#shembaba

Originally, I had wanted to make my first post Lexember post about Shembaba's classifiers. But because I don't wanna keep transcribing all the examples in IPA I thought it might be good to give you Shembaba's phonology first.

I'll give you a more detailed version first but feel free to jump to 'Summary' if you only want the super short version to be able to read Shembaba examples in future posts.

Consonants

Consonants are mostly written with the easiest possible form of their respective IPA character (i.e. no diacritics or special characters).

[ʃʲ] and [ʒʲ] are mostly allophones of /s/ and /z/ before front vowels and are transcribed as <sh> and <zh>. Sequences like /siV[+back]/ and /ziV[+back]/ as well as loan words make [ʃʲ] and [ʒʲ] at least marginally phonemic. Also, in consonant clusters, [s, z] will only palatalise if the preceding consonant also is coronal.

[l̪] and [n̪] can become alveolar [l] and [n] before front vowels for most speakers and they some is true for [d̪, t̪] > [d, t] for some speakers

Geminated consonants are phonemic and simply get doubled in the romanisation.

[ɾ] is pretty much in free variation with [r] (the latter being especially common for emphasis and pre-tonic syllables)

Vowels

Vowels have a phonemic length distinction. A macron is used on long vowels in the romanisation – except [øː] which, somewhat unsatisfyingly to me, is <ő> but if you read my Lexember 4 post you know that I've made my peace.

/e/ is pronounced [ɛ] in unstressed syllables for most speakers and has even fully become [ɛ] for a few speakers. /eː/ is always [eː].

before vowels is simply to write [j] - I just felt whimsical and wanted to do it the old-fashioned way to make it more archaic-looking – this will not happen when preceded by sibilants /s/ and /z/ which will absorb the [i] into [ʃʲ] and [ʒʲ].

Stress and Prosody

Shembaba is mora-sensitive. What counts as a mora? One vowel is one mora. A diphthong or a long vowels constist of two morae. Syllable codas don't count as moraic except for geminate codas. This has an effect on stress as well as the distribution of long vowels and geminates.

Stress usually falls on the penultimate syllable. However, the antepenultimate will be stressed instead if it is heavy (= has two morae) and the penultimate isn't. The only time the final syllable is stressed is for imperatives and then it’s marked with an acute accent.

Stress the final syllable if it is a verb in the imperative mood (odārió! 'run!')

Stress the antepenultimate if it contains a long vowel or ends in a geminated consonant and the penultimate doesn't (uzhȳlidme 'filth')

Stress the penultimate (uzhikas 'coal')

Furthermore, there can’t be two syllables with a long vowel next to each other unless they’re the last two syllables of a word. In all other circumstances the less stressed syllable gets a short vowel: 

/as.tyː.liː.ɾeː.ŋaːn/ > [as.tyː.liˈɾeː.ŋaːn] <astȳlirēngān> x - xx - xx - xx - xx > x - xx - x - xx - xx (the x's count morae) climb-ABIL-skill-GEN 'of the climbing skill'

/as.tyː.liː.reː.ŋaːn.saːn/ > [as.ty.liː.ɾɛ.ŋaːn.saːn] <astylīrengānsān> x - xx - xx - xx - xx - xx > x - x - xx - x - xx - xx climb-ABIL-skill-GEN-AGN-GEN 'of the professional climber'

If two syllables with a long vowel appear next to each other only keep them when they are the final two syllables of the word

Otherwise, counting from right to left in disyllabic feet, keep only every other syllable long (iambic style), with the last syllable being extrametrical, so that there’s never two long syllables next to each other except the final two.

There’s a weaker constraint that there can’t be two syllables with a geminated consonant next to each other. To resolve, the syllable with higher stress ordering (same as above) wins out and gets to keep its geminated consonant.

→ If two syllables ending in a geminated consonant appear next to each, counting from right to left in feet, keep only the second syllable’s geminated coda (iambic), with the last syllable being extrametrical.

This rule, however, can be broken by inflection (but not derivation).

