Kyakkê

Kiyake (Lit. 'Tongue of the civil') Mônehittilyeti Kyakkê
Type	Agglutinative
Alignment	Tripartite
Head direction	Head Initial
Tonal	No
Declensions	Yes
Conjugations	Yes
Genders	no
Nouns decline according to...
Case	Number
Definiteness	Gender
Verbs conjugate according to...
Voice	Mood
Person	Number
Tense	Aspect
Meta-information
Statistics Nouns % Verbs 0% Adjectives 0% Syntax 0% Words of 1500
Creator	[[User:|]]

Kyakkê (Native: Mônehittilyeti Kyakkê Informal: Kyakkê) is the official language of The Republic of Kyakkêja and The Kingdom of Tîliu. Approximately 30 million people speak Kyakkê on the planet Masênh, 90% of those on the island Jjenhol where both The Republic of Kyakkê is located.

History

Modern Kyakkê descends from Middle Kyakkê, which in turn descends from Old Kyakkê, which descends from the language spoken in Prehistoric Jjenhol (labeled Proto-Kyakkê), whose nature is debated, in part because Kyakkê genetic origins are controversial.

A character system native to the Hya Empire of mainland Masênh'nan arrived on Jjenhol in the late 12th century BCE (Earth) along with Jweppung, a religion, when the Hya conquered the decentralized local kingdoms of Jjenhol. These characters, know as halu in Kyakkê, were adapted to Kyakkê and used as the primary script of Kyakkê for almost 3 millennia.

{example of Halu}

Only privileged elites were educated for fluently read and write them, though, as most of the population was illiterate. The halu were replaced by the current script, hangu, when King Yîjo decided that the halu were inadequate for writing Kyakkê and developed hangu. Although hangu almost entirely replaced halu within a century, halu is still used in religious Jweppung texts and in certain artistic styles of literature, although very few people are fluent in reading halu.

Phonology

Kyakkê has many allophones, so it is important here to distinguish morphophonemes (written inside vertical pipes | |) from corresponding phonemes (written inside slashes / /) and allophones (written inside brackets [ ]).

Consonants

Kyakkê has 17 consonant phonemes, without including the glottal stop <ʔ> which in most romanizations and the native script of the language is not written but implied.

For each stop and affricate, there is a two-way contrast between non-voiced segments, which are distinguished as plain and tense.

• The "plain" segments are considered the "basic" or unmarked members of the Kyakkê obstruent series.
• The "tense" segments are characterized by a constricted glottis and a restricted airflow.

Consonant Phonemes

		Bilabial	Alveolar		Palatal	Velar	Glottal
			Plain	Palatal
Nasal		m	n			ŋ
Plosive	Plain	p~b	t~d			k~g	(ʔ)
	Tense	p͈	t͈			k͈
	(◌̚)	(p̚)	(t̚)			(k̚)
Fricative		(ɸʷ), (β)	s~z	(ɕ~ʑ)	(ç)	(x)	h~ɦ
Affricate	Plain		ts~dz	(tɕ~dʑ)
	Tense		ts͈	(tɕ͈)
Approximant		w			j
Liquid			l~ɾ

The IPA symbol ⟨◌͈⟩, resembling a subscript double straight quotation mark, shown here with a placeholder circle, is used to denote the tensed consonants /p͈/, /t͈/, /k͈/, /t͈ɕ/. They are produced with a partially constricted glottis but this "tensed" series of sounds are (fundamentally) regular voiceless consonants: the "lax" sounds are voiced consonants that become devoiced initially, and the primary distinguishing feature between word-initial "lax" and "tensed" consonants is that initial lax sounds cause the following vowel to assume a low-to-high pitch contour while the devoiced lax consonants cause the following vowel to assume a high pitch contour.

