Uskra

The Language

The word uskra, meaning “to speak,” was taken as the name for this language and its speakers. The word for “language” in Uskra is iskrai and comes from the same root.

The remote location of the islands where the language is spoken prevent the Uskra from interacting with other peoples or languages. Uskra has several regional dialects that can vary greatly. The dialect presented here is spoken along the southwestern coast of the main island.

Notation

Throughout this section there will be interlinear glossing used to show how the language works. To keep things short I will use abbreviations, some of which may not be standard (but hopefully intuitive in the context of this language). Below is a table showing the abbreviations and their meanings.

Interlinear Abbreviations
1	First Person	LOC	Locative
2	Second Person	NEG	Negative
3	Third Person	NINV	Negative Inverse
A	Agent	NPST	Non-Past
DEF	Definite	O	Obviate Person
DPST	Distant Past	P	Patient
DSL	Distal	PRX	Proximal
IDF	Indefinite	PST	Past
INV	Inverse

Phonology

Inventory

Uskra has a relatively small phoneme inventory including five vowels / ɑ e i o u / and eight consonants / p t k ʔ s m n ɾ /. The sounds all appear as allophones of / t / or / s /.

The consonant / r / is not permitted word initially.

Consonant Inventory
	Labial	Alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	p	t	k	ʔ
Nasal	m	n
Fricative		s
Tap		ɾ

Syllable Structure

Consonant clusters are only permitted in the onset of a syllable. Additionally, only certain sequences of consonants are allowed, which are shown in the table below.

Permitted Consonant Sequences
sp	spɾ	pɾ
st	stɾ	tɾ
sk	skɾ	kɾ
sm	smɾ	mɾ
sn
sɾ

Codas are only permitted word finally and the only consonants / t k m n ɾ / are allowed in coda position. Rarely, / s / can be found as a coda in a few non-noun words.

• The maximally allowed syllable is: (s)(C)(ɾ)V(C)
• The minimally allowed syllable is: V

Allophones

The only fricative / s / has two allophones.

• Before the front high vowel / i /, / s / is realized as .
• s → ʃ / _i

• Śim
• / sim / →
• “tree”

• Before the tap / ɾ /, / s / is realized as .
• s → x / _ɾ

• Hraku
• / sɾɑku / →
• “star”

Plosives also exhibit variation depending on their environment.

• At the onset of a syllable plosives / p t k / become aspirated.
• { p t k } → { pʰ tʰ kʰ } / _V

• Pik
• / pik / →
• “spider”

• Ta'i
• / tɑʔi / →
• “spider”

• Kan
• / kɑn / →
• “large creature”

• At the beginning of a word / ʔ / is realized as .
• ʔ → h / #_

• Hum
• / ʔum / →
• “word”

Certain consonant sequences trigger their own allophones.

• The sequence / tɾ / is pronounced as / ʧ / if not preceded by / s /.
• tɾ → ʧ

• Matru
• / mɑtɾu / →
• “love”

Romanization

The romanization of Uskra is straightforward. Each letter corresponds to one sound with the exception of < h >. A plain < h > will indicate whereas < hr > indicates .

Romanization
p	t	k	'	s	ś	h	hr	m	n	r	a	i	u
p	t	k	ʔ	s	ʃ	h	xɾ	m	n	ɾ	ɑ	i	u
* Bold text indicates orthography and plain text is IPA.

Nouns

Morphology

Noun morphology is fairly limited in Uskra but can contain quite a bit of information. Below is a table describing the few suffixes and particles.

Noun Marking
	Agent A	Patient P	Locative LOC
Definite DEF	NOUN-i	NOUN-ita	NOUN-ur
Indefinite IDF	NOUN-ai	NOUN
Proximal PRX	it NOUN	tri NOUN
Distal DSL	uśi NOUN	hri NOUN

Check the syntax section for examples of noun marking in use.

Number

One thing not marked on the noun is number. If number is especially important to a discussion it can be indicated. This done with the use of measure words.

The measure word is placed before the noun which is then followed by a numeral. That numeral must take locative marking. Using the definite locative suffix will indicate a precise quantity whereas using the indefinite locative will indicate an approximate amount.

Pronouns

Uskra has no formal set of pronouns. Instead names and certain common nouns are used if the need arises. Nouns typically used in this way are familial terms (brother, sister), occupations (fisher, farmer) or titles (leader, storyteller). Several factors go into choosing what to call a person. These include familiarity, age, gender and the audience.

Possession

Showing possession in Uskra can be somewhat counterintuitive to an English speaker but is fairly simple.

Possessive Suffixes
First Person Possessive 1PSS	-(a)ki	Third Person Possessive 3PSS	-'a
Second Person Possessive 2PSS	-sa	Obviate Person Possessive OPSS	-ani

In a sentence where the verb conjugates in for the obviate person the possessive suffixes will strictly refer to the objects specified. However, if this is not the case then the third person possessive is used for human possessors whereas the obviate person possessive is used for non-human possessors.

Hu is a word used to refer to small creatures including human children.

Verbs

Conjugation

Verbs are the workhorses of Uskra. They can mark for both agent and patient as well as tense. Many simple sentences are composed of only a verb.

