U Bol

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U Bol
[u boɫ]
Period c. -200 YP
Spoken in Western Lukpanic coast
Total speakers Unknown
Writing system Lukpanic script (rarely)
Classification mixed Lukpanic–Western
Typology
Basic word order VSO
Morphology agglutinating
Alignment NOM-ACC
Credits
Created by CatDoom

U Bol is a mixed language spoken in the western Lukpanic Coast and descended from the languages of the native Lukpanic people and later Coastal Western immigrants. Although its vocabulary, including most basic terms, is derived from Proto-Coastal-Western, U Bol's phonology, phonotactics, and inflectional morphology are mostly similar to those of the Lukpanic languages.

U Bol may be described more accurately as a dialect continuum than a unitary language. The dialect described here is spoken in the city of Doanu (local name Donu), but more-or-less mutually intelligible varieties are spoken by scattered populations along the coast as far as Isi.


Phonology

U Bol has a moderately small phonemic inventory consisting of 16 consonants and 5 vowel qualities. However, due to allophony its surface phonetics are similar to those of its closest Coastal-Western relative, Ishoʻu ʻOhu.

Consonants

Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar
Plosive p /p/ b /b/ t /t/ d /d/ k /k/ g /ɡ/
Affricate c /tʃ/ j /dʒ/
Fricative s /s/ š /ʃ/
Nasal m /m/ n /n/ ŋ /ŋ/
Approximant w /w/ l /l/ y /j/

Vowels

Front Central Back
High i /i/ ii /iː/ u /u/ uu /uː/
Mid e /e/ ee /eː/ o /o/ oo /oː/
Low a /a/ aa /aː/

Suprasegmentals

U Bol is unusual among the languages of the Lukpanic Coast in making use of a phonemic stress accent. Stress is left-oriented and may fall on any syllable of a stem or the first syllable of a suffix. Stress position is indicated by an acute accent (á). Some noun and verb stems are listed in the lexicon without an indication of stress position; for these, stress fall syllable of any suffix applied to the stem, or on the first syllable of the stem if no suffix is applied.

Phonotactics

Syllables are usually of the form (C)V, but word-final syllables may have a coda consonant, which may be any one of /p m l/. Pairs of vowels in hiatus are common, but vowels with identical qualities are usually separated by an epenthetic stop consonant when morphological processes would otherwise bring them into contact.

The semivowel /j/, a phoneme absent from many of the languages of the Lukpanic Coast, has a limited distribution in U Bol, occurring only in intervocalic positions except as an allophone of /i/.

Allophony and Phonetic Detail

The fricatives /s ʃ/ are voiced to [z ʒ] between vowels.

Following a back vowel, /l/ is velarized to [ɫ].

Some speakers drop the semivowel /j/ before /i/ and otherwise treat it as an allophone of the short close-front vowel in careful and formal speech. This is an example of hypercorrection, and is considered nonstandard and generally looked down upon by higher-status speakers in cities like Doanu.

Some speakers in rural areas toward the western extreme of U Bol's range retain /k͡p ɡ͡b/ in words of Lukpanic origin, while these have merged with the labial stops /p b/ in most dialects. Speakers in these same areas are also well known for eliding the final vowels of many words of Western origin when they follow a valid coda consonant.

Short, unstressed close vowels tend to reduce to semivowels when they stand in hiatus before a mid or open vowel, or when they stand a the second of three vowels in hiatus. When a close vowel is reduced following a consonant, the resulting sequence of consonants is realized as an onset cluster even if it follows an open syllable. This reduction is prevalent across all dialects except in careful or formal speech.

Sound changes from Proto-Coastal-Western

The dialect of Coastal-Western that provided U Bol with the bulk of its vocabulary shares a common origin with Ishoʻu ʻOhu. The two varieties probably diverged some time in the 11th or 10th century BP.

First phase (to c. -1000 YP)

1. LENITION

  • ʎ > i / C_, _C, _#
  • ʎ > j
  • ɫ > u / C_, _C, _#
  • ɫ > l / !_V[+back]

2. CLUSTER SIMPLIFICATION

  • pɬ > pʰ
  • tɬ > ʨʰ
  • dɬ > ʥ
  • ɡɬ > ɣ

3. TONOGENESIS

  • V[+high] > [+rising] / _ʔ$
  • V[+low] > [+falling] / _ʔ$
  • ʔ > Ø / _$

4. CHANGES TO FRICATIVES

  • ɬ > ɕ
  • s > h / V_V, #_
  • z > s

5. PALATALISATION

  • tʰ t d > ʨʰ ʨ ʥ / _i, _u (persistent rule)
  • ʦʰ > s / _i

6. LABIALISATION

  • ʔ > p / _uV

7. LOSS OF /h/

  • h[+stop] > [+stop +tenuis]
  • h > ʔ / #_
  • h > Ø / (aspirated stops unaffected)

Second phase (to c. -200 YP)

1. DEVELOPMENT OF LONG VOWELS

  • Identical vowels in hiatus contract to a single long vowel

2. LOSS OF VELAR FRICATIVES

  • x > ɕ (possibly by way of ç and/or ʝ)
  • ɣ > j

3. DEAFFRICATION OF ALVEOLAR AFFRICATES

  • ʦʰ ʦ > s
  • ʣ > z

4. VOWEL LENGTHENING

  • Short vowels lengthened before voiced stops and fricatives

5. LOSS OF FRICATIVE VOICING DISTINCTION

  • Ø > V / #_{z, ʒ}V
  • s ʃ > z ʒ / V_V

6. STOP PHONATION SHIFT

  • C[+stop +tenuis] > C[+stop +voice] / V_V
  • C[+aspiration] > C[+tenuis]

