Khanic

Khanic (H̱aní, [xaniː]) is a language isolate spoken by several nomadic tribes living in the Greater Khingan mountain range in the Manchuria Khanate of Khingan. With only 5,000 to 6,000 native speakers, it is considered a definitely endangered language. It is a recognized minority language in the Machuria Khanate of the Khingalese Confederation and efforts are being made to preserve the language, mainly by trying to textualize it and create reference grammars.

Classification and Dialects
Due to the lack of knowledge about the language it is believed to be a language isolate, meaning that there are no other languages related to it. However, some linguists argue that Khanic might related to the neighboring Mongolic languages, especially Mongolian and Manchu. Due to the tribes’ geographic locations, the Khanic language may consist of two main dialects: Eastern Khanic and Central Khanic.

Consonants

 * Before /k/, /g/, /x/ and /k͡x/, nasal consonants are realized as a velar [ŋ].


 * Between vowels, /r/ is often reduced to [ɾ].


 * At the end of a syllable or when geminated, /k/ is pronounced [q].
 * Before other consonants, /ɸ/ is realized labiodental ([f]).

Vowels

 * The schwa can replace a vowel in unstressed syllables.

Diphthongs
Possible diphthongs in Khanic are /au/ and /ai/, which are pronounced [aɪ] and [aʊ], respectively.

Phonotactics
The syllable structure is as simple as (C)(C)V(C)(C), meaning that every syllable has to contain an obligatory nucleus in form of a vowel. Before and after it simple consonants or consonant clusters can occur. However, such clusters may only consist of an obstruent and a sonorant (for example /rt/).

Writing System

 * Geminant consonants are written double.
 * Long vowels are written with an acute accent and overlong vowels with a double acute accent.

Nouns
While lacking prepositions, Khanic makes extensive use of its case system. It features 10 cases, whose endings can be categorized into two declension groups. The usage of each declension group depends on the final sound of the respective noun. Apart from cases, Khanic nouns are inflected to show grammatical number, which is often marked through apophony or consonant mutation. The Khanic language does not distinguish between grammatical genders. All declension charts are based on the eastern dialect.

First Declension
Nouns belonging to the first declension group end in consonants. Plurality is often marked through vowel lengthening or gemination. The following chart shows the declension pattern of the nouns múd (= "tree") and agun (= "day"):

Second Declension
Nouns belonging to the second declension group end in vowels. Plurality is often marked through vowel lengthening, apophony or consonant devoicing. The following chart shows the declension pattern of the nouns gara (= "house") and ini (= "nine"):

Verbs
Verbs in the Khanic languages are conjugated by person, number, tense, mood and aspect. Each tense, mood and aspect has their own ending added to the verb stem, making Khanic an agglutinative language

Tense
Khanic features three tenses: present, past and future. While conjugation by person is marked with a prefix, other features like tense or mood are marked with suffixes. Aspects, such as the perfective or progressive aspect, are shown by using auxiliary verbs. The following chart shows the conjugation of the verb sarta (= "to work") by person, number and tense in the indicative mood:

Mood
Verbs also feature what is called grammatical mood, which are used to express a speaker's attitude towards an action. While most moods can be used freely (for example, the subjunctive mood is used with imaginary or hypothetical actions), the conditional mood is exclusively used in conditional sentences. Lastly, the interrogative mood is used when asking questions. The following chart shows the conjugation of the verb míra (= "to eat") by person, number and mood in the present tense: The indicative mood has no separate suffix.

Example: "John would eat if he were hungry." = Iban mírasa, fi urit baqara.

As seen above, personal prefixes can be omitted if the subject of the sentence is obvious from the context. Furthermore, dependent clauses are always introduced with the subjunctive particle fi, which acts like English "if".

Aspect
In Khanic, like in English, aspect is signaled by auxiliary constructions. It distinguishes between two aspects: progressive and perfective. The progressive aspect marks an ongoing action, and the perfective aspect a completed action viewed as a whole (mostly of importance for the present). Both are indicated by using auxiliary verbs; una (= "to have") is used for the perfective aspect, and fara (= "to do") for the progressive aspect. The following chart shows the conjugation of the verb ya'a (= "to go") by person, number and aspect in the present tense: As seen above, the progressive aspect uses the present tense suffixes while the perfective aspect uses past tense suffixes.

Example: "I have been at home all day." = Ana baqu garas agun úl.