Kepepow language

The Kepepow language was spoken by the Kepepow people in (location TBD) around (timeline TBD, likely beginning of bronze/iron age/'classical', lasting around 2000 years). It is descended from Proto-Kepepow, the only of the Proto-Kepepow descendents to survive long enough to be written down.

The name 'Kepepow' literally means 'of sand', referring to the coastal lands and beaches they inhabited, in contrast to the Proto-Kepepow tribes who lived further inland. The people called themselves the Êntronr Ké-pèpöqw /ˈɛ̂ɳʈəɳ ˈkɛ́ˌpɛ̀pœːw/ (People of Sand). The language was usually referred to simply as Ngèm Vòevqwö /ˈŋɛ̀m ˈβœ̀wwœ/ (Our Language), but could also be termed Ngèm Êntronr-òhw Ké-pèpöqw (Language of the People of Sand) /ˈŋɛ̀m ˈɛ̂ɳʈəˌɳɔ̀ːw ˈkɛ́ˌpɛ̀pœːw/

Kepepow is a VSO head-first language, though some established phrases are head-last as this was a trait of Proto-Kepepow.

History
The Kepepow language can be broadly broken down into 3 periods:


 * Early Kepepow (0-600) - first stage of differentiation from Proto-Kepepow, just as the people were migrating to the coast.
 * Middle Kepepow (600-1400) - development of Kepepow culture settled in the new coastal environment
 * Late Kepepow (1400-2000) - final stage of Kepepow. The details of the language described below mostly pertain to this era, as this was when Kepepow writing became more widespread and the the (Trade Speech) koiné was developed.

Phonology and Orthography
Stops are allophonically voiced when adjacent to voiced fricatives, e.g. is [ɖʐ]

Alveolar-retroflex always resolve to retroflex, thus retroflex sequences are transcribed with only one final modifying r - e.g. /ɳʈ/ written

/β/ and /ʐ/ weaken when syllable-final into [w] and [ɻ]. /β/ merges in pronunciation with /w/ in this position and is transcribed . [ɻ] is simply written  - it can only come after a vowel, and thus there is no potential to confuse it for a modifying r. When syllable-final but before another of the same consonant, /β/ and /ʐ/ are maintained.

The  in  and  is not written before another velar consonant, as alveolar /n/ and /l/ become velar in that position. The same applies to , which is always /ɫw/. Vowel orthography is somewhat more complicated and will be addressed in its own section.

The letter  is used after a vowel to denote nasalisation.

Every stressed vowel carries one of three/four tones - low, falling, rising and in some dialects, high. Most vowels only allow a subset of those tones due to tone evolution. All vowels can additionally be unstressed, and there is an additional /ə/ which can also appear in unstressed position.

Rising tone has 2-3 allophones - high rising, high falling, and in dialects that merge rising-high tones, a high allophone. These allophones only occur in different vowels and never contrast. In dialects that distinguish rising and high, the only vowel which can be contrasted in this way is /œ/; in other dialects, low-rising and high œ are merged into one or the other. In most cases, however, the different vowel harmony/inflection class is maintained between the two versions of high/rising /œ/ (high /œ́/ is F class, rising /œ̌/ is + class)

Note the difference between the vowel value in low vs rising close vowels.

Vowel harmony
Vowel harmony was an important process in early stages of Kepepow, although by Late Kepepow this harmony was somewhat hidden by sound changes and only productive on noun case inflections, leading to their reinterpretation as inflection classes. Kepepow has 4 inflection classes; membership of the class is entirely determined by the (final) stressed vowel of the word.


 * ++ - close ATR+, (high) rising tone
 * í /i/, ý /y/, ú /u/, áu /ɘ/, éi /e/, óy /ø/
 * + - open ATR+
 * (low) rising tone - á /a/, éa /æ/, ói /œ/
 * falling tone - êi /e/, ôy /ø/, ôu /o/, â /a/, êa /æ/, ôi /œ/
 * F - front ATR-
 * low tone - ì /ɪ/, ỳ /ʏ/, è /ɛ/, òe /œ/
 * falling tone - ê /ɛ/, ôe /œ/
 * rising/high - é /ɛ/, óe /œ/
 * B - back ATR-
 * low tone - ù /ʊ/, ò /ɔ/, ào /ɑ/
 * falling tone - ô /ɔ/, âo /ɑ/
 * rising/high - ó /ɔ/

Vowel levelling was also productive and extensive in early stages of Kepepow. Late Kepepow retained one productive instance of vowel levelling: pre-stress vowels are tied to the stressed vowel, thus any changes to the stressed vowel will also change the pre-stress vowel - e.g. sasrâ /saʂâ/ + -zru fronts to *sasrêzru, which levels to sesrêzru /seʂêʐu/.

