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Last update: 2 April 2007

Chastuvien

The most conservative member of the Southern branch of Liotic, Castivien is similar in many ways to older stages of its closest relatives Genisten and Astarien, and has a similar relationship to them as Ivrien has to Kadhrein. It is spoken by 655 thousand speakers, most of whom live in the islands and peninsulas of south-west Dekavur and in the coastal regions of the provinces of Chastu, Galena, and Chila. It lacks the political and social prestige of Genistien, but is nonetheless secure as a community language in the area.

Dialectal variations are more noticeable in Chastuvien than in Genistien. The principal split is between the more conservative southern dialects of the peninsulas and islands and the more innovative northern coastal dialects, many of which are influenced by Genistien and Dekavurian.

Phonology

Vowels

Chastuvien has five vowels /i e a o u/, each of which may be long or short. The long vowels, which are transcribed with an acute accent, are bimoraic and appear only in initial syllables.

The late Liotan falling diphthongs became long vowels in Chastuvien, often preceded by a glide; the original rising diphthongs became short vowels preceded by a glide. For example:

Liotan	meaning	late Liotan	Chastuvien
ceóirr	taste	tSoirTe	chwérthe
caonh	fish	keunza	kyóndza
dán	father	dauna	dóna
siail	first	Sjele	shyele
buagh	goat	waGa	wagha
éimh	fear	eimve	yémve

In general, /ei oi/ and /eu ou/ became /je: we:/ and /jo: wo:/, while /ai au/ merged with /e: o:/.

Consonants

The consonant-system of Chastuvien is the closest to late Liotan of the Liotic languages. In addition to the following system of obstruents:

	Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Voiceless stops	p	t	ts	tS	k
Voiced stops	b	d	dz	dZ	g
Voiceless fricatives	f	T	s	S	x
Voiced fricatives	v		z	Z	G

are the nasals /m n/, liquids /l r/, glides /w j/, and /h/. /ts dz tS dZ/ are, of course, affricates, which derived from slender /t d k g/ respectively; they are transcribed TS DZ SH J, as in oit "strong" > otse. The other consonants are transcribed as in Genistien, thus TH SH ZH GH for /T S Z G/ and W Y for /w j/.

Alternations

Chastuvien is the only South Liotic language in which phonemic alternations, both vocalic and consonantal, play a part in the grammar. All of the alternations are legacies of the different developments of broad and slender consonants; the vocalic alternations are conditioned by the following consonant. In general, a consonantal alternation is always accompanied by a vocalic one, but not vice versa. The principal alternations are:

Vocalic

Consonantal 1

Consonantal 2

Broad

ju:

Slender

wi:

More complicated are the alternations resulting from older short vowels preceding lenited /n m/ or unlenited /l/. Lenited /n/ gave rise to /a ~ (j)e:/, /i ~ i:/, /o ~ we:/, and /u ~ wi:/, while the other two caused /o: ~ a or e/, /iu ~ i/, /uo: ~ o/, and /u: ~ u/; unlenited /l/ also caused /T ~ l/. For example:

Liotan	Broad	Slender
dán	dóna "father"	dénan "fathers"
maoc	myóka "sweet (masculine)"	myéche feminine
siadha-	shyazar "I live"	shyezhesh "you (def sing) live"
conh	kondza "pure (masculine)"	kwénje (feminine)
greamh	zhdrómva "loud (masculine)"	zhdremve (feminine)
poill	pwólo "short (neuter)	potha (masculine)

In the northern dialects, the alternations in vowel length are usually levelled in favour of the long vowel; for example, potha became pótha under the influence of the neuter.

Stress

Two different systems of stress and intotation are found in Chastuvien: the initial stress and stress-timed intonation of Liotan is preserved in the southern dialects, while the peculiar Genistien rules operate in the northern dialects. A word like otse is thus pronounced /"o.tse/ everywhere, while its genitive otsen is /"o.tsen/ in the south and /o."tsen/ in the north.

Phonotactics

Chastuvien permits the same consonant clusters as Genistien, with the addition of clusters of liquids and nasals; thus "turns" (the verb) is yélnax (also with older /N/ > /n/).

/j/ is often dropped in speech after /S Z tS dZ/, and both glides sometimes disappear after clusters of obstruent + liquid.

