Kti

General
The Ktarh language (Kti: "ktehanarā", /ktɛxanaˈra:/) is one of the major languages on Oktarhazǣm. It is the most widely spoken Dnaric language, with several billion speakers. It is made up of several dialect clusters and one standard variety; the dialects are decreasing in usage due to official government policy. In actuality, Kti is defined as any speech form descending from proto-Ktarh; this definition doesn't include mutual intelligibility amongst the dialects, as the dialects from two distant points can differ quite a lot.

The Ktarh language (most often plainly called "Kti", sometimes called "ktehanarā") can be abbreviated to "kt. " in situations requiring the usage of its formal name (as shown in the tooltip).

Dialectically, Kti is divided into the following clusters and dialects:
 * - Dialects of Tanu
 * - Upper Tanarh
 * - Lower Tanarh
 * - Peninsular Tanarh
 * - Acrolectic peninsular (lingua franca)
 * - Basilectic peninsular
 * - Peripheric Ktarh
 * → Insular dialects
 * - Eastern dialects
 * → Coastal eastern
 * - Inland eastern
 * - Southern dialects

The acrolectic peninsular Tanarh dialect is usually taken as the closest form to standard Kti. This article describes the acrolectic peninsular Tanarh variety. All forms should be taken as standard unless specifically noted not to be so.

Vowels
There are six cardinal vowels (A E U I O Æ) each representing one cardinal phonemic value of /a ɛ u i ɔ ɞ/ and each cardinal vowel has two lengths that have minimal pairs and allophonic variants depending on position.

The vowels /a: ɛ: u: i: ɔ: ɞ:/ remain more constant to their value than their short variants.

They are organised as such in the vowel space:

Allophony
Each of the twelve vowels have allphones that are dependant on their position.

Diphthongs
Dipthongs are combinations of two vowels. They don't change according to position. They're counted as a single long vowel in length. When both a diphthong + peripherial vowel and a triphthong are possible, the former gets chosen over the latter.

The first component of the diphthong is always semivocalic.

Tripthongs
Tripthongs are combinations of three vowels. They don't change according to position. They're counted as an overlong vowel or as a dipthong + short vowel in length. Every triphthong has a central element.

Consonants
Kti has 12 cardinal consonants ( Sh, S, Z, Zh, K, T, D, H, M, N, R, ' ). They are distributed unevenly along five points of articulation, labial, alveolar, postalveolar, velar and glottal.

* These are allophonic variations of an underlying phoneme.

Allophony
The allophonic variations of consonants are far smaller than in vowels. The only consonants that have a variable pronounciation are /k/ and /x/.

Allophony of /k/
The realisation of /k/ as [k ~ kj] is an enviromental feature. [k] and [kj] are in complementary distribution before vowels.

/k/ is realised as [k] before /a/, /u/, /ɔ/ and /ɞ/ and consonants, while [kj] is seen only sometimes before /i/ and /ɛ/. In initial positions, [k] is always pronounced as such, and an analysis of [kj] as an allophone can be considered correct as [k] seems to be the underlying element and therefore the priviledged value.

Allophony of /x/
The realisation of /x/ is far more simple, as [h] is a simple allophonic equivalent of [x] as it occurs only in initial positions. Unlike [k] and [kj] which share one grapheme, [x] and [h] are differentiated in the orthography. Sometimes, when [x] is put instead of [h], it can be assumed that the previous word is linked with the current one via compounding, phrasing or some sort of derivation, therefore giving rise to certain minimal pairs that don't chage the meaning of one word but of a phrase; this phenomenon occurs only in very fast speech. The view that [h] is an allophone of /x/ is still held, though.

Dialectical Variation
The primary variations in Ktarh acrolects stem from two things:
 * 1) The different outcomes of the sound change which came around in the acrolect as "l > r > ʂ; ʂ > ʃ"
 * 2) The different outcomes of the sound change which came around in the acrolect as "{ m d } > $$\varnothing$$ / 'ɛ_aC#"

The first sound change might have happened differently, with results such as a contrast of /r ʂ ʃ/, /l r ʂ/, /l r ʃ/ and even a total levelling of /ʃ~ʂ/ - the acrolect preserves a contrast of /r ʃ/, with /r/ stemming from earlier /l/ and /ʃ/ stemming from both an earlier /r/ and /ʂ/.

The second sound change, much more limited in scope but far more influental in verbs than the first, was either applied or not. It has resulted in pairs of words such as "akemash" and "akēsh" (stemming from "akeash", often heard instead of the second word's prescribed pronunciation)

Phonotacics
Phonotactics of Kti is divided into syllable rules and combinatorics.

