LotM - Jul 18: Old Mtsqrveli
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The dog days of summer are upon us, and so is our new LotM, Arcaeca's <lang>MQO</lang>! Read on about this Kartvelian-inspired a priori, with insane consonant clusters, loads of derivational morphology, and a cool mkhedruli-inspired script!
This public article was written by Admin Sheep on 1 Jul 2018, 06:44.
[comments] mqolotm jul 18lotm The dog days of summer are upon us, and so is our new LotM, Arcaeca's
Old Mtsqrveli! Read on about this Kartvelian-inspired a priori![top]Phonology and Orthography
Old Mtsqrveli has a rich consonant inventory, with 3 different stop series, tenuis, ejective, and voiced. (Compare to Georgian's three series, aspirated, ejective, and voiced.) Stops and affricates have 6 places of articulation: labial stop, alveolar stop, alveolar sibilant affricate, alveolo-palatal sibilant affricate, velar stop, and uvular stop. Together, this makes 18 different stops and affricates. The fricative inventory is smaller but still quite large, with /v s z ɕ ɣ χ h/ and an allophonic realization of /χ/ as [ʁ]. Filling out the rest of the inventory are 4 sonorants, the nasals /m n/ and the liquids /l r/.
In comparison to the consonants, the vowel inventory is tidy, with just six vowels, /i u e o a ɒ/, where /e o/ are realized as mid rather than close-mid vowels.
And of course, as befits any Kartvelian inspired language, Old Mtsqrveli loves consonant clusters. In fact, it makes Georgian look easy to pronounce. Check out example words like tvmtst'vrjmajema or mtsbtmirdzmidamşal.
Old Mtsqrveli doesn't just have a cool phonology, it also has a great alphabet. The tukroni script is used as the alphabet on CWS, and is clearly inspired by the Georgian mkhedruli. Major aesthetic differences include the hand-drawn style of the script, the use of large swooping ascenders, and the limited use of cursive.
[top]Morphology
Old Mtsqrveli has loads of nominal inflection. In addition to singular and plural, nouns also have a dual number. The major grammatical cases are nominative, accusative, genitive, and dative, with the nominative and accusative both having separate definite and indefinite forms. Although there are no spatial cases, there are 7 other case forms: abessive, essive, exessive, translative, benefactive, comitative, and vocative. Pronouns have the same case and number forms as common nouns.
Verbs are just as complex, with 3 tenses, 4 aspects, and 5 moods. The present, indicative, and imperfective are unmarked on the verb itself, although the present tense can be marked by a particle mta outside the verb. This applies to the other tenses as well, which can be marked by dghas (past) or dzi (future). The other moods are imperative, potential, optative, and interrogative, and the other aspects are remote, immediate, and habitual, each marked by infixes. The aspect markers can be combined with the floating tense particles, giving combinations such as dghagas (recent/immediate past). The mood affixes, but none of the other affixes, exhibit front/back vowel harmony with the stem.
Finally, there is a rich library of derivational morphemes, some of which preserve part of speech, and others which act as adjectivizers, nominalizers, or verbalizers.
Lets conclude our tour of Old Mtsqrveli with a few words on morphosyntax. Nouns and pronouns both have nominative/accusative case, but the verb only agrees with the object of a transitive clause. Word order is free, with a tendency towards SVO ordering.
[top]More on Old Mtsqrveli
If you want more, check out Old Mtsqrveli's LexiBuild sets, grammar tables, and translations!
[top]A Note on Old Mtsqrveli
Got suggestions for how the next LotM should be written? See something in Old Mtsqrveli that wasn't covered and you wish it had been? Feel free to shoot us (phi2dao, argyle, protondonor, or Avlönskt) a PM with your questions, comments, and/or concerns. Also feel free to drop by the LotM clan if you have other feedback, want to join in the voting process, or nominate a language!
Comments (1)
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02-Jul-18 22:12
𒊊Mesopotamian LangsFor those making languages derived from or inspired by Sumerian/Akkadian/Elamite/Hittite/etc.
Arcaeca
Smal correction: Old Mtsqrveli's stop and affricate series are voiced, ejective and aspirated (not tenuis), just like Georgian - although aspirated consonants are allophonically unaspirated at the end of a syllable.
Old Mtsqrveli's stop and affricate series are voiced, ejective and aspirated (not tenuis), just like Georgian - although aspirated consonants are allophonically unaspirated at the end of a syllable. 
