Ckul

Ckul
Ckul
Pronunciation	[ʦkʼul]
Created by	Aquatiki
Date	2025
Setting	Something distantly related the Avatar movies
Native to	None
Language family	Indo-European Italic Ckul
Early form	Proto-Ckul

Ckul (autoglossonym: ckul; Ckul: [ʦkʼul) is a Italic language, with strong influence of Na'vi. It is the result of a contact among members of the languages.

While its vocabulary derives for the most part from Vulgar Latin, Na'vi influence is most notable in its phonology and its some of its grammar and vocabular.

Etymology

The language name derives directly from the Latin word for 'exile', suggesting the speakers were somehow transported to and transmuted to be able to live on Earth. After becoming Christianized in the region of North Africa, they were driven to Spanish, so they are indeed exiles twice over. Ultimately from Latin exsul (“exile (person)”), it came to refer to "a person in exile in Spain, after having been exiled on Earth."

Orthography

The Tskxul alphabet consists of 26 symbols. There seven vowels are and twenty consonant sounds, include the glottal stop written with an h.

Letters of the Ckul alphabet
Aa	Ææ	Bb	Cc	Dd	Ee	Ff	Gg	Hh	Ii	Kk	Ll	Mm	Ññ	Nn	Oo	Pp	Rr	Ss	Tt	Uu	Ww	Xx	Yy	Zz

• The letter æ is used to make the 'ash' sound, but in Na'vi it is written ä
• The letter ñ is used to make the /ŋ/ sound, but in Na'vi it is written ng

Phonology

Consonants

	Labial	Alveolar	Dorsal	Glottal
Nasal	/m/ m	/n/ n	/ŋ/ ñ
Ejective	/pʼ/ p	/tʼ/ t	/kʼ/ k
Stop	/p/ b	/t/ d	/k/ g	/ʔ/ h
Fricative v-	/f/ f	/s/ s		/h/ x
Affricate		/ts/ c
Fricative v+		/z/ z
Liquid		/ɾ/ r
Lateral		/l/ l
Glide	/w/ w		/j/ j

When in the coda, the voiceless stops are unreleased. In all positions, the voiceless stops are unaspirated.

Vowels

	Front	Back
High	/i/ i	/u/ u
Near High	/ɪ/ y
Middle	/ɛ/ e	/o/ o
Low	/æ/ æ	/ɑ/ a

There are also six diphthongs and two syllabic consonants: æw, aj, aw, ej, ew, oj and rr, and ll.

Phonotactics

• Allowed simple onsets: b, d, g, p, t, k, h, m, n, ñ, r, l, w, j, f, s, z, c, x, ø
• Allowed complex onsets: {f, s, c} + {b, d, g, p, t, k, m, n, ñ, r, l, w, j}
• Allowed nucleus: a, æ, e, i, y, o, u, aj, aw, ej, ew, oj, rr, ll
• Allowed coda: b, d, g, p, t, k, h, m, n, l, r, ñ, ø

The only exception to this formatting is that a syllabic consonant nucleus requires an onset consonant (not null), and may not take a coda consonant.

Vowel hiatus is common. VCV is typically syllabified as V.CV.

Morphophonology

Mutation

In certain situations, several consonants undergo mutation (or lenition).

Consonant	p	t	k	b	d	g	c	h
Mutation	b	d	g	f	s	x	s	ø

Simplifications

• Because identical vowels cannot occur next to each other, they contract.
• It is possible for the syllabic consonants to occur immediately after their consonant-counterpart. When this happens in an unstressed syllable, the pseudovowel disappears. In a stressed syllable, the infix disappears. Pseudovowels in monosyllables behave as though unaccented.
• In rapid speech final -e is frequently elided when the following word starts with a vowel.

Grammar

Particles that cause lenition when they immediately precede their head are written with a + sign. Verbal affixes are written with angles brackets.

Affixes

Ckul has singular, dual, plural. All are formed by prefix:

• The lexical form is the singular, in almost every case.
• du+ (from duo) makes the dual.
• flu+ (from plūrēs) makes the plural.

The case system is highly regular, all suffixing:

• The lexical form is the absolutive. This is the subject of an intransitive verb or the patient of a transitive verb.
• -i for the dative. This is the collapse of the old genitive, dative, and ablative.
• -(u)n for the ergative. This is the actor in a transitive clause.

Apart from these few forms and the prenouns, almost every other affix in the language is able to precede or follow its head. When it is not ambiguous, heads and their modifiers may be some distance apart. This means the language is moderately to heavily non-configurational. When attributive, adjectives agree with their noun-head. When predicative, they use the lexical form. There is no gender.

The vocative is accomplished through intonation or the particle ma.

