Introduction

semlang4 is a conlang created for the 22nd speedlang challenge. It is set somewhere vaguely
in eastern Africa.

Classification

semlang4 is a Semitic language, but its exact placement is unclear. It possesses the
morphological isoglosses of West Semitic and lacks those of Central Semitic. It has some
features in common with northern Ethiopian Semitic, such as the development of a converb in
*CaCi:C-, but lacks some of the vowel developments common in the branch. Given its unique
treatment of the short prefix conjugation, using it as an imperfective past tense rather than a
jussive or subjunctive, semlang4 may represent a separate branch of southern West Semitic
alongside Eastern South Arabian and Ethiopian Semitic.

Sound Changes

*s₁ s₃ > s
*ɣ > ʕ
*ay aw > eː oː

i u > e o in non-penult syllables (before loss of cases, restored by analogy in verbs)

Geers’ law (dissimilation of emphatics)

#hV -> #V low tone

#ʔV -> #V high tone

Vh# -> V low tone

Vʔ# -> V high tone

*zV Vz -> sV Vs low tone

*ðV Vð -> θV Vθ low tone

*C̣V VC̣ -> CV VC high tone

Phonology

Consonants Labial Dental Alveolar Alveolar Palatal Velar Phar. Glottal

Central Lateral

Nasal m n

Stop Tenuis t k ’

Voiced b d g
 Fricative f θ s λ x ḥ h

Continuant r l y w c

Vowels Front Central Back

Close i i: u u:

Mid e e: o o:

Open a a:

Allophony

Coronal fricatives are pronounced as affricates word-initially and after nasals.

Accent and Tones

Each syllable is assigned either the slightly rising high tone, marked with acute, the slightly
falling low tone, marked with grave, or the unmarked neutral tone. The neutral tone may be
pronounced slightly falling when prominent, such as in monosyllables or in the penultimate
syllable of a word lacking high or low tones.

Phonotactics

Syllable structure is (C)V((C)C). Coda clusters follow a sonority hierarchy, so the inner
consonant of the cluster cannot be a stop or fricative if the outer one is a sonorant. Stop-stop
clusters are not found either.

Glottal consonants are not found at word edges; short vowels are not found word-finally.
Suffixes that take the form of short vowels are often not present when not followed by an
additional suffix.

Morphology

Verbs

Verbs inflect for four tense/aspect categories as well as the imperative mood, as well as six
“stems” that indicate voice and valency distinctions. The paradigms for each form in the basic
stem, called G by convention, are given first, followed by the full paradigms for each stem. [Full
descriptions and paradigms for all six stems may not be present in the version of this grammar
presented for the speedlang challenge. Semitic has a lot of verb forms. So sue me.]

Templatic Morphology
Every verb root, as in other Semitic languages, consists of 2 to 4 consonants that have infixes
inserted among them to form a verbal stem, plus a “theme vowel” that is inserted into the
second syllable of the stem. Suffixes and/or prefixes are added to this stem, which may cause
syncopation of a vowel from the stem.

Unlike in other Semitic languages, one of the three consonants in the root may have a floating
low or high tone associated with it, which will be realized on the following vowel if possible, or
otherwise the preceding vowel.

The Past Perfective

The past perfective is used for completed events in the past. The 3rd person singular masculine
form of the past perfective is also used as the citation form of the verb. It uses its own set of
suffixes for agreement and thus can also be called the “suffix conjugation.” The stem takes the
shape C1aC2VC3 by default; some verbs have a theme vowel /a/ while others take /i/. The
following examples illustrate the paradigm.

kátal ‘to kill’ Singular Plural

1st Person kátalku: kátalna:

2nd Person Masculine kátalk kátalkem

2nd Person Feminine kátalki: kátalkema:

3rd Person Masculine kátal kátlu:

3rd Person feminine kátlat kátla:

labis ‘to dress in, wear’ Singular Plural

1st Person labisku: labisna:

2nd Person Masculine labisk labiskem

2nd Person Feminine labiski: labiskema:

3rd Person Masculine labis labsu:

3rd Person feminine labsat labsa:

The Past Imperfective

The past perfective is used for habitual or continuous events in the past or leading up to the
present. It uses the same prefixes and suffixes for agreement as the nonpast and can thus be
called the “short prefix conjugation.” Verbs that have the theme vowel /a/ in the suffix
conjugation take /i/ in the prefix conjugations and vice versa. The following examples illustrate
the paradigm.

kátal ‘to kill’ Singular Plural

1st Person áktil náktil

2nd Person Masculine táktil táktilu:

2nd Person Feminine táktili: táktila:

3rd Person Masculine yáktil yáktilu:

3rd Person feminine táktil yáktila:

labis ‘to dress in, wear’ Singular Plural

1st Person albas nalbas

2nd Person Masculine talbas talbasu:

2nd Person Feminine talbasi: talbasa:

3rd Person Masculine yalbas yalbasu:

3rd Person feminine talbas yalbasa:

The Nonpast

The nonpast can have a present or future meaning. It uses the same agreement affixes as the
past imperfective and can thus be called the “long prefix conjugation.” The following examples
illustrate the paradigm.

kátal ‘to kill’ Singular Plural

1st Person akáttil nakáttil

2nd Person Masculine takáttil takáttilu:

2nd Person Feminine takáttili: takáttila:

3rd Person Masculine yakáttil yakáttilu:

3rd Person feminine takáttil yakáttila:

labis ‘to dress in, wear’ Singular Plural

 1st Person alabbas nalabbas

2nd Person Masculine talabbas talabbasu:

2nd Person Feminine talabbasi: talabbasa:

3rd Person Masculine yalabbas yalabbasu:

3rd Person feminine talabbas yalabbasa:

The Converb

The converb form of the verb is used to indicate an action that takes place previous to that
signified by the verb of the main clause. It modifies a preceding noun and agrees in number and
gender like an adjective, but governs its own clause.

kalb, bawí: la=fondúk, aθ la: naθár wa=θà:t afattaḥà: sáwa:.

dog enter\CVB PREP=inn INDEF NEG see\PFV and=DEM.F.SG 1SG-open\NPST=F.3SG
say\PST
A dog, having entered an inn, did not see anything, and it said, “I’ll open this one!” (SMOYD
1948).

