Asséta

To Be Continued... Caleone is still working on this article. The contents are incomplete and likely to undergo changes.

Assete, Ędatę Šétis [a.ˈsːe.te], [ẽ.ˈda.tẽ ˈɕe.tis]
Period	c. 0 YP
Spoken in	Northwestern Tuysáfa, Coastal Northeastern Bay, the Heneššeme Basin
Total speakers	unknown
Writing system	unknown
Classification	T1 languages   Northeastern Bay
Typology
Basic word order	V2
Morphology	Largely Fusional with some Synthetic Elements
Alignment	NOM-ACC
Credits
Created by	Caleone

Asséta, also known as Great River Asséta, is a language spoken around 0 YP in the Heneššeme Basin region by the Fareveme peoples, the main descendants of the Northeastern Bay peoples who evolved along the coastlines of the Northeastern Bay and a descendant of the Northeastern Bay Language. As such this language is related to the other T1 languages including Black River Aséta, West Yalan, East Yalan, Omari, Teyetáti, Hkətl’ohnim, and Tumetıęk.

Phonology

Vowels

	front	center	back
high	i ĩ		u ũ
mid	e ẽ	(ə)	o õ
low	a ã

• Nasal vowels are written with an ogonek, e.g. /ẽ ɛ̃/ = <ę ę̂> alternatively <enn ehnn>
• ə only occurs in diphthonɡs

Consonants

Asséta contains a fairly large consonant inventory with distinctions between geminate, voiceless and voiced consonants, where all nasals, plosives and fricatives can be geminated.

	labial	alveolar	palatal	retroflex	velar	glottal
nasal	m	n	ɲ	ɳ	ŋ
plosive	p b	t d		ʈ ɖ	k ɡ
fricative	f v	s z	ɕ ʑ	ʂ ʐ		h
affricate		ts dz	tɕ dʑ	ʈʂ ɖʐ
liquid		l		ɻ ɭ
glide	w		j

• /ɲ ɳ ŋ/ are transcribed <ñ/ny ṇ/nr ng>
• /ʈ ɖ/ are transcribed <ṭ/tr ḍ/dr>
• /ts dz tɕ dʑ ʈʂ ɖʐ/ are transcribed <c/ts x/dz č/ty j/dy c̣/tsr x̣/dzr>
• /ɕ ʑ ʂ ʐ/ are transcribed <š/sh ž/zh ṣ/sr ẓ/zr>
• /ɻ ɭ j/ are transcribed <r ł/lr y>
• geminate consonants are written doubled, e.g. /tː/ = tt

Suprasegmentals

Asséta is a stress-timed language, with higher weight given to stressed syllables. That is, there is a noticeable length and quality difference in stressed syllables, being spoken at a higher pitch than the unstressed vowels.

Phonotactics

Syllable Structure

The maximal syllable structure in Asséta is (C)(w, j, ɻ)V(C) where C = any consonant and V = any vowel. The typical syllable however tends toward V & CV structures.

Nominal Morphology

Nominals fall into three categories that are morphologically distinct: pronouns, true nouns, and adjectives.

True Nouns

True nouns are divided into three categories: animate, inanimate, and collective. Outside of collective nouns true nouns decline for plurality and all nouns decline for case and definiteness.

Plurality

Asseta marks plurality with a prefix with separate forms for whether the proceeding sound is a consonant or a vowel. There are some exceptions to this, generally nouns with intial /w j/ will take the _V form in the plural (e.g. wáye son is nwáye sons; children, not nuwáye as would be expected).

	singular	plural
_V	w-	n-
_C	o-	nu-

Case and Definiteness

Asseta nouns decline for case and definiteness with a total of three cases and two states of definiteness.

	Indefinite	Definite
Nominative	-ê	-e	Marks the subject of a clause.
Accusative	-es	-is	Marks the direct object of a transitive clause.
Oblique	-ą	-ę	Marks secondary objects as well as the possessor in possessive clauses.

Pronouns

Personal Pronouns

	1st person
	Singular	Plural
Nominative	tǫdate	ędate
Accusative	tǫdatis	ędatis
Oblique	tǫdatę	ędatę

	2nd Person
	Singular	Plural
Nominative	lędate	žędate
Accusative	lędatis	žędatis
Oblique	lędatę	žędatę

	3rd Person
	Singular			Plural
	Definite	Indefinite		Definite	Indefinite
Nominative	ǫdate	nuhȇ		nųdate	nunuhȇ
Accusative	ǫdatis	nuhes		nųdatis	nunuhes
Oblique	ǫdatę	nuhą		nųdatę	nunuhą

Demonstratives

		singular	plural
Proximal	Familiar	teate	šite
	Unfamiliar	teato	šito
Medial		taka	aka
Distal		teafa	šiha

Interrogatives

šetį = what person (who (animate))

šefo = what thing (who (inanimate))

šetyą = at what time (when)

šiši = for what reason, by what method (why/how)

yȇ = at what place (where)

Verbal Morphology

Person & Aspect

	habitual	imperfective	perfective
1	ñe+	ñi-	nu-
2	re+	ẓi-	ṣičo-
3a	ño+	ño-	mo-
3i	ea+	ea-	ečo-

Modality & Tense

	present	past	future
indicative	-nɡ	-yé	-máfa
imperative	-ta	-yé	-káfa
subjunctive	-twíta	-twi	-twekáfa
optative	-lúta	-lu	-lokáfa
negative	-réata	-rejé	-ẓakáfa

Adjectives

Adjectives in Asséta are a class of words in the language that modify the preceding lexeme in a clause. These words behave like verbs in the sense that they take verbal prefixes for aspect and person but have their own set of conjugational suffixes for comparative and superlative forms as well as a relativizer prefix when modifying nouns. In a sense adjectives are used as both adjectives and adverbs and could more properly be called descriptives. Adjectives is used here for ease of use.

