Kanduadas

General information
Kanduadas (natively, Kaduatas [ˈkäⁿdwɐdɐs]) is the official language and a national language of the country Kanduai (Kaduai) on the moon Chesnon (Tsyesnai), which orbits the giant planet Mamrun (Mamrą) around the star Benja (Bedrye).

Chesnon is the name in English of the moon as well as the species. They call themselves Tsyesnem [ˈtʃe̞ʃnɐm] (singular: Tsyesnon).

Phonology

 * The standard language is based on the dialect of Makyóroun [mɐˈcɤ̞ɾɯŋ] (great-city, the Kanduaians are very literal namers).

Consonants

 * 1) [n] is an allophone of /ŋ/ adjacent to an alveolar consonant and is in free variation with the regular pronunciation of /ŋ/ intervocalically.
 * 2) /d/ only contrasts with /t/ intervocalically. Same for /c/ and /ɟ/.
 * 3) /ʔ/ only appears in a few conservative dialects.
 * 4) [ɹ] is an allophone of /r/ when word-initial or adjacent to /m/, /ŋ/, or /s/.
 * 5) /s/ and /ts/ cannot be present in the same word as /ʃ/ and /tʃ/. The first one of these sounds present in a word spreads its place of articulation to any other sibilants in the word.

Vowels

 * The sounds are rounded or unrounded according to the rules of roundness harmony. A vowel, usually the first vowel (that isn't /ə̃/) or the stressed vowel, dictates the roundness of a whole word.
 * [ɨ̃] and [ʉ̃] are the allophones of /ə̃/ before the reduced vowel [ɐ].
 * The legal diphthongs are /äj/, /äw/, /e̞j/, /e̞w/, /o̞j/, and /ə̃w/.
 * /e/ and /a/ are reduced to [ɐ] in the syllable before the stressed one, word-finally in an unstressed syllable, and for /a/, in diphthongs.

Stress
Stress is placed on the antepenultimate syllable unless otherwise indicated by an acute accent in the romanizations.

Native script
The Kanduadas orthography, Pakaduasyel, is an abugida.

Writing direction
Pakaduasyel is written right-to-left in rows running top-to-bottom.

Native ordering
Consonants: 0, L, S, P, M, B, R, T, D, H, K, N, G, U

Vowel marks: -e, -i, -o, -a, -ǫ, -ą, -į, -ai, -0

Transliteration
This page is written with the Latin transliteration (Spokaduasyel) shown below.
 * Digraphs:  (/ts/, /tʃ/),  (/u/)

Nouns
Nouns decline according to case, gender, and number.

Uol (α)

 * Many nouns are singulare tantum, meaning they have no plural form. The third Uol declension can be used to force a singular reading, usually implying a specific singular object.

ex. Kyor [co̞ɾ], "city" (singulare tantum) ex. Galatton [ᵑgäɫätɤ̞ŋ], "animal/beast"

Mrapin (β)
ex. Paso [pˠäsɤ̞], "sauce" ex. Myasą [mʲäsə̃], "sword"

Drala (γ)
ex. Tsriba [tʃjiᵐbˠǝ], "horn" ex. Ryoge [jo̞ᵑgɞ̞], "place"

Plural
ex. Galem [ᵑgäɫɐm], "eyes" (plurale tantum)
 * In general, the first plural is for Uol and Mrapin, the second for Drala, and the third for some Mrapin; however, this pattern is broken frequently.

Absolutive
The absolutive case is primarily used for the sole argument of an intransitive verb. It is also used for the subject of a ditransitive verb.

Ergative
The ergative case is primarily used for the subject of an transitive verb. It is also used for the direct object of a ditransitive verb.

Accusative
The accusative case is primarily used for the object of an transitive verb. It is also used with locative postpositions.

Dative
The dative case is primarily used to force a venitive reading of locative postpositions. It is also used for the indirect object of a ditransitive verb.

Ablative
The ablative case is primarily used to force an andative reading of locative postpositions. It is also used next to other nouns to mark compositional words.

Gender
Gender is an interesting topic when talking about the Chesnon or their languages. They have three genders: alpha, beta, and gamma (Uol, Mrapin, and Drala in Kanduadas). And this is reflected in Kanduadas.

Alphas have large manes, Betas have curled horns, and Gammas have bright spots on their chest.

Chesnon are of course assigned the proper gender. Inanimate nouns are seemingly assigned at random or based on derivational suffixes, and loanwords by form. The gendering features of the Chesnon are not necessarily of the "correct" gender (ex. tsriba "horn").

Number
The Kanduaian grammatical number system has quite a few quirks, most notably:
 * 1) Nouns changing gender between numbers, ex. soulą (m) "a throw" vs. soulam (d) "some throws"
 * 2) Nouns having multiple plural or singular forms (sometimes with slightly different meanings), ex. tsriba "a horn" vs. tsriboun "horn separate from a body"
 * 3) High numbers of singulare and plurale tantum nouns, ex. kior (sg) "city" & galem (pl) "eyes"

Pronouns

 * ex. Tekea ou pausén!
 * [ˈte̞ke̞ɐ ˈu pˠäwˈse̞ŋ]
 * 2s.ERG 1s.ACC hit-2s.PRET
 * You hit me!

