Oubi Kanusa

Oubi Kanusa is a distant descendant of Obiquaʒic, which is itself a remote ancestor of English. It has roughly 16,000,000 speakers, roughly half of who are human. The remaining half are mostly trollspawn, zoktrikons and plasmitroids, with one speaker known to be of Nemuẅeya descent.

The language is spoken in the Meterhyle (from mḗtēr = mother; origin + hýlē = forest), the infinitely wide forest surrounded by the five Apeirohyles, other infinite forests grown from the five seeds released from the Cardiodendron at its centre. It is believed to have first been established as a language separate from Obiquaʒic around 130,000 CE, after deliberate efforts were made to change its grammar and vocabulary following the War of the Forests. Around this time the present day speakers of Oubi Kanusa wished to distance themselves from Obiquaʒic speakers, who they had been fighting for the past several centuries.Ü ü

Oubi Kanusa is considered endangered by most linguists, as its speakers are rapidly dying out due to large forest fires in the Meterhyle. Forensic evidence has suggested that these fires may have been lit by the Aðɛⅎbuk (Obiquaʒic speakers), however this cannot yet be confirmed.Ø ø

Phonological Shifts from Obiquaʒic

while the relationship between the phonemes of Obiquaʒic and its parent language English are loose, the sounds of Oubi Kanusa show a much more direct relationship to those of English (Recieved Pronounciation), as this table demonstrates. Grammar

Oubi Kanusa uses the OSV word order, places adjectives after the nouns they modify, and does not allow adverbs. If one wishes to use an adjective to describe a verb, it must first be nominalised by the preceding particle køt, eg:

Gap hi beg køt ràmpyd.

Translation:

He took a big leap over the gap.

Literally:

Gap he big (nominaliser) jump.

Though this particle converts verbs (and any other words) into nouns, it does not prevent them from still being used as if they were verbs. This can be seen in the sentence above, where the verb ràmpyd is used as a noun despite filling the verb 'slot' of the sentence after the subject.

This is the same for adjectives that have been nominalised, eg:

Tri køt stroc gavyry nü kàt.

Translation:

The man couldn't cut down the tree.

Literally:

Tree (nominaliser) strong man cut.

Here the adjective stroc is still used as an adjective despite having been nominalised.

Though nominalised verbs and adjectives can still be used as verbs and adjectives, they can also be used as nouns, eg:

Køt vego køt pànx kecød.

Translation:

The punch knocked the wind out of him.

Literally:

(Nominaliser) vigourous (nominaliser) punch killed.

Here both the adjective vego (vigourous) and the verb pànx (to punch) are used as nouns.

All verbs (which are naturally transitive) can be made intransitive by the suffix -secf, eg:

Hi faitsecfyd.

Translation:

They fought.

Literally:

They (masculine) fight (intransitivity marker) (past tense marker).

Note the suffix -secf is placed before the past tense suffix -yd. Tense markers are always placed after this suffix in Oubi Kanusa.

All verbs can be given tense by the suffixes -ød (past), -øc (present) and -uc (future). If left tenseless, all verbs represent theoretical rather than actual actions by default. The verb kàny, for example, ordinarily means 'could destroy; has the potential to destroy', but can mean either destroyed, destroying or will destroy depending on which suffix it's given.

All verbs can be given a negative meaning by the particle nü placed before them.

There are no apositions or articles in Oubi Kanusa, nor is there the ability to integrate clauses into sentences.