Oubi Kanusa

Oubi Kanusa is a distant descendant of Obiquaʒic, which is itself a remote ancestor of English. It has roughly 16,000,000 speakers, roughly half of who are human. The remaining half are mostly trollspawn, zoktrikons and plasmitroids, with one speaker known to be of Nemuẅeya descent.

The language is spoken in the Meterhyle (from mḗtēr = mother; origin + hýlē = forest), the infinitely wide forest surrounded by the five Apeirohyles, other infinite forests grown from the five seeds released from the Cardiodendron at its centre. It is believed to have first been established as a language separate from Obiquaʒic around 130,000 CE, after deliberate efforts were made to change its grammar and vocabulary following the War of the Forests. Around this time the present day speakers of Oubi Kanusa wished to distance themselves from Obiquaʒic speakers, who they had been fighting for the past several centuries.

Oubi Kanusa is considered endangered by most linguists, as its speakers are rapidly dying out due to large forest fires in the Meterhyle. Forensic evidence has suggested that these fires may have been lit by the Aðɛⅎbuk (Obiquaʒic speakers), however this cannot yet be confirmed.

Phonological Shifts from Obiquaʒic

while the relationship between the phonemes of Obiquaʒic and its parent language English are loose, the sounds of Oubi Kanusa show a much more direct relationship to those of English (Recieved Pronounciation), as this table demonstrates.

English Phoneme	Oubi Kanusa Phoneme	Latin Orthography
æ	a	A a
ɑ	a	A a
ʌ	ɐ	À à
aɪ	ai	Ai ai
aʊ	au	Au au
b	b	B b
d	d	D d
ð	ɣ	H h
dʒ	ɭ̆	R r
e	e	E e
ə	ə	Y y
ɜ	a	A a
eə	a	A a
eɪ	ei	Ei ei
əʊ	lu	Ü ü
f	f	F f
g	g	G g
h	h	H h
i	i	I i
ɪ	e	E e
ɪə	ia	Ia ia
j	j	J j
k	k	K k
l	ɴ	C c
m	m	M m
n	n	N n
ŋ	ɴ	C c
ɔ	o	O o
ɒ	ə	Y y
p	p	P p
ɹ̠	ʙ	Br br
s	x	Sh sh
t	t	T t
θ	s̪	S s
tʃ	cç	X x
u	u	U u
ʊ	u	U u
ʊə	ɯ̈	Ø ø
v	v	V v
w	ɣ	H h
z	z̪	Z z

Grammar

-Syntax

Oubi Kanusa uses the OSV word order, with a sentence's indirect object placed before the main object. While a verb can be placed after the direct object representing the action it performs on the indirect object, this isn't required. Both the sentence

Mauntyn meni caixü sàn meik.

(The sun cast a lightshow [over] the mountains.)

and the sentence

Mauntyn meni caixü kàvy sàn meik.

(The sun cast a lightshow which illuminated the mountains.)

are grammatically correct in Oubi Kanusa. If a verb needs to be added in this position to avoid a sentence being ambiguous however, it is generally put there to avoid confusion.

-Adjectives and Nominalisation

Oubi Kanusa places adjectives after the nouns they modify, and does not allow adverbs. If one wishes to use an adjective to describe a verb, it must first be nominalised by the preceding particle køt, eg:

Gap hi beg køt ràmpyd.

Translation:

He took a big leap over the gap.

Literally:

Gap he big (nominaliser) jump.

Though this particle converts verbs (and any other words) into nouns, it does not prevent them from still being used as if they were verbs. This can be seen in the sentence above, where the verb ràmpyd is used as a noun despite filling the verb 'slot' of the sentence after the subject.

This is the same for adjectives that have been nominalised, eg:

Tbri gavyry køt stbroc nü kàt.

Translation:

The strong man couldn't cut down the tree.

Literally:

Tree man (nominaliser) strong not cut.

Here the adjective stbroc is still used as an adjective despite having been nominalised.

Though nominalised verbs and adjectives can still be used as verbs and adjectives, they can also be used as nouns, eg:

Hi køt vego køt pànx kecød.

Translation:

The punch knocked the wind out of him.

Literally:

He (nominaliser) vigourous (nominaliser) punch killed.

Here both the adjective vego (vigourous) and the verb pànx (to punch) are used as nouns.

All verbs (which are naturally transitive) can be made intransitive by the suffix -secf, eg:

Zei faitsecfyd.

Translation:

They fought.

Literally:

They (masculine) fight (intransitivity marker) (past tense marker).

Note the suffix -secf is placed before the past tense suffix -yd. Tense markers are always placed after this suffix in Oubi Kanusa.

-Tense

All verbs can be given tense by the suffixes -ød (past), -øc (present) and -uc (future). If left tenseless, all verbs represent theoretical rather than actual actions by default. The verb kàny, for example, ordinarily means 'could destroy; has the potential to destroy', but can mean either destroyed, destroying or will destroy depending on which suffix it's given.