Syllables
Ktarh syllables have the following general structure:

Vowels in Kti always border a consonant. Vowels of equal weight can share control over a single consonant between them, thus having it belong to two syllables at once.

Syllables sometimes tend to "hoard" consonants taken from previous syllables, thus sometimes reaching three initials. These consonants, while theoretically part of the first syllable, phonetically become part of the second. It should be noted that a post-vocalic glottal stop resets syllable rules, thus always starting a new syllable after it.

The only allowed final cluster in Kti is /rx/ - it only occurs word-finally as it cannot be followed by a consonant. It stems from a syllable with an earlier, deleted vowel.

Stress
Prosodic stress is very syllable-dependant and there are relatively complex rules that are governed by syllable position and structure.

Stress is pretty regular in that it is generally found in the penultimate syllable unless something else happened. If the word is monosyllabilic, the stress is on the sole syllable. A syllable is counted as "light" if it has a short vowel, and "heavy" if it has a long vowel, diphthong or triphthong.

Stress in Kti follows these rules:
 * 1) Primary stress is always on one of the last three syllables.
 * 2) If all three ultimate syllables are either fully heavy or fully light, stress falls on the penultimate.
 * 3) If one of the three ultimate syllables is heavy and the rest light, stress falls on the heavy syllable.
 * 4) If two of the three ultimate syllables is heavy and one is light, stress falls on the first of the heavy syllables.
 * 5) Secondary stress always falls on the syllable that has a gap of one syllable between itself and the stressed syllable.
 * 6) By this, if the primarily stressed syllable is antepenultimate, the secondarily stressed syllable is always the ultimate.
 * 7) Secondary stress cannot fall on on the initial syllable except if it is heavy.
 * 8) Tertiary stressings occur in relation to secondary stress in the same conditions as secondary stress does to primary.
 * 9) Tertiary stress has a gap between itself and secondary stress of one syllable - if the secondarily stressed syllable is ultimate, tertiary stress falls on the syllable two behind primary stress.
 * 10) Tertiary stress, unlike secondary, can fall on the initial syllable regardless of its weight.

Combinatorics
Ktarh phonotactical combinatorics deals with combinations of vowels and consonant clusters. It deals with the conditions that must be met for the combination to be legal.

The rules are listed as such:
 * 1) /z/ and /ʃ/ cannot be next to any fricative
 * 2) /t/ cannot be preceeded by a nasal
 * 3) /t/ cannot be followed by any plosive except /ʔ/
 * 4) /d/ cannot be followed by any alveolars except /n/ and /ʃ/
 * 5) /a/ cannot be next to /ɞ/
 * 6) Geminates don't occur in roots.

Some of these rules might be violated by some core root words but otherwise are avoided in discourse.

Using these rules and the phonology, we can formulate the following combinations:

/md/ /mk/ /mʔ/ /ms/ /mz/ /mʃ/ /mʒ/ /mx/ /mr/ /mn/ /nd/ /nk/ /nʔ/ /ns/ /nz/ /nʃ/ /nʒ/ /nx/ /nm/ /nr/ /st/ /sd/ /sk/ /sʔ/ /sʒ/ /sx/* /sm/ /sn/ /sr/ /zt/ /zd/ /zk/ /zʔ/ /zm/ /zn/ /zr/ /xt/ /xd/ /xk/ /xʔ/ /xs/ /xʒ/ /xm/ /xn/ /xr/ /rt/ /rd/ /rk/ /rʔ/ /rs/ /rʃ/ /rx/ /rm/ /rn/ /tʔ/ /ts/ /tz/ /tʃ/ /tʒ/ /tx/ /tm/ /tn/ /dʃ/ /dn/ /dm/ /dr/

/ae/ /au/ /aɔ/ /aɛ/ /ua/ /uɛ/ /uɔ/ /uɞ/ /ɛi/ /iɛ/ /iu/ /iɔ/ /ɔa/ /ɔɛ/ /uɛ/ /uɔ/ /uɞ/ /ɞa/ /ɞɛ/ /ɞi/ /ɞɔ/ /ɞu/

Vowel combinations apply to long vowels as well.

* /sx/ is only theoretical and doesn't occur in practice. In actuality, the cluster /sx/ metathesises into /xs/ invariably.

Syntax
Kti is a Verb-Object-Subject language, which means that the first major/important word is (usually) the verb, followed by an optional object, then an optional subject. In Kti, adjectives come before nouns and pronouns, adverbs before verbs and p/articles mostly occur prior to the word they relate to, except when stated otherwise.

