Karahien

General Info
Karahien is directly descended from Afrikaans, and is spoken many years in the future by a growing community outside of Karasburg, Namibia. While Afrikaans was spoken by about 11% of the population in 2015, the isolation of speakers led to rapid evolution of the language and the eventual designation as a separate language, rather than a dialect of Afrikaans. The language has kept evolving since, and eventually spread back to South Africa, where it settled once again in the Northern Cape.

In Karahien
Karahien direkdevertsokt vân Afrikaans, en is jetset do an groente nedelpo bvit Karasburg.

Formatting Conventions
The formatting conventions for this article and all my future languages are described in COA's Underwater Reclusary

Is there a case system?
While Afrikaans doesn't have case declension, this language aquired a dative when people stopped making a distinction between  on baok and onbaok, and other similar constructions with other words.Therefore, it is still technically a prepositional phrase, but for all intents and purposes it is a dative case, because it came to be used even when the preposition to was not needed. Analogous to this is the locative case. Kontraufundemente, genitive and instrumental cases can technically be formed, but they do not see much use at all (if any)

Sound Changes
Sound Changes From Afrikaans
 * P - Plosive 
 * F - Fricative 
 * V - Vovel 
 * C - Consonant
 * L - Liquid
 * N - Nasal
 * M - Non-Plosive/Affricate Consonant
 * A - Affricate
 * X - Any Sound
 * Q - Affricate, Plosive, Fricative, Nasal
 * R - Rhotic

''First and foremost, distinctions between long and short sounds are eliminated. Some sounds were eliminated and replaced by others. Conflicts with these new sounds are quickly resolved''
 * m > n
 * ʒ > ʝ
 * ʃ > ɬ
 * sχ > ɬ
 * χ > ç


 * h > t͡ʃ

''Next, vowels undergo significant changes. Among these is that vowels before /r/ become long and the /r/ changes to /ə/''
 * ie > i / _r
 * ie > ai / (b, d)_ (also grants immunity from further sound changes)
 * ie > iə (also grants immunity from further sound changes)
 * i > ai / #_
 * ɵu > ɤ
 * o > ɤ / _P
 * o > ɔ
 * u > ɤ ! _#
 * u > ɔ
 * a, ɑ > ɐ
 * VR > V:ə / _C

Next, sound changes occur through different pronunciation of certain consonants and occasionally changing order of sounds
 * ig > ai
 * g > dʒ / #_
 * g > ʝ / _(i,e)
 * b > v / #_
 * s > ts / #_V
 * Fs > ts
 * sF > ts
 * QVL > QLV (Q cannot be t or d)

​

VCi's become a thing (This is by no means 100% applicable)
 * CɐC > CæC / _#
 * CeC > CɛC / _#
 * CɔC > CʌC / _#
 * CiC > CɪC / _#

Finally, some voicing changes ​
 * s > z / V_V
 * f > v / #_
 * v > f / #_C
 * t > d / _R
 * g > k
 * d > t / L_#

I-Umlaut
I-Umlaut occurs when the sounds e, o, au, and ai occur as the second to last vowel, and /i/ is the final sound. The vowel is always written as its new sound is. Rules for this are as follows:
 * e » i
 * o » e
 * ao » ai

O-Umlaut O-Umlaut occurs when the sounds i, e, or ai occur as the second to last vowel, and /o/, /os/, or /on/ is the final sound. This does not serve as many grammatical purposes and is purely vowel assimilation, and as so is more rare.
 * ai » ao
 * e » o
 * i » e

Final VCi
All vowels have alternative forms (called VCi's) that are realized when they are the last vowel in the word, but  not the last letter in the word (followed by at least one consonant). These forms are as follows:

i > ɪ

ɐ > æ

ɤ ɔ > ʌ

e > ɛ

For example, pit is sounded as /pɪt/ while pite is sounded as /pite/

When VCi's  are realized as their normal sound, they are ususally indicated with a circumflex (â ê î ô).

This change in vowels also can occur simply due to a more lazy pronunciation of words, and in longer words such as otvandifrad, it is not uncommon to hear every two to three vowels pronounced as their VCi counterparts.

