Akchotibian

Akchotibian vocabulary

=Name=

=Phonology=

Consonants

 * The exact quality of /h/ before a consonant varies depending on the preceeding vowel. If the vowel is back then /h/ is [x], if the vowel is front then /h/ is [ç], if the vowel is /ɐ/ then /h/ is elided making the vowel long:
 * kuhsúl /kʊ̀hsʊ́l/ [kʊ̀xsʊ́l] (“root”)
 * lomalehsa /lomɑlɪhsɑ/ [lomɑlɪçsɑ] (“to be dead”)
 * piăhlosa /piɐhlosɑ/ [piɤːlosɑ] (“to be low”)
 * /s/ is [ʃ] before /o oː ʊ/: petsú /pɪ̀tsʊ́/ [pɪ̀tʃʊ́] (“friend”)

Vowels

 * Word final short /i/ is [ɛ]: păhkí /pɐ̀hkí/ [pɐ̀ːkɛ́] (“tree”)
 * In open syllables /ɐ/ becomes [ɤ]: sipắ /sìpɐ́/ [sìpɤ́] (“mother”)

Prosody
Akchotibian has a pitch accent with three possible tones; high, low and rising. Verbs generally take no tone except if the verb is a compound containing a noun, in which case the final syllable of said noun stem has the high tone. Non-derived nouns always have a high tone on the last syllable and a low tone on the penultimate. Some derived nouns have a rising tone on the penultimate syllable. When a long vowel takes on a high or rising tone it will become a short vowel with a rising tone.

Orthography
The high tone is written with an acute accent over the vowel, the rising tone is writtin with a hacek. The low tone is never written.

=Nouns=

Akchotibian nouns come in five cases which have the following usages:


 * 1) Autonomous - The unmarked form of each noun. The form a noun takes when said in isolation, when elicited or is a predicate after a copula or the subject of such a copula: tací neptá lăhliyo “an eel isn’t a snake”.
 * 2) Nominative - The form a noun takes when it is the subject of an active verb. It can also be used to mark definiteness on subjects of copulas: tacíka neptá lăhliyo “the eel isn’t a snake”. It is also used to mark definitness on subects of stative verbs (which usually take the respective case): tacíka lomalehsya “the eel is dead”.
 * 3) Accusative - The form a noun takes when it is the object of a verb. It is also used in nouns denoting measurement, distance and time:
 * 4) kusxaya hosíxaya yisatpiisɬe (three- day- walk-) “I walked for three days”.
 * 5) Respective - This case has quite a wide variety of uses which include:
 * 6) Possession: sempés umpíxi (house father-) “father’s house”.
 * 7) “About, regarding, concerning, with respect to”: umpíxi lahixi cotiiɬ (father-  speak-) “We are speaking about your father”.
 * 8) Objects of experiential verbs (to see, to hear, to smell): umpíxi kixi okesɬi (father-  see-)  “I saw my father”
 * 9) The subject of a stative verb: umpíxi kixi lomalehsya (father-  be_dead-) “my father is dead”
 * 10) Vocative - Used to directly address a noun: umpǐya (father-) “father!”

Nouns also come in three classes or “grades”. Grade 1 contains nouns referring to tangible nouns (i.e things that can be seen and touched things with a physical form). Grade 2 contains nouns referring to abstract concepts and Grade 3 contains verbal nouns.

Grade 1: Tangible nouns
Grade 1 nouns take the plural suffix -wi.

Phonetic alternations

When these suffixes are applied they trigger certain changes to the stems of some nouns. These changes are:

Earlier allophony had the short vowels /i o ɑ/ become [ɪ ʊ ɐ] in closed syllables, such as before the word final /k/, with the loss of word final /k/ these allophones were now rendered phonemic. With the vocative suffix -iya this final syllable was rendered as an open syllable and so the /i o ɑ/ > [ɪ ʊ ɐ] didn’t occur. In the modern language this has resulted in a vowel alternation of e u ă > i o a in such nouns where a lost /k/ resurfaces, where the original vowels resurface in the vocative
 * 1) Restoration of word final /k/: Akchotibian lost word final /k/ which affected only the autonomous singular forms of nouns, as when inflected the /k/ was no longer word final. In nouns which used to have a word final /k/, the /k/ resurfaces when inflected. Thanks to another sound change where /kk/ became /ŋk/, this lost /k/ resurfaces as /ŋ/ in the nominative.
 * 1) apé (“son”) > apékwi (“sons”), apéngka (“son-”), apékci (“son-”), apékxi (“son-”), apíkiya (“son-”).
 * 2) sipắ (“mother”), pestú (“friend”), nǐu (“fish”) > sipákiya (“mother-”), pestókiya (“friend-”), nǐokiya (“fish-”).

