High Kickish

General Information
Standard High Kickish (natively Qaisik [ˈ!ˀʌɪsɪkʰ]) is a language spoken by the Cittus (natively Sītul [ˈsiːtʰɯl̥]), buglike sapients from the planet Cittus-V (natively Gçēr [ˈᶢǂe̞ːɹ]) and one of the founding species of the Allied Intelligences. SHK is the standard variety, taught in schools.

Vowels

 * Diphthongs: /ʌɪ/, /ɛɪ/, /ɯɪ/, /ɯʌ/, /ɯʌː/
 * Triphthong: /ɯʌɪ/

Phonotactics
CV(F)
 * Word-initially C can be nothing, any consonant, click, or the clusters /sɹ/ and /sj/.
 * Word-medially C can be any consonant or click
 * V can be any short or long vowel, or any diphthong or triphthong
 * Word-finally F can be any stop, sibilant, or alveolar approximant
 * Word-medial clusters are limited to: /ɹt/, /lt/, /ɹtʰ/, /ltʰ/, /ɹk/, /lk/, /ɹkʰ/, /lkʰ/, /ɹts/, /lts/, /kʰs/, /ɹs/, /ls/, /tɹ/, /tʰɹ/, /kɹ/, /kʰɹ/, /tsɹ/, /sɹ/, /lɹ/, /ɹl/, /tj/, /tʰj/, /kj/, /kʰj/, /tsj/, and /sj/
 * Coda /ʔ/ and /ɹ/ don't occur after diphthongs.

Stress
To determine stress placement in High Kickish, one needs to learn about syllabic weight. A syllable containing a short monophthong and no syllable-final consonants is considered to be light, whereas a syllable containing any long vowel, diphthong, triphthong, or syllable-final consonant is considered to be heavy.
 * If the penultimate syllable is heavy, then it is stressed. ex. Sītul "Cittus"
 * If the penult is light and the antepenult is heavy, then the antepenult is stressed. ex. gqādarus "antennae"
 * If the penult is light and the ultimate syllable is heavy, then the ultimate is stressed. ex. ceħetā "speaking"
 * If the last three syllables are light, then stress falls on the penultimate. ex.  'ale "you (sg. fem.)"

Gender and Number
Genders are three: This is the regular declension, though some nouns break this pattern.
 * 1) Feminine: used for female Cittus and some inanimate objects. Shows singular, dual, and plural number.
 * 2) Masculine: used for male Cittus and some inanimate objects. Shows singular and plural number.
 * 3) Juvenile: used for juvenile Cittus who have not yet differentiated into male and female, and some inanimate objects. Shows singular and plural number.

Pronouns
Pronouns are a very recently closed subclass of nouns, inflecting for all of the same categories as nouns and even matching some nouns in form (e. g. the word for little one, "srā" is the ordinary 3s.juv pronoun). They are however also marked suppletively for three levels of deference.

Article
There is no indefinite article. The definite article inflects for gender and is placed after a noun.
 * The masculine definite article y attaches to the noun as a /j/, and in speech lengthens the typical masculine ending -i. If the y is bordered by consonants on both sides for any reason, it merges with the feminine article, ye. ex.  ' ergi y "the brother",  ' ergil ye gqi "with the brothers"
 * The definite article contracts to y- before a postposition beginning in a vowel. ex. tatāri y-ū "from the soul"

Verbs
Verbs have three conjugation classes and are a closed class of about 120. They conjugate according to four tenses (present, future, simple past, discontinuous past), two evidentialities (direct, indirect), two voices (active, passive), person and number of the subject, and deference to the listener(s).

Conjugation classes
Verbs may be one of three conjugation classes:
 * 1) u verbs: the largest class.
 * 2) ħ verbs: the verb stems can only end in a vowel or <'>.
 * 3) i verbs: the smallest class with the most irregular verbs.

Nonfinite forms
The citation form of verbs is the passive participle or gerund, which are identical. -ūd, -ħīd, -īd. There is also a supine used with auxiliary verbs and to mean "in order to verb". -utā, -ħetā, -etā.

Example regular verbs
Gūd [ˈkɯːt]: to give, gutā, guis Ceħīd [tsɛˈħiːt]: to speak, ceħetā, ceħeis Hēlīd [he̞ːˈliːt]: to arm, bring weapons, hēletā, hēlais

Passive
The passive/impersonal construction,

Adjectives and Adverbs
Adjectives and adverbs together form a closed but rather large set of prefixes.

Syntax
Case is not marked, so word order is very strict. SVO is the norm.

Noun phrase

 * ex. Gçēr ū Sītul ya
 * Cittus.V-fem.sg ABL Cittus-pl DEF-juv
 * the Cittus of Cittus-V

Verb phrase
Serial verb constructions are not unheard of.
 * ex. xhiceħīde
 * loud-speak-pass-dir.pres.3.sg
 * It is spoken loudly.

Formality
There are three primary registers of speech.
 * 1) deferential: used to signify unfamiliarity and respect to the listeners.
 * 2) ordinary: the unmarked register, safe to use anytime.
 * 3) slang: used to signify familiarity to the listener, whether that be respect as friends or rudeness.

Vocabulary
Because of differences in anatomy and physiology, many categories of words are very different from their Earthly counterparts.

Numbers
The Cittus typically crawl on all six limbs, but they do use their first two pairs of limbs for manipulation. On each foot they have three clawlike fingers and a clawlike thumb. Their counting base is twelve, achieved by counting the fingers of their manipulative limbs, not counting the thumbs, which the second set of limbs lacks. Numerals are masculine gender when used as nouns, and take the place of the definite article when applied to nouns. Some numbers change form when counting and the numbers 2, 3, and 4 have different forms for different genders.

Body Parts

 * head: dare
 * gnathal plates
 * teeth
 * eyes
 * antenna: gqādarus
 * chin
 * neck
 * breathing tubes
 * body
 * dermal armor
 * armor ridges
 * underside
 * arm: çhetēg
 * middle appendage: çhekūg
 * leg: çhelēg
 * wrist/ankle
 * claw/finger
 * thumb
 * toe
 * dewclaw

Colors
The Cittus live around a star which spits out more light in the ultraviolet than our own. They have adapted to see a wider range of color than us, granting them not three dimensional color like us Humans, but four dimensional color.

Directions

 * Also considered cardinal directions are up (ħīri) and down ('artē'ħi).

Example text
Laigesel ye lalūdra līkerde ut 'akya gqi qharīd srāl a 'idigqal ut līkerdel. Srāl gūdra qaicisūd a 'ħūsel ut rajakasutā syira 'ergal ji te' ū hicel ye çhai.

intelligent-f.pl DEF-f give.birth-PASS-NDIR.PRES.3p freedom-f.sg and equality-juv.sg COM regard-GER 3p.juv GEN dignity-juv.pl and freedom-f.pl / 3p.juv give-PASS-NDIR.PRES.3p smart-think-GER GEN ability-f.pl and proper-act-SUP should-NDIR.PRES.3p sibling-juv.pl FORM one ABL other-f.pl DEF-f BENE /

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. (Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)