Kihā́mmic

pá mamûnám ontā́ bán : non nobis solum : not for ourselves alone

General information
The Kihā́mmic language (Kihā́mmic Latin: Lố kihāmatī́zô tárak, [ˈlo kɪɦɑːmaˈtiːzo ˈtaɾak]) is the main language spoken in Kihāmát. It is an inflected fusional nominative-accusative language, which has two numbers, three genders and nine cases. There are over five million native speakers of Kihā́mmic at present; nearly seventy per cent of the country's population, the majority of the remaining thirty per cent speak Kihā́mmic fluently as their second language. The language belongs to the isolated Panlaffic language family, which is indigenous to the eight islands that make up Kihāmát. There are six other extant Panlaffic languages, including the closely related Church Kihā́mmic.

Phonology and orthography

 * See also: Kihā́mmic phonology and IPA for Kihā́mmic.

The Kihā́mmic language can be written in either the native Panlaffic script, in which all Panlaffic languages are traditionally written, or in the Standardised Romanised Panlaffic Alphabet used below.

Digraphs and trigraphs
Most of the consonant clusters and diphthongs are self-evident, however, the less obvious of these are shown below:

Alphabet
As previously mentioned, all of the Panlaffic languages have traditionally been written in the Panlaffic alphabet, the chief variant of which is the Kihā́mmic one. However, use of the Romanised alphabet is gaining use, mainly due to the Internet.

Panlaffic alphabet
The Panlaffic alphabet is a true alphabet. An example of its use is on the Coat of Arms of Kihāmát, as shown to the left. The word on the scroll spells "Kihāmát" in its native script.

Although the Panlaffic script in the past had two cases, a majuscule and a minuscule, only the majuscule is now generally used and the minuscule is never used in any official context.

Romanised alphabet
N.B.:
 * Acute accents over vowels indicate primary stress.
 * A and ā are always stressed if it the last letter of a word.
 * Ə is never stressed unless it is the only vowel in the word.
 * Pluralisation moves the stress to the infix, -am-, unless this violates the above stress rules.

Overview
The table above gives a basic idea of the structure of Kihā́mmic grammar.

Cases
The Kihā́mmic language has nine cases:
 * 1) Nominative
 * 2) Accusative
 * 3) Genitive
 * 4) Ablative
 * 5) Allative (or dative-allative)
 * 6) Instrumental
 * 7) Prepositional
 * 8) Terminative
 * 9) Comparative (or equative)

Nouns
Nouns have three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter; two numbers: singular and plural; they are also declined according to case.

Diminutives and augmentatives
Diminutives add -ûn(á/û) unless the word ends in a vowel, in which case add -kûn(á/û).

Augmentatives add -at(á/û) but add -mat(á/û) when the word ends in a vowel.

Adjectives do not change according to diminutives or augmentatives.

Articles
Articles appear as both definite (i.e. "the") and indefinite (i.e. "a", "an" or "some") and are declined as nouns.

Definite
The definite articles correspond to the English "the" and the French "le", "la", "l'" or "les".

Indefinite
The indefinite articles correspond to the English "a", "an" or "some" and the Portuguese "um", uma", "uns" or "umas".

Adjectives
In Kihā́mmic, an adjectives agrees with the noun it qualifies in gender, number and case.

Type I
Type I adjectives have the standard singular masculine ending -nômô.

Type II
Type II adjectives have the standard singular masculine ending -ôvan.

Type III
Type III adjectives have the standard singular masculine ending -amô or -ômô (but not -nômô).

Type IV
Type IV adjectives have the standard singular masculine ending -atī́zô.

Type V
Type V adjectives have the standard singular masculine ending -ónsô.

More
To say phrases involving comparisons such as "The dog is bigger than the cat", the word "rū́namô" [more] precedes the adjective and the adjective is followed by "kā́" [than]. So the example sentence translates as:

"Lố gốt sói rū́namô ránômô kā́ lá kará"

N.B.: rū́namô declines appropriately as a type III adjective.

Less
To say phrases such as "The cat is smaller than the dog", the word "kónsô" [less] precedes the adjective which is also followed by "kā́". So the example given translates as:

"Lá kará séi kónse ránama kā́ lố gốt"

N.B.: kónsô declines as a type V adjective.

