Kop`ll

Kop`ll is a language spoken by people who inhabit a fairly cold country perhaps surrounded by various seas or an ocean.

Notice* ''This is still currently very much a work in progress. Thus I apologize for mistakes and inconsistencies and ask that any who wish to contribute ideas to this language contact me first. ''

Classification and Dialects
A highly polysynthetic,   almost exclusively suffixal  language, with some aggulative qualities, consisting of two main dialects: inland and coastal, with minor phonetic differences only.

Phonology
Kop'll has six basic vowels: a i u o ə e, phonemically /a i u o ə e/, phonetically [ɐ i u o ə e]. The vowels can also appear long: aa ii uu... etc. When placed before or after uvular consonants q r ŋ  /q-ɢ ʁ ɴ /, short vowels are lowered allophonically to [ɔ e o.. etc] respectively. It is also notable that the close-mid front e is represented exclusively in the diphthong ye.

All suffixes are notated in one of the following three ways: ~x, -x, and +x. The ~x shows that x has no effect on the sounds before it in any way. -x shows that that x when suffixed, will replace the consonant or consonant cluster before it. +x shows that x will soften the consonant before it if said x is a forward, a, i... vowel or ya, yo... if said x is not a forward vowel then it will only effect more rear positioned consonants.

Consonants
Ejective consonants occur in many words including the present tense form of almost all verbs. The three possible ejectives are p`, t`, k`, and ll` respectively, though the most common are p` ll` and t` do to their relatively more forward positioning.

The m is shifted to the labio-dental position in the inland dialect, along with the j being shifted somewhat from the approximant to the fricative. The uvular approximant exists also only in the central dialect and is represented either with a normal r, or a double rr for clarification, though it usually only occurs adjacent to back vowels and it's original phonetic origin is uncertain; whether it is inherent of the language or a result of outside influence.

Consonant clusters of two sounds include, qlh, qll, ŋk, ŋb, ŋd, and lhŋ. Three sound clusters are limited to qlhŋ and kŋq only.

A doubled consonant represents either a geminated voiced obstruent before said consonant (usually unvoiced) or a germinate consonant itself, most often the latter.

Diphthongs
The possible diphthongs in Kop'll are ai̯, au, eo, and u̯i, as well as any number of other V+u combinations resulting from the use of the interrogative tense marker uu. Diphthongs are usually germinated with the second sound occasionally being stressed if it is in the front position.

Phonotactics
Basic syllables can be CV, VC, CVC, or an ejective consonant alone followed by a consonant C'C, (the p` in Kop`ll for example).

Nouns
Nouns have no morphological declension patters in Kop`ll. Number is indicated through the use of adjectives, or adjectival verb phrases. Definiteness can be expressed in some senses with the emphatic suffixial adjective -llott.

Nouns are however, able to inflect possession, as well as show there position as the topic, subject, and direct object within a sentence by the use of particle affixes.

Verbs
Kop`ll is very much a language of Verbs, having an extensive system of affixes. Verbs in Kop`ll conjugate for two tenses: present and past; seven aspects: perfective, perfect, habitual, continuous/progressive, gnomic, terminative, and continuative, all in both the past and present tense; and eleven moods: indicative, interrogative, imperative, volitional, causative, conditional, subjunctive, contemporative, participial, potential and necessitative; five voices: active, passive, middle, reciprocal, and valencial (indicates an animate or inanimate subject and/or topic). Verbs also agree with the person, in the form of suffixed inflectional pronouns and also regular suffixes. The infinitive form of all verbs ends in the labial-dental fricative, v, followed by an a. Most verbs are regular, though state-of-being verbs as well as a few other verbs maintain completely separate words for animate and inanimate subjects/topics.

The structure of a given verb is as follows: Bovat`okamaleyoŋaye...

"He's still able to go (to those two people) so..."

Perhaps, a more creative translation would be, "He's still managing to see both (Betsy and Jeanette) so..."

Tenses
Present tense for regular verbs is simply the infinitive plus ll indicating the present tense. Past tense is indicated by adding ŋŋk to the infinitive. These conjugations will be demonstrated using the verb bova, to go, conjugated for the indicative third-person animate non-human, (it), past and present.