The converb can also serve as the main verb as a clause, in which case it takes on a perfect
meaning, emphasizing the relevance of a previously completed event to the frame of reference.
Syntactically, the converb used as a finite verb takes the form of a subject complement, and
thus agrees in gender and number but not person with the subject, comparably to finite verbs
derived from active participles in other Semitic languages.

Auxiliary Constructions with the Converb

The converb can also be placed before the finite verb, in which case it acts as a verbal auxiliary.
Some verbs are only used in this context, e.g. ca:d ‘to still be, to be even then.’

falg sábi:b ca:d b=aya:m ullu:.

river flow\CVB still\PFV PREP=day\PL DEM.M.PL
The river still flowed in those days (SMOYD 2101).

The D-Stem

The lengthened /a:/ in the nonpast form may be adapted from a former L-stem form marked by
a long /a:/ in the first syllable. This stem is present in multiple southerly branches of the Semitic
family but its origin is unclear.

Nouns
Gender

Nouns distinguish two grammatical genders: masculine and feminine. Feminine nouns,
especially those with masculine counterparts, are often marked by the suffixes -at, -t, or -e:.
Some feminine nouns, however, have no morphological indication of gender, especially ones
referring to female animals, the word um ‘mother’, and certain words for parts of the body.

Number

Nouns distinguish two grammatical numbers: singular and plural. Plurals, especially animate
plurals, feminine nouns ending in -at and many adjectives, are sometimes marked simply with
suffixes, but many plurals are instead marked with templatic alterations referred to as “broken”
plurals. Broken plural formations include:

Singular Noun Shapes Plural Form

C1VC2(V)C3 aC1C2a:C3

C1VC2C3VC4 C1aC2a:C3iC4

C1V:C2 aC1a:C2

Pronouns

Personal Pronouns

Personal pronouns have both unbound forms and bound forms that cliticize to prepositions and
verbs to indicate their object.

Unbound forms are used when the pronominal subject is topicalized. When a pronominal object
is topicalized, a preposition with a suffixed bound pronominal form is used. Bound pronouns can
also cliticize onto verbs, in which case slightly different forms are used.

Independent Subject Pron.s Singular Plural

1st ana: niḥin

2nd masc. att attem

2nd fem. atti: attema:

3rd masc. baλλù: ìm

3rd fem. baλλà: ìma:

 Prepositional bound pron.s Singular Plural

1st -y/-i: -na:

2nd masc. -k -kem

2nd fem. -ki: -kema:

3rd masc. -ù: -ìm

3rd fem. -à: -ìma:

Object bound pron.s Singular Plural

1st -ni: -(a)n

2nd masc. -(a)k -kem

2nd fem. -ki: -kema:

3rd masc. -ù: -ìm

3rd fem. -à: -ìma:

Demonstrative Pronoun

There is no distinction between proximal and distal deixis. The paradigm of the demonstrative is
as follows.

Demonstrative pronoun Singular Plural

Masculine θù: ullu:

Feminine θà:t ulla:t

Syntax

Topic-Prominence

The verb is by default the first element in a clause, but the most salient nominal argument,
whether subject or object, is invariably fronted before the verb in main clauses. Whether this is
the subject or direct object can often be determined from context or by verbal agreement: when
a direct object is fronted, it is usually also marked with a bound pronoun on the verb.
Additionally, animate direct objects are differentially marked with the preposition la=.
Prepositional phrases can also be fronted. Question-word phrases and their answers are always
fronted.

bay taḥattíbù: Le:le:.

PREP-1SG F.3SG-chop.up\NPST=M.3SG Lele
It’s on my account that Lele will chop it up (SMOYD 1711).

Occasionally the topic will not be resumed syntactically in the rest of the sentence.

θà:t esat, atu: min reḥmat bama:bir fatú:n.

DEM.F.SG fire arrive\PFV-M.3PL from mercy firefighter\PL fast
That fire-- by grace the firefighters arrived quickly (SMOYD 2097).

Nominal Sentences

Semantics

Verbs of Separation and Cutting

semlang4 inherits a rich vocabulary of verbs relating to cutting, breaking, perforating,

separating, picking off, etc., often with highly specialized usages. A few selected examples
follow.

ḥatáb is used to indicate splitting a solid material into smaller pieces by chopping, usually wood,
but incidentally also meat or other foods.

cíλ yaḥattíbù: ḥattá:b ba=ḥuruλ ba=ḥasí:n.

wood M.3-chop.up\NPST=M.3SG woodcutter PREP=forest PREP=axe
The woodcutter is chopping up wood in the forest with an axe (SMOYD 946).

nakáb means to put a hole in something by cutting around its perimeter, to cut out or to punch
out a shape; the pluractional form, nakkáb, means to perforate, cut multiple holes in.

gasàc means to cut shorter by removing the end, crop, clip, prune, trim. Conversely, kasáb,
meaning to cut or pluck off, places the focus on the end part that is removed.