Kti differs from the norm of verb-object languages by having a few features most often rather found in object-verb languages:
 * Genitives in Kti usually precede that to which they relate, while possessives usually follow.
 * Adjectives in Kti are either prefixed to the noun or used as verbs if relating to something other than a noun.
 * Numerals and determiners usually preceede that to which they relate.
 * Question particles tend to follow the verb phrase (instead of being initial, as per norm).

Since Kti is an extensively case-marked language, it has such a freedom with the ordering of constitutents that it can undergo hyperbaton without consequence.

Kti is, generally speaking, a left-branching language with a sizeable amount of right-branching forms.

Ktarh verb-form adjectives conjugate as verbs but act as adjectives. An example:
 * "hsōrīrton + ī" (to be black + sky) > " ī" (black sky, it-is-black sky)

Pronouns
Pronouns in Kti are, in essence, fossilised nouns, repurposed postpositions and determiners, and semanitcally bleached "waste" words such as conjuncts and expletives - the second person pronouns are as a whole derived from a set of vocative particles.

They decline as inanimate nouns of the corresponding gender. Most pronouns have one suppletive stem for a specific case, either remnants of the old declensions, analogical levellings or more archaic forms.

Hover over each of the suppletive stems to see which is its specific case (you might even notice a pattern and some correspondences)

Nouns
Nouns are used to describe objects, beings, events and other things.

Declension
In Kti, nouns have multiple grammatical categories. They are as follows:


 * 1) Animacy
 * 2) Genders
 * 3) Number
 * 4) Cases

Animacy
Kti has a complex animacy system, with several levels of animacy (how sentient something is).

Animacy is usually divided into the following categories:

Dead: members of this group have been alive at an earlier point in time, but is no longer among the living.

Inanimate: members of this group have never been alive, and due to that fact they cannot die.

Critters: members of this group are unintelligent or semi-intelligent and alive, likely not aware of themselves.

Sentient: members of this grop are sentient, perhaps even sapient, and are capable of abstract thought, speech, logical thinking and reasoning.

All Ktarh nouns have an inherent lexical animacy - to change their animacy one would either decline them with the case suffix that encodes the desired animacy (in non-nominative situations), or use the following suffixes to change the animacy of the nominative:

×Sentient is considered the default animacy, inanimate and critter are not allowed.

Gender
There are three genders in Kti, masculine, feminine and mechanoid.

Both the masculine and mechanoid genders are lexical - they are inherent properties of nouns. Feminine nouns can usually be identified according to their endings, but it is not uncommon that a noun both has one of the endings and isn't feminine.

Gender in Kti is related to declensions and can sometimes be lexical. In some cases, gender functions less as a definite identification of actual gender and more of a marker of more vague nominal classes.

Number
Nouns in Kti distinguish three numbers, grouped into two sets.

The first set is the singular set, containing only the singular number. The singular, glossed , expresses the concept of one instance of something, or a complex in a state of unity (a rug of leaves, a field of flowers).

The second set is the set of multiples, containing the dual and plural.
 * The dual, glossed , expresses the concept of two instances of something, or a complex in a state of duality (eyes, stars in a binary system).
 * The plural, glossed , expresses the concept of many instances, a myriad.

There are no mass or uncountable nouns in Kti - all Ktarh nouns can be inflected for number although some may not show it in certain circumstances.

Types
There are two noun types in Kti: The difference in these two types is in how they behave under declension. Where regular-types just attach a suffix, clipping-type undergo an ablaut in the last vowel in the manner ~~. There are precisely determined enviroments in which this happens, but the nouns are random in their type placement. Full vowels are lenghtened ones, half vowels are short and null represents the lack of the vowel.
 * 1) Regular-type nouns
 * 2) Clipping-type nouns

These grades stem from an earlier seperate declension that had merged with the standard one. The "SPECIAL" stands for no change to the vowel, and analogical leveling has merged the grades of the Genitive, Identical, Ornative, Adventive, Possessive and Partitive.

Cases
The case of a noun or pronoun is a change in form that indicates its grammatical function in a phrase, clause, or sentence. Cases usually indicate relations between constitutents inside Ktarh sentences. Kti has an above-average amount of cases (28 cases) and each case has several markers as it is conflated with number, declension number, animacy and gender.

Kti, being a nominative-accusative language, has the nominative as the most often unmarked case.

Declining through Cases
As mentioned, the 28 Kti cases each have multiple declensions depending on their ending, containment of voiced/unvoiced fricatives, gender, animacy and others. The declensions are divided into three types: Masculine, Feminine and Mechanoid.

