Thursday 14 April 2016

West Azorean (Kacacwė)/(Kachachuei)



1: Phonology

There are two alphabets – the old orthography, used by Portuguese missionaries and explorers in the islands, and the new standard orthography, used for the revived language.

Old
New
IPA
Old
New
IPA
Old
New
IPA
A a
    /æ/
C c
K k
/k/
T t
/t/
B b
/b/
Cu cu
Kw kw
/kʷ/
Tu tu
Tw tw
/tʷ/
W w
/β/
L l
/l/
X x
/θ/
Ch ch
C c
/
M m
/m/
U u
/u/
Chu chu
Cw cw
/ʧʷ/
N n
/n/
Iu iu
Ụ ụ
/y/
D d
/d/
O o
/o/
V v
/β/
Ţ ţ
Ḋ ḋ
/ð/
Oo oo
Ȯ ȯ
/
Y y
/j/
E e
/ɛ/
P p
/p/
Z z
/z/
Ei ei
Ė ė
/eɪ/
Pu pu
Pw pw
/pʷ/
An apostrophe comes after a vowel to show stress in a word, when it is contrastive.
F f
/f/
Ff ff
Ṗ ṗ
/p͡ɸ/
G g
/g/
Gg gg
Q q
/ŋ/
H h
/x/
R r
/r/
I i
/i/
S s
/s/
J j
/ʤ/
Ss ss
Ṡ ṡ
/ʃ/

2: Noun morphology

2.1: Sentence order

In all sentences, the order is Subject-Verb-Object, or, more rarely (but still possible) Verb-Subject-Object.

2.2: Case system

There are eight cases, divided into four sets:

·         Syntactic set
o   Absolutive: Equivalent to the subject and object in all basic sentences, for example “I hold the cat”, “I” and “the cat” would take the absolutive.
o   Comitative: Often used to show an noun that accompanies the subject or object, for example “I go to the beach with my friend”, where “my friend” would be comitative. It also is used for the subject and object of a subordinate clause, for example “I know that he has a book”, “he” and “a book” would take the comitative
·         Locative set
o   Adessive: For something that is “ahead of” the respective noun: for example, “above”, “on”, “over”, “in front of”, “left”
o   Subessive: For something that is “beneath” the respective noun: for example, “below”, “under”, “within” (in some contexts), “behind”, “right”
·         Agitative set: showing a kind of motion in action
o   Lative: “Towards”
o   Ablative: “away from”
·         Relative set: for interactions between people and personified objects
o   Benefactive: “for”, or more often, generally in favour of the respective noun
o   Instrumental: “with” or “using”, or more often, generally where the respective noun is being controlled by the other noun

2.3: Declension system

In Kacacwė, both the end and initial syllable of the noun is subject to change. Since all nouns start and end in a consonant, they follow a single system of changes. There is no plural form in nouns.
Here is an example, “kwes” (“breaker, a person who breaks an object for work”)

Abs
Kwes
Com
Twes
Ade
Kweṗ
Sub
Tweṗ
Lat
Kwet
Abl
Twet
Ben
Kwel
Ins
Twel

2.4: First syllable declension pattern

Type 1
Type 2
Type 1
Type 2
Kw
Tw
K
T
L
M
G
D
Q
N
Pw
Cw
S
Z
P
C
V
B
J
F
V
H
R

2.5: Second syllable declension pattern

Syn
Loc
Agi
Rel
S
T
L
Z
D
M
K
C
N
H
G
J
Q
R
B
V
L
P
F

3: Verbs

3.1: Key features of verbs

All verbs end in the vowel “o”. The 3rd person is also used for the formal 2nd person.

3.2: Present tense

This example is “kweso”, “to break”.


Positive
Negative
1st
Kweso
Kwesi
2nd
Kwese
Kwesa
3rd
Kwesė
Kwesu

3.3: Past tense

Here, the first syllable changes, according to the same patterns as shown in Section 2.4.


Positive
Negative
1st
Tweso
Twesi
2nd
Twese
Twesa
3rd
Twesė
Twesu

3.4 The particles “e” and “ka”

The particle “e” comes after the verb, and makes the future tense when used with the present form, and the perfect tense (“ to have done”) with the past form.

The particle “ka” comes before the verb to indicate the imperative.

3.5: Verb variants

Each verb has a potential form, expressing the modal verb “can” – for example, with “kweso”, there is the verb “kweco”, which means “to be able to melt”.

Other common modifications include “geso”, which means “to re-break” or “to break again”, although this is not standard for all verbs.

4: Adjectives

4.1: Adjectives and numerals

Adjectives are generally indeclinable, including numerals.

The numbers from 1-10 are:
1
Kal
6
Cwe
2
Je
7
Kwe
3
Jayė
8
Il
4
In
9
Ima
5
Qar
10
Lar