Grade 2: Abstract concepts
Grade 2 nouns take the plural suffix -ya.

The Grade 2 vocative is mostly found in prose and in interjections and idioms.

Phonetic Alternations

The same phonetic alternations apply here as in Grade 1 except the resurfacing /k/ does not become /ŋ/ in the nominative: yapé (“joy”) > yapékbo (“joy-”).

When a noun ends in /b/ or /p/, the /b/ or /p/ becomes /m/ in the nominative, then metaphesis occurs where the /m/ and the preceeding vowel switch places. Basically the final V{p,b} becomes -mVbo: hăctuép (“fear”), natéb (“knowledge”) > hăctumébo (“fear-”), natmébo (“knowledge-”).

Grade 3: Verbal nouns
Grade 3 nouns take no plural suffix nor do they take on the vocative case.

Phonetic Alternations

Grade 3 nouns experience no phonetic alternations.

=Possessive Pronouns=

Nouns may be marked as being possessed in two ways. They may either take the possessive affix as a suffix or as an infix. The general rule is that the possessive affix attaches directly after the accented vowel no matter what. The same vowel alternation described in Grade 1 nouns applies here.


 * kuhsúl (“root”) > kuhsúwul (“his root”)
 * petsú (“friend”) > petsóɬa (“my friend”)
 * nǐu (“fish”) > nǐyiiu (“your fish”)
 * ǎlki (“mouth”) > ǎyiilki (“your mouth”)
 * lotúp (“footprint”) > lotóɬăp (“my footprint”)

=Verbs=

Verbs in Akchotibian are the source of much of the language’s derivational processes, with the vast majority of derived nouns, prepositions and derived verbs stemming from verb stems. In fact there are very few suffixes which derive from nouns, one is -ɬa- which means “to catch/harvest/obtain X” (nǐu “fish” > nǐuɬasa “to fish”). Verbs can be Active (denoting an action) or Stative (denoting a state of being, typically corresponding with adjectives in other languages). Active and stative verbs inflect differently.

When inflecting a verb, the infitive suffix -sa is removed before applying the person endings:


 * hiitkasa (“to go”) > hiitkaes (“I go”)
 * tocohetsa (“to be happy”) > tocohetsa (“I am happy”)

Past tense

The past tense is formed simply by adding the suffix -ɬe to the verb:


 * hiitkaesɬe (“I went”)
 * tocohetsaɬe (“I was happy”)

Negative

The negative is formed by the suffix -yo. This suffix always goes after the past tense suffix:


 * hiitkaesyo (“I don’t go”)
 * hiitkaesɬeyo (“I didn’t go”)
 * tocohetsayo (“I’m not happy”)
 * tocohetsaɬeyo (“I wasn’t happy”)

Stative Verbs in Relative Clauses
In place of attributive adjectives, Akchotibian places stative verbs in relative clauses. Since Akchotibian is a left branching language the stative verb is placed before the head noun and with the subordinator suffix -si attached:


 * neptá tocohetya (snake be_happy-) “a snake is happy”
 * tocohetyasi neptá (be_happy- snake) “a happy snake”

Comparative and Superlative Constructions
Since Akchotibian has no adjectives, instead having stative verbs, the comparative and superlative is marked by adverbs which modify stative verbs. The comparative is formed by placing the adverb rapur (shortnened form of oritapiur “up”) before the verb and the noun being compared to in the respective case:


 * păkhíxi hatóka rapur soya (tree- mountain- up be_big-) “the mountain is bigger than the tree”

The superlative is formed by placing the adverb sopibaur before the verb. This adverb stems from the prepositional suffix -ur attached to the verb sopibasa (“to be complete”), itself the passive of sopisa (“to finish, to complete”):


 * hatóka sopibaur soya (mountain- be_big- (“the mountain is the biggest”’

The same adverbs are used when in subordinate clauses:


 * rapur soyasi ható (up be_big- mountain) “the bigger mountain”
 * sopibaur soyasi ható ( be_big- mountain) “the biggest mountain”

Phonetic Alternations
Some stems experience a number of alternations to the stem when inflected thanks to various sound changes that the language has experienced. Most of the sound changes affected /k/ when in clusters. For example the cluster /ks/ beckme /sː/, so verbs ending in /k/ were affected by the infinitive verb suffix -sa.