Changes such as fricative de/voicing, vowel removal, vowel change come in some cases. The following tables depict masculine: *Removes any vowels that might cause phonotactical troubles. Notes:

*If in contact with a vowel, the vowel is removed and suffix attached as represented ²The vowel indicated in the brackets is added if the suffix doesn't have contact with a vowel ³The consonant in the brackets is added if the suffix is in contact with a vowel

Case Usage
Each case has a primary usage it marks, and some cases also have additional, secondary meanings.

Nominative 
 * The nominative is primarily used to mark the subjects of many intransitive verbs and agents of many transitive verbs. That's its primary use; the secondary use is to mark inalienable possessions and, rarely, company (that is, it can function as a commitative and possessed case).

Genitive
 * The genitive is sometimes used to mark the "possessor" of immaterial things (emotions, opinions etc.) or things such as injuries. It can also be used to mark the material of something else, and the place and/or time of origin or occupation (house-NOM winter-GEN - winter home, home occupied during winters/home built during winter).

Dative
 * The dative denotes the recipient and beneficiary of verbs that have a higher transitivity than plain transitive. It also marks the subject in generic modal constructions where the attributes expressed are emotions, feelings or sensory inputs. Stacked on the accusative, it marks the direction towards which something is faced.

Accusative
 * The accusative marks the objects of transitive verbs, but also sometimes the subjects of intransitive verbs (for emphasis, occasional). It's also used to denote the direction towards something else is facing (when stacked with the dative).

Vocative
 * The vocative case has two primary functions, namely to call the marked entity, and to denote the subject of imperative verbs.

Instrumental 
 * The instrumental has two uses - to denote an instrument with which the action denoted by the verb is performed, and to denote the company in which the agent or subject performs the action denoted by the verb (instrumental and causative). It can also be extended to mark the instrument as a subject.

Locative
 * The locative has two uses - to mark the location at which some other entity currently is, and to mark the topic of conversation. While it doesn't actually fulfill the role of object, topics marked with the locative prevent an accusative object from appearing.

Reflexive 
 * The reflexive marks both the agent and object of transitive verbs when both are the same. It marks the verb for the mediopassive voice.

Intrative 
 * The intrative can be used in two ways: when attached to a dual or plural, denotes location between the instances of the marked word, but when several words are marked consecutively, it denotes location between them. The second form requires hyphenation in writing

Inessive 
 * The inessive denotes static location inside the modified word.

Subessive
 * The subessive denotes static location beneath the modified.

Ablative 
 * The ablative denotes two things - the first is motion from something, and the second is the object received from something (that's marked in the genitive)

Allative
 * The allative denotes two things - the motion towards and up to the modified word, and motion onto the top or topside of the modified word.

Delative
 * The delative denotes motion from the top of the modified word.

Elative
 * The elative denotes motion from the inside of the modified word.

Illative 
 * The illative denotes motion into the modified word.

Sublative 
 * The sublative denotes motion to beneath the modified word.

Perlative
 * The perlative denotes motion through the modified word (into and out of it).

Prosecutive
 * The prosecutive-vialis denotes both the path or way of motion, and method used to acheive a goal (seperate from the instrumental since the instrumental is specific to instruments and tools)

Antessive 
 * The antessive is the only temporal case of the set, and denotes that the action happens before that which is marked with it.

Abessive 
 * The abessive's basic use is to denote the lack of something or a state of contradiction. It is usually only used when stacked - when stacked with the core cases, it indicates that the action can't be fulfilled due to the lack of the marked; stacked with the genitive and possessive (only in their possessory function), it indicates that, while marked as a possessor, the marked now denotes former possession; stacked with the dative in its benefactory function, it denotes the malefactive. It can also be stacked with the motive cases to generally denote that the motion was supposed to happen but didn't, or the inability to take the marked path; stacked with the prosecutive-vialis denotes that a path other than the marked one was/is/will be used. Unstacked, what is marked with it can be used as a sort of an adjective, denoting that what it relates to lacks the marked.

Revertive
 * The revertive by itself marks location opposite or across an obstacle to that marked (house-REV stands factory-NOM = the factory stands opposite the house/across the street from the house), but when stacked with the possessive, it marks the same thing as a possessed case would. When with a non-singular or multipartite subject (and often with a verb of motion), it can be stacked with the prosecutive-vialis to denote that the subject's parts performed the action from opposite sides of the path (truck-DU-NOM drove road-VIA-REV = the two tracks drove on the opposite sides of the road); it can be extended with any case of motion to denote that the parts went separate ways.

