Red Laqi language

The Red Laqi language (RL. Plyžlaqebze) is the variety of Laqi speech most closely associated with the Red Laqs. Red Laqs originate from the Laqi Homeland in the highlands of Brookshire, but split off to migrate west as Ashkenatza fell to ruin.

Phonology

		Labial		Alveolar		Postalveolar		Alveolopalatal	Retroflex	Velar		Uvular		Pharyngeal	Glottal
		plain	lab.	plain	lab.	plain	lab.			plain	lab.	plain	lab.		plain	lab.
Nasal		m		n
Plosive	voiceless	p		t							kʷ	q	qʷ		ʔ	ʔʷ
	voiced	b		d							gʷ
	ejective	p'	pʷ'	t'	tʷ'						kʷ'
Affricate	voiceless			t͡s	t͡sʷ	t͡ʃ			t͡ʂ
	voiced			d͡z	d͡zʷ	d͡ʒ
	ejective			t͡s'		t͡ʃ'			t͡ʂ'
Fricative	voiceless	f		s	ɬ	ʃ	ʃʷ	ɕ	ʂ	x	xʷ	χ	χʷ	ħ
	voiced			z	ɮ	ʒ	ʒʷ	ʑ	ʐ	ɣ		ʁ	ʁʷ
	ejective				ɬ'	ʃ'	ʃʷ'
Approximant								j			w
Trill				r

	Central
Close-mid	ə
Open	a aː

Orthography

Character		Phoneme	Examples
A a		/aː/	aban "hole"
B b		/b/	be "a lot (of)"
C	C c	/t͡s/	cage "rib", cy "body hair"
	C° c°	/t͡sʷ/	c°y "ox"
	C' c'	/t͡s'/	c'yfy "person"
	Ć ć	/t͡ʃ/	ćefy "cheerful, pleased"
	Ć' ć'	/t͡ʃ'/	ć'ymafe "winter", ćase "late", ćyg°e "land"
	Ĉ ĉ	/t͡ʂ/	ĉy'e "cold"
	Ĉ' ĉ'	/t͡ʂ'/	ĉyfe "debt"
D	D d	/d/	dedźe "bitter"
	Dz dz	/d͡z/	dzeue "bag", dze "combat, war"
	Dz° dz°	/d͡zʷ/	ḥandz°e "rick, 1.208 m3"
	Dź dź	/d͡ʒ/	dźane "dress, robe, shirt", łamydź "bridge"
E e		/a/	'eneẑ, neneẑ "grandmother"
F f		/f/	fyžy "white"
G	G g	/ɣ/	gyć'yġ "laundry", ge "gonad"
	G° g°	/gʷ/	g°y "heart"
	Ġ ġ	/ʁ/	ġathe "spring", -ġe "-ity, -ness"
	Ġ° ġ°	/ʁʷ/	ġ°yneġ°y "neighbour"
H	H h	/x/	-he "-s (plural marker)"
	Ḥ ḥ	/ħ/	ḥe "dog"
I i		/j/	iai "theirs", iat'e "dirt"
K	K° k°	/kʷ/	k°y "cart"
	K°' k°'	/kʷ'/	k°'akle "strong", -k°'e "-er"
L	L l	/ɮ/	ly "meat"
	Ł ł	/ɬ/	łaše "weak"
	Ł' ł'	/ɬ'/	ł'y "man"
M m		/m/	maze "moon", mepy "sheep"
N n		/n/	ne "eye", ny "mother"
P	P p	/p/	plyžy "red" paie "for, in order to"
	P' p'	/p'/	p'e "bed"
	P°'	/pʷ'/	p°'yr "apprentice"
Q	Q q	/q/	qek°'eḥyn "to stroll, roam" maq "voice"
	Q° q°	/qʷ/	q°yŝe "mountain", q°e "-son (patronymic)"
R r		/r/	rezeġen "to become content"
S	S s	/s/	se "I, me", seśh°e "sabre"
	Ś ś	/ʃ/	śy "horse, brother"
	Ś' ś'	/ʃ'/	ś'yn "to do"
	Ś° ś°	/ʃʷ/	ś°y- "you all (imperative plural marker)"
	Ś°' ś°'	/ʃ'ʷ/	ś°'yc'e "black"
	Š š	/ɕ/	šy "three"
	Ŝ ŝ	/ʂ/	ŝe "hundred", ŝabe "soft, meek"
T	T t	/t/	te "we"
	T' t'	/t'/	nyt'e "yes"
	T°' t°'	/tʷ'/	t°'yrys "old"
U u		/w/	uyben "to tamp, make smooth"
X	X x	/χ/	xyien "to move"
	X° x°	/χʷ/	-x°y "male ___"
Z	Z z	/z/	-bze "female ___, -speech"
	Ź ź	/ʒ/	bźyḥe "autumn"
	Ź° ź°	/ʒʷ/	ź°aġ°e "star"
	Ž ž	/ʑ/	žaua "shadow"
	Ẑ ẑ	/ʐ/	ẑy "old", ẑaẑe "slow"
'	'	/ʔ/	'e "hand"
	'°	/ʔʷ/	'°yćen "to meet"

