Wokatasuto

Wokatasuto / tū-katohahi [wókʰatʰasutʰɔ] / [tʰuːkʰátʰɔhaç]
Period	ca. 0 YP
Spoken in	Wohata Coast, Tuysáfa
Total speakers	c. 200,000
Writing system	unknown
Classification	Dumic languages   Wokatasuto
Typology
Basic word order	SOV
Morphology	fusional
Alignment	ERG-ABS
Credits
Created by	caedes

Wokatasuto was the autonym of a group of tribes living along the Wohata coast in eastern Tuysáfa, hence they were related to the speakers of Kataputi, Potonsuti, Tetey, Tetlo, Trinesian, Jouki Stəy, and Swopsoch. The language itself had no actual name, but was usually referred to as tū-katohahi "our (excl.) language".

The lexicon can be found here.

Phonology

Phonemes

Consonants

	labial	coronal	velar	glottal
stops	p b	t d	k g
fricatives	f	s ʃ		h
nasals	m	n
approximants			w
trills		r

/ʃ/ is written as sh.

Vowels

Monophthongs	Front	Central	Back
High	i iː		u uː
Mid-High	e eː ẽ		o oː õ
Mid-Low		ə əː
Low		a aː ã

Long vowels are marked with macrons in the romanization: a e i o u ə vs. ā ē ī ō ū ə̄. Nasalized vowels are indicated by a following <n>: /ã ẽ õ/ an en on .

Besides these monophthongs, the language has three oral diphthongs /ui̯ ia̯ ua̯/, which are romanized as uì ià uà to differentiate them from the respective simple vowel sequences /u.i i.a u.a/ ui ia ua, and the respective nasalized counterparts /õẽ̯ ẽã̯ õã̯/ oèn eàn oàn.

Phonotactics

Syllable Structure is (C)V(i̯/a̯/ẽ̯/ã̯), where C stands for every consonant and V for a short, long, or nasalized monophthong. /i̯ a̯/ only appear as parts of the diphthongs /ui̯ ia̯ ua̯/ and /ẽ̯ ã̯/ only in one of the nasalized diphtongs /õẽ̯ ẽã̯ õã̯/. Nasalized vowels never appear before onsetless syllables. /s/ never occurs before /e i/.

Suprasegmentals

The language exhibits a phonemic pitch accent on the first syllable of a word. However, proclitics never take stress.

Allophony

• Unvoiced plosives are usually slightly aspirated.
• The voiced plosives /b d g/ are realized as unvoiced [p] [t] [k] as onset of a stressed syllable.
• Obstruents, nasals and /r/ are palatalized before /e(ː) i(ː)/. /te(ː) ti(ː) de(ː) di(ː)/ are realized as palato-alveolar [tʃ͡ʰe(ː)] [tʃ͡ʰi(ː)] [dʒ͡e(ː)] [dʒ͡i(ː)] (the latter two unvoiced if they are the onset of a stressed syllable) and /he(ː) he(ː)/ as [çe(ː)] [çi(ː)]. In both cases, short [i] is usually dropped entirely in unstressed syllables and retained there as [ɪ] only in very careful speech; this also counts for short /i/ after /ʃ/. Furthermore, /n/ is realized as palatal [ɲ] before /e(ː) i(ː)/.
• /r/ is a trill [r] only in careful speech. Usually it is realized as a flap [ɾ].
• /e(ː) o(ː)/ are realized as open [ɛ(ː)] [ɔ(ː)] in unstressed syllables.
• Short /ə/ is a rather lax phoneme that is realized as [ɨ~ɘ] before coronal consonants and around [ɐ~ə~ɜ] everywhere else. Long /əː/ is [ɨː] before coronals and [ɐː] elsewhere.
• The nasal vowels /ã ẽ õ/ are realized as long [ɑ̃ː] [ɛ̃ː] [ɔ̃ː] in any position.
• The diphtongs /ui̯ ia̯ ua̯ õẽ̯ ẽã̯ õã̯/ are realized as [ui̯] [ia̯] [ua̯] [ɔ̃ɪ̯̃] [ɛ̃ɑ̯̃] [ɔ̃ɑ̯̃].

