Kihā́mmic

Kihā́mmic kihāmatī́zô tárak
Pronunciation:	/kɪɦɑːmaˈtiːzo ˈtaɾak/
Spoken in:	Kihāmát
Region:	Pacific Ocean
Total speakers:	5,283,084 (native)
Ranking:	121
Language family:	Panlaffic languages
Writing system:	Panlaffic alphabet, Latin alphabet (Panlaffic)
Official status
Official language in:	Kihāmát
Regulated by:	The Kihā́mmic Institute of Language and Linguistics
Language codes
ISO 639-1	kh
ISO 639-2	kih
SIL	kih
See also: Language – Lists of languages

The Kihā́mmic language (Kihā́mmic Latin: Lố kihāmatī́zô tárak, [ˈlo kɪɦɑːmaˈtiːzo ˈtaɾak]) is the main language spoken in Kihāmát. It is an inflected fusional nominative-accusative language, which has two numbers, three genders and nine cases. There are over five million native speakers of Kihā́mmic at present; nearly seventy per cent of the country's population, the majority of the remaining thirty per cent speak Kihā́mmic fluently as their second language. The language belongs to the isolated family, which is indigenous to the eight islands that make up Kihāmát. There are six other extant Panlaffic languages, including the closely related Church Kihā́mmic, as well as a few more extinct languages.

Phonology and orthography

The Kihā́mmic language can be written in either the native Panlaffic script, in which all Panlaffic languages are traditionally written, or in the Standardised Romanised Panlaffic Alphabet used here.

Consonants

Grapheme		IPA	Description	Notes
P	p	[p]	voiceless bilabial plosive	-
L	l	[l], [ɫ]	alveolar lateral approximant, velarised alveolar lateral approximant	[l] becomes [ɫ] before another consonant
M	m	[m], [ɱ]	bilabial nasal, labiodental nasal	[m] becomes [ɱ] before f and v
N	n	[n], [ŋ]	alveolar nasal, velar nasal	[n] becomes [ŋ] before g and k
D	d	[d]	voiced alveolar plosive	-
H	h	[h], [ɦ]	voiceless glottal fricative, voiced glottal fricative	[h] becomes [ɦ] before y, after k and between two vowels
K	k	[k]	voiceless velar plosive	-
R	r	[ɾ], [ɹ]	alveolar tap, alveolar approximant	[ɾ] becomes [ɹ] at the start of a word
B	b	[b]	voiced bilabial plosive	-
Þ	þ	[θ], [ð]	voiceless dental fricative, voiced dental fricative	-
V	v	[v]	voiced labiodental fricative	-
Z	z	[z]	voiced alveolar fricative	-
Ž	ž	[ʒ]	voiced palato-alveolar fricative	-
F	f	[f]	voiceless labiodental fricative	-
G	g	[g]	voiced velar plosive	-
S	S	[s]	voiceless alveolar fricative	-
Š	š	[ʃ]	voiceless palato-alveolar fricative	-
Č	č	[t͡ʃ]	voiceless palato-alveolar affricate	-
T	t	[t]	voiceless alveolar plosive	-
Y	y	[j]	palatal approximant	-

Vowels

Grapheme		IPA	Description	Notes
A	a	[a]	open front unrounded vowel	-
Ā	ā	[ɑː]	long open back unrounded vowel	-
E	e	[ɛ], [e]	open-mid front unrounded vowel, close-mid front unrounded vowel	[ɛ] becomes [e] at the end of a word for most speakers
O	o	[ɒ]	open back rounded vowel	-
Ô	ô	[o]	close-mid back rounded vowel	-
Ō	ō	[ɔː], [ɔ]	long open-mid back rounded vowel, open-mid back rounded vowel,	-
I	i	[ɪ], [i]	near-close near-front unrounded vowel, close front unrounded vowel	i only very rarely stands for [i]
Ī	ī	[iː]	long close front unrounded vowel	-
Ə	ǝ	[ǝ], [ɜ]	mid-central vowel, open-mid central unrounded vowel	[ǝ] becomes [ɜ] when stressed for most speakers
U	u	[ʊ]	near-close near-back vowel	-
Û	û	[u], [uː]	close back rounded vowel, long close back rounded vowel	[u] sometimes becomes lengthened when stressed
Ū	ū	[uː]	long close back rounded vowel	-

Digraphs and trigraphs

Most of the consonant clusters and diphthongs are self-evident, however, the less obvious of these are shown below:

Grapheme		IPA	Description	Notes
DZ	dz	[d͡z]	voiced alveolar affricate	-
DŽ	dž	[d͡ʒ]	voiced palato-alveolar affricate	-
DS	ds	[d͡z]	voiced alveolar affricate	-
KG	kg	[kː]	geminated voiceless velar plosive	-
KGH	kgh	[ç]	voiceless palatal fricative	-
GK	gk	[gː]	geminated voiced velar plosive	-
GKH	gkh	[ç]	voiceless palatal fricative	-
ÚI	úi	[wi]	voiced labio-velar approximant, close front unrounded vowel	-
TZ	tz	[t͡s]	voiceless alveolar affricate	-
TS	ts	[t͡s]	voiceless alveolar affricate	-

Alphabet

As previously mentioned, all of the Panlaffic languages have traditionally been written in the Panlaffic alphabet, the chief variant of which is the Kihā́mmic one. However, use of the Romanised alphabet is increasing. This is mainly due to the Internet and other technologies and media, but also due to the fact that it is easier to write in Latin script.

The Panlaffic alphabet is a true alphabet. Although in the past the Panlaffic script had two cases, a majuscule and a minuscule, only the majuscule is now generally used and the minuscule is never used in any official context.

Romanised alphabet

P p	L l	A a	Ā ā	M m	N n	E e	D d	H h	K k	O o	Ô ô	Ō ō	R r	B b	Þ þ
[pe]	[le]	[a]	[ɑː]	[me]	[ne]	[e]	[de]	[he]	[ke]	[ɒ]	[o]	[ɔː]	[ɹe]	[be]	[ɛθ]
I i	Ī ī	V v	Ə ə	Z z	Ž ž	F f	G g	S s	Š š	Č č	U u	Û û	Ū ū	T t	Y y
[ɪ]	[iː]	[ve]	[ə]	[ze]	[ʒe]	[ɛf]	[ge]	[se]	[ʃe]	[t͡ʃe]	[ʊ]	[u]	[uː]	[te]	[je]

Note that letters do not decline and when used in writing (in the Romanised alphabet) are always capitalised. If declension is necessary the word "léf" [letter (of the alphabet)] is used preceding the letter, e.g. "léf G".

Nota bene

1. Acute accents over vowels indicate primary stress.
2. A is always stressed if it the last letter of a word.
3. Ə is never stressed unless it is the only vowel in the word.
4. Pluralisation moves the stress to the infix, -am-, unless this would violate rule two.