Caač language

Go back to the Languages of Salan!

Caač (IPA: [tsa:tʃ]) languages are spoken by the Caač people, of the desert of the Pillar Mountains. The Caač people are hunter-gatherers, but they also take the change of robbing any incautious travellers, and trade often with the people of Tášá.
The Caač language family is small, and the degree of mutual intellegibity is high, because the Caač communities are small, and regularly in contact with each other. However, some grammatical differences suggest that the divisions inside the family are ancient, and the different languages have existed in a relatively stable relationship for a long time. The Caač languages don't seem to be related to any major languages on the Southern Continent. However, it seems to be the source for some loan words. Most notably Nem nanra 'desert' seems to come from Caač nrä 'land, hunting grounds'.

Writing System

The Caač language is not written.

Geographical Distribution

The Caač people live in the hot wasteland of the Pillar Mountains. The defining feature of the area are the huge totem-pole shaped rock pillars, or hoodoos. The area is filled with all sorts of poisonous animals like scorpions and spiders, and all the edible plants are either spiky or buried. Worst of all, dragons nest on top of the pillars, and are fond of human flesh.
The harsh environment has forced the Caač to being very efective in identifying any dangerous things, which seemes to be why they use a distinct noun class for any dangerous items. For more information about noun classes, see: Morphology -> Nouns.

The native people of Irin i heš, an island chain located a short sea distance away, are clearly related to the Caač, and speak languages that can be classified as variants of the same language family. Their way of life is very similar, but they have been influenced by the Zeribians for centuries.

Sociolinguistics

The mainland Caač live mostly by themselves, but occasionally travel to the settlements in the borders of their region. In the North they are known to trade with the Tasalians, usually trading hunting products or seafood for metal tools, fabrics and agricultural products. The Caač language is not commonly known to the Tasalians, but the Caač usually know some Nem (Faren language) or tasal language, however, a few experienced Caač interpreters can be found in Tášá. The Caač also meet Great Plains Nomad tribes while further inland, and trade with them, usually using a pidgin language mixed from both of their languages.
On the Irin i heš the situation is very different: they live in the vicinity of settled Zeribians. They have staple trade relationships, and some are required to pay regular tribute to the Zeribians. Some Island Caač have also adopted a sedentary lifestyle, and the communities are switching into speaking Ngad i zerib. Some Caač have also been forced into slavery in the Zeribian copper mining communities, where the workers are purposefully denied of their cultural heritage. Most island Caač are however still practising the traditional lifestyles and most of their languages are not threatened.

Phonology

The stress is on the second syllable, except in words that have long vowels, in which case the stress falls on the first long vowel.

Here are the phonemes in IPA. If you are unfamiliar with IPA, you can refer to this Wikipedia article that has sound files for all the symbols: LINK
consonants

	bilabial	alveolar	lateral	palatal	velar	glottal
plosive	p	t			k
nasal	m	n
fricative		s š (ʃ)	ɬ			h
affricate		c (ts) č (tʃ)	tɬ
approximant	w	l		j

vowels

	front	central	back
close	i		u
mid	e	ø	o
open	ä		a

Morphology

Verbs

The Caač verbs have five tenses: present, past, remote past, future and remote future. The verbs agree in 3 persons, and 3 numbers (singular, dual and plural). Here is the conjugation of pata 'to be' in present and past tenses:

present

person	singular	dual	plural
1	patassukaw	patassoow	patässätaw
2	patassukan	patassoon	patassätän
3	patassuk	patassoo	patassät

past

person	singular	dual	plural
1	pataɬukaw	pataɬoow	pataɬätaw
2	pataɬukan	pataɬoon	pataɬätän
3	pataɬuk	pataɬoo	pataɬät

Nouns

Similar to the verbs, the Caač nouns decline in 3 numbers. The nouns can also get possessive suffixes for any person:
sismisuän-aw - my sleeping mat
sismisuän-än your (sg) sleeping mat
sismisuän-s his/her sleeping mat

sismisuän-ät-aw - our sleeping mat
sismisuän-ät-än - your (pl) sleeping mat
sismisuän-äts - their sleeping mat


Noun classes
Caač has a complex noun class system. All the nouns are classified first into one of three categories:
animate (-e), dangerous/respected things (-oo) or inanimate. The inanimates are further classified according to the shape into three dimensional (-t), flat (-min), long (-haw) or hollow/container (-paa). The nouns don’t carry class specific endings. The class is marked on the definite article, and attributes such as adjectives.
kaa caač šlääke ‘the big man’ (animate)
kasoo caačpiičo šlääkoo ‘the big dragon(literally: man-eater)’ (dangerous)
kahaw pleen šläähaw ‘the big spear’ (long)
kapaa šišmisuän šlääkøpaa (container, it is slept in)

Syntax

The basic word order is SVO. Because Caač does not have case marking, the order of the subject and object is fixed.

by Tuisku

Caač speakers

Spoken by

• Caač people

Common Phrases

Irrkasteɬukaw kasoo tɬetɬejii usakassuk uh kapaa šišmisuänän!
‘I saw a scorpion going into your sleeping mat!’
Kaa caač kwakaɬuk seec ‘the man killed a deer’
Kasoo caačpiičät šlääkoo suänassät uh kamin nrä ‘The big dragons live in the desert’