Kanduadas

General information
Kanduadas (natively, Kaduatas [ˈkäⁿdwɐdɐs]) is the official language and a national language of the country Kanduai on the moon Chesnon. Chesnon is the name in English of the moon as well as the species. They call themselves Tsyesnem [ˈtʃe̞ʃnɐm] (singular: Tsyesnon).

Phonology

 * The standard language is based on the dialect of Makyór [mɐˈcɤ̞ɾ] (great-city, the Kanduaians are not the most creative namers).

Consonants

 * 1) [n] is an allophone of /ŋ/ adjacent to an alveolar consonant and is in free variation with the regular pronunciation of /ŋ/ intervocalically.
 * 2) /d/ only contrasts with /t/ intervocalically. Same for /c/ and /ɟ/.
 * 3) /ʔ/ only appears in a few conservative dialects.
 * 4) [ɹ] is an allophone of /r/ when word-initial or adjacent to /m/, /ŋ/, or /s/.
 * 5) /s/ and /ts/ cannot be present in the same word as /ʃ/ and /tʃ/. The first one of these sounds present in a word spreads its place of articulation to any other sibilants in the word.

Vowels

 * The sounds are rounded or unrounded according to the rules of roundness harmony. A vowel, usually the first vowel (that isn't /ə̃/) or the stressed vowel, dictates the roundness of a whole word.
 * [ɨ̃] and [ʉ̃] are the allophones of /ə̃/ before a schwa.
 * the legal diphthongs are /äj/, /äw/, /e̞j/, /e̞w/, /o̞j/, and /ə̃w/.
 * /e/ and /a/ are reduced to [ɐ] in the syllable before the stressed one, in a final unstressed syllable, and for /a/, in diphthongs.

Stress
Stress is placed on the antepenultimate syllable unless otherwise indicated by an acute accent in the romanizations.

Native script
The Kanduadas orthography, Pakaduasyel, is an abugida.

Writing direction
Pakaduasyel is written right-to-left in rows running top-to-bottom

Native ordering
Consonants: 0, L, S, P, M, B, R, T, D, H, K, N, G, U

Vowel marks: -e, -i, -o, -a, -ǫ, -ą, -į, -ai, -0

Transliteration
This page is written with the Latin transliteration (Spokaduasyel) shown below.
 * Digraphs:  (/ts/, /tʃ/),  (/u/)

Nouns
Nouns decline according to case, gender, and number.

Uol

 * Many nouns are singulare tantum, meaning they have no plural form. The third Uol declension can be used to force a singular reading, usually implying a specific singular object.

ex. Kyor [co̞ɾ], city (singulare tantum)

Mrapin
ex. Paso [pˠäsɤ̞], sauce

Drala
ex. Tsriba [tʃjiᵐbˠǝ], horn

Plural
ex. Galem [ᵑgäɫɐm], eyes (plurale tantum)
 * In general, the first plural is for Uol and Mrapin, the second for Drala, and the third for some Mrapin; however, this pattern is broken frequently.

Absolutive
The absolutive case is primarily used for the sole argument of an intransitive verb. It is also used for the subject of a ditransitive verb.

Ergative
The ergative case is primarily used for the subject of an transitive verb. It is also used for the direct object of a ditransitive verb.

Accusative
The accusative case is primarily used for the object of an transitive verb. It is also used with locative postpositions.

Dative
The dative case is primarily used to force a venitive reading of locative postpositions. It is also used for the indirect object of a ditransitive verb.

Ablative
The ablative case is primarily used to force an andative reading of locative postpositions. It is also used next to other nouns to mark compositional words.

Gender
Gender is an interesting topic when talking about the Chesnon or their languages. They have three genders. And this is reflected in Kanduadas. The grammatical genders are: Uol (with 3 declension classes), Mrapin (3 classes), and Drala (2 classes).

Chesnon are of course assigned the proper gender. Inanimate nouns are seemingly assigned at random or based on common derivational suffixes, and loanwords by form.