Grammar

Verbs

Person

Stative

Laqi has a set of stative verbs, which indicate an unchanging condition for the subject. These stative verbs are formed out of augmented positional prefix.

The subject is in the Absolutive Case, since it receives the verb's description.

A noun can also be reinterpreted as a stative verb in order to form basic predicative statements.

Person	Affix
1s	sy-
2s	uy-
3s	-
1p	ty-
2s	ś°y-
3p	-yh

Cyšys. "I am sitting."

Dzeł'yyh! "They are warriors!"

Monovalent

Monovalent verbs take a single argument, the subject. The subject of such a verb is in the Absolutive.

Subject
1s	se-
2s	ue-
3s	ma-
1p	te-
2p	ś°e-
3p	ma- ~ -eh

Tyiuynać'e maśheh! "They are eating in our home!"

Bivalent

Bivalent verbs take two arguments, the subject and the object. Red Laqi distinguishes between whether the action affects the subject or the object.

Absolutive Bivalent

Bivalent intransitive verb. The subject is in the Absolutive. The Indirect Object is in the Ergative-Oblique. This indicates that the subject is affected by the action of the verb.

Subject	Object
	1s	2s	3s	1p	2p	3p	ref
1s		syqyue-	syqei-		syqyś°e-	syqa-	syqyze-
2s	uyqyse-		uyqei-	uyqyte-		uyqa-	uyqyze-
3s	qyse-	qyue-	qei-	qyte-	qyś°e-	qa-	qyze-
1p		tyqyue-	tyqei-		tyqyś°e-	tyqa-	tyqyze-
2p	ś°yqyse-		ś°yqei-	ś°yqyte-		ś°yqa-	ś°yqyze-
3p	qyse- ~ -eh	qyue- ~ -eh	qei- ~ -eh	qyte- ~ -eh	qyś°e- ~ -eh	qa- ~ -eh	qyze- ~ -eh

Ergative Bivalent

Bivalent transitive verb. The subject is in the Ergative-Oblique. The Direct Object is in the Absolutive. This indicates that the direct object is affected by the action of the verb.

Subject	Object
	1s	2s	3s	1p	2p	3p	ref
1s		uese-	se-		ś°ese-	se- ~ -eh	zese-
2s	seue-		ue-	teue-		ue- ~ -eh	zeue-
3s	sei-	uei-	ei-	tei-	ś°ei-	ei- ~ -eh	zei-
1p		uete-	te-		ś°ete-	te- ~ -eh	zete-
2p	seś°e-		ś°e-	teś°e-		ś°e- ~ -eh	ześ°e-
3p	sa-	ua-	a-	ta-	ś°a-	a- ~ -eh	za-

Trivalent

Trivalent verbs take three arguments, the subject, the direct object, and the indirect object. Trivalent verbs are similarly distinguished between whether they are inherently transitive or intransitive. The trivalent person markers, however, are consistent between the two groups.

The trivalent person markers are placed between the bivalent cluster and the verb stem.

Subject
1s	-se-
2s	-be-
3s	re-
1p	-te-
2p	-ś°e-
3p	-ra-

Additional Modifiers

The verb can receive additional affixes to build an augmented stem with additional meaning.