/p, t, tɕ, k/ are voiced [b, d, dʑ, ɡ] between voiced sounds but voiceless elsewhere. There are several regional differences in the pronunciations of /ts~dz, ts͈ and tɕ~dʑ, tɕ͈/. The affricate sequence is pronounced /ts~dz, ts͈/ in northern dialects of the Kyakkê such as Palam and Hata. The affricate sequence is only pronounced /tɕ~dʑ, tɕ͈/ when followed by /j/ and causes the following vowel to assume a low pitch. In southern dialects (Ttyîl, Jjada) and some western island dialects (primarily Munh), the affricate sequence is pronounced /tɕ~dʑ, tɕ͈/ and does not change place of articulation or pitch based on semivowels. Some may pronounce the alveolar-palatals as /tsʰ~dzʰ, ts/, especially before back vowels, reverting to /tɕ~dʑ, tɕ͈/ before /j/ although maintaining a high pitch.

/m, n/ tend to be denasalized word-initially. Often, they are not actual stops either, but sometimes l, a stop release burst is audible. /ŋ/ appears only between vowels and in the syllable coda.

/l/ is an alveolar flap [ɾ] between vowels or between a vowel and an /h/; and is [l] or [ɭ] at the end of a word, before a consonant other than /h/, or next to another /l/. It is unstable at the beginning of a word, tending to become [n] before most vowels and silent before /i, j/, but it is commonly [ɾ] in loanwords.

Between vowels, /h/ may either be voiced [ɦ] or become inaudible or even often disappear.

Vowels

Kyakkê has 8 vowel phonemes and a length distinction for 7 of the 8 vowels. Although there is a length contrast, vowels are often analyzed according to a tenseness contrast, with long /iː, yː, uː, eː, øː, oː/ being the tense vowels and short /ɪ, ʏ, ʊ, ɛ, œ, ɔ/ their lax counterparts. The Kyakkê lax vowels require a syllable coda in stressed syllables, with the notable exception of [ɛː] (which is absent in many dialects). This addition of a coda is called checking. /a/ is sometimes considered the lax counterpart of tense /aː/ in order to maintain this tense/lax division but are considered by native speakers to be the same vowel.

The preferred pronunciation of a vowel is always lax (excepting [ɛː]). This preference is not followed when the vowel is in a stressed syllable and is unchecked. E.g. "kôlulk" ['køːɾʊk̚] where the stress falls on the first syllable which is unchecked and results in a tense vowel [øː].

The long open-mid front unrounded vowel [ɛː] is an irregularity in the otherwise regular vowel system of Kyakkê consisting of pairs of long and short vowels [iː, ɪ]. [ɛː] acts as a lax vowel in some situations while acting as a tense vowel in others. Primarily, [ɛː] cannot be pronounced in unchecked stressed syllables, only in unstressed syllables. In this way it is practically a lax vowel. The tense aspect of [ɛː] is that, for dialects that contain [ɛː], it cannot be reduced into [ə, ɐ]. [ɛː] also forms a unique assimilation of [k] and [h] (see Vowel Assimilation)

Vowel Phonemes

	Front				Central		Back
	Unrounded		Rounded		Unrounded		Rounded
	Short	Long	Short	Long	Short	Long	Short	Long
Close	ɪ	iː	ʏ	yː			ʊ	uː
Mid-Close		eː		øː	(ə)			oː
Mid-Open	ɛ	ɛː	œ		(ɐ)		ɔ
Open					a	aː

Diphthongs and Glides

Because they may follow consonants in initial position in a word, which no other consonant can do, and also because of hangu orthography, which transcribes them as vowels, semivowels such as /j/ and /w/ are sometimes considered to be elements of diphthongs rather than separate consonant phonemes. Diphthongs are classified in two groups: y initial, and w initial based on the semivowel with which they are formed. Diphthongs can only be formed with lax vowels and [ɛː] excluding the lax vowel with which the semivowel is an allophone. Diphthongs behave similarly to tense vowels in that they can exist unchecked in stressed syllables.

	/ɪ/	/ɛ/	/ɛː/	/ʏ/	/œ/	/a/	/ʊ/	/ɔ/
/j/	-	/jɛ/	/jɛː/	/jʏ/	/jœ/	/ja/	/jʊ/	/jɔ/
/w/	/wɪ/	/wɛ/	/wɛː/	/wʏ/	/wœ/	/wa/	-	/wɔ/

Positional Allophones

Kyakkê consonants have three principal positional allophones: initial, medial (voiced), and final (checked). The initial form is found at the beginning of phonological words. The medial form is found in voiced environments, intervocalically and after a voiced consonant such as n or l. The final form is found in checked environments such as at the end of a phonological word or before an obstruent consonant such as t or k. Nasal consonants (m, n, ng) do not have noticeable positional allophones, but ng cannot appear in initial position.