There are two sets of verb conjugations - one for intransitive verbs and one for transitive verbs. An unconjugated verb root can consist of as little as a single consonant. As a rule, all verb roots must start and end with a consonant.

Intransitive Verb Conjugation
Agent A	Non-Past NPST	Past PST	Distant Past DPST	Infinitive INF
1	śi-VERB-a 1A-VERB-NPST	śi-VERB-uk 1A-VERB-PST	śi-VERB-uśim 1A-VERB-DPST	u-VERB-a INF-VERB-INF
2	ti-VERB-a 2A-VERB-NPST	ti-VERB-uka 2A-VERB-PST	ti-VERB-uśima 2A-VERB-DPST
3	ni-VERB-a 3A-VERB-NPST	ni-VERB-uk 3A-VERB-PST	ni-VERB-uśim 3A-VERB-DPST

Following the table above we can take a verb from its lemma form, the infinitive, and conjugate it. For example the verb u'ama "to walk." The verb root is -'am- which can be used to create some basic sentences.

Transitive Verb Conjugation
Agent A	Patient P	Non-Past NPST	Past PST	Distant Past DPST
1	1	i-VERB-i'-asa 1A-VERB-1P-NPST	i-VERB-i'-um 1A-VERB-1P-PST	i-VERB-i'-asmu 1A-VERB-1P-DPST
	2	i-VERB-at-asa 1A-VERB-2P-NPST	i-VERB-at-um 1A-VERB-2P-PST	i-VERB-at-asmu 1A-VERB-2P-DPST
	3	i-VERB-∅-as 1A-VERB-3P-NPST	i-VERB-∅-uma 1A-VERB-3P-PST	i-VERB-∅-asum 1A-VERB-3P-DPST
2	2	sa-VERB-at-asa 2A-VERB-2P-NPST	sa-VERB-at-um 2A-VERB-2P-PST	sa-VERB-at-asmu 2A-VERB-2P-DPST
	3	sa-VERB-∅-as 2A-VERB-3P-NPST	sa-VERB-∅-uma 2A-VERB-3P-PST	sa-VERB-∅-asum 2A-VERB-3P-DPST
3	3	a-VERB-as 3A.3P-VERB-NPST	a-VERB-um 3A.3P-VERB-PST	a-VERB-asum 3A.3P-VERB-DPST
	O	ni-VERB-as 3A.OP-VERB-NPST	ni-VERB-um 3A.OP-VERB-PST	ni-VERB-asum 3A.OP-VERB-DPST

Inversion and Negation

Looking at the table above it might seem that there is no way to create a sentence with a third-person agent and a first-person patient. It is true that there is no verb conjugation for such a sentence. Instead one would use an inverse particle to achieve that meaning.

Verb Particles
Inverse Particle INV	Negative Inverse Particle NINV	Negative Particle NEG
mik	mrika	mri

Verb particles are always placed directly before the verb and only one may used in a sentence.

Light Verbs

There are relatively few fully functional verb roots. As such certain verbs function are used to carry the conjugation while a defective verb root will carry the meaning.

For intransitive sentences the light verb is always uma "to be." For transitive sentences the verbs uka "to have," utika "to give," or uhra "to take" can be used.

Choosing which light verb to use is generally straight forward but there are occasions when it can be less so. In the first example above "jump" is an intransitive verb. But it can be used reflexively with either "to give" or "to take" to add different shades of meaning.

Reflexives

The most obvious use of the reflexive verb conjugations is to express statements where the agent is also the patient.

However, with certain verbs and constructions the reflexive can be used to mean something else.

One such case exists with the verb uma "to be." While normally an intransitive verb, it can be used reflexively. When this happens the verbs meaning is changed to something like "to become."

Syntax

Word Order

Uskra has a fairly strict word order. However the exact order will vary depending on the number and type of participants.

When only a subject is specified the word order is VS, when only an object is specified the order is VO and when both a subject are present the order is SVO.

Indirect objects will always come after the verb if specified. The presence of an indirect object also forces the direct object ahead of the verb.

• Anipiri nirita nitikum amita.
• anipir-i nir-i ni-tik-um am-ita
• boy-DEF.A cat-DEF.P 3A.OP-give-PST fish-DEF.P
• "The boy gave the cat a fish."

Copula

Uskra uses the word sku "with" to form the copula. For this construction sku is placed after the descriptor.

• Niri ipri sku.
• niɾ-i ipɾi-∅ sku
• cat-DEF.A small-IDF.P with
• "The cat is small." / "The small cat."

There is a slight change in meaning if sku is placed between a noun and its descriptor. This is used to emphasize the quality of the descriptor.

• Niri sku ipri.
• niɾ-i sku ipɾi-∅
• cat-DEF.A with small-IDF.P
• "The small cat."

It is important to note that sku cannot be used to describe the location of an object or person.

Relative Locations

Describing the placement of an object relative to another is often done as an analogy with the body. So to say a bird is on top of a tree it would be something like "The bird is on the head of the tree."

Adpositions

There are only two adpositions. The first, nai "in" or "on," is used for giving the location of an object. The second, um "at" or "when" is used to specify actions or events.

Lexicon

Eventually a complete listing of Uskra words will be available.