Léna Language

Léna
Language family	Hakhpha
Writing system	Latin Alphabet Cyrillic Alphabet (sporadic)
Official status
Spoken in	Hárǝsi (national) Coldba (recognised)
Regulated by	Hárǝsi Xánǝc uwArássezú (Hárǝsi Ministry of Culture)
Speaker
Demonym	Léna, Énnga uLéna
Number of speakers	unknown
Technical information
Language code	LEN

Léna /lé.na/ is a Western Hakhpha language spoken primarily in Hárǝsi, where it is the majority and only national language. It is also a recognised minority language in the Empire of Coldba.

Classification

the dialects of Léna spoken in Hárǝsi

The Hakhpha language family comprises two main branches, Eastern and Western, the latter containing both Léna and the Kkeṛhaqom language spoken in central and eastern Coldba. Léna itself is a polydialectal language with four main dialect groups spoken throughout the urheimat (i.e. Hárǝsi and the small amount of overspill across the border into Coldba), with the standard variety being based on the dialect of the largest city Ƨxeylá.

Phonology

Consonants

Standard Léna has 30 phonemic consonants.

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	plain	m	n		ŋ
	labialised				ŋʷ
Plosive	plain	p b	t d		k g
	labialised				kʷ gʷ
Affricate			t͡s d͡z	c͡ɕ ɟ͡ʑ
Fricative		f	s z	ɕ ʑ	x ɣ	h
Liquid	plain	w	r	j	(w)
	labialised		rʷ
Lateral			l	ʎ

All consonants except /ʎ/ and /h/ can be geminated and are pronounced longer than their non-geminated counterparts. Geminated /w/ is very rare however.

Velar fricatives /x, ɣ/ are realised advanced [x̟, ɣ̟] or occasionally as palatalised [ç, ʝ] around front vowels /e, i/.

Vowels

Standard Léna has 7 phonemic vowel qualities and distinguishes two phonemic tones.

	Front	Central	Back
High	i	ɨ	u
Mid	e	ǝ	o
Low	a

Mid vowels /e, o/ have been tending much more towards [ɛ, ɔ] in recent generations. Additionally, central vowels /ɨ, ǝ/ are often pronounced as [ɪ, ʌ] by younger speakers or in informal speech.

Léna also has some diphthongs, namely vowels followed by /u̯/ or /i̯/. Sequences of two vowels are also permitted, but are usually analysed as two syllables.

The tone levels are high /a˦/ and mid /a˧/, though the mid tone is often described as a low tone in literature. In Léna they are called xéggwo eili 'narrow voice' and mox eili 'wide voice' respectively.

Syllable Structure and Phonotactics

Léna has a fairly simple syllable structure of (C)V(C), where C is any consonant or affricate and V is any vowel or diphthong. However, fricatives and plosives/affricates (together 'stops') may not cluster with themselves, so the only clusters permitted are Fricative-Stop and Stop-Fricative. Approximants /w/, /r/ and /j/ can cluster in any order with most any consonant, but /w/ and /j/ cannot cluster with each other (see below). Additionally, laterals do not cluster with other consonants, labialised consonants cannot occur in initial position of a cluster, and nasals cannot occur in final position.

There is a broad phonotactic rule that labials and palatals cannot interact, and whenever a labial consonant and a palatal consonant would occur in sequence, an epenthetic vowel (usually /e/) is inserted between them, compare sentences (4a) and (4b) below. In the same vein, labial consonants cannot usually precede high vowels /i, u/, except in some very rare cases where they would cluster with /j/ and the vowel /i/ is inserted, such as in the name of the town Gwiyƨxxǝp. There is an increasing tendency among speakers to also do away with this, rendering that word instead *Gweyƨxxǝp.

Geminates can also only occur inbetween vowels.

Typically, sequences of two vowels cannot occur in closed-syllable environments, i.e. CVVC. As always in language, there are some limited exceptions to this, such as the word gauk 'to search' - this is notably not a diphthong /au̯/ but two vowels in sequence, /a.u/. Additionally, like vowels are not usually permitted in sequence.