Phoneme	k	kk	ng	t	s	j	tt	jj	n	r	p	pp	m	h
Initial allophone	k	k͈	-	t	s	ts~tɕ	t͈	t͈s~t͈ɕ	n	(n)	p	p͈	m	h
Medial allophone	g		ŋ	d		dz~dʑ				ɾ	b			(ɦ)
Final allophone	k̚			t̚			-	-		l	p̚	-		-

All obstruents (stops, affricates, fricatives) become stops with no audible release at the end of a word: all coronals collapse to [t̚], all labials to [p̚], and all velars to [k̚]. Final r is a lateral [l] or [ɭ].

Vowel Assimilation

The vowel that most affects consonants is /iː/, which, along with its semivowel homologue /j/, palatalizes /s/ to alveolo-palatal [ɕ] for most speakers (but see differences in the language between northern dialects and southern dialects). As noted above, initial |l| is silent in this palatalizing environment, at least in southern dialects. Similarly, an underlying |t| at the end of a morpheme becomes a phonemically palatalized affricate /tɕ/ when followed by a word or suffix beginning with /iː/ or /j/, but that does not happen within a word root such as _______.

/k/ is more affected by vowels, often becoming an affricate when followed by /iː/, /uː/ or /oː/: [kçiː], [kxaː]. The most variable consonant is /h/, which becomes a palatal [ç] before /iː/ or /j/, a velar [x] before /aː/, and bilabial [ɸʷ] before /oː/, /uː/ and /w/.

Allophones of Consonants Before Vowels

	/iː, ɪ, j/	/ɛː/	/oː, ɔ, uː, ʊ, w/	/eː, ɛ, yː, ʏ, øː, œ, aː, a/
/s/	[ɕ]	[s]
/t/ + suffix	[tɕ]	[t]
/k/	[kç]	[kx]	[k]
/h/ word initially	[ç]	[x]	[ɸʷ]	[h]
/h/ intervocalically	[ʝ]	[ɣ]	[β]	[ɦ]

In many morphological processes, a vowel |i| before another vowel may become the semivowel /j/. Likewise, |u| and |o|, before another vowel, may reduce to /w/. In some dialects and speech registers, the semivowel /w/ assimilates into a following /e/ or /i/ and produces the front rounded vowels [ø] and [y].

Consonant Assimilation

As noted above, tenuis stops and /h/ are voiced after the voiced consonants /m, n, ŋ, l/, and the resulting voiced [ɦ] tends to be elided. Tenuis stops become fortis after obstruents (which, as noted above, are reduced to [k̚, t̚, p̚]); that is, /kt/ is pronounced [k̚t͈]. Fortis and nasal stops are unaffected by either environment, though /n/ assimilates to /l/ after an /l/. After /h/, tenuis stops become aspirated, /s/ becomes fortis, and /n/ is unaffected. /l/ is highly affected: it becomes [n] after all consonants but /n/(which assimilates to the /l/ instead) or another /l/. For example, underlying |tɕoŋlo| is pronounced /tɕɔŋnoː/.

These are all progressive assimilation. Kyakkê also has regressive (anticipatory) assimilation: a consonant tends to assimilate inmanner but not in place of articulation: Obstruents become nasal stops before nasal stops (which, as just noted, includes underlying |l|), but do not change their position in the mouth. Velar stops (that is, all consonants pronounced [k̚] in final position) become [ŋ]; coronals ([t̚]) become [n], and labials ([p̚]) become [m]. For example, |hankyokmal| is pronounced /hankyoŋmal/ (phonetically [hankçuŋmal]).

A final /h/ assimilates in both place and manner, so that |hC|is pronounced as a geminate (and, as noted above, aspirated if C is a stop). The two coronal sonorants, /n/ and /l/, in whichever order, assimilate to /l/, so that both |nl| and |ln| are pronounced [lː].

When adding suffixes and two consonants are placed next to each other as in |tangkon| and |nyê| the two consonants merge and are written as one consonant. Thus |tangkon-nyê| is written |tangkonyê|.

