Taramba

LANGUAGE FAMILY: QILDABIC
# SPEAKERS / WORLD RANKING: 10K / #83
SPOKEN IN: Ald Cyngric (Jazzandah) - 10K
PERIOD OF USE:
SCRIPT USED:
PARENT LANGUAGE:
DESCRIPTION: A creole of unknown Qildabic language and Sakvir, which came into being some time after the Sakxani occupation of northern Gnosit, approximately 3 centuries ago.

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"...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind..."
Translation: sruː blow criː grotipa cenlccu sruccu sruː criː bulo luːipa runboːapo gros iːsccu
Pronunciation: /sɾuː blow kɾiː gɾoˈtipa ˈkenlkku ˈsɾukku sɾuː kɾiː ˈbulo luːˈipa ˌrunboːˈapo gɾos ˈiːskku

Taramba word order: and he his hat holding stood and his wet face the wind to turned

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: /b c d d͡ʒ f g h j k kʷ l m n p q r s t t͡ʃ w x z ŋ ɬ ɲ ɾ ʃ ʎ ʔ ʧ/

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	m		n		ɲ	ŋ
Stop	p b		t d		c	k kʷ g	q	ʔ
Affricate				ʧ
Fricative		f	s z	ʃ		x		h
Approximant					j
Tap			ɾ
Trill			r
Lateral fricative			ɬ
Lateral approximant			l		ʎ

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: /e iː o oː u uː/

	Front	Back
High	iː	u uː
High-mid	e	oː o

Syllable structure: Custom defined
Stress pattern: Penultimate — stress is on the second last syllable
Word initial consonants: b, bl, bɾ, d, dɾ, f, fl, fɾ, g, gɾ, k, kl, kw, kɾ, l, m, n, p, pl, pɾ, r, s, sɾ, t, tɾ, x, ʎ, ʧ
Mid-word consonants: b, bl, bɾ, ch, cz, d, dɾ, f, g, gɾ, h, hl, ht, j, k, ks, kt, kw, kʷ, l, lb, ld, lg, lm, lt, m, mb, mbɾ, mp, mpl, n, nb, nd, ndɾ, nf, ng, nk, ns, nt, ntz, ntɾ, p, ql, r, s, sk, sp, st, stɾ, t, tl, ts, tz, tɬ, tɾ, tʃ, w, x, ztl, ɲ, ɾ, ɾd, ɾg, ɾk, ɾl, ɾm, ɾn, ɾs, ɾt, ʃ, ʎ, ʔ, ʧ
Word final consonants: N/A
Phonological changes (in order of application):

• h → w / _{o,u}
• j → ʝ / #_V
• e → i / #b_

Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ɾ	r
ʎ	y / #_
ʎ	ll
kw	cu
k	c
ʧ	ch
ɲ	ñ
x	g / _{e,i}
x	j

Grammar

Main word order: Subject Object (Prepositional phrase) Verb.
"Mary opened the door with a key" turns into Mary the door with a key opened.
Adjective order: Adjectives are positioned before the noun.
Adposition: postpositions

Nouns

Nouns have six cases:

• Ergative is the doer of a verb, when the verb is done to something: dog bites man.
• Absolutive is used in two scenarios: the doer of a verb when not done to something (dog bites), and the done-to of a verb (man bites dog).
• Genitive is the possessor of something: dog’s tail hits man.
• Dative is the recipeint of something: man gives ball to dog.
• Locative is the location of something: man goes to town.
• Ablative is movement away from something: man walks from town.

Ergative	Suffix -o toːnlipao /ˌtoːnliˈpao/ dog (doing the verb to something)
Absolutive	No affix toːnlipa /toːˈnlipa/ dog (doing the verb, but not to something)
Genitive	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ɲ Else: Suffix -oɲ toːnlipañ /toːˈnlipaɲ/ dogʼs
Dative	Suffix -ud͡ʒ toːnlipaud͡ʒ /ˌtoːnliˈpaud͡ʒ/ to (the/a) dog
Locative	If ends with vowel: Suffix -b Else: Suffix -uːb toːnlipab /toːˈnlipab/ near/at/by (the/a) dog
Ablative	If ends with vowel: Suffix -d͡ʒ Else: Suffix -oːd͡ʒ toːnlipad͡ʒ /toːˈnlipad͡ʒ/ from (the/a) dog

	Masculine	Feminine
Singular	No affix ceipa /keˈipa/ man	No affix iːapo /iːˈapo/ woman
Plural	If ends with vowel: Suffix -k Else: Suffix -ek ceipac /keˈipak/ men	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʃ Else: Suffix -oʃ iːapoʃ /iːˈapoʃ/ women

Articles

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	ro /ro/ the	yiː /ʎiː/ a
Plural	sru /sɾu/ the	croːd /kɾoːd/ some