Prefixes

Directional Prefixes
Directional	q-	qepłe "(S)he looks here"
Towards	ł-	łepłe "(S)he looks towards (sth)"
Backwards	zać'e-	zać'epłe "(S)he looks backwards"
Bypass	ble-	blepłe "(S)he overlooks (sth)"
Through	phyry-	phyrypłe "(S)he looks through (sth)"
Beyond	ŝḥepy-	ŝḥepypłe "(S)he looks beyond (sth)"
Over	ŝḥade-	ŝḥadepłe "(S)he looks over (sth)"
Neck	ś'°ehe-	ś'°ehepłe "(S)he looks at the neck of (sth)"
Informative Prefixes
Causative	ġe-	ġepłe "(S)he makes (sb) look at (sth)"
Locative	š-	šepłe "(S)he looks at (sth)"
Comitative	de-	depłe "(S)he looks with (sb)"
Benefactive	fe-	fepłe "(S)he looks for/on behalf of (sb)"
Malefactive	ś°'e-	ś°'epłe "(S)he looks against (sb)'s interest"

Nouns

Number

Nouns distinguish between singular and plural number. Singular nouns do not receive a suffix to the stem. Plural nouns receive -he. This is placed immediately before case endings.

Cases

	Indefinite		Definite
Abs	-	ŝ°yze	-r	ŝ°yzer	"a/some woman" "the woman"
Erg-Obj	-	ŝ°yze	-m	ŝ°yzem	"a/some woman" "the woman"
Inst-Dir	-ć'e	ŝ°yzeć'e	-mć'e	ŝ°yzemć'e	"with a/some woman" "with the woman"
Adv	-u		ŝ°yzeu		"as a/the woman"
Adj	_		ŝ°yz_		"womanly"

Case markers affix to the very end of the noun stem, after all other modifying suffixes have already been attached.

Absolutive

The Absolutive Case marks the subject of an intransitive verb or the direct object of a transitive verb.

Subject of an Intransitive

ć'aler iedźap'em k°'aġe "The boy went to the school."

Direct Object of a Transitive

Pšylym syġ°enćedźeher ieġeqabze. "The slave cleans my trousers."

Ergative-Oblique

Subject of a Transitive

Pšylym syġ°enćedźeher ieġeqabze. "The slave cleans my trousers."

Locative

Ć'aler iedźap'em k°'aġe "The boy went to the school."

Ć'ale mezym šy'. "A boy is in the woods."

Instrumental-Directional

Instrumental

Ś°'yc'eć'e depqer sele. "I paint the wall (in) black."

Adjectival

The Adjectival Case marks when a noun is being used as an adjective to directly modify the following noun.

ġ°yć'y "iron" → ġ°yć' wate "iron hammer"

Formation

The Adjectival Case is notable in that it is marked not with an ending, but with a reduction of the noun stem. For multi-syllabic nouns, the end vowel is clipped:

plyžy "red" (abs) → plyž "red" (adj)

For mono-syllabic nouns, the end vowel is retained; for these nouns, the Adjectival has the same form as the indefinite Absolutive or Ergative-Oblique:

ł'y "man" (abs) → ł'y "manly" (adj)

This absence of clipping extends to compounds in which a monosyllabic noun comes last:

dzeł'y "fighter" (abs) [< dze "army" + ł'y "man"] → dzeł'y "fighter" (adj)

Pronouns

Personal Pronouns

Personal pronouns can be optional, due subject and object markings on finite verbs. On the other hand, their inclusion in sentences add redundancy and can be used for emphasis. The category of "personal" covers only First and Second Person as well as a Reflexive.

		First	Second	Reflexive
Singular	Abs	se	ue	iež
	Erg-Obj	se	ue	iež
	Inst-Dir	serć'e	uerć'e	iežć'e
	Adv	sereu	uereu	iežeu
Plural	Abs	te	ś°e	iežher
	Erg-Obj	te	ś°e	iežhem
	Inst-Dir	terć'e	ś°erć'e	iežhamć'e
	Adv	tereu	ś°ereu	iežhereu

Possessive Pronouns

Possession can be marked as a prefix on the possessed noun. Red Laqi distinguishes according to alienation. An inalienated noun is one which cannot exist without belonging to someone, e.g. a hand is someone's hand, a mother is someone's mother, by default.

Inalienable Possessive

Inalienable possessive prefixes have two forms, for whether or not the ajoined word begins with a vowel or a consonant.

	Prefix	Meaning
1s	s- / sy-	"my"
2s	w- / wy-	"your (s)"
3s	- / y-	"his, her, its"
1p	t- / te-	"our"
2p	ś°- / ś°e-	"your (pl)"
3p	- / a-	"their"

Alienable Possessive

	Prefix	Meaning
1s	syi-	"my"
2s	wyi-	"your (s)"
3s	iyi-	"his, her, its"
1p	tyi-	"our"
2p	ś°yi-	"your (pl)"
3p	iai-	"their"