Summary

To read Shembaba's romanisation you only need to follow these short rules:

Letters correspond to their IPA values with the following exceptions: [ŋ] is <ng>, [ʃʲ] is <sh>, [ʒʲ] is <zh>, [ø] is <ö>, [øː] is <ő>, [β] is <v> and [j] is pre-vocalic <i>.

Coronal consonants usually are dental.

Long vowels are written with a mācron exept [øː] which is <ő>.

Double consonants transcribe gemination. In digraphs only the first element is doubled – e.g. enngēvro 'autumn' is [ˈɛŋˈŋeːβ.ɾo] but whekönggu 'peach' is [ʍɛˈkøŋ.gu]

Lenka, [ˈleŋ.ka] (n.) | light

This is another word that's among the first that have been created in Shembaba! That's because I was always a big fan of the Czech name Lenka. I felt like I wanted to have some of that sound for my Elvish.

This word also inspired the derivational ending *-ʔa that creates basic nouns. It emerges differently depending on the preceding segment it's attached to but always has an -a at the end which I really wanted (and probably definitely overdid) for many Shembaba words. And because in my country today is the traditional day of gift-giving, I'll gift you some example words to showcase this:

It emerges as -ha when following a vowel: *reiʔa > reiha 'stack'

It emerges as -mpa, -nta, -ŋka when following a nasal: *semʔa > shempa 'clearness', penʔa > penta 'fire', *galuŋʔa > galunka 'goblin'

It fortifies /b, d̪, g/ > /p, t̪, k/: *zibʔa > zhipa 'punch'

I emerges as a simply -a after /ɾ, β, h/: *revʔa > reva 'beam'

It emerges as a geminate + -a after /s, z, l, p, t̪, k/: *vālisʔa > vālissa 'holiness'

Shylenka, [ʃyˈleŋ.ka] (n.) | star

This is a further derivation of lenka 'light', our word from Christmas Eve if you remember. It got compounded with Olden Elvish sui 'far, distant'. So a star is nothing else but a really distant light. Not super elegant but I love its sound. Shylenka. Mmh, yes. Still like it.

It's one of the words that is used as a personal name by Elves. I think, this name is probably a common name for Elves but nobody finds that strange or annoying. After all, the amount of stars is pretty much literally uncountable and still every single one of them can fill us with wonder!

With that I want to say a big thank you for everyone who followed my first Lexember! I enjoyed it immensely and I hope it inspired you to continue with your projects or start new ones. As for what'll happen to this blog - expect me to keep posting about Shembaba every now and then but to what extent, I really don't know myself. Stay tuned!

Anyway, happy new year! May 2025 be another great year for conlanging!

As teased before, I am gonna start talking about Shembaba's classifier system. There is a lot to unpack here, so I'll split this into several posts, so stay tuned!

Let's first start with the question: What does Shembaba use classifiers for?

Counting

Quantifiers (+ the root for 'other')

Demonstratives

Relative clauses

Comparison

1. and 2. don't come as a surprise - numeral classifiers are a staple of many languages and since Shembaba is a language that doesn't mark number on its nouns at all, this is an obvious and elegant way to still make them quantifiable. I am also inclined to add 3. to the not-so-surprising list because to me this is sort of just an extension of the quantificational utility of classifiers. 4. and 5., finally, are more structural in nature and show off how the classifiers can be used outside of basic quantification purposes. I'll split this post accordingly to look at each of these five phenomena.

So let's have a look at how 1. works by counting to ten with different items! (Yes, Shembaba is a basic decimal bish. First of all, because no way I'm gonna engage in higher maths in my free time. And secondly, Elves inhabit a strong cultural power position in our pen-and-paper-world and it wouldn't have made sense to me if the humans of that world hadn't adopted the Elves' counting system if they had had a different one. So to not confuse my players and stay within my logic, it was only pragmatic to go with base-10.)

