User:IlL/A Danified analytic Neo-Arabic: Difference between revisions

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'''Venetian Hebrew''' is a basilect of Hebrew spoken in Lõis's Northern Italy, Austria and Southern Germany.
[[{{PAGENAME}}/Lexicon]]


<!--
[[{{PAGENAME}}/Swadesh list]]


This is a short reminder of the language format policy.
[[{{PAGENAME}}/Diachronics]]
{{Infobox language
|creator = [[User:IlL|Inthar]]
|nativename = Xnɪəni
|image =
|setting = [[Verse:Irta]]
|name = Knench
|pronunciation =
|states = Irta Libya
|speakers =
|script = Latin
|date =
|familycolor=afroasiatic
|fam1=Afro-Asiatic
|fam2=Semitic
|fam3=Central Semitic
|fam4=Northwest Semitic
|fam5=Canaanite
|fam6=[[Knench/Ancient|Ancient Knench]]
|fam7=[[Knench/Middle|Middle Knench]]
}}ɵ


I. Write a short piece stating your intents and purposes when creating the language (Design goal, inspiration, ideas, and so on).
'''Knench''' (/nɛntʃ/, from Old Knench ''χnānī'' via [[Old Azalic]] ''{{ng}}noinisχ''; natively ''Xnɪəni'' /xnɪəni/ or ''nɨɨm Xnɪən'' /nɨːm xnɪən) is a Semitic language spoken in the Irta timeline and the closest living relative to Hebrew in Irta. The name of the language comes from Ancient Knench ''kanaȝn'' 'Canaan'. Knench has received strong Azalic influence throughout its history since Ancient Knench times, and genetic studies have shown that the Knench are descendants of Azalic speakers who adopted a Canaanite language. The language descends from a close relative of Biblical Hebrew which was spoken in North Africa (which was spoken instead of our Punic in Irta), but its grammar is far less synthetic than its ancestor: lexical verbs were completely restructured to use constructions with auxiliaries and infinitives instead of the older prefix and suffix conjugations, and it has lost grammatical gender like [[Togarmite]] and [[Far East Semitic]]. Knench has many loanwords from various sources including Greek, Azalic, Coptic, Berber, Arabic, Aramaic, Romance, and English.
II. Write a short introduction to your language. (Who speaks it? When was it created? By whom? or what? are some example questions that can be answered here)
III. Once done, try making sure everything is properly spelt so as to avoid unnecessary reader fatigue.


-->
A majority of modern Knench people are Muslim; some are Christian, Jewish or neopagan. There is a Judeo-Knench, with Hebrew and Aramaic loanwords.
 
It's inspired grammatically by Welsh and Irish, and aesthetically by English, Danish, [[Naeng]], and Khmer.
 
== Names ==
=== Native Knench names ===
* Parm (f.) is from baśam
* Þor (m.) 'bull (from Aramaic)'


==Introduction==
Hugin and Munin (de novo derived from active participles ''*hūgi'' and ''*mūni'') are modern fantasy characters


<!-- Design goals, inspiration, ideas, who speaks it?, when was it created?, where does it come from?, any peculiarities? -->
==History==


<!-- Example categories/headings:  
==TODO==
* Focus prominence (like Welsh)
* retain vav consecutive forms of auxiliaries
* vi = "and then" (used for consecutive events; ~ BH ''wayhi'')
* -x > -rh
* A sentence consisting entirely of replacements and compounds?
** I dal bə kpeen pnaarə. = I don't see any wolves. (Heb: Ani lo ro'e ze'evim.)
* Hard mode: a sentence where every content word has a Semitic cranberry morpheme
*Swadesh list
*''bel-, ble-'' is a common prefix (conflation of ben- and ba3al-)
*Many adverbs from infinitive absolute
*Philippi should be weaker: i > e, instead of the TibH i > a (*bint > ''peþ'' 'daughter'; TibH ''baṫ'')
*''Mén fows ta xett kori?'' = Why did you have to die?
* replace a lot of Canaanite vocabulary with other words
===Some sound changes===
* Maghrebi Arabic craziness (happens early on, ca. 9th-10th century)
*-ə (mainly from ACub ''-ō'') becomes silent and lengthens the vowel before it
*non-rhoticity (nonrhoticity has to happen after fem sg ending loss)
*ħ > x; *gt, kt, ᴋt, ħt > ht
*ś > usually x, sometimes f or fl
*d-t, t-t (morpheme boundary) > st
*xr > x
*''Ri ni b žejn i p Mednə Əśidəs'' 'I live in the United States'
* š- > h-
* univerbate like crazy


Goals
==Phonology==
Setting
===Consonants===
Inspiration
*/m n ʁ̃ʷ l w j ɹ{{ret}}/ {{angbr|m n ł h l w j r}}
*/p b f v t d θ ð k g/ {{angbr|p b f v t d þ ð k g}}
*/s{{den}} z{{den}} t{{den}}{{tiebar}}s{{den}} ʃ ʒ tʃ s{{ret}} t{{ret}}{{tiebar}}s{{ret}} x h/ {{angbr|s z c š ž č ś ć x h}}


-->
/t d/ are alveolar, and /θ ð/ are dental. /θ ð/ may be realized as [t̪ d̪].


<!-- ***Phonology*** -->
/s{{den}} z{{den}} t{{den}}{{tiebar}}s{{den}}/ are lamino-dental, like Basque ''z''.
<!-- What sounds does your language use? -->
<!-- Here are some example sub-/other categories:


Vowel inventory
/s{{ret}} t{{ret}}{{tiebar}}s{{ret}}/ are retracted apico-alveolar, like Greek /s/.
Consonant inventory
Syllable structure
Stress
Intonation


-->
Ancient Knench /l/ became /w/ in some places, especially before C or pausa.
==Phonology==
===Orthography===
===Consonants===
m p b f w n t tt d th dh s z x sh y ng k g kk kh h l r


Word-final unaspirated stops are realized as ejectives.
Stops are unaspirated.


Allophonic palatalization occurs before /i/ or /j/. ng k g kk kh palatalize to alveolopalatals.
Judeo-Knench has final r in borrowed Hebrew and Aramaic vocabulary.


===Vowels===
===Vowels===
a e i o u ø = /a e i o u ə/
{{PAGENAME}} has the largest vowel inventory of any Semitic language in Irta. It has many diphthongs.
 
Word-final i is silent and palatalizes the preceding consonant.


===Prosody===
===Prosody===
====Stress====
====Stress====
====Intonation====
Stress tends penultimate or final.
 
===Intonation===


===Phonotactics===
===Phonotactics===
<!-- Explain the consonant clusters and vowel clusters that are permissible for use in the language. For example, "st" is an allowed consonant cluster in English while onset "ng" isn't. -->
===Morphophonology===
===Morphophonology===
==Orthography==
Modern Knench has an orthography using an alphabet descended from the Paleo-Hebrew script, where spelling reflects Middle Knench.
==Morphology==
==Morphology==
<!-- How do the words in your language look? How do you derive words from others? Do you have cases? Are verbs inflected? Do nouns differ from adjectives? Do adjectives differ from verbs? Etc. -->
{{PAGENAME}} has lost the verbal inflections and triconsonantal morphology of Ancient Knench.


