Otzeipaonese
The Otzeipaonese language (Oikan: otseipauto or paunadu) (Azkali: Anotzeipaona patua) (Otzeipaonese: Ro-otzibao a-patoa), also known as the Otzeipao dialect, or Paonadu, is a language variously described as a mixed language or occasionally a creole, or dialect of Oikan or Azkali spoken in Western Azkali, particularly centered around Otzeipao, and Pordmisktpelha, and to a lesser extant widely across Kalilonde, Sunteria. Due to it's nature as a mixed language, Otzeipaonese is not a part of the Mallo-Brausian language family, nor is it a member of the Azkali languages. Otzeipaonese is mutually intelligible with both Oikan and Azkali, though it remains somewhat more intelligible — though not to an extent where it would be completely intelligible — to Azkali.
With an estimated three and a half million speakers, Otzeipaonese remains the second largest mixed language in which Azkali is a parent language of (the first being Turku Azkali). Otzeipaonese has remained a lingua franca across the Suntero-Azkali border, though declining in recent years due to the influence of both Oikan and Azkali — which virtually all Otzeipaonese speakers can also speak. Otzeipaonese
Otzeipaonese remains phonologically distinct from either of its parent languages, by the innovation of phonemic pitch accent or tone, a rich inventory of palatal sounds and vowels, and a complicated ergative verbal morphology system and nominative nominal system. Otzeipaonese retains many features of Contemporary Azkali, and generally features more verbal morphology than Azkali. However, it retains less verbal morphology than Oikan.
History
Geographic distribution
Phonology
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Labiovelar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m
/m/ |
n
/n/ |
ng
/ŋ/ |
ngm
/ŋ͡m/ | |||
| Plosive | voiceless | p
/p/ |
t
/t/ |
ch
/tɕ/ |
k
/k/ |
kp
/k͡p/ | |
| voiced | b
/b/ |
d
/d/ |
g
/g/ |
||||
| Affricate | tz
/t͡s/ |
ts
/t̠͡ʂ/ |
|||||
| Fricative | voiceless | z
/s/ |
s
/ʂ/ |
h
/x/ |
|||
| voiced | v
/v/ |
zh
/ʐ/ |
|||||
| Approximant | l
/l/ |
y
/j/ |
w
/w/ | ||||
| Rhotic | r
/ɾ~r/ |
||||||
| Front | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | Unrounded | i
/i/ |
|
| Rounded | ú
/y/ |
u
/u/ | |
| Mid | Unrounded | e
/e/ |
|
| Rounded | ó
/ø/ |
o
/o/ | |
| Open | a
/a/ | ||
Morphology
The morphology of Otzeipaonese remains remarkably unusual, and distinct from both Azkali and Oikan.
Nouns
Pronouns
| Nominative | Accusative
and Genitive |
Privative | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | 1p | e | ego | gótz | |
| 2p | Informal | tu | tung | tungótz | |
| Formal | ius | iuntz | iungóz | ||
| 3p | Masculine | mai | men | makóz | |
| Feminine | kut | kuen | kekóz | ||
| Neutral | he | hent | hehóz | ||
| Plural | 1p | tou | ten | taóz | |
| 2p | tere | touru | taúz | ||
| 3p | tin | eti | etúz | ||
Verbs
Otzeipaonese is one of the few Ukilen languages which features polypersonal agreement. Otzeipaonese can index the subject, direct, and indirect objects of a sentence inside the verb complex, setting the language apart even further from both of it's parent languages. Otzeipaonese is notable in that its verb behave ergatively; the subject markers of an intransitive verb are identical to the direct object of transitive verbs. The reason for this behavior, which has been referred to as Otzeipaonese verb misalignment, has not been determined.
Otzeipaonese features two moods — the indicative and subjunctive — three tenses — the far past, past, and non-past — and two aspects — the imperfective and perfective.
This is the verb template of intransitive verbs:
| Subject marker | VERB ROOT | Causality marker | Plural marker | Formality marker | Mood marker | Tense and aspect marker |
|---|
And the transitive verb template:
| Direct object marker | VERB ROOT | Causality marker | Plural marker | Formality marker | Subject marker | Dative marker | Indirect object marker | Mood marker | Tense and aspect marker |
|---|
Intransitive verbs
Subject indices
| Pronoun | Prefix | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1p | e | e(k)- | |
| 2p informal | tu | t(a)- | |
| 2p formal | ius | iu(n)- | |
| Far past | 3p | ∅ | ∅ OR (k(a)-) |
| Past | ∅ OR (g(a)-) | ||
| Nonpast | ∅ OR (d(a)-) | ||
As stated previously, the subject markers in intransitive verbs equates to the direct object markers in transitive verbs.
To pluralize any of these subject prefixes, the affix later in the verb complex is -(r)a(k)-. To indicate formality, the special prefixes are used, plus the affix later in the verb complex -(d)i(-).
The default third person prefix is actually the lack of a prefix, however if specificity is needed, or if the verb is in the context of a command, the prefixes shown to the right are usually employed.
| Indicative | ∅ OR -n(a)- |
|---|---|
| Subjunctive | -ta(n)- |
| Far past | -(o)z(n)- | |
|---|---|---|
| Past | Imperfective | -(u)n- OR -(u)dun |
| Perfective | -(ea)nt(-) | |
| Non past | ∅ | |