Kti

General
The Ktarh language (Kti: "ktehanarā", /ktɛxanaˈra:/) is one of the major languages on Oktarhazǣm. It is the most widely spoken Dnaric language, with several billion speakers. It is made up of several dialect clusters and one standard variety; the dialects are decreasing in usage due to official government policy. In actuality, Kti is defined as any speech form descending from proto-Ktarh; this definition doesn't include mutual intelligibility amongst the dialects, as the dialects from two distant points can differ quite a lot.

The Ktarh language (most often plainly called "Kti", sometimes called "ktehanarā") can be abbreviated to "" in situations requiring the usage of its formal name (as shown in the tooltip).

Dialectically, Kti is divided into the following clusters and dialects:
 * - Dialects of Tanu
 * - Upper Tanarh
 * - Lower Tanarh
 * - Peninsular Tanarh
 * - Acrolectic peninsular (lingua franca)
 * - Basilectic peninsular
 * - Peripheric Ktarh
 * → Insular dialects
 * - Eastern dialects
 * → Coastal eastern
 * - Inland eastern
 * - Southern dialects

The acrolectic peninsular Tanarh dialect is usually taken as the closest form to standard Kti. This article describes the acrolectic peninsular Tanarh variety. All forms should be taken as standard unless specifically noted not to be so.

Vowels
There are six cardinal vowels (A E U I O Æ) each representing one cardinal phonemic value of /a ɛ u i ɔ ɞ/ and each cardinal vowel has two lengths that have minimal pairs and allophonic variants depending on position.

The vowels /a: ɛ: u: i: ɔ: ɞ:/ remain more constant to their value than their short variants.

They are organised as such in the vowel space:

Allophony
Each of the twelve vowels have allphones that are dependant on their position.

Diphthongs
Dipthongs are combinations of two vowels. They don't change according to position. They're counted as a single long vowel in length. When both a diphthong + peripherial vowel and a triphthong are possible, the former gets chosen over the latter.

The first component of the diphthong is always semivocalic.

Tripthongs
Tripthongs are combinations of three vowels. They don't change according to position. They're counted as an overlong vowel or as a dipthong + short vowel in length. Every triphthong has a central element.

Consonants
Kti has 12 cardinal consonants ( Sh, S, Z, Zh, K, T, D, H, M, N, R, ' ). They are distributed unevenly along five points of articulation, labial, alveolar, postalveolar, velar and glottal.

* These are allophonic variations of an underlying phoneme.

Allophony
The allophonic variations of consonants are far smaller than in vowels. The only consonants that have a variable pronounciation are /k/ and /x/.

Allophony of /k/
The realisation of /k/ as [k ~ kj] is an enviromental feature. [k] and [kj] are in complementary distribution before vowels.

/k/ is realised as [k] before /a/, /u/, /ɔ/ and /ɞ/ and consonants, while [kj] is seen only sometimes before /i/ and /ɛ/. In initial positions, [k] is always pronounced as such, and an analysis of [kj] as an allophone can be considered correct as [k] seems to be the underlying element and therefore the priviledged value.

Allophony of /x/
The realisation of /x/ is far more simple, as [h] is a simple allophonic equivalent of [x] as it occurs only in initial positions. Unlike [k] and [kj] which share one grapheme, [x] and [h] are differentiated in the orthography. Sometimes, when [x] is put instead of [h], it can be assumed that the previous word is linked with the current one via compounding, phrasing or some sort of derivation, therefore giving rise to certain minimal pairs that don't chage the meaning of one word but of a phrase; this phenomenon occurs only in very fast speech. The view that [h] is an allophone of /x/ is still held, though.

Dialectical Variation
The primary variations in Ktarh acrolects stem from two things:
 * 1) The different outcomes of the sound change which came around in the acrolect as "l > r > ʂ; ʂ > ʃ"
 * 2) The different outcomes of the sound change which came around in the acrolect as "{ m d } > $$\varnothing$$ / 'ɛ_aC#"

The first sound change might have happened differently, with results such as a contrast of /r ʂ ʃ/, /l r ʂ/, /l r ʃ/ and even a total levelling of /ʃ~ʂ/ - the acrolect preserves a contrast of /r ʃ/, with /r/ stemming from earlier /l/ and /ʃ/ stemming from both an earlier /r/ and /ʂ/.

The second sound change, much more limited in scope but far more influental in verbs than the first, was either applied or not. It has resulted in pairs of words such as "akemash" and "akēsh" (stemming from "akeash", often heard instead of the second word's prescribed pronunciation)

Phonotacics
Phonotactics of Kti is divided into syllable rules and combinatorics.

Syllables
Ktarh syllables have the following general structure:

Vowels in Kti always border a consonant. Vowels of equal weight can share control over a single consonant between them, thus having it belong to two syllables at once. Several archaic nouns, such as <ī> (sky, m.i.), may have no consonant; these always have a long vowel.

