Xongeith

Information
Made for the August Challenge.

Xongeith was spoken in the ancient country known as Xophe. The language itself is characterized by its uvular consonants, tripartite alignment, dual/plural distinction fading in and out of usage across the language, strange adpositional system, no future tense and a unique take on relative clauses.

There are two main registers. One used in formal situations and one used in casual situations with friends. The main differences between these are the different pronouns used, and the usage of the dual number. The use of the dual number is considered formal since in Old-Xongeith it was only starting to disappear. As the language neared the end of its life-span the dual had been almost completely wiped out except for in the pro-forms and the plain pronouns became acceptable in any situation.

(Quick disclaimer: I suck at making conworlds.) Xophe was situated in the continent called 'Nituqausa'. All the languages in Nituqausa are part of the Nituqausan language family. The Nituqausan family evolved from Iipuqa which was spread across Nitaqausa by the Iipuqa tribe as they wondered across the land. The countries were primarily divided up by natural items such as rivers and mountains.

Xophe was near the sea and far away from any mountains with cold, rainy weather. They developed their own religious system, breaking away from the traditions of their ancestors and their neighbours, but ultimately a lot of inspiration was drawn from the other religions. The religion of Xophe consisted of three gods: the god of the water, Tashéth; the god of the land, Néx; and the god of the sky, Myrref. The three genders of the language appeared from the religious system. The genders are water, land and sky.

Xongeith is perhaps the most different to the other languages in the Nituqausan tree since the country was very large and protected by a vicious army with no foreigners being let inside. This allowed the language to develop for centuries without any interference from the neighbouring languages, that happily spread amongst each other.

The majority of people led a simple life, staying in small settlements known as 'Takhe' dotted around the coastline. Each Takhe there was a family in which the oldest male was always the leader of the settlement. The leader reported to the king who lived near the border much further inland with the army and many other rich, noble families where money was aplenty. It was considered of the greatest honour to be part of the army and many boys aspired to join when they grew up.

The king's family was decided after a great battle. The settlers of Xophe fought against a neighbouring country and when they won, Xophe was offically established. The leader of the army became the king and soon the ordered system of the country began. Ever since the battle there was strong tension between the people of Xohpe and foreigners. However, after many hundreds of years the country was taken over and Xongeith disappeared almost entirely, aside from in a few Takhe in the north of the country where it soon evolved into a new language from the northern dialect.

Consonants
Nasals will always assimilate in place to a following plosive, fricative or trill. The uvular plosive may be pronounced pro-uvular depending on the speaker, but is normally a plain uvular.

Vowels
At the start or ends of words, vowels are automatically surrounded with a glottal stop on their open side: /qa/ would be realized as [qaʔ], and /aq/ would be realized as [ʔaq].

Vowels will assimilate in nasality to a following nasal consonant if it is at the end of a word: /qanan/ would be realized as [qanɑ̃n], and /qa nan/ would be realized as [qaʔ nɑ̃n].

Romanization
Here is a copy and paste friendly version of the romanization: m = m	n = n	ɴ = ng	p = p pʰ = ph	b = b	t = t	tʰ = th d = d	k = k	kʰ = kh	q = q qʰ = qh	ɸ = f	β = v	s = s z = z	ɕ = sh	ʑ = zh	χ = x ʁ = gh	ʜ = h	j = j	r = r ʀ = rr	l = l	a = a	e = e i = i	y = y	o = o	u = u ə = é	ʉ = ú	ɢ = g

Xongeith-script.jpgng System
The image is on the right. Osswix also made me a script, but since this is a competition I can't really use it. Correction: The velar fricatives should be alveolo-palatal.

Phonotactics
(C) V (V)(C)(C).

The consonant cluster in a coda must satisfy one of these conditions: 1. There are no consonants; 2. There is one consonant; 3. There are two consonants - an unvoiced bilabial fricative followed by an aspirated stop; 4. There are two consonants - an unvoiced non-aspirated consonant followed by an unvoiced bilabial fricative; 5. There are two consonants - a voiced consonants followed by a voiced bilabial fricative.

