Kelantepan

General and Cultural Information
Kelantepan (natively na lüda Kälamtäparya or Kälamda /kjælʌmdʌ/) is a language spoken by the alien Patronans (Gänämar, lit. "Thinkers"). on the continent Suk’adüm in the cold south of Patrona (Püjupä) by the Kelantepans (Kälamtäpar), a name which means "Fire-people". The Kelantepans, despite (or perhaps due to) their cold environment, worship fire, the sun, and volcanoes.

Consonants

 * 1) The sequences /kj/ and /gj/ are more common than the bare /k/ and /g/ and are treated as single consonants.
 * 2) /r/ is a raised retroflex approximant, sounding approximantly halfway between [ɻ] and [ʐ]. It is devoiced before a voiceless consonant.
 * 3) /n/, /t/, /d/, /s/, /z/, and /l/ are retroflexed after /r/.

Vowels
This strange vowel system actually originated as a very simple five-vowel system, having undergone a massive counter-clockwise shift.

Phonotactics
(C)V(/m/, /r/);

min: /u/; max: /kjær/
 * Syllable-final /m/ assimilates to the place of articulation of any following consonant in all but the most careful speech.
 * /w/ doesn't occur before /u/ or /y/.
 * /j/ doesn't occur before /e/ or /y/ except as a part of /kj/ and /gj/.
 * Consecutive vowels are in separate syllables.
 * No more than three consecutive vowels are permitted. If a four vowel sequence arises, the second vowel in the sequence is dropped. ex. due+agü=dueagü "you two's stomach", but due+äemse=duäemse "you two's hands".

Stress
Primary stress (in the form of a high pitch and higher volume) is always on the second syllable of a word, with secondary stress (also high pitched) on every other syllable after that. ex. Kälamtäpa [kjæˈlʌntæˌpʌ]

Writing System

 * Adding an apostrophe on  and  negates the inherent /j/. ex. g’amlu /gʌmlu/ "my eyes"

Noun class and number
Kelantepan uses an inverse number system, where the noun class of a noun determines which numbers receive markings. There are five noun classes in Kelantepan. The first is used exclusively for proper nouns, the second for animate common nouns, the third and fourth for inanimate common nouns, and the fifth for mass nouns and abstract nouns. The inverse number marker is a suffixed r after a vowel, -rä after a consonant, which appears after any case marking. Singular number is used for a single thing, dual is used for two things, and plural is used for more than two things.

Case
Kelantepan has many cases, represented by suffixes placed after any inverse number marker.

Inalienable possession
Inalienably possessed nouns are those which always have a possessor, like family members, body parts, and part-whole relations. They are obligatorily marked for their possessor using prefixes.

Anomalous suffixes
Some Kelantepan nouns have parts which are appended to the end of a noun, even after any grammatical suffixes. ex. ühä-de "a vision", ühäwäpemde, ühädade, etc. These are either parts of the root or the occasional derivational suffix.

Nominal derivations

 * Agent: -ma, gähäma "fighter"
 * Patient: -ü, tenareü "thought"
 * Instrument: -näm, purnemenäm "calculator"
 * Diminutive: -se, päjese "pebble"
 * Augmentative: -su, päjesu "boulder"
 * Instance: anomalous -de, turjä-de "pain"
 * Location: -(a)rca, bäudarca, "school"

Pronouns
The pronouns are of the same form as the possessive affixes, with a couple of exceptions. They can be marked for each case just like any other noun, but in the nominative/genitive case they receive a suffix -e. The third person singular pronouns are demonstrative pronouns, with gee meaning "this one" and nae meaning "that one".

Determiners
Determiners are placed before nouns. They include articles, demonstratives, quantifiers, and numerals (discussed in the vocab section).

Articles
Articles are undeclinable particles. The indefinite article is a null morpheme. The definite article is na. There is also an interrogative article lum which indicates that the noun is what is being asked about in a sentence. It cannot be used with pronouns.

The articles are used even for abstract nouns, where they are normally avoided in English (na debä "love").

The use of the definite article is optional with case-inflected nouns when modifying other nouns, and with some proper nouns. And if a phrase is repeated many times in a passage, the definite article does not need to be repeated each time.

Demonstratives
Demonstratives match the case marking of the nouns they mark.

proximal (ge na), distal (na na)

Quantifiers
Kelantepan's continuum of quantifiers is broken up symmetrically.

no/none (wä(m)), very few/almost no/small minority (yä(m)), some/few/minority (jama), many/small majority (paer), most/almost all/vast majority (mezu), all/every (ulula)

Distributives
any (kea na)

Verbs
Verbs conjugate according to aspect and evidentiality.

Affix order
Stem-Evidence-Aspect
 * Turjäa lum gee. "Is this hurting?"
 * Turjätelu. "Sometimes I feel it hurt."
 * Turjäte warnä. "I'm not hurt!"

Copula
The copula "to be" is expressed as a null morpheme, though it still conjugates normally. It never completely disappears from a sentence as it is not allowed to be in the perfective aspect. ex. Mea nue na elezuya se ü. "I hear you might be the chosen one."

Particles
There are many particles indicating grammatical mood, polarity/intensity, and speaker attitude. They can be appended to any clause.

Moods

 * indicative (0),
 * optative (hace),
 * subjunctive/protasis (se),
 * conditional/apodosis (ele),
 * hypothetical (ähu),
 * imperative (ne)

Polarity
The polar particles show the truth value of the statement, and have alternate 'intense' forms. The intensive affirmative particle is identical to the imperative particle and the negative particle is identical to the negative quantifier.
 * affirmative (0),
 * intensive affirmative (ne),
 * negative (wä(m)),
 * intensive negative (warnä)

Emotion
The Patronans have a very alien system of emotions. These six are the only emotions they have, and the emotions and equivalent body language are completely cross-cultural. Patronans only experience emotions as a result of specific events, and if the event is done and not being thought about, then the emotion it created is gone as well. This means that Patronans are usually in an emotionless state, and switch between emotions very quickly. These particles are not used in professional/academic writing.
 * happiness/enjoyment (bu),
 * disgust/hatred (kata)
 * curiousity/wonder (ü),
 * surprise/fear (äe),
 * sadness (dam),
 * romance (hum)

Syntax
Kelantepan is a purely right-branching language.

Verb-Subject-Object-Obliques-Mood-Polarity-Emotion Kelantepan is a pro-drop language, so pronouns disappear if they can be inferred from context.
 * ex. Debätea g’ae nuya camesewäpem ele ne hum. "I would love you unconditionally."

Numbers
Kelantepan numbers were base-18 before introduction of octal mathematics by the Alemarese, and the number words up to 19 remain. Zero was also introduced by the Alemarese.
 * Numbers in the ones place are usually just placed after the eights place and separated by a hyphen (e.g. 45 sampüta-sam). However, the multiples of eight plus one, except for 9 and 17, are formed with the suffix -ke. ex. 40 sampüta, 41 sampütake, 42 sampüta-dur
 * Multiples of 18 have two names: a base-18 version formed from the non-18 factor followed by -kukum (3 becomes um-, so 54 is umkukum, not *umgükukum), and an octal version. ex. 36 (2018/448) durkukum or ärsampüta-ärsam.