As... as
To say phrases such as "You are as short as me", the word "kán" [also] precedes the adjective which is also followed by "kā́". So the example given translates as:

"Dán sói kán dénômô kā́ ékô"

Most
To use superlatives, for example, "This dog is the biggest, the word "ródamô" [most] is placed before the adjective. Thus the sentence above translates as:

"Lố gốt sói lố ródamô ránômô"

N.B.: ródamô also declines as a type III adjective.

Least
To say superlative phrases such as "The cat is the smallest, the word "katrónsô" [least] is placed before the appropriate adjective. So the sentence above translates as:

"Lá kará séi lá katrónse ranômá"

N.B.: katrónsô declines as a type V adjective.

Personal pronouns
Personal pronouns are declined just as noun, except for the fact that plural personal pronouns do not exactly resemble the pluralised version of the corresponding singular personal pronouns. The plural forms of the second and third person personal pronouns can be used as polite personal pronouns as well, just as in French "vous" can be the plural or polite form of "you" and as "Вы" can also do the same in Russian.

Plural
The neuter second person singular is used in cases where either gender may apply and plural neuter pronouns are also used for mixed gender groups.

Reflexive
To form reflexive pronouns (i.e. myself/ourselves et cetera) the suffix -ná is added to singular pronouns and -nám added to plural pronouns. For example myself, masculine accusative, in Kihā́mmic is ekôná and ourselves, neuter instrumental, is mamûnám.

Possessive adjectives
Possessive adjectives are words such as the French "mon", "ton" or "son", they behave exactly as normal type I adjectives. They agree in case, number and gender with the noun.

Possessive pronouns
Possessive pronouns are words such as the English "mine", "yours" or "ours", they behave just as normal nouns would. They also agree in number and gender with the noun to which they refer (by adding "á" for feminine and "û" for neuter).

"Who"
The interrogative pronoun "kémû" [who] declines as below:

"What"
The interrogative pronoun "kómû" [what] declines as below:

"Which kind"
The interrogative pronoun "tómû" [which kind] declines as below:

"Which"
The interrogative pronoun "kétômô" [which] declines as a normal type III adjective.

"Whose"
The interrogative pronoun "kénôm" [whose] declines just as a normal noun and agrees in number and gender with the object to which it refers (by adding "á" for feminine and "û" for neuter).

"How many"
The interrogative pronoun "fáztamô" [how many] also declines as a normal type III adjective.

"This", "these"
The demonstrative pronoun "étômô" [this] declines as usual type III adjective. Étômô agrees in number, gender and case with the noun to which it refers.

"That", "those"
The demonstrative pronoun "étôvan" [this] declines as a type II adjective. Étôvan also agrees in number, gender and case with the noun to which it refers.

"Such"
The demonstrative pronoun "étnômô" [such, suchlike, such as] declines as a normal type I adjective. Étnômô agrees in number, gender and case with the noun to which it refers.

Verbs
Verbs are conjugated according to tense, number, gender and mood. There are three moods; indicative, conditional and imperative, unlike English or French there is no subjunctive mood.

Second conjugation, -ū́t
Second conjugation verbs have the ending -ū́t in the infinitive. For example kasū́t [to drink] is conjugated as follows:

Third conjugation, -óš
Third conjugation verbs have the ending -óš in the infinitive. For example fûrnóš [to stand (up)] is conjugated as follows:

Voices
There are three voices in Kihā́mmic, the active, the dynamic passive and the static passive.

Active voice
The active voice is unmarked in Kihā́mmic.

Dynamic passive voice
Kihā́mmic has two passive voices, the first of which is the dynamic passive. It is formed by placing the particle pṓl before the appropriate verb. For example:

"I burn": Ékô rātố

"I am burnt": Ékô pṓl rātố

"I have burnt": Ékô arātáž

"I have been burnt": Ékô pṓl arātáž

"I will burn": Ékô fûrnót

"I will be burnt": Ékô pṓl fûrnót

The dynamic passive is used in phrases such as "I am burnt every time I go in the sun", more commonly expressed in modern English as "I get burnt every time I go in the sun".