 * 1) ss > k: When an infinitive verb ends in -ssa then the final /s/ in the verb stem will alternate to /k/ when inflected, except in the first person singular for stative verbs where the verb is homophonous to its infinitive form. In the second person singular for both active and stative verbs, the /s/ alternates to /ŋ/. Vowel alternation in the final syllable may occur when the vowels finds itself in an open syllable when inflected.
 * 2) ussa (“to see”) > okes (“I see”)
 * 3) halăssa (“to know”) > halakes (“I know”)
 * 4) pihăssa (“to be thirsty”) > pihăssa (“I am thirsty”), pihăngkya (“you are thirsty”)

When the /s/ alternates to /ŋ/ it may beckme subject to metathesis where the sequence $VNC becomes $NVC, despite the vowel now being in an open syllable, it does not alternate. When a consonant occurs before the vowel, the metathesis does not occur:
 * 1) ussa (“to see”) > ungki > nguki (“you see”)


 * 1) ss > nt: When the infinitive verb ends in -ssa, the final /s/ of the stem alternates with /nt/ when a causative verb is derived from it. Nasal metathesis will occur when the above described environment is met:
 * 2) ussa (“to see”) > nutisa (“to show”)
 * 3) halăssa (“to know”) > halăntisa (“to teach, to inform”)


 * 1) ss > x: When a stative verb ends in -ssa, the final /s/ of the verb alternates to /xɬ/ when inflected for the first person plural. This is due to the original /k/ in the verb flrming the cluster /kɬ/which then became /xɬ/:
 * 2) pihăssa (“to be thirsty”) > pihăxɬa (“we are thirsty”)

Derivational processes
Akchotibian has incredibly rich derivational morphology which derives soley from verbs (with the exception of the -ɬa- suffix). Everything from nouns, adverbs, verbs to prepositions can be derived from verbs.

Verb to Verb
There are many ways in which a new verb can be created from other verbs which are as follows.

Action done in X manner

There are three “manners” which are:


 * 1) ma-: actions done in a masculine manner
 * 2) cotisa (“to speak”) > macotisa (“to speak with a deep voice, to bellow”)
 * 3) ki-: actions done in a feminine manner
 * 4) yisătpisa (“to walk”) > kiyisătpisa (“to walk like a woman, to walk with a feminine gait”)
 * 5) ro-: actions done in a childish or stupid manner
 * 6) cotisa (“to speak”) > rocotisa (“to stutter, to slur, to mumble”)

Action done where

There are a number a prefixes which denote the place on/in which an action was performed.


 * wa-: action on ground
 * piatăcsa (“to carve, to bore a hole”) > wapiatăcsa (“to dig”)
 * to-: action in fire
 * asnisa (“to make”) > toasnisa (“to cook, to make in a fire”)
 * ni-: action in water
 * hiitkasa (“to go”) > nihiitkasa (“for a land animal to swim”)
 * ci-: action on a raised or artificial surface
 * bihosa (“to wipe”) > cibihosa (“to sweep”)
 * ɬi-: action on a vertical plane
 * yisătpisa (“to walk”) > ɬiyisătpisa (“to climb”)
 * ka-: action on the face
 * muptibasa (“to be hit by”) > kamuptibasa (“to be hit on the face by something”)
 * ak-: action in a swamp
 * yisătpisa (“to walk”) > akyisătpisa (“to walk in a swamp”)
 * ba-: action in a forest/on a tree, on/in wood
 * piatăcsa (“to carve, to bore a hole”) > bapiatăcsa (“to bore out a hole in a tree”)

Capability Verbs

To denote “to be able to do X” the prefix ha- is attached to the verb. When used alongside the derivational negative suffix -ya- it gains the meaning “to be unable to do X”.


