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:

Phonetic Transcription

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.

In addition, the following transcription practices should be noted:

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.

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I welcome any comments regarding this text, concerning either form or content.