ɣ-Affection

Many verb roots, particularly older and more commonly-used ones, exhibit a kind of internal mutation caused by a historical /ɣ/ sound. This changes the form of suffixes attached to this root, most notably object suffixes as these tend to come directly after the root (see Verb Template below). Below are a non-ɣ-affected root and a ɣ-affected root.

(1a) Bƨzzúw-e enn-í ƨzélye-ksi-xe
    axe–PL 2SG–destined_for send–INAN2.PL–PST
    /bɨz.zú.we en.ní ɨ.zé.ʎek.si.xe/
    'I sent you axes.'

(1b) Bƨzzúw-e enn-í ǝxƨ́-ssi-xe.
    axe–PL 2SG–destined_for give–INAN2.PL–PST
    /bɨz.zú.we en.ní ǝ.xɨ́s.si.xe/
    'I gave you axes.'

There is no way to predict this phenomenon, so the individual roots that trigger it must be learnt by heart. Additionally, the third person singular possessive prefix ƨ(gh)- triggers ɣ-affection, resulting in a predictable initial mutation to the initial consonant.

Orthography

As it was primarily an oral language prior to prolonged contact with other Ŋations, there is no native writing system for Léna, though some modern attempts have gained traction in recent years. Instead, a modified Latin alphabet is used, as below. Additionally, since a Cyrillic variant has been used in some limited unofficial capacity, it is displayed as well.

Léna (Latin) IPA Léna (Latin) IPA a /a/ l /l/ b /b/ ly /ʎ/ c /c͡ɕ/ m /m/ ch /ɕ/ n /n/ d /d/ ng /ŋ/ dz /d͡z/ ngw /ŋʷ/ e /e/ o /o/ ǝ /ǝ/ p /p/ f /f/ r /r/ g /g/ rw /rʷ/ gh /ɣ/ s /s/ gw /gʷ/ t /t/ h /h/ ts /t͡s/ i /i/ u /u/ ƨ /ɨ/ w /w/ j /ɟ͡ʑ/ x /x/ jh /ʑ/ y /j/ k /k/ z /z/ kw /kʷ/

Léna (Cyrillic) IPA Léna (Cyrillic) IPA а /a/ н /n/ б /b/ ң /ŋ/ в /w/ ңв /ŋʷ/ г /ɣ/ о /o/ ґ /g/ п /p/ ґв /gʷ/ р /r/ д /d/ рв /rʷ/ е /e/ с /s/ ж /ʑ/ ц /t͡s/ џ /ɟ͡ʑ/ т /t/ з /z/ у / ў /u/ ѕ /d͡z/ ф /f/ и / й /i/ х /x/ ј /j/ ҳ /h/ к /k/ ш /ɕ/ кв /kʷ/ ч /c͡ɕ/ л /l/ ъ /ǝ/ љ /ʎ/ ы /ɨ/ м /m/

High tone is represented by an acute accent over the vowel; ⟨á, é, ǝ́, í, ƨ́, ó, ú⟩, or ⟨а́, е́, и́, о́, у́, ъ́, ы́⟩.

Gemination is represented by doubling the consonant.

In polygraphs, only the first element is capitalised, and only the first element is doubled to represent gemination, e.g. ⟨Ch, nngw⟩. Additionally, an apostrophe marks where a sequence of two consonant letters is not a digraph, in words such as zír'woch 'brother'.

The Cyrillic glyphs ⟨й⟩ and ⟨ў⟩ are used in phonemic diphthongs such as /ai̯/, /au̯/ to contrast them from /a.i/, /a.u/.

Capitalisation of Prefixes

Léna employs a number of gender- and number-agreement prefixes on nouns, reminiscent of the Bantu Languages. When these are placed before proper nouns, they do not take capitalisation, and instead the first consonant of the word takes the capitalisation. If the whole word would be capitalised anyway, for example it is at the beginning of a sentence or in title case, then both the prefix and the head word would be capitalised.