Negation
Negation is accomplished by using the negation infix, -'''ŋya. '''In the present negative the tense marker is omitted.

Aspects
Aspects are somewhat simple to conjugate. They are placed before the tense marker in the verb. The following are all the different present tense indicative third-person animate forms of again the word bova in all seven different aspects.

Moods
Kop`ll has eleven moods, all of which are marked morphologically, typically after the person marker. The indicative mood is unmarked, being the common mood. Conjugation of the moods will be demonstrated using bova once again in the present tense third person animate form. Notice that the imperative, volitional, and contemporative moods all require various aspects and/or persons in order to be inflected. The imperative is inflected directly after the present aspect without person. The contemparitive requires that both clauses be in an imperfect aspect. The volitional requires the person to be the first person plural, or rarely it can show self-reflection when used with the first person singular, (ie Why don't I go?!).

Gerund
The gerund in Kop`ll is accomplished by adding the suffix -baye (not to be confused with the nominalizer baye) to any given verb in the present tense.

Additionally there are no supine or infinitive forms of verbs except in the verb rare case when a verb can be stripped of all affixes to reveal only the base and then function as a sort of gerund or infinitive in that sense, but this is very archaic and rarely seen in modern writing or speech. (ie bovall, go - bova to go) This is considered to be outdated and can be seen as offensive by some speakers of the coastal (more prominent) dialect.

The Interrogative
In Kop`ll forming interrogative phrases is relatively easy. Word order is preserved entirely and only the verb is inflected, with question words (what, where, etc..) preceding the verb.

Participle
Any verb in Kop`ll can function as a participle verb when affixed with the possessive partial and placed before the modifying phrase. Using bova, go as an example, bova+q+yai aiq(river) = bovaqyai aiq, or bova ŋ yai aiq in the inland dialect, meaning "the river that I go to" (incomplete sentence, participle phrase).

Pronouns
Pronouns in Kop`ll can only exist when attached to either a verb or the helping word baye as a suffix. Pronouns have both formal and causal forms.

Voice
Voice in Kop'll is inflected through the various pronouns, which are likewise used to mark person in verbs.

The Copula
The copula shows in essence, state of being. In Kop`ll the copula is as follows. The first term listed in each box is the animate with the latter being the inanimate. In sentences using the copula the subject is almost always dropped.

Nominative
The nominative case markers in Kop`ll are ~aŋ + iŋ, representing the animate, and inanimate forms respectively. They are seldom used in everyday speech and are only seen in formal writing.

Possessive
The case markers ~ai/ + yai (reflecting the animate and inanimate object respectively) are used to express possession, either figuratively or literally, of one noun phrase by a second noun phrase, by indicating that the noun preceding is the possessor, and the noun following is the possessee. Both the possessor and the possessee can be alienable or inalienable except in participle phrases.

Bayeŋyai gakagye.

(NMZ)(2P.SG)(POS.AN) pencil(COP.AN).

It's your pencil.

Objects, Locatives, Instrumental Cases
~ō, ~ŋiue, ~uye/ +yoye

The direct object(s) of a transitive verb is indicated by the object case ~ō. The general instrumental case is ~ŋiue, which can be translated as "using" "by" or sometimes "with": This particle also has other uses including "at" or "in" for not moving verbs (such as eating). The general locative cases are ~uye/ +yoye, representing the animate and inanimate forms respectively. They can represent a destination, as well as a location of existence, such as with on, or in as referring to some point in time.
 * Tokyoyoye bovaquhlhya.
 * Tokyo(LOC) go(PRES)(1P.PL)(VOL).
 * Let's go to Tokyo

Connective
The connective clitic/particle ~illi serves to join two or more nouns. It can also be used to convey the meaning of "with".

Coordinating
Coordinating conjunctions in Kop`ll are as follows.
 * ~oŋa
 * presents non-contrasting item(s) or idea(s) when suffixed to the very end of a verb ("They gamble, and they smoke.")


 * -llaqqa
 * presents a contrast or exception when suffixed to the very end of a verb ("They gamble, but they don't smoke.")


 * +aka
 * presents an alternative item or idea when suffixed to the very end of a verb ("Every day they gamble, or they smoke.")


 * ~uŋqa
 * presents an exception when suffixed to the very end of a verb ("They gamble, yet they don't smoke.")


