Itulankom language
| Itulankom | |
|---|---|
| Language family | Chirean |
| Writing system | Latin |
| Official status | |
| Spoken in | Kingdom of Kyaw Cen |
| Speaker | |
| Demonym | Itulankom |
| Technical information | |
Itulankom (Itulankom: [i.tu.laŋ̊ˈkom]) is an indigenous language of Shingtsun, Kingdom of Kyaw Cen. Formerly spoken in most of that area, it is by now spoken only in the eastern fringes near Woclêw and Mount Xoran.
Phonology
Itulankom has 17 consonants and 6 vowel qualities, 5 of which may be long or short, as well as 5 diphthongs.
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | |||
| Plosive | p | t | t͡ʃ | k | |
| b | d | d͡ʒ | g | ||
| Fricative | s | ʃ | h | ||
| Approximant | w | l | j | ||
| Rhotic | r |
Nasals assimilate to the place of articulation of following consonants (except for /j, w/), and are pronounced voiceless when before voiceless consonants.
/h/ cannot appear after another consonant.
The consonants /t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ, ʃ, j/ are written <ch, j, sh, y>
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i(ː) | ɨ | u(ː) |
| Low | e(ː) | a(ː) | o(ː) |
In addition, the diphthongs /a͡i a͡u e͡a o͡a u͡i/ are present in the language.
Long vowels are written with a circumflex, and the high central vowel is written <ë>
Phonotactics
The most complex allowed syllable structure is CjVAC, where C is any consonant, j is /j/, V is any vowel, and A is an approximant or nasal.
Grammar
Nouns
Itulankom is a case-marking language with 7 cases. It is fairly middle-of-the-road when it comes to the degree of synthesis in the language.
It is mostly head-initial, with prepositions, SVO word order, and adjectives that come after nouns.
Case
The 7 cases of the language are: nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, locative, ablative, instrumental. They are marked with the following suffixes:
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | N/A | -l (after vowels)
-al (after consonants) |
| Accusative | -ë (after most consonants)
-i (after ch, j, sh) -ye (after vowels) |
-ël (after most consonants)
-il (after ch, j, sh) -yel (after vowels) |
| Genitive | -ea (after consonants)
-ya (after vowels) |
-eahen (after consonants)
-yahen (after vowels) |
| Dative | -osh (after consonants)
-sh (after vowels) |
-oshol (after consonants)
-shol (after vowels) |
| Locative | ëk (after most consonants)
-k (after vowels) -ik (after ch, j, sh) |
ëlik (after most consonants)
-lik (after vowels) -ilik (after ch, j, sh) |
| Ablative | -lai | -lail |
| Instrumental | -mu | -myas |
Verbs
The language has a copula, the base form of which is -mek.
Vocabulary
The vocabulary of Itulankom has been heavily influenced by Kyawcenni, with many loanwords from that language.