Pronouns

	Ergative	Absolutive	Genitive	Dative	Locative	Ablative
1st singular	miː /miː/ I	oː /oː/ me, I	yiːgh /ʎiːgh/ mine	ge /xe/ to me	foːh /foːh/ at me	buː /buː/ from me
2nd singular	groːnl /gɾoːnl/ you	iː /iː/ you	cluʔ /kluʔ/ yours	fluː /fluː/ to you	bloː /bloː/ at you	cuːch /kuːch/ from you
3rd singular masc	blow /blow/ he, it	yiː /ʎiː/ him, it	sruːch /sɾuːch/ his, its	doch /doch/ to him, at it	ruʃ /ruʃ/ at him, at it	oc /ok/ from him, from it
3rd singular fem	po /po/ she, it	oːs /oːs/ her, it	yeñ /ʎeɲ/ hers, its	sruːng /sɾuːng/ to her, at it	bud͡ʒ /bud͡ʒ/ at her, at it	driːh /dɾiːh/ from her, from it
1st plural	lu /lu/ we	flet͡ʃ /flet͡ʃ/ us, we	siː /siː/ ours	juːn /xuːn/ to us	nor /nor/ at us	groː /gɾoː/ from us
2nd plural	bre /bɾe/ you all	pluː /pluː/ you all	bus /bus/ yours (pl)	trot /tɾot/ to you all	soːŋ /soːŋ/ at you all	clo /klo/ from you all
3rd plural masc	iːñ /iːɲ/ they (masc)	ce /ke/ them (masc), they (masc)	flet /flet/ theirs (masc)	tiː /tiː/ to them (masc)	droː /dɾoː/ at them (masc)	pu /pu/ from them (masc)
3rd plural fem	sruː /sɾuː/ they (fem)	plul /plul/ them (fem), they (fem)	pre /pɾe/ theirs (fem)	chiː /ʧiː/ to them (fem)	criːd /kɾiːd/ at them (fem)	criː /kɾiː/ from them (fem)

Possessive determiners

1st singular	fleʔ /fleʔ/ my
2nd singular	foː /foː/ your
3rd singular masc	criː /kɾiː/ his
3rd singular fem	chec /ʧek/ her
1st plural	clo /klo/ our
2nd plural	brep /bɾep/ your (pl)
3rd plural masc	pret /pɾet/ their (masc)
3rd plural fem	doː /doː/ their (fem)

Verbs

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Imperfective aspect
The ‘imperfective’ aspect refers to ongoing actions, such as I am learning and habitual actions, such as I learn (something new every day).
Taramba uses a standalone particle word for imperfective:

	Singular	Plural
Present	Suffix -iːm grollut͡ʃccuiːm /ˌgɾoʎut͡ʃkˈkuiːm/ (I/you/he/she) learns	Suffix -u grollut͡ʃccuu /ˌgɾoʎut͡ʃkˈkuu/ (we/they) learn
Past	Suffix -ok grollut͡ʃccuoc /ˌgɾoʎut͡ʃkˈkuok/ (I/you/he/she) learned	Suffix -od grollut͡ʃccuod /ˌgɾoʎut͡ʃkˈkuod/ (we/they) learned
Remote past	Suffix -eh grollut͡ʃccueh /ˌgɾoʎut͡ʃkˈkueh/ (I/you/he/she) learned (long ago)	Suffix -uːk grollut͡ʃccuuːc /ˌgɾoʎut͡ʃkˈkuuːk/ (we/they) learned (long ago)
Future	Suffix -uː grollut͡ʃccuuː /ˌgɾoʎut͡ʃkˈkuuː/ (I/you/he/she) will learn	If ends with vowel: Suffix -k Else: Suffix -uːk grollut͡ʃccuc /gɾoˈʎut͡ʃkkuk/ (we/they) will learn

Imperfective

Particle before the verb: foː - foː grollut͡ʃccu /foː gɾoˈʎut͡ʃkku/ learns/is learning

Perfect aspect
The perfect aspect in English is exemplified in ‘I have read this book’, which expresses an event that took place before the time spoken but which has an effect on or is in some way still relevant to the present.
Taramba uses the word for ‘already’ me for the perfect aspect.

Numbers

Taramba has a base-10 number system:
1 - foː
2 - po
3 - flet
4 - fruŋ
5 - iː
6 - fleru
7 - ceg
8 - prech
9 - foːc
10 - pong
11 - foː sruː pong “one and ten”
100 - bloʃ “hundred”
101 - bloʃ sruː foː “hundred and one”
200 - po bloʃ
1000 - oːl “thousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -d͡ʒ Else: Suffix -od͡ʒ
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Suffix -onl[b
r] Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Suffix -o
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Suffix -es Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -k Else: Suffix -ek
Noun to verb = Suffix -o
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -t Else: Suffix -et
Tending to = If ends with vowel: Suffix -t͡ʃ Else: Suffix -oːt͡ʃ
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -d͡ʒ Else: Suffix -oːd͡ʒ
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -m Else: Suffix -iːm
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Suffix -iːs
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Suffix -ur
Diminutive = Suffix -oː
Augmentative = If ends with vowel: Suffix -r Else: Suffix -ur

Dictionary

4479 Words.