Kasta

Natively known as: aˈusta /aˈusta/

  ...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...   Pronunciation: // Kasta word order: and stood he holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind  

Spelling & Phonology

  Consonant inventory: /b d f g g͡b h j k k͡p l m p s t w ʃ ᵐb ᵑg ⁿd/

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m
Stop	p b ᵐb		t d ⁿd			k ᵑg g
Fricative		f	s	ʃ			h
Approximant					j
Lateral approximant			l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Stop	k͡p g͡b
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: /a aː e eː i iː o oː u uː/

	Front	Back
High	iː i	u uː
High-mid	e eː	o oː
Low	a aː

Syllable structure: Custom defined Stress pattern: Second — stress is on the second syllable Word initial consonants: bj, d, dl, dw, f, fl, fw, gd, gl, g͡b, h, hj, hw, j, k, kj, kt, k͡p, l, m, mb, md, mj, ml, mp, p, pl, ps, pw, sj, sl, sm, th, tj, tk, tm, tʃ, w, ʃ, ʃl, ʃm, ʃw, ᵐb, ᵑg, ⁿd Mid-word consonants: b, bb, bd, bj, bm, bs, bw, d, dd, df, dw, f, fg, fl, fp, fw, g, gb, gd, gh, gl, gs, gt, gʃ, g͡b, h, hb, hj, hl, ht, j, jb, jd, jg, jk, js, jt, k, kf, kj, kk, km, ks, k͡p, l, lg, lh, m, mb, md, mg, mj, mm, mt, mw, p, pf, pk, ps, pt, pʃ, s, sb, sf, sg, sj, sl, ss, st, sw, t, tf, tg, ts, tt, tʃ, w, wb, wd, wg, wl, wm, ws, ʃ, ʃb, ʃj, ʃm, ᵐb, ᵑg, ⁿd Word final consonants: b, d, g͡b, k͡p, l, m, p, s, t, w, ᵐb, ᵑg, ⁿd   Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ⁿd	nd
ᵑg	ng
ᵐb	mb
k͡p	kp
g͡b	gb
j	y
ʃ	sh
V₁ː	V₁V₁

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Grammar

  Main word order: Verb Subject Object (Prepositional phrase). “Mary opened the door with a key” turns into Opened Mary the door with a key. Adjective order: Adjectives are positioned before the noun. Adposition: prepositions  

Nouns

  Nouns have seven cases:

• Nominative is the doer of a verb: dog bites man.
• Accusative is the done-to of a verb: man bites dog.
• Genitive is the possessor of something: dog’s tail hits man.
• Dative is the recipient of something: man gives ball to dog.
• Locative is the location of something: man goes to town.
• Ablative is movement away from something: man walks from town.
• Instrumental is the use of something: man writes with (using) pen.

Nominative	No affix loˈsii /loˈsiː/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	If starts with vowel: Prefix h- Else: Prefix heː- heeˈlosii /heːˈlosiː/ (verb done to) dog
Genitive	Prefix ʃi- shiˈlosii /ʃiˈlosiː/ dogʼs
Dative	If starts with vowel: Prefix ps- Else: Prefix psaː- psaaˈlosii /psaːˈlosiː/ to (the/a) dog
Locative	If starts with vowel: Prefix kj- Else: Prefix kjiː- kyiiˈlosii /kjiːˈlosiː/ near/at/by (the/a) dog
Ablative	Prefix uː- uuˈlosii /uːˈlosiː/ from (the/a) dog
Instrumental	If starts with vowel: Prefix g͡b- Else: Prefix g͡ba- gbaˈlosii /g͡baˈlosiː/ with/using (the/a) dog

 

Articles

  Kasta has no definite article ‘the’, or indefinite article ‘a’.  

Numbers

  Kasta has a base-10 number system:   1 - one:num 2 - two 3 - three 4 - psaa 5 - five 6 - six 7 - seven 8 - eight 9 - nine 10 - ten 11 - ten and one:num “ten and one” 100 - one:num hundred “one hundred” 101 - one:num hundred and one:num “one hundred and one” 200 - two hundred 1000 - one:num thousand “one thousand”  

Derivational morphology

  Adjective → adverb = If starts with vowel: Prefix k͡p- Else: Prefix k͡paː- Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix l- Else: Prefix lo- Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix i- Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix md- Else: Prefix mdoː- Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Prefix uː- Noun to verb = If starts with vowel: Prefix th- Else: Prefix thaː- Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix f- Else: Prefix fe- Tending to = Prefix tjuː- Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix dw- Else: Prefix dwo- Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ᵑg- Else: Prefix ᵑgo- One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If starts with vowel: Prefix m- Else: Prefix me- Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Prefix juː- Diminutive = Prefix me- Augmentative = If starts with vowel: Prefix mp- Else: Prefix mpe-