Identical 
 * The identical case is usually only used when stacked - it is used to denote that the marked have one or more of their attributes very simmilar or identical. It can also be used as a translative case when used with a verb of motion and when used on both the subject and object (or on word marked with both the nominative and identical but doesn't denote a core argument). Unstacked, what is marked with it can be used as a sort of an adjective.

Ornative 
 * The ornative case is usually only used when stacked. It's limited in scope, but primarily denotes equipment or supplies (or even manpower) carried along for the performance of action, but there where the commitative cannot be used. It can also be used to denote decoration. To denote the equipment, it must be stacked onto the instrumental, but it also requires that the subject be marked with (in order) the nominative, possessive and ornative. To denote decoration, it must be stacked onto the nominative, but the decorated must also acquire a possessive marking. Unstacked, what is marked with it can be used as a sort of an adjective, denoting an instrument or resource that what it relates to possesses or is able to use.

Adventive
 * The adventive must be stacked with some other case - it denotes that what was marked for the role wasn't what had been planned beforehand (different route than expected, different subject than previously planned).

Possessive
 * The possessive basically denotes possessorship where the genitive doesn't (for tangible/material things, then for land (and territorial surface area and volume in general) and intangible goods (such as knowledge) ). Its additional uses are described above with the cases with which it stacks.

Partitive
 * The partitive denotes several things - interchangeably with the genitive, it denotes material, but also denotes a segment seperate from the whole (such as a cog from a machine).

Anessive
 * The anessive functions a lot like the base use of the abessive, except that, while the abessive marks that the lack of something obstructs performance of action, the anessive denotes that the presence of something obstructs, instead. It can only be used with the core cases and the prosecutive-vialis (where it denotes the inability to take the path). Unstacked, what is marked with it can be used as a sort of an adjective, denoting an unexpected and unwanted presence or abundance of the marked.

Adjectives
Kti has two types of adjectives: the independent and dependent adjectives. The primary difference between these types of adjectives is that the independent adjectives behave more like nouns and that the dependent adjectives can either function as verbs or as prefixes interchangeably.

Independent Adjectives
Ktarh independent adjectives are recognisable by their nominative <-arh> ending. Most independent adjectives found in Ktarh are nationalities, language names, ethnicities and such forms. Groups of people can be denoted by their independent adjective if the group as a whole was meant, or if the group the people belong to is one of their defining characteristics.

Independent adjectives decline as inanimate masculines. They are semantically closer to nouns than dependent adjectives and can be used as nouns.

Dependent Adjectives
Ktarh dependent adjectives are adjectives that can interchange between a prefix and a verb form. In their verb form, they conjugate as normal intransitive verbs, with the general meaning of "to be X". In their prefix form, they attach to the noun and force all declensional prefixes to come beforehand.

They have a template of:

The stem is the core semantic component of the dependent adjective, the suffix is its comparation degree and sign, the echo is the specific echoing of the stem's vowel and the ending is its formal ending. The suffix can be excluded if the degree is implied.

The suffixes are: The consonants in the brackets are added if the stem ends in a vowel.

They denote:
 * Positive excessive: denotes that the marked has more X than it maximally should or is expected to have
 * Positive superlative: denotes that the marked has the most X of all compared
 * Positive comparative: denotes that the marked has more X than that to which it is compared
 * Positive normal: denotes that the marked is or has X
 * Negative normal: denotes that the marked does not have or is not X
 * Negative comparative: denotes that the marked has less X than that to which it is compared
 * Negative superlative: denotes that the marked has the least X of all compared
 * Negative excessive: denotes that the marked has less X than it minimally should or is expected to have

The echo is, by quality, the stem's last vowel repeated. Its quantity depends on whether the stem ends in a vowel (thus making the echo short) or not (thus making it long).

The ending is either <-k> if the dependent adjective is in its prefix form or <-ton> if it is in its verb form. The verb ending may naturally be replaced with other verb endings, and the verb form of the adjective conjugates as any verb does.

Verbs
Verbs are words that describe action, the one who completes the action, time of completion and such.

The verbs are divided into auxiliary and main verbs. Acting auxiliary verbs are used to provide further morphological or semantic info about the main verbs. Main verbs represent the main action and make up the main body count of verbs.

Verbs in Kti are conjugated according to:
 * 1) Object gender
 * 2) Tense
 * 3) Number
 * 4) Person
 * 5) Voice
 * 6) Mood
 * 7) Aspect

Object Agreement
Ktarh verbs have a set of prefixes that agree the verbs to their direct objects only. This feature, called object agreement, gives Kti the status of a borderline polysynthetic language. The prefixes are:

Verbs in Kti agree to their object's gender and animacy - certain combinations lack a form.