Phonotactics

Kyakkê syllable structure is maximally /CGVC/, where /G/ is a glide/j, w/. Any consonant except /ŋ/ may occur initially, but only /p, t, k, m, n, ŋ, l/ may occur finally. Sequences of two consonants may occur between vowels, as outlined above. However, morphemes may also end in CC clusters, which are both expressed only when they are followed by a vowel. When the morpheme is not suffixed, one of the consonants is not expressed; if there is a /h/, which cannot appear in final position, it will be that. Otherwise it will be a coronal consonant, and if the sequence is two coronals, the voiceless one (/s, t, tɕ/) will drop, and /n/ or /l/ will remain. Thus, no sequence reduces to [t̚] in final position.

Sequence	ks	lk	nj	nh	ls	lt	lh	ps	lp	lm
Medial Allophone	[k̚s]	[lk]	[ntɕ]	[n(ɦ)]	[ls]	[lt]	[l(ɦ)]	[p̚s]	[lp]	[lm]
Final Allophone	[k̚]		[n]		[l]			[p̚]		[m]

Stress

Stress in Kyakkê usually falls on the first syllable, with the following exceptions:

• Many loanwords, especially proper names, keep their original stress. E.g. Obama /ʔɔˈpaː.ma/
• In form two verb stems with stress on the end of the stem

Moreover, Kyakkê makes a distinction in stress between separable prefixes (stress on prefix) and inseparable prefixes (stress on root) in verbs and words derived from such verbs. Therefore:

• Words beginning with {separable prefixes} receive stress on the second syllable.
• Words having {adverb prefixes} as verb prefix, and most other prepositional adverbs receive stress on their first syllable.
• Some prefixes, notably {prefixes}, can function as separable or inseparable prefixes, and are stressed and unstressed accordingly.

Vowel reduction occurs to tense vowels in unstressed syllables usually reduce to [ə] for [iː, eː, yː, øː] and [ɐ] for [aː, uː, oː] when . With these exceptions:

Vowel Harmony

The Kyakkê language has strong vowel harmony not only do the inflectional and derivational affixes (such as postpositions) change in accordance to the main root vowel, but words also adhered to vowel harmony. There are three classes of vowels in Kyakkê: positive, negative, and neutral. The vowel classes loosely follow the negative and positive vowels; they also follow orthography. Exchanging positive vowels with negative vowels usually creates different nuances of meaning, with positive vowels sounding diminutive and negative vowels sounding crude.

Positive - light vowels	a	ya	o	wa	yo	wî
	ê	yê	wê	î	yî
Negative - dark vowels	ô	yô	u	wo	yu	wô
	e	ye	wi	we
Neutral - center vowels	i

Writing System

Letter	m	n	ng	p	t	k	pp	tt	kk	s	h	j
Sound	/m/	/n/	/ŋ/	/p~b/	/t~d/	/k~g/	/p͈/	/t͈/	/k͈/	/s~z/	/h~ɦ/	/ts~dz/
Letter	jj	w	y	l
Sound	/t͈s/	/w/	/j/	/l~ɾ/
Letter	i	e	ê
Sound	/ɪ-iː/	/ɛ-eː/	/ɛː/

Grammar

For this section there will be Kyakkê romanization (written inside brackets [ ]) and IPA transcriptions (written inside slashes / /).

Morphological type

All varieties of Kyakkê are very regular agglutinative languages, as opposed to isolating or fusional ones. Their normal sentence order is SOV (subject–object–verb). Their large number of suffixes changes both the overall significance of words and their subtle shades of meaning. Notable grammatical features include an intricate set of honorifics and speech levels, animacy levels affecting word order and conjugation, evidentiality (indication of the source and veracity of knowledge), and a set of topic particles.

Root Formation

The basis for Kyakkê nouns are roots which are the smallest unit of independent meaning in the language. Roots usually consist of some variation on a primary morpheme which may be modulated by other secondary morphemes. For example, the morpheme for "water" is [jwî] which can be modulated into "ice" [jwîpê] from [jwî], "water" and [pe], "cold" or "frozen".

