Yewedu

Yewedu [jəwə'd̪u]
Period	c. 1 YP
Spoken in	west Tuysáfa
Total speakers	unknown
Writing system	none
Classification	Wendoth languages   East Wendoth     Yewedu
Typology
Basic word order	VSO
Morphology	fusional
Alignment	NOM-ACC
Credits
Created by	CatDoom

Yewedu [jəwə'd̪u] (roughly "Du speech") is a descendant of Wendoth spoken in western Tuysáfa in the first centuries YP. The speakers of Yewedu, who call themselves the Du, are agriculturalists possessing an early bronze-age level of technology and are active in overland trade between the southern and northern coasts of the continent.

Phonology

Yewedu distinguishes 41 consonants and 4 vowel qualities.

Consonants

	Labial	Coronal	Retroflex	Postalveolar	Velar	Glottal
Aspirated stop	ph /pʰ/	th /t̪ʰ/	ṭh /ʈʰ/		kh /kʰ/
Voiceless stop	p /p/	t /t̪/	ṭ /ʈ/		k /k/	' /ʔ/
Voiced stop	b /b/	d /d̪/	ḍ /ɖ/		g /g/
Aspirated affricate		ch /t̪s̪ʰ/	ṭṣh /ʈʂʰ/	čh /tʃʰ/
Voiceless affricate		c /t̪s̪/	ṭṣ /ʈʂ/	č /tʃ/
Voiced affricate		j /d̪z̪/	ḍẓ /ɖʐ/	ǰ /dʒ/
Aspirated fricative	fh /fʰ/	sh /s̪ʰ/	ṣh /ʂʰ/	šh /ʃʰ/	x /xʰ/
Voiceless fricative	f /f/	s /s̪/	ṣ /ʂ/	š /ʃ/
Voiced fricative	v /v/	z /z̪/	ẓ /ʐ/	ž /ʒ/		h /ɦ/
Nasal	m /m/	n /n/		ň /ɲ/
Trill		r /r/
Approximant		l /l̪/	ṛ /ɻ/	y /j/	w /w/

Vowels

	Front	Mid	Back
Close	i /i/		u /u/
Mid	e /e/
Open		a /a/

Each vowel also has contrasting long and short forms; long vowels are marked with a macron (ā).

Register

Syllables in Yewedu distinguish two registers, termed tense and lax. Tense syllables are distinguished by clear or slightly glottalized phonation on the vowel and a relatively high tone, while lax syllables are distinguished by breathy phonation on the vowel and a relatively low tone. Lax syllables are marked with a grave accent on the vowel (à), which becomes a circumflex in syllables with long vowels (â). Tense syllables are unmarked.

Stress

Yewedu has a dynamic accent which uniformly falls on the final syllable of a word.

Sound Changes from Wendoth

1. Vʁ > Vː /_C

2. [ḭ, ṵ] > [ḛ, o̰]

3. Tense vowels in syllables directly preceding a stressed tense vowel acquire the same phonation as that stressed vowel, without changing quality.

4. Stress becomes uniformly word-final

5. [ḭ ṵ ḛ o̰ a̰ ɑ̰] become [iʔ uʔ eʔ oʔ aʔ ɑʔ], and [i̤ ṳ e̤ o̤ a̤ ɑ̤] become [iɦ uɦ eɦ oɦ aɦ ɑɦ] in hiatus before another vowel

6. Creaky-voiced vowels merge with modal vowels

7. Diphthongs contract to long vowels matching the place of articulation of the second element

8. aː, oː and stressed a, o become a(ː), u(ː) while other instances of these vowels merge with ə.

9. Dorsal consonant chain shift:

1. /tʃ dʒ/ > /t̪s̪ d̪z̪/
2. /ʃ ʒ/ > /s̪ z̪/
3. /c ɟ/ > /tʃ dʒ/
4. /ç ʝ/ > /ʃ ʒ/
5. /q χ/ > /k xʰ/

10. Sonorants delete between consonants

11. Consonants assimilate to the place of artculation and voicing of a following buccal consonant in clusters, with the exception that voiceless obstruents do not become voiced before approximants or [r]. Sequences of a stop followed [ʃ] or [ʒ] become [tʃ] or [dʒ], respectively.

