Features for Hesperian

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Phonology

Consonant Inventories WALS Large
28 consonants. X-SAMPA: /p, t, d, tS, dZ, k, mb, Ng, tK, dK\ ,ts`, dz`, f, v, s, z, S, Z, x, G, K, l, s`, r, C, j, W, w/.
Vowel Quality Inventories WALS Small (2-4)
3 vowels. X-SAMPA: /i, u, A/. No phonemic diphthongs. [e] occurs as an allophone of /i/, [o] as an allophone of/u/, and [@] as an allophone of /A/.
Consonant-Vowel Ratio WALS High
Consonant-vowel ratio is 9.33
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives WALS In both plosives and fricatives
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems WALS Missing /g/
/b/ is also missing. [b] and [g] occur as allophones of /mb/ and /Ng/.
Uvular Consonants WALS None
Glottalized Consonants WALS No glottalized consonants
Lateral Consonants WALS /l/ and lateral obstruent
Two alveolar lateral affricates: /tK/ and /dK\/. One alveolar lateral fricative: /K/.
The Velar Nasal WALS No velar nasal
Only as allophone of /Ng/.
Vowel Nasalization WALS Contrast absent
Front Rounded Vowels WALS None
Syllable Structure WALS Moderately complex
Syllable template is CV(C).
Tone WALS No tones
Fixed Stress Locations WALS No fixed stress
Weight-Sensitive Stress WALS Left-oriented: One of the first three
Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress Systems WALS Coda consonant
Rhythm Types WALS Iambic
Absence of Common Consonants WALS No nasals
[m] and [N] occur as allophones of /mb/ and /Ng/.
Presence of Uncommon Consonants WALS None

Morphology

Fusion of Selected Inflectional Formatives WALS Exclusively concatenative
Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives WALS Monoexponential case
Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb WALS 8-9 categories per word
9 categories.
Locus of Marking in the Clause WALS Double marking
Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases WALS Double marking
Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology WALS Double-marking
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology WALS Strongly suffixing
Reduplication WALS No productive reduplication
Case Syncretism WALS No syncretism
Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking WALS Not syncretic

Nominal Categories

Number of Genders WALS Two
Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems WALS No gender
Systems of Gender Assignment WALS No gender
Coding of Nominal Plurality WALS Plural suffix
Occurrence of Nominal Plurality WALS All nouns, always obligatory
singulative-collective system and dual number also present.
Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns WALS Person-number stem
Dual number also present.
The Associative Plural WALS No associative plural
Definite Articles WALS Definite affix
Indefinite Articles WALS No indefinite, but definite article
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns WALS Inclusive/exclusive
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection WALS Inclusive/exclusive
Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives WALS Three-way contrast
Proximal, medial and distal demonstratives.
Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives WALS Different inflection
Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives WALS Unrelated
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns WALS No gender distinctions
Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns WALS Multiple politeness distinctions
Indefinite Pronouns WALS Special
Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns WALS Differentiated
Person Marking on Adpositions WALS No adpositions
The eqivalents of adpositions in Hesperian are verbal participles or derivational suffixes added to nouns or verbs.
Number of Cases WALS 8-9 cases
8 cases: absolutive, ergative, dative, genitive, locative, allative, ablative, prolative.
Asymmetrical Case-Marking WALS Symmetrical
Position of Case Affixes WALS Case suffixes
Comitatives and Instrumentals WALS Differentiation
Comitative functions are performed by the locative case, instrumental functions by the prolative case.
Ordinal Numerals WALS One, two, three
Distributive Numerals WALS Marked by preceding word
Numeral Classifiers WALS Absent
Conjunctions and Universal Quantifiers WALS Formally different
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes WALS Possessive prefixes

Nominal Syntax

Obligatory Possessive Inflection WALS Absent
Possessive Classification WALS No possessive classification
Genitives, Adjectives and Relative Clauses WALS Adjectives and relative clauses collapsed
Adjectives without Nouns WALS Without marking
Action Nominal Constructions WALS Double-Possessive
Noun Phrase Conjunction WALS 'And' different from 'with'
Nominal and Verbal Conjunction WALS Differentiation

