Sáśaravi

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Name of the language is sáśa “perfect/sacred” + ravi “form/shape/essence”

Sáśaravi is the language spoken by the Còchin who invaded the previous Myéka civilisation around -1000 YP and established their own kingdom which quickly fell into disunity. The region was reunited around -700 YP under a confederation led by a shamaness known as Ńỳlta Tyra (sun-daughter). The delta was then reunited under emperor Thaṇius Lys (lions-claw) in -323 YP who stylised himself akahan or sky-ruler. His domain was further expanded by his great granddaughter Aka Tèchìn (skys-grace) during the years -213 YP and -196 YP. She later renamed herself to Aka Tèchìn Tyśal (skys-grace-and-command) and proclaimed her country Akańárayi or sky-empire (literally sky-country-augmentative). The empire continued expansion during the years from -150 to -63 YP but eventually stabilised in size. It collapsed officially in 687 YP after 400 years of increasing internal instability. Its successor the second Akańárayi was officially formed around 1035 YP lasting until 1739 YP.

The Myéka had developed a logographic system of writing around -1200 YP which was adopted by the Còchin to write their own language. Eventually an alphabetic script was devised during -513 YP and used to write the Theŋkrikata or sacred texts a collection of 36 texts detailing either the domains, rituals and prayers of a particular god or an epic story from the religion. The language depicted in these texts is known as Theŋkrikata Sáśaravi as opposed to Classical Sáśaravi which was codified during -150 YP by the spelling reform of emperor Tỳnàr Vár (thunder-lord). Writing was further bolstered after the invention of paper at -238 YP. Classical Sáśaravi would become one of the classical languages of the world it’s usage continued as a significant literary language long after it had stopped being spoken.


Phonology

Tenuis Stop p t - c k -

Aspirated pʰ(ph) tʰ(th) - cʰ(ch) kʰ(kh) -

Voiced Fric v z ʐ(ẓ) ʑ(ź) - -

Voiceless f s ʂ(ṣ) ɕ(ś) - h

Liquid - r - j(i) - -

Voiced Lat - l - ʎ - -

Voiceless - l̥(hl) - ʎ̥(hʎ) - -

Voiced Nas m n ṇ ń ŋ -

Voiceless m̥(hm) n̥(hn) ɳ̊(hṇ) ɲ̥(hń) ŋ̊(hŋ) -


Retroflexes were subapical alveolar rather than true retroflexes

Syllable structure is mostly (C)V(C) with very few 2 consonant clusters occurring. Stops did not occur in codas.

Angkorese has 3 tones an unmarked mid tone and high and low tones which are marked by an acute and a grave accent respectively.


High i ɯ(y) u

Mid e - o

Low - a ɔ

Sáśaravi has 2 harmonic pairs of vowels with *u being a neutral vowel that can occur in any word. *a and *i can co-occur can also co-occur in the same word. The first set of vowels are known as Feminine vowels while the second set are known as Masculine vowels.

Feminine *i, *e, *o

Masculine *ɯ *a *ɔ


Sáśaravi contrasts between Light or Air consonants and Heavy or Earth consonants. Light consonants consist of the aspirated stops and voiceless continuants while the Heavy consonants are the tenuis stops and voiced continuants. Only *h is mentioned to be always Light with no Heavy variant while *r and *j are considered to have no light variant. Vowels were considered to be Wet or Water (sometimes Sky) sounds separate in nature from the consonants. The voiced fricatives are sometimes described as Wet consonants but this is never applied to the voiced sonorants. At least one author described the voiced stops that occur at the start of words in standard còchin as Wet consonants.

High tone is called bright tone (ratai) while Low tone is called dim tone (fozíia). Mid tone is somewhere in between bright and dim (ʎàẓỳ).

Around 50% of Sáśaravi vocabulary is from Myéka languages with the majority of these coming from the now extinct variety of Delta Myéka. Examples include *ánaśa “light”, *cíŋse “prophetess”, *vó “to study”, *náia “boquet of flowers” and *miýa “myéka grain”.