 * ussa (“to see”) > haussa (“to be able to see”) > hausyasa (“to be unable to see, to be blind”)
 * alkisa (“to eat”) > haalkisa (“to be able to eat”) > haalkiyasa (“to be unable to eat”)

Verbs derived with this prefix lose any phonetic alternations:


 * haussa (“to be able to see”) > hauses (“I am able to see”) and not *haokes, hauski (“you are able to see”) and not *hanguki

Causative Verbs

Causative verbs are verbs in which the subject is assumed to coerced or forced another to do the action is some way. The causative is derived with the suffix -ti:


 * hohecsa (“to fall”) > hohectisa (“to push over, to trip up”)
 * xituslisa (“to die”) > xituslitisa (“to kill”)
 * rocotisa (“to stutter, to slur, to mumble”) > rocotitisa (“to stupify, to amaze”)

When the infinitive verb ends in -ssa, the causes the /s/ of the verb stem to become /nt/. When the vowel before /nt/ is the onset of the syllable then metathesis will occur where the /n/ and vowel will swap places:


 * ussa (“to see”) > nutisa (“to show”)
 * halăssa (“to know”) > halăntisa (“to teach, to inform”)

Passive Verbs

Passive verbs are verbs where the semantic patient is promoted to become the subject of a transitive verb. The passive is derived with the suffix -ba:


 * alkisa (“to eat”) > alkibasa (“to be eaten”)
 * kahasa (“to help”) > kahabasa (“to be helped”)

When the infinitive verb ends in -ssa, the final /s/ in the verb stem becomes /k/:


 * ussa (“to see”) > ukbasa (to be seen”)
 * halăssa (“to know”) > halăkbasa (“to be known”)

Within passive verbs there is a form of evidentiality which denotes that the subject was compelled to perform the action by an unknown cause or reason, or if the cause was an abstract concept (i.e a Grade 2 Noun). This is marked by the suffix -inta/-nita. If the verb is intransitive then the transitive toggle suffix -iri is applied after the verb and before the -inta suffix, this serves to turn the intransitive verb into a transitive verb such that it can be rendered passive.


 * yisătpisa (“to walk”) > yisătpiiriintasa (“to walk because of an unknown/abstract cause):
 * xituslisa (“to die”) > xitusliiriintasa (“to die of unknown causes”)
 * tocohetsa (“to be happy”) > tocohetiriintasa (“to be happy without knowing why”)
 * riciisak (“to paint”) > riciintasa (“to paint without knowing why”)

Verb to Noun
Agentive nouns are derived from verbs by removing the infinitive -sa suffix and by placing a rising tone of the penultimate syllable. If the verb stem is monosyllabic then an epenthetic /ɑ/ is placed word initially:
 * nǐuɬasa (“to fish”) > niǔɬa (“fisherman”)
 * alkisa (“to eat”) > ǎlki (“mouth”)
 * lasa (“to be”) > ǎla (“being, creature, indefinite pronoun”)
 * tocohetsa (“to be happy”) > tocǒhet (“happy person”)

Verbal Nouns come in three grades depending on what the verb itself is. Grade 1 verbal nouns are derived from non-derived verbs (i.e not causative or passive). Grade 2 verbal nouns are derived from causative verbs and Grade 3 verbal nouns are derived from passive verbs. Suffixes are used to derive verbal nouns but phonetic alternations may occur. Such as /s/ > /k/:


 * Grade 1: -ulkí
 * ussa (“to see”) > okulkí (“seeing”)
 * Grade 2: -oɬí
 * nutisa (“to show”) > nutioɬí (“showing”)
 * Grade 3: -awí
 * ukbasa (“to be seen”) > ukbaawí (“being seen”)

Noun to Noun
The suffix -s serves to derives nouns denoting a noun which has been separated from a larger whole. When the noun ends in the consonant then an allomorph is used, the infix -se which isnplaced after the accented vowel. This is to avoid an illegal CC# cluster, as clusters can only occur across syllable boundaries.


 * natéb (“knowledge”) > natéseb (“fact”)
 * palí (“foot”) > palís (“cut off foot”)
 * ható (“mountain”) > hatós (“lonely mountain, small lonely hill”)
 * apé (“son”) > apés (“son who has his own children”)
 * ak (“land”) > asék (“clump of soil”)
 * pa (“head”) > pas (“cut off head”)

Verb to Preposition
Prepositions are productively derived from verbs with the prepositional suffix -ur (which is from the verb orisa “to be located at”).