Clusters of four consonants, always of the form sibilant + stop + liquid + glide, sometimes appear at the beginning of a word, for example zhdrwóxa "what sort of?" with initial /Zdrw/. In such clusters, the glide is often dropped in speech.

Grammar

Nouns

Chastuvien nouns inflect for the nominative, genitive, and partitive cases, and distinguish the three genders of Liotan. Gender is largely correlated with the final vowel: /a/ indicates masculine gender, /e i/ feminine, and /o/ neuter, while nouns in /u/ are both masculine and neuter. The inflections for case are more regular than those of Genisten, and are shown below with tura "town".

Case	Singular	Plural 1	Plural 2
Nom	tura	turane	turata
Gen	turan	turanen	turanta
Part	turas	turasta	turasta

The "plural 1" endings are original, and are confined to southern dialects. The "plural 2" endings, which developed from the generalisation of the -ta of the partitive, are northern innovations identical in origin with the Astarien plural marker and the Genistien partitive plurals.

Alternations

Alternations take place in the nominative plurals of many common masculine nouns and of some common feminines and neuters: gwóla "ear", plural gwéline or gwélita; swana "father", plural swenine or swenita. Most of these nouns are basic vocabulary items, and all of the masculines have plurals in -in- or -it-.

In some northern dialects, after a nasal, liquid, or fricative other than /T D/, the vowel before the nominative plural ending is often lost; thus swenita is often pronounced /swenta/. The /t/ voices to /d/ after a voiced consonant, as in /waGda/ for waghata "goats".

Dual nouns

Chastuvien is the only Liotic language aside from Lemyzon which retains any trace of the Liotan dual number: nouns denoting natural pairs, especially body parts, are treated as singulars, and one member of the pair is referred to as "half" of the pair. For example, when speaking of one's eyes, a Chastuvien speaker always says tsyara "a pair of eyes" (from the Liotan dual tiara); this is a singular noun used just like jyuma "mouth", and one eye would be described as rithe-tsyara.

When a particular eye is referred to, the noun is prefixed with chi- and lo-, respectively from older words for "left" and "right". The plural of tsyara is tsyérine, "pairs of eyes", semantically equivalent to jyumane "mouths". tsyére, the direct descendant of the original Liotan singular téir, is only used when speaking of an eye which is not part of a pair, or when used figuratively to refer to, for example, the opening of a cave.

Similarly, gyóla refer to both parents together, but is syntactically a singular; "father" and "mother", however, are individually always swana nwóne, not rithe-gyóla, which refers to either parent indiscriminately, and certainly not *chi-gyóla or *lo-gyóla!

Adjectives

Adjectives decline for number and case with the same endings as nouns, and distinguish gender. Vowel and consonantal alternations frequently accompany the change of gender; some examples are shown below.

Meaning	Masc	Fem	Neut
sweet	myóka	myétce	myóko
another	metca	metce	mako
narrow	wartha	warthe	warxo
fertile	chetsa	chetse	chato

Attributive adjectives always follow the noun they qualified, thus tyóka myóka "a sweet apple", tyókane myókane "sweet apples".

The comparitives are formed with -um- -asht- -arh- suffixed to the masculine stem: myókume "sweeter (feminine)", chetsashta "not as fertile", wartharha "as narrow as". The equative -arh- becomes -arth- in the feminine: myókarthe "as sweet as".

Adverbs are expressed with la plus the adjective, which agrees with the subject of the verb: kandza el la myéche "she sings sweetly", but kandza an la myóka "he sings sweetly".

Articles

The definite article is simply ka ke ko, and takes the same case endings as nouns and adjectives: kan swanan "of the father", keta nwónta or kene nwónene "the mothers", kasta waghasta "the goats" (partitive). The older feminine article che is restricted to the most conservative dialects.

The demonstratives all replace the article, and are syntactically adjectives. Their nominative singulars are masculine chema kaha korha, feminine cheme kahe korthe, and neuter chemo kaho korho; the other cases and numbers decline accordingly: chemasta waghasta "these goats (partitive).

Pronouns

Chastuvien personal pronouns make the same distinctions, aside from the lack of the dual and the loss of the inclusive-exclusive in the first person, as those of Liotan; northern dialects also distinguish gender in the third person plural. The most usual forms of the personal pronouns are shown below.