Most words have two syllables, but there are many exceptions. The only legal diphthongs are 'ai', 'au', 'ei', and 'ou'. For words with two syllables, the stress comes on the first one. With other words the stress is left up to the speaker.

If two vowels find themselves next to each other, they must be broken up with a ' which represents a glottal stop.

The uvular consonants are the most common in the language.

Example Words
Keikyz = /keikyz/

Ghunúj = /ʁunʉj/

Thúxosf = /tʰʉχosf/

Ghél = /ʁəl/

Kairéfqh = /kairəfqʰ/

Nouns
Nouns are declined according to their gender. The three genders are based upon the three Gods, Tashéth (the God of Water), Néx (the God of Land), and Myrref (the God of Sky); therefore, the genders are water, land and sky. Each of the Gods is believed to have created all concepts/objects that have words assigned to them.

There are five different cases: ergative, accusative, absolutive, locative and instrumental. The usage of each will be explained in the syntax section. All of these cases apart from the accusative have singular and plural forms. In the accusative there are singular, plural and dual forms; there used to be dual forms of the other cases in Old-Xongeith, but these fell out of common usage and soon merged with the plural forms. Using the accusative dual is also quite uncommon but it should be used in formal situations.

To decline an noun, one must first apply the case using the following prefixes: (the accusative is the plain form) To create a plural, one must add a bilabial fricative to the end of the last syllable in the word. It must have the same voice as the consonant it is next to (or vowel where it will always be voiced), and if it is next to a aspirated stop it must come before that consonant in order to follow the phonotactics. If the last consonant of the word is already a bilabial fricative, then one must add the vowel '-ú' after that consonant instead of adding another bilabial fricative. Note: in extremely formal, many plurals may be formed by adding '-vu', from which the modern pluralization methods were derived.

Finally, to create the dual accusative, one must add the suffix '-fe' for water and sky nouns, or '-fo' for land nouns.

Here are some examples of declined nouns:

To show indefiniteness a noun may receive the suffix '-e'. This is not required and only used to solve problems of ambiguity, thus a more correct transliteration for it than the English 'a(n)' would be the word 'another'. This is placed after any plural markers.

Here is a list of the common derivational affixes, applied to the root before any declension. New words may also be created through compounding, but sound change has introduced extra parts between the original words in many already-existant compounds. For example, 'Xongeith' is made from 'Xo' and 'Eith' which means 'person language', but 'ng' has no apparent source.

Adpositional Suffixes
Adpositions are treated as suffixes for nouns and must agree with the gender of the constituent to which they are connected. For example, 'in' in the sentence 'I read the book in the library' could agree with the gender of the words 'book' or 'read', depending on to which it applied. The word 'library' would have the 'in' suffix attached and would be in the accusative case. They also must agree in number with the noun of the prepositional phrase: 'in' would be singular, dual or plural depending on whether 'library' was singular, dual or plural.

Here are the endings for regular adpositions. (Note the many adpositions are irregular and have their forms noted in the lexicon, while the regular ones have their water singular form given only.) Unlike the nouns the dual is still used, even if the noun is actually in the plural.

To clarify: an adpositional suffix must agree with the noun that is part of the PP in number, and the word to which the PP is attached in gender.



In example 1, the PP 'in the library' is attached to the VP with the head 'read', so 'in' would have to agree in gender with 'read'. In example 2, the PP 'in the library' is attached to the NP with the head 'book', so 'in' would have to agree in gender with 'book'. In both examples, 'in' would also have to agree with 'library' in number.

Pronouns
There are four persons, three numbers (singular, dual and plural), four cases and two levels of respect shown in the pronouns. Similar the nouns, the dual forms have started to collapse into the plural, but more forms remain where this has not happened. As far as gender agreement is concerned, all pronouns are land nouns aside from the third person which is explained below.

