Txakopxai (language)
From AdradhWiki
|
Txakopxai | |
| Spoken around: | 370 BD |
|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Txakopxai |
| Number of speakers: | 3,000 |
| Writing system: | None |
| Dictionary: | None yet |
Txakopxai (IPA /ǀakoʘaɨ/, Consecuan Dacopai) is a language spoken by around 3,000 people on the island of the same name.
The language was spoken in some form until around 250 AD, when Consecuan settlers arrived. At this point, it and the other indigenous languages were mostly supplanted by Consecuan.
Contents |
Phonology
Phonemic inventory
Consonants
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Retroflex | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | p b | t d | ʈ ɖ | k g | q ɢ | ʔ¹ |
| Ejective stop | pʼ | tʼ | ʈʼ | kʼ | qʼ | |
| Nasal | m | n | ɳ | ɴ | ||
| Voiceless click | ʘ | ǀ | ǃ | |||
| Nasalised click | mʘ | nǀ | ɳǃ | |||
| Fricative | s z | ʂ ʐ | x | h | ||
| Ejective fricative | sʼ | xʼ |
Vowels
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/ɨ/ only appears at the end of diphthongs. Txakopxai has three distinctive lengths, denoted as /a/, /aˑ/, and /aː/.
Phonotactics
Syllables are generally CVC, with some restrictions on which clusters may appear. The vowel may be a diphthong ending in /ɨ/.
- Clusters must match in voicing.
- /k g q ɢ/ may not appear before another plosive.
- Ejectives and clicks may not appear in clusters.
- /ʔ/ may not appear in clusters with other plosives.
Spelling
There is no native writing system; at a pinch the Elakwenc alphabet could be butchered to fit it. The scheme for transcribing into Latin is as follows:
- Clicks are written as [plosive] + x; e.g. px /ʘ/.
- Ejectives are written with an apostrophe to mimic the IPA.
- Retroflex consonants are r + [alveolar]; e.g. rs /ʂ/.
- /ʔ/ is written as c.
- Half long vowels are written with an acute, á, and long vowels are doubled, aa.
- /æ/ is written e, and /ɨ/ i.
- Everything else is spelt the same as IPA. Clusters that are ambiguous due to the above conventions are separated with ·; e.g. tx /ǀ/ vs. t·x /tx/.
Some phonological history
The clicks, ejectives, and retroflexes are all derived from consonant clusters: /kC/ or /qC/, /ʔC/, and /ɾC/ and /lC/ respectively. /ɾ/ and /l/ have both merged to /ʐ/ in Txakopxai.
/h ɴ/ correspond to reconstructed /χ ŋ/, the latter from simplifying /ng/, /nj/, and perhaps others. Affricates in the original language were lost, becoming plain stops at word boundaries and fricatives elsewhere.
It is clear that the ancestor had perhaps twice as many vowels as Txakopxai, as well as several more diphthongs. These all merged to the four vowels in current use with varying lengths. The glides /i/ and /u/ (later /ɯ/) merged to /ɨ/, and /ə/ was lost, reflected as an increase in the main vowel's length.
