Aratkoma

General information
Aratkoma is the official language of Aratkom.

Monophthongs
The y, u and o are rounded. All other vowels are unrounded.

* Pronounced like this when it is stressed

Diphthongs
There is one diphthong, au, which is pronounced /aʊ̯/.

Vowel length
I and É are long when they're stressed. Ê is only short when followed by at least two consonants. O, U and Y are long when they're stressed or when they're in the first syllable of the root. A and E are never long.

Alphabet
Aratkoma is written in the Aratkoma alphabet, which is shown in the picture together with its romanized form. It is written from up to down.

Phonotactics
The syllable formula is: (F)(C)(R)V(R)(C), with F a fricatve, C a consonant, R a consonant but not a plosive or an affricate, and V a vowel. A syllable cannot begin with three consonants. There can't be more than two vowels in a row and a consonant cannot appear twice in a row.

The stressed syllable is always the second last one, unless the word only has one syllable, when that syllable of course is the stressed one.

Cases
The Aratkoma language has five cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative and prepositional.

The nominative is used for the subject: (Qé tarça kartoder. I ate a fish.)

The genitive is used for possesion: (Ra neas byra mean. The man's house is red.)

The dative is used for the indirect object: (Ki terško capa girkuden. He gave some money to you.)

The accusative is used for the direct object: (Qé tarça kartoder. I ate a fish.)

The prepositional is used after all prepositions.

Nouns
There are four groups of nouns: masculine nouns ending on a vowel, feminine nouns ending on a vowel, neuter nouns ending on a vowel and nouns ending on a consonant. Nouns ending on a consonant are all declined the same way.

Some masculine nouns have a nominative singular ending on -i. The other cases have the same endings.
 * MASCULINE NOUNS ENDING ON A VOWEL

Some feminine nouns have a nominative singular ending on -u or -y. The other cases have the same endings.
 * FEMININE NOUNS ENDING ON A VOWEL

Some neuter nouns have a nominative singular ending on -é or -ê. The other cases have the same endings.
 * NEUTER NOUNS ENDING ON A VOWEL

Words from this group with a P within them are usually masculine. Other words with a S, a Š, a Z or a Ž within them are usually feminine. Other words with an A, an É, an Ê or an I within the are usually neuter. Most other words are masculine.
 * NOUNS ENDING ON A CONSONANT

Verbs
This table shows the conjugation of the verb posak, "to walk".

Passive
The helping verb mindok marks the passive voice.

Modality and irrealis
Modality is marked with helping verbs. However, the same helping verbs are, combined with a past infinitive, also used to express irrealis. How this works can most easily be explained with examples:

This can be done with all modal verbs, though these ones are the most common.

Adjectives
Adjectives are placed in front of the nouns and have the same endings as the nouns ending on a vowel.

The comparative is formed by the prefix kê- (kêt- before a vowel). The superlative has -lak- between the stam and the ending.

Articles
Aratkoma only has definite articles. The articles don't have cases.

Possessive pronouns
Possessive pronouns are declined as adjectives.

Numerals
1000 = kendor

10 000 = qybêm

100 000 = alas

725 396 = linalas koqybêm rêskendor marapoco palušto-kum

Word order
* : Helping verb marking passive

From verbs
Note that the infinitive ending -k should be removed before deriving.

From adjectives
* : The suffix -kêra can be used for all adjectives, but many of them also have another opposite which is commonly prefered.

Examples
Ra tulra nea posan šé a çistu, ñéte du vuré, em lautin.

The old man walks to the city, but he doesn't know where it is.

Ra krašçi lustoden.

The stone fell.

Pištêr ybêden kanto i has byryvras téu-qibek.

A bird flew by my stores display window.

Bar tu séu yzartak ékaran, ra tulra nea posaden a qu.

The old man that enjoys reading walked up to me.

Bar tu ho êta-zêrt hicêšerenen ra a byryvru, soca dzyt pažetek mindon a bar tu pošnea ékaran, byryvru ikéa partulrante ba.

A white cart which my aunt had gone to the store with is being transported to a store that no one really likes because it is just too old.