Romanization	Phonetic Transcription
to-mane sheni	[tʰɔmáɲɛ ʃéɲi]
mogewa	[mógʲɛwa]
hoho ko-higī	[hóhɔ kʰɔçígʲiː]
mēbākadota	[mʲéː.baː.kʰa.dɔ.tʰa]
ənihonbuki	[ɨ́ɲihɔ̃ːbukʰʲi]
andiwa	[ɑ̃́ːdʒ͡wa]

Morphophonology

Nasalization

The oral vowels a e i o u ə ā ē ī ō ū ə̄ uì ià uà become nasalized an en en on on an oèn eàn oàn before certain affixes that trigger nazalization, which are marked then with NAS:

Oral	Nasal
a ā ə ə̄	an
e ē i ī	en
o ō u ū	on
uì	oèn
ià	eàn
uà	oàn

bopu [pópʰu] "house" + dī NAS (genitive): bopondī [pópʰɔ̃ːdʒ͡iː] "of the house"

Labialization

Some morphemes, including all ending in ə ə̄, change it to u before labial consonants. Sometimes the whole stem can mutate, which is marked then in the lexicon:

terɘ- APPL.on + mā "sits, is sitting": terumā "is used to sit on"
terumā + wa PERF: terumaguwa "was used to sit on"

Backing

a can mutate to o before k g h, which is marked with BACK:

nonda- "is eaten" + ki BACK (subordinator): nondoki "which is eaten"

Morphology

Nominal Morphology

Nouns

Nouns in Wokatasuto are declined only for case. Number is usually marked on pronouns instead.

Case	suffix
Absolutive	-Ø
Ergative	-ko
Genitive	-dī NAS
Dative	-dira NAS
Instrumental	-dike NAS
Postpositional	-ni

The absolutive marks the subject of intransitives and the patient of transitives, while the ergative marks the agent of transitive verbs. The genitive is used to describe association, but not directly possession, which is marked by attaching the possessive prefixes. The dative marks the recipient of ditransitives, beneficiary towards someone and the direction of a motion. The instrumental case usually marks means or location. The postpositional case stands with most postpostions.

Possessive Prefixes

True possession is marked with prefixes. Like the personal pronouns, they distinguish between exclusive and inclusive forms in the 1st person as well as between singular, dual, trial and plural in most persons. In the third person, the masculine forms are used for male people, collective entities such as tribes and villages, large animals (dog-sized or larger), trees and shrubs, fire, water, the sun and objects usually associated with men rather than with women in general, while the feminine forms are used for everything else.

Furthermore, there are inherently possessed nouns that always appear with an attached possessive prefix, which mutates if it is attached to a noun that triggers nasalization.

	Singular	Dual	Trial	Plural
1st excl.	ti-, ten-¹	ta-, to-², tan-¹	tiri-, tiren-¹	timu-, timon-¹
1st incl.		kə-, ku-³, kan-¹, kon-¹ ³	kəri-, kəren-¹	kumu-, kumon-¹
2nd	ma-, mo-², man-¹	mata-, mato-², matan-¹	mari-, maren-¹	mu-, mon-¹
3rd m.	ko-, kon-¹	kota-, koto-¹, kotan-¹	kohi-, kohen-¹	komu-, komon-¹
3rd f.	to-, ton-¹	tota-, toto-², toton-¹	tohi-, tohen-¹	tomu-, tomon-¹

¹ Before inherently possessed nouns that trigger nasalization
² Before velars.
³ Before labials.

