Karsaal

Karsaal language (correctly translitterated Karsaarh or better Karsaar'h, language of the people of Kar) is spoken exclusively in Haakhiir and Hmiir, although in this last country it is more often used a kind of dialect called Hmiir'm Karsaal, Karsaal of Hmiir. Actually the language is originally spoken only in the territory of Vahajk’tka, corresponding to the region of the city of Jharii.

Classification and Dialects
There are quite a lot dialects of Karsaal since there is a multitude of peoples that speak it. That's especially because it is recognized as lingua franca in all the territories inhabited by the Kars, a typology of humanoid beasts who, because of their peculiar physiognomy, can pronounce unique sounds and can not articulate others. Karsaal is a language set up among Halkars, humanoid cats living in the desert of Vahajk’tka, but sounds which are easy to be pronounced are not so simple for others, such as for humans, elves or other races. The most spoken dialect is what is called Hmiir'm Karsaal, or Karsal of Hmiir, which is very similar to the original Karsaal but is grammatically simpler but it is more difficult to be understood and spoken.

Karsaal belongs to the Karji languages, which are mainly spoken in the center-southern lands of Kahaymah, especially in Hakhiir. It is classified as a Southern language and since it comes from the Gajarn language it is part of the Southern-Gajarn languages, distincted from the Western-Gajarn languages.

Phonology
These are the sounds used only in the original Karsaal language. Addicted letters and other variations are not included.

Writing System
Karsaal's writing system could be simple as to each symbol corresponds a sound (more or less like in latin alphabet), but what makes it difficult is the large number of letters, which are 91 and a few of them may be easily confused with others.

The symbols were designed to be reproducible using a claw. That's because according to a legend, the gods of Halkars, which are similar to their creatures, wanted the mortals to be able to write down their thoughts and words. So the gods decided to invent symbols using their claws and show them to the people of Halkars. For each symbol they saw, they articulated a sound or stayed silent, so the gods invented at last 84 symbols and gave them to their creatures.

These 84 symbols are all found in Karsaal, but the remaining seven were added in early times by the elves (the people of Efathli, conquered by the Halkars at the end of the First Era) to be able to write the letters F, L, P, U, Ū, W and X, which are not present in the original alphabet.

The original alphabet is composed of 17 basic letters, called tzakōna (from tza, "symbol", and kōna, "beginning"). These letters are joined to other sounds (nakazjir), which can change the pronunciation of a basic letter and consequently its look.


 * In this table, there aren't shown all the sounds of each letter, but only the basic pronunciation when this is found alone (as the pronunciation may change according to other letters).


 * These sounds are an approximation: some speakers use slightly different sounds.

There are two more marks in Karsaal's writing system, transliterated with " ' " (apostrophe) and " - " (hyphen), which are put between a word and another (NOTE: these ones are not always used).
 * Apostrophe (tzaraje, from tza, "symbol", and raje, "composition"): in Karsaal, it is written by replicating the first sound of the following word and putting it in a high position. Most of the times, it indicates a composition of nouns (saaj'ktar is made of "freedom" and "war"), a negation (th'zgo, "I don't know") or sometimes a union between subject and predicate (jak'teka, "I come") or an abbreviation. It is also used in some declensions.
 * Hyphen (tzajhā, from tza, "symbol", and jhā, "connection"): in Karsaal, it is written like the "apostrophe", but in low position. Most of the times, it indicates a relation between name and adjective, verb and adverb or subject and noun phrase (jak-ka-ni, "I am free") or a conjunction. It is also used in some declensions.

Gender and Number
In Karsaal language there are two genders: animated and inanimate. It is quite simple to tell them apart: if the noun refers to a living creature (even a plant) it is animated, whereas the rest is inanimate. But according to Kar culture, some things that we would consider inanimate are actually animated: celestial bodies, rivers, lakes, seas and volcanos are considered animated things. That is because Kars believe they contain spirits that are able to move them, like living creatures.

There are four numbers in Karsaal: singular, dual, paucal and plural. In a sentence, the noun is inflected according to the number, but all the other parts of speech don't change (excepting pronouns). In fact, nouns and pronouns are the only parts that change in number.