Syllables sometimes tend to "hoard" consonants taken from previous syllables, thus sometimes reaching three initials. These consonants, while theoretically part of the first syllable, phonetically become part of the second. It should be noted that a post-vocalic glottal stop resets syllable rules, thus always starting a new syllable after it.

The only allowed final cluster in Kti is /rx/ - it only occurs word-finally as it cannot be followed by a consonant. It stems from a syllable with an earlier, deleted vowel.

Stress
Prosodic stress is very syllable-dependant and there are relatively complex rules that are governed by syllable position and structure.

Stress is pretty regular in that it is generally found in the penultimate syllable unless something else happened. If the word is monosyllabilic, the stress is on the sole syllable. A syllable is counted as "light" if it has a short vowel, and "heavy" if it has a long vowel, diphthong or triphthong.

Stress in Kti follows these rules:
 * 1) Primary stress is always on one of the last three syllables.
 * 2) If all three ultimate syllables are either fully heavy or fully light, stress falls on the penultimate.
 * 3) If one of the three ultimate syllables is heavy and the rest light, stress falls on the heavy syllable.
 * 4) If two of the three ultimate syllables is heavy and one is light, stress falls on the first of the heavy syllables.
 * 5) Secondary stress always falls on the syllable that has a gap of one syllable between itself and the stressed syllable.
 * 6) By this, if the primarily stressed syllable is antepenultimate, the secondarily stressed syllable is always the ultimate.
 * 7) Secondary stress cannot fall on on the initial syllable except if it is heavy.
 * 8) Tertiary stressings occur in relation to secondary stress in the same conditions as secondary stress does to primary.
 * 9) Tertiary stress has a gap between itself and secondary stress of one syllable - if the secondarily stressed syllable is ultimate, tertiary stress falls on the syllable two behind primary stress.
 * 10) Tertiary stress, unlike secondary, can fall on the initial syllable regardless of its weight.

Combinatorics
Ktarh phonotactical combinatorics deal with valid phoneme sequences in roots; they do not prohibit such occurences during inflection or derivation but the language has a general tendency to obey them anyhow.

The restraints are listed as such:
 * 1) /z/ cannot be next to any fricative
 * 2) /ʃ/ cannot be next to /z/ or /x/
 * 3) /t/ cannot be preceded by /n/
 * 4) /t/ cannot be followed by any plosive except /ʔ/
 * 5) /d/ cannot be followed by /r/ and /t/
 * 6) /a/ cannot be next to /ɞ/

Some of these rules might be violated by some core root words but otherwise are avoided in discourse. In Kti, all /*sx/ clusters metathesise into /xs/ non-initially, and receive an epenthetic /ɞ/ between the members in initial positions.

Syntax
Ktarh syntax determines the word order, position and marking according to context and function. It recognises sentences as the largest syntactical unit, made up of clauses, phrases and words. The shape of the words belongs under morphology and morphosemantics, but what inflections they take and how they interact with one another is an issue syntax deals with.

Noun Phrases
Noun phrases in Kti are made up of a head and modifiers. The head can be a noun, a pronoun, an independent adjective or a noun phrase. Modifiers can be independent or dependent adjectives, or either a genitive or adjectival phrase.

In a phrase made up of an adjective and a head, the dependent adjective conjugates as according to the rules; independent adjectives used as modifiers agree with the head in case and number.

The modifiers have a tendency to follow their head, though there exists a degree of freedom in word order. In more complex phrases, where the head of the phrase is a phrase in and of itself, word order is more strictly head-initial.

Subjects and objects can be nouns, independent adjectives, pronouns or noun phrases.

Adjectival Phrases
Adjectival phrases are made up of a head and modifiers. The head can be an adjectival phrase or either a dependent or independent adjective, and the modifier can either be an adverb, a genitive phrase or an adverbial phrase. Adjectival phrases are strongly head-initial. The head of the phrase agrees with the modified component of the noun phrase in which the adjectival phrase is embedded.

Adverbial Phrases
Adverbial phrases made up of a head and a modifier. The head can be an adverb or an adverbial phrase, as can the modifier.

Genitive Phrases
Ktarh genitive phrases are a bit of a misnomer: they are made up of either nouns or noun phrases in any of the genitive, instrumental, commitative, vialis, possessive, abessive, identical, ornative, partitive and aversive cases.

Verb Phrases
Ktarh verb phrases are divided between finite and non-finite phrases. Finite phrases can be further subdivided into dependent or independent. They're made up of a head and modifiers; objects are considered co-morbid with verb phrases, though not strictly attached to them. The head can be either a verb or a verb phrase, while modifiers can be adverbs, adverbial phrases or genitive phrases. Non-finite verb phrases contain an uninflected verb in the infinitive, while finite phrases have a fully conjugated verb. The heads of dependent finite phrases are additionally preceded by the particle "zi".