The first two persons are just like in English (I, me, we, us and you). The third and fourth persons cover the third person in English. The third person is used for an object that has already been written out in full, while the fourth person is used for an object that has not yet been specified. For example, in the sentences "I sleep in my bed. It is very warm." the pronoun 'it' references the bed. However in the sentences "Go to this café. They say it is good." the pronoun 'they' is not shown to reference anything (it doesn't have an antecedent). In the first example, one would use the third person, and in the second example one would use the fourth person. Since one knows the gender of the object being linked to be a third person pronoun, gender agreement may no longer have to assume they are always land nouns. Thus, a third person pronoun's gender is the same as the object's to which it refers. In speech, the fourth person can also be used to talk about someone/thing that has not been stated but is part of the situation in which the conversation's participants are e.g. someone at whom they are both looking.

Here are the respectful forms (used in most situations): Here are the plain forms (used only with close friends). The third and fourth persons do not have plain forms. Note how the accusative and absolutive have joined together to create a ergative-absolutive morphosyntatic alignment:

Verbs
Verbs fall into five different conjugations of which the first two are most common. There are three tenses: the far past, the close past and the present/future. There are two aspects: the progressive and the aorist. There are several moods, but these are not shown in the morphology.

To negate a verb, one must follow the rule that the first letter requires.

Here are some common suffixes for verbs.

Clause Particles
The relative clause particle 'léf' inflects to show in which case the relative argument is in the main clause. The 'that'-clause particle 'dév' inflects to show which argument the 'that'-clause represents in the main clause. The instrumental form has a special meaning, noted in the syntax section, unless the verb does something different with it (e.g. to which means to say uses the instrumental for the speech, so to dévra means to say that).

Adjectives and Adverbs
Adjectives are usually formed out of nouns with the suffix '-o'. This creates a positive adjectives, e.g. 'speed' becomes 'quick' not 'slow'. When they are formed like this they inherit the gender of the noun from which they were made. Here are the endings of adjectives: To create an adverb from any of these forms, just add -f to the end. For example, the word for speed is 'pasúg' so 'quickest' is 'pasúgoza', 'slower' is 'pasúges' and 'as quickly' is 'pasúgiqf'.

Pro-forms
Here are the pro-forms. Similar to English, there are only two types of demonstratives: proximal and a medial and distal combination. The dual numbers are used but only when the dual-ness of the pro-form needs to be emphasized. These are almost completely regular. Here is the table: As far as gender agreement is concerned, these are all of the gender water.

Clauses
Clauses usually follow the word VSO. Pronouns and shorter arguments that need to be emphasized are commonly placed before the verb but can be left out if they don't need to be emphasized. For transitive verbs, the actor is placed in the ergative case and the object is put into the accusative case. For intrasitive verbs, the subject takes on the absolutive case. These cases change for negative clauses: see the section on negativity. Here is an example of a transitive clause:

We played a game with the footballs. '''jav dénau dénatú thuthegasf. '1P.ERG play.AOR.PST  game.ACC football.PLU.INS''

Here is a intransitive clause:

The girl is jumping. '''xirat shamarri. 'jump girl.ABS''

If an argument is in the locative case then it becomes the location where the action takes place. If an argument is in the instrumental case then it becomes the instrument used to perform the action or something/someone with which the action is done in company. Note that the verb 'to give' uses special case marking - see the vocabulary page.

When answering questions or when the object of the clause implies a verb (e.g. I 'did' sports; 'did' means 'played') it may be dropped, but this can be considered lazy.

Prepositional Phrases
Prepositional phrases are created by added the preposition suffix to the noun of the PP, and then placing the created word after the head word of the consitituent to which the PP should be attached. The prepositional suffix agrees with the noun it is attached to it number, and in gender to the head argument of the consitituent of which it is a part.

Copulas
To show equality between two objects, a prepositional phrase is used with the other object. The PP is placed directly after the noun, which will be in the accusative case if the sentence does not have anything else to it. Here is an example:

I am a boy. am geqau. 1S.ACC boy.AS.