<!-- Here are some example subcategories:
<!-- Here are some example subcategories:
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-->
-->
===Nouns===
===Nouns and adjectives===
Nouns are either masculine or feminine, and inflect for number.
Nouns inflect for number and definiteness. Like in English, proper nouns don't take the definite article. Attributive adjectives agree with nouns in number, but predicate adjectives do not. Knench has lost grammatical gender and the construct state, although animates still have natural gender.
==== Number and definiteness ====
{{PAGENAME}} has regularized most plurals to ''-ə'' (from a merger of Ancient Knench ''-īn'' > ''*-ī'' and ''-ūδ''). ''-u'' nouns become ''-lə'' in the plural: ''þebu, þeblə'' 'a world, worlds'.
 
Nouns inflect for definiteness, as follows:
*Singular: -əs (after C), (from haz-ze and haz-zū)
*Plural: -il, replacing the plural suffix ''-ə'' if any (from ha-2ili), -u + -il > -ul
** Plurals must be memorized! For example -u may become -ləs (specifically when the -u comes from a vocalized /-l/).
 
Words ending in a schwa add an intrusive R between the final vowel and the plural suffix.


The regular masculine plural suffix is -i after consonants and -yø after vowels. The regular feminine plural is -øth.
Some irregular plurals: ''penš, plenš'' = human


køfor, køfori (m) = village, villages
Examples:
*''śadə'' /ˈs{{ret}}adə/ = an apartment/flat
*''śadrəs'' /ˈs{{ret}}adɹəs/ = the flat
*''śadrə'' /ˈs{{ret}}adɹə/ = flats
*''śadril'' /ˈs{{ret}}adɹɪl/ = the flats
*''śadə bušət'' /ˈs{{ret}}adə ˈbʊʃət/ = a big flat
*''śadrəs bušət'' /ˈs{{ret}}adɹəs ˈbʊʃət/ = the big flat
*''śadrə buštə'' /ˈs{{ret}}adɹə ˈbʊʃtə/ = big flats
*''śadril buštə'' /ˈs{{ret}}adɹɪl ˈbʊʃtə/ = the big flats


bagbøg, bagbøgi (m) = bottle, bottles
''-ma'' nouns from Greek become ''-mat'' nouns: ''þemat, þematas, þematə, þematil'' 'topic, theme'.


i, iyø (m) = island, islands
==== Predicative adjectives ====
The predicative/adverbial marker ''bə'' followed by the bare form is used for predicative adjectives: ''Ri śadrəs bə bušət'' 'The room is big'.


gøfø, gøføth (f) = corpse, corpses
==== Degree ====
*Equative: ''de'' = as X as; equally X (~ BH ''day'' 'enough')
*Comparative/Superlative: ''-ur'' = more X or most X (from *3abūr, infinitive absolute of 'to exceed'); comparandum takes ''prej'' 'than' (from Ancient Knench ''pirūðī'' 'when I see'). The ''-ur'' form is indeclinable.
 
Example: ''bušət'' 'big', ''de bušət'' 'as big as'; ''buštur'' 'bigger/biggest'
 
=== Pronouns ===
Knench has a pronoun system similar to European languages, except that there is no grammatical gender and ''se'' "that" is used as an inanimate or gender-neutral pronoun. There is a T-V distinction: the 2nd person plural ''tim'' is also used as a polite pronoun.
 
''I'' (/i:/ or /ɪ/) is the default form for the 1sg subject pronoun; ''ni'' is used after a vowel or for disambiguation.
 
For gender-neutral usage, ''tu'' has been proposed as a 2nd person singular neopronoun (inspired by Indo-European languages). This isn't as common as using the 2nd person plural ''tim'' as singular, however.
 
Knench emphatic pronouns come from a suffixed ''-nna'' (precative).
{| border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" class="wikitable" style="width: 700px; text-align:center;"
|+ Pronouns in {{PAGENAME}}, basic forms
! style="width: 75px; "| → Person
! style="width: 75px; " | I
! style="width: 75px; " | thou (m)
! style="width: 75px; " | thou (f)
! style="width: 75px; " | he
! style="width: 75px; " | she
! style="width: 75px; " | we
! style="width: 75px; " | ye
! style="width: 75px; " | they
|-
! Basic forms
| ''i, ni''
| ''tə''
| ''ti''
| ''u''
| ''oj''
| ''nu''
| ''tim''
| ''im''
|-
! Emphatic forms
| ''(n)in''
| ''tan''
| ''ten''
| ''un''
| ''ojn, hin''
| ''nun''
| ''temnə''
| ''emnə''
|}
 
==== Interrogative pronouns ====
* ''da, ida'' = what? (nominal) (*hajj dabar 'what thing')
* ''ew'' = who? (*2ajj hū)
** poetic ''mi''
* ''ajšə'' = which?
* ''énə'' = where?
* ''məðé'' = when?
* ''əziəp'' = why? (the reason something happened) (or from another phrase of the form "ayy [NOUN]")
* ''maləx'' = why? (the reason someone does something) (*ma lak 'what's the matter')
* ''xam'' = how many?
* ''xiəlt'' = how?
 
===Verbs===
Almost all verbs use only one form. For native verbs, this form may be derived from:
* the infinitive construct or the imperative (mostly basic verbs)
* a deverbal noun pattern (most common)
* a univerbation of a verb + noun collocation
 
The infinitive form may or may not have a prefixed ''l-'', depending on the verb; however, even verbs without l- often display a voicing mutation attesting to the historical lV- (e.g. ''žbuð'' 'to be idle, to lie fallow'). Some verbs instead are derived from other nouns derived from the relevant triconsonantal root rather than the infinitive of a particular verb (e.g. ''benin'' 'to build', cognate to the Hebrew noun ''binyan''; from the root b-n-y)
 
The infinitive is also used as an imperative: ''ðeht ló oj!'' = 'Give it to her!' Imperatives are negated by placing ''bal'' or ''bawði'' before the verb.
====Inflected verbs====
Knench has only six inflected verbs (i.e. verbs with inflected past and future forms):
*''luð'' 'to be'
*''śuð'' 'to do' (from *ʕaśō, with contamination from *paȝal): used to form past and future perfective tenses
*''buð'' 'to come' (from *bô): sometimes means 'must, have to'. ''bu'' is still used as a directional.
*''leht'' 'to go' (from *halak), also used as a passive auxilliary for dechticaetiative objects
*''kaht'' 'to take' (from *laqaħ): also used for animate patients of ditransitive verbs
*''ðeht'' 'to give' (from *natan, with contamination from *hinīħ 'to leave' and naħħil 'to bequeath'): also used for causatives
Their forms have become more similar to each other due to analogy.
 
Knench maintains a distinction between independent and dependent forms for finite verbs, like Old Irish. The independent forms come from the Ancient Knench waw-consecutive. Using a preverb such as ''lu'' 'not', ''veə'' '(interrogative form of present marker ''ri'')', ''xaž'' 'relativizer', or ''śu'' 'I'm sure that...' (from the infinitive absolute *3aśū of *3aśō 'to do'; generalized from ''*3aśū ja3śiju'' 'he will indeed do') requires the dependent form. Dependent past forms and future forms are formally identical to independent future forms and past forms, respectively, except for ''luð'' 'to be'.
 
Even verbs with finite forms are defective verbs, since finite forms are always perfective (except forms of ''luð''). To express the imperfective with these verbs, you still have to use the copula + bə + VN construction. The negator ''lu'' only negates finite verbs.
 
