Kozramva

Kozramva
Language family	Nanu-Keezhu languages
Writing system	Kozlahu
Official status
Spoken in	Kozdenen
Regulated by	Doge Peleṽa Thoa-Saevakki
Speaker
Endonym	Keezhʉ Raṽa ['kø̞:ʐɨ 'raᵐβa]
Exonym	Kozramva
Number of speakers	1
Technical information
Language code	KZR

Kozramva (Keezhʉ Raṽa ['kø̞:ʐɨ 'raᵐβa]) is the majority and official language of Kozdenen.

Classification

Kozramva is a member of the Nanu-Keezhu language family.

Phonology

Consonants

Kozramva has 28 consonants:

		Labial		Alveolar	Retroflex	Velar	Glottal
		Plain	Palatal.
Nasal		/m/ ⟨m⟩	/mʲ/ ⟨my⟩	/n/ ⟨n⟩	/ɳ/ ⟨nh⟩	/ŋ/ ⟨ng⟩
Plosive		/p/ ⟨p⟩	/pʲ/ ⟨py⟩	/t/ ⟨t⟩	/ʈ/ ⟨th⟩	/k/ ⟨k⟩
Affricate					/ʈ͡ʂ/ ⟨ch⟩
Fricative	Voiceless			/s/ ⟨s⟩		/x/ ⟨kh⟩	/h/ ⟨h⟩
	Voiced	/β/ ⟨v⟩	/βʲ/ ⟨vy⟩	/z/ ⟨z⟩	/ʐ/ ⟨zh⟩	/ɣ/ ⟨g⟩
	Prenasal.	/ᵐβ/ ⟨ṽ⟩	/ᵐβʲ/ ⟨ṽy⟩	/ⁿz/ ⟨z̃⟩		/ᵑɣ/ ⟨g̃⟩
Approximant		/w/ ⟨w⟩		/l/ ⟨l⟩	/ɭ/ ⟨lh⟩
Trill	Plain			/r/ ⟨r⟩
	Prenasal.			/ⁿr/ ⟨r̃⟩

• Consonants can be geminated, but this is restricted to a certain subset of consonants, consisting of voiceless stops and affricates, voiceless fricatives (excluding /h/), and /r, w, l, ɭ/. Consonants outside this set are never geminated. Gemination is represented in orthography by doubling the consonant grapheme; for digraphs, the first part is doubled.
• Prenasalised fricatives /ᵐβ, ᵐβʲ, ⁿz, ⁿr, ᵑɣ/ are realised as stops [ᵐb, ᵐbʲ, ⁿd, ⁿɖ~ⁿɟ, ᵑɡ] word-initially.
• Retroflexes /ɳ, ʈ, ʈ͡ʂ, ʂ, ʐ, ɭ/ are realised as palatal [ɲ, c, t͡ɕ, ɕ, ʑ, ʎ] before front vowels; this same pattern applies to [ⁿɖ~ⁿɟ] mentioned in the previous point.
• Aside from its typical word-initial realisation, /ⁿr/ [insert whatever i was writing here]

Vowels

Kozramva has 6 phonemic vowel qualities:

	Front	Central	Back
High	/i/ ⟨i⟩	/ɨ/ ⟨ʉ⟩	/u/ ⟨u⟩
Mid	/e/ ⟨e⟩		/o/ ⟨o⟩
Low		/a/ ⟨a⟩

• Kozramva has a phonological contrast between short and long vowels; vowel lengthening is represented in orthography by doubling the vowel grapheme.
• Sequences of two short vowels in hiatus of identical quality are realised as a long vowel, e.g. /i.i/ [i:]/
• Unrounded vowels /i, ɨ, e, a/ are realised as rounded [y, ʉ, ø, ɒ] when preceding a retroflex consonant (excluding their palatal allophones).
• The mid vowels are phonetically true mid [e̞~ø̞, o̞].

Phonotactics

The maximal syllable structure is CVG, where C represents any consonant, V any vowel, and G the first half of a geminated consonant. Individual morphemes may end in a consonant, but a phonological word may not.

Vowels are permitted to occur in hiatus, with only limited restrictions on which vowels and vowel sequences may co-occur. The sole known exception is that no more than two short phonetic vowels of identical quality may occur in hiatus; furthermore, a long and short vowel of identical quality may not exist in hiatus.

Consonant mutation

Kozramva features a productive process of consonant mutation, with four mutation grades: radical, spirantised, nasalised, and geminated. Individual morphemes may trigger either spirantisation, nasalisation, or gemination of an immediately following consonant, the type of mutation present being lexically specified for each morpheme. The three types of mutation are typically annotated with a capital S, N, or G respectively, e.g. kakkoaS “leaf”, which triggers spirantisation on a following suffix (e.g. [insert example]).