Nouns

Ckul nouns show three case endings (absolutive, ergative, and dative), and two case-like structures (genitive and topical). There are three numbers: singular, dual, and plural.

	Singular	Dual	Plural
Absolutive	pædrr - a father	dubædrr - two father	flubædrr - fathers
Ergative	pædrun - a father did...	dubædrun - two fathers did...	flubædrun - fathers did...
Dative	pædri - to a father	dubædrri - to two fathers	flubædri - to fathers
de	de pædrr / pædrrde - of a father	de dubædrr / dubædrrde - of two fathers	de flubædrr / flubædrrde - of fathers
fbi+	fbibædrr - as for a father	fbidubædrr - as for two fathers	fbiflubædrr - as for fathers

The mutating prenoun ly+ can mean "this" or "the". Similarly, cy+ can mean "that" or "this". Other determiners include possessive pronouns, and quantifiers. The prenoun cwi+ makes the sentence into a non-polar question. (The particle srag makes the sentence a polar question.)

Deixis 1	Distr.	Number	Genus	<head>	Deixis 2
ly+ cy+ cwi+	'om(ñ)- kæd	du+ flu+	genr(r)-		ly+ cy+ cwi+

Pronoun

Pronouns inflect as noun do, but also have a dedicated genitive adjective. ≪he≫ is the infix of honor/humility for pronouns, and always appear just before the case ending (or at the end for the absolutive).

	Singular			Dual			Plural
	A	E	D	A	E	D	A	E	D
1st excl	jo	jon	joj	duno	dunon	dunoj	no	non	noj
1st incl				hæmfno	hæmfnon	hæmfnoj	ño	ñon	ñoj
Second	tu	tun	ti	hæmftu	hæmftun	hæmfti	wo	won	woj
3rd ani	ja	jan	jaj	dua	duan	duaj	ear	ean	eaj
3rd inanim	jy	jyn	jyi	duy	duyn	dui	eor	eon	eoj

Possessive Adjectives

	Singular			Dual			Plural
	A	E	D	A	E	D	A	E	D
1st excl	mea	mean	meaj	dul	dulun	duli	nojcrr	nojcrun	nojcri
1st in				hæmbor	hæmbon	hæmbori	ñojcrr	ñojcrun	ñojcri
2nd	weh	wehan	wehi	hæmñe	hæmñen	hæmñi	wejcrr	wejcrun	wejcri
3rd ani	sa	san	saj	duv	duvan	duvaj	lor	lon	loj
3rd inan	sy	syn	syi	duk	dukan	dukaj	lu	lun	lui

Verbs

Lexical entries for verbs look different from other words because the contain middle dots where the second and third infix locations are. TAM particles are typically infixes in the verb, though some are exclusively suffixes and other exclusively prefixing. There is a slight tendency to put the verb last, but it is not a majority of utterances. Verbs are strictly transitive or intransitive, and may not delete an argument unless it is very clear from context (e.g. imperatives, or after a topic has been set).

Slot 1

In almost all verbs, the position for the valency-altering affixes is before the beginning, i.e. prefixing. It is still marked with a middle dot in the lexicon, making verbs easy to spot.

Only one or one of the following may occur:

• ≪fæ≫ - causative
• ≪se≫ - reflexive/middle
• ≪hi≫ - passive

In the same slot, the subjunctive affixes may co-occur with the previous (or not):

• ≪sì≫ - positive irrealis
• ≪ne≫ - negative irrealis

Subjunctives are considered the polite imperative.

Slot 2

Typically coming after the first vowel of the verb, slot 2 conveys tense and aspect. ≪null≫ is present imperfective.

• ≪wy≫ - simple past (preterite)
• ≪wa≫ - imperfective past (imperfect)
• ≪re≫ - perfective past (pluperfect)
• ≪sdi≫ - present perfect (perfect)
• ≪wi≫ - future imperfective (future)
• ≪weri≫ - future perfective (future perfect)

Slot 3

Almost always simply suffixing, slot 3 conveys mirativity, honor, and/or evidentiality.

• ≪an≫ - positive mirativity
• ≪im≫ - positive mirativity and indirect evidentiality
• ≪i≫ - formal register
• ≪id≫ - formal register and indirect evidentiality
• ≪ur≫ - negative mirativity
• ≪uñ≫ - negative mirativity and indirect evidentiality

Notice that this means ≪null≫ here is neutral mirativity, informal register, and direct evidentiality.

Sample Texts

Our Father

Pædrr ñojcrr cwo sdo myskæl
sysasdiñcyfyg nom tu
syædwenir reñ tu
syfi wolunda tu,
frecwom myskæl cwom mysrr
pan ñojcrr kodizan donar nowi oz




Amen.

Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our sins,
as we forgive those who sin against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
Amen.