The present particle ''ri'' comes from ''ru{{aleph}}i'', the imperative of ''ra{{aleph}}ō'' 'to see'. ''Ri'' is not used in subordinate clauses:
*'''''Ri''' Đavíð þaś žin.'' = David is about to sleep.
*'''''Pið''' Đavíð þaś žin, r'u dal bə xapuð uras.'' = When David goes to sleep, he doesn't turn off the lights.
* ''Veə Đavíð þaś žin?'' = Is David going to bed? (neutral)
* '''''Ri''' Đavíð dar þaś žin.'' = David is not going to bed.
 
{| border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" class="wikitable" style="width: 750px; text-align:center;"
|+ Inflected verbs in {{PAGENAME}}
! colspan=2 style="width: 75px; "| → Person
! style="width: 75px; " | I
! style="width: 75px; " | thou (m)
! style="width: 75px; " | thou (f)
! style="width: 75px; " | he
! style="width: 75px; " | she
! style="width: 75px; " | we
! style="width: 75px; " | you (plural)
! style="width: 75px; " | they
|-
! colspan=2|Present ''ri/r' ''
| ''i, ni''
| ''tə''
| ''ti''
| ''r'u''
| ''r'oj''
| ''nu''
| ''tim''
| ''r'im''
|-
!rowspan=4| ''luð''
! future indep.
| ''wej(ð) i''
| ''wejs tə''
| ''wejs ti''
| ''wii u''
| ''wieþ oj''
| ''wejn nu''
| ''wejs tim''
| ''wilu'm''
|-
! future dep.
| ''jie i''
| ''þies tə''
| ''þies ti''
| ''jie u''
| ''þieþ oj''
| ''nien  nu''
| ''þies tim''
| ''juu'm''
|-
! past indep.
| ''waj i''
| ''was tə''
| ''was ti''
| ''waj u''
| ''waþ oj''
| ''wan nu''
| ''was tim''
| ''waju'm''
|-
! past dep.
| ''hej(ð) i''
| ''hejs tə''
| ''hejs ti''
| ''hie u''
| ''hieþ oj''
| ''hejn nu''
| ''hejs tim''
| ''hilu'm''
|-
!rowspan=2| ''śuð''
! future indep.
| ''fow(ð) i''
| ''fows tə''
| ''fows ti''
| ''fow u''
| ''foəþ oj''
| ''fown nu''
| ''fows tim''
| ''folu'm''
|-
! past indep.
| ''woś i''
| ''þoś tə''
| ''þoś ti''
| ''joś u''
| ''þoś oj''
| ''noś nu''
| ''þoś tim''
| ''jośu'm''
|-
!rowspan=2| ''buð''
! future indep.
| ''pow(ð) i''
| ''pows tə''
| ''pows ti''
| ''pow u''
| ''poəþ oj''
| ''pown nu''
| ''pows tim''
| ''polu'm''
|-
! past indep.
| ''pax i''
| ''tpax tə''
| ''tpaj ti''
| ''pax u''
| ''tpax oj''
| ''pax nu''
| ''tpaw tim''
| ''paw'm''
|-
!rowspan=2| ''leht''
! future indep.
| ''law(ð) i''
| ''laws tə''
| ''laws ti''
| ''law u''
| ''laəþ oj''
| ''lawn nu''
| ''laws tim''
| ''lalu'm''
|-
! past indep.
| ''lax i''
| ''tlax tə''
| ''tlej ti''
| ''lax u''
| ''tlax oj''
| ''lax nu''
| ''tlaw tim''
| ''law'm''
|-
!rowspan=2| ''kaht''
! future indep.
| ''kaw(ð) i''
| ''kaws tə''
| ''kaws ti''
| ''kaw u''
| ''kaəþ oj''
| ''kawn nu''
| ''kaws tim''
| ''kalu'm''
|-
! past indep.
| ''kax i''
| ''tkax tə''
| ''tkaj ti''
| ''kax u''
| ''tkax oj''
| ''kax nu''
| ''tkaw tim''
| ''kaw'm''
|-
!rowspan=2| ''ðeht''
! future indep.
| ''naw(ð) i''
| ''naws tə''
| ''naws ti''
| ''naw u''
| ''naəþ oj''
| ''nawn nu''
| ''naws tim''
| ''nalu'm''
|-
! past indep.
| ''nax i''
| ''tnax tə''
| ''tnaj ti''
| ''nax u''
| ''tnax oj''
| ''nax nu''
| ''tnaw tim''
| ''naw'm''
|}
 
====Regular pa3al verbs====
The regular pattern is *(li)CCuC.
 
When the historical C1 is a pharyngeal, the ''l-'' usually resurfaces:
* C1 = ayin: ''lubuə'' 'to go past' /lʊˈbuə/
* C1 = heth: ''litul'' 'to cease/stop' /lɪˈtʊl/
 
This doesn't happen when C1 = aleph/he: ''vuð'' /vʊð/ 'to bake, to fire', ''zuð'' /z{{den}}ʊð/ 'to be crazy, to be cool'.
 
====*-t verbs====
*leht /lɛht/ = to go by foot
*kaht /kaht/ = to take
*žeht /ʒɛht/ = to go back<!--
*łef /ʀɛf/ = to be hateful (dative-stative; Ri vivliəs bə łef u li ni 'I hate the book')-->
*žef /ʒɛf/ = to sit
*les /lɛs{{den}}/ = to be born
*res /ɹɛs{{den}}/ = to go down
*reš /ɹɛʃ/ = to acquire; to get
*ðeht /ðɛht/ = to give
*śeht /s{{ret}}ɛht/ = to carry, to owe, should
*ceht /t{{den}}{{tiebar}}s{{den}}ɛht/ = to go out, to start X-ing
*žoot /ʒoːt/ = (of time) to go by
*goot /goːt/ = to do X correctly
*doot /doːt/ = to know
*toot /toːt/ = to farm, to grow (plants)
 
===Prepositions===
Prepositions inflect like in Welsh: for pronominal prepositional objects, usually the preposition is inflected and is followed by the independent pronoun. The inflected preposition is stressed unless the emphatic pronoun is used: ''lah tə'' /'lax tə/ 'to you' vs. ''lah tan'' /lax 'tan/ 'to you, specifically'.
 
example of a {{PAGENAME}} inflected preposition: el "for"; pə/p' 'in, at' is inflected similarly
*1sg: l'i, li ni
*2sg.m: lah tə
*2sg.f: lah ti
*3sg.m: lom u
*3sg.f: l'oj, ló oj
*3sg.n: ləze
*1pl. lon nu
*2pl. lam tim
*3pl. low'm
 
Other prepositions:
*''men'' = from
*''tubel'' = for
*''jaən'' = because of (also "reason")
*''łaj'' = on, above
*''jaś, jaśəm'' = with (both inst. and com.)
*''pəłee'' = inside, within
**sim. ''ləłee, məłee'' 'into, out of'
*''pəlip'' = amidst
*''wen'' = without
*''mənie'' = before, in front of
*''kodm'' = before (temporally)
*''śni'' = after (Hitsi šeni 'second half')
*''məłææl'' = above
*''məþææl'' = below
*''þaht'' = instead of
*''til'' = like, as
*''śakə'' = until
 
=== Numbers ===
0-10: sifə, śaa, hniəm/hniə (attributive), hluž, arvu, śami, šeš, šebu, hmɨɨn, þež, łaaś
 
11-20: štoo, hnajoo, hlužoo, arvoo, śamižoo, šešoo, šeboo, hmɨɨnoo, þežoo, hniə łəəśi
 
21-30: łəəśi śaa, łəəśi hniəm, ... łəəśi łaaś
 
31-40: łəəśi štąh, ..., hniə łəəśi
 
41, 42, ...: hniə łəəśi śaa, hniə łəəśi šném, ...
 