(2) Hárǝsi ƨx-Xízzí-a
    Hárǝsi HUM.SG.POSS–person–PL
    /há.rǝ.si ɨx.xíz.zí.a/
    'The People of Hárǝsi'

NB: the root in the word ƨxXízzía is kízzí (see ɣ-Affection)

Syntax and Sentence Structure

The syntactic system of Léna is primarily oriented around the prominence of phrasal heads. It also relies heavily on the verb form called the Null Form, which functions similarly to a converb, for clause chaining.

Phrase Structure

Noun Phrase

The Noun Phrase in Léna comprises a minimum of a noun and a maximum of a demonstrative/possessor + a quantifier + an adjective + a noun, in that order. A possessed noun must agree with its possessor in gender and number by means of a prefix, such as in (3b). Additionally, a noun modified by a numeral must take a prefix that agrees with itself in gender and number, as in (3c) to (3e).

(3a) hí
    egg
    /hí/
    'an egg / the egg'

(3b) o-hí
    1SG.POSS-egg
    /o.hí/
    'my egg'

(3c) oh-ifi chi-hím-i
    1SG.POSS–three INAN.PL.POSS–egg–PL
    /o.hi.fi ɕi.hí.mi/
    'my three eggs'

(3d) oh-ifi wǝc chi-hím-i
    1SG.POSS–three large INAN.PL.POSS–egg–PL
    /o.hi.fi wǝc͡ɕ ɕi.hí.mi/
    'my three large eggs'

(3e) gwezí ak-ifi wǝc chi-hím-i
    albatross ANI.SG.POSS–three large INAN.PL.POSS–egg–PL
    /gʷe.zí a.ki.fi wǝc͡ɕ ɕi.hí.mi/
    'the albatross' three large eggs'

It is helpful to think of the sentences such as (3c) as meaning more literally something like 'my trio of eggs', as numerals are treated largely as nouns in their own right.

Verb Phrase

A verb is the only part of a sentence fundamentally required to make it so. This is because subjects can most often be inferred through context and objects are marked on the verb; Léna is as a result a fairly heavily pro-drop language, and sentences such as that in (4d) would be fairly uncommon unless expressly emphasising the subject. Because Léna does not employ case marking, role-marking is done by means of verbal object suffixes.

With just a lone verb as the minimum, a maximal verb phrase can consist of the subject + the predicate + any adjuncts/adverbials, and these can be placed virtually anywhere in the VP, though placing them after the verb is uncommon.

(4a) ǝchékw-eye.
    cook-PRES.PROG
    /ǝ.ɕé.kʷe.je/
    '(I'm) cooking.'

(4b) ǝchékw-ǝwǝ-ye.
    cook–ABST–PRES.PROG
    /ǝ.ɕé.kʷǝ.wǝ.je/
    '(I'm) cooking something.'

(4c) lyew ǝchék-fóu-ye.
    meat cook–INAN2.SG–PRES.PROG
    /ʎew ǝ.ɕék.fóu̯.je/
    '(I'm) cooking meat.'

(4d) ǝch lyew ǝchék-fóu-ye.
    1SG meat cook–INAN2.SG–PRES.PROG
    /ǝɕ ʎew ǝ.ɕék.fóu̯.je/
    'I'm cooking meat.'

(4e) ǝch rói rúc lyew ǝchék-fóu-ye.
    1SG here1 now meat cook–INAN2.SG–PRES.PROG
    /ǝɕ rói̯ rúc͡ɕ ʎew ǝ.ɕék.fóu̯.je/
    'I'm cooking meat right now.'

A very common type of adverbial is another verb in the Null Form (explained in more detail below) which is used to combine two or more syntactically-related verbs into one clause.

(5a) za chíakƨ́x an-ngi ikongá-e-che.
    1PL forest INAN.SG–through walk–INAN3.SG–PST.PROG
    /za ɕí.a.kɨ́x aŋ.ŋi i.ko.ŋá.e.ɕe/
    'we walked through the forest.'