These prefixes are optional only in cases when the object is present or previously introduced. If the object has been ommited, the prefixes are obligatory.

Tense
Tenses represent the temporal value of the referenced actions. Tenses branch into simple and more complex. Simple tenses are the basic tenses, self-sufficient and needn't have acting auxiliary verbs. Complex tenses use simple tenses of acting auxiliary and main verbs to be formed, and usually represent actions with certain parts in more than one time.

Among others, the most common tenses are simple present, past, and future tenses in Kti, each expressing their corresponding period, and there are tenses with multiple possible times (future/present for example) which, for example, describe an action which has started in the past and has finished at the time of utterance.

Basic Tenses
Basic tenses are formed by simple affixation to the verb. They are:
 * 1) Present simple
 * 2) Past simple
 * 3) Past aorist

Present Simple
A verb in the simple present (glossed "") describes an action which is happening or has begun now, at the time of utterance. Its perfective and imperfective aspectual forms provide marking for completion. The following table depicts the present simple of the copula (kin):

Because 'kin' is irregular, the table doesn't apply to other verbs, but only to 'kin'. The rules governing Present Simple are different. Let's take the verb 'to love' (kuhiton) for example:

As 'kuhiton' is a regular verb, its suffixes are by extension also regular - it shares its suffixes with other regular verbs. The suffixes for Present Simple are:

Past Simple
The simple past (glossed "") denotes the action happening prior to the present. The action in question may possibly have been completed but its goal wasn't accomplished thus being primarily atelic. The perfective and imperfective mark for the completion of the action. The verb 'kin' in the simple past:

The suffixes for the simple past are:

The verb "s'mnaraiton" (to speak a language) conjugated for all forms:

Past Aorist
The past aorist (glossed "") marks the action beginning in the past and having an unknown duration. It isn't marked for telicity - we don't know whether the goal was accomplished or not. The perfective and imperfective show whether the action can or will be completed or not.

And here is an examle of the verb "irineton" (to be infected with ...) conjugated for the past aorist:

And here are the endings:

If the suffix begins in a long vowel and is attached to a word with a short final vowel, the final vowel is replaced by the suffix's long vowel; if the suffix begins in a short vowel and the word ends with an incompatible short vowel, the suffix's vowel either transforms into the word's final vowel or an excrescent /x/ is added between the two. If the word ends with a long final vowel and the suffix begins in a vowel, an excrescent /x/ is added between the two.

Complex Tenses
Complex tenses are formed via the basic verb forms. These tenses use acting auxiliary verbs in combination with the main verb.

The complex tenses are the Pluperfect, the Future, the Present Periodic, the Past Periodic and the Future Periodic.

Pluperfect
The pluperfect (glossed "") marks the action as happening prior to or at the same time as another action to which it is relative. Standing alone, it indicates a remote past, or rather, has a historic meaning. It is constructed in two ways: it has a compound and an analytic form. Both forms in their basis have the semantically bleached verb "daraton" in the past simple (with a minor variation) and the main verb either in the aorist or present simple (varies from verb to verb) for the analytic form, or its stem in the compound form.

This is the verb "kin" in both forms:

The basic formula is:
 * 1) "daraton" + VERB (/)
 * 2) STEM + "daraton"

Future
The future (glossed "") marks the action as taking place in the future (as in not having happened yet or isn't happening at the moment). It is formed with the optative copula "dūston" in the present together with the present of the verb. It only has an analytic form. The verb "kin" in the future:

An interesting observation on the future of verbs is that the auxiliary part rhymes with its content part (conjugated verb) as they have the same endings. The verb "kuhiton" in the future:

Past Periodic
The past periodic (glossed "") marks the action as happening in increments in the past, but looked at as a whole. The division may be temporal in nature, but also might be structural. It has two forms: an analytic and a synthetic form. The analytic form is formed by conjugating "hdæton" in the past aorist and the main verb in the present, while the synthetic form requires the main verb to be conjugated in the past aorist and  to be prefixed onto it.

The verb "damǣton" (to connect oneself to/with sth.) in both forms of the past periodic:

Present Periodic
The present periodic (glossed "") marks the action as happening in increments at the time of speaking, but looked at as a whole. The division may be temporal in nature, but also might be structural. It has two forms: an analytic and a compound form. The analytic form is formed by conjugating "hmōton" in the compound pluperfect and the main verb in the present, while the compound form requires the main verb to be conjugated in the present and  to be prefixed onto it.

The verb "rūrkaton" in both forms:

Future Periodic
The future periodic (glossed ) marks the action happening in increments of time, usually beginning after the time of speaking. The division may be temporal in nature, but also might be structural. It only has one form, the compound form, made by conjugating the verb in the present and prefixing  onto it.