Nouns

Kyakkê noun template
Slots	Stem				Modifiers
	ROOT	number.case			case derivations
	0	+2			+3

Nouns in Kyakkê have an innate number and case which can be declined using suffixes. These innate states are called [Yepulusit sôngyeti] /jebʊɾʊsɪt̚ søːŋjetɕɪ/. These true roots can be either singular, plural or mass and ergative or accusative (no nouns are innately absolutive). The four Yepulusit sôngyeti are noun classes mainly determined by the animacy level of the noun.

Kyakkê uses a system of marking number, called inverse number (or number toggling). In this scheme, every countable noun has what is called its "inherent" numbers, and is unmarked for these. When a noun appears in an "inverse" (atypical) number, it is inflected to mark this. Nouns take the ending -tal to denote an inverse number. In general these suffixes are not used when the plurality of the noun is clear from context. For example, while the English sentence "there are three apples" would use the plural "apples" instead of the singular "apple", the Kyakkê sentence [ ] " " keeps the word [kwoping] "apple" in its unmarked form, as the numeral makes the plural marker redundant.

Yepulusit sôngyeti
Class (Animacy)	Number	Case
I (Animate nouns)	Singular	Ergative
II (Some Inanimate)	Plural	Ergative
III (Other Inanimate)	Singular	Accusative
IV (Mass)	n/a	Accusative

Kyakkê uses a similar method to inverse number for its case system. Each noun has an innate unmarked case and is marked by suffixes when the noun is used in a non-innate case. Kyakkê is a tripartite language meaning there are separate cases for the agent of a transitive verb, the patient of a transitive verb, and the single argument of an intransitive verb.

• the agent of a transitive verb takes the ergative case marked by [kon]
• the object of a transitive verb takes the accusative case marked by [kit]
• the single argument of an intransitive verb takes the absolutive case marked by [sat]

Cases are always marked if the noun is not innately marked with the correct case. For example, [

The most basic, fundamental Kyakkê vocabulary is native to the Kyakkê language, e.g. sule (country), nal (day). However, a large body of Kyakkê nouns stem from the Kyakkê pronunciation of Hya characters e.g. top, "mountain," mal, "station,"  soyî, "culture", etc. Many Hya-Kyakkê words have native Kyakkê equivalents and vice versa, but not always. The choice of whether to use a Hya-Kyakkê noun or a native Kyakkê word is a delicate one, with the Hya-Kyakkê alternative often sounding more profound or refined. It is in much the same way that Latin- or French-derived words in English are used in higher-level vocabulary sets (e.g. the sciences), thus sounding more refined – for example, the Anglo-Saxon "ask" versus Romance "inquire".

Words based on Earth oriented things such as specific animals, plants and phenomena are primary loaned to Kyakkê from English and Chinese.

Noun roots accept suffixes that indicate person (defining of possession, not identity), number, and case. In general, the order is number, case, personal. In southern dialects (Ttyîl, Jjada) and some western island dialects (primarily Munh) however, the order is reversed. From variety to variety, suffixes may change.

Examples using the word wasi (house)

Function		Suffix (stnd. harmony)	Example	English (translation)
number suffix	inverse	-tal	wasital pwotatal	houses grape
possessive suffix	1.person singular	-ya	wasiya	my house
	2.person singular	-yeki	wasiyeki	your house
	3.person singular (restricted use)	-nê	wasinê	his/her/its house
	1.person plural (incl)	-sola	wasisola	our house (incl)
	1.person plural (excl)	-sol-yî	wasisolyî	our house (incl)
	2.person plural	-jo-lat	wasijolat	you all's house
	3.person plural	-n-kkê	wasinkkê	their house
case suffix	ergative	-kon	pwotakon	the house (agent)
	accusative	-kit	wasikit	the house (object)
	absolutive	-sat	wasisat	the house (single argument)
	instrumental	-wan	wasiwan	with the house, and the house
	abessive	-mak	wasimak	without the house
	dative	-pyo	wasipyo	to the house
	genitive	-p(a)	wasip	of the house
	causative	-lyangko	wasilyangko	because of the house
	benefactive	-ppak	wasippak	for the house
	locative	-nge	wasinge	at the house
	directional	-mwîn	wasimwîn	towards the house
	inclusive	-ppyonl	wasippyonl	including the house
	terminative			up to the house
	transitive			through the house
	ablative			off/from the house
	comitative			along with the house
	immediate			first the house
	intrative			among the houses
	exclusive			only the house
	comparative			than the house
	prepositional	-wikka	wasiwikka	about (of) the house