(5b) za chíakƨ́x an-ngi uwóin-i-ke ikongá-e-che.
    1PL forest INAN.SG–through sing–PROG–NULL walk–INAN3.SG–PST.PROG
    /za ɕí.a.kɨ́x aŋ.ŋi u.wói̯.ni.ke i.ko.ŋá.e.ɕe/
    'we walked singing through the forest.'

The Null Form can also be used where a verbal infinitive might be used in Indo-European languages:

(6) gégwez-á áhpewaly-ifa-rwe-ke zé-innekw.
    child–PL teach–PASS–PRES.INCH–NULL REFL–jump
    /gé.gʷe.zá áh.pe.wa.ʎi.fa.rʷe.ke zé.in.nekʷ/
    'the children are excited to learn.'

Adjectival and Possessive Phrases

As above, Adjectives and Possessives in Léna are usually placed before the noun, with pronominal Possessives being a simple prefix (see Possession). Quantifiers such as kép 'rather, quite' may be placed before Adjectives.

Word Order

Léna is transparently an SOV language, with all indicative sentences taking this basic shape. The imperative mood is marked by inverting this word order to VOS, though the subject is not strictly necessary in most imperative statements.

(7a) ne gwowoijh-í kwǝ-lle-rwe.
    2SG mushroom–PL eat–INAN3.PL–PRES.INCH
    /ne gʷo.woi̯.ʑí kʷəl.le.rʷe/
    'you eat (the) mushrooms.'

(7b) kwǝ-lle-rwe gwowoijh-í (ne)!
    eat–INAN3.PL–PRES.INCH mushroom–PL 2SG
    /kʷəl.le.rʷe gʷo.woi̯.ʑí (ne)/
    'eat (the) mushrooms(, you)!'

Questions

Polar Questions

The type of polar question morphology used in Léna depends on the social context. In most informal speech, they are usually expressed by a change in the pitch of the final syllable of the question utterance, though this does change depending on the tone of the final syllable of the word involved.

Words with high tone:

(8a) Ló ax-xoi ǝjjix-xa-nái.
    house INAN–inside stay–INAN2.SG–FUT.PROG
    /ló ax.xoi̯ ǝɟ.ɟ͡ʑix.xa.nái̯/ […nai̯˦]
    'You will be staying at home.'

(8b) Ló ax-xoi ǝjjix-xa-nái?
    house INAN–inside stay–INAN2.SG–FUT.PROG
    /ló ax.xoi̯ ǝɟ.ɟ͡ʑix.xa.nái̯/ […nai̯˥˩˧]
    'Will you be staying at home?'

And words with mid tone:

(9a) Ezíghekw oggwe-s-se.
    squid touch–ANI2.SG–PST
    /e.zí.ɣekʷ og.gʷes.se/ […se˧]
    'You touched the squid.'

(9b) Ezíghekw oggwe-s-se?
    squid touch–ANI2.SG–PST
    /e.zí.ɣekʷ og.gʷes.se/ […se˩˦]
    'Did you touch the squid?'

If a word has a continuous phonemic tone before the final syllable the first phonetic tone will be held for the duration of that tone throughout the whole word.

(10) Ichaza-kch-u-ke ikéké-ná-hé?
    arrive–TEL.APPL–ABST.SG–NULL persevere–FUT–OPT
    /i.ɕa.zak.ɕu.ke i.ké.ké.ná.hé/ […ke˥.ke˥.na˥.he˥˩˧]
    'Will you reach the end?'

However, in formal or official speech, questions make use of the negative copular auxiliary sak to turn the statement into a question.

(11) Kwǝ-gghǝ-ghan ne-ifettǝk chowƨj-jhá sak?
    eat–ABST–IRR.GER 2SG.POSS–preference know–ACT.PTCP NEG_COP
    /kʷəɣ.ɣə.ɣan ne.i.fet.tək ɕo.wɨʑ.ʑá sak/
    'Do you know what you want to eat?'

The reason this can work unambiguously is that usually if a verb was actually negated, the suffix -(y)ekw would be added to said verb.