The verb "suraton" (to choose by vote, to elect) in the future periodic:

Past Inceptive
The past inceptive (glossed ) marks the action to have begun in the past but is still ongoing at the time of speaking. It is formed by suffixing <-(h)ū> to the past aorist.

The verb "skakaton" (to wander, to walk without aim) in the past inceptive:

Voice
In grammar, the voice (also called diathesis) of a verb describes the relationship between the verb and the participants identified by its arguments.

Mediopassive Voice
The Mediopassive voice represents an action that "just happened by itself" and refers almost exclusively to negative actions. An example in English would be "The glass broke".

The mediopassive is recognised by taking only one core argument in the reflexive.

Mood
Grammatical mood is one of a set of distinctive forms that are used to signal modality. Moods vary in their usage and purpose. In English, the Imperative (I command you to  eat ! ) is substantially different from the Indicative (John ate  apples), although this doesn't apply to all languages. Moods are divided into the Realis and Irrealis moods.

Realis moods
Realis moods are a category of grammatical moods that indicate that something is actually the case or actually not the case (Cats are fast, Mary didn't cry). Kti realis moods are the Indicative, Speculative, Generic, and the Implicative moods.

Indicative
The Indicative mood designates an action that is or isn't the case.

Generic
The Generic mood describes an attribute of something. This can be shown in the senteance 'Cats are fast', where the verb 'to be' is in the Generic mood. Here, it too doesn't have a special verb form to represent the Generic.

The pattern for the Generic mood follows:

where the Patient can be 'Cats' and Attribute 'Fast', where 'To be' can be in any tense, voice, person etc. The example 'Cats are fast' would be transformed to 'Are fast cats'.

Note: You can only take the active voice for the Generic.

Speculative
The Speculative mood describes an action that might be true, but may not be, too.

It is formed by adding the following suffixes:

Irrealis moods
Irrealis moods are the opposite of realis moods, as in they don't indicate that something is or isn't the case. This can be represented in the following senteance: 'Go eat! ' where the verbs 'to eat' and 'to go' are in the imperative.

Kti Irrealis moods are the Imperative, Conditional I, Conditional II, the Obligative and the Impositive moods.

Imperative
The Imperative mood indicates a command or obligation. It can also indicate a request.

You can form the Imperative by taking the present simple of the verb in the active voice, either the first or second person, then add the suffixes corresponding to the ending:

If the verb root ends in the vowel '-i', add '-re', but if it ends in a consonant, add '-an'.

Conditional I
Conditional I, or as it is commonly written, the First Conditional, is one of two possible conditionals. The first conditional represents an action whose needs haven't been fulfilled ( Snails would be fast if they were to evolve jet engines and wings to lift off and fly away ). It is represented this way:

O- => VERB => Ne => CONDITION(S)

Here, 'O- ' is the prefix which denotes the first conditional, you probably know what 'VERB' is, 'Ne' is a special word just for the conditionals, and 'CONDITION(S)' come afterwards. If you have multiple conditions, you will need special rules to make a phrase which makes sense:

CONDITION 1 => æt => CONDITION 2 => ...ad infinitum

The word 'æt' is a connector which links the conditions, it would roughly mean 'and', but has a much narrower meaning.

Conditional II
Conditional II, or as it is commonly written, the Second Conditional, is one of two possible conditionals. The second conditional represents an action whose needs have been fulfilled ( John ate because he was hungry ).

It is repesented in the following manner:

Ra- => VERB => Ne => CONDITION(S)

Here, 'Ra- ' is the prefix which denotes the second, you should know what 'VERB' is, 'Ne' is a special word just for the conditionals, and 'CONDITION(S)' come afterwards. If you have multiple conditions, you will need special rules to make a phrase which makes sense, and these rules are shared with the first conditional.

Technically, in both conditionals, you could remove the binding word, but it's not common.

Obligative
The Obligative mood expresses a notion simmilar to English "ought to..." or "should...". There is no specific translation of obligative verbs.

The Obligatives of verbs are formed by adding prefixes according to the following rules:

Impositive
The Impositive mood expresses something like English "are supposed to..." or "be expected to...".

The Impositives of verbs are formed by adding a marker after the verb. The following pattern demonstrates the forms of the marker:

Aspect
The aspect describes a temporal flow of a verb, or a lack of the same. Aspect can be explained in English with the senteances 'I eat' and 'I am eating'. The first one is nonprogressive while the other is progressive.

In Kti, the aspects are Perfective and Nonperfective. These aspects aren't usually distinguished on a morphological level, but the aspect is embedded into their meaning.