12. Geminate consonants are shortened to singletons in clusters

13. /θ/ becomes /t̪/ initially and when geminated, /ð/ intervocalically, and is elided in clusters and word-finally

14. /v ð ʐ/ > /w l ɻ/ but /vː ðː ʐː/ > /vː z̪ː ʐː/

15. Singleton voiced stops become voiced fricatives intervocalically, with /d̪/ > /z̪/

16. V > Ø /#_

17. Voiced consonants elide between a vowel and a consonant, lengthening the preceeding short vowels. This change applies to all word-final voiced consonants and clusters as well, since all words now begin with a consonant. Later, this change affects all word-initial voiced consonants preceding another consonant as well.

18. Long vowels in syllables immediately preceding the stressed (final) syllable in a word are shortened in words with more than two syllables. Short /ə/ is elided under these conditions.

19. Glottal consonants are lost from consonant clusters. In a cluster of two glottal consonants, the first elides without lengthening the preceding vowel.

20. Clusters consisting of a stop or affricate and a homorganic nasal or fricative, with the exception of sibilant affricates, become geminate stops or affricates. These geminates are voiceless if either of the original sounds was voiceless.

21. Approximants and [r] elide in clusters, lengthening preceding vowels.

22. Fricatives debuccalize to [h] before oral obstruents.

23. Remaining geminate consonants become aspirated singletons, as do clusters of an oral obstruent and [h].

24. ʁ > ɦ

25. An epenthetic tense /ə/ is inserted into consonant clusters

26. /ə/ and /e/ merge to /e/

Morphology

Nouns

Yewedu nouns decline only for case, of which there are eight in total, and fall into four broad declension types, which are purely phonological in nature and have no semantic significance.

Yewedu case marking and the functions of each case may be summarized as follows:

• The nominative case in unmarked, and is used to indicate the subject of a clause
• the accusative case is marked with the suffix -u, and is used to indicate the direct object of most transitive verbs, as well as the point of origin for verbs of motion, having absorbed an earlier ablative case
• The genitive case is marked with the suffix -e, and is used to indicate the possessor of another noun
• The dative case is marked by suffixing a historically determined long vowel, and is used to indicate the indirect objects of ditransitive verbs, as well as the direct objects of some monotransitive verbs
• The locative case is marked with the suffix -ut, and is used to indicate the location at which a verb takes place or the destination of a verb of motion
• The instrumental case is marked with the suffix -sà, and is used to indicate the means by which the action of a verb is accomplished
• The comitative case is marked with the suffix -š, and is used to indicate a person or thing that accompanies the subject of a verb in performing the action of the verb
• The benefactive case is marked with the suffix -ke, ans is used to indicate a noun for the sake of which the action of the verb was performed

Type I nouns

Type I nouns always end in -u, -e, -ì, or -ù in the nominative. An epenthetic -'- is inserted before the accusative, genitive, and locative case suffixes, and the stem vowel is simply lengthened in the dative. If the stem vowel is tense, it will invariably appear as -e- before any suffix containing a vowel, save for the instrumental suffix, before which it will become lax. If the stem vowel is lax, it becomes tense before any case suffix ending in a tense vowel.

Stem	šù 'man'	du 'face'
Nominative	šù	du
Accusative	šu'u	de'u
Genitive	šu'e	de'e
Dative	šû	dū
Locative	šu'ut	de'ut
Instrumental	šùsà	dèsà
Comitative	šùš	duš
Benefactive	šuke	deke

Type II nouns

Type II nouns always end in a tense vowel or -à in the nominative. Note that no stem in Yewedu may end in -i. The stem vowel is always dropped before a suffix beginning in a vowel; the suffix vowel will be long if the stem ends in -u, short if it ends in -e or -à, and may be long or short if it ends in -a. The dative suffix will be -ā if the stem ends in -u, -û if it ends in -e, and may be either of those or -ē if it ends in -a or -à. Tense stem vowels be come breathy before the instrumental suffix, and usually appear as -a- or -e- before the benefactive suffix, though in some cases they are elided, resulting in irregular forms.

Stem	ce 'blood'	fehà 'clan'
Nominative	ce	fehà
Accusative	cu	fehu
Genitive	ce	fehe
Dative	cû	fehû
Locative	cut	fehut
Instrumental	cèsà	fehàsà
Comitative	ceš	fehàš
Benefactive	ceke	fehake

Type III nouns

Type three nouns always end in a consonant in the nominative. The dative suffix may be -ā, -ē, or -û, and an epenthetic -u-, -a-, or -e- is inserted before the comitative suffix. The instrumental and benefactive case forms are irregular.