Thematic vs. Athematic verbs
There are two conjugation classes in Kanduadas, thematic and athematic verbs. Thematic verbs, like mikuau "eat" are conjugated exclusively by endings which commonly contain the vowel a. Athematic verbs, like tsou "read" are conjugated with vowel changes and endings which do not feature the a so common in thematic endings.

Ablaut
There are two ablauts that athematic verbs go through in circumstances described in the full conjugation section. They are labeled first and second ablaut. Some second ablauts have an alternate form used after a consonant or vowel which can't be palatalized.
 * a>eu>ya/a
 * ą>ąu>į
 * o>a>i
 * ǫ>ą>į/ǫ
 * ou>a>ye/i
 * i>au>i
 * į>ąu>į/ą

TMA system

 * Nonpast: used for current events.
 * Past: used for past events.
 * Hypothetical: used for hypothetical events.
 * Presumptive: used for events that the speaker supposes/supposed happen(ed). When combined with the nonpast, it forms one of the two future tenses.
 * Volitive: used for events that the speaker wants/wanted to happen. When combined with the nonpast, it forms the other future tense.
 * Imperative: used for commands and requests.

Dictionary forms
The lemma is the connegative form, typically ending in -(a/o)u. Also provided in standard dictionaries are the theme type, stem type, and stem itself.

ex. Souląu (athematic; regular nasal stem soulą-), "throw"

Athematic

 * Vowels in parenthesis appear on consonant final stems.
 * Past tense forms, the active participle, and the contemporary transgressive undergo first ablaut.
 * Presumptive and volitive future forms, conditional forms, and the 2nd person imperative undergo second ablaut.

Negation
Negation is shown with a connegative plus the negative verb.

Oudou [ˈuⁿdu], "don't" (athematic; irregular stem (h)ou(d)-)
 * ex. Nimo mikuau hir!,
 * [ˈɲimˠɤ̞ ˈmʲikwɐw ˈhiɾ]
 * MPROX-ACC.mra eat-CONNEG NEG-2.IMP
 * "Don't eat that!"

Examples
Tsou /ˈtsu/, "read" (athematic; natural -ou type stem tso-)

Mikuau /ˈmʲikwaw/, "eat" (thematic; -uau type stem miku-)

Copula
There are two copulae, also known as linking verbs, in Kanduadas, divided by grammatical aspect into gnomic and episodic.

The gnomic copula (pau) is used in descriptions of things or other general statements of truth. All arguments of the gnomic copula are placed in the absolutive case. It is typically dropped in the present tense in the third person or if a pronoun is present as an argument.

Pau /ˈpˠaw/, "be (gnomic)" (athematic; natural -au type stem pa-) The episodic copula (euau) is used in descriptions of events and actions or descriptions of a temporary nature (I am sick vs I am sickly). It is more commonly used following a verb in the active participle form to signify the progressive/continuative aspect. The episodic copula is never dropped.

Euau /ˈewaw/, "be (episodic)" (thematic; -au type stem eua-)

Demonstratives
There are no indefinite or definite articles. Instead, Kanduadas uses demonstratives. The adjective forms decline as regular adjectives and the noun forms decline as class I drala nouns.

The Deictic positions are as follows:

Proximal: Anything that is close to the speaker.

Mesioproximal: Anything close to the listener.

Mesiodistal: Anything away from the speaker and the listener but still close by.

Distal: Anything away from the speaker and the listener and far away.

Adjectives
Adjectives typically come before nouns. They decline according to gender and case, not number. They are all regular.

Declension
ex. Sels, "joyous, friendly, chummy"

ex. Mesyour "famous"

Comparison
Adjectives have comparative and superlative forms which also decline for polarity along with the usual gender and case forms.

ex. Galtson paso mesyourátelo paso Kaduasyo lį. "Galtson's sauce is the most famous sauce in Kanduai."

Adverbs
Adverbs are unusual in Kanduadas as they conjugate to agree with verbs according to mood, tense, and finiteness. The two conjugations differing whether or not the final consonant can be palatalized. If the root ends in a vowel, then an r is added to make it conjugatable. ex. Grary /ᵑgɾaj/ "loudly"

Syntax
Because of grammatical case and verbs showing person, Kanduadas is a pro-drop language and word order in Kanduadas is nearly completely free. Sentences are usually arranged Topic-Comment, but random ordering is used as a poetic device. Adjectives don't even have to be next to the nouns they modify, though they are generally placed immediately before the noun they modify.

Possession
Possession is shown by simple apposition in the order possessor-possessed, even for pronouns. ex. Ou tsribam! "My horns!"

Conjunctions
or (e), and (rį), but/contrast (dem), for/rationale (byor), so/consequence (sį)

Numerals
Since the Chesnon have six fingers on each hand, it's fitting that most of their languages are base-12 (duodecimal/dozenal) instead of base-10, Kanduadas being no exception.

Combinations of multiples of twelve and a digit are placed in the opposite order of English. ex. pego-samastą "eighteen", literally "six (and a) dozen"