Verbal Categories

Perfective/Imperfective Aspect WALS Grammatical marking
The Past Tense WALS Present, no remoteness distinctions
The Future Tense WALS Inflectional future exists
The Perfect WALS Other perfect
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes WALS Tense-aspect suffixes
The Morphological Imperative WALS Second person number-neutral
The Prohibitive WALS Normal imperative + normal negative
Imperative-Hortative Systems WALS Both types of system
The Optative WALS Inflectional optative present
Situational Possibility WALS Affixes on verbs
Epistemic Possibility WALS Affixes on verbs
Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking WALS No overlap
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality WALS No grammatical evidentials
Coding of Evidentiality WALS No grammatical evidentials
Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect WALS None
Verbal Number and Suppletion WALS None

Word Order

Order of Subject, Object and Verb WALS OSV
Order of Subject and Verb WALS SV
Order of Object and Verb WALS OV
Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb WALS XOV
Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase WALS No adpositions
Order of Genitive and Noun WALS Genitive-Noun
Order of Adjective and Noun WALS Adjective-Noun
Order of Demonstrative and Noun WALS Demonstrative-Noun
Order of Numeral and Noun WALS Noun-Numeral
Order of Relative Clause and Noun WALS Relative clause-Noun
Order of Degree Word and Adjective WALS Adjective-Degree word
Position of Polar Question Particles WALS No question particle
Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions WALS Not initial interrogative phrase
Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause WALS Subordinating suffix
Various case suffixes.
Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase WALS OV and Postpositions
Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Relative Clause and Noun WALS OV and RelN
Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adjective and Noun WALS OV and AdjN

Simple Clauses

Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases WALS Ergative - absolutive
Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns WALS Ergative - absolutive
Alignment of Verbal Person Marking WALS Accusative
Expression of Pronominal Subjects WALS Subject affixes on verb
Verbal Person Marking WALS Both the A and P arguments
Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking WALS No zero realization
Order of Person Markers on the Verb WALS A precedes P
Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give' WALS Indirect-object construction
Reciprocal Constructions WALS Distinct from reflexive
Passive Constructions WALS Present
Active transitive verbs in Namaxba are obligatorarily marked for the agent. When in the passive voice, the agent marker is deleted from the verb.
Antipassive Constructions WALS Implicit patient
Active transitive verbs in Namaxba are obligatorily marked for objects. When a transitive verb is in the antipassive voice, the object marker is deleted from the verb and the agent assumes the absolutive case.
Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions WALS Morphological but no compound
Negative Morphemes WALS Negative affix
Polar Questions WALS Interrogative verb morphology

Lexicon

Hand and Arm WALS Different
Finger and Hand WALS Different
Numeral Bases WALS Pure vigesimal
Unique numerals for 400, 8000 and 160000, but not for 100 or 1000. Sub-bases of 5 and 10.
Number of Non-Derived Basic Colour Categories WALS 6
Number of Basic Colour Categories WALS 11
Green and Blue WALS Green vs. blue
Red and Yellow WALS Red vs. yellow
M-T Pronouns WALS No M-T pronouns
N-M Pronouns WALS No N-M pronouns
Tea WALS Words derived from Min Nan Chinese te

Other

Writing Systems WALS Alphabetic
Roman Alphabet sans "c, j, w". Hesperian Alphabet: a, b, bf, d, dl, dz, e, f, fv, g, gh, h, hy, i, k, l, m, mb, n, ng, o, p, q, qsr, r, s, sr, t, tzl, u, v, x, xr, xs, y, z, zl.
Para-Linguistic Usages of Clicks WALS Affective meanings

Conlang-specific

Conlang type Artlang

Comments:

  1. On Oct. 19, 2011, 8:15 p.m., Rebecca Ashling wrote:
    Some translations for your amusement: Teyoglexpakwa ginta! [tEjO'gK\ESpAk_wA giN'tA] Drink some of this excellent tea! Zatradrostustinde Gweta melkitye. [zAts`A'dz`OstustiNde g_wE'tA mElki't_jE] Buffy loves her red-haired willow tree.