Pronouns

Independent vs. proclitic pronouns

In terms of determiners and especially pronouns, Wokatasuto distinguishes between emphatic forms, which appear as independent words, and unstressed forms, which appear as proclitics. If a determiner appears as a proclitic in a noun phrase, this means that either the phrasal head is emphasized or no emphasis is added at all. In turn, if a determiner appears in its emphasized form, this means that the speaker is focussing on the determiner itself. In the following example, emphasized elements are written in bold letters:

• Fipi mumu? Bete hi-hoto? - Wete-hoto? Hi-ufu ko-aku di ...
  fipi mumu ‖ bete hi=hoto ‖ wete=hoto-Ø ‖ hi=ufu ko=aku di!
  and DEM.EMPH ‖ who.GEN.EMPH DEM=town ‖ who.GEN=town ‖ DEM-little.village 3SG=only be
  And this? Whose town is this? Whose town? There is only this little village ...

The proclitic forms can appear together with their respective independent counterparts only in the third person, where the usage of the proclitics is always mandatory:

• Shishiko ko-sheni, fo hohoko ko-shishi ni-sheni.
  shishi-ko ko=sheni | fo hoho-ko ko=shishi ni=sheni
  1SG.EMPH-ERG 3SG=see | but 3SG.m.EMPH-ERG 3SG.ERG=1SG.EMPH NEG=see
  I see him, but he doesn't see me.

Personal Pronouns

The independent forms are used for emphasis. Of the less often used forms, which are listed after the usually used forms in the following table, the regularly-formed genitives ending in -dī are most important since they are often used after other nouns in the genitive like in tī-maondī te-bu shishendī sə̄ my friend's and my dog.

	Absolutive	Ergative	Genitive	Dative	Instrumental	Postpositional
1SG	shishi	shishiko, shiko	shī, shishendī, shendī	shishira, shira	shishike, shike	shini
2SG	mama	mamoko	māmā, māmandī	mamara	mamoke	mani
3SG m.	hoho	hohoko	hote, hotē, hotendī	hoha	hoke	honi
3SG f.	soso	sosoko	sote, sotē, sotendī	soha	soke	soni
1DU. excl.	shita	tisoko	tisā, tisandī	tisara	tisake	tisani
1DU. incl.	həhə	həhəko, həko	hə̄, handī	həhəra, həra	həhəke	həni
2DU	mata	matoko	masā, masandī	masara	masoke	masani
1TR excl.	shiri	tiriko	tirī, tirendī	tirira	tirike	tirini
1TR incl.	həri	kəriko	kərī, kərendī	kərira	kərike	kərini
2TR	mari	mariko	marī, marendī	marira	marike	marini
1PL. excl.	shimu	tenbuko	tenbū, tenbondī	tenbura	tenbuke	tenbuni
1PL. incl.	humu	konbuko	konbū, konbondī	konbura	konbuke	konbuni
2PL	mamu	manbuko	manbū, manbondī	manbura	manbuke	manbuni
3PL m	homu	buko	bū, bondī	bura	buke	buni
3PL f	somu

The proclitical forms do not destinguish between masculine and feminine in the 3rd person.

	Absolutive	Ergative	Genitive	Dative	Instrumental	Postpositional
1SG	ti-	to-	tī-	ta-	te-	ti-
2SG	ma-	mo-	mā-	ma-	me-	ma-
3SG	ko-	ko-	te-	ha-	ke-	ko-
1DU. excl.	(ti)ta-	(ti)to-	(ti)tā-	tara-	toke-	ta-
1DU. incl.	kə-	ko-	kə̄-	ka-	ke-	kə-
2DU	mata-	mato-	matā-	mara-	mate-	mata-
1TR excl.	tiri-	tiro-	tirī-	tira-	tire-	tiri-
1TR incl.	k(ər)i-	kəro-	kərī-	kəra-	kəre-	k(ər)i-
2TR	mi-	maro-	mī-	mira-	mire-	mi-
1PL. excl.	tu-	tuko-	tū-	tura-	tuke-	tu-
1PL. incl.	ku-	ko-	kū-	kura-	kuke-	ku-
2PL	mu-	mo-	mū-	mura-	me-	mu-
3PL	ku-	bo-	bū-	ba-	be-	bu-