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| Name: Kahremish
Type: Synthetic-Fusional Alignment: Nominative-Accusative Head Direction: First Number of genders: 3 Declensions: Yes Conjugations: Yes
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General[]
Kahremish is a language of Vereva descending from the parent language Lindjerblau which was brought over to the Great Continent circa year 500. It is part of the Almsaundean language family where it is mutually intelligible with the Mirvermish language, both of which are simplified languages evolved from Lindjerblau language.
Author's Note[]
Kahremish is an a posteori Germanic artlang designed for the world of Vereva. While it is meant to have a Germanic feel, with Slavic influences, it is not meant to follow Germanic grammar precisely.
History[]
The earliest writings in the Kahremish language arrived in Kartago circa 5,500 EAB. The language broke away from the standard Lindjerblau of the Giants as the race became secondary as the Dwarves became the primary race of Vereva. The Minotaurs of Kartago wanted a simplified language of their own, having spoken the much more grammatically difficult languages of Ogreish, Trollish and Lindjerblau, never before having a written or spoken language unique to their culture. The Kartagan dialect of Lindjerblau was highly regularized in year 5,854 EAB and made official in Kartago and trade partner Kjerba and though its influence didn't initially reach the southern parts of the Great Continent, parts of Cwentach and Kalle were also speaking Kahremish as their official language by the mid 6,000s. At the end of the Cultural Renaissance, when eastern countries of the Great Continent came together to form Kahrim, the language was spread far enough through Minotaur culture to be dubbed the official tongue of the race. Modernly, the language is official in Kahrim where all matters must be handled in the official language, named for its country of practice.
Comparison to Lindjerblau[]
Classical Lindjerblau underwent a few phonological and orthographic changes to become modern Kahremish and Mirvermish. From Lindjerblau to Kahremish. It is characterized by its complete loss of diphthongs and post-alveolar consonants, the absorption of the phoneme /ɱ/ by [n] thereby making /n/ the only nasal consonant, and by the regular devoicing and palatization of most consonants in its inventory. Some major grammatical practices present in Lindjerblau have little to no presence in modern Kahremish.
Grammatical changes[]
Nouns and verbs, which were the heaviest grammatical entities in Lindjerblau, dropped or replaced many endings and cases in a mostly regular fashion. Genders were reduced from 5 to 3; Gender I (Man Gender) and Gender II (Boy Gender) collapsed into a singular Masculine Gender. Gender III (Woman Gender) became the Feminine gender, and Genders IV (Girl Gender) and V (Neuter Gender) became one Neuter Gender. The nouns' cases collapsed in a similarly:
- Ergative, Nominatve and Vocative cases > Nominative case
- Accusative case remained the same
- Dative and postpositional cases > Dative case
- Genitive and prepositional cases > Genitive case
While the five genders collapsed into a regular pattern, the noun cases collapsed into the four modern cases but kept different endings for the cases depending on the gender.
- Mannïn > Janën but Womptën > Wottel, where Gender I, II, IV and V nouns use Lindjerblau's dative case endings to form the modern dative, but Gender III nouns kept the postpositional case endings
- Woms > Wems but Mans > Janam, where Gender III, IV and V nouns use the Lindjerblau's genitive case endings to form the modern genitive, but Gender I and II nouns kept the prepositional case endings
The modern cases to which archaic cases collapsed regularly demonstrate all of the grammatical functions that the archaic case possessed.