Stem	chep 'hip'	wex 'moon'
Nominative	chep	wex
Accusative	chepu	wexu
Genitive	chepe	wexe
Dative	chepē	wexā
Locative	cheput	wexut
Instrumental	chepesà	weshà
Comitative	chepaš	wexuš
Benefactive	chepake	wekhe

Type IV nouns

Type IV nouns always end in a vowel in the nominative, but a historically-determined voiced consonant is inserted before any suffixes are applied. Nouns of this type are otherwise declined in the same manner as type III nouns, but may display additional irregularities.

Stem	Du(l) 'the Du people'	hē(z) 'fog, mist'
Nominative	Du	hē
Accusative	Delu	hezu
Genitive	Dele	heze
Dative	Delû	hezû
Locative	Delut	hezut
Instrumental	Dēsà	hesha
Comitative	Deleš	hezeš
Benefactive	Dēke	hekhe

Pronouns

Personal Pronouns

Yewedu personal pronouns inflect for case and person. Number is marked as well, but the accusative, genitive, and locative plural pronouns are identical to the corresponding singulars. In addition to first and second person pronouns, there is a reflexive pronoun that is not inflected for number. There are no third person pronouns; when necessary, demonstratives may be used to refer to third person participants.

Note that the nominative and accusative pronouns are very rarely used, as their role is adequately fulfilled by participant reference markers on the verb.

	Nominative	Accusative	Genitive	Dative	Locative	Instrumental	Comitative	Benefactive
1st person singular	be	ḍà	ḍe	bû	ḍàt	besà	beš	beke
1st person plural	ku	ḍà	ḍe	kā	ḍàt	česà	čuš	keke
2nd person singular	ṣe	mù	me	ṣû	mùt	ṣesà	ṣeš	ṣeke
2nd person plural	nì	mù	me	nû	mùt	nìsà	nìš	nike
Reflexive	-	wū	wē	wā	wūt	wesà	wuš	weke

Verbs

All Yewedu verbs are classified as either transitive or intransitive, and as either dynamic or stative. Dynamic verbs are inflected for tense (non-past vs. past), aspect (episodic vs. generic), mood (indicative vs. subjunctive), and participant reference. Stative verbs are always treated as generic, and are only inflected for tense and mood.

Tense

Each Yewedu verb has two distinct stems used to mark tense. The non-past stem is always used as the citation form of a verb, while the past stem is usually formed by mutation of the stem-final vowel, although other alternations occur as well.

Aspect

The generic aspect is marked with the suffix -s, which immediately follows the verb stem. When an additional suffix follows that begins with a consonant, an epenthetic -a- inserted following the generic suffix.

Mood

The subjunctive mood is marked with the suffix -k. When an additional suffix follows, the subjunctive mood is marked with the suffix -h-, though irregular mutations may occur due to historical processes. When an additional suffix follows that begins with a consonant, an epenthetic -a- inserted as with the generic suffix.

Participant Reference

When the subject or direct object of a verb is a first or second person participant, their person and number are indicated with a prefix (in the case of the subject) or suffix (in the case of the direct object) on the verb.

	Prefix	Suffix
1st person singular	v-	-ẓà
1st person plural	ṣev-	-ùḍà
2nd person singular	ṣ-	-mù
2nd person plural	n-	-ùmù
Reflexive	-	-wū

Third person participant reference marking is considerably more complex. Each Yewedu noun belongs to one of eight classes, based roughly on its semantic characteristics, and each class is represented by a different prefix and suffix. The classes may be summarized as follows:

1. (I) Male humans and animals, as well as humans and many animals of mixed or indeterminate sex
2. (II) Female humans and animals, as well as some animals of mixed or indeterminate sex
3. (III) Plants and other things that grow and change shape, as well as most foodstuffs
4. (IV) Tools, i.e. inanimate things used by animates
5. (V) Liquids and gases, i.e. things that fill space
6. (VI) Other inanimate things, i.e. things that simply stay there
7. (VII) Buildings, surfaces and settlements, i.e. things that you can walk on or live in
8. (VIII) Abstractions, i.e. things that are generated by the mind, or identified as a meaningful pattern by the mind; includes emotions and thoughts, as well as social structures like families, and things like cracks and holes

Some nouns, such as those referring to body parts, celestial objects, geographical features, and weather phenomena, are distributed across multiple noun classes in a more or less unpredictable fashion. For instance, the noun meaning "jaw," la, belongs to class VI, while the word for "heart," tù, belongs to class IV, and the word for "penis," že, to class III.