60: hluž łəəśi
 
...
 
100: miə
 
1000: awv


==Syntax==
==Syntax==
===Constituent order===
===Constituent order===
===Noun phrase===
The order is tense-subject-verb-object.
The definite article is a clitic: -az (after C) or -zø (after V).
 
:'''''R'ižəs ław bloo u abləs.'''''
:''The man is eating the apple.''
 
:'''''Ri piəð u bə de kruu til stadi.'''''
:''His house is as big as a stadium.''
 
:'''''Fól oj ðə fluð xawgpéð oj bə ro-múxr.'''''
:''She did her homework too late.''
 
The negative particle ''dal'' (from ''tabar lū'' 'not anything') comes after the subject pronoun and before the verb.
 
===Faulty accusative===
{{PAGENAME}} has the faulty accusative (glossed as FA) particle ''ðə'' or ''ð' '', from Ancient Knench ''jūδ ha-''. It is  actually not used for direct objects, but only for constituents that are separated from their heads. It also replaces a (TAM-marking) "preposition" in front of a lexical verb, when no preposition is used.
 
=== Noun phrase ===
Y's X = X Y-DEF: ''šem vaziləs'' = the king's name
 
To say "this X" or "that X", ''X-DEF fu'' and ''X-DEF feni'' (lit. "the X here" and "the X there") are used. To say "this" and "that", you say ''se fu'' and ''se feni'' (where the ''se'' becomes ''ilə'' in the plural).
 
''havu, haveni'' = like this, like that
 
The abstract demonstrative (referring to sentences or facts) is ''suð''.


===Verb phrase===
===Verb phrase===
===Sentence phrase===
Knench allows arbitrarily long chains of pseudo-auxiliaries:
===Dependent clauses===
: '''''R'oj bə kofstəl* oj gąt latsææg.'''''
<!-- etc. etc. -->
: 3SG.F.PRES IPFV never_fail to_do_correctly to_joke
: ''Her jokes never fail to land.''
(*) a loan from an unknown source
====VN constructions====
Knench has a rich tense-aspect system which expresses imperfective/perfective as well as progressive and perfect.
*'''''ri''' Parm '''bə''' leht oj'' = Parm goes
*'''''ri''' Parm '''ław''' leht oj'' = Parm is going
*'''''ri''' Parm '''þax''' leht oj'' = Parm is about to go
*'''''ri''' Parm '''xni''' leht oj'' = Parm has gone
*'''''ri''' Parm '''xni juð oj bə''' leht'' = Parm has been going
*'''''ri''' Parm '''dəž''' leht oj'' = Parm just went
*'''''ri''' Parm '''wen''' leht oj'' = Parm hasn't went
*'''''fól''' Parm '''ðə''' leht'' = Parm went (perfective; cf. AAVE ''She done went'')
*'''''þąf''' Parm '''ðə''' leht'' = Parm will go (perfective)
*'''''han''' Parm '''bə''' leht oj'' = Parm went (imperfective)
*'''''þé''' Parm '''bə''' leht oj'' = Parm will go (imperfective)
*''leht!'' = Go! (number neutral)
*'''''gwenu''' leht!'' (3uqbinu lekt "follow us to go") = Let's go!
 
In clauses with a copula and a verbal noun, Knench requires the pronoun corresponding to the subject to come right after the verbal noun: ''R'ižəs bø hél u ð'abwəs''. This is etymologically "See the man when he's eating the apple", cf. Biblical and literary Modern Hebrew באכלו את התפוח "when he eats the apple (but tense- and aspect-neutral)".
 
The clause-initial subject pronoun + bə colloquially tends to be omitted in the present tense when the subject is 1st or 2nd person: ''Ðób tə ð'i nr?'' 'Do you love me?'
 
==== Passive and causative ====
''Ðett'' 'to give' is used as an auxiliary for the causative:
: ''Nawð i ðə pinxadəs el kapwəs el ąnuj.''
: I made the horse bore the farmer to death.
: (lit. I gave the horse the farmer to inflict boredom)
In a ''ðett''-causative construction, the more animate object takes the dative preposition ''el''. This connects ditransitives which are causatives of transitives to the basic ditransitive verb 'give'.
 
To form passives two different auxiliaries are used:
* ''Kaht'' 'to take' is used as an auxiliary to raise the animate object of a ditransitive verb.
* ''leht'' 'to go' is used to raise the inanimate object of both monotransitive and ditransitive verbs (as well as the object of the original verb which is causativized).
 
: ''Kawð u đə ląbur mitəs rup məšólə.''
: 'He was made to suffer so many things.'
 
: ''Lawð łeśwəs đə hél men kapwəs.''
: 'The grass was fed to the horse.'
 
=== Balancing vs deranking conjunctions ===
Balancing conjunctions take full finite clauses (clauses with a finite verb or an auxiliary):
* ''ej'' "and"
* ''ow'' "or"
* ''mur'' (complementizer)
* ''łeþr'' "when"
* ''wí'' "if" (< *wa-kī)
* ''jern'' "because"
 
Deranking conjunctions replace finite forms of the copula ''juð'' and thus are also called ''copula-replacing conjunctions'' (e.g. by Hrafn). Some CRCs are:
* ''prí'' "than"
* ''jið'' (complementizer)
* ''pið'' "when"
 
=== Time clauses ===
==== ''pið''-clauses ====
A ''pið''-clause is in the same tense as the clause it's embedded in. ''Pið''-clauses denote states, things that can be marked with ''re'' + tense markers in the present tense), rather than completed actions.
==== ''łeþr''-clauses ====
''łeþr'' are used for clauses with auxiliaries other than the present tense copula.
 
===Complementizer===
There is a complementizer ''mur'' (from ''lēmūr'') or ''jið'' (from conflation of ''hajūδ'' 'to be' and ''jūδ'' accusative marker) depending on dialect.
 
===Relativizer===
In most cases, relative clauses use the relativizer ''xaž'' (from ''*χa-ʔašir'' 'like that which'). ''n'' may appear after the resumptive pronoun if one is used.
 
Subject of a copula auxiliary:
: '''''paras xaž hie __ bə gri u "pnar"'''''
: the boy who cried (would cry) wolf
 
Subject with a non-copula auxiliary:
: '''''paras xaž fow __ gri "pnar"'''''
: the boy who cried wolf (once)
 
Direct object:
: '''''vivlias xaž fown nu ðə gru (se (n))'''''
: the book that we read
 
Oblique object:
: '''''péðas xaž hieþ oj bə xun oj pəze (n)'''''
: the house she used to live in
 
To relativise the subject of a ''present'' copula, ''łom'' (from hā-3ūmid 'that is standing') is used:
 
: R' abwas pə śadə i. -> '''''abwas łom pə śadə i'''''
: the apple in my flat
 
: Ri plenžil śni leht im. -> '''''plenžil łom xni leht im'''''
: the people who have gone
 
=== Serial verb construction ===
Serial verbs are also very common in Knench:
 
: '''''Pow Móšé ðə kaht vdųś prið u. / Fow Móšé ðə buð kaht vdųś prið u. '''''
: come.PST.3SG.M Moshe FA take.INF open.INF gift 3sg.m / PST.3SG.M Moshe FA come.INF take.INF open.INF gift 3SG.M
:Moshe came, took, and opened his gift.
 
Directionals derived from verbs, such as ''leht'' '(t)hence', ''bu'' '(t)hither' and ''kub'' 'movement together with another person' are also common and may replace pronouns.
 