Clauses and Sentences
Ktarh clauses can be divided between dependent and independent clauses. Every sentence has one independent clause, but can also have embedded dependent clauses.

Independent clauses contain at least one verb phrase, of which only one can be an independent finite phrase. They can also take a subject in the corresponding case (usually nominative). Transitive clauses may also take an object (usually in the accusative), and polytransitive clauses may also take additional arguments in cases other than the core ones. In the event that the verb phrase is mediopassive, the clause takes one double, reflexive argument instead of a subject and object. Passive and pseudopassive phrases act according to their fundamental rules.

Dependent clauses contain at least one verb phrase, of which none can be independent. They can take an object (and additional oblique arguments) if (poly)transitive, but can only take a subject if finite; non-finite phrases cannot be accompanied by a subject.

Relative 'Clauses'
Ktarh relative clauses are extensions of the relative gerundive. Most simple 'relative clauses' are plain adjecival phrases with a relative gerundive modifier, this being a relative adjectival phrase. Relative possessive 'clauses', where the modified element of the relative adjectival phrase is a possession of the modified head, are introduced in the fashion of "head + RPr + 'ēt' + RAP", where "RPr" stands for a relative pronoun and "RAP" denotes a relative adjectival phrase. In this case, the relative pronoun is either in the possessive or genitive cases, based on the type of possession. The pronoun agrees in type and number with the head. The particle 'ēt' is inserted right after the relative pronoun. An example relative possessive 'clause':
 * kīritei okīri dēnāke ēt ārasa kuhitrātaiton
 * the drinker who loves his mother is drinking

Situations that require the head to be in a role different from subject or object also require a relative pronoun. As Kti lacks specific relativisation mechanisms, it introduces its relative pronouns with a descriptive gerundive where the noun phrase is the relative pronoun with a relative adjectival phrase attached. The relative adjectival phrase in this case conjugates so that it also takes additional arguments, usually at least a subject or object, thus becoming a full clause. These take the form of "head + RPr + RAP + arguments". An example (true) relative clause with such a configuration:
 * hsōrīrtai aza dētōna izhīrateiton
 * the rib with which I eat is black

Word Order in Sentences
Every well-formed Ktarh sentence is made up from one or more clauses. Every sentence has one independent clause that has an independent finite verb or a verb phrase, inside itself, with optional dependent clauses embedded inside it. For easier classification and analysis, sentences are divided into simple and complex, based on whether they have dependent clauses inserted in them.

Independent Clauses
The syntax of Ktarh independent clauses is basically determined by the pragmatics of the clause, with various reorderings and word orders that alternate based on emphatic criteria. Putting those aside, it is still possible to extract a default word order that includes no emphasis.

The default word order in Ktarh independent active transitive clauses is strongly verb-initial, yet is pretty evenly split between VSO and VOS, with the latter being slightly more frequent. Pseudopassive clauses are VSO far more often than VOS, while reflexive clauses are usually VR (where R is the reflexive double argument). Passive clauses behave a bit more unusually: they are usually verb-initial, but if the old nominative gets demoted to a vialis or instrumental it gets to come after the new accusative; this doesn't apply if it demotes to an ornative. Oblique arguments added to the passive always come immediately after the verb, even after emphatic reordering.

In intransitive clauses, the word order is still usually verb-initial.

Polytransitive indicative clauses have a freer word order that is primarily pragmatic: non-core arguments closer to the end of the sentence are less emphasised; full emphasis is achieved by placing the non-core arguments before the verb itself. The core arguments still get ordered as they would have gotten in an equivalent monotransitive sentence.

Copula Usage
Even though Kti has a copular verb "kin", the copula itself isn't used to link its subject with an adjectival phrase in normal constructions (descriptive gerundives notwithstanding as they are a special case). The copula links two noun phrases to the effect of "X is(n't) Y".

Personal Pronouns
Ktarh personal pronouns exist only for the first and second person. They have different stems for the core (nominative, accusative, dative, vocative, locative, reflexive) and oblique cases.

Relative Pronouns
As Kti has special relativisation mechanisms that employ a gerundive instead of a clause in most situations, its palette of relative pronouns is specialised to cater to the minority of edge cases that aren't dealt with using the relative gerundive.

The relative pronoun stems change according to gender and number, and the pronouns additionally have different stems for core and oblique cases:

The core cases here are the dative, instrumental, locative, vocative, reflexive, genitive and possessive; all the others are oblique. The pronouns decline as normal nouns.