Number
The Kanduaian grammatical number system has quite a few quirks, most notably:
 * 1) Nouns changing gender between numbers, ex. soulą (m) "a throw" vs. soulam (d) "some throws"
 * 2) Nouns having multiple plural or singular forms (sometimes with slightly different meanings), ex. tsriba "a horn" vs. tsriboun "horn separate from a body"
 * 3) High numbers of singulare and plurale tantum nouns, ex. kior (sg) "city" & galem (pl) "eyes"

Pronouns

 * ex. Tekea ou pausén!
 * [ˈte̞ke̞ɐ ˈu pˠäwˈse̞ŋ]
 * 2s.ERG 1s.ACC hit-2s.PRET
 * You hit me!

Thematic vs. Athematic verbs
There are two conjugation classes in Kanduadas, thematic and athematic verbs. Thematic verbs, like mikuau "eat" are conjugated exclusively by endings which commonly contain the vowel a. Athematic verbs, like tsou "read" are conjugated with vowel changes and endings which do not feature the a so common in thematic endings.

Ablaut
There are two ablauts that athematic verbs go through in circumstances described in the full conjugation section. They are labeled first and second ablaut.
 * a>eu>ya
 * ą>ąu>į
 * o>a>i
 * ǫ>ą>į
 * ou>a>ye
 * i>au>i
 * į>ąu>į

TMA system

 * nonpast: used for current events.
 * past: used for past events.
 * Hypothetical: used for hypothetical events.
 * presumptive: used for events that the speaker supposes/supposed happen(ed). When combined with the nonpast, it forms one of the two future tenses.
 * volitive: used for events that the speaker wants/wanted to happen. When combined with the nonpast, it forms the other future tense.
 * imperative: used for commands and requests.

Dictionary forms
The lemma is the connegative form, typically ending in -(a/o)u. Also provided in standard dictionaries are the theme type, stem type, and stem itself.

ex. Souląu (athematic; regular nasal stem soulą-), "throw"

Athematic

 * Vowels in parenthesis appear on consonant final stems.
 * Past tense forms, the active participle, and the contemporary transgressive undergo first ablaut.
 * Presumptive and volitive future forms, conditional forms, and the 2nd person imperative undergo second ablaut.

Negation
Negation is shown with a connegative plus the negative verb.

Oudou [ˈuⁿdu], "don't" (athematic; irregular stem (h)ou(d)-)
 * ex. Nimo mikuau hir!,
 * [ˈɲimˠɤ̞ ˈmʲikwɐw ˈhiɾ]
 * MPROX-ACC.mra eat-CONNEG NEG-2.IMP
 * "Don't eat that!"

Examples
Tsou [ˈtsu], "read" (athematic; natural -ou type stem tso-)

Mikuau [ˈmʲikwäw], "eat" (thematic; -uau type stem miku-)

Demonstratives
There are no indefinite or definite articles. Instead, Kanduadas uses demonstratives. They decline as regular adjectives.

The Deictic positions are as follows:

Proximal: Anything that is close to the speaker.

Mesioproximal: Anything close to the listener.

Mesiodistal: Anything away from the speaker and the listener but still close by.

Distal: Anything away from the speaker and the listener and far away.

Adjectives
Adjectives typically come before nouns. They decline according to gender and case, not number. They are all regular.

ex. Sels, "joyous, friendly, chummy"

Adjectives also have positive and negative comparative (-ál/-óus) and superlative (-átel/-óutes) forms. ex. Tekea selsátela. "You are the most friendly one."

Adverbs
Adverbs are unusual in Kanduadas as they conjugate like verbs.

Syntax
Because of grammatical case and verbs showing person, Kanduadas is a pro-drop language and word order in Kanduadas is nearly completely free. Sentences are usually arranged Topic-Comment, but random ordering is used as a poetic device. Adjectives don't even have to be next to the nouns they modify.

Possession
Possession is shown by simple apposition in the order possessor-possessed.

Conjunctions
or (e), and (rį)

Numerals
Since the Chesnon have six fingers on each hand, it's fitting that most of their languages are base-12 (duodecimal/dozenal) instead of base-10, Kanduadas being no exception.