Perfective Aspect
The perfective aspect describes an action which cannot go on forever. In English, it would sound like: 'I finished eating'. To make a nonperfective verb perfective, suffixes can be added at the very end of the word. This can be shown in the following example: 'Kuhinirai' would roughly correspond to 'I loved but it's finished/but I do not love anymore'. The verb can be in any tense, any voice, mood or person to be changed.

The suffixes are:

'-rai' if the verb ends in a vowel,

'-am' if the verb ends in a consonant,

'-deku' if the verb contains a glottal stop and ends in a vowel,

and '-iti' if the verb contains a glottal stop and ends in a consonant.

Imperfective Aspect
The imperfective aspect describes an action which can go on forever. In English, it would sound like: 'I am eating and I can continue eating indefinately'. It isn't possible to make a perfective verb imperfective, as that would sound like: 'I am going to sit down and sitting down will go on forever', but making imperfective verbs out of simmilar perfective verbs is described inside the section of derivation.

Extra
The extras of Kti's verb system fit in here if they don't fit in other categories

Formality
Kti doesn't have a formality system present in any of its morphological paradigms, but features some remnants of an older system remain in the syntax and lexicon; it's generally considered polite to put the verb in initial position (the normal unmarked form in the language, although it is to a large degree nonconfigurational) and to put the verb before its complements (to further emphasise the verb-initiality).

Compounding and Derivation
Kti, being a language artificially kept in place, almost never tolerates new word formation, therefore to transmit information not formally possible with pre-existing words, word synthesis and derivation are heavily relied upon. Derivation is used to form new words from old ones.

The methods are divided into five categories, complexity ascending: Simple Compounding, Complex Compounding, Simple Derivation, Advanced Derivation and Inversion.

Simple Compounding
The method of simple compounding deals with one nominal word or a verb fused with non-nominal or non-verbial word. Sometimes, due to the nature of syllable structure, additional processes operate.

The process of simple compounding deals primarily with choice of the two words. To understand the choice, one must understand the types of words:

The only words not meant for simple compounding are conjuctions. All other words are eligible for every form of derivation. The only limiting factor in simple compounding is the limited choice of words. If the second word's initial syllable contains two consonants that aren't in a cluster, and the first word ends in one consonant, the second word sheds the first consonant. If both words at the compounding border have only one consonant, the last consonant of the first word dissapears.

Simple compounds can only form with words of differing classes - nominals cannot compound with other nominals by way of simple compounding, but by way of complex (same applies to verbals and particles).

Simple compounds are always head-initial and are made up of only two elements. A specific subtype of simple compound is the noun incorporate.

Noun Incorporation
Kti employs a simple system of noun-incorporation, incorporating nouns which relate to objects into verbs to narrow the verb's scope down and make the object use a more general term, or sometimes, in cases of simple objects, directly incorporating the object.

Noun incorporation in Kti is strictly Verb-Noun and head-left, so that incorporatives such as "pick-pocket", "draw-knife", "chop-tree" are well-formed and behave as normal verbs. Noun incorporation in Kti decreases syntactical valency by one per incorporation, so that bitransitive verbs become monotransitive, monotransitive become intransitive.

There are certain cases where certain simple intransitive sentences can go through incorporation to become impersonal, although such demotions occur only in cases of inanimate subjects.

A good example of noun incorporation is this:

"Nukartei sarum" > "Nukartei"

Both sentences translate to "I drink water", but the first has a seperate object, unlike the second one, which incorporated said object. Both of these sentences are valid.

There are certain irregular incorporated nouns which correspond to outside nouns; also, there are certain cases where noun incorporation doesn't lower valency (tree-cut, when relating to a specific kind of tree).

When noun incorporation results in semantic expansion, no valency decreases occur. A good example:

"Nukartei kæmasarum" > "Nukartei kæmum"

The first sentence means "I drink sugar-water", while the other means "I water-drink sugar"; in this case, "water-drinking" sugar comes to mean "to drink sugar with water". Likewise, " to bread-eat butter" would mean "to eat butter with bread" in English.

Incorporated nouns are always in the nominative, and are inserted after the verb root. If the incorporated nouns formerly forced the verb to take up a gender-animacy marking, the marking is dropped (only happens when there's nothing else to take up the marking).

Incorporates ignore the dropping of consonants.

Complex Compounding
Complex compounding is a process different from simple compounding in that it is used to create words out of components that otherwise belong in the same word class.

Subpages

 * →  Ktarh Naming System
 * →  Ktarh Literature
 * →  Ktarh Dictionary