Correlatives
 * which one, which, this one, that one, anyone, exactly one, everyone, no one, either one, neither one, another one, same one

General Properties
Ktarh nouns are marked for the following categories:
 * Number
 * Case
 * Animacy
 * Gender

Number
In Kti, nouns can be marked for three numbers:
 * 1) Singular, glossed <>
 * 2) Dual, glossed <>
 * 3) Plural, glossed <>

The singular marks for one instance of the noun. This usage can also be used for marking collectives, associative groups or clusters of nouns; this isn't unusual usage. Some nouns can only take the singular marking; these nouns are called. These nouns are usually material nouns, religious terms and astronomical nomenclature.

The dual marks for two instances of the noun. Some nouns can only take the dual marking; these are called. These nouns are usually body part nouns and some astronomical nomenclature.

The plural marks for any quantity that exceeds two. Some nouns take only the plural marking; these are called.

These "one-number" nouns behave as normal nouns in that they still have the properties of case, gender and animacy, and still undergo declension. If such a noun needs to be marked for number other than their inherent, the number may be expressed by introducing another word that does agree in number normally and acts as a determiner, usually an adjective or another noun, that agrees in the noun's stead. If the determiner is a noun, the original noun goes into the genitive case while the determiner usually goes after the original noun. If the determiner is an adjective, it is placed like a normal adjective relative to the noun; the noun then agrees in case as it normally would.

Case
Kti is an extremely inflecting language whose nouns can be in any of its 28 cases. Case in Kti usually reflects grammatical and syntactic relations though some verbs and certain other constructions force the usage of a specific case or a specific set of cases even though they would not usually be present in such a position regularly.

The twenty-eight cases are divided into three categories: The first category includes cases with either meanings of location, motion or time. The second category includes cases whose main purpose is to indicate some of the major thematic relations. The third category of miscellaneous cases includes cases whose functions are drop-outs from the two previous labels.
 * 1) Eleven postpositional cases
 * 2) Nine core cases
 * 3) Eight miscellaneous cases

The following table includes the cases along with their general usage:

There also exists a commitative (glossed ) that has fallen out of common usage. It is used to mark for company, although it is being supplanted by the ornative and instrumental.

Case Stacking
Case stacking (i.e. inflecting a noun for several grammatical categories) is somewhat a widespread phenomenon in Kti. It operates by taking an already inflected noun and inflecting it further as if it were bare. The once-inflected noun is called the "theme" and the twice-inflected one is called the "anatheme". Likewise, the suffixes that form them are called thematic and anathematic, respectively. The declension to which the theme belongs and from which the anathematic suffix is drawn is determined by the shape of the thematic suffix.

The thematic and anathematic affixes will always agree in number in the acrolect. More informal varieties of speech can have the theme be in the singular but the anatheme be in the expected number; this is not frequent even in the most informal of registers.

Sometimes, the cases stacking could be similar in meaning and overlapping in usage, thus leading to stacking for pure emphasis.

Types
There are two noun types in Kti: The difference in these two types is in how they behave under declension. Where regular-types just attach a suffix, clipping-type undergo an ablaut in the last vowel in the manner ~~. This ablaut is called "clipping". There are precisely determined enviroments in which this happens, but the nouns are random in their type placement. Full vowels are lengthened ones, half vowels are short and null represents the lack of the vowel.
 * 1) Regular-type nouns
 * 2) Clipping-type nouns

Declension
Case in Kti is conflated with number; that is, a single Ktarh suffix marks for both the number of a noun and its case. Due to its ancestor's moderately agglutinating nature, many of the suffixes among the declensions share vague resemblance.

Ktarh nouns are declined according to three declensions:
 * 1) Mid-central vowel declension
 * 2) Vocalic declension
 * 3) Consonant declension
 * 4) Bare consonantal
 * 5) Augmented consonantal

The mid-central vowel declension includes nouns that end in any of /ɛ ɛ: a a: ɞ ɞ: ɔ ɔ: ɒy iɞ/ optionally additionally followed by /ʔ/. The vocalic declension includes nouns that end in a vowel optionally followed by /ʔ/; they usually do not include mid-central declension nouns although mid-central declension nouns can decline according to the vocalic pattern. Both these declensions lack a nominative suffix. The consonantal declension contains nouns that end in a consonant. They're divided into bare and augmented nouns, depending on whether they have a suffix in the nominative singular (augmented) or not (bare). No augmented noun undergoes clipping. All vocalic declension nouns can also be declined as bare consonantal nouns if they end in /ʔ/.

While the vowel declensions lack a dedicated nominative suffix, the vowel itself is often taken to be a nominative suffix and is often removed in declensions. This reanalysis is nearly ubiquitous in speech and moderately frequent in writing.

