Čal

The Čal are related to the hill tribes of the Kerinid Empire, and their language is distantly related to the Salanjan tounge, but is tonal. Aside from that, it is a simple inflected tounge. They are a fishing race, whose economy is almost entirely dependent upon the sea. Old Čal was a complex language and was highly dialectised. Čal dialects tend to be very varied, and most if not are actually separate languages.

Sounds

the sounds in () are only heard on Ðanaleq Island. The /ŋ/ is sometimes heard, but is fairly rare. In this file, Ðanalek dentals will be indicated by underlining the letter, e.g. t.

Bilabial LabDnt Dnt alveolar[1] pal-alv pal velar uvular glottal

Stop p b - - ( t5 d5) t d - - c ğ k g q G ?

Affricate - - - - č ì

Stop aspirated - - - - - - - - - - k^h g^h[2] - /G^h/

Nasal - m - - n - - (ø) - /ŋ/

Fricative ¸ B f v (s5 z5) s z š ž (ç) x Ä - h

Lateral - - - - l - - (λ)

L. F. - - - - Â L

Approximant - - - r - - - j

The sounds for the Ðanalek (Ar. Ðanaleq) dialect correspond as follows to the Aral phonemes:

/s5/ /z5/ : /s/ /z/

/ø/ : /n/ in some positions, usually in conjunction with nasalised front vowels /ĩ/, /ẽ/.

/λ/ : /Â/ /L/

/č/ /ì/ : /c/, /č/ /ğ/, /ĵ/

/g/ : /g/, /g/

/k/ : /q/ /k/

Note: the phoneme /«/ is usually rhotacised, and realised as a syllabic rhotic [¨`], as it mostly derives from Old Čal r8 in areas with almost no stress.

Tones:

ǎ [a àŽ] â [^|]† ā [a•] á [aØ] à [aÙ]

high-low-high low-high-low mid rising* falling**

†The low-high-low tone is present on Čal vowels which could be derived from Old Čal long diphthongs, namely ^ (from áò), ô (from óò), î (from éì), ε^ (from áì), û(from áù), œ^ (from *óě‡), and ēß (from *āÛì‡).

*The rising tone also shows the feature /V_long/, showing its origin in the Old Čal long vowels.

**The falling tone has the feature /V_lax/, betraying its origin in the Old Čal lax vowel system.

‡The diphthongs *óě and *āÛì are only found in the reconstructed Colloquial Čal of the late Imperial Age.

The most important sound changes from Old Čal are here listed:

VgV > Middle Čal VÛjV > Modern Čal VÛV

ui > u > ū (before tone)

Morphology

Tšal is an inflected language, with two declensions. Each has Animate and Neuter words; The animate-neuter distinction is dying, to the profit of the animate, which descends from the Old Čal r8-stem nominative; the fact that all Čal animate Nominatives derive from the r8-stems is the fact that the r8-stems were the only declension that had a Nominative singular form that did not coïncide with another form.

Declension #1	Singular	Plural
Nominative	*-or(A), -om(N)*	*-ēm*
Genitive	*-án*	*-én*
Accusative	*-ǎd*	*-ěd*

Declension #2	Singular	Plural
Nominative	*-œr(A),- œm (N)*	*-om*
Genitive	*-ān*	-n
Accusative	*-ød*	*-ōd*

Verbs:

The Tšal verb is fairly easy, being divided into three simple conjugations.

1^st Conjugation	Singular	Dual	Plural
1^st	-sū	*-ōn*	*-ŏk*
2^nd	-ŭL	*-os*	-uÂ
3^rd	*-oc*	*-ulu*	*-um*
Passives are formed by umlauting the first vowel of the stem towards the 2^nd	Aorist: *-avo-* Infinitive: -^	Future: *-azo-*	Imperative: the stem Pass. “: N/A Subjunctive:-mō-

2^nd Conjugation	Singular	Dual	Plural
1^st	*-sy*	-ø#n	*-œk*
2^nd	-y(L	*-œs*	-yÂ
3^rd	*-œc*	*-ylu*	*-ym*
Passives are formed by umlauting the first vowel of the stem towards the 2^nd	Aorist: *-ave-* Infinitive: -œ^ (from -áè, influenced by óè)	Future: *-aze-*	Imperative: the stem Pass. “: N/A Subjunctive:*-mø*#-

3^rd Conjugation	Singular	Dual	Plural
1^st	*-sī*	*-ēn*	*-εk*
2^nd	-ĭL	*-es*	-iÂ
3^rd	*-ec* or *-øc*	*-īlu* or -y#lu	*-im* or *-ym*
Passives are formed by umlauting the first vowel of the stem towards the 2^nd	Aorist: *-avi-* Infinitive: -ε^ (from *-áì)	Future: *-azi-*	Imperative: the stem Passive imp: N/A Subjunctive:*-mē-*

NOTE::-the second set of endings in the 3^rd person of the 3^rd conjugation are dialectal forms, and they are perfectly acceptable anywhere, but are most common on Ðanaleq (Ðanalek) island.

Examples:

Lexicon:

The most important divergent forms that occur on Ðanaleq Island are noted in this lexicon. They are the ones which must be mastered before attempting any business directly with the islanders. All non-indicative, non-imperative, and non-infinitival uses are subjunctives. 23 words.

bûp-ô-to sail (-ô conjugation; has mostly forms like the -^ conjugation)

elíssàn-a city on the coast that is a major trading port.

elùn-^-to travel

ěspán- aspen

g^harījāL-their crocidile god (Ðanalek ghrījáλ)

hărœLø-water, stream

h$ste- in/on (prep +gen.)

hásteLūğor-an aroyyo, but much larger; exist on the desert plain above the Čal cliffs

màgàr-a serpentine creature inhabiting the ocean (Ðanalek mágàr)

mú«: world

cørIt-claw (Ðanalek čœrIt) (Ēgitic /čeor«t/)

čál-the cliffs and the associated coastal regions in which the Čal live, also the Čal for themselves

kǐbu-^- to write

k^hysŕnān- crocodyle

fášàn-fishing canoe {from Illani faþan, to fish} (Ðanalek făçăn)

ràìdač-î- to conquer (Ðanalek rε$ùdač-^)

šéčūr- spider

štók-œ^- to buy

takanō-The Čal Sea god, who assumes the form of a tornado or typhoon

tòr-œ^- to dock (a ship)

úŋgač-^- to crush/cut (same verb in Čal) (Ðanalek has ýŋg«$č-ε^, with the diffiring

conjugation from an alternating infinitive in Middle Čal, and the yCC« as a reflex

of *uCCa from Colloquial Čal in conjunction with the alternate infinitive vowel pattern *-ε^ that never quite became common outside of Ðanalek)

zúr-a fly

/ātúră-man (cognate to Hill *tura, 'man/person' through Old Čal ?atr8a)

Word beginings/consonant glyph names:

s- :flower

k- :bird

L- :spear

œ- :sea turtle

n- :world

a- :rice

[1] The alveolar stops and frictives of modern Čal are descended from Imperial Čal dental obstruents, which are preserved in Ðanalek.

[2] The voiced uvular and velar series of aspirates are only present in g^harījāL (Ðanaleq g^hrījá´) and a few other lexemes, so it is probably well to analyise them as either sequences of /g/, /g/, /k/ and /h/, or as phonetic variations of the phonemes/k/, /g/, /g/; it is unlikely that they were phonemic aspirates in Imperial Čal.