halonia : languages & cultures

having to make decisions about what vocabulary Churra would have due to its relatively small geographical range and the 100% tropical climate it’s therefore spoken in

I SUPER-DUPER WANNA WORK ON A SIGNEDLANG WITH CHARLIE AND NICK BUT NOW I AM REALIZING THE LOGISTIC COMPLICATIONS IN TRYING TO WORK ON A VISUAL LANGUAGE OVER THE INTERNET

MAYBE WE COULD WEBCAM OR FILMS OR ILLUSTRATIONS

I DON’T KNOW THINGS BUT I WANNA DO THE THING

things i have an increasing drive to do:

1. make a signed conlang
2. devise entirely other methods of communication for some other conlangs (non-oral, non-manual)

Churra is nearly void of proper names, with the exception of some place names. That is to say that individuals do not have personal names.

When referring to one another, the Churra tend to use occupations in place of names; when there is more than one individual with said occupation or when referring to an individual of unknown occupation, they may be further identified by age, sex, colouration, scent, or other physical markers. Younger individuals with no title will be referred to exclusively by these methods. 

ca! zumalik! mjj zam iqei!
! blue.one! IMP come.DA here!
hey! bluey! come here!

wu tssâ hss ki vasax cu agik noas hhtanjj.
good if be the guard you this.one can give.DT
please could you give this to the guard.

In dealings with larger communities or inter-tribal meetings, further specifications, such as parentage, location of origin, or some grand feat may be added.

muku nan? 
who that?
who is that?

nan kujak uw mûk? 
that red.one and brown?
the red and brown one?

hss vi i uwû cuy leiqaj. 
be they an apprentice for boatbuilding 
they are an apprentice boatbuilder.

hss vim iqulug us koax, us lutssdâhax, us tuduku. 
be their few-parent a mason, a scribe, a weaver  
their parents are a mason, a scribe, and a weaver.

- uw nan win? sufein vi mût? 
and that left? PERF-do they what?
and that one to their left? what have they done?

- karat vi us boazimaj koudaj ana.
defeat.TR they a many-warriors enemy fifty
they defeated fifty enemy warriors.

When introducing themselves, the Churra simply give their profession, and won’t be surprised if they are simply called “scribe” from that point on - but likewise would not be confused or unprepared to be simply “yellow eyes.”

Any small social group who interacts particularly often will mostly simply refer to one another by their occupation, but where this is confusing, sometimes a general nickname (such as zumalik, ‘blue one’) may become common, but that individual might equally be called ‘big one’ in another group, and neither nickname would ever be used outside that particular circle, unless by coincidence. 

So long as no chosen moniker is thought to be particularly offensive (e.g. takibik, ’ugly one’), it is very rare for any Churran to object to anything they are called; how someone is referred to by others is not seen as a particularly important aspect of the Churran identity.

staring in confusion at something in my grammar of churra.

to say “I throw/threw it to you,” it should be 

qumar zu lu (vi)
throw.trans you I (it)

but I have an example here which is

zu qulumar
you throw(I)

which I mean is pretty obviously an infixed subject but what when did I decide that was a thing I do not remember, and also zu is appearing before the verb which actually makes it future tense, why is it glossed as present tensssse?

i’m thinking that maybe at the beginning when i was working on churra i decided that indirect objects appear before the verb, direct objects after, and subjects are infixed? i don’t remember. very odd to stumble upon, at any rate.

(it’s now INDO SUBJ DIRO with the V first in non-future and final in future)

/t/ -> [ts] before front vowels.

• /meti/ ‘up’ [mɛtsi]

In clusters, the first consonant assimilates to the voicing of the second.

• /tźele/ ‘many’ [dzʲɛlɛ]

There is a limited system of vowel harmony in the language. The lax and central vowels will assimilate in height (to the nearest phonemic placement) of two immediately surrounding, identical vowels:

• kažö ‘throw’ -la ‘simple past’ -> kažäla ‘threw’
• 
  

Tense and aspect are inflected in Bircena with one fused suffix. Three tenses and eight or nine aspects are employed. Here we see the present tense aspectual paradigm.

stadà ‘to fall’
śàlu ‘he’ ; Sg.Nom-Mid.Nom-3-Masc.Anim

• simple: stadà-śàlu ’He fell’
• progressive: stadàhi-śalu ’He was falling’
• perfective: stadànä-śalu ’He had fallen’
• prospective: stadàčé-śalu ‘He is about to fall’
• inchoative: stadàso-śalu ’He begins to fall’
• repetitive: stadàńa-śalu ’He falls again’
• cessative: stadàsï-śalu ’He stops falling’

The anterior aspect is somewhat unique in that it takes no arguments but merely licenses a second verb, the only case of serial verbs permitted in the language:

• stadàša féńa-śalu (fall-Pres.Ant rise-Rept 3sg) ‘After falling, he gets back up again’

There is an operational ninth aspect as well, the resumptive, which results from a blending of the cessative -sï and inchoative -so into the fused particle śo :

• stadàśo-śalu (fall-Pres.Cess.Pres.Rep) ‘He begins to fall again’