 * -qiyak
 * presents a consequence when suffixed to the very end of a verb ("He gambled well last night, so he smoked a cigar to celebrate.")
 * In Kop`ll subordinate clauses must proceed the main clause on which they depend.

Syntax
The default word order for transitive clauses is SOV. Likewise for intransitive clauses the default is SV. Adjectives precede nouns and take a possessive affix in order to effect the noun. Adverbs are almost entirely suffixial and occur directly before the person marker in the verb, which comes last. Prepositions come last in the sentence as the final affix of a given verb or when used with the copula, after the copula.

Adjectives
Adjectives in Kop`ll are conjugated for tense only and come before there respective descriptee. The possessive particle is then used to link them to the given noun. All true adjectives in Kop`ll end in ŋ preceded by a vowel. For this example the word yakoŋ, cold will be used. Comparative adjectives can be formed by suffixing the ~iyeyo suffix onto the target noun which is "more (ie.) cold" the other noun in phrase.

Bayeqiyeyo bayeŋa yakoŋq.

(NMZ.1P.INFORML)(COMP) (NMZ.2P.INFORML) cold(PST).

You were colder than me.

Adjectives in Kop`ll do not require the copula to be used grammatically. They can function as stand alone, without needing a verb or copula to form a perfectly grammatically complete thought.

Adverbs
Adverbs (or adverbial clitics) in Kop`ll are incorporated into the verb directly before the person suffix. There are, strictly speaking, no actual adverbs in Kop`ll. An adverb is formed by affixed the suffix -yo onto an adjective or verb in the present tense. Using -maŋoŋ (weak) to demonstrate:

Poŋŋyoō ŋavall+maŋot+q. =

Poŋŋyoō ŋavamaŋoqq.

Fish(DO) eat(PRES.PERF)(NUM.2)(1P.SL.INFORML).

I eat fish weakly.

Number System
The Kop`ll number system is base eight. In order to show the number of given object, the number is either inflected before the person in a verb if that number is less than five, or the number comes after a noun using the possessive particle as it's own separate word, (a noun). The counter for people functions in a similar way with numbers less then five being inflected in the verb, and those greater than five existing as stand alone words.

Poŋŋyoō ŋavap`agaq.

Fish(DO) eat(CONT.PRES)(NUM.2)(1P.SL.INFORML).

I'm eating two fish.

Article 1 of the UDHR
"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."

 Kop`ll Translation: 

'Taŋaŋ aŋqaŋoilli tilluhttuŋiue maŋvaqokayaqeŋŋaŋoqquhlhŋ. Tadailli yoŋaqolhuyeŋ avaqoquhlhoŋa, bayequhlhakkauye makavallaqotoqquhlhyomaŋa.'

 Audio 

 IPA : '''tɑɴɑŋ aŋqɑŋɔiɫø tiɫəttuŋiuɛ mɑŋvɐqokɐʝɐqeyoŋɑŋɔyoqəɮ͜ŋ. tɐdɐiɫø ʝoŋɑqɔɮuʝɛŋ ɐvɑqɔqəɮoɴɑ, bɐʝeqəɮɐkkɐuyɛ mɑkɐvɐɫɑqɔtoʝoqəɮ͜ʝomɑŋɑ.'''

Morpheme-by morpheme : ''Taŋ~aŋ aŋqaŋo~illi tilluhttuk-ŋiue maŋva-qo-ll-kayaqet-ŋaŋot-quhlhŋ. Tada~illi yoŋaqolhu~yeŋ ava-qo-ll-quhlh-oŋa, Baye-quhlh-akka+uye makava-ll~aqotot-quhlh-yomaŋa.''

Gloss:

Human(SUB.AN) dignity(CONN) rights(INS) maŋva(GNO)(PRES)free(ADV)equalADV)(1P.PL.PASS). Reason(CONN) conscience(SUB.INAN) have(GNO.PRES)(1P.PL)(CNJ), (NMZ)(1P.PL)(RECP)(LOC) behave(PRES)brotherhood(ADV)(1P.PL)(NESS). (all formal forms of person)

Practical Examples
Aŋeyoye bovap`aqlhŋū?

where(LOC) go(CONT.PRES)(1P.PL)(INTR)

Where are we going? (Informal)