The Sakha language/Printable version


The Sakha language

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Phonology and alphabet

Consonants edit

Native phonemes
Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal /m/ /n/ /ɲ/ /ŋ/
Plosive Voiceless /p/ /t/ /c͡ç/ /k/
Voiced /b/ /d/ /ɟ͡ʝ/ /ɡ/
Fricative Voiceless /s/ /x/ /h/
Voiced /ɣ/
Approximants Plain /l/ /j/
Nasalized /j̃/
Flap /ɾ/
Letter IPA pronunciation Closest approximation
Latin Cyrillic
Б б B b bird   /b/
В в V v vase   /v/

Morphology notes edit

In Sakha, there are numerous consonant assimilations that differ by suffixes. As in /Nouns, there are also articulation of the corresponding native consonants. The definitions include:

  • Sonorants: In most cases, all sonorant consonants (й, р) except nasals. The suffix form's first letter usually has voiced consonants.
  • Nasals: All nasal consonants (м, н, ҥ). The suffix form's first letter usually has м or н. However I found a Chinese-language source[1] that the plural suffix -ЛАр, for example, have the assimilated form -ҥАр after -ҥ- (тииҥтииҥҥар), although in fact, the nasal velar variant is almost non-existent except the Baidu Baike page and its mirrors.[2]

References edit

  1. 雅库特语_百度百科
  2. The Sakha suffixes shown at the page are actually made-up, since it has non-existent genitive case.


Nouns

Non-possessed forms edit

Plurals edit

Unlike Turkish and other many Turkic languages, Sakha has more irregular plurals than its sisters. For example, English has irregular plural forms manmen, personpeople, or childchildren. Regular plurals in Sakha are formed by the surface form -ЛАр. These are the assimilated forms of this suffix:[1]

Preceding letters Back Front
Unrounded Rounded Unrounded Rounded
а, э, и, ы, о, ө, у, ү, л -лар -лор -лэр -лөр
й, р -дар -дор -дэр -дөр
м, н, ҥ -нар -нор -нэр -нөр
к, п, с, т, х -тар -тор -тэр -төр

In addition, there is also numerous irregular plurals in Sakha:

Assimilating nouns Distantly related nouns Suppleted
  • эмээхсинэмээхситтэр "old woman"
  • оҕонньороҕонньоттор "old man"
  • доҕордоҕоттор "friend"
  • хотунхотуттар "respectable woman"
  • тойонтойоттар "chief, master"
  • Also including some other kinship terms ending in -н or -р
  • кыыскыргыттар "girl, daughter"[2]
  • уолуолаттар "son, young man"
  • эрэрэттэр "man, husband"
  • киһидьоннор "person"

Accusative edit

The accusative case are used as a direct object (I see the car) of a verb or certain prepositions of verbal origin. While the divisions of the surface form -(н)И are somewhat simple, but the treatment of stems of nouns ending in a consonant is rather complex.

Preceding letters Back Front
Unrounded Rounded Unrounded Rounded
а, э, и, ы, о, ө, у, ү -ны -ну -ни -нү
к, л, м, н, ҥ, п, р, с, т, й, х

Nouns ending in -с and -х usually change to -һ and -ҕ, respectively (nom. бас — acc. баһы "head"). However, nouns ending in -CVC (-C- = consonants, -V- = short close vowel) are elided to -CC- (also before other suffixes starting with a consonant) causing -һ and -ҕ devoices to -с and -х before other consonants.[3]

In addition, there is also an accusative-collective case, used for denoting a completely-affected object (сирэйдэри "whole face"). Its formation is completely the same as accusative plural, but this case only exists in singular so there is no such forms like **сирэйдэрдэри.

Samples edit

Non-possessed edit

ат
"horse"
дьиэ
"house"
ох
"arrow"
үөр
"herd"
Singular Nominative ат дьиэ ох үөр
Accusative аты дьиэни оҕу үөрү
Collective[4] аттары дьиэлэри охтары үөрдэри
Partitive атта дьиэтэ охта үөрдэ
Dative акка дьиэҕэ охха үөргэ
Ablative аттан дьиэттэн охтон үөртэн
Plural Nominative аттар дьиэлэр охтор үөрдэр
Accusative аттары дьиэлэри охтору үөрдэри
Partitive аттарда дьиэлэрдэ охтордо үөрдэрдэ
Dative аттарга дьиэлэргэ охторго үөрдэргэ
Ablative аттартан дьиэлэртэн охтортон үөрдэртэн

References edit

  1. Грамматика якутского языка
  2. Do not confuse Кыргыттар with Кыргыыстар!
  3. The examples found are rare in nouns: таҕыс "go out" — тахсы "going out". Therefore, this was rather a verb.
  4. It was intended to be the accusative-collective case. However, I chose to shorten this case name to save space. Do not confuse with collective nouns. ;)