There is a general tendency for first-declension nouns to be feminine and third-declension nouns to be masculine, while second-declension nouns generally have nouns of both genders more or less evenly spread out. While the tendencies are not steadfast for native words which can appear in various gender-declension combinations, they're followed quite closely when loaning words from non-Dnaric sources.

As a general rule, triple consonants simplify to double and double short vowels merge into a single long. A hiatus of one short and one long vowel is generally resolved in two ways: first, if they have different qualities the long vowel supplants the short one; second, if they have the same quality they merge into a single phonetically overlong vowel (written as, for example, <āa> for [a::]). Phonotactically strained, convoluted or invalid combinations are broken up usually with either an echo or a dissonant vowel.

First declension nouns decline using these affixes:

An additional feature of the first declension is lengthening of the last stem vowel in regular-type nouns in some case-number combinations. The lengthening progression is "short > long > overlong". It is optional, rarest in the prolative and most common in the partitive. This lengthening can be summarised as such: The possessive case has a reverse effect in all three numbers: it shortens the last vowel. When the vowel is already short, nothing is done unto it.

Second-declension nouns have a distinct but rare commitative case. Unlike with the first declension, there is no pseudo-clipping in the form of lengthening or shortening of vowels in special case forms. Second-declension nouns can also have a metathetic effect upon their final consonants (even if separated by a vowel) but this is an informal and non-standard development. They can also lose their final glottal stop regardless of phonotactics; this is extremely informal. Second-declension nouns decline using these affixes:

Many second-declesnion nouns can have some old, otherwise obsolete inflectional affixes. This is a vestige of the pre-modern Ktarh inflecional system that arguably was somewhat more complex. Some of these suffixes are somewhat frequent, others are quite obscure and limited to a handful of nouns.

Third-declension nouns can be divided into augmented and bare-stem nouns, where the augmented nouns have a nominative suffix and bare nouns don't. These two categories differ minimally; third declension nouns decline with these affixes:

In the table, the zero element <Ø> is representative of the nominative suffix that also appears in the vocative. Bare nouns do not have it and augmented nouns can have one of several of these. Due to several mergers, metathesis can also appear in some situation, not unlike with the second declension. It too is somewhat informal.

Some third-declension augmented nouns may reanalyse their nominative suffix and retain it, thus incorporating it into the stem to give an alternate form of the word and an alternate inflection. This reanalysis usually is limited to some more common nouns but is not rigidly applied.

Adjectives
Kti has two types of adjectives: the independent and dependent adjectives. The primary difference between these types of adjectives is that the independent adjectives are nouns in function and shape and can stand without an element to modify, while dependent adjectives are exclusively modifiers that require a modified element.

Independent Adjectives
Ktarh independent adjectives are recognisable by their nominative <-arh> ending. Most independent adjectives found in Ktarh are nationalities, language names, ethnicities and such forms. Groups of people can be denoted by their independent adjective if the group as a whole was meant, or if the group the people belong to is one of their defining characteristics.

Independent adjectives decline as inanimate masculines. They are semantically closer to nouns than dependent adjectives and can be used as nouns. Many independent adjectives are derived irregularly from their stems.

Dependent Adjectives
Ktarh dependent adjectives come in three flavours:
 * relative gerundive
 * descriptive gerundive
 * qualitative adjective

All three dependent adjectives can be placed inside a noun phrase to act as modifiers. Of these three, the qualitative is semantically closest to a true adjective, while the gerundives are semantically closer to dependent clauses.

The verbs of the gerundives decline for case and number in agreement with their modified element as if they were part of the third declension, while the qualitative adjective conjugates like a regular verb. Gerundives form a gerundive phrase with whatever other element they introduce.

Relative Gerundive
The Ktarh relative gerundive is a regular verb form that carries the same semantic information that a simple relative phrase in English does. It is formed from a fully conjugated verb, with the addition of its infinitive suffix (-ton/-don). The only irregular relative gerundive is the one formed from the copula "kin" which takes "-kon" as the infinitive suffix's replacement.

It has odd behaviour in its morphosyntax: if the gerundive is in the active the modified acts as the subject of the relative pseudo-clause, while if it is in the pseudopassive it acts as the object of the clause which then conjugates according to the actual subject.

An example noun phrase using the relative gerundive as its modifier: "ārasa kuhitaiton" (the mother who loves, the loving mother); its pseudopassive complement would be "ārasa kuhitrāteiton" (the mother whom I love).

Gerundives using the copula are limited in scope and use: they can only be used in the same positions the qualitative adjective can -- for introducing qualities -- and has a very specific and limited syntax. It is primarily used when the independent adjective has to be used to describe a noun phrase. All relative copular gerundives have the fixed word order of "ind.adj. + gerundive". They always stand alongside the phrase they modify, and normally come after the phrase; coming before the phrase is used for emphasis. They're usually written as hyphenated with their independent adjective.

