Śácamþaśá: A Complete Grammar
Note: this document is written within the context of Jáłár rLojo, the conworld from which Śácamþaśá originates. For information specific to the minecraft server, refer to the main Śácamþaśá page.
Śácamþaśá or Shaacamthashaa SozAmqASo, often abbreviated to ŚCŚ, is the language of the Triarchy of Śácamþa (ŚCŚ: Śácamþań Reá arI NzAmqASo), with the name itself coming from the words for ‘home bay’. This document will explain everything from orthography to grammar, vocab and historical sound changes. Understanding Śácamþaśáń orthography and some of its grammar is important to being able to pronounce the names of several celestial bodies near Jáłár and the planet itself, as the Triarchy dominates one of the two primary cultural centers of the world and has taken the language with it in all of its developments.
Phonology & Orthography
Phonemes
| pAijo | pAzilu | ffogo | gIwa | pAifAru | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| p | t | c | q | tpawu(0( | |
| f | /θ/ ⟨þ/th⟩ | s | ʃ ⟨ś/sh⟩ | tpawu(tu( | |
| m | n | ɲ ⟨ń/nj⟩ | ŋ ⟨ŋ/ng⟩ | tpawu(mu( | |
| β̞ʷ ⟨w⟩ | r | j | tpawu(jo( | ||
| l | ɬ ⟨ł/lh⟩ | tpawu(fu( |
| lAzi | gfu | pAisA | |
|---|---|---|---|
| i | u | ɑː ⟨á/aa⟩ | wqo |
| ɪ ⟨e⟩ | ɵ ⟨y⟩ | ɐ ⟨a⟩ | fAa |
- /l/ and /ŋ/ are not allowed in coda position.
- /ɬ/ can in all phonological aspects be considered to act as a palatal lateral /ʎ/, hence its placement in the table.
Allophony
Precise realisations of allophones vary heavily between dialects, so this list cannot be taken as exhaustive but merely represents some of the most common realisations.
- /q/ is realised as a dorsal fricative [χ~x] in word-final position.
- Word-initial nasals are realised as voiced plosives: m, n, ɲ, ŋ ->ⁿb, ⁿd, ⁿɟ, ⁿɡ.
- In vowel sequences, the first vowel rounds or unrounds to match the second.
- /ɪ/ and /ɐ/ are often realised as mid [e̞] and open mid [ʌ] or mid [ɤ̞], particularly by uneducated speakers. This usage is considered uneducated and ‘farmer-like’ by the elite, so it is recommended to avoid using them in formal situations.
- In an attempt to avoid the ‘uneducated’ realisation of /ɪ/ and /ɐ/, inexperienced formal speakers may hypercorrect /ɵ/ to [ɔ].
- /ɑː/ is realised as rounded [ɒː~ɔː] after labial consonants, and fronted to [äː] after palatals.
Harmony
Śácamþaśá exhibits consonant harmony, disallowing the combining of the coronal (ŚCŚ: ŋáfuf ffugo) consonants t, s, n, r, l and palatal (ŚCŚ: wáŋe gIwa) consonants c, ʃ, ɲ, j, ɬ within a word. Inflectional suffixes with such sounds have two forms to abide by this rule, with one serving as the ‘default’ for words featuring neither class. In the grammar sections below, this default form will always be listed first, e.g. the genitive suffix ń/n, where ń is the default. Consonant harmony does not apply to compound words, however it does apply in some old compounds which have been reanalysed as roots.
Some words which appear neutral may actually be coronal if a w or u in the word has an origin in /l/ or palatal if an i in the word has an origin in /j/. Examples include aufar rfAl/o ‘person’, which is coronal due to an etymological /l/ and qápiá apiqo ‘to move/go’ which is palatal due to an etymological /j/.
Stress
Stress is not phonemic in Śácamþaśá, but it is phonetically realised on the first syllable.