=== Wh-questions ===
No special treatment is observed unless the wh-word is the subject, in which case ''łom'' is used after the wh-word. However, ''łom'' is not used in a question in the form of a nominal sentence. (As always, ''ri'' is dropped in questions.)
 
:'''''Dar Petə bə fluð?'''''
:''What's Peter doing?''
 
:'''''Dar łom bə gruð?'''''
:''What's happening?''
 
:'''''Dar se fu? (*Dar łom se fu?)'''''
:''What's this?''
 
:'''''Énr ti?'''''
:''Where are you?''
 
:'''''Énr fows tə ðə leht?''''' / '''''Énr laws tr?'''''
:''Where have you been?''
 
==Vocabulary==
Knench has the following vocabulary layers:
 
# Most of the common words are inherited from the Semitic common ancestor of Ancient Knench and Biblical Hebrew, however they often show drastic semantic drift or univerbation. Example: ''šłúd'' 'a lot' comes from ''saȝudō'' 'feast'. Cranberry morphemes are not uncommon in Semito-Knench.
# Azalic substrate
# Ancient Greek, Aramaic
# Latin, Romance, Arabic, Turkic and Modern Greek
 
Although it is attested in Ancient Knench, the *CaCīCō verbal noun pattern is not as productive as the corresponding pattern in Mishnaic and Modern Hebrew.
 
Many words are formed from earlier construct state or verb + object combinations, and are sometimes unrecognizable as such:
*''əmbein'' 'brick' from ''*habanē binjan'' 'building stones'
*''həvgom'' 'massacre; (slang) debacle, fiasco; a mess' from ''*šafx dam'' 'spilling of blood'
*''łienəm'' 'source' from ''ʕēn mayim'' 'spring of water'
*''xifin'' 'to like' from ''*śe'θ fin'' lit. 'lift the face of' meaning 'to favor'
*''xihniem (el)'' 'to look at' from ''*śe'θ 3ēnajim'' 'lift eyes'
*''krəlieb'' 'conscience' from ''*qūl hal-lēbb'' lit. 'voice of the heart'
 
Some productive affixes are:
*pen-/ple- = agentive, -ling
** ''pnar'' 'wolf' comes from older *ben harr 'mountainling'; a euphemism replacing Ancient Knench ''zēb'', which had become taboo by Old Knench
*peδ- = place noun
*pəd-/pd- = associated inanimate, esp. singulative of a collective noun (from peθθ 'daughter')
** ''pdoo'' = tree (*pett ja3r)
** ''pdam'' = wave (*pett jamm)
** ''pdəəm'' = word (irreg. metathesis from *pett himrō)
** ''pdeš'' = flame
** ''pled'' = echo
** ''pədnə'' = stream
** ''pəmtaa'' = dew (from ''mtaa'' 'rain')
** ''pədkažəm'' = (''poetic'') petrichor
*''-l'' = transitivizer or causative of verbs (from a -w ~ -ul alternation in some intransitive-transitive verb pairs)
** ''hamžəl'' 'to dry' < ''hamž'' '(archaic) sun'
* -is: -ess (from Greek)
** ''vazilis'' 'queen' < ''vazil'' 'king'
** ''mææšivis'' 'witch' < ''mææšiv'' 'mage, wizard'
* ''lið-'' = mediopassive
* ''məð-'' is more productive and is used to form verbal adjectives, serving the role of passive participles
** ''luri'' 'to amaze'; ''muri'' 'amazing'; ''məðuri'' 'amazed'


==Example texts==
==Example texts==
==Other resources==
===UDHR, Article 1===
<!-- Example: Word order, qualifiers, determinatives, branching, etc. -->
:'''''Law xol plææžil ðə les im bə śraa ej bə haw łaj hogləs ej rejtil. Kalu'm ðə lugud jaś režən ej krəliəb, ej r'im bə śeht im liðali śad jaśəm hɨɨv p nažəm axə.'''''
:PASS.PST.3SG.NF all human/PL-DEF.PL be_born 3PL PRED free and PRED equal on dignity-DEF.SG and right-DEF.PL. PASS.PRES-3PL endow with reason and conscience, and PRES.3PL PRES carry 3PL behave with one_another LOC spirit brotherhood.
:''All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act toward one another in a spirit of brotherhood.''


<!-- Template area -->
===Schleicher's Fable===


==Phrasebook==
When three forms are given, the forms are respectively for addressing one man (informally), one woman (informally), and politely/gender-neutrally respectively.
*''Hlum!'' = Hello! / Goodbye!
* ''Matin tub!'' = Good morning!
* ''Śnitsoə tub!'' = Good afternoon!
* ''Łaab tub!'' = Good evening!
* ''Liəl tub!'' = Good night!
*''Śakə!'' = See you!
*''Bu də/di/dim!'' = Welcome!
*''Praw lah tə/ti [lam tim]!'' = Thank you!
*''Im tsəśiəm tə/ti/tim'' = Please (etym. ''himm jimtsā Hinn ba3ēnēxa'' 'if it finds favor in your eyes')
**also ''pləiz'' (from English)
*''łeþ tub'' = have fun
* ''Ajžə heməs kaws tə/ti [kawðu tim]?'' = What's your name?
*''Kawð i ðə [NAME].'' = My name is [NAME].
*''Powð i men...'' = I'm from...
*''Lawð i les pə...'' = I was born in...
*''I bə fu.'' = I'm here.
*''(I bə) ðuəb i ðah tə/ti [ðam tim].'' = I love you.


[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Conlangs]]
[[Category:Languages]]
[[Category:Lõis]]
[[Category:Semitic languages]]
[[Category:Semitic languages]]
[[Category:Stem-Hebrew]]

Latest revision as of 01:46, 5 March 2024

IlL/A Danified analytic Neo-Arabic/Lexicon

IlL/A Danified analytic Neo-Arabic/Swadesh list

IlL/A Danified analytic Neo-Arabic/Diachronics

Knench
Xnɪəni
Created byInthar
SettingVerse:Irta
Native toIrta Libya
Afro-Asiatic

ɵ

Knench (/nɛntʃ/, from Old Knench χnānī via Old Azalic ŋnoinisχ; natively Xnɪəni /xnɪəni/ or nɨɨm Xnɪən /nɨːm xnɪən) is a Semitic language spoken in the Irta timeline and the closest living relative to Hebrew in Irta. The name of the language comes from Ancient Knench kanaȝn 'Canaan'. Knench has received strong Azalic influence throughout its history since Ancient Knench times, and genetic studies have shown that the Knench are descendants of Azalic speakers who adopted a Canaanite language. The language descends from a close relative of Biblical Hebrew which was spoken in North Africa (which was spoken instead of our Punic in Irta), but its grammar is far less synthetic than its ancestor: lexical verbs were completely restructured to use constructions with auxiliaries and infinitives instead of the older prefix and suffix conjugations, and it has lost grammatical gender like Togarmite and Far East Semitic. Knench has many loanwords from various sources including Greek, Azalic, Coptic, Berber, Arabic, Aramaic, Romance, and English.

A majority of modern Knench people are Muslim; some are Christian, Jewish or neopagan. There is a Judeo-Knench, with Hebrew and Aramaic loanwords.

It's inspired grammatically by Welsh and Irish, and aesthetically by English, Danish, Naeng, and Khmer.