Radical	Sprantised	Nasalised	Geminated
m-		-m:-	-m:-
mʲ-		-mʲ:-	-mʲ:-
n-		-n:-	-n:-
ɳ-		-ɳ:-	-ɳ:-
ŋ-		-ŋ:-	-ŋ:-
p-	-β-	-ᵐβ-	-p:-
pʲ-	-βʲ-	-ᵐβʲ-	-pʲ:-
t-	-z-	-ⁿz-	-t:-
ʈ-	-ʐ-	-ⁿr-	-ʈ:-
ʈ͡ʂ-			-ʈ͡ʂ:-
k-	-ɣ-	-ᵑɣ-	-k:-
s-	-h-	-ⁿz-	-s:-
r-		-ⁿr-	-r:-
x-		-ᵑɣ-	-x:-
h-	-Ø-	-ŋ-	-x:-
w-		-m-	-w:-
l-		-n-	-l:-
ɭ-		-ɳ-	-ɭ:-

Prosody

Kozramva has fixed, non-phonemic stress, occurring on the penultimate mora.

Morphology

Nouns

Nouns exhibit only limited inflectional morphology, with case being the sole overtly marked feature on the noun itself; gender and number are expressed through agreement on other constituents. Definiteness is not marked on any constituent.

Noun case

Nouns in Kozramva can be inflected for one of 13 cases, reflecting their syntactic role in a clause.

Nominative case

The nominative case denotes the subject of a clause (both transitive and intransitive). Nouns are not overtly marked for the nominative case.

[EXAMPLE]

Accusative case

The accusative case denotes the object of a transitive clause. Human nouns are marked for the accusative with the suffix -sa, though other nouns exhibit no overt marking.

[EXAMPLE]

Dative case

The dative case denotes the indirect object of a ditransitive verb, as well as the beneficiary of an action. It is marked using the suffix -chi.

[EXAMPLE]

Comitative-instrumental case

_. In its comitative function, it is also used to conjoin noun phrases. It is marked using the suffix -awa.

[EXAMPLE]

Abessive case

The abessive case is used to express a lack or absence of the marked noun. It is marked using the suffix -thenga.

[EXAMPLE]

Translative case

_. It is also used in resultative constructions to mark the achieved state. _. It is marked using the suffix -pyunu.

[EXAMPLE]

Terminative case

_. It is marked using the suffix -myeg̃i.

[EXAMPLE]

Inessive case

The inessive case is used to express location inside the marked noun. It is marked using the suffix -me.

[EXAMPLE]

Illative case

The illative case is used to express motion into the inside of the marked noun. It is marked using the suffix -nekha.

[EXAMPLE]

Elative case

The elative case is used to express motion out from inside of the marked noun. It is marked using the suffix -neei.

[EXAMPLE]

Adessive case

The adessive case is used to express location on, at, or adjacent to the marked noun. Additionally, it is used in possessive constructions, and can mark the standard of comparison in equative statements. It is marked using the suffix -tʉe.

[EXAMPLE]

Allative case

The allative case is used to express motion onto the marked noun. It is marked using the suffix -tokha.

[EXAMPLE]

Ablative case

The ablative case is used to express motion off of the marked noun. Additionally, it can mark the standard of comparison in comparative statements. It is marked using the suffix -pae.

[EXAMPLE]

Case suffixes

Case	Suffix
Nominative	-Ø
Accusative	-Ø, -sa
Dative	-chi
Comitative- instrumental	-awa
Abessive	-thenga
Translative	-pyunu
Terminative	-myeg̃i
Inessive	-me
Illative	-nekha
Elative	-neei
Adessive	-tʉe
Allative	-tokha
Ablative	-pae

Noun gender

Gender assignment

	Masculine	Feminine
Spirits, humans, domesticated animals	marked according to sex	marked according to sex
Non-domesticated animals	large animals any animal explicitly marked as male	small animals any animal explictly marked as female
Concrete entities	three-dimensional liquids long and extended	two-dimensional flat surface with little height round with little height
Abstract entities		always feminine

Gender marking

There is no overt marking for gender on the noun itself, save for sex-specific derivational affixes. Rather, gender agreement is present on other constituents, particularly adjectives and verbs. The specifics of such gender agreement will be covered in the relevant sections, but an example can be seen below.

[EXAMPLE]

Pronouns

There are no free personal pronouns; all pronominal morphemes are in the form of bound affixes. Distinctions are made in person and gender, but not number, with additional forms for unspecified objects (i.e. “someone” or “something”).

Oblique prefixes

Oblique pronominal prefixes are the most wide-reaching form of pronominal affix in Kozramva, being used in multiple contexts, most notably as possessive prefixes on nouns and direct object prefixes on verbs. Notably, in addition to the established person and gender distinctions, there is a prefix used to indicate both reflexivity and reciprocity.