7. TONE CONTOUR TO LENGTH

  • Short vowels with rising or falling tone become long
  • Long vowels with high or low tone shift to falling or rising tone, respectively

8. INITIAL /j/ VOCALIZATION

  • j > i / #_

9. LOSS OF GLOTTAL STOP

  • ʔ > Ø

10. HOMORGANIC VOWEL HIATUS RESOLUTION

  • Identical short vowels contract to a single long vowel
  • Other homorganic vowels in hiatus are separated by an epenthetic stop

11. DEVELOPMENT OF PHONEMIC STRESS

  • Stress moves to the first syllable in a word with rising tone
  • If a word has no syllable with rising tone, stress falls on the first high-tone syllable that follows a syllable with low or falling tone
  • If a word has no other syllable to attract stress, it falls on the first high-tone syllable
  • Tone ceases to be distinctive

12. LOSS OF PALATAL NASAL

  • ɲ > ŋ

Morphology

Despite massive relexification, the inflectional morphology of U Bol remains mostly identical to that of contemporary Doanu Lukpanic.

Verbal Morphology

U Bol verbal morphology is agglutinative, with inflectional suffixes filling one of four available "slots." When the initial vowel of a suffix is identical to the final vowel of the stem, an epenthetic stop (indicated in parentheses) is inserted to break up the hiatus.

Slot 1

The first slot for suffixes combines information about agency and aspect:

  • The suffix -(k)ai indicates timeless or recurring natural processes, or general states of affairs: mitólai iéesi "the river flows."
  • -(p)uši is used for distinct physical actions or events, including natural events: aagóuši "it's raining;" bíuši séyošupuši "[they] are building a wall."
  • -(k)iŋi is used for habitual actions (as part of one's profession, etc.): kuubáiŋi "[he] is a hunter;" bíkiŋi némali "[he] builds ships."

Slot 2

The second slot marks information about tense, aspect and mood. All examples are given in the -uši form.

  • The unmarked form marks the present or foreseeable future, or recent or ongoing past activity.
  • -(p)ul, -(p)o- before a consonant, is used for the completed past: bíušiul némali "[he] built a boat;" aagóušiul "it rained."
  • -gil, -(g)e- before a consonant is used for the speculative future or irrealis states: asalaúšigil áse íali "the woman may stab her husband."
  • -mau marks plans or volitions: bíušimau némali "[I'm] going to build a boat."

Slot 3

The third slot marks evidentiality.

  • The unmarked form indicates general knowledge, or leaves the source of knowledge unspecified.
  • -da indicates directly witnessed information: mitólušioda iéesi "the river was flowing [I saw it]."
  • -bita indicates inference or hearsay: bíkiŋibita némali "He builds boats [apparently; so I heard]."

Slot 4

The fourth slot marks negation.

  • The unmarked form is positive.
  • -ki is the strong negative (used for things distinctly known to be negative): bíušimauki némali "I am not going to build a boat."
  • -(k)ip is the weak negative (to indicate uncertainty or indistinct states): asalaúšigilip áse íali "I don't think the woman will stab her husband."

The Agentive

Any verb can be converted into an agentive noun ("doer of X") by adding the suffix -aw. The first slot is typically left blank in these constructions: mitólaw "something that flows;" némali bímaukew "one who isn't going to build a boat."

The Gerund

The gerund is formed by adding the suffix -(k)i. Slots 1 and 2 are always left blank; but negation or, rarely, the evidentiality suffixes may be included: iéesi mitóli "the flowing river;" náipol úwoubai "the vomiting baby;" áse sedádai "the woman [that I see is] singing."

  • The negative -ki combines with the gerund suffix as -kui rather than the expected *kiki: áse sedákui "the woman who is not singing."

The Verbal Noun

The verb in its unmarked form is a verbal noun: pamibáušiul na kuubáli "I witnessed the hunting" (the verb here bears an accusative suffix).

Nominal Morphology

U Bol nouns take only one inflectional suffix, -li, which marks the accusative case.


Numerals

U Bol makes use of the base eight number system common to the Western language family. Furthermore, the cardinal numbers in U Bol take suffixes indicating the type of object being counted, a vestige of the Western noun class system which is otherwise absent from the language.

Class I Class II Class III Class IV Class V Class VI Class VII Ordinal
1 taagoogé taagéyata taagéye taagóga taagóga taagówo taagési taagoogú
2 saasé síyata síye sída sísa súwo sísi suujú
3 nouguugé nóuguyata nóuguye nóuguga nóuguga nóuguwo nóugusi nouguugú
4 mesaasé meséyata meséye mesáda mesása mesówo mesési mesoogú
5 uugaasé uugéyata uugéye uugáda uugása uugówo uugési uugoogú
6 míisiise míisiyata míisiye míisida míisisa míisuwo míisisi míisuuju
7 neisiisé néisiyata néisiye néisida néisisa néisuwo néisisi neisuujú
10 8 ŋayoogé ŋáyeyata ŋáyeye ŋáyoga ŋáyoga ŋáyowo ŋáyesi ŋayoogú

Lexicon

U Bol Lexicon

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