Nouns
Nouns undergo inflection for number and case.

Number
Most nouns have 2 numbers (singular and plural), while some retain the paucal number for a specific use, generally referring to a commonly used small set (pair, handful, bunch, etc). Note that some nouns have shifted number despite the underlying form deriving from a different number-inflected form - most commonly, a former paucal form replaced the singular as the new singular form - thus there are several 'paradigms' for number inflection despite deriving from only 2 affixes.


 * No inflection. These may derive from any former number, e.g. kwás  ' sky.SN' > 'sky', montrôumpu 'ice.PAUC' > 'ice', ké-pèpe 'sand.PL' > 'sand'
 * Singular-Plural (most common)
 * Paucal-shifted: old paucal is now singular. The old paucal has a suffix which needs to be stripped before adding the reduplicated component for plural.
 * vôlvu 'day', vôvo 'days'. The old singular form vô is now used to mean 'sun'
 * Paucal-dropped: old paucal is dropped
 * óew 'mountain' - óelvöw 'mountains'.
 * Plural-dropped: old plural is dropped, and old paucal is used as plural
 * pâk 'wall' - pâklvu 'walls'. The old plural form pâppak is now used to mean 'enclosure, fence'
 * Singular-Paucal-Plural (traditional)
 * ngwùhnsr 'single blade of grass' - ngwùhnzrmu 'bit of/clump of grass' - ngwùhnzrngwunsr 'large amount of/field of grass'

Case
The cases themselves haven't changed significantly from Proto-Kepepow. The inflections can be slightly irregular due to sound changes. Case inflections are either stressed after an unstressed syllable, or unstressed after a stressed syllable. Only unstressed suffixes need to change depending on the stem noun's inflection class, stressed suffixes maintain their own vowel value independently. The table below gives most vowel values, with exceptions/more complicated distinctions specified in the case description (only for F and B class words).

Case endings can induce fronting or rounding in the stem vowel, as well as nasal consonant assimilation (these also occur from stressed suffixes). Unstressed vowels change depending on stem noun harmony (i.e. inflection class). Note that in many nouns that would otherwise trigger fronting and/or rounding, the paucal suffix is used as to 'regularise' the noun.