The irregular preposition 'ou' can also mean 'as'. In a sentence like, 'We must work as a team.", the PP 'as a team' would use the preposition 'ou' and be placed after the word 'we'. Here is the translation:

We must work as a team. '''gazv vésuau kimú mat. '1P.ABS team.AS.LAND.SING work.ú IMP.''

Stative Verbs
Unlike dynamic verbs, stative verbs are created using the verb 'iri'. The 'state' is placed after 'iri', which may be then followed by adverbs and the clause's arguments. Here is an example:

I love you. '''ir kheqosu am xed. 'do.AOR.PRES love 1S.ERG 2S.ACC''

Negativity
Sentence that have a negative verb take their arguments in different cases. For example, in the negative clause the actor is no longer doing anything; they cannot be put in the ergative case because that is reserved for arguments that are doing something, so they are put into a different case.

Here are the rules:

1. The subject of a negative intransitive verb is put in the accusative.

2. The actor of a negative transitive verb is put in the absolutive.

3. The object of a negative transitive verb is kept in the accusative.

View these example sentences:

The boy loves the girl. '''ir kheqosu sageq marri. 'do.AOR.PRES love boy.ERG girl.ACC''

The girl doesn't like the boy. '''odir kheqosu shaimarri geq. 'do.NEG.AOR.PRES love girl.ABS boy.ACC''

I jumped. '''xirau gaz. 'jump.PST.AOR 1S.ABS''

I didn't jump. '''ghirrif am. 'jump.PST.AOR.NEG 1S.ACC''

To emphasize the positivity of a clause, reduplication of the first syllable of the verb is used.

I definitely jumped. '''xixirau gaz. 'jump.PST.POS 1S.ABS''

Moods
Moods are always shown by using an auxillary verb. Auxillary verbs come just after the verb they correspond to. The main verb becomes just its root plus the suffix -ú, and the auxillary verb is used to show inflection.

There are six moods: the indicative (to state a fact), the mirative (to show surprise), the imperative (to command someone to do something), the cohortative (to encourage an action), the subjunctive (to talk about the concept of an action) and the potential (to show a likely action). Each of these have their own auxillary verb, which can be found in the lexicon.

Here is an example of a mirative sentence.

You didn't jump?!? '''édav xirú ibif. '2P.ABS jump.ú MIR.PST.AOR.NEG''

If the verb is 'iri' plus a state then the mood auxillary is put at the start of the clause.

Let him love her. '''mat irú kheqosu je nét. 'IMP state.ú love 4S.ERG 4S.ACC''

Relative Clauses
Relative clauses are made by putting the relative argument in the subordinate clause (unlike English which leaves it in the main one), preceding the subordinate clause with the particle 'léf' and inserting it into the main clause. The particle 'léf' declines to show what case the noun from the subordinate clause should be in in the main clause. The relative argument is always placed before the verb in the subordinate clause. The verb in the subordinate clause is put into the 'relative form' which uses the suffix '-ev'. Here is an example:

"The girl likes the boy who is romantic."

The main clause is 'The girl likes the boy" and the subordinate clause is '[the boy] is romantic'. There is a link between the object of the first clause and the subject of the second clause. In Xongeith the NP 'the boy' is left in the second clause instead of the first like in English. This is how it is translated:

'''"ir kheqosu samarri léf shaigeq irev lamruta." 'do.AOR.PRES love girl.ERG.SING REL.ACC boy.ABS.SING do.AOR.PRES.REL be_romantic.''

Note that the NP 'the boy' is in the absolutive case (like it would be if the clause 'the boy is romantic' was written out on its own) - not the accusative, and that the particle 'léf' is in the accusative form telling us that the argument to left of the verb in the next clause ('shageq') is also the accusative argument in the main clause.

If only the link between two arguments can be specified (i.e. the actual argument is unknown, but the link is known) then the argument is merely left out in the subordinate clause.

The particle 'léf' may have an prepositional suffix added to it if the relative noun exists in as part of a prepositional phrase in the main clause. The particle 'léf' is always considered singular.

