Dgat [DGA]
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Dgat
Ṭgtakw [tʼktʰakʰʷ]*
DgatṬgtakw [tʼktʰakʰʷ]*
Registered by
[Deactivated User] on 11 October 2017
Language type
Not specified
Species
Human/humanoid
About Dgat
Another of my random ideas.
All consonants come in threes: plain, aspirated~voiceless, and ejective~glottalized.
Metathesis is a big part of life: VC+C > CVC always, which leads to alternations like ṭgat 'language' > ṭgtakw 'our language'. (Ṭgat is ultimately from ṭgt 'speak (a language)'.)
Dgat is pretty synthetic, but the main complexity is the morphophonology, including the metathesis and various uses of the three grades of consonants, including to mark number of the absolutive argument on a verb (singular/dual/plural). Vowels are 'autosegmental': they are mostly associated with consonants in predictable ways having to do with a pervasive 'bound/free' distinction, which you can think of as a genitive/nongenitive on nouns and finite/infinite on verbs. There is additionally a third grade of word which is often described as the 'abstract', mainly corresponding to instrumental/essive on nouns and a nominalizer on verbs (e.g. ṭgat 'language' from ṭgt 'to speak'). Where the vowel ends up is mostly determined by phonological rules. So most underlying morphemes are actually vowelless. This may seem vaguely like a tricon, but it's pretty different in practice since only the identity of the vowel carries grammatical meaning; the position of vowels is determined phonologically.
Dgat is mostly suffixing (and mainly enclitics as opposed to suffixes), with prefixing mainly found in derivation. Verbs mark up to two participants (absolutive and dative usually). A commonly-seen enclitic set is a static/dynamic one marked on the absolutive argument of a verb, which follows the verb if there is no overt noun. There is another similar one marking volition, which attaches to ergative arguments if present, and otherwise absolutives and verbs as with the other one.
Word order is mostly free at the phrase level in Dgat. The main tendency is to put the focused element at the beginning of the sentence, and the topic right after the verb. This often leads to OVS, or SVO order.
All consonants come in threes: plain, aspirated~voiceless, and ejective~glottalized.
Metathesis is a big part of life: VC+C > CVC always, which leads to alternations like ṭgat 'language' > ṭgtakw 'our language'. (Ṭgat is ultimately from ṭgt 'speak (a language)'.)
Dgat is pretty synthetic, but the main complexity is the morphophonology, including the metathesis and various uses of the three grades of consonants, including to mark number of the absolutive argument on a verb (singular/dual/plural). Vowels are 'autosegmental': they are mostly associated with consonants in predictable ways having to do with a pervasive 'bound/free' distinction, which you can think of as a genitive/nongenitive on nouns and finite/infinite on verbs. There is additionally a third grade of word which is often described as the 'abstract', mainly corresponding to instrumental/essive on nouns and a nominalizer on verbs (e.g. ṭgat 'language' from ṭgt 'to speak'). Where the vowel ends up is mostly determined by phonological rules. So most underlying morphemes are actually vowelless. This may seem vaguely like a tricon, but it's pretty different in practice since only the identity of the vowel carries grammatical meaning; the position of vowels is determined phonologically.
Dgat is mostly suffixing (and mainly enclitics as opposed to suffixes), with prefixing mainly found in derivation. Verbs mark up to two participants (absolutive and dative usually). A commonly-seen enclitic set is a static/dynamic one marked on the absolutive argument of a verb, which follows the verb if there is no overt noun. There is another similar one marking volition, which attaches to ergative arguments if present, and otherwise absolutives and verbs as with the other one.
Word order is mostly free at the phrase level in Dgat. The main tendency is to put the focused element at the beginning of the sentence, and the topic right after the verb. This often leads to OVS, or SVO order.
Phonology
| Consonants | Bilabial | Alveolar | Post- Alveolar | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | Other | |||||||
| Nasal | m mˀ m̥ | n nˀ n̥ | ||||||||||||
| Plosive | p pˠ pʰ pʰˠ | t tʼ tʰ | k kʼ kʼʷ kʷ kʰ kʰʷ | q qʼ qʰ | ||||||||||
| Fricative | s sʰ | [ʃ]1 | [h]2 | |||||||||||
| Affricate | t͡sʼ | t͡ʃ t͡ʃʼ t͡ʃʰ | t͡ɬʼ | |||||||||||
| Lateral approximant | l | |||||||||||||
| Lateral fricative | ɬ | |||||||||||||
| Implosive | ɓ ɓˠ | |||||||||||||
- free variation, allophone of /t͡ʃʰ/
- free variation, allophone of /sʰ/
| Vowels | Front | Back | ||
| Close | i i: | u u: | ||
| Open | a a: | |||
Orthography
Below is the orthography for Dgat. This includes all graphemes as defined in the language's phonology settings - excluding the non-distinct graphemes/polygraphs.
 DgatOrthography [edit] | ||||||||||
| Aa/a/ | AA aa/a:/ | Bb/p/ | BW bw/pˠ/ | Ċċ/t͡ʃʼ/ | Cc/t͡ʃʰ/ | Dd/t/ | Gg/k/ | GW gw/kʷ/ | Hh[h]1 | Ii/i/ |
| II ii/i:/ | Jj/t͡ʃ/ | Ḳḳ/kʼ/ | Kk/kʰ/ | ḲW ḳw/kʼʷ/ | KW kw/kʰʷ/ | Ĺĺ/ɬ/ | Ll/l/ | Ḷḷ/t͡ɬʼ/ | Mm/m/ | Ṃṃ/mˀ/ |
| Ḿḿ/m̥/ | Ṇṇ/nˀ/ | Ńń/n̥/ | Nn/n/ | Ọọ/qʼ/ | Oo/q/ | Óó/qʰ/ | Ṗṗ/ɓ/ | Pp/pʰ/ | PW pw/pʰˠ/ | ṖW ṗw/ɓˠ/ |
| Ṣṣ/t͡sʼ/ | Ss/s/ | Śś/sʰ/ | Šš[ʃ]2 | Tt/tʰ/ | Ṭṭ/tʼ/ | Uu/u/ | UU uu/u:/ | |||
| ✖ Unknown alphabetical order [change] | ||||||||||
- free variation
- free variation