	Singular			Plural
Person	Nom	Gen	Part	Nom	Gen	Part
1	so	son	sos	dzan	dzanta	dzasta
2 def	de	den	des	fan	fanta	fasta
2 fam	mo	mon	mos	man	manta	masta
3 masc	an	anin	anis	anta	antin	antis
3 fem	el	elin	elis	elta	eltin	eltis
3 neut	or	orin	oris	orta	ortin	ortis
3 gen	al	alin	alis	in	inin	inis
indef	ko	kon	kos
rel	to	ton	tos
refl	ur	urin	uris

Alternatives are:

1 and 2 genitive plurals in -nen, not -nta;
3 genitive and partitive plurals in -an -as, not -in -is;
yen yes for inin inis, common in northern dialects under the influence of Genistien.

The possessive pronouns all decline fully for number, case, and gender. Their nominative singulars add -ka -che -ko, according to gender, to the genitive of the pronoun; the nominative singulars of "mine" are thus sonka sonche sonko, and the other cases and numbers correspond.

Prepositions

Chastuvien prepositions retain the three-way directional contrast of Liotan, but express it differently with compounds formed with the basic pronouns ra no me; the older tse "on" thus appear as tsera "onto", tseno "on", tseme "off of". All prepositions govern the nominative case. The final vowel of a compound preposition is often lost in speech, especially if the preposition is unstressed.

Chastuvien is alone in South Liotic in retaining prepositional pronouns, although the forms are not continued from Liotan. The pronominal forms with the basic pronons are:

Person	"to"		"at"		"from"
1	ras	radza	nos	nodza	mes	medza
2 def	rath	rava	noth	nova	meth	meva
2 fam	ram	rama	nom	noma	mem	mema
3 masc	rán	ránta	nwan	nwanta	myan	myanta
3 fem	rél	rélta	nwel	nwelta	myel	myelta
3 neut	rór	rórta	nwor	nworta	myor	myorta
3 gen	rál	rén	nual	nwin	myal	mín
indef	rah	---	noh	---	meh	---
rel	ras	---	nos	---	mes	---
refl	raf	---	nof	---	mef	---

Other prepositions combine straightforwardly: tseras "onto me", tsenwin "on them", tsemyor "off it". Prepositions do not combine with the article.

The various forms of "here", "there", "yonder" are simple compounds of yemve aha orha and the appropriate prepositions: ra yemve "hither", me aha "thence".

Verbs

Long unstressed vowels survived in Chastuvien for longer than in other Liotic languages, and the long thematic vowels lasted long enough to diphthongise; for example mairíoch "gives" and miosdóch became /mariux/ and /mistoux/, rather than /marix/ and /mistox/ as elsewhere in Liotic. The diphthongs developed as usual in Chastuvien into sequences of glide plus vowel, from which the glide was soon lost and the remaining vowel was shortened; the two example verbs thus ended up as maruh and mistoh. As a result the original seven Liotan conjugations have been reduced to five, of which four are characterised by two thematic vowels:

Conj	Source	Vowels
1	i: u:	i u
2	e: o:	e o
3	e	e i
4	a	a
5	mixed	a i

Here are the present tenses of "gives" (first conjugation) and "does" (fifth conjugation), showing the distribution of the thematic vowels and, in the fifth conjugation, the alternations in the final consonant of the stem.

Person	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
1	marur	marizhe	bezar	bezhizhe
2 def	marish	marusta	bezhish	bezasta
2 fam	marum	maridza	bezam	bezhidza
3	marun	maruna	bezan	bezana
indef	maruh	---	bezah	---
rel	marus	---	bezas	---
refl	marif	---	bezhif	---

The past tense, negative, and interrogative, are formed with the same prefixes as in Genistein: e-marur "I gave", en-bezar "I did", the-marur "I do not give", then-bezar "I did not do", fi-marur "do I give?", fin-marur "did I give?".

Participles

The participles in Chastuvien are used as verbal nouns and adjectives. Their forms are as follows:

	Present		Past
Meaning	Active	Passive	Active	Passive
"give"	marulta	mariche	marishte	maruska
"sit down"	mistolta	misteche	misteshte	mistoska
"eat"	unelta	uniche	unishte	uneksa
"see"	tyórhalta	tyértheche	tyértheshte	tyérhaska
"do"	bezalta	bezhiche	bezhishte	bezaska

"To be"

"To be" in Chastuvien is an independent verb; unlike in Genistien and Astarien, it does not combine with adjectives. Its present is doh, and its past is cah; the negatives are theh and thenzhah. None of these undergo any alternations.

