Tixistani

General Information
Tixistani (natively Yelað Tikkŕistar /jelʌ́θ tikːrístʌɹ/) is the native language of the alien Cittus, specifically the Tixist people (Tikkŕista) in Tixistan, a large country on Cittus-V (’Es).

Consonants

 * /h/ before a consonant, word-finally, and geminate /hː/ are all allophonically realized as voiceless bidental fricatives [h̪͆].

Vowels
Diphthongs: /ɯi̯/, /ɛi̯/, /ɛʌ̯/, and /ʌi̯/

Phonotactics

 * CV(C)(C)
 * The V can be a monophthong or a diphthong.
 * Geminate consonants count as two consonants, can occur before before another (non-geminate) consonant, and cannot occur on a word boundary.
 * Clusters of more than three consonants are not allowed.
 * Vowel hiatuses are broken up by glottal stops

Stress
Stress is not phonemic. It is on the first syllable if the word ends in a vowel, or on the second if the word ends in a consonant, ex. gehhu /ɣéhːu/ vs ’eruz /ʔeɹúz/. Words ending in a diphthong can be stressed on either. Long words of over three or four syllables like Yektaððtaisuz "special district" will tend to break this pattern and be stressed on the third or fourth syllable, though this is not considered proper.

Basics
Tixistani is written in a semi-syllabary called ’Urshef or Rallisata. It has many interesting features:
 * The letters for high vowels pull double-duty as consonants (U with G and I with Y). When two are next to each other, it must be inferred from context which are consonants.
 * Stop consonants are written as syllable blocks with each vowel.
 * If a stop is not adjacent to any vowel, then the syllable block chosen would be one with a vowel from an adjacent side, and no variation mark (so Sulksay is written as Sulkusay/Sulkasay).
 * Letter names are not arbitrary. ex. F is feskuŕ "skin", R ralli "cloud", and S sat "eye"
 * The script is written in downward columns which move from the left to the right.

Diacritics

 * The glottal stop is written as an accent mark on the preceding letter. It is not written at the beginning of a word in the native script.
 * L, Ð, and Ŕ are written as R, S, and H plus a variation mark.
 * Z and V are written as S and F with a voice mark.
 * The variation mark reverses a stop-vowel syllable block. So the common name Hakre is effectively written as ⟨h.kav.r.e⟩, sat as ⟨s.tav⟩.
 * Geminate consonants are not written doubly, but with the lengthener accent mark.

Punctuation

 * Words are separated by a small vertical line. Other punctuation marks take the place of the word separator.
 * Sentences are separated by a space.
 * Proper names are enclosed by small circular marks.
 * The question mark is written at the end of a sentence and is always followed by a space.
 * The colon is placed before lists, explanations, or clarifications.
 * Quote marks surround quotations.
 * Parenthesis surround set apart or interjected text.

Syntax
VSO; purely right branching

Nouns
Nouns decline for case and number.

Pluralization
Plurals are formed regularly by the use of a disfix, which removes the final phoneme of a noun stem and degeminates any new final consonant before case suffixes are applied. Some examples:
 * feskuŕ "skin" > fesku "skins"
 * taisuz "district" > taisu "districts"
 * kuvve "sand" > kuv > kuvg "sands"
 * taz "day" > ta > taga "days"

Case morphology
The general suffixes are below, but nouns are highly irregular.
 * The ergative case ending is -y if a diphthong can be formed, -a if it follows a consonant and the previous vowel is not also ⟨a⟩, -i if it follows a consonant and the previous vowel is ⟨a⟩, and -’i if the noun ends in ⟨i/y⟩ or ⟨ea⟩.
 * The singular dative and oblique use the vowels in parenthesis if the noun ends in a consonant. If the final consonant is a stop, however, they with use the inherent vowel of the stop syllable block.
 * If the noun when disfixed is monosyllabic, then the plural absolutive ending is -gV, where the V is an echo vowel of the previous syllable. If the vowel is ⟨a⟩, then the echo vowel is dropped.
 * The plural dative and oblique are -yr and -yf if the plural form of the noun is monosyllabic and a diphthong can be formed, -ar and -if if the plural form of the noun ends in a consonant cluster, and -r and -f otherwise.

Examples
herkuz "wanderer, traveler, tourist" sat "eye" gehhu "water" ŕi’ahe "rain"

Absolutive case
The absolutive case is used for the subject of intransitive verbs and the object of transitive verbs.

Ergative case
The ergative case is mainly used for the subject of transitive verbs. It is also used in vocative expressions, with the instrumental preposition, and with locative prepositions to give them ablative meaning.

Dative case
The dative case is mainly used for the indirect object of ditransitive verbs. It is also used to indicate destinations, with locative prepositions to give them lative meaning, and in genitive/possessive expressions. ex. feskuŕ ’altar "bark", literally "skin to-tree"

Oblique case
The oblique case is exclusively used with prepositions. Most prepositions require the oblique. It gives locative prepositions stationary meanings.

Compounding
Compound nouns can be formed from any two nouns by attaching the singular absolutive form of the modifying noun or adjective to the beginning of the head noun and geminating the final consonant of the modifier if possible. ex. yektaððtaisuz "special district"

Adjectival morphology
Adjectives match the nouns they modify in case and number. Adjective plural formed are formed with the suffix -a rather than with a disfix, as in nouns.

Vowel stem
ex. vikali "right (direction)"
 * The singular ergative is -’i if the adjective ends in ⟨i/y⟩ or ⟨ea⟩. Otherwise it is -y.
 * The plural absolutive, dative, and oblique are found without a glottal stop if the adjective ends in ⟨e⟩.
 * The plural ergative is -a’i if the adjective ends in ⟨e⟩. Otherwise it is -’ay.

Consonant stem
ex. ðuykt "narrow, thin"

Comparative form
The comparative form of adjectives is signified by the circumfix s(u)-(’)ey, which becomes s(u)-(’)e in the plural. It changes any consonant stem to a vowel stem. Initial glottal stops are erased.

Endings: Examples:
 * ðuykt "narrow, thin" > suðuyktey "narrower, thinner"
 * ’ilak "cold" > silakey "colder"
 * rittuvu "correct" > surittuvu’ey "more correct"

Verbs
Verbs conjugate for tense, mood, and intensity and have several non-finite forms and derivations to other parts of speech.

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 only possess less dexterous remnants of.