Questions with a Qualifier

These kinds of questions are very simple; the question word goes at the beginning of the phrase being turned into a question. However, further detail can be specified for transitive verbs by changing the object suffix on the verb to reflect qualities of the interrogated argument, as below.

(12a) Kweffohex ie ne dúyƨp-ǝw-ná?
    dinner what 2SG prepare_food–ABST–FUT
    /kʷef.fo.hex i.e ne dú.jɨ.pəw.ná/
    'What will you make for dinner?'

(12b) Kweffohex ie ne dúyƨp-re-ná?
    dinner what 2SG prepare_food–INAN3.PL–FUT
    /kʷef.fo.hex i.e ne dú.jɨp.re.ná/
    'What (vegetables) will you make for dinner?'

Grammar and Morphology

The grammar of Léna contains most standard features of the Hakhpha languages: a diverse gender system, verbal object agreement and a general tendency towards being head-marking. It is largely suffixing, but does make some use of prefixes (notably for gender agreement on possessed arguments) and there is also a great deal of stem-internal morphology. There is no case marking present, and role-marking is entirely based on verb agreement and word order.

Morphologically, Standard Léna is characterised by being quite fusional in terms of its affixation, but remains underlyingly agglutinative as other Hakhpha languages. This fusionality is mainly expressed in inflectional suffixes but some derivational affixes also exhibit fusional behaviour, e.g. míé-, the reflexive+causative verbal prefix.

Nouns

Nouns in Léna undergo two main morphological processes; pluralisation and possession, which also includes being the subject of a postposition. Each noun is also assigned a gender, of which there are 8, though these are divided into 4 groups. The two levels of gender distinction are referred to as 'broad gender' and 'narrow gender'. The 4 broad and 8 narrow genders, as well as an example word for each, are displayed below.

Human		Animal		Inanimate			Abstract
1	2	1	2	1	2	3
mór	lehéccho	ilengweu	ekw	ló	ezík	chaxa	waly
mother	council	bear	mouse	house	sack	water	command

Possession

Possessive prefixes as well as plural suffixes correspond to the broad gender of a noun, whereas verbal object agreement suffixes (see below) correspond to its narrow gender. The possessive prefixes also agree in number with the possessor argument. Again note that the 3rd person singular possessive prefix triggers ɣ-affection.

	1st Person	2nd Person	3rd Person
			Human	Animal	Inanimate	Abstract
Singular	o(h)-	n(e)-	ƨ(gh)-*	ak-		u(w)-
Plural	lé-	d(e)-	i(m)-	ki(y)-	chi(y)-

Possessed arguments go after their possessor noun:

(13a) Eyú ƨt-táengú
    woman HUM.SG–dog
    /e.jú ɨt.ta.e.ŋú/
    'the woman's dog'

Pluralisation

Pluralisation in Léna is highly complex. On top of the gender-determined plural suffixes, there is often a high degree of stem volatility when nouns are declined as plural, such that the singular and plural forms of a noun are often very different. The plural suffixes are:

Human	Animal	Inanimate
-a / -ya	-si	-i / -e / -ya

Broadly, if a Human or Inanimate noun ends in more than a simple vowel (i.e. a diphthong or two vowel syllables), or if a Human noun ends in the vowel -a, then the plural suffix will be -ya. If an inanimate noun ends in a labialised consonant, a nasal or /ʎ/, the plural suffix will be -e, though some other nouns take -e plurals unpredictably. Abstract nouns do not pluralise.

(13b) Eyúgh-a i-táengú-si
    woman–PL HUM.PL–dog–PL
    /e.jú.ɣa i.ta.e.ŋú.si/
    'the women's dogs'

Stem change, such as between eyú/eyúgha in (13a) and (13b), is a pervasive feature of Léna plural morphology. There are five broad types of stem change: vowel alternation, diphthongisation, consonant alternation, consonant insertion and 'alternate' stem change, which is just a basket of minor phonological processes not pervasive enough to warrant their own category. Of these, consonant alternation is probably the most common. Additionally, some stem change also triggers a high tone in the following vowel, most often vowel alternation. Examples of each follow:

Vowel Alternation
sg.	pl.	meaning
áng	ónga	spirit
ficƨw	ficiwé	gap
irhǝk	irhaká	villager
uhóly	uhálye	lake

Diphthongisation
sg.	pl.	meaning
achǝlye	achielye	noise
lyajjhérw	lyajjhóerwe	speck, stain
lyéc	lyéici	mountain
ngip	ngiapi	woodblock

Consonant Insertion
sg.	pl.	meaning
fu	funa	heart
gwa	gwami	rock
kala	kalangi	droplet

Consonant Alteration
sg.	pl.	meaning
ngwech	ngweza	coast
súcáp	súcábe	pelt, fur
ucchijúc	ucchijúzi	warbler

Alternate
sg.	pl.	meaning
kwehé	kwehía	fight
oxínen	oxína	lower leg
rajály	rajáliha	councilman
tughau	tughá	name
uké	ukéyǝi	parchment
ƨlǝ́	ƨlá	man

There are also instances where several of these processes happen simultaneously, as below:

Mixed-Type
sg.	pl.	meaning
bƨch	bezí	flint
dǝ	demá	father
gégwech	gégweuzá	child
hǝ́zƨnƨk	hǝ́zƨnughá	feast
pƨ́ch	písá	lip
rikw	riagwe	local shrine

This stem change is largely unpredictable, except for a few derivational suffixes (-au, -i/-ya, -(h)ǝ́, etc.) which reliably display irregular endings. Additionally, there are a handful of plurales tanta, most notably nouns ending in -ea as well as words like xibá 'finger' and the name of Hárǝsi's largest city Ƨxeylá.

Postpositions

Postpositions in Léna must agree with the nouns they modify in gender by the same prefixes that govern possession. Some examples of sentences with postpositions follow:

(14a) Róssǝp cháyu-si k-yé chie jhesó-ja pá-kwe?
    this2 goat–PL ANI.PL–on why paint–PASS.PTCP LOC–REAL.COP
    /rós.sǝp ɕá.ju.si kjé ɕi.e ʑe.só.ɟ͡ʑa pá.kʷe/
    'Why are there things painted on these goats?'

(14b) Ƨkkukw ƨt-tsá kwohéhke de-máráu ƨl-ló ax-í ikongá-hóu-ná.
    Ƨkkukw HUM.SG–with together 2PL.POSS–grandmother HUM.SG.POSS–house INAN.SG–destined_for walk–INAN1.SG–FUT
    /ɨk.kukʷ ɨt.t͡sá kʷo.héh.ke de.má.ráu̯ ɨl.ló a.xí i.ko.ŋá.hóu̯.ná/
    'You're going to go to grandma's with Ƨkkukw.'

(14c) Za nez-í chiy-ƨxme kwehu-le-ye.
    1PL tree–PL INAN.PL–underneath lie–INAN3.PL–PRES.PROG
    /za ne.zí ɕi.jɨx.me kʷe.hu.le.je/
    'We're lying between the trees.'

(14d) Xoccho ƨkkágwe ak-ajhe ar'wo-xe.
    boat iceberg INAN.SG–past sail–PST
    /xoɕ.ɕo ɨk.ká.ɡʷe a.ka.ʑe ar.wo.xe/
    'The boat sailed past an iceberg.'

Many postpositions have irregular combining forms, such as wé 'on' in (14a) and í 'destined for, up to, until' (famously difficult to accurately translate) in (14b). Other irregular postpositions include ye 'towards', yák 'under' and ar 'from'.

Postpositions, when uninflected, can also serve as semantic particles not unlike adverbs. For example,

(15) Heyuk ak-wé uyui za mé-fóf-fe.
    hall INAN-entering_into separate_from 1PL go-INAN1.SG-PST
    /he.juk a.kʷe u.jui̯ za mé.fóf.fe/
    'We went out into the hall to talk.'

Here, the uninflected postposition uyui 'separate from, apart, outside of' serves as a particle reinforcing that the conversation will occur privately, separate from that which is presumably going on inside the room.