Irkhilakhu

This language is incomplete. It is currently being worked on (as of Jan 7 2020) but you are free to take a look before it is finished.

Language created Dec 2019.

Classification
Fusional

VSO or SOV, based on speaker preference.

Nominative-Accusative

Head-Initial

Special features:
 * Obviative nouns
 * Phonetically-accurate abjad
 * A few minor instances of reduplication

Dialects
Eston Speech (kh'atshwalhu ngbhu il /çʔat͡ʃʍaɮu ŋβu il/) - By far the most common dialect of Irkhilakhu, it is the version spoken in the capital. It is the dialect described here.

Western Speech (uzada ngbu il /uzada ŋbu il/) - The dialect spoken in the west of the continent. It is the second most common, and differs very little from Eston Speech, only having a few different consonants, vowels, and words.

(to be made - describe changes)

Desvaril - The variant of Irkhilakhu spoken by the people of the desert. It is a good deal closer to Common than all other dialects.

(to be made - describe changes)

Consonants

 * [ʀ] ~ [ɣ] before front vowels (here, /i/ and /a/)

Vowels
Diphthongs: [a͡u], [u͡a], [ɜ͡a], [i͡ɜ], [u͡ɜ], [i͡u], [ɜ͡u], (in loanwords) [ɜ͡i]

Phonotactics

 * Penult Stress
 * Max. root syllable is (p.)(f.,s.)(C)V(C)(C)(C-p.,l.) where p = plosive, f = fricative, s = sonorant, and l = lateral

Additional notes:

 * The script is written from left to right, and consonants of a single word are connected in a similar manner to cursive.
 * Diphthongs are written as combined versions of normal vowel markers, but from the bottom up.
 * Vowels are placed after the consonant which precedes them, and are not disconnected from the consonant. In the case that a word starts with a vowel rather than a consonant, a circle will be placed in that position in the consonant's stead. The position of the circle in relation to the first consonant is up to the artistic interpretation of the writer, but in most cases it will simply occupy the space directly left of said consonant.
 * [t͡ʃ] and [d͡ʒ] are written as combinations of the t and ʃ and the d and ʃ symbols respectively.

Romanization
The romanization is written completely phonetically.

Nouns
Irkhilakhu nouns can be declined by singular and plural number, definite1, definite2 and indefinite articles, three noun classes, and seven cases.

Definite1 vs Definite2 is defined as if there is a situation in which two of the same object have been introduced and one must differentiate between them. For example, in English, one might say "My uncle was at the party. Then my other uncle came. The first ucle [VP] ... The other uncle [VP] ..." whereas in this language, the first and second are encoded in the definitive article.

The class of the noun is determined by which vowel it ends with. If it ends in a diphthong, the final vowel of the diphthong will determine the class.

Class U declines as follows:

((I don't know why, but this chart keeps breaking. If it's all jumbled up, just ignore it I guess.))

Class I declines as follows: * Drop the /i/ and replace it with /um/

Due to differences in the historical development of these two classes, i-class has no Def. 2 forms.

Class A declines as follows: A word is always definite before determiners such as "this" or "that."

Genitivity
The genitive is formed by adding a dative pronoun after the noun that possesses the object. This differs from the syntax for actual datives, as the dative is in that case placed before whatever it receives.

For example: He gave me his coffee = give.NFUT PRO.3.NOM.SING PRO.1.DAT.SING coffee.ACC PRO.3.DAT.SING

Compound Words
To compound two nouns into a single word, take off the final vowel of the first noun and concatenate the result with the second noun. Decline for the structure of the second noun.

Adjectives and Adverbs
Adjectives are always attached to the beginning of a noun, and adverbs to the beginning of verbs. They are not inflected, and simply retain their original forms in all contexts.

The comparative adjective is marked with -su, and the superlative adjective is marked with -susu.

Prepositions
Prepositions come after the noun they describe. The prepositions themselves are attached to the beginning of the word that they describe. For example: The big man without the small dog = big man.SING.DEF small with.NEG-dog.SING.DEF

Verbs
Verbs are conjugated by two tenses, two aspects, and four moods, as shown in the below charts.