Writing System
p will often morph into p` at the end of a word, but this is not always the case. The same goes for t and t`. These forms are hardly ever explicitly declared, but can be with a `

General Info
Nouns inflect to case (Technically the merging of prepositions and nouns) and number, but there is no gramatical gender, and definitiveness is indicated through articles. In english the second two roles are covered by either the definite article 'the' or the demonstrative adjectives this or that. In Karaxien they are always done through articles, equivalent to either the demonstrative adjectives or the article. There are two classes of nouns, with Class I ending in vowels, and Class II ending in consonants. There are 4 degress of definitiveness, defined as follows:


 * Indefinite: Speaking of arbitrary instance(s) of what is being referred to


 * Some rabbits can only be killed with hand grenades
 * Definite: Speaking of specific instance(s) of what is being referred to


 * The rabbit is evil
 * Personal: Speaking of specific instance(s), bearing a personal significance to the 1st person


 * ​The/this rabbit is my friend
 * Interpersonal / Impersonal: Speaking of specific instance(s), bearing a personal significance to either the 2nd or the 3rd person


 * The/that rabbit is her friend

Nouns are pluralized in two ways: noun forms that end in vowels (Class II) are pluralized with an -s, while noun forms that end in consonants (Class II) are slightly more complicated. An -i is added to the end, and this sometimes induces an umlaut on the previous vowel. The vowels are written as their new sounds These vowel changes are as follows in Karahien:


 * o > e
 * e > o
 * ao > ai
 * ai > ao

Case
As said before, the lanuage didn't magically regain case from afrikaans, but instead certain prepositions started being attached to the noun, forming more or less a prepositional phrase. The genitive and Instrumental cases are formed with Van- and Net- respectively but are hardly ever used because they can be formed with attached adjectives.

NOTE:  When a personal pronoun is used, instead of attaching the preposition to form a case, the preposition is used by itself before the personal pronoun.

Articles
The articles used to indicate definitiveness are as follows (they can also be used as accusative pronouns):
 * Indefinite : An (nan)
 * Definite : Dai (dïn)
 * Presentable : Etsai (etsain)
 * Inter/impersonal: Allai (allain)

Verbs
Verbs do not conjugate to person, however the number of the subject is relevant to conjugation. Most verbs conjugate fully and distinctly to number, and tense

Verbs are formed by using the infinitive for present tense singular subjects, and for plural subjects, when the verb ends in a vowel, an -s is added, but when it ends in a consonant, an -e is added.

In addition, two verbs, is and lop have special forms its and tsop meaning it is and it goes/it is goingrespectively

Conjugation
Verbs only conjugate to present and preterite. The imperitive is formed by adding -tte when the verb ends in a vowel or a liquid, and -ette otherwise.

Participles
The present participle is formed with -ente, while the past participle is formed by placing ja- before the verb conjugated to the preterite. The gerund is formed the same way as the present participle. The supine is discussed in the Syntax section.

The Progressive Aspect
The progressive tenses are formed by placing the present participle after the verb be, conjugated in the present for the present for the present progressive, or the preterite to form the past progressive. There are perfect progressive tenses I have been eating or I had been eating, formed by placing the present participle after the verb Tje/Tjes for the present perfect and Tjet/Tjit. The conditional progressive, I would be eating is formed by conjugating the verb lop to the preterite tense and placing the present participle after it. The future progessives, I will be eating and I am going to be eating are formed by conjugating the verb lop to the present tense and placing the present participle after it. The word be has special forms and tenses that are specific to this verb only, as follows.

Perfect tenses
The present perfect tense is formed by placing Tje or Tjes before the past participle, while the pluperfect is formed by placing Tjet or Tjit before the same.

Future Tenses
There are two future tenses, the simple future and the near future. The simple future, the equivalent of I will ___, is formed by placing the present tense form of the verb be before the infinitive verb, while the near future, the equivalent of I am going to ___, is formed by placing the present tense form of the verb lop` before the infinitive verb. When forming the conditional, the simple future is used as the base for a simple conditional, while the near future base is used as a progressive conditional.

Conditional Tense
The simple conditional, I would ___ is formed like a past future, conjugating the verb be in the preterite tense, and placing it before the infinitive verb. The progressive conditional is formed much the same way, only with the verb lop` in the preterite tense.

Adjectives
There are no attributive adjectives because they are fused onto the noun. Predicative adjectives are entirely archaic and are only used in literature. The common practice when speaking using predicative adjectives is to attach the adjective to an appropriate noun. For instance: Adjectives often have the ending laik.
 * Preso - Person, Kod - Good, Djelaik - happy, Dinn - thing
 * 1) Dä is Djelaikprezon - S/he is happy.
 * 2) Its Kodînn - It is good.