Phonemic and orthographic changes[]
| Dentals became palatized labiodentals when word initial; the labiodental affricate becomes a palatized labiodental approximant and later a palatized labiodental | ||
| [c] /ð/ > [vj] /vj/ | cit > vjit | |
| [v] /θ/ > [fj] /fj/ | Vitbe > Fjitbe | |
| [pf] /p͡f/ > [wj] /ʋj/ > [vj] /vj/ | pfij > wjij > vjij | |
| Post-alveolar became completely devoiced and palatized | ||
| [szch] /ʒ/ > [zh] /ʃ/ > [sj] /sj/ | ||
| [dszch] /d͡ʒ/ > [dh] /t͡ʃ/ > [tj] /tj/ | govvadszch > govvadh > gowatjë | |
| [sch] /ʃ/ > [sh] /ʃ/ > [sj] /sj/ | schij > sjij | |
| [tsch] /t͡ʃ/ > [th] /t͡ʃ/ > [tj] /tj/ | itschäne > ithërne > itjern | |
| Voiced consonants became unvoiced consonants when in word final position | ||
| /v/ > /f/ | ||
| /b/ > /p/ | ||
| /z/ > /s/ | ||
| /g/ > /k/ | ||
| /d/ > /t/ | ||
| /ð/ > /θ/ | ||
| Loss and mutation of other consonant phonemes and orthography | ||
| /w/ > Ø ; the rare phoneme /w/ is lost | ||
| /h/ > /ɦ/ | ||
| /ɲ/ > /nj/ | ||
| /ʎ/ > /lj/ | ||
| /ʁ/ > /ɹ/ | ||
| [m] /ɱ/ > [n] /m/ > [n] /n/ | The phoneme /ɱ/ merged with grapheme [n]. Because [n] already represented /n/ as well, it later merged with phoneme /n/; word initially, the lost /ɱ/ was represented by [j], and are now represented with /j/ | |
| [am] > /ã/ ; [em] > /ɛ̃/ | After the vowels [a] and [e], the grapheme [m] is now used to represent a nasal vowel | |
| Loss of various front vowels (mostly) causes a merge with back vowels | ||
| [u] /ʊ/ > [u] /u/ | ||
| [ue] /ø/ > [uh] /ə/ | ||
| [a] /a/ > [a] /æ/ | ||
| All "fluid vowel" monographs merge with [ë] (/ɛɪ/); /ɹ/ is retained only through liaisons at word boundaries | ||
| [ä] [ë] [ï] [ö] [ü] > [ë] /ɛɪ(ɹ)/. | ||
| [H] replaces the second vowel in digraphs and "fluid vowel" digraphs are spelled out with /ɹ/; all diphthongs in the digraphs are later lost | ||
| [au] /aʊ/ > [ah] > [ah] /ɑ/ | Haus > Hahs | |
| [ei] /aɪ/ > [eh] > [eh] /e/ | Treiel > Trehel > Trehl | |
| [ie] /i/ > [ih] > [ih] /i/ | ||
| [oi] /oi/ > [oh] > [oh] /ɑ/ | ||
| [ue] /ø/ > [uh] > [uh] /ə/ | ||
| [äu] /oiɹ/ > [ähr] > [ähr] /ɑɹ/ | ||
| [ëi] /aɪɹ/ > [ëhr] > [ëhr] /eɹ/ | ||
| [ïe] /jəɹ/ > [ïhr] > [ïhr] /əɹ/ | ||
| [öi] /ɥiɹ/ > [öhr] > [öhr] /uɹ/ | ||
| [üi] /əɹ/ > [ühr] > [ühr] /əɹ/ | ||
| With the exception of [ů], "liquid vowels" maintain their phonology and change only orthography by spelling out the sound | ||
| [ą] /jã/ > [jam] /jã/ | ||
| [ę] /jɛ̃/ > [jem] /jɛ̃/ | ||
| [ı] /jɪ/ > [ji] /jɪ/ | ıtsch > jith > jit | |
| [ø] /jə/ > [je] /jə/ | gøvv > gjevv > gjew | |
| [ů] /jø/ > [jů] /jø/ > [je] /jə/ | ||
Grammar[]
Phonology and orthography[]
The Kahremish language is spelled phonetically. Vowels always remain pure and do not make diphthongs, and there are no silent or misleading letters, with the exception of ë, where in word final position, makes the /ɹ/ liaison with the following word if that word should start with a vowel. Vowels are inherently short, but can be lengthened when doubled. This is compared to consonants which are also geminated when doubled. Vowels also change their realization when followed by an [h]. Lengthening for these such vowels is shown through replacing the [h] with a [j]. The stressed syllable of a word in Kahremish is highly irregular and must be memorized; the one rule that is followed is that when the schwa /ə/ is represented by [e] or [ee], it can never be the stressed syllable. Where a schwa can be the stressed syllable of a word, it is usually a single syllable word where the [r] or [l] may arguably be considered the nucleus of the syllable.