An example noun phrase using the copular gerundive as its modifier: "īri ktarh-ktaikon" (the seer who's Ktarh, the Ktarh seer)

Descriptive Gerundive
The Ktarh descriptive gerundive is a regular formation from the copula "kin". It is used to equate the phrase it modifies with the noun or noun phrase it introduces. It consists of a noun phrase and the conjugated copula suffixed with "-ton". When the copula introduces a single noun, the order of the copula in relation to it is free; when it introduces a phrase, its position varies according to where the gerundive phrase is relative to what it modifies: if the modified comes first, the order is "modified + phrase + copula" and when the modifier is first, it is "copula + phrase + modified". When the copula introduces a single noun, it is usually written as hyphenated with it; when it introduces a noun phrase, the constituents of the phrase can optionally be hyphenated.

An example noun phrase using the descriptive gerundive (with a single noun) as its modifier: "īra 'īrni-ktaiton" (the divinatrix that's a foreigner); its equivalent with a phrase would be "ktaiton arāsa-kuhitaiton īra" (the divinatix that's a loving mother)

Qualitative Adjective
The Ktarh qualitative adjective is morphologically a normally inflected verb that semantically (and often syntactically) acts as a modifier. The adjective can act either as a modifier or as a full verb. An example: "asratai odanænǣk hsōrīrtai īra" (the black divinatrix chases after the sinner)

Verbs
Verbs are words that describe action, the one who completes the action, time of completion and such.

All Ktarh verbs, except for the copula "kin", end in either -ton (most frequently) or -don (some irregulars) in the infinitive.

The verbs are divided into auxiliary and main verbs. Acting auxiliary verbs are used to provide further morphological or semantic info about the main verbs. Main verbs represent the main action and make up the main body count of verbs.

Verbs in Kti are conjugated according to:
 * 1) Object gender
 * 2) Tense
 * 3) Number
 * 4) Person
 * 5) Voice
 * 6) Mood
 * 7) Aspect

The Ktarh verb has a general templatic structure when it comes to its affix order. A simple tabellar overview:

The root of the verb is usually found by detaching the infinitive suffix from the bare, citational infinitive. Most roots end in a vowel, but some may have an extra vowel inserted even though it is missing from their root.

Object Agreement
Ktarh verbs have a set of prefixes that agree the verbs to their direct objects only. This feature, called object agreement, gives Kti the status of a borderline polysynthetic language. The prefixes are:

Verbs in Kti agree to their object's gender and animacy - certain combinations lack a form.

These prefixes are optional only in cases when the object is present or previously introduced. If the object has been ommited, the prefixes are obligatory.

Tense, Person, Number
Tenses represent the temporal value of the referenced actions. Tenses branch into simple and more complex. Simple tenses are the basic tenses, self-sufficient and needn't have acting auxiliary verbs. Complex tenses use simple tenses of acting auxiliary and main verbs to be formed, and usually represent actions with certain parts in more than one time.

Among others, the most common tenses are simple present, past, and future tenses in Kti, each expressing their corresponding period, and there are tenses with multiple possible times (future/present for example) which, for example, describe an action which has started in the past and has finished at the time of utterance.

Temporal information in Kti is conflated with the person and number of the verb's nominative argument. This macrocategory is abbreviated as "TPN".

Basic Tenses
Basic tenses are formed by simple affixation to the verb. They are:
 * 1) Present simple
 * 2) Past simple
 * 3) Past aorist

Present Simple
A verb in the simple present (glossed "") describes an action which is happening or has begun now, at the time of utterance. Its perfective and imperfective aspectual forms provide marking for completion. The following table depicts the present simple of the copula (kin):

Because 'kin' is irregular, the table doesn't apply to other verbs, but only to 'kin'. The rules governing Present Simple are different. Let's take the verb 'to love' (kuhiton) for example:

As 'kuhiton' is a regular verb, its suffixes are by extension also regular - it shares its suffixes with other regular verbs. The suffixes for Present Simple are:

Past Simple
The simple past (glossed "") denotes the action happening prior to the present. The action in question may possibly have been completed but its goal wasn't accomplished thus being primarily atelic. The perfective and imperfective mark for the completion of the action. The verb 'kin' in the simple past:

The suffixes for the simple past are:

The verb "s'mnaraiton" (to speak a language) conjugated for all forms:

Past Aorist
The past aorist (glossed "") marks the action beginning in the past and having an unknown duration. It isn't marked for telicity - we don't know whether the goal was accomplished or not. The perfective and imperfective show whether the action can or will be completed or not.