Sābra sammia mountain one-CL.places One mountain Kȳran sheibe elf two-CL.humanoids Two elves Hepan bānshi dwarf three-CL.child.sized Three dwarves Batonular whespa elephant four-CL.land.animals Four elephants Ānavendrān mēppa sturgeon five-CL.aquatic.animals Five sturgeons Kaspārem mūksān crow six-CL.flying.animals Six crows Sazhiāzma smabō arrow seven-CL.long.robust Seven arrows Astrīmma lyllōr rope eight-CL.long.flexible Eight ropes Wheknarīmma lōlīn blanket nine-CL.flat.flexible Nine blankets Nairīmma iānkaiv shield ten-CL.flat.robust Ten shields

As you can deduce from the glossing, the classifier is compounded onto the root of the number word as a suffix. Furthermore, the number follows its countee - so the other way around from English. So the general pattern is:

noun number-classifier

However, we can also put the number first if we want to stress the quantity of something. Then, the countee will stand in its genitive form. In English we usually achieve this effect by simply putting more prosodic stress on the number.

number-classifier noun-GEN Iān-sanngēshi kuiēshīn ten-one-CL.shapeless cloud-GEN Eleven clouds (and not ten or twelve)

What happens when the noun isn't in the nominative? That's quite easy: in the unmarked case where the numeral follows, only the head noun receives case marking. If the focus is on the number and it therefore comes before the counted noun, then the classifier receives the case marking and the noun stays behind in its genitive form.

Mōlökken bānnām mönnias degener. cat-DAT three-CL.domesticated.animals home-ACC 1-give-IMPFV I'm giving the three cats a home. Whezhiānggertio wheköngguken emmev??? fourty-CL.edible.plants peach-GEN 2-eat-PFV You ate 40 peaches???

From the second example you can maybe already gauge that the way to build bigger numbers in Shembaba is pretty straight forward; it's a simple pattern of n x 10 + m (e.g. mūgi 'six' + iān 'ten' + sang- 'one' = mūgiān-sang-CL '61'), n x 100 + m x 10 + o (e.g. whez 'four' + kuna 'hundred' + lō 'nine' + iān 'ten' + bān- 'three' = wheskuna-lokiān-bān-CL '493') etc.

So far I've numbers up to one million and I think unless there's a specific reason I need to I won't go higher up than that. To round it off, I'm giving you one last table with more examples to look at with higher numbers that I'll lazily copy from my document without glossing or telling you the exact specifiers at work. Once I'm done with this classifier series, I'll probably give you a list with the classifiers I have so far.

Evra, [ˈeβ.ɾa] (n.) | moon

A chic word, I gotta say. I love coining words for sun, moon and star tbh. Happy with this one. Its root, *ev, is also found in the verb evrie 'to accompany'. -ra is a suffix that derives natural phenomena and body parts. So to the Elves the moon is like 'nature's companion'! Isn't that cute? I thought it was, at least.

Ānavendrān, [aː.naˈβen.d̪ɾaːn] (n.) | river sturgeon

This word I've coined in honour of @sturgeonposting who made me understand what great fish sturgeons are. I never used to give them a second thought (I mean, I definitely couldn't tell you a single thing about them except their name) but damn, they're just neat! Definitely my favourite fish now and this definitely has heightened my appreciation for fish in general. If you're into animal blogs at all, follow them!

The word literally means 'mother of rivers', coming from *āma 'mother' and *ven, a root associated with blood. Adding -ra derives vendra meining 'vein' and as Elves regard rivers as the veins of the world it was just a logical semantic extension for this word to also mean 'river'. Vendra is then put into the genitive and while originally this was two different words it is nowadays seen as a single compound word.

I am of course aware that sturgeons inhabit not only rivers but also lakes and the ocean. However, Elves believe that all sturgeons originate from rivers, and if one doesn't then their ancestors definitely did, so the name stays (even though some pedants will use the words ānatāniān and ānatāniallān for sturgeons caught in lakes and the ocean, respectively). Male sturgeons also fall under the category of 'mother of rivers' but you can use āpavendrān if you want to specify you're talking about a male sturgeon. Sort of like how in German all cats are Katzen but you can talk about Kater if you want to specify that they're male.

Speaking off, here's my favourite German sturgeon meme, where we call them Stör, which incidentally sounds like stören, meaning 'to disturb'.

