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Difference between revisions of "Ortûlékian Languages"
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==Structure== | ==Structure== | ||
Proto-Ortûlékian grammar seems to have been fairly complex, with near-oligosynthetic verbal morphology comprising at least seven affixational slots on the verbal root and double marking of cases on both nouns and verbs. Most overt coding has been lost into Olgish, where only few morphological categories remain; but the intricate verbal morphology has been at least partly preserved into Aribelian and Aulish. One phenomenon shared by all three branched (and presumably Noldorinian) and potentially facilitated by the original double marking is the possibility to use any inflectional affix on any lexical category, such as forming the superlative of nouns (MOlg. ''relnir-un'' ‘high king’, lit. ‘the most king’) or coding tense on adjectives (HArb. ''arohil-et'' ‘formerly different’). Word order is almost invariably SVO, in some languages with free variation among objects, the order of which is coordinated by the complementational coding on the verb. Ortûlékian languages are largely head-initial, albeit with a relatively large freedom in individual cases, and allow pro-dropping in most contexts.<br> | Proto-Ortûlékian grammar seems to have been fairly complex, with near-oligosynthetic verbal morphology comprising at least seven affixational slots on the verbal root and double marking of cases on both nouns and verbs. Most overt coding has been lost into [[Olgish languages|Olgish]], where only few morphological categories remain; but the intricate verbal morphology has been at least partly preserved into [[Aribelian languages|Aribelian]] and [[Aulish language|Aulish]]. One phenomenon shared by all three branched (and presumably [[Noldorininan language|Noldorinian]]) and potentially facilitated by the original double marking is the possibility to use any inflectional affix on any lexical category, such as forming the superlative of nouns (MOlg. ''relnir-un'' ‘high king’, lit. ‘the most king’) or coding tense on adjectives (HArb. ''arohil-et'' ‘formerly different’). Word order is almost invariably SVO, in some languages with free variation among objects, the order of which is coordinated by the complementational coding on the verb. Ortûlékian languages are largely head-initial, albeit with a relatively large freedom in individual cases, and allow pro-dropping in most contexts.<br> | ||
A relatively large phoneme inventory can be reconstructed for Pre-Proto-Ortûlékian, with at least eight series of plosives (Mediae, Mediae Aspiratae, Tenues, Aspiratae, and a prenasalized variant of each) and plosive clusters common. These were incompletely merged in Proto-Ortûlékian, giving rise to a large number of diphthongs as clusters were resolved by lenition and creating the classical system of eight plosives (Mediae, Aspiratae, the glottal stop, and the single Tenuis /k/), which was fully preserved into Old Olgish and partly into Old Aribelian. Environmental interactions with nasals and prenasalized sounds shifted many vowels into a contrastive lax position and expanding the Ortûlékian vowel inventory to up to 22 phonemes in Olgish. | A relatively large phoneme inventory can be reconstructed for [[Pre-Proto-Ortûlékian]], with at least eight series of plosives (Mediae, Mediae Aspiratae, Tenues, Aspiratae, and a prenasalized variant of each) and plosive clusters common. These were incompletely merged in [[Proto-Ortûlékian]], giving rise to a large number of diphthongs as clusters were resolved by lenition and creating the classical system of eight plosives (Mediae, Aspiratae, the glottal stop, and the single Tenuis /k/), which was fully preserved into Old Olgish and partly into [[Old Aribelian]]. Environmental interactions with nasals and prenasalized sounds shifted many vowels into a contrastive lax position and expanding the Ortûlékian vowel inventory to up to 22 phonemes in [[Middle Olgish|Olgish]]. | ||