And here is an examle of the verb "irineton" (to be infected with ...) conjugated for the past aorist:

And here are the endings:

If the suffix begins in a long vowel and is attached to a word with a short final vowel, the final vowel is replaced by the suffix's long vowel; if the suffix begins in a short vowel and the word ends with an incompatible short vowel, the suffix's vowel either transforms into the word's final vowel or an excrescent /x/ is added between the two. If the word ends with a long final vowel and the suffix begins in a vowel, an excrescent /x/ is added between the two.

Complex Tenses
Complex tenses are formed via the basic verb forms. These tenses use acting auxiliary verbs in combination with the main verb.

The complex tenses are the Pluperfect, the Future, the Present Periodic, the Past Periodic, the Future Periodic and the Past Inceptive.

Pluperfect
The pluperfect (glossed "") marks the action as happening prior to or at the same time as another action to which it is relative. Standing alone, it indicates a remote past, or rather, has a historic meaning. It is constructed in two ways: it has a compound and an analytic form. Both forms in their basis have the semantically bleached verb "daraton" in the past simple (with a minor variation) and the main verb either in the aorist or present simple (varies from verb to verb) for the analytic form, or its stem in the compound form.

This is the verb "kin" in both forms:

The basic formula is:
 * 1) "daraton" + VERB (/)
 * 2) STEM + "daraton"

Future
The future (glossed "") marks the action as taking place in the future (as in not having happened yet or isn't happening at the moment). It is formed with the optative copula "dūston" in the present together with the present of the verb. It only has an analytic form. The verb "kin" in the future:

An interesting observation on the future of verbs is that the auxiliary part rhymes with its content part (conjugated verb) as they have the same endings. The verb "kuhiton" in the future:

Past Periodic
The past periodic (glossed "") marks the action as happening in increments in the past, but looked at as a whole. The division may be temporal in nature, but also might be structural. It has two forms: an analytic and a synthetic form. The analytic form is formed by conjugating "hdæton" in the past aorist and the main verb in the present, while the synthetic form requires the main verb to be conjugated in the past aorist and  to be prefixed onto it.

The verb "damǣton" (to connect oneself to/with sth.) in both forms of the past periodic:

Present Periodic
The present periodic (glossed "") marks the action as happening in increments at the time of speaking, but looked at as a whole. The division may be temporal in nature, but also might be structural. It has two forms: an analytic and a compound form. The analytic form is formed by conjugating "hmōton" in the compound pluperfect and the main verb in the present, while the compound form requires the main verb to be conjugated in the present and  to be prefixed onto it.

The verb "rūrkaton" in both forms:

Future Periodic
The future periodic (glossed ) marks the action happening in increments of time, usually beginning after the time of speaking. The division may be temporal in nature, but also might be structural. It only has one form, the compound form, made by conjugating the verb in the present and prefixing  onto it.

The verb "suraton" (to choose by vote, to elect) in the future periodic:

Past Inceptive
The past inceptive (glossed ) marks the action to have begun in the past but is still ongoing at the time of speaking. It is formed by suffixing <-(h)ū> to the past aorist. Perfective verbs can't be marked for the past inceptive.

The verb "skakaton" (to wander, to walk without aim) in the past inceptive:

Voice
Ktarh verbs directly inflect for the active, passive and pseudopassive voices. There also exists a mediopassive that takes a reflexive argument but is morphologically identical to the active. Direct inflections for voice work by extending the stem of the verb and then having it inflect as an extended stem, additionally called the macrostem.

Active
The active voice takes a zero morpheme as its inflection. It has no special usage rules: its subjects are in the nominative and patients, whenever present, in the accusative. Verbs in the active, furthermore, do not exhibit any additional peculiarities.

Passive
The passive voice takes the morpheme -kæ-. Inflection of a phrase for the passive from the active forces a promotion of the patient to the nominative, pushing out the agent into either the vialis, the ornamental or instrumental cases. In some cases, the subject may be fully ommited. The passive may, but does not obligatorily have to, make a verb be one degree less valent than it used to be. This is rare; whenever the subject is dropped, a common strategy for valence preservation is the insertion of an oblique argument or a locative case marking that has connotations of an oblique argument (usually source or recipient). If the agent is indeed dropped but no valence preservation is employed and the verb decreases in valency, the patient is forced into the position the agent used to take, even if other constituents are allowed to move around. If the verb was intransitive to begin with, when marked for the passive it actually increases its valence, demotes its subject to the role of patient, and thus must either take an agent (but only in the vialis) or oblique arguments.

Pseudopassive
The pseudopassive voice takes the morpheme -trā-. Inflection for the pseudopassive is more straightforward than it is for the passive: transitive phrases' subject and object arguments swap markings, and intransitive subjects receive an accusative marking regardless of their original case (distinguished from the regular intransitive passive in that there are no additional oblique arguments).