When using a participle as an adjective, it is placed next to the noun (usually before) in a separate word, and this is the only time an "adjective" exists in spoken language except for the posessives.

Adverbs
Adverbs are usually formed by placing lek after their respective adjective. They almost always follow the verb when used by themselves, although a common practice is to use them in a similar manner to adjectives, and attach them to the verb. In this caise they generally lose the lek

Numbers
The basic cardinal numbers are listed below
 * Er

Word Order
The general word order is SIVD (subject indirect verb direct). Some literature chooses to ignore this, especially poetry, where word order is frequently manipulated for rhyme.

Genitive
This can be indicated by attaching the genitive noun to the main noun, or it can be expressed using vân [genitive noun]. This is dictated only by personal preference, as this can dramatically increase or decrease the length of a word. (Fundamentaftelenk vân Vesteropa versus Vesteropafundamentaftelenk)

Omitting subjects
In sentences where there are multiple clauses with the same subject, the subject pronoun (or noun) must be included in the first clause, while subsequent clauses with the same subject may omitt it.

Sentials
Sential arguments use the form da for that whether the sential is a subject or an object. The relative that is discussed later in the relative section. In sentials, the singular form of the verb is always used regardless of the subject.

Verbing
Most, if not all nouns in Karahien ending in -n, -r, or -l can be "verbed" into their most likely verbal form by adding -t to the end. For instance, the word vôn, meaning tree, can be "verbed" into vont, meaning to plant a tree.

Supine
The supine is formed with the word ver followed by the gerund.

As Long As
The phrase as long as is formed as ver tsodat, literally for so [that].

Except if
The opposite, except if, is formed as vetjalv tsodat, literally meaning except so [that].

Existentials
Existentials of the form there [be] are formed by using the verb pedis instead of is, (the conjugation of pedis is similar to that of be, but it is not exact) while constructions such as there run two creeks side by side are formed by placing per- or pe- in front of the verb, following the rules of conflicting consonants.

Introducing New Clauses
The subjunctives clauses are formed paraphrastically by stating the main subject and the verb, followed by a sential argument. When subjunctive, sential arguments are never used as subjects.

Other new clauses, such as if statements, are formed by using the introductory word for the new clause, then a normal subject-verb combination. if he eats breakfast, he will eat cereal Az tje jid onbet, is jid kran. Relative clauses are somewhat complex. When the subclause is an object, the relative pronoun vitj is used. When the subclause is a subject, the relative pronoun is dat.

Comparatives and Superlatives
Comparatives are formed by placing nier before the adjective they are modifying, while superlatives are formed the same way, only with an article preceeding the nier. The same goes for djer, less/least

A Lot Of
The word for A lot of or Many is vai, and although it is for all intents and purposes an adjective, it remains separate. This can only be used attributively, of course, and as vain it can be used as a noun (almost always accusative).

Reflexives
There is no specific reflexive pronoun in Karahien, but instead, to indicate reflexiveness, transitive verbs are used with the same object and subject. Therefore, they killed the dog means exactly what it says, but they killed them means they killed themselves

Passive Voice
The passive voice in Karahien is relatively complex. When the passive fails to reduce the number of arguments passed to the verb, usually because the verb doesn't like being intransitive, e.g. The builders erected the colosseum becoming The colosseum was erected by the builders, it is formed by placing the verb "to be" in front of the past participle as in many, if not most, IndoEuropean languages. In circumstances where the passive voice is used to reduce the valency of the verb (where the se- construction would be used in Spanish, Portuguese, or Czech), the pronoun dra is used which essentially means that the actual subject is not specified. For example in Spanish, Some employees of this store speak spanish ends up as for lack of a better translation, means Spanish is spoken here, and in Karahien, Dra tse Spanish.

Negating Paraphrastics
When negating a paraphrastic construction, such as you shall not count, the ni always follows the final part of the construction, as opposed to in english, where it is in the middle. For example, the translation of the above is Je lop tel ni

What The Actual Fuck
Simple. Vedaf.

Otvandifrad
The word Otvandifrad is the only predicative adjective that has survived and sees common use. It means out of the question or right out, and is only used predicatively; it can not be synthesized with a noun.

Lexicon
Dai Karahileksekon

The Holy Hand Grenade
Dai Llelaiktjankranat