	Prefix
1st person	naN-
2nd person	lhiG-
3rd person masc.	eS-
3rd person fem.	uS-
Unspecified object	ʉgʉG-
Reflexive/reciprocal	koṽaS-

Subject suffixes

Subject suffixes are restricted to use in verbal agreement, where they express the subject of a clause. _.

	Suffix
1st person	-amʉN
2nd person	-avyʉS
3rd person masc.	-ngaN
3rd person fem.	-ruS
Unspecified subject	-koG

Verbs

Verbal template

Slot
-2	-1	0	1	2	3	4	5
Object prefix	Negation	STEM	Voice suffix	Mood/negation	Tense suffix	Subject suffix	Plural suffix
						Relative suffix
					Converb suffix

Mood and negation affixes

_

Mood	Positive	Negative
Indicative	-Ø	maS-⟩...⟨-pʉG
Desiderative	-kichaS	maS-⟩...⟨-toaS
Necessitative	-nhiaS	maS-⟩...⟨-manheS
Potential	-ruS	maS-⟩...⟨-ruzʉG
Suggestive	-muN	maS-⟩...⟨-muN
Imperative- Jussive	-soN	maS-⟩...⟨-soN
Irrealis	-nguS	maS-⟩...⟨-nguS

Tense suffixes

There is a wide range of tense-marking suffixes, with distinctions between past, present, and future, and in remoteness. There is minimal encoding of aspect in these tense suffixes, with the exception of past and present forms for the habitual aspect.

Tense	Suffix	Meaning
Remote past	-toppaS	"more than a few days ago"
Far past	-leaS	"a few days ago"
Near past	-loG	"yesterday"
Immediate past	-wuN	"happened today"
Past habitual	-tattaS	"used to"
Present	-Ø	"now", "will today"
Present habitual	-sʉlaS	"usually"
Near future	-sigeS	"will tomorrow"
Remote future	-siN	"will after tomorrow"

Below is an example of kuvaS (“to go”) conjugated for tense:

Tense	Form of kuvaS- (“to go”)	Meaning
Remote past	kuvazoppa	"went more than a few days ago"
Far past	kuvalea	"went a few days ago"
Near past	kuvalo	"went yesterday"
Immediate past	kuvawu	"went today"
Past habitual	kuvazatta	"used to go"
Present	kuva	"going now", "going today"
Present habitual	kuvahʉla	"usually go"
Near future	kuvahige	"will go tomorrow"
Remote future	kuvahi	"will go after tomorrow"

Person and number marking

Person marking on verbs is accomplished through oblique prefixes, used to mark direct objects, and subject prefixes (see Pronouns section). Below is an example paradigm with the verb tevaS "to see" in the present tense:

		Subject
		1	2	3M	3F	UNSP
Object	1	naz̃evaamʉ	naz̃evaavyʉ	naz̃evanga	naz̃evaru	naz̃evago
	2	lhittevaamʉ	lhittevaavyʉ	lhittevanga	lhittevaru	lhittevago
	3M	ezevaamʉ	ezevaavyʉ	ezevanga	ezevaru	ezevago
	3F	uzevaamʉ	uzevaavyʉ	uzevanga	uzevaru	uzevago
	UNSP	ʉgʉttevaamʉ	ʉgʉttevaavyʉ	ʉgʉttevanga	ʉgʉttevaru	ʉgʉttevago
	REFL/RECP	koṽazevaamʉ	koṽazevaavyʉ	koṽazevanga	koṽazevaru	koṽazevago

To indicate that either the subject, direct object, or indirect object are plural, the suffix -thu is applied immediately after subject person marking. The specific argument triggering number agreement on the verb is inferred through context. This can be illustrated by modifying the previous examples:

• lhittevaamʉ "I see you" → lhittevaamʉr̃u, either "we see you (sg.)", "I see you (pl.)", or "we see you (pl.)"
• naz̃evaavyʉ "You see me" → naz̃evaavyʉzhu, either "you (pl.) see me", "you (sg.) see us", or "you (pl.) see us"
• naz̃evago "Someone/something sees me" → naz̃evagotthu, generally (though not exclusively) understood to be "someone/something sees us"

Converb suffixes

Clause subordination is achieved through the use of converbial forms, these being formed through a series of suffixes. These suffixes cannot coexist with tense, subject, or number suffixes, but may occur with object marking.

	Same subject	Different subject	Meaning
Imperfective	-ma	-tama	"and", "during", "while", "that"
Perfective	-cha	-tacha	"having done", "after", "since"
Purposive	-uho	-tuho	"in order to", "so that"
Causal	-rega	-tarega	"because"
Conditional	-mye	-tamye	"if"
Concessive	-ivi	-tivi	"although", "but"
Terminative	-tattho	-tazattho	"until"
Preparitive	-uara	-tuara	"before"

[EXAMPLES]