Pronouns

In Kyakkê, there are fourteen basic pronouns, formed around first, second, and third person and singular and plural each with an informal and honorific form. Kyakkê has two first-person plural pronouns ("we" in English). One is called the inclusive, which is used if the speaker wishes to include the addressee ("we and you"). The other form is called the exclusive, which is used when the addressee is excluded ("we without you"). Kyakkê also adds the suffix -tal to the second and third person singular pronouns tangso and tangkon to create the plural forms, tangsotal and tangkontal.

The Kyakkê language makes extensive use of speech levels and honorifics in its grammar, and Kyakkê pronouns also change depending on the social distinction between the speaker and the person or persons spoken to.

In general, speakers of Kyakkê avoid using second person singular pronouns, especially when using honorific forms.

	Singular	Plural
First Person	jô, jônye	Inclusive	jôjik, jônyejik
		Exclusive	jôyuji, jônyeyuji
Second Person	tangso, tangsonyê	tangsotal, tangsonyêtal
Third Person (restricted use in certain modern literary genres)	tangkon, tangkonyê	tangkontal, tangkonyêtal

For each pronoun there is a humble/honorific and an informal form for first and second person. In the above table, the first pronoun given is the humble one, which one would use when speaking to someone older or of high social status. tangso is also sometimes used as the Kyakkê equivalent of "dear" as a form of address. Also, whereas uses of other humble forms are straightforward, tangso must be used only in specific social contexts, such as between two married partners. In that way, it can be used in an ironic sense when used between strangers, usually during arguments and confrontations. It is worth noting that tangso is also an honorific third-person pronoun, used to refer to one's social superior who is not present.

Honorific nouns

When talking about someone superior in status, a speaker or writer must indicate the subject's superiority by using special nouns or verb endings. Generally, someone is superior in status if he or she is an older relative, a stranger of roughly equal or greater age, an employer, a teacher, a customer, or the like. Someone is equal or inferior in status if he or she is a younger stranger, a student, an employee or the like. The use of wrong speech levels or diction is likely to be considered insulting, depending on the degree of difference between the used form and the expected form.

One way of using honorifics is to use special "honorific" nouns in place of regular ones. A common example is using jinje instead of pal for "food". Often, honorific nouns are used to refer to relatives. The honorific suffix -kyo is affixed to many kinship terms to make them honorific. Thus, someone may address his own grandmother as somano but refer to someone else's grandmother as somanokyo.

Base noun	Honorific	English translation
sêlêmano	sêlêmanokyo	grandfather
somano	somanokyo	grandmother
		father
		mother
		a male's older brother
		a male's older sister
		a female's older brother
		a female's older sister
		son
		daughter

Particles

Kyakkê particles are small words that indicate relations of words within a sentence. They follow other words such as nouns, verbs, adjectives are parts of a sentence. Some but not all can be compared to prepositions in English. Kyakkê has a total of ____ particles.

No.	Particle	Meaning/Use
1	wa	Indicates the topic of a sentence
2	ga	At the end of a sentence to indicate a question
3	yu	Indicates the subject of a sentence
4	ni	Indicates a location
5	ten	Indicates possession
6	pa	Indicates a contrast between 2 items
7	jju	Indicates time or frequency
8	la	Indicates direction
9	mo	Indicates the direct object of a verb
10	pyu	Indicates an element of a list
11	sung	Indicates the last item of a list
12	ya	means "too", "either", "also"

Verbs

Classification of verbs

Kyakkê verbs are typically classified into four categories: action, state (or description), existential, and the copulas.

• Action or processive verbs involve some action or internal movement.
• Stative or descriptive verbs are sometimes called adjectives.
• Existential verbs convey the existence of something, or its presence in a particular location or a particular being's possession.
• Copulative verbs allow a non-verb to take verbal endings. In Korean this category was created for the affirmative and negative copula.