Further verb forms

The active participles combine with prepositional pronouns to form a variety of other verbal constructions, many of which express finely nuanced meanings similar to their Liotan ancestors. For example:

marulta nos "I am giving"
unelta mes "I need to eat"
tyórshalta funos "I can see"

Numbers

Chastuvien differs from the other South Liotic languages, but resembles other branches in that it retains the Liotan system of counting by twenties and not tens. The cardinal numbers from one to ten have two forms, a long form for enumerating and a short form for counting. These forms, with their ordinals and corresponding twenties, are:

Number	Cardinal		Ordinal	Twenty
1	mela	mel	shyala	chara
2	sana	san	soba	sagra
3	shethe	sheth	shelka	shelkra
4	dzina	dzin	dzinka	dzinkra
5	dare	dar	darka	darkra
6	nabe	naf	nóka	nòkra
7	núga	nuh	nwíka	nwigra
8	pore	por	porka	porkra
9	syóhta	syoh	syóka	syókra
10	kyédze	kyes	kyéska	kyékra

The ordinal numbers probably derived from compounds with the indefinite pronoun ka.

The forms of phrases with the higher numbers are much the same as in Liotan, with the twenties, shime "400", and rene "8000" all requiring the partitive plural of the noun:

mel tyóka kyes "eleven apples"
chara tyókasta "twenty apples"
mel tyóka chara "21 apples"
mel tyóka kyes chara "31 apples"
nuh tyóka porkra "167 apples"
nuh tyóka porkra shime "567 apples"

Conjunctions

As in Genistien, as is used exclusively for "and".

Derivation

Some derivative suffixes trigger consonantal and vocalic alternations.

Suffix	to	gave	meaning	examples
-sto	adj	noun	abstracts	myóka "sweet" > myókasto "sweetness", kondza "pure" > kondzasto "purity"
-ova	noun	adj	resembling, like	wagha "goat" > wagova "goatlike", gwene "girl" > gwanova "girlish"
-ola	noun	adj	lacking	chwérthe "taste" > chwórhola "tasteless", fanda "tree" > fandola "treeless"
-ivra	noun	adj	having, full of	yasta "breeze, wind" > yechtivra "windy", rata "mouse" > retsivra "full of mice"
-oza	verb	adj	-able	tyórhah "sees" > tyórhoza "visible", maruh "gives" > maroza "givable"
-ahta	verb, noun	noun	place	uneh "eats" > unahta "eating house", kathe "dog" > kathahta "kennel"

Personal nouns are common in Chastuvien, for example kandzan kandzel kandzin "singer, singers". The inflections are, however, much more straightforward than those of Genistien, and parallel the pronouns exactly.

The only augmentative suffix in Chastuvien is -ad, which tends to have negative connotations: jiumadan "person who talks too much", from jiuma "mouth".

The commonest diminutive suffixes are, in decreasing order of affection, -ishe -iche -ile -ilche.

Syntax

Word order

Chastuvien, unlike elsewhere in South Liotic, retains the VSO word-order of Liotan.

Modal verbs and dependent clauses

As elsewhere in Liotic, dependent clauses are avoided in favour of participles: miórar kandzalta "I know how to sing", pasar kandzalta "I am able to sing".

Relative clauses and emphasis

As in Genistien, the relative pronoun combines with the third person pronouns; the result is the same as the pronoun with a long initial vowel: doh myéka fohan tyókana ánta uner tu "The apples which I am eating are sweet".

Interrogatives

gryésh a unes kas tyókasta "Who is eating the apples?"
gras a uner tu "What am I eating?"
jurthe tyókata an unishte las tu "How many apples have I eaten?"
zhdrwóh tyóka a do chenka "What sort of apple is this?" chenka is a compound of cheme "this" and the indefinite pronoun.
gyós a unezhe fos "When are we eating?"
zhdrah a unezhe mes "Why are we eating?"
gash a uner chema tyóka las "How do I eat this apple?"

Indefinites

The indefinite pronouns continue the Liotan compounds: pyédryéshe "everyone", chinraza "anything", thyénkota "nowhere".