Word formation in Iltârer follows a general pattern of combining roots (which may be compounded) with affixes. The affixes are usually, but not always suffixes. There are also two cases of word formation by changes within the root itself, redupiclation of the initial syllable and nasalization of the initial consonant. These are described below.
A sound change occurred after the Early Iltârer developed into southern and northern branches, but still early on in the history of the language. The sound change affected vowel pairs and consonant pairs with differing places of articulation. It is often possible to date the formation of a word by whether or not sound change has occurred at the root/affix junction.
Early Iltârer, with its precise an rhythmic articulation, allows arbitrary pairs of vowels in juxtaposition. As the pause between syllables became shorter, often to vanishing, vowel pairs were either combined by assimilation, or kept distinct by the interposition of a consonant. In Northern Iltârer, the rules were as follows:
1. If two vowels have the same place of articulation (i.e., differ only in rounding), they are combined into a single vowel, which is rounded only if both of the original vowels were rounded. Thus aa, aâ, âa all become a, but ââ becomes â.
2. If two vowels have different places of articulation, a consonant is interposed between them. The consonant used depends on the first vowel of the pair: a or â is followed by ph, e or ê is followed by r, and i or î is followed by l. For example, ia becomes ila, eî becomes erî.
In Southern Iltârer, vowels were never combined; a consonant was always interposed to separate them. The consonants used were the same as those used in the Northern language, except that when the second vowel was rounded, a nasal was used instead: m instead of ph, n instead of r, and ñ instead of l. Thus aâ becomes amâ, êa becomes êra, and iê becomes iñê.
When adjacent consonants have different places of articulation, the Northern language assimilated the first consonant toward the second. Thus tc becomes cc, ps becomes ts, nph becomes mph, and so on.
In the Southern language, the vowel e was usually interposed between the two consonants: tc becomes tec, ps becomes pes, etc. This also happened with double consonants, which remained unchanged in Northern Iltârer. So tt becomes tet, for example. In the few cases where the double consonant is a labial (pp, phph, mm), the interposed vowel is the rounded ê.
-al forms nouns for natural objects or aspects of nature, particular semi-abstract concepts such as body parts, weather conditions, and large generic classes.
-(e)l usually results in a noun for a concrete natural object, especially animals. The e is absent if the stem ends in vowel.
-il is similar to -(e)l, but is more often used for plants than animals.
The three endings above account for nearly all words in the -l class of nouns.
-a is the usual suffix for forming abstract nouns
-hta is used to make nouns referring to physical properties
-(e)r denotes things made by people, especially tools.
-(a)n denotes an agent, or person involved in the activity signified by the root
-as forms nouns of relationship and social institutions (NI only)
phi- indicates evil, danger, or the negative aspects of the root; it usually produces concrete nouns.
The participle system is probably the most productive mecahnism for forming nouns from verbal roots.
ê- gives spatial prepositions a temporal sense
e- conveys a static, passive, or receptive meaning
Originally, four endings were used to create verbs in four different domains:
-âl verbs of action, including common motion verbs in -tâl and factives in -acâl
-ês verbs of interaction between people; the object of such verbs is always another person. This category includes verbs in -thês pertaining to duties or community activities.
-et verbs of emotion or mood, together with -eth state verbs; most such verbs are intransitive.
-in verbs of thought, together with -irn weather verbs, -im verbs of experiencing or sensing, and -iañ verbs of imagining.
The regularity of this system was somewhat eroded by the presence of a number of verbs without affixes and by semantic shift that made the category boundaries less distinct.
Return to the Iltârer entry
page
Copyright © 2001-2004 Tom Little