Introduction
This is a grammatical sketch of the Tepa language. In it, I have tried
to give an account of the major features of interest of the language.
Many of the more "exotic" grammatical devices are suggestive of similar
phenomena in existing languages. For example, the concept of phase is
borrowed from the Austronesian language Rotuman; the manipulation of
stem shape as inflectional marking was inspired (ultimately) by Tiberian
Hebrew and Arabic, although the way it is used in Tepa is much different
from either of these two languages (a better parallel would be Sierra
Miwok, a Native American language of California); infixation and
reduplication are familiar from Austronesian languages such as Bahasa
Indonesian and Tagalog. The system of argument marking was inspired by
the Algonkian languages of Eastern North America, and the phonology of
Tepa owes much to my study of Shoshoni and related languages of the
Great Basin (including the name "Tepa" itself; it means 'pine nut' in
Shoshoni, and is one of my favorite words in any language).
There are quite a few technical linguistic terms in this description.
However, these terms are used simply because the description of
the grammar is made easier by doing so and not because of any theoretical
agenda which I might have, or because I am trying to "snow" the reader. I
have tried to define such terms when they appear in the course of the
text.
Abbreviations and Symbols
Following is a list of abbreviations and symbols which will be used in
the text:
- " indicates obligatory gemination of a following consonant
- ! imperative
- + separates constituents of a compound or incorporated verb
- - separates affixes from stems
- -> becomes
- . marks word-internal syllable boundaries
- / / encloses phonemes or root forms
- 1 first person
- 1>3 first person acting on third person
- 2 second person
- 2>1 second person acting on first person
- 2>3 second person acting on third person
- 3 third person
- 3>3' third person acting on (different) third person
- < is derived from
- < > encloses orthographic symbols
- = seperates clitics from hosts
- ? interrogative
- AGT agentive
- B bound phase
- BEC "become" predicate
- C arbitrary consonant
- CBA causative/benefactive/applicative
- CL clitic or particle
- COLL collective plural
- DIST distributive plural
- DS different subject
- G geminate grade
- HAVE "have" predicate
- INST instrumental
- IR irrealis
- L l-grade
- NESS abstract noun suffix
- NMZ nominalization
- OPT optative
- P postposition
- PAUC paucal
- SS same subject
- V arbitrary vowel
- [ ] encloses phonetic symbols or transcriptions; also used to enclose
the base of a morphological operation
Part of the transcription I will be using is also intended to be a
practical orthography. The transcription in general may need some
comment since I have not followed any of the IPA-to-ASCII schemes which
I have seen. Below I give descriptions for symbols which are used to
transcribe the sounds of Tepa. I have refrained from using "real
language" examples to illustrate these sounds, preferring instead to
give linguistic descriptions.
- [p] voiceless bilabial stop (unaspirated)
- [t] voiceless dental stop (unaspirated)
- [c] voiceless alveo-palatal affricate (unaspirated)
- [k] voiceless velar stop (unaspirated)
- ['] glottal stop
- [b] voiced bilabial stop
- [d] voiced dental stop
- [j] voiced alveo-palatal affricate
- [g] voiced velar stop
- [f] voiceless bilabial fricative
- [T] voiceless interdental fricative
- [s] voiceless apical alveolar fricative
- [S] voiceless alveo-palatal fricative
- [x] voiceless velar fricative
- [h] voiceless glottal fricative
- [v] voiced bilabial fricative
- [D] voiced interdental fricative
- [Z] voiced alveo-palatal fricative
- [3] voiced velar fricative
- [m] bilabial nasal (voiced)
- [n] dental nasal (voiced)
- [N] alveo-palatal nasal (voiced)
- [q] velar nasal (voiced)
- [r] alveolar tap (voiced)
- [l] alveolar lateral (voiced)
- [w] labio-velar glide (voiced)
- [y] palatal glide (voiced)
- [i] high front unrounded
- [e] high central unrounded
- [u] high back rounded
- [a] low central unrounded
In addition, the following transcription practices should be noted:
- -Doubly written consonants indicate geminate (long) consonants.
- -Doubly written vowels are long.
- -Capitalized vowels are voiceless.
- -A tilde following a vowel (v~, vv~) indicates a nasal vowel.
Contents
This grammar is written as a hypertext document. You may browse the
various chapters independently of the others by selecting the
appropriate link from the list below. In addition, there are some
cross-referencing links within and between the various ch
apters of the grammar.
Return to Dirk's homepage.
I welcome any comments regarding this text,
concerning either form or content.