'Léf' is sometimes skipped in non-formal situations.

Questions
There are four types of questions. The first is a yes/no question. The second is the same as the first but expects the answer yes; likewise, the third is the same but expects a negative answer. The fourth is used to ask about something in a clause. The first three types of questions are answered with yes ('zú!') or no ('úd!', or more formally 'tara'úd!').

The first type of question is created by making sure the particular part of the clause that needs to be confirmed is at the start of it, something which can only be shown in English by stress. Next, the question particle 'ok' is put at the end of the clause. For example, 'Are you working ?' would be translated as 'kimat éda ok?', while 'Are  you working?' would be translated as 'éda kimat ok?'.

The second and third types of questions are made exactly like the first, but the question particle becomes 'mokh'. If the main verb is positive the answer is usually 'yes', but if the main verb is negative the answer is usually 'no'.

The final type of question is made by writing out the clause with the dummy noun 'korr' which is inflected just like any other water noun in the place where the argument would be and finishing the sentence off with the particle 'ok'. For example, 'Who are you?' is translated as 'xed korrou ok?'. To ask a question about why something happened, use the dummy noun 'kaiz'.

That-Clauses
'That'-clauses are formed just like relative clauses where the linked argument is not specified but using the particle 'dév' and the verb of the 'that'-clause has the 'that'-clause suffix applied to it (-u). Here is an example:

The girls like that the boy works. '''ir kheqosu samarriv dév kima'u shaigeq. 'state.AOR.PRES like girl.ERG.PLU that.ACC work.THAT.AOR.PRES boy.ABS.''

If the 'that'-clause particle 'dév' is in the instrumental form 'dévra' then the clause decribes how the action of the main clause is done, similar to the English preposition 'by', instead of meaning 'with that' (which doesn't make much sense).

Adjectives and Adverbs
Adjective and adverb phrases come directly after the argument that they modify. The phrase starts with the adjective/adverb itself and then may have some PPs. The preposition 'iqhu' is quite common with APs because it can be translated when used in APs to mean 'than' with a comparative, 'as' with a equal comparison or 'for' with a superlative or plain form. Here is an example:

I am eating as quickly as I can. aq jarri léfiqhu pasúgiqf tu'a. 1S.ERG eat.PROG_PRES REL.as.WATER.SING speed.EQU_ADV POT.AOR_PRES.

The adjective may be part of a prepositional phrase itself. This normally occurs with the copula preposition to say things like ' is/are '.

Sometimes the noun may be missed out if it is obvious from context, but the adjectives may still remain.

Phrase Order
The order of a noun phrase is this: quantifier (all, some, few, etc.), numerals (3rd, 6, 2, etc.), noun, determiner (this, those, etc.), adjectives (small, purple, clever, etc.), PPs (from the garden, at the shop, etc.).

"All of those five red apples from the garden" would be written in this order: "all of five apples those red garden.from"

Verb phrase order is very simple: arguments, verb, adverbs, arguments,  PPs,  causes/reasons/conditions.

Causes, Reasons and Conditions
To show the cause of an action one must put the causative clause in the cause-form ('-oxis'). This clause is then put in the main clause, usually at the end. The same goes with reasons and conditions with their respective forms. Here are some example:

I jump to get fit. '''gaz xira fysa'ughi. '1S.ABS jump.AOR.PRES get_fit.AOR.PRES.REASON.''

We will work if you two cook the apples. '''gazv kima khuthú va'oxé xiva nitasf. '1P.ABS work.AOR.PRES cook.ú SUBJ.AOR.PRES.CONDITION 2D.ERG apple.ACC.PLU.''

Note how the tense and mood of a condition can be used to change its meaning to 'when', 'while', 'before', 'after', 'if', etc.

If a noun/pro-form is the cause/reason/condition for an action, the dummy verb 'rri' (which is usually the 'have' state, but here it is used as it if were a normal second conjugation verb) followed by the noun/pro-form in the absolutive case.

