Sound-symbolic roots in Talmit

Explanation

As a number of other languages, Talmit makes use of sound-symbolic vocabulary with a highly structured system of vowel ablauts and consonant shifts.
All sound-symbolic roots are biconsonantal and the consonants follow Talmit's sonority hierarchy:

• w, j < l, r, n, s, Q < z, m, stops & fricatives

The second consonant of the root always has to be of a higher rank, hence √w-r, √w-t, √r-t are permitted, but **√w-j, **√r-n, **√t-g are prohibited.

The default vowel to flesh out the root is a, e.g. √r-k > ráka 'discomfort, nuisance'. However, if the size of the object is important, a small object will be indicated by e, a large object by a, e.g. séte 'sneaking of a small animal', sáta 'sneaking of a large animal'. If the object has a round shape, o is used instead of a, e.g. népe 'be round and small', nópo 'be round and big'.
For verbal roots, the quality corresponding to size is normally duration, hence lébe 'chat for a short time', lába 'chat for a long time'.

Size is always kept clearly apart from intensity in Talmit. To indicate a high intensity of the action, or how well it is done, i-infixion is employed; and similarly u-infixion for weak intensity with the appropriate changes, e.g. lίime < *leime 'downpour in fine drops', léome < *leume 'drizzle in fine drops'.
The second consonant can also be geminated in the intensive form instead of i-infixion, e.g. rákka = ráika, lémme = lίime.

The derivatives of the roots are (S - sonorant, C - obstruent, V - vowel):

1. stative form:

   These are of SVCV type, like nége, ráka, nópo and morphologically behave like states.

2. adverbial form:

   These are of VSCV type and can receive adfixes. The suffix -ru (which is normally not productive in Talmit) is used to derive adverbs, e.g. ámmaru 'in a considered way', ástaru 'in a sneaky way' and so on. Intensity is marked by infixion of the second vowel and stress shift: ammáiru 'in a well-considered way', ammáuru 'in an ill-considered way'.

   It is a sign of eloquence in Talmit to use the appropirate sound-symbolic adverbs rather than generic terms, for example ammáiru tébnun 'to consider well', éngeru gánun 'travel well' (lit. 'in a short straight line'). Many such expressions have become stock phrases, of course. It is also natural to use redundantly longer phrases than needed, e.g. élberu ιttáplun 'to chitchat' (lit. 'talk chatty' rather than just élbarun), ίjmeru tetlépun 'to sparkle' (lit. 'to shine sparkling' rather than just ίjmarun) and so on.

   Verbs can also be derived from this form by the verbal ending -arun and the appropriate prefixes, e.g. séndarun 'get wet on a small spot', sándarun 'get wet everywhere'.

3. nominal form:

   These are reduplicated, or rather a compound of the two forms above, and hence of SVCVSCV type. They describe specific objects or people, e.g. nopómpo either 'fattie' or 'something roundish and swollen', lemélme 'sprinkling rain', lomólmo 'downpour'.

4. modal form:

   The modal form is also partially reduplicated: The sonorant is repeated, the stop geminated or fortified by infixing /Q/ before it. This form indicates emotional impact on the speaker or a person/group he identifies with. It is very often used as an interjection (also as an emotionally committed wish or blessing), although an adequate translation is difficult to give: wárrawa! would, depending on the context, imply something along the lines of 'What a cheat! I can't believe he tricked me!'. Other examples: rákkara! 'This sucks!', jérreje! 'Sorry, it's a bit of a muddle!', járraja! 'It's like a pig sty here!', nágzana! 'Good idea!', jámmaja! 'Wow, that looks really nice!', néngene! 'Travel well!'.
   The part of speech is not fixed, however, so that wárrawa could stand for a cheater or lier, or such an event itself, as long as it has affected the speaker.

Note that sound-symbolic words retain word-initial w- which has otherwise shifted to b- (similarly j-). However, they can be lexicalized, and in this case follow the regular sound changes once more, so wára 'false, fake, lie', but as a prefix bar- 'almost-, pseudo-, sub-' (see below). Such a phenomenon also appears in Japanese where initial p- is for example retained in sound-symbolic pika-pika 'glitter, sparkle', but becomes h- in hikaru 'shine', hikari 'light'.

List of roots