Person & Aspect

Adjectives when modifying verbs must take a person/aspect prefix, these are the same as used on the verbs themselves and are as follows:

	habitual	imperfective	perfective
1	ñe+	ñi-	nu-
2	re+	ẓi-	ṣiču-
3a	ñ+	ñ-	mu-
3i	ea+	ea-	eču-

Comparatives & Superlatives

Comparatives and superlatives take a suffix to modify the adjective which are as follows:

	comparative	superlative
	-nį	-a

Syntax

Noun Phrases

Numerals

Asséta numerals pattern as other adjectives. Like its relatives it uses a base-10 counting system.

1.	na	11.	nona
2.	nes	12.	nesana	20.	nena
3.	a	13.	ana	30.	ena
4.	kap	14.	kapana	40.	kana
5.	ra	15.	rena	50.	rena
6.	tak	16.	takana	60.	tąga
7.	muw	17.	muwana	70.	mura
8.	ha	18.	hena	80.	hena
9.	oya	19.	lana	90.	ora
10.	neta			100.	anetena
				1000.	noma

Numbers 21-99 are formed by the pattern <tens> + še + <ones> as follows:

21

nena

twenty

še

and

na

one

nena še na

66

tąga

sixty

še

and

tak

six

tąga še tak

89

hena

eighty

še

and

oya

nine

hena še oya

For numbers above one hundred the pattern <hundreds> + <tens> + še + <ones> is used. Similarly for the thousands, with <thousands> being placed before the <hundreds> place.

267

nesanetena

two hundred

tąga

sixty

še

and

muw

seven

nesanetena tąga še muw

1422

noma

one thousand

kapanetena

four hundred

nena

twenty

še

and

nes

two

noma kapanetena nena še nes

Interrogatives

Yes-No Questions

Yes-No questions are formed by using the verb "to do" in the v2 position while moving the main verb to the position after the object, the to-do verb taking the indicative and the main verb taking the subjunctive as seen below:

Did you drink the tea?

Lędate

2nd.sin

ṣičonóye

2nd.pfv.to_do.ind.pst

beyenes

tea.acc.indef

ṣičorevútwi

2nd.pfv.to_drink.sbj.pst

a

question_particle

Lędate renóng beyenes ṣičorevútwi a?

Sample Text

The Young Lion

Áffa Opayáte

Opayáte ñobeayé opošakrehémę ba-nopátis še kap-nex̣ęgótis fa fópa ǫdate ñobeayé še ǫdatę hasása ožetis ñobeayé, še ǫdatę kása wac̣étis ñobeayé, še ášša feyé ągíwa ǫdatę nassakútis.

Gloss

Áffa

áffa-Ø

be_young

Opayáte

o-payát-e

SIN.lion.NOM.DEF

The Young Lion

Opayáte

o-payát-e

SIN.lion.NOM.DEF

ñobeayé

ño-peang-yé

3a.HAB.to_be.IND.PST

opošakrehémę

o-pošakrehem-ę

SIN.great_king.OBL.DEF

ba-nopátis

ba-n-opat-is

be_all-PLU.fierce_animal.ACC.DEF

še

še

and

kap-nex̣ęgótis

kap-n-ex̣ęgót-is

be_four-PLU.countries.ACC.DEF

The lion was emperor of all the beasts and of the four nations

fa

fa

because

fópa

fópa-a

be_strong.SUPR

ǫdate

ǫdat-e

3rd.NOM.SIN.DEF

ñobeayé

ño-peang-yé

3a.HAB.to_be.IND.PST

še

še

and

ǫdatę

ǫdat-ę

3rd.OBL.SIN.DEF

hasása

hása-a

be_thick.SUPR

ožetis

o-žet-is

SIN.chest.ACC.DEF

ñobeayé

ño-peang-yé

3a.HAB.to_be.IND.PST

because he was the strongest, his chest was the thickest,

še

še

and

ǫdatę

ǫdat-ę

3rd.OBL.SIN.DEF

kása

ka-sa

be_thin.SUPR

wac̣étis

w-ac̣ét-is

SIN.waist.ACC.DEF

ñobeayé

ño-peang-yé

3a.HAB.to_be.IND.PST

še

še

and

ášša

ášša-a

be_quick.SUPR

ñoheyé

ño-feng-yé

3a.HAB.to_run.IND.PST

ągíwa

ągíwa

with

ǫdatę

ǫdat-ę

3rd.OBL.SIN.DEF

nassakútis

n-assakút-is

PLU.legs.ACC.DEF

his waist, the thinnest, and he ran the fastest with his legs.

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