̩ l̩ F̩ N̩}C C{i u r̩ l̩ F̩ N̩}!V=Vː
 * ɟ→j
 * C’ → C
 * ʔ → Ø
 * æ(ː) e(ː)→i(ː)/_{ɕ ʑ}
 * æː {iː ɪː eː} øː {uː ʊː oː} ʌː→i͡æ i͡e y͡ø u͡o u͡ʊ
 * ɪ ʊ → i u
 * ɕ ʑ → ʃ ʒ
 * ŋ→n
 * V→Ø/N_#
 * ʌ͡u →o͡u
 * ʌ→Ø
 * v→β
 * ʃ ʒ→h/_ø

=Nouns=

Grammatical Number
Count nouns in Proto-Ndere are made plural with the suffix -(ö)f or -yön for human nouns.

Examples:


 * ižkk ("stick") > ižkkf ("sticks")
 * ln ("leaf") > lnf ("leaves")
 * vuomž ("mountain") > vuomžf ("mountains")
 * jizñ ("spear") > jizñf ("spears")
 * inn ("bowl") > innf ("bowls")
 * buož ("son") > buožyön ("sons)
 * jiess ("fish") > jiesuožf ("fish.")
 * žðði ("wolf") > žððiöf ("wolves")
 * ze ("god") > zeöf ("gods")
 * žiež ("daughter") > žiežyön ("daughters")
 * yönž- ("person") > yönžyön- ("people")

=Determiners=

Personal Pronouns
The anaphoric pronouns in Kltatlta are rarely used, being mostly used for emphasis. They come from the Proto-Koigus-Ndere pronouns compounded with *tuʔg- ("self"). The third person comes from the demonstrative pronoun.

The divine form of the second person singulative is used when addressing gods in prayers or when speaking to shamans. In place of third person pronouns, Proto-Ndere uses the demonstrative pronoun.

Demonstrative Pronouns
Kltatlta has no proximal-distal distinction of any kind in it's demonstratives, having only iž- ("those, these") and it's various singular forms. There are 15 singular forms which are assigned based on the shape and form of the noun, or type of animals when the noun is animate.

Interrogative Pronouns

 * jueþ "where"
 * ienz "when"
 * iušf "why"
 * ienn "how"

The words for "what, which" must agree to one of the 15 semantic groupings when its class is known. When the class is unknown the pronoun in- alone is used.

*ienž- in particular means "who, which person".