Each noun class is associated with a prefix and a suffix. Participant reference prefixes are used to indicate the class of the subject of a verb, while the suffixes are used to indicate the class of the object. When no participant reference suffix is provided for a transitive verb, the meaning is interpreted as reflexive, with the object of the verb being the same as the subject.

Class	Semantics	Prefix	Suffix
I	males	p-	-p
II	females	k-	-k
III	plants and food	h-	-x
IV	tools	š-	-šû
V	fluids	b-	-vu
VI	solids	'-	-e
VII	that which is walked on	t-	-la
VIII	that which is felt or imagined	ẓeh-	-ẓax

Examples

Although the basic markers are essentially agglutinative, individual verbs exhibit varying degrees of fusion, as well as other irregular alternations.

t-exe 'it (a building or location) is to the east' (intransitive, stative)

	Indicative	Subjunctive
Episodic non-past	texe	texek
Generic non-past	-	-
Episodic past	texì	texìk
Generic past	-	-

k-ûme 'she sets up camp' (intransitive, dynamic)

	Indicative	Subjunctive
Episodic Non-past	kûme	kûmek
Generic non-past	kûmes	kûmesak
Episodic Past	kûmù	kûmùk
Generic past	kûmùs	kûmùsak

p-û-k 'he touches her' (transitive, dynamic)

	Indicative	Subjunctive
Episodic Non-past	pûk	pûhak
Generic non-past	pûsak	pûsak
Episodic Past	pûhùk	pûhùhak
Generic past	pûhùsak	pûhûk

Determiners

Determiners encompass a closed category of words which are used to modify nouns, encompassing adjective-like words as well as demonstratives, quantifiers, numerals, and the interrogative marker d-. These are grouped together as they all follow the same inflection patterns and syntactic restrictions.

Determiners are an unusual class of root in that they may (and frequently do) consist of a single consonant before being inflected. They are marked to agree with the class of the noun they modify, using a set of suffixes slightly different from those used with verbs. In general, the first form of the suffix is used with determiners that have single-consonant roots, while the second is used with determiner roots consisting of one or more syllables:

Class	Suffix
I	-ânup/-ànup
II	-ânuk/-ànuk
III	-âx
IV	-âšû/-àšû
V	-ābu/-abu
VI	-a'e/-e
VII	-ata/-ta
VIII	-ēḍax/-eḍax

Texts

The North Wind and the Sun

In English:

The North Wind and the Sun were disputing which was the stronger, when a traveler came along wrapped in a warm cloak. They agreed that the one who first succeeded in making the traveler take his cloak off should be considered stronger than the other. Then the North Wind blew as hard as he could, but the more he blew the more closely did the traveler fold his cloak around him; and at last the North Wind gave up the attempt. Then the Sun shined out warmly, and immediately the traveler took off his cloak. And so the North Wind was obliged to confess that the Sun was the stronger of the two.

In Yewedu:

Pāyas Tū Pêpû Ḍē pēṛuk; theṭh ẓehičhē nepesâ ẓeheshečak? Xû pala zešenù paṭṣašû bethu šûžežup. Pûyas ṭēḍāsâ: “jânup pākep bu pûdèšû bethu zešenù, theṭh ẓehičhē jânepesâ ẓeheshečak cîḍax.” Xû pēgē Tū Pêpû gēḍax pēḍesâ, šî pēgē ẓeheseč ṭa, pate zešenù bethēsâ yēḍax pēḍesâ. Tā Tū Pêpû pûbek, pečhaẓax ẓehēǰeẓax cà’u. Xû Ḍē pîžaṭ; pûbî žāsâ, tā pēdèšû zešenù bethu. Tā theṭh ẓehičhē Žasâ ẓeheshečak, Tū Pêpû pîcîẓax pečhaẓax.