There are two broad ways of classifying Kyakkê verbal root structures. They are: Pyalaswotê and Atamyoswotê. But some roots are Upsayaswotê i.e. they are affixed as Pyalaswotê as well as Atamyoswotê roots.

Based on how the present stem is generated from the verb root, Kyakkê has ten kango or classes of verbs divided into two broad groups: athematic and thematic. The thematic verbs are so called because an a (ô), called the theme vowel, is inserted between the stem and the ending. This serves to make the thematic verbs generally more regular. Exponents used in verb conjugation include prefixes, suffixes and infixes.

The ten classes were as follows:

Form 1 - yepuluje

Considered the root of the verb, form 1 is almost never used in speech because the roots is not grammatically independent.

Theme Class	Example	Meaning
thematic	jyong	bear
athematic	nyeng	die

Form 2 -

Built on form 1 by adding the suffix -ya to the form 1 verb.

Theme Class	Example	Meaning
thematic	jyong -> jyongaya	bear
athematic	nyeng -> nyekyô	die

The citation form of the verb, used in dictionaries, etc.

Form 3 -

Built on form 1 by adding the suffix -ja to the verb.

Theme Class	Example	Meaning
thematic	hêlik -> hêlikaja	collect -> amass
athematic	nyeng -> nyengyejô	die -> kill

The causative form of the verb (to die -> to cause to die e.g. to kill)

	Example Thematic	Description	Example Athematic	Description
1.	jyong "bear"	-∅	nyeng "die"	-∅
2. infinitive	jyongaya "to bear"	-ya	nyenge "to die"	-ê
3. causative	jyongaja "to impose"	-ja	nyejyeng "to kill"	duplicate last nucleus and insert -j between the duplication (duplication may merge with other nuclei)
4. reflexive	jyongako "to bear oneself"	-ko	nukuyeng "to commit suicide"	usual insertion of -oko after initial onset
5. mutual	jyongasa "to bear each other"	- sa	nyesôngô "to kill each other"	insert -sa before final coda and -a after final coda

Kyakkê verbs are conjugated. Every verb form in Kyakkê has two parts: a verb stem, simple or expanded, plus a sequence of inflectional suffixes. Verbs can be quite long because of all the suffixes that mark grammatical contrasts.

A Kyakkê verb root is bound, meaning that it never occurs without at least one suffix. These suffixes are numerous but regular and ordered. Grammatical categories of verb suffixes include voice (active, middle, or passive), tense (past, present, or future), aspect (of an action – complete, experienced, repeated, or continuing), honorification (appropriate choice of suffix following language protocol), evidentiality (non-visual, inferential, hearsay, direct knowledge) and clause-final conjunctives or sentence enders chosen from various speech styles and types of sentences such as interrogative, declarative, imperative, and suggestive.

Sound Changes

A great many verbs change the pronunciation of the final consonant of the root after the addition of a suffix. Some of these changes are the result of regular consonant assimilation or cluster simplification, but some of them are irregular. The irregular verbs are athematic which without the theme vowel force consonant assimilation that would usually not occur.

Infinitive Form

Besides a verbal root itself that precedes ya in the citation form, there is also a long stem with an additional harmonic vowel the infinitive form. The infinitive is not interchangeable with the citation form. It is formed by attaching ê/a to the root, according to vowel harmony. If the verbal root ends in a vowel, the two vowels may merge or contract.

Without vowel contraction

• al "think"
• ssêk "tell" + ê/a -> ssêka

With vowel contraction

This infinitive form is not used as a noun, but it is used in compound verbs, serial verb constructions, and before certain (not all) verb endings.

Verbs in Kyakkê also have innate states called "Yepulusit kôngyeti" which are based on voice (active, middle, and passive) of the noun. These states are understood to be the state of the verb unless marked as otherwise. The other grammatical features in verbs not described by the "Yepulusit kôngyeti" are always marked for.