'Change the channel, this is a disturbance/sturgeon frequency.'

Oz, [oz] (n.) | goose

The story of how I decided to name geese oz is just a long inside joke, so if you're not interested in a personal anecdote maybe just skip today's entry – I promise I won't be mad. :P (But it has at least some linguistics in it if that helps!)

So, basically an integral part of German language and culture is the small word so (pronounced [zo], in some contexts [zɔ] is also possible). In many ways its usage is similar to English 'so' but it has some further uses that it doesn't have in English. One of these uses is that when you are hanging out with someone or a group of people and you're ready to leave but don't want to be too harsh and just leave you can slap your lap and say in a soft but determined demeanor: "So!" It is understood that now you must unfortunately leave - duty calls, be it that you have to get up early for work or you have different engagements that are waiting for you or simply that your social battery ran out.

A non-German friend of mine finds this just hilarious. So of course whenever she has to leave it is with the greatest joy that she exclaims a festive "So!". One day, she did exactly that but then remembered that she had a story or some gossip to tell before she wanted to leave. So in her logic the only way to take the so back was to reverse it phonologically (did I mention we're linguists?) and [oz] was born.

The next step was that I visited a different friend who's wont to stick-and-poke me a tattoo whenever we get the chance and feel inspired while we catch up on our lives and tell each other both fun and serious stories from our lives. This time she was adorning me with a goose when I was telling her the story of how so was reversed into [oz] and when we finished we were looking for a name to give to my new feathery friend (it's tradition that we name all the tattoos that she pokes me) and it didn't take long before we settled on the name Oz.

Here's a (shit quality) pic of her:

So to honour the memory of my two friends I decided to name all geese in Shembaba oz and am very happy with it. And as a bonus because you were so patient and read my rambly story I reward you with a sentence:

Likēvrőm ārsān oz shēremzim iō zhölīriel. winter-LOC all-CL.flyinganimals goose south.LOC ALL 3-fly-IMPFV-PL In winter all geese fly South.

When I started writing about classifiers I teased that I'd give you a list of the ones I have so far. Now I finally had the time to compile it for you. :) Bear in mind that while it may appear longish, it certainly is not the entire list of classifiers Shembaba speakers have and I myself haven't found all of them out yet (= haven't created more yet).

I'll put them all in their nominative proximal determiner form ('this X') – giving all forms for each of them seems unreasonable to me. As a bonus I'll add some crude etymologies in case you need some inspiration for you classifier systems!

places: venia (< stain)

houses and buildings: vereiva (< building)

humanoids (at least elven-sized): vebe (< elf)

humanoids (child- or dwarf-sized): veshi (< part (in the hair) (because you can see the top of their head as a grown-up elf))

wild land animals: vespa (< flank)

wild water animals: veppa (< fin)

wild flying animals: vesān (< wing)

long and robust: vebō (< trunk)

long and flexible: velōr (< vine)

flat and flexible: velīn (< big leaf)

flat and robust, dishes: vekkaiv (< plate)

shapeless mass, hair: veieshi (< cloud)

edible plants: veker (< fruit)

poisonous plants, bad emotions: vepāl (< thorn)

domesticated animals, familiars, pets: venām (< friend, buddy)

insects, tiny animals, books: vekö (< insect, tiny scuttling animal)

words, songs and spells: vekāv (< song)

units of time: vesher (< sun)

round and spherical: vekiz (< pebble)

dangerous animals and monsters: velīm (< maw)

machines and contraptions: vemēv (< axis, yoke)

liquids in unspecified amounts (e.g. bodies of water): veshö (< wave, sloshing)

liquids in cups: vettup (< cup < cupped palms)

liquids in bottles: venarv (< bottle < 'carrier')

circles, ring-shapes, holes: veppōn (hole)

tools, weapons, instruments: venna (< tool < 'for-hands-thing')

stacks, ordered piles: verei (< stack)

heaps, unordered piles, dummy classifier for mixed groups and whatnots: vezāv (< pile)

vessels, containers: vekior (< vessel)