Mediopassive
The mediopassive voice takes a zero morpheme in its inflection, but has peculiar valency and argument behaviour. Namely, all mediopassive verbs are at the very least valent, and their agents and patients will always be "embodied" by the same noun or noun phrase; this is the reflexive argument. This reflexive argument takes the reflexive case and always comes directly after the verb in any sentence. A promotion of a subject to a reflexive argument makes the verb transitive; if the verb's semantics are incompatible with having a patient (emotion and state verbs, for example), the verb instead shifts meaning to a causative (be sad > cause eachother to be sad)

Mood
Ktarh verbs inflect for the indicative, imperative (and less prominently the optative), interrogative and hypothetical moods. Modal inflection is handled either with a coverb construction that has the main verb be a peculiar kind of inflected infinitive (this is called the indirect inflection), or with modal verb suffixes (direct inflection). Sometimes only one method of inflection is possible or it may be that one has special connotations, and at others both can be used interchangeably.

The inflected infinitive is actually a defective relative gerundive: it is a fully inflected indicative verb with the infinitive -ton added to it. An example such infinitive is  (~we ignite). The infinitive differs from the gerundive in that it doesn't inflect like a third-declension noun.

A tabular overview of the possibilities:

Indicative
The Ktarh indicative is the basic, least marked verbal mood. It is also the only realis mood in the language. It is most commonly inflected for directly, though an emphatic indirect inflection exists. Its direct inflection requires no extensions - its modal suffix is a zero element. Its indirect inflection is performed with the coverb <āskaton> that takes the inflected infinitive as its argument and inflects as if it were a normal verb.

More colloquial speech may produce the same emphatic effect with an uninflected infinitive. In such speechforms, the inflected infinitive is even more emphatic than it is in the acrolect.

Imperative and Obligative
The imperative mood behaves oddly in Kti. It doesn't have an indirect inflection and has a peculiar direct inflection. Stepping outside the norms of modal inflection, it has multiple suffixes that are added to the verb without tense, person and number marking and instead supplant said marking. The imperative exists in the present and future tenses for the second person singular and first and second person dual and plural, and also as an obligative in the past, present and future tenses for all persons.

Even if the uses and suffixes of the obligative and imperative differ significantly, the obligative is counted as a type of imperative as it behaves like it and is easier to categorise as such. One additional peculiarity of the obligative is that it can be transformed into an inflected infinitive and then further inflected indirectly for mood.

The imperative has the following suffixes:

The obligative has the following suffixes:

Interrogative
The interrogative mood in Kti is inflected for only indirectly, with the coverb  conjugated regularly that takes the inflected infinitive of the main verb as its argument.

Any of the other moods that has a direct inflection can have its verb transformed into an inflected infinitive and thus afterwards be inflected for the interrogative.

Hypothetical
The Ktarh hypothetical can be inflected for both directly and indirectly. Its indirect inflection is performed by the coverb  that takes the inflected infinitive as its argument, and its direct inflection is performed with the modal suffix -u'ā. While its indirect inflection is more frequent and otherwise considered less marked and less formal, the direct and indirect inflections are semantically equivalent and are interchangeable without loss of meaning. The only situation that dictates the usage of the direct inflection is interrogative inflection: only the direct hypothetical inflection can form an inflected infinitive which can then be inflected for the interrogative.

Aspect
Ktarh verbs have an innate lexical aspect that divides them into perfective and imperfective verbs. Most verbs can be used as of one aspect but some can be ambiguous. There exist baroque derivational mechanisms to change the inherited aspect of the verb, adding additional semantic nuisances along the process.

Due to phonotactical limitations, most Ktarh verb roots end in a vowel. The roots that do not end in a vowel but instead have an anaptyctic vowel belong to an extremely small class of core verbs and as such do not behave well with most of the standard aspectual processes and mechanisms. Aspectual morphology in Kti is partially derivative and partially inflectional. Some verbs inflected with aspectual affixes have acquired a different meaning. The aspectual affixes are cleanly divided into prefixes and suffixes that are functionally independent one from another. Most suffixes start with a consonant, but some instead replace the root's final vowel. All prefixes have a consonant component, and might or might not have an obligatory vocalic component.

Prefixes
The aspectual prefixes in Kti are fairly straightforward and exhibit semi-agglutinative properties: each morpheme encodes for exactly one semantic and one morphological meaning. Some of them have allomorphs that are either conditioned by phonology or in free variation, but most are more or less invariable (save for anaptyctic vowels). Almost all prefixes derive a perfective verb from either an imperfective verb or, less frequently, another perfective verb.

Negation
Inflection for negative polarity is quite simple in Kti: it is most commonly carried out with the negative adverb , though alternate adverbs do exist. Double negation is an extant phenomenon in the language.

Subpages

 * →  Ktarh Naming System
 * →  Ktarh Literature
 * →  Ktarh Dictionary
 * →  Ktarh Politics