Names

Native Knench names

  • Parm (f.) is from baśam
  • Þor (m.) 'bull (from Aramaic)'

Hugin and Munin (de novo derived from active participles *hūgi and *mūni) are modern fantasy characters

History

TODO

  • Focus prominence (like Welsh)
  • retain vav consecutive forms of auxiliaries
  • vi = "and then" (used for consecutive events; ~ BH wayhi)
  • -x > -rh
  • A sentence consisting entirely of replacements and compounds?
    • I dal bə kpeen pnaarə. = I don't see any wolves. (Heb: Ani lo ro'e ze'evim.)
  • Hard mode: a sentence where every content word has a Semitic cranberry morpheme
  • Swadesh list
  • bel-, ble- is a common prefix (conflation of ben- and ba3al-)
  • Many adverbs from infinitive absolute
  • Philippi should be weaker: i > e, instead of the TibH i > a (*bint > peþ 'daughter'; TibH baṫ)
  • Mén fows ta xett kori? = Why did you have to die?
  • replace a lot of Canaanite vocabulary with other words

Some sound changes

  • Maghrebi Arabic craziness (happens early on, ca. 9th-10th century)
  • -ə (mainly from ACub -ō) becomes silent and lengthens the vowel before it
  • non-rhoticity (nonrhoticity has to happen after fem sg ending loss)
  • ħ > x; *gt, kt, ᴋt, ħt > ht
  • ś > usually x, sometimes f or fl
  • d-t, t-t (morpheme boundary) > st
  • xr > x
  • Ri ni b žejn i p Mednə Əśidəs 'I live in the United States'
  • š- > h-
  • univerbate like crazy

Phonology

Consonants

  • /m n ʁ̃ʷ l w j ɹ̠/ ⟨m n ł h l w j r⟩
  • /p b f v t d θ ð k g/ ⟨p b f v t d þ ð k g⟩
  • /s̪ z̪ t̪͡s̪ ʃ ʒ tʃ s̠ t̠͡s̠ x h/ ⟨s z c š ž č ś ć x h⟩

/t d/ are alveolar, and /θ ð/ are dental. /θ ð/ may be realized as [t̪ d̪].

/s̪ z̪ t̪͡s̪/ are lamino-dental, like Basque z.

/s̠ t̠͡s̠/ are retracted apico-alveolar, like Greek /s/.

Ancient Knench /l/ became /w/ in some places, especially before C or pausa.

Stops are unaspirated.

Judeo-Knench has final r in borrowed Hebrew and Aramaic vocabulary.

Vowels

IlL/A Danified analytic Neo-Arabic has the largest vowel inventory of any Semitic language in Irta. It has many diphthongs.

Prosody

Stress

Stress tends penultimate or final.

Intonation

Phonotactics

Morphophonology

Orthography

Modern Knench has an orthography using an alphabet descended from the Paleo-Hebrew script, where spelling reflects Middle Knench.

Morphology

IlL/A Danified analytic Neo-Arabic has lost the verbal inflections and triconsonantal morphology of Ancient Knench.

Nouns and adjectives

Nouns inflect for number and definiteness. Like in English, proper nouns don't take the definite article. Attributive adjectives agree with nouns in number, but predicate adjectives do not. Knench has lost grammatical gender and the construct state, although animates still have natural gender.

Number and definiteness

IlL/A Danified analytic Neo-Arabic has regularized most plurals to -ə (from a merger of Ancient Knench -īn > *-ī and -ūδ). -u nouns become -lə in the plural: þebu, þeblə 'a world, worlds'.

Nouns inflect for definiteness, as follows:

  • Singular: -əs (after C), (from haz-ze and haz-zū)
  • Plural: -il, replacing the plural suffix -ə if any (from ha-2ili), -u + -il > -ul
    • Plurals must be memorized! For example -u may become -ləs (specifically when the -u comes from a vocalized /-l/).

Words ending in a schwa add an intrusive R between the final vowel and the plural suffix.

Some irregular plurals: penš, plenš = human

Examples:

  • śadə /ˈs̠adə/ = an apartment/flat
  • śadrəs /ˈs̠adɹəs/ = the flat
  • śadrə /ˈs̠adɹə/ = flats
  • śadril /ˈs̠adɹɪl/ = the flats
  • śadə bušət /ˈs̠adə ˈbʊʃət/ = a big flat
  • śadrəs bušət /ˈs̠adɹəs ˈbʊʃət/ = the big flat
  • śadrə buštə /ˈs̠adɹə ˈbʊʃtə/ = big flats
  • śadril buštə /ˈs̠adɹɪl ˈbʊʃtə/ = the big flats

-ma nouns from Greek become -mat nouns: þemat, þematas, þematə, þematil 'topic, theme'.

Predicative adjectives

The predicative/adverbial marker bə followed by the bare form is used for predicative adjectives: Ri śadrəs bə bušət 'The room is big'.

Degree

  • Equative: de = as X as; equally X (~ BH day 'enough')
  • Comparative/Superlative: -ur = more X or most X (from *3abūr, infinitive absolute of 'to exceed'); comparandum takes prej 'than' (from Ancient Knench pirūðī 'when I see'). The -ur form is indeclinable.

Example: bušət 'big', de bušət 'as big as'; buštur 'bigger/biggest'

Pronouns

Knench has a pronoun system similar to European languages, except that there is no grammatical gender and se "that" is used as an inanimate or gender-neutral pronoun. There is a T-V distinction: the 2nd person plural tim is also used as a polite pronoun.

I (/i:/ or /ɪ/) is the default form for the 1sg subject pronoun; ni is used after a vowel or for disambiguation.

For gender-neutral usage, tu has been proposed as a 2nd person singular neopronoun (inspired by Indo-European languages). This isn't as common as using the 2nd person plural tim as singular, however.

Knench emphatic pronouns come from a suffixed -nna (precative).

Pronouns in IlL/A Danified analytic Neo-Arabic, basic forms
→ Person I thou (m) thou (f) he she we ye they
Basic forms i, ni tə ti u oj nu tim im
Emphatic forms (n)in tan ten un ojn, hin nun temnə emnə

Interrogative pronouns

  • da, ida = what? (nominal) (*hajj dabar 'what thing')
  • ew = who? (*2ajj hū)
    • poetic mi
  • ajšə = which?
  • énə = where?
  • məðé = when?
  • əziəp = why? (the reason something happened) (or from another phrase of the form "ayy [NOUN]")
  • maləx = why? (the reason someone does something) (*ma lak 'what's the matter')
  • xam = how many?
  • xiəlt = how?

Verbs

Almost all verbs use only one form. For native verbs, this form may be derived from:

  • the infinitive construct or the imperative (mostly basic verbs)
  • a deverbal noun pattern (most common)
  • a univerbation of a verb + noun collocation

The infinitive form may or may not have a prefixed l-, depending on the verb; however, even verbs without l- often display a voicing mutation attesting to the historical lV- (e.g. žbuð 'to be idle, to lie fallow'). Some verbs instead are derived from other nouns derived from the relevant triconsonantal root rather than the infinitive of a particular verb (e.g. benin 'to build', cognate to the Hebrew noun binyan; from the root b-n-y)

The infinitive is also used as an imperative: ðeht ló oj! = 'Give it to her!' Imperatives are negated by placing bal or bawði before the verb.