Tenses
Verb are inflected for tense and aspect. The tenses are present, past and far-past. The aspects are progressive and aorist. These do not translate easily into English's system. Here are the approximate translations:

Connectives
Connectives are placed between two arguments. The most common connective is 'ym' meaning 'and'. 'Or' is 'kei'. To connect multiple clauses together, one must add '-a' to end of a connective. To list more than two items a comma is placed between all arguments until the last where the normal connective is placed in the romanization.

Vocabulary
http://conlang.wikia.com/wiki/Xongeith/Vocabulary

Numbers
Xongeith uses a base eight numeral system. Here are the numbers from zero to seven. To make a number from eight to seventy-seven, one must place these suffixes after one of the words for digits. For larger numbers (which were rarely seen) the digits are just read of in pairs from left to right joined together by '-né'. For examples, the number 1,234,567 is 4,553,207 in octal and is translated as: "zhe né pabo né vouqem né pa'asau".

Calendar
The year ('Akhei') is divided into three seasons. Each season is devoted for worshiping a particular god. Here are the seasons: Noutashéth and Nou'éx have 121 days and Nounyrref has 123. Every 64 years a 16 day celebration takes place at the end of Nounyrref before Noutashéth starts. The people of Xophe believed this would bring good luck for the next 64 years, without realizing that they were accounting for leap years that we have today.

The days were split up into eight segments, called 'akh' (which inherits the gender of the current season). To ask the time one would ask, 'How many akh are left today?'. A full day is called a 'pai', 'today' is 'pai qék' and 'yesterday' is 'pai'azh'.

Proper Nouns
Proper nouns are always have the land gender, and in romanizations will be written with a capital letter at the start and any affixes will be seperated from the root with hyphens.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

Article 1
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.

éta not shaixov rraqe'au ym ovau xaki'iqhu ym shinagviqhif.

make all human.PLU.ABS free.AS.LAND.SING and equal.AS.LAND.SING status.IN.WATER.SING and right.IN.WATER.PLU.

They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

ni so thebigv thuzún pihoto ym khubetisa yma zha irú peiras marútnagif rrudutez eqinvabif.

3P.ACC give start.LOC sense.INS logic.POS_ADJ and conscience.INS and.CLAUSE COH.PRES.AOR state.ú behave eachother.with.PLU.WATER spirit.INS brother.PLU.made_of.PLU.WATER

Article 2
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

múqha qotf léf not naishinagv ym naishinagv rraqe'abu a'ev the-Declaration nati nev milaranagogh noku taqei'abogh dútqhav rrapazh, zeiph ghoranesu, kuqrri, eith, théru, ngiran narút kei diqhédo, enrúth shou'o kei zathge'o, xouba'et, bigv kei phetunez narút.

allow.AOR.PRES everyone.INS REL.ACC all right.ABS.PLU and right.ABS.PLU free.made_of.WATER.SING exist.AOR.PRES.REL declaration.SING.LOC this no distinction.WITH.SING.SKY any kind.made_of.SING.SKY for_example race.ACC colour.ACC skin.of.SING.WATER gender.ACC religion.ACC opinion.ACC other or political.ADJ.POS origin nation.ADJ.POS or social.ADJ.POS property.ACC birth.ACC or status.ACC other

Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

éta thuqhe nev milara phetuneziqhaz diqhédo, razharru'o kei keighuno léfnesaz shou kei jiren ngouka'ev je berrú gixitau, qhupésau, dirrazhi je kei zútaiqha noku rruzútaiqharru narút pékithasnesogh.

create.PRES.AOR also no distinction.ACC status.concerning.SING.LAND political.ADJ.POS rule.ins_arg.ADJ.POS or world.ADJ.POS REL.of.SING.LAND country.ACC or area.ACC belong_to.PRES.AOR.REL 4S.ERG irregardless_if unique.be.SING.LAND trust.be.SING.LAND rule.NEG 4S.ERG or limit.PRES.AOR any limit.ins_arg.SING.INS other sovereignity.of.SING.SKY