Vowels[]
| Front | Near-front | Central | Near-back | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i [ih] iː [ij] |
u [u, öh] uː [uu] | |||
| Near-close | ɪ [i] ɪː [ii] |
||||
| Close-mid | e [eh, ëh] eː [ej] |
o [o] oː [oo] | |||
| Mid | ə [e, ïh, uh, üh] əː [ee, uj] |
||||
| Open-mid | ɛ [ä, ë, ï, ö, ü] ɛ̃ [em] |
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| Near-open | æ [a] æː [aa] |
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| Open | ã [am] | ɑ [ah, äh, oh] ɑː [aj, oj] |
Consonants[]
| Bilabial | Labio-dental | Dental | Alveolar | Post-alveolar | Palatal | Labio-palatal | Velar | Labio-velar | Uvular | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | n [n] | ||||||||||
| Plosive | p [p, b1] b [b] |
t [t, d1] d [d] |
k [k, g1] g [g] |
||||||||
| Fricative | f [f, w1] v [w, v2] |
θ [v, c1] ð [c] |
s [ss, s2, z 1] z [z] |
ç [gh] | x [kh] | ɦ [h] | |||||
| Approximant | ɹ [r] | j [j] | ʍ [hj2] | ||||||||
| Lateral app. | l [l] |
1 Note: These graphemes only represent the respective phonemes in word final positions
2 Note: These graphemes only represent the respective phonemes in word initial positions
Nouns[]
| Nominative | Accusative | Dative | Genitive | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine Gender "Man" | ||||
| Singular | Jan | Jane | Janën | Janam |
| Plural | Janer | Janen | Janens | Janers |
| Feminine Gender "Woman | ||||
| Singular | Wem | Wotte3 | Wottel3 | Wems |
| Plural | Wotte3 | Wotten3 | Wëttel4 | Wotters3 |
| Neuter Gender "Girl" | ||||
| Singular | Gërle | Gërle | Gërlën | Gërles |
| Plural | Gërle | Gërlen | Gërlens | Gërlers |
3 Note: To form this case, the stressed vowel makes an ablaut change and the tail of the stem sometimes changes alongside the case ending. These are remains of sandhi from Lindjerblau
4 Note: To form this case, the stressed vowel makes an ablaut change and the tail of the stem sometimes changes alongside the case ending. This ablaut change is always different from that of Note 3. These are remains of sandhi from Lindjerblau
Cases[]
Pronouns[]
Verbs[]
Verbs conjugate for number, person, tense and mood. In reference with the third person, verbs also conjugate for gender. The verbs are grouped into several declension patterns based on the common verb stems of several key conjugations: the infinitive, the present singular first person, the present neuter third person, the past singular neuter third, the gerundive, the participle, the supine and the imperative. There multiple stems for nearly all verbs in Kahremish and they are differentiated generally through ablaut change in the stressed syllable of the verb's infinitive. The verb model, "hiffern" (to have) has the pattern:
| Infinitive | 1st Present | 3rd Present | 3rd Past | Gerundive | Participle | Supine | Imperative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hiffern | Haffe | Hatje | Hoc | Hiffeln | Haffen | Hoffte | Jïhr |
Because of this, the stems are usually written out in a Kahremish dictionary alongside the infinitive form. While there is no real way to tell what a verbs next stem will be, most verbs group into similar stem declensions where the same frequency of ablaut changes or irregularities in conjugations mimic one another. In the tables below, the background color shows the alike stems for each simple verb form.