Inflected verbs

Knench has only six inflected verbs (i.e. verbs with inflected past and future forms):

  • luð 'to be'
  • śuð 'to do' (from *ʕaśō, with contamination from *paȝal): used to form past and future perfective tenses
  • buð 'to come' (from *bô): sometimes means 'must, have to'. bu is still used as a directional.
  • leht 'to go' (from *halak), also used as a passive auxilliary for dechticaetiative objects
  • kaht 'to take' (from *laqaħ): also used for animate patients of ditransitive verbs
  • ðeht 'to give' (from *natan, with contamination from *hinīħ 'to leave' and naħħil 'to bequeath'): also used for causatives

Their forms have become more similar to each other due to analogy.

Knench maintains a distinction between independent and dependent forms for finite verbs, like Old Irish. The independent forms come from the Ancient Knench waw-consecutive. Using a preverb such as lu 'not', veə '(interrogative form of present marker ri)', xaž 'relativizer', or śu 'I'm sure that...' (from the infinitive absolute *3aśū of *3aśō 'to do'; generalized from *3aśū ja3śiju 'he will indeed do') requires the dependent form. Dependent past forms and future forms are formally identical to independent future forms and past forms, respectively, except for luð 'to be'.

Even verbs with finite forms are defective verbs, since finite forms are always perfective (except forms of luð). To express the imperfective with these verbs, you still have to use the copula + bə + VN construction. The negator lu only negates finite verbs.

The present particle ri comes from ruʔi, the imperative of raʔō 'to see'. Ri is not used in subordinate clauses:

  • Ri Đavíð þaś žin. = David is about to sleep.
  • Pið Đavíð þaś žin, r'u dal bə xapuð uras. = When David goes to sleep, he doesn't turn off the lights.
  • Veə Đavíð þaś žin? = Is David going to bed? (neutral)
  • Ri Đavíð dar þaś žin. = David is not going to bed.
Inflected verbs in IlL/A Danified analytic Neo-Arabic
→ Person I thou (m) thou (f) he she we you (plural) they
Present ri/r' i, ni tə ti r'u r'oj nu tim r'im
luð future indep. wej(ð) i wejs tə wejs ti wii u wieþ oj wejn nu wejs tim wilu'm
future dep. jie i þies tə þies ti jie u þieþ oj nien nu þies tim juu'm
past indep. waj i was tə was ti waj u waþ oj wan nu was tim waju'm
past dep. hej(ð) i hejs tə hejs ti hie u hieþ oj hejn nu hejs tim hilu'm
śuð future indep. fow(ð) i fows tə fows ti fow u foəþ oj fown nu fows tim folu'm
past indep. woś i þoś tə þoś ti joś u þoś oj noś nu þoś tim jośu'm
buð future indep. pow(ð) i pows tə pows ti pow u poəþ oj pown nu pows tim polu'm
past indep. pax i tpax tə tpaj ti pax u tpax oj pax nu tpaw tim paw'm
leht future indep. law(ð) i laws tə laws ti law u laəþ oj lawn nu laws tim lalu'm
past indep. lax i tlax tə tlej ti lax u tlax oj lax nu tlaw tim law'm
kaht future indep. kaw(ð) i kaws tə kaws ti kaw u kaəþ oj kawn nu kaws tim kalu'm
past indep. kax i tkax tə tkaj ti kax u tkax oj kax nu tkaw tim kaw'm
ðeht future indep. naw(ð) i naws tə naws ti naw u naəþ oj nawn nu naws tim nalu'm
past indep. nax i tnax tə tnaj ti nax u tnax oj nax nu tnaw tim naw'm

Regular pa3al verbs

The regular pattern is *(li)CCuC.

When the historical C1 is a pharyngeal, the l- usually resurfaces:

  • C1 = ayin: lubuə 'to go past' /lʊˈbuə/
  • C1 = heth: litul 'to cease/stop' /lɪˈtʊl/

This doesn't happen when C1 = aleph/he: vuð /vʊð/ 'to bake, to fire', zuð /z̪ʊð/ 'to be crazy, to be cool'.

*-t verbs

  • leht /lɛht/ = to go by foot
  • kaht /kaht/ = to take
  • žeht /ʒɛht/ = to go back
  • žef /ʒɛf/ = to sit
  • les /lɛs̪/ = to be born
  • res /ɹɛs̪/ = to go down
  • reš /ɹɛʃ/ = to acquire; to get
  • ðeht /ðɛht/ = to give
  • śeht /s̠ɛht/ = to carry, to owe, should
  • ceht /t̪͡s̪ɛht/ = to go out, to start X-ing
  • žoot /ʒoːt/ = (of time) to go by
  • goot /goːt/ = to do X correctly
  • doot /doːt/ = to know
  • toot /toːt/ = to farm, to grow (plants)

Prepositions

Prepositions inflect like in Welsh: for pronominal prepositional objects, usually the preposition is inflected and is followed by the independent pronoun. The inflected preposition is stressed unless the emphatic pronoun is used: lah tə /'lax tə/ 'to you' vs. lah tan /lax 'tan/ 'to you, specifically'.

example of a IlL/A Danified analytic Neo-Arabic inflected preposition: el "for"; pə/p' 'in, at' is inflected similarly

  • 1sg: l'i, li ni
  • 2sg.m: lah tə
  • 2sg.f: lah ti
  • 3sg.m: lom u
  • 3sg.f: l'oj, ló oj
  • 3sg.n: ləze
  • 1pl. lon nu
  • 2pl. lam tim
  • 3pl. low'm

Other prepositions:

  • men = from
  • tubel = for
  • jaən = because of (also "reason")
  • łaj = on, above
  • jaś, jaśəm = with (both inst. and com.)
  • pəłee = inside, within
    • sim. ləłee, məłee 'into, out of'
  • pəlip = amidst
  • wen = without
  • mənie = before, in front of
  • kodm = before (temporally)
  • śni = after (Hitsi šeni 'second half')
  • məłææl = above
  • məþææl = below
  • þaht = instead of
  • til = like, as
  • śakə = until

Numbers

0-10: sifə, śaa, hniəm/hniə (attributive), hluž, arvu, śami, šeš, šebu, hmɨɨn, þež, łaaś

11-20: štoo, hnajoo, hlužoo, arvoo, śamižoo, šešoo, šeboo, hmɨɨnoo, þežoo, hniə łəəśi

21-30: łəəśi śaa, łəəśi hniəm, ... łəəśi łaaś

31-40: łəəśi štąh, ..., hniə łəəśi

41, 42, ...: hniə łəəśi śaa, hniə łəəśi šném, ...

60: hluž łəəśi

...

100: miə

1000: awv

Syntax

Constituent order

The order is tense-subject-verb-object.

R'ižəs ław bloo u abləs.
The man is eating the apple.
Ri piəð u bə de kruu til stadi.
His house is as big as a stadium.
Fól oj ðə fluð xawgpéð oj bə ro-múxr.
She did her homework too late.

The negative particle dal (from tabar lū 'not anything') comes after the subject pronoun and before the verb.

Faulty accusative

IlL/A Danified analytic Neo-Arabic has the faulty accusative (glossed as FA) particle ðə or ð' , from Ancient Knench jūδ ha-. It is actually not used for direct objects, but only for constituents that are separated from their heads. It also replaces a (TAM-marking) "preposition" in front of a lexical verb, when no preposition is used.

Noun phrase

Y's X = X Y-DEF: šem vaziləs = the king's name

To say "this X" or "that X", X-DEF fu and X-DEF feni (lit. "the X here" and "the X there") are used. To say "this" and "that", you say se fu and se feni (where the se becomes ilə in the plural).

havu, haveni = like this, like that

The abstract demonstrative (referring to sentences or facts) is suð.