 * NOM - Nominative case - nil
 * also unmarked/default case
 * ACC - Accusative case - qáu /ɣɘ̌/
 * used for direct object of verb, including objects of applicative verbs
 * consonant is normally, but  in nasalised words (including former falling-nasal)
 * unstressed F or B vowel:
 * E /ɛ/, Ö /œ/, O /ɔ/, A /ɑ/ >> same vowel
 * I /ɪ/, Y /ʏ/, U /ʊ/ >> o~e /ə/
 * GEN - Genitive case - qwóy /ɣwø̌/
 * consonant can be nasalised to 
 * in non-nasalised vowel-final words, the consonant attaches to the stem, lengthening the final vowel
 * triggers rounding in relevant words
 * unstressed B vowel:
 * U /ʊ/, O /ɔ/ >> o /ɔ/
 * A /ɑ/ >> e /ə/
 * DAT - Dative case - lgì /ɫɪ̀/
 * consonant  can be nasalised to 
 * stem-final close vowels are often pronounced with a lax allophone
 * ABL - Ablative case - zrù /ʐʊ̀/
 * consonant  can be nasalised to 
 * stem-final alveolars become retroflex; stem-final  becomes geminate
 * triggers fronting in relevant words
 * LOC - Locative case - zò /zɔ̀/
 * consonant  can be nasalised to 
 * stem-final retroflex consonants cause suffix to become retroflex, including stem-final <r> merging with suffix to become geminate
 * note that this means ABL and LOC suffixes merge for F-class stems ending in -i/y + retroflex
 * ngèhnsr /ŋɛ̃̀ɳʂ/ >> ABL ngèhnsnro /ŋɛ̃̀ɳʂɳə̃/ vs LOC ngèhnsnre /ŋɛ̃̀ɳʂɳɛ̃/
 * níhng-kìt /nĩ̌ŋ-kɪ̀t/ >> ABL níhng-kìtzro /nĩ̌ŋ-kɪ̀ʈʐə/ vs LOC níhng-kìtze /nĩ̌ŋ-kɪ̀tzə/
 * vỳr /βʏ̀ɻ/ >> ABL and LOC vỳzzro /βʏ̀ʐʐə/
 * triggers fronting in relevant words
 * unstressed F vowels:
 * E /ɛ/, Ö /œ/ >> same vowel
 * I /ɪ/, Y /ʏ/ >> o /ə/
 * INS - Comitative-Instrumentative case - fù /ɸʊ̀/
 * used for motion/direction/intention/manner by/next to/with/using a noun, 'with/by'
 * would become /xə/ in ATR- front (F-class) harmony following regular development, but has become /ɸə/ by analogy
 * /xə/ is found in Middle Kepepow, and is retained in some dialects, for the F-class
 * EQU - Equative case - vólg /βɔ́ɫ/
 * 'as/like'
 * final consonant <lg> can be nasalised to <ng> - this also affects the quality of the vowel in ++ and + classes
 * triggers rounding in relevant words
 * unstressed vowels:
 * ++: non-nasalised >> a /ɘ/, nasalised >> ö /ø/
 * +: non-nasalised >> a /a/, nasalised >> ö /œ/
 * F: E /ɛ/, Ö /œ/ >> ö /œ/, I /ɪ/, Y /ʏ/ >> o /ə/
 * B: U /ʊ/, A /ɑ/ >> a /ɑ/, O /ɔ/ >> o /ɔ/

Rounding
Rounding affects the final vowel in Genitive and Equative cases, due to these case suffixes starting with <qw> and <v>, both of which generally trigger vowel rounding. It affects unrounded vowels, turning front and central unrounded vowels into front unrounded vowels of the same height (open and open-mid vowels merge).

e.g. áuza /ɘ̌zɘ/ + -qwö >> áuzöq-wóy /ɘ̌zøː wø̌/ walking.GEN

Fronting
Fronting only occurs in rather specific circumstances: it affects the final vowel of a stem ending in an alveolar/retroflex consonant followed by a non-front vowel. The affected vowel is fronted - A and schwa become E, while other vowels become their front rounded counterparts

e.g. sasrâ /saʂâ/ + -zru >> sesrêzru /seʂêʐu/ fox.ABL

Verbs
Verbs are generally composed of an auxiliary + a complement, forming a verb phrase. The auxiliary conjugates for aspect and mood, while the complement is affected only in derivation and negation. Verbs do not have specific tense and do not conjugate for person or argument agreement.

Auxiliary Verbs
There are few 'true verbs' in Kepepow. These verbs are usually not used by themselves, hence they are often termed 'auxiliary verbs' - although they can be used by themselves if the complement is known by context (similar to "have you eaten?" - "yes, I have (eaten)"). Auxiliaries come in perfective-imperfective pairs, with the exception of pâ 'to be (in essence)', which has only an imperfective form. The two stems used in the pairs come from separate words and are not related etymologically, however in Late Kepepow, their usage has converged to the point where they are considered forms of the same word by suppletion.

The imperfective and perfective verb forms are marked IM and PF; IMPF and PERF are used for the actual aspects formed when conjugating these verbs.

Verb phrases
In order to construct more specific verbs, verbal nouns are used to form verb phrases. These verbal nouns mostly derive from former verbs, though they are easily introduced into the language. These verbal nouns are generally treated as nouns for most purposes, the only difference being that they are commonly used to form verb phrases. They can thus be inflected for case and number (though many verbal nouns are invariant for number).

The verbal noun when used in a verb phrase is termed the *Complement*, thus a verb phrase is formed by an auxiliary + a complement. The auxiliary is the part of the verb which undergoes conjugation verb forms; the complement takes certain inflections which change the meaning or PoS of the verb itself.

Many verbal nouns can combine with different auxiliaries for somewhat different meanings, or even just for different nuances of a similar meaning.