-Negation

All verbs can be given a negative meaning by the particle nü placed before them. This is a cognate to English 'no', but unlike in English, it cannot be used as an interjection. It has roughly the same meaning as the English word 'not'.

-Grammatical Features Absent in Oubi Kanusa

There are no apositions or articles in Oubi Kanusa, nor is there the ability to integrate clauses into sentences. Though the language lacks plurals, the distinction between singular and plural can still be shown by the adjectives secgyc and meni respectively (the former only ever used to emphasise the fact that a noun or pronoun is singular). Number can be shown in the same way, using numerical adjectives rather than numerical classifiers. All nouns and are naturally singular unless modified by a numerical adjective. The inherent state of pronouns is more complicated (see Pronouns).

Vocabulary

-Pronouns

Oubi Kanusa uses five basic pronouns, shown in the table below.

	First Person	Second Person	Third Person
Masculine	Ai	Ju	Hi
Femenine	Ai	Ju	Xi
Neuter	Ai	Ju	Zei

These can be joined together using the interfix -yn- to create 'compound' pronouns, such as aiynxi (she and I) and zeiynju (you and them). This brings the total number of pronouns in Oubi Kanusa up to twenty-five.

All numerical adjectives can be placed after pronouns to give them number, except the adjective meni. The word ju can therefore mean either you (singular) and you (plural) in Oubi Kanusa.

-Nouns

Note: rows in the following tables may appear to the sides of the preceding rows rather as separate rows beneath them.

-Animals

badger	bary
bird	bad
cat	kat
chicken	xeken
crab	kbrab
dog	dyg
dragon	dbragyn
horse	hosh
lizard	cezyd
lobster; crayfish	cybshty
monkey	màcki
mouse; rat	brat
ox	buc
pig	peg
sheep	xip
slug; worm	ham
snail	shneic
snake	shneik

-People

enemy	fü
friend	fbrend
grandfather	gbrandfàhy
grandmother	gbrandmà
human	hjumyn
man	gavyry
parent	pebrynt
plasmitroid	pcazmytbrød
queen	khin
relative	ken
sibling	shebcec
trollspawn	tbrylshpon
woman	aixy
young boy	bø
young girl	gac
zoktrikon	zyktbrykyn

-The Natural Word

bush/shrub	bux
cave	keiv
desert	dezyt
fire	faiy
grass	gbràsh
hill	hec
ice	aish
lake	ceik
leaf	cif
log	cyg
marsh; bog	byg
moon	mun
mountain	mauntyn
mountain range	breinr
peat	pit
river	brevy
river delta	decty
sand	shand
snow	shnü
star	shtà
stick	shtek
stone	shtün
sun	shàn
tree	tbri
vine	vain
water	hoty

-Man Made Objects and Materials

anvil	anvec
axe	aksh
candle	kandyc
cart; chariot	kàt
chair	xey
coin	køn
farm	fàm
fence	fensh
grindstone	gbraindshtün
hammer	hamy
hauberk	hobak
helmet	hecmet
building	haush
lantern	cantyn
mace	meish
metal	metyc
spear	shpey
sword	shod
table	teibyc
trident; pitchfork	pexfok
wax	haksh

-Intangible Concepts

confusion	kynfjuryn
courage; bravery	kàbryr
exception; odd one out	ydhànaut
failure	feicjy
fear	fey
jealousy	recysh
joy; hapiness	rø
kindness	kaind
pain	pein
poverty	po
repetition	brepytexyn
sacrifice	shakbrefaish
sadness	shad
understanding	nycer
vigour; liveliness	vego
wealth	hecs

-Random

darkness	dàk
explosion	ekshpcüryn
food	fud
group	gbrup
light	cait
lightshow	caixü
poison; toxin	pøzyn

-Verbs

to be eager to/for	igy
to be the child of	bibontu
to burn	ban
to cause	koz
to cause something to move downward	dbryp
to chose; to select	xuz
to clean	kcin
to close	xàt
to complete; to finish	fenex
to create; to make	meik
to damage	brek
to destroy; to kill; to obliterate	end
to dream of	dbrim
to enter	enty
to fight	fait
to greet	gbrit
to hear	hey
to hold (in both hands)	tugbràshp
to hold (in one hand)	gbràshp
to hold in place; to prevent from moving	hycd
to hold (using a part of the body that isn't the hands, even if the hands are still used to hold another part of it)	kcàx
to kick	kek
to leave	civ
to open	üpyn
to own	ün
to possess (a quality)	hav
to punch	pànx
to push; to propel	pux
to raise; to move something upward	ceft
to recieve	bryshiv
to reject; to turn down	tandaun
to release something (without actively pushing it)	cetgüov
to repair; to fix	feksh
to say	shei
to say goodbye to	feyhec
to see	shi
to smell	shmec
to spill	shpec
to steal	shtic
to steal from	teikfbrym
to think of; to imagine	seck
to turn; to rotate	tan
to wake from	heik

-Adjectives

cold	kücd
distant	fà
familiar	sheim
hot	hyt
large; big	beg
small	shmoc
physically strong (of a person)	stbroc
unfamiliar	ànfymecjy