Sáśaravi had a number of word internal changes that resulted from the addition of suffixes or prefixes to words

Word Internal changes

  • s + *v > f
  • voiceless sibilant + *r > voiced
  • voiced nasal + *voiceless sibilant > nasal + voiced sibilant
  • s + *ch > ṣ
  • s + *kh > ś
  • s + *p/t > z
  • s + *c > ẓ
  • s + *k > ź
  • s + sonorant > voiceless sonorant
  • n + *r/v > ṇ

Alveolar and Velar consonants palatise before *i/y (note that *s and *z palatise to retroflex consonants before *y but palatal consonants before *i).

In addition Sáśaravi has 2 main types of ablaut affecting its words.

Palatal ablaut changes the stem consonant to a palatised consonant (or a retroflex consonant in the case of sibilants). Alternatively before already palatal or labial consonants it raises the stem vowel in height while keeping its harmony (so *a becomes *y, *e becomes *i and *o and *ɔ become *o)

Rounding (*o) ablaut changes the vowel to a rounded back vowel *ɔ in the case of *a, *o in the case of *e and *u in the case of *i and *y.


Morphology

Nouns

Plurals

Are made by prefixing ki- to the start of nouns

kikhaly kani tèńcò

PLU-seafood-ACC 3-SG-F eat-AOR

“She eats seafood”


Locatives

Were located on the noun as prefixes

kala “now”

sò “here”

pèn “there”

o “inside”

phí “on”

hli “by means off”

cho “around/surrounding”

pí “among”

trí “as”


Ablative and Lative cases can be used to alter the meaning of locatives


kalakànyṣys kani sórí koś céntu

now-fire-ABL 3-SG-F SUB-give-F-AOR 3-SG-M-DAT book

“Before the fire, she gave the book to him”


ka otúíno

3-SG-M in-city-ABL

“He went through the city”


kani píkhímo

3-SG-F among-market-ABL

“She was losing her place at the market”


Case Sáśaravi has 11 cases. Note most cases deleted parts of a word instead of just being simple affixes, however they are simple affixes when applied to monosyllabic words.

(First Feminine, then Masculine, then Neuter)

Nominative (Unmarked)

Accusative (marked by *o ablaut and changing the ending to *-n/marked by *o ablaut/marked by changing the ending to *-i/-y)

Dative (marked by changing the word to use feminine vowels and deleting the final consonant/marked by *o ablaut and changing the final consonant to ś/made by changing the ending to *-ny/-ni)

Genitive (marked by *o ablaut and changing the ending to *-nar/ner/marked by *i ablaut and shifting the following vowel to high tone/marked by changing the ending to *-ṣynar/-śiner)

Instrumental (marked by changing the ending to -àr/-èr/marked by changing the ending to -rà/-rè /marked by changing the ending to -ṣy/śi)

Ablative (marked by changing the ending to *-a/-e and deleting the final consonant/marked by *i ablaut and changing the ending to *-n/marked by changing the ending to *-ɔ/-o)

Lative (marked by *i ablaut and changing the ending to *-s/marked by changing the ending to *-s/marked by changing the ending to *-sa/-se)

Partitive (marked by changing the ending to *-ya/-ye/marked by changing the ending to *myn/min/marked by changing the ending to *-ʎa/-ʎe)

Locative (marked by changing the ending to -àryn/-èrin/marked by changing the ending to -ràńyn/-rèńin /marked by changing the ending to -myńyn/mińin)

Translative (marked by changing the ending to *-ran/ren)

Abessive (marked by changing the ending to *-va/-ve)

Note with monsyllabic words instead of the ending becoming changed a new ending is added to the word with a preceding *-n- if needed.


Nominative

Serves as the languages unmarked case and is used for the subject of sentences.


Accusative

Marks the direct object of the sentence.