Indicative verb conjugations:

^ is here used to represent infixing. It should go before the final syllable. In the case that there is a one-syllable word, it will simply be added after the initial consonant. If that sequence is unpronounceable, a glottal plosive may be added between the onset of the syllable and the infix. Vowels are backed in the future tense in antiicpation of the /ʀ/

The following chart is for verbs of the desiderative, interrogative, or volitive interrogative moods. The prefixes may be added to any verbs dervied from the above chart.

This prefixing is a result of these moods being historically represented simply with a separate word that later melded with the verb that followed it.

Frequentative verb conjugations:

This may be added to any of the Desiderative, Interrogative, or Des/int prefixes. Despite the front vowel, vowels are still backed in the future tense in the frequentative mood, as it by this point has become a standard rule.

Unlike English, frequentatives are productive in this language.

Infinitives
The infinitive is simply formed by adding the prefix l'- before a verb. Syntactically it acts much the same as it would in English.

Past and Present Tense
Irkhilakhu has no distinction between the past and present tense; it only conjugates tense for what has truly occurred and what is yet possible. Thus, if you want to make the destinction between past and present, you can use an adverb. Most commonly, tredbhu "before" and kajuelh "now" are used for this purpose.

Syntax
Denoting questions -

Formulated like statement but verb is interrogative (for boolean questions)

Questions that need an answer are just the same way but also with a question word in place of whatever the answer is.

Kuraka.NOM place.ADE.SING.NDEF be.PRES.INT (Where is Kuraka?)

vs.

Kuraka.NOM place.ADE.SING.DEF be.PRES.INT (Is Kuraka at the place/here?)

Kuraka.NOM person.ADE.SING.NDEF be.PRES.INT (Who is Kuraka?)

Event.NOM.SING.DEF time.ADE.SING.NDEF be.PRES.INT (When is the event?)

Thing.NOM reason.ADE.SING.NDEF why is thing????? but why not IS THING THAT REASON?

(UNFINISHED, IGNORE SYNTAX ^)

What = class i, who = class a/u

English to Irkhilakhu Alphabetical
==== Irkhilakhu to English Abjadical ====

Conjunction
Coordinating: And, but, for, nor, or, so, yet

Pronoun
Navigating this chart:

p. = person; u,i,a = noun classes / genders Additional Notes: Additional Notes:
 * The 4th person is akin to that of the Algonquian languages, meaning it is used for another person with the same "gender" of pronoun who is either less important to a topic or is introduced later. i-class nouns do not have it, as they developed separately from a- and u-class nouns.
 * Genetivity is denoted in the following manner: "[possessed] [possessor.DAT]," or, directly translated, "the blank to/of blank"
 * When a pronoun is used for someone whose name is not Irkhilakhu in origin, the pronoun assigned to them will be moved to the closest counterpart of an animate vowel. If their name does not end with a vowel, then the last vowel in their name will be used. (For declension of names, any consonants after the final vowel will be dropped before adding Irkhilakhu inflections.)
 * Under the circumstance that the person being referred to's name is not known, one should generally default to the u-class, though defaulting to the a-class is not seen as unacceptable, merely less frequent.
 * Addessive denotes nearby proximity, inessive denotes that something is directly within. Thereby, it is used considerably less than addessive for anything aside from inanimate nouns. If something is far, it is denoted with a phrase akin to "distant of ___."

Interjection
yes - 'e

no - ras

Example text
IRKHILAKHU SCRIPT TRANSLITERATION

Lhat kusku da kubhi kudask.

IPA

[ɮat̪ˈ kʰus.ku.daːˈ kʰu.βiˈ ku.daskʰ]

GLOSS

give.NFUT PRO.3.NOM.SING PRO.1.DAT.SING coffee.ACC PRO.3.DAT.SING

ENGLISH

"He gave me his coffee."

Unfinished song:

IRKHILAKHU

Du esu amkung burad irkhakhushengim

Mak tshadrang l’ukbhu, mak lidar l’uskim

Angatch amudakng ada mishagreng lu

Jadit mak ukhngum huskadu

ENGLISH

While he was walking the plains of the earth

No horse to ride, no signs to guide

His pack so laden

The day barely begun