D(uhern) declension[]
| Duhern - to do | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gerundive | duhln | Participle | duhen | Supine | dahte |
| Present Tense | |||||
| 1st Person | 2nd Person | 3P Masc. | 3P Fem. | 3P Neuter | |
| Singular | djuhe | djuhst | djuht | djuhsse | djac |
| Plural | djuhen | djuhest | djuhet | djuhesse | djatje |
| Past Tense | |||||
| 1st Person | 2nd Person | 3P Masc. | 3P Fem. | 3P Neuter | |
| Singular | dahe | dahst | daht | dahsse | dahc |
| Plural | dahen | dahest | dahet | dahesse | dahtje |
| Imperative | |||||
| 1st P Plural | 2nd Person | 2nd P Plural | 3P Neu. Sing. | 3P Neu. Plr. | |
| djuhe | djuh | djuhs | djuhs | djuhsë | |
G(affern) declension[]
| Gaffern - to give | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gerundive | gaffeln | Participle | goffen | Supine | gëffte |
| Present Tense | |||||
| 1st Person | 2nd Person | 3P Masc. | 3P Fem. | 3P Neuter | |
| Singular | goffe | goffst | gofft | goffsse | goc |
| Plural | goffen | goffest | goffet | goffesse | gotje |
| Past Tense | |||||
| 1st Person | 2nd Person | 3P Masc. | 3P Fem. | 3P Neuter | |
| Singular | gëffe | gëffst | gëfft | gëffsse | goc |
| Plural | gëffen | gëffest | gëffet | gëffesse | gotje |
| Imperative | |||||
| 1st P Plural | 2nd Person | 2nd P Plural | 3P Neu. Sing. | 3P Neu. Plr. | |
| gjamfe | gjamf | gjamfs | gjamfs | gjamfsë | |
H(iffern) declension[]
| Hiffern - to have | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gerundive | hiffeln | Participle | haffen | Supine | hoffte |
| Present Tense | |||||
| 1st Person | 2nd Person | 3P Masc. | 3P Fem. | 3P Neuter | |
| Singular | haffe | haffst | hafft | haffsse | hac |
| Plural | haffen | haffest | haffet | haffesse | hatje |
| Past Tense | |||||
| 1st Person | 2nd Person | 3P Masc. | 3P Fem. | 3P Neuter | |
| Singular | hoffe | hoffst | hofft | hoffsse | hoc |
| Plural | hoffen | hoffest | hoffet | hoffesse | hofftje |
| Imperative | |||||
| 1st P Plural | 2nd Person | 2nd P Plural | 3P Neu. Sing. | 3P Neu. Plr. | |
| jïhre | jïhr | jïhrs | jïhrs | jïhrsë | |
I(tjern) declension[]
| Itjern - to eat | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gerundive | itteln | Participle | ittan | Supine | otte |
| Present Tense | |||||
| 1st Person | 2nd Person | 3P Masc. | 3P Fem. | 3P Neuter | |
| Singular | ijte | ijtst | ijtt | ijtsse | itjac |
| Plural | ijten | ijtest | ijtet | ijtesse | itjatje |
| Past Tense | |||||
| 1st Person | 2nd Person | 3P Masc. | 3P Fem. | 3P Neuter | |
| Singular | ote | otst | ott | otsse | oc |
| Plural | oten | otest | otet | otesse | ottje |
| Imperative | |||||
| 1st P Plural | 2nd Person | 2nd P Plural | 3P Neu. Sing. | 3P Neu. Plr. | |
| jite | jit | jits | jits | jitsë | |
K(nëwern) declension[]
| Knëwern - to know | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gerundive | kneln | Participle | knëwen | Supine | knofnijte |
| Present Tense | |||||
| 1st Person | 2nd Person | 3P Masc. | 3P Fem. | 3P Neuter | |
| Singular | knefnije | knefnijst | knefnijt | knefnijsse | knefnac |
| Plural | knefnijen | knefnijest | knefnijet | knefnijesse | knefnatje |
| Past Tense | |||||
| 1st Person | 2nd Person | 3P Masc. | 3P Fem. | 3P Neuter | |
| Singular | knofnije | knofnijst | knofnijt | knofnijsse | knofnijc |
| Plural | knofnijen | knofnijest | knofnijet | knofnijesse | knofnijtje |
| Imperative | |||||
| 1st P Plural | 2nd Person | 2nd P Plural | 3P Neu. Sing. | 3P Neu. Plr. | |
| knëwe | knëw | knëws | knëws | knëwsë | |
Bijern, to be[]
| Bijern - to be | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gerundive | isseln | Participle | ben | Supine | wasste |
| Present Tense | |||||
| 1st Person | 2nd Person | 3P Masc. | 3P Fem. | 3P Neuter | |
| Singular | amne | bist | it | isse | ic |
| Plural | amnen | bijest | art | arsse | artje |
| Past Tense | |||||
| 1st Person | 2nd Person | 3P Masc. | 3P Fem. | 3P Neuter | |
| Singular | wasse | werst | wast | wasse | werec |
| Plural | weren | werest | wert | wersse | wertje |
| Imperative | |||||
| 1st P Plural | 2nd Person | 2nd P Plural | 3P Neu. Sing. | 3P Neu. Plr. | |
| bije | bij | bis | bens | bensë | |