Połtaś Language

Połtaś is the language spoken in Połtaś.

Phonology

There are 25 consonants and 8 vowels in Połtaś. Vowels change quality based on stress. /t͡ʂ d͡ʐ t͡ɕ d͡ʑ ɕ ʑ ʐ ɫ/ are <tz dz ć dź ś ź rz ł>.

Phonotactics

• Maximal onset is Fricative - Nasal/Plosive/Affricate - Approximant/Tap
• Maximal coda is the reverse
• Sonorants can be nuclei
• (C)(C)(C)V(C)(C)(C)
• "Coronals" cannot exist before front vowels
• front vowels and back vowels cannot coexist in the same word; any stragglers match the backness of the head

Grammar

• OVS order is the default, but changes to VOS to form questions.
• Adjectives (incl. demonstratives and numerals) and genitives precede nouns.
• Adpositions come immediately after the noun they modify.
• There are two genders: masculine and feminine
• There are fifteen cases, but the bare nouns themselves just decline to two.
• Only demonstratives decline for case and gender.
• Some masculine nouns decline for genitives special (-ei), and some feminine (-i), rest use the default genitive-acceptor (-y)
• Numerals are nouns.

Gender

Unlike in most European languages, gender assignment is not random, always semantic.

Masculine

• Beings
  • Male animals, incl. men
  • Large animals/plants of unknown or inapplicable sex
  • Insects
• Most tools and instruments
• The Sun, day
• Fire

Feminine

• Beings
  • Female animals, incl. women
  • Small animals/plants of unknown or inapplicable sex
• Vehicles
• Precipitation
• Bodies of water
• Celestial bodies (other than the sun), night
• Most abstractions

Vocab

Common Case Endings

This table shows common case endings:

Full List

kvasa

f

1. cheese

małbǫl

m

1. villain

sanyk

v

1. run

śwa

f

1. nothing

turpsa

f

1. wine

vartka

f

1. chicory

zirte

n

1. parsnip

Misc. Statistics

WALS