Pāyas

p-āyas

I-quarrel

Tū

Tū-Ø

wind-NOM

Pêpû

p-êpû

I-Be.north

Ḍē

Ḍē-Ø

Sun-NOM

pēṛuk;

p-ēṛuk

I-follow

The North Wind and the Sun were quarreling;

theṭh

theṭh-Ø

strength-NOM

ẓehičhē

ẓeh-ičhē

VIII-of

nepesâ?

nepe-sâ

which.man-INS

ẓeheshečak

ẓeh-esheča-k

VIII-be.most-SUBJ

whose strength was the greatest?

Xû

xû

then

pala

p-ala

I-come

zešenù

zeše-nù-Ø

travel-AGT1-NOM

paṭṣēšû

p-aṭṣa-šû

I-wear-IV

bethu

beth-u

cloak-ACC

šûžežup.

š-ûžežu-p

IV-warm-I

Then a traveler came along wearing a warm cloak.

Pûyas

p-ûyas

I-agree

ṭēḍāsâ:

ṭ-ēḍā-sâ

that-VIII-INS

“jânup

j-ânup-Ø

that-I-NOM

pākep

p-āke-p

I-be.within-I

bu

bu

1.PL.ACC

pûdèšû

p-ûdè-šû

I-cause.take.off-IV

bethu

beth-u

cloak-ACC

zešenù,

zeše-nù-Ø

travel-AGT1-NOM

They agreed on this: "the one who succeeds in making the traveler take his cloak off,

theṭh

theṭh-Ø

strength-NOM

ẓehičhē

ẓeh-ičhē

VIII-be.had

jânepesâ

j-ânep-esâ

that-I-INS

ẓeheshečak

ẓeh-esheča-k

VIII-be.most-SUBJ

cîḍax.”

cî-ḍax

remember-VIII

he will be remembered as the strongest".

Xû

xû

then

pēgē

p-ēgē

I-blow

Tū

Tū-Ø

wind-NOM

Pêpû

p-êpû

I-be.north

gēḍax

g-ēḍax

all-VIII

pēḍesâ,

p-ēḍe-sâ,

I-be.able-INS

Then the North Wind blew as hard as he could,

šî

šî

but

pēgē

p-ēgē-Ø

I-blow-NOM

ẓehešeč

ẓeh-ešeč

VIII-be.more

ṭa,

ṭa

if

pate

p-ate-Ø

I-wrap-REF

zešenù

zeše-nù-Ø

travel-AGT1-NOM

bethēsâ

bethē-sâ

cloak-INS

yēḍax

y-ēḍax

same-VIII

pēḍesâ.

p-ēḍe-sâ

be_able-INS

but whenever he blew more, the man wrapped himself in the cloak just as hard.

Tā

tā

so

Tū

Tū-Ø

wind-NOM

Pêpû

p-êpû

I-be.north

pûbek,

p-ûbe-k

I-stop-SUBJ

pečhaẓax

p-ečha-ẓax

I-must-VIII

ẓehēǰeẓax

ẓeh-ēǰe-ẓax

VIII-be.after-VIII

cà’u.

cà-’u

while-ACC

So the North Wind had to stop in the end.

Xû

xû

then

Ḍē

Ḍē-Ø

sun-NOM

pîžaṭ;

p-îžaṭ

I-rise

pûbî

p-ûbî

I-shine

žahēṭhesâ,

žahēṭhe-sâ

heat-INS

tā

tā

so

pēdèšû

p-ēdè-šû

I-remove-IV

zešenù

zeše-nù-Ø

travel-AGT1-NOM

bethu.

beth-u

cloak-ACC

Then the sun rose, shining with warmth, and so the man took off his cloak.

Tā

tā

so

hût

theṭh-Ø

strength-NOM

ẓehičhē

ẓeh-ičhē

VIII-be.had

Žasâ

Ža-sâ

Sun-INS

ẓeheshečak,

ẓeh-esheč-ak

VIII-be.most-SUBJ

Tū

tū-Ø

Vwind-NOM

Pêpû

P-êpû

I-be.north

pîcîẓax

p-îcî-ẓax

I-say-SUBJ-VIII

pečhaẓax.

p-ečhe-ẓax.

I-must-VIII

So the North Wind had to say that the Sun was the strongest.

See Also

Yewedu Lexicon