Phonotactics
Valid syllables in Śácamþaśá are maximally #CCVVCC#, meaning consonant clusters within a single syllable are only allowed at word boundaries, and otherwise clusters must span a syllable boundary. The minimal syllable in Śácamþaśá is generally considered to be V. A syllable of C is also allowed, though not CC or anything more complex which lacks a vowel, and C syllables can only occur as the sole syllable of a word #C#. Only a handful such words exist.
While there are no rules determining which consonants can cluster at all, nor the order in which they do so, there are rules constraining the types of consonants a given consonant can cluster with. These are as follows:
- Clusters of two stops (nasal or otherwise) are not allowed. Note that /ŋ/ patters with liquids and is exempt from this.
- Clusters of two fricatives are only allowed across morpheme boundaries. Note that /ɬ/ patterns with liquids and is exempt from this.
- Liquids (including /r/) may not be the first element of a cluster when the second element is an obstruent.
- Geminates may not exist.
- The second element of a vowel sequence must be a tense vowel i.e. ɑː, i or u
- The first element of a vowel sequence may not be the lax pair to the tense vowel i.e. ɐɑː, ɪi, ɵu are not allowed.
To illustrate, here are some examples of allowed clusters: fɲ, θɬ, st, rj, ŋr; and some examples of disallowed clusters: qt, fθ, rr, jp, wn.
Romanisation
The Latin alphabet serves solely as a manner of clarification for foreigners and for situations where foreign scripts cannot be written; it is not used to write Śácamþaśá in regular use. Where no romanisation is specified in the phoneme chart, the IPA and romanisations are identical. As visible in the phoneme chart, there are two accepted romanisations for Śácamþaśá. The preferred romanisation relies on the one character per phoneme principle and uses special characters, while the ascii romanisation relies on digraphs when special characters are not available. Both romanisations are shallow, reflecting the realisation of the phonemes quite well. This is contrast to the Þeurilá orthography, which contains more historical spelling. This can be useful for the sake of grammar, as it does not write suffix reduction.
Þeurilá
This page only covers the practical usage of the Þeurilá script for use in writing Śácamþaśá. For more detail regarding the etymology of glyphs or use in other languages, see Þeurilá.
Þeurilá lorigzI is the sole official writing system for Śácamþaśá. It is a semisyllabary, i.e. it writes CV groups as a single inseparable syllable glyph, but has separate glyphs for vowels and consonants when they occur in clusters. The system used for writing Śácamþaśá has glyphs for 18 consonants and 8 vowels, though not all of these are phonetically distinguished from one another in the modern language.
For the sake of transcription, the most common standard is the University of Tarpoenstad General Transliteration System for Þeurilá, or TGTSÞ. This transcription is useful to mark historical spelling in Þeurilá for foreign audiences, or to create legends for rhyme tables. However, TGTSÞ can be confusing for first-time learners who are not familiar with the structure of Þeurilá, and only know the romanised, phonemic form. For these people, a quick guide to the phonemes which may be unclear is as follows:
- k is realised as /c/ before front vowels a, ă, ĭ, /q/ otherwise.
- o and a are both realised as /ɑː/, such that glyphs with these vowels always merge except for the consonant k covered above.
- h & ə̆ are silent, thus the glyph hə̆ has no phonetic value.
- The palatalised consonants ṭ ṣ ṇ ḷ are realised as /c/, /ʃ/, /ɲ/, /ɬ/ respectively.
- The shortened vowels ă, ŭ, ĭ are realised as /ɐ/, /ɵ/, /ɪ/ respectively.
- When appearing in coda (almost all cases of their ə̆ glyphs), l and ŋ are realised as /β̞ʷ/.
A rhyme table for the Þeurilá glyphs used in Śácamþaśá can be found below:
| Consonant | ə̆ | o | a | ă | u | ŭ | i | ĭ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| k | ||||||||
| h | ||||||||
| t | ||||||||
| ṭ | ||||||||
| þ | ||||||||
| p | ||||||||
| f | ||||||||
| m | ||||||||
| n | ||||||||
| ṇ | ||||||||
| r | ||||||||
| s | ||||||||
| ṣ | ||||||||
| w | ||||||||
| j | ||||||||
| l | ||||||||
| ḷ | ||||||||
| ŋ |