 * ălpasa (“to be high”) > ălpaur (“above”)
 * piăhlosa (“to be low”) > piăhlour (“below”)
 * netasa (“to follow”) > netaur (“behind, after, according to, following”)

Some adverbs can be derived with the same suffix.


 * sopisa (“to finish”) > sopiur (“already”)

Nouns (typically nouns for body parts) that have been compounded with orisa can also have this suffix applied:


 * oripalísa (“to be by a foot” < palí “foot”) > oripaliur (“down”)
 * oritapísa (“to be by a face” < tapí “face”) > oritapiur (“up”)
 * orihitússa (“to be by a forehead” < hitís “forehead”) > orihitusur (“front, in front of, before”)
 * oriɬotúpsa (“to be by a footprint < ɬotúp “footprint”) > oriɬotupur (“behind, after”)
 * orimipása (“to be by an arm” < mipá “flank, arm, wing, branch”) > orimipaur (“beside, next to, by”)
 * orieshă̌ssa (“to be by a grassland” < eshă̌s “open area of land, grassland, plain, landscape”) > oriishaasur (“out”)

The preposition oritapiur (“up”) has the shortened form rapur which acts as an adverb to denote telicity, i.e an action done until completion:


 * rapur ălki! (“eat up!”)
 * rapur sopi! (“finish up!”)
 * rapur ăpta! (“figure it out!”) < ăptasa (“to decide, to choose”)

Valency
Being an active-stative language, Akchotibian can denote whether a subject performed a verb on purpose or not. If the subject performed the action on purpose or with active participation then it is placed in the nominative case, if the actioned was performed by accident then the subject is placed in the accusative case. If the subject is not in the 3rd person and performed the verb by accident, then theappropriate pronoun is used in the accusative case (whereas the nominative pronoun would typically be dropped).

hohecsa (“to fall”)


 * hohicesɬe “I fell on purpose” (Nominative subject)
 * kici hohicesɬe “I fell by accident” (Accusative subject)

xituslitisa (“to kill”)


 * pestúkci kixi xituslitiesɬe “I killed my friend on purpose” (Nominative subject)
 * pestúkci kixi kici xituslitiesɬe “I killed my friend by accident” (Accusative subject)

Imperative
The imperative is marked with the bare verb stem alone. However in some verbs there are some phonetic alternations thanks to sound changes. When a verb infinitive ends in -ssa, in the imperative the final /s/ of the verb stem is elided:


 * ussa (“to see”) > u (“see!”)
 * halăssa (“to know”) > hală (“know!”)

=Numbers=

The native counting system is base 5 and is based upon using the fingers for counting. The numbers 1-5 are:


 * ap
 * wi
 * 1) kus
 * 2) tawi
 * 3) taapkus

This base 5 system itself evolved from a much older base 3 system as can be observed with the cranberry morpheme ta-,which comes from an archaic verb root meaning “to fold”, in tawi (fold-two) and taapkus (fold-one + three).

Larger numbers are formed from combinations of the numbers 1-5. Even numbers are formed by repeating the ha,f of that number twice. Odd number are formed by taking the half of the number and adding the next highest numbers:


 * kuskus (3+3) “six”
 * kustawi (3+4) “seven”
 * tawitawi (4+4) “eight”
 * tawitaapkus (4+5) “nine”
 * taapkustaapkus (5+5) “ten”
 * taapkuskuskus (5+6) “eleven”
 * kuskuskuskus (6+6) “twelve”
 * kuskuskustawi (6+7) “thirteen”
 * kustawikustawi (7+7) “fourteen”
 * kutawitawitawi (7+8) “fifteen”
 * tawitawitawitawi (8+8) “sixteen”
 * tawitawitawitaapkus (8+9) “seventeen”
 * tawitaapkustawitaapkus (9+9) “eighteen”
 * tawitaapkustaapkustaapkus (9+10) “nineteen”
 * taapkustaapkustaapkustaapkus (10+10) “twenty”

Beyond twenty there are no numbers, instead the stative verbs baɬisa (“to be several”), eringkasa (“to be many”) and sungkamasa (“to be very many”) are used.