Ṛeliteṭ

Ṛeliteṭ (IPA: /ɽe.l̪i.t̪eʈ/) is an extremely compact polysynthetic language.

Phonology

Below is Ṛeliteṭ's phonological inventory:

	Labial	Dental	(Post-) Alveolar	Retroflex	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	/p/ <p> /b/ <b>	/t̪/ <t> /d̪/ <d>		/ʈ/ <ṭ> /ɖ/ <ḍ>	/k/ <k> /g/ <g>
Fricative	/f/ <f> /v/ <v>	/θ/ <th> /ð/ <dh>	/s/ <s> /z/ <z>	/ʂ/ <ṣ> /ʐ/ <ẓ>		/h/ <h>
Affricate			/tʃ/ <ch> /dʒ/ <j>
Nasal	/m/ <m>	/n̪/ <n>		/ɳ/ <ṇ>	/ŋ/ <ng>
Approx.		/l̪/			/w/ <w>
Flap		/ɾ̪/ <r>		/ɽ/ <ṛ>

	Front	Central	Back
Close	/i/ <i>		/u/ <u>
Close-Mid	/e/ <e>		/o/ <o>
Mid		/ə/ <ə>
Open	/a/ <a>

Notes on the above tables:

• The retroflex fricatives are sometimes pronounced as postalveolar ones. Similarly, the postalveolar affricates are sometimes pronounced as retroflex.
• The sound /h/ is a voiced /ɦ/ is some dialects.
• The pronunciation of /w/ varies depending on context.
• The dental lateral approximant /l̪/ can be retoflexed in some dialects.

Simple Grammar

Ṛeliteṭ is ergative-absolutive. The subject is always in the Ergative case, and sentences are formed in VSO order.

Pronouns

The subject and object can be pronouns, which have a joined function:

	1p Subject	2p Subject	3p Subject	Non-pronoun
1p Object	V-ch-e	V-n-eṭ	V-la-ṭ	V-S-la
2p Object	V-ij-a	V-d-ku	V-a-və	V-S-və
3p Object	V-it-eṭ	V-ad-eṭ	V-ang-u	V-S-ngu
Non-pronoun	V-ch-O	V-da-O	V-ṇe-O	V-S-O

Here, a hyphen indicates a break between components. For the joined pronouns, the hyphen placement is only important for more complicated grammar.

The word Ṛeliteṭ means “we speak it”. It is formed from the verb ṛev “to speak”, which is in the inperfective (ṛel) and the joined pronoun iteṭ, which indicates that the subject is first person (we) and that the object is third person (it).

Number

Ṛeliteṭ has no indication of grammatical number. The only (marginal) way of doing this is by using the word dhej “many” as an adjective.

Verb Systems

Verbs are usually in the present tense, but there are several other tenses. The basic past tense is applied by swapping the voicing of the final consonant (all verbs end in a consonant), or changing its form. Below is a list of past-tense sound changes:

• p → b
• b → p
• f → v
• v → f
• m → n
• n → m
• t → d
• d → t
• th → dh
• dh → th
• l → w
• r → h
• s → z
• z → s
• ch → j
• j → ch
• ṭ → ḍ
• ḍ → ṭ
• ṣ → ẓ
• ẓ → ṣ
• ṇ → ng
• ng → ṇ
• ṛ → l
• k → g
• g → k
• w → r
• h → ṛ

There are, of course, irregularities. If a verb’s past tense form is the same as another verb’s normal form, the past tense can be further asserted with the additional suffix -ik. For example:

Thig “to grow” (present)

• Thik “to grow” (past)

Thikik “to grow” (past)

Thik “to wander” (present)

• Thig “to wander” (past)

Thigik “to wander” (past)

If the suffix is used multiple times (reduplicated), this can indicate the distant past:

Adhivangu. “They die.” (present)

Adhifangu. “They died.” (past)

Adhifikangu. “They died long ago.” (distant past)

Koẓangu. “They walk.” (present)

Koṣangu. “They walked.” (past)

Koṣikikangu. “They walked long ago.” (distant past)

The future tense is also encoded, with a vowel change that nominally causes backening or weakening of the first vowel. Again, reduplication or exaggeration indicated the distant form:

Odhivangu. “They will die.” (future) Udhivangu. “They will die in the far future.” (distant future)

Kəẓangu. “They will walk.” (future) Kəkəẓangu. “They will walk in the far future.” (distant future)

There are two more tenses: the hodiernal (actions that took place “today”), which is indicated by a lost initial vowel and the suffix -ṛe, and the concurrent (actions that are taking place “meanwhile” or could happen “at any time”), which is indicated by the prefix be-. Both are demonstrated below:

Dhivṛeangu. “They died/will die today.” (hodiernal) Bedhivangu. “They could be dying right now.” (concurrent)

Koṛeangu. “They will walk.” (hodiernal) Bekoẓangu. “They will walk in the far future.” (concurrent)

Even more tenses can be encoded by simple adverbials acting as prefixes to the verb. Complex sentences, using clauses, are quite simple in Ṛeliteṭ. The particle ṣə comes before a verb, and it can be used as a component clause! To specify which argument of a clause to act as the head, just move the particle to that argument:

Ṇitṣəṛefanguḍarik.

Ṇit      ṣə ṛef          ang u   ḍarik

be:PST CL speak:PST 3p   3p ridiculous

“That they said it was ridiculous.”

Ṇitṛefangṣəuḍarik.

Ṇit       ṛef     ang ṣə  u  ḍarik

be:PST speak:PST 3p   CL 3p ridiculous

“What they said was ridiculous.”

Ṇitṛefṣəanguḍarik.

Ṇit       ṛef     ṣə ang u  ḍarik

be:PST speak:PST CL 3p  3p ridiculous

“The one who said it was ridiculous.”

This is one use of the aforementioned hyphens in joined pronouns, such as angu here.