Yepulusit kôngyeti
Voice	Tense	Aspect	Evidentiality
Active	Present	perfective
Middle	Present	durative
Passive	Past	perfective

Finite verb endings

Verbs are the most complex part of speech in Kyakkê. Their structure when used as the predicate of a clause is prefix + root + up to seven suffixes, and can be illustrated with a template:

Kyakkê verb template
Slots	Prefix	Stem				Modifiers		Conjunctives
	negative	ROOT	derivation	voice	honorific	tense.aspect	evidentiality	mood
	-1	0	+1	+2	+3	+4	+5	+6

II Voice may be active, middle or passive. These often involve a stem change, followed by the suffix i (the spelling of this suffix may change, depending on the stem change of the verb)

III All verbs and adjectives can be converted into an honorific form by adding the infix -si- or -êsi- after the stem and before the ending. Thus, kkwoku, ("to go") becomes kkwosiku. A few verbs have suppletive honorific forms:

Base verb/adjective	Regular honorific	English translation
kkwoku	kkwokusya	"go"
sêttwa	sêttwasya	"receive"
jakta	jakêsita	"(be) small"
Base verb/adjective	Suppletive honorific	English translation
itta	kyesitta	"be"
hê	têsika	"drink"
jyuke	têsika	"eat"
jyuke	keluke	"eat"
jwijjwa	yetuka	"sleep"
pakejye	sijanghasika	"be hungry"

A few verbs have suppletive humble forms, used when the speaker is referring to him/herself in polite situations. These include têlika and olika for (kyêka, "give"). têlika is substituted for kyêka when the latter is used as an auxiliary verb, while (olika, literally "raise up") is used for kyêka in the sense of "offer".

Action Verbs

Negative Prefixes

A verb is typically negated in Kyakkê by using a suppletive negative form, if it exists, or by putting a negative prefix in front of it.

There are two possible negative prefixes, mot, and an(i). mot is used for when a person or animate being subject tries to accomplish an action, that is, begins and is unable to finish it successfully. an(i) is a more common negative which is used in all other instances. The two prefixes are mutually exclusive.

The infinitive forms (unconjugated) have the suffix -ya (mojja= "kiss"; mojjaya = "to kiss"). These are the endings for the indicative:

Speech Levels

There are seven verb paradigms or speech levels in Kyakkê, and each level has its own unique set of verb endings which are used to indicate the level of formality of a situation. Unlike "honorifics" – which are used to show respect towards someone mentioned in a sentence – speech levels are used to show respect towards a speaker's or writer's audience, or reflect the formality or informality of the situation.

The names of the seven levels are derived from the non-honorific imperative form of the verb hata (to do) in each level, plus the suffix jê, which means "style". Each Kyakkê speech level can be combined with honorific or non-honorific noun and verb forms. Taken together, there are 14 combinations.

These days, some of these speech levels are disappearing from use in everyday life. { }, which is used only in movies or dramas set in older eras, is barely used by modern Kyakkês, and { } exists almost only in novels.

Grammatical Mood

Indicative

Declarative - doesn't use of evidentiality -tîk

Subjunctive

Conditional

Imperative

Potential

Interrogative

Evidentiality

The Kyakkê language have three different morphemes that mark evidentiality. Evidentiality refers to a morpheme whose primary purpose is to indicate the source of information. In the Kyakkê language, evidentiality is a three-term system: there are three evidential morphemes that mark varying levels of source information. The markers can apply to the first, second, and third persons.

Evidential Morphmemes	Example verb	Gloss
nonvisual sensory	jwojê-ingê -> jwojêngê	burned [speaker felt the sensation]
inferential	jwojê-inê -> jwojênê	must have burned [speaker saw circumstantial evidence]
hearsay (reportative)	jwojê-lê -> jwojêlê	burned, they say [speaker is reporting what was told]
direct knowledge	jwojê-ha -> jwojêha	burned [speaker has direct evidence, probably visual]

Syntax

conditional constructions

Kyakkê has three types of conditional sentences.

factual ("conditional 0": "When I feel well, I sing") - "Jôtu malonangêyon, pêsyêngê"

predictive ("conditional I": "If I feel well, I will sing") - "Jôtu malonangêyon, pêsyêlêyongê"

counterfactual ("conditional II" or "conditional III": "If I felt well, I would sing" or "If I had felt well, I would have sung"). As in many other languages, it is only the counterfactual type that causes the conditional mood to be used.

voice constructions

negative constructions

Lexicon

Lexical trends

see full lexicon at [1]