Static passive voice
The second passive is the static passive. It is constructed just as the passive voice in English and French – by using the appropriate tense of "to be" followed by the past participle of the verb that is to be in the passive. E.g.:

"I am burnt": Ékô sói rātážamô

"I have been burnt": Ékô atáz rātážamô

"I will be burnt": Ékô tróp rātážamô

Continuous
Although Kihā́mmic has no aspects per se, there is a continuous particle that indicates that the verb has a continuous "aspect". The particle "aklá" is placed before the verb, for example:

"I play": Ékô garanói

"I am playing": Ékô aklá garanói

"I have played": Ékô agaranáz

"I have been playing": Ékô aklá agaranáz

"I will play": Ékô garantóp

"I will be playing": Ékô aklá garantóp

Reflexives
Reflexive verbs are produced the same way as in English. That is, the appropriate verb is followed by the reflexive counter-part of the verb's subject in the accusative case.

Negatives
Verbs are made negative by bā́n [not] accompanying the verb, normally proceeding it.

Irregular verbs
There are only eleven irregular verbs in Kihā́mmic, they are:
 * 1) sád : to be
 * 2) ímat: to have
 * 3) venád: to go
 * 4) libád: to like
 * 5) hotád: to want
 * 6) mégač: to be able
 * 7) snarát: to know [something]
 * 8) námač: to have to [moral obligation]
 * 9) koslát: to need [urgent need]
 * 10) akáfad: to kill
 * 11) šônát: to run

Adverbs
Adverbs are formed by replacing the adjective in question's ending with a corresponding adverbial ending.


 * Type I adjectives have the standard singular masculine ending -nômô. This ending is replaced by the adverbial ending –nō.
 * Type II adjectives have the standard singular masculine ending -ôvan. This is replaced by -ôvā.
 * Type III adjectives have the standard singular masculine ending -amô or -ômô (but not -nômô). These are replaced by -ā and -ō.
 * Type IV adjectives have the standard singular masculine ending -atī́zô, which is replaced by –átzō.
 * Type V adjectives have the standard singular masculine ending -ónsô, which is replaced by –ónō.

Word order
Kihā́mmic, like all Panlaffic languages, has the basic word order subject-verb-object in transitive clauses, but has a free word order in intransitive clauses. However, due to the case system, word order can be rather varied even occasionally in transitive clauses. For example, the intransitive phrase "ékô džố ôyû́n lố ránômô hótô" ("I went into the big building") can be arranged in twelve different ways, whilst still remaining grammatically correct:


 * 1) Ékô džố ôyû́n lố ránômô hótô.
 * 2) Ékô džố ôyû́n lố hótô ránômô.
 * 3) Ékô ôyû́n lố ránômô hótô džố.
 * 4) Ékô ôyû́n lố hótô ránômô džố.
 * 5) Džố ékô ôyû́n lố ránômô hótô.
 * 6) Džố ékô ôyû́n lố hótô ránômô.
 * 7) Džố ôyû́n lố ránômô hótô ékô.
 * 8) Džố ôyû́n lố hótô ránômô ékô.
 * 9) Ôyû́n lố ránômô hótô ékô džố.
 * 10) Ôyû́n lố hótô ránômô ékô džố.
 * 11) Ôyû́n lố ránômô hótô džố ékô.
 * 12) Ôyû́n lố hótô ránômô džố ékô.

Though word order is variable prepositions are tied to the compliment as adjectives are tied to theirs, however adjectives may be placed before or after the corresponding nouns. Articles are also somewhat restricted; they must always precede the corresponding noun in the phrase, but, depending on the order of other words applying to the noun, may not be directly next to it. The word order varies the emphasis of the sentence, the primary emphasis being initial and secondary emphasis being final.

An example of the standard order of a transitive sentence is shown below:

"JosephNOM gave Mary’sGEN bookACC, which he’d read halfACC of at schoolPREP from MondayABL to ThursdayTERM, to StephenALL across the tableINST, which was a brownish colourCOMP."

"YôfánNOM stagáz Mā́rīGEN azpīáACC, kétômī šốn aiyahazbáz gûláACC yán əkghálePREP nán zûkláABL yû́nə kû́rklə TERM, ôyán ĪzvánôALL ûkrā́ əbrákûINST, kétômô táz ának dorák kófnômakCOMP."

Other vocabulary
Other lists of vocabulary can be found below:
 * Ages and names
 * Basic phrases
 * Colours
 * Conjunctions
 * Countries
 * Date and time
 * Family
 * Idioms
 * Months and days
 * Numbers
 * Prepositions
 * Seasons and weather

Example texts

 * Aesop's Fables
 * Sentences
 * The Tower of Babel
 * The Universal Declaration of Human Rights