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

 * Syllable-final /h/ and geminate /hː/ are 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 Yektaððtaysuz "special district" will tend to break this pattern and be stressed on the third or fourth syllable, though this is not considered proper. Stressed syllables do not inherently differ in pitch from unstressed syllables; the primary difference is in length and volume.

Isochrony
Isochrony is how a language breaks up speech into equally-timed intervals. Tixistani is a stress-timed language, meaning that the intervals between stressed syllables are equal.

Intonation
Emphasis on a word is expressed through a falling pitch on its final vowel. Questions are indicated using a more complicated intonation pattern: peaking pitch on the first syllable of the question and a high tone on the final syllable of the question.

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 ⟨s.u.rv.ku.s.a.i⟩ or ⟨s.u.rv.ka.s.a.i⟩).
 * 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.

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"
 * taysuz "district" > taysu "districts"
 * kuvve "sand" > kuv > kuvu "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 ⟨u⟩, then the g 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. ex. ’atta rey sayu. "I am the person"

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. ex. lay ŕi’ahey "out of the rain"

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. ex. lay sayf fef "in my eyes"

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. yektaððtaysuz "special district"

Pronouns
The pronouns decline for number and case, with many irregular forms and suppletions.
 * 1) The feminine and masculine third person pronouns are used only to explicitly express gender.
 * 2) The weak third person pronouns are used where proper syntax does not allow pronoun dropping.

Adjectival morphology
Adjectives match the nouns they modify in case and number. Adjective plural forms use an -a suffix rather than 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 forms
The comparative form of adjectives is signified by the circumfix s(u)-(’)ey, which drops the y in the plural. It changes any consonant stem to a vowel stem. Initial glottal stops are erased.

The superlative form replaces the prefix of the comparative with fe(’)-.

Endings: Examples:
 * ðuykt "narrow, thin" > suðuyktey "narrower, thinner" > feðuyktey "narrowest,  thinnest"
 * ’ilak "cold" > silakey "colder" > fe’ilakey "coldest"
 * rittuvu "correct" > surittuvu’ey "more correct" > ferittuvu’ey "most correct"

Verbs
Verbs conjugate for tense, mood, and intensity and have several non-finite forms and derivations to other parts of speech. They typically conjugate by the use of combinations of irregular varying stems and regular affixes.

Stems
Each verb has three stems.
 * Simple stem: used for simple nonfuture, future, and gnomic forms.
 * Intensive stem: used for intensive forms. Formed with the regular suffix -(i)(y)t(i), where the first i is for epenthesis, the last i only appears word-finally, and the y is only found if it can form a diphthong.
 * Irrealis stem: used for simple subjunctive, imperative, and passive participle forms. Formed with an irregular suffix which degeminates a final consonant. The suffix can take several forms: the regular suffix -(e)rre (rittuvu "correct" > rittuvurre), degemination plus an echo vowel (sivva "drink" > sivi), or the irregular infixed diphthong plus consonant change (selga "speak, talk, say" > seyra).
 * Participle stem: used for infinitive, active participle, and converb forms. Formed with a mostly regular suffix -(i)k, which may cause earlier vowel changes in a root (ta "be" > tek).

Affixes
There are four non-converb affixes. They are exceedingly regular. Converb prefixes are discussed below.
 * Nonfuture prefix: ’a(t)-, used for nonfuture and subjunctive forms.
 * Future suffix: -s, used for future and future participle forms.
 * Nonfuture participle suffix: -le, used for nonfuture participle and intensive imperative forms.
 * Zero affix: no affix, used for gnomic, simple imperative, and infinitive forms.

Infinitive
root-(i)k-0

Converbs
Converb forms show that a verb is adverbially subordinated.
 * Before verbing: ’aŕe-root-(i)k
 * Upon verbing: ðig-root-(i)k
 * While verbing: ze-root-(i)k
 * Since verbing: key-root-(i)k
 * After verbing: tul-root-(i)k

Passive
The passive voice is formed by putting the verb into the appropriately tensed passive participle and preceding it with a conjugated tek "to be". ex. Ta ŕiskiharrele sah. "They are bullied."

Nonfuture
The nonfuture tense is used for definite events in both the past and present, with the intended time having to be determined from context or by the use of adverbs. ex. ’Arize gið ðigsivvak rifhu ðevittegar. "We fell asleep when we drank the mystery liquid."

Future
The future tense refers exclusively to any definite event happening after the present time. ex. Rizes ra ’estal. "I'll go to bed later."

Gnomic
The gnomic tense is used to refer to any general statements of truth and falsehood at any time, be it past, present, or future. ex. Rize tu’ka la’ah. "He sleeps a lot."

Subjunctive
The subjunctive mood is primarily used in subordinate clauses. If found in an independent clause, it expresses a condition or hypothetical situation. It merges with the nonfuture in the intensive form. ex. ’Atisse rey yeða ’arizerre sah. "I wish that they would go to sleep."

Imperative
The imperative is used to form commands and requests. In the intensive, it is the only finite verb form to have a usually non-finite suffix. ex. Rizerre sirgef. "Go to sleep, please."

Intensive
The various intensive forms express strong belief, general emphasis, or unexpectedness/outrage toward the verb. ex. Rizeyti fe ’ityu! "You never sleep!"

Negation
Negation is simply shown with the particle ’it, which is placed immediately after the verb. The particle ’it is not necessary if a negative expression (like ’isku "nothing, nobody") is already in the clause. ex. ’Arize ’it ra.' "I haven't been sleeping."

Dictionary forms
In dictionaries, the infinitive of a verb is listed first, followed by the imperative, followed by any irregular stems, then any anomalous irregular forms. ex. rizek, rizerre "to sleep, fall asleep"

Examples
herkuk, herkurre "to wander, travel, tour"

Clause-level word order
Verb-Subject-(Direct Object)-(Indirect Object)-(Prepositional phrases)-(Adverbs)

Subject pronouns are not required if it can be determined from context.

Noun phrases
(Preposition)-Noun-(Adjectives)-(Adjectival nouns)

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.