Dative

Marks the indirect object or the beneficiary of the sentence. It can also be used as the subject of the sentence to indicate low animacy. It can also be used to say something is composed of something. Finally it can also indicate the purpose of an action.

lú zóré

woman-DAT wake-F

“The woman wakes”


kiaśá kilete

PLU-hawk PLU-wing-DAT

“Hawks have wings (wings to the hawks)”


a sýńcɔ he

1-SG fight-AOR-MASC han-DAT

“I fight for the king”


Genitive

Marks that a noun modifies another noun.


avúnàr húram

vigour-GEN boy

“The vigourous boy”


Instrumental

Marks a noun as the means by which something is achieved. Alternatively it can also show accompaniment.


cérà tàri

man-INST 1-SG-ACC

“The man accompanied us”


Ablative

Used to indicate motion away from something. Alternatively it can be used to imply reverence for the noun.

ròna tricira amis

1-SG-GEN as-sister-ABL beauty

“My sister is beautiful (literally my sister is beauty)”


Lative

Used to indicate motion away from something. Alternatively it can imply you despise something.


Partitive

Used to indicate only a fraction of something is present. Alternatively when used with certain verbs it implies the result of the action is incomplete or failed to happen (atelic).


Locative

Indicates that the subject object is at the location of something.


túímińin

city-LOC

“In the city”


Translative Indicates that an noun has changed in state.


mùàn kànyẓran

tree fire-Trans

“The tree turned into fire”

Verbs

Verb Stem

Negative - Benefactives - Voice - Evidentiality - Mood - Stem - Tense - Verbal Agreement


Tense Sáśaravi has 4 tenses

Present Used for present events. It is unmarked.

Aorist Used for events in the recent past which were completed as well as habitual statements or general truths e.g “humans speak” (kinivah kuiií). It is marked by *i ablaut on the vowel.

Past Used for both past events which are ongoing or incomplete as well as all events that happened in the remote past. It is marked by reduplicating the first syllable.

Future Used for future events. It is marked by replacing the final consonant with *s, alternatively after sonorants it is formed by suffixing *-z.


Verbal Agreement

Verbs are required to agree with nouns in gender. Neuter verbs are always in -atr masculine vowels and never have a final vowel as an *ɔ or *u. Masculine verbs have masculine vowels and always end in an *ɔ or *u. Feminine verbs use feminine vowels and lose final consonants. The citation form of verbs is the neuter but because the feminine form is not always predictable from the neuter form it is sometimes given. Also note the rule that *i and *a can co-occur within a word still applies.

Some example verbs.

Neuter: ṣyśa Masculine: ṣyśɔ Feminine: śiśo

Neuter: ilánz Masculine: ilɔ̀nz Feminine: ilé



Mood

Subjunctive

Replaces the initial consonant with *s and applies *o ablaut to the initial vowel. It serves the purpose of marking the events as potentially unreal. It also marks subordinate clauses.


kani sulénz

3-SG-F SUB-forsee

“She may forsee it”


a kɔńysa so mazonas pì

1-SG NEG-see 2-sg EVID.1-SUB-ignite

“I failed to see you ignite it”


Optative

Applies *i ablaut to the initial vowel. In addition before no consonant it prefixes *ń- and before non-stops deletes them creating high tone on the following vowel if it deleted a voiceless fricative.


Interrogative Inserts an *ra/re- before the root. Before stops instead it changes the initial cluster to tr. http://akana.conlang.org/w/skins/common/images/button_bold.png

Imperative Deletes the rhyme of the final syllable.


Evidentiality

  • iu- direct witness/involvement
  • ma/me- non-visual sensory
  • tɔ/to- inference by the speaker
  • nys/nis- trusted or verified second hand information
  • ka/ke- dubious second hand information/hearsay


Benefactives


  • kyn/kin- Benefactive
  • màr/mèr- Antibenefactive (note the final *r is lost before stops)

The benefactive is used when the action is deemed to be favourable or benefits the speaker in some way. The antibenefactive is used when the action.


Voice

Passive

Marked by prefixing śa/śe- to the word. It is used to switch the roles of the subject and the object of a transative verb.


Negative

Prefixing *kɔ/ko- negates the verb.

Syntax

Basic word order is SVO but due to the large number of cases a free word order is permitted thanks to the languages extensive cases. The language is consistently head initial with adverbs, adjectives and relative clauses coming after the things they modify. Auxiliaries also come before verbs.

Lexicon