Verb phrase

Knench allows arbitrarily long chains of pseudo-auxiliaries:

R'oj bə kofstəl* oj gąt latsææg.
3SG.F.PRES IPFV never_fail to_do_correctly to_joke
Her jokes never fail to land.

(*) a loan from an unknown source

VN constructions

Knench has a rich tense-aspect system which expresses imperfective/perfective as well as progressive and perfect.

  • ri Parm bə leht oj = Parm goes
  • ri Parm ław leht oj = Parm is going
  • ri Parm þax leht oj = Parm is about to go
  • ri Parm xni leht oj = Parm has gone
  • ri Parm xni juð oj bə leht = Parm has been going
  • ri Parm dəž leht oj = Parm just went
  • ri Parm wen leht oj = Parm hasn't went
  • fól Parm ðə leht = Parm went (perfective; cf. AAVE She done went)
  • þąf Parm ðə leht = Parm will go (perfective)
  • han Parm bə leht oj = Parm went (imperfective)
  • þé Parm bə leht oj = Parm will go (imperfective)
  • leht! = Go! (number neutral)
  • gwenu leht! (3uqbinu lekt "follow us to go") = Let's go!

In clauses with a copula and a verbal noun, Knench requires the pronoun corresponding to the subject to come right after the verbal noun: R'ižəs bø hél u ð'abwəs. This is etymologically "See the man when he's eating the apple", cf. Biblical and literary Modern Hebrew באכלו את התפוח "when he eats the apple (but tense- and aspect-neutral)".

The clause-initial subject pronoun + bə colloquially tends to be omitted in the present tense when the subject is 1st or 2nd person: Ðób tə ð'i nr? 'Do you love me?'

Passive and causative

Ðett 'to give' is used as an auxiliary for the causative:

Nawð i ðə pinxadəs el kapwəs el ąnuj.
I made the horse bore the farmer to death.
(lit. I gave the horse the farmer to inflict boredom)

In a ðett-causative construction, the more animate object takes the dative preposition el. This connects ditransitives which are causatives of transitives to the basic ditransitive verb 'give'.

To form passives two different auxiliaries are used:

  • Kaht 'to take' is used as an auxiliary to raise the animate object of a ditransitive verb.
  • leht 'to go' is used to raise the inanimate object of both monotransitive and ditransitive verbs (as well as the object of the original verb which is causativized).
Kawð u đə ląbur mitəs rup məšólə.
'He was made to suffer so many things.'
Lawð łeśwəs đə hél men kapwəs.
'The grass was fed to the horse.'

Balancing vs deranking conjunctions

Balancing conjunctions take full finite clauses (clauses with a finite verb or an auxiliary):

  • ej "and"
  • ow "or"
  • mur (complementizer)
  • łeþr "when"
  • wí "if" (< *wa-kī)
  • jern "because"

Deranking conjunctions replace finite forms of the copula juð and thus are also called copula-replacing conjunctions (e.g. by Hrafn). Some CRCs are:

  • prí "than"
  • jið (complementizer)
  • pið "when"

Time clauses

pið-clauses

A pið-clause is in the same tense as the clause it's embedded in. Pið-clauses denote states, things that can be marked with re + tense markers in the present tense), rather than completed actions.

łeþr-clauses

łeþr are used for clauses with auxiliaries other than the present tense copula.

Complementizer

There is a complementizer mur (from lēmūr) or jið (from conflation of hajūδ 'to be' and jūδ accusative marker) depending on dialect.

Relativizer

In most cases, relative clauses use the relativizer xaž (from *χa-ʔašir 'like that which'). n may appear after the resumptive pronoun if one is used.

Subject of a copula auxiliary:

paras xaž hie __ bə gri u "pnar"
the boy who cried (would cry) wolf

Subject with a non-copula auxiliary:

paras xaž fow __ gri "pnar"
the boy who cried wolf (once)

Direct object:

vivlias xaž fown nu ðə gru (se (n))
the book that we read

Oblique object:

péðas xaž hieþ oj bə xun oj pəze (n)
the house she used to live in

To relativise the subject of a present copula, łom (from hā-3ūmid 'that is standing') is used:

R' abwas pə śadə i. -> abwas łom pə śadə i
the apple in my flat
Ri plenžil śni leht im. -> plenžil łom xni leht im
the people who have gone

Serial verb construction

Serial verbs are also very common in Knench:

Pow Móšé ðə kaht vdųś prið u. / Fow Móšé ðə buð kaht vdųś prið u.
come.PST.3SG.M Moshe FA take.INF open.INF gift 3sg.m / PST.3SG.M Moshe FA come.INF take.INF open.INF gift 3SG.M
Moshe came, took, and opened his gift.

Directionals derived from verbs, such as leht '(t)hence', bu '(t)hither' and kub 'movement together with another person' are also common and may replace pronouns.

Wh-questions

No special treatment is observed unless the wh-word is the subject, in which case łom is used after the wh-word. However, łom is not used in a question in the form of a nominal sentence. (As always, ri is dropped in questions.)

Dar Petə bə fluð?
What's Peter doing?
Dar łom bə gruð?
What's happening?
Dar se fu? (*Dar łom se fu?)
What's this?
Énr ti?
Where are you?
Énr fows tə ðə leht? / Énr laws tr?
Where have you been?

Vocabulary

Knench has the following vocabulary layers:

  1. Most of the common words are inherited from the Semitic common ancestor of Ancient Knench and Biblical Hebrew, however they often show drastic semantic drift or univerbation. Example: šłúd 'a lot' comes from saȝudō 'feast'. Cranberry morphemes are not uncommon in Semito-Knench.
  2. Azalic substrate
  3. Ancient Greek, Aramaic
  4. Latin, Romance, Arabic, Turkic and Modern Greek

Although it is attested in Ancient Knench, the *CaCīCō verbal noun pattern is not as productive as the corresponding pattern in Mishnaic and Modern Hebrew.

Many words are formed from earlier construct state or verb + object combinations, and are sometimes unrecognizable as such:

  • əmbein 'brick' from *habanē binjan 'building stones'
  • həvgom 'massacre; (slang) debacle, fiasco; a mess' from *šafx dam 'spilling of blood'
  • łienəm 'source' from ʕēn mayim 'spring of water'
  • xifin 'to like' from *śe'θ fin lit. 'lift the face of' meaning 'to favor'
  • xihniem (el) 'to look at' from *śe'θ 3ēnajim 'lift eyes'
  • krəlieb 'conscience' from *qūl hal-lēbb lit. 'voice of the heart'

Some productive affixes are:

  • pen-/ple- = agentive, -ling
    • pnar 'wolf' comes from older *ben harr 'mountainling'; a euphemism replacing Ancient Knench zēb, which had become taboo by Old Knench
  • peδ- = place noun
  • pəd-/pd- = associated inanimate, esp. singulative of a collective noun (from peθθ 'daughter')
    • pdoo = tree (*pett ja3r)
    • pdam = wave (*pett jamm)
    • pdəəm = word (irreg. metathesis from *pett himrō)
    • pdeš = flame
    • pled = echo
    • pədnə = stream
    • pəmtaa = dew (from mtaa 'rain')
    • pədkažəm = (poetic) petrichor
  • -l = transitivizer or causative of verbs (from a -w ~ -ul alternation in some intransitive-transitive verb pairs)
    • hamžəl 'to dry' < hamž '(archaic) sun'
  • -is: -ess (from Greek)
    • vazilis 'queen' < vazil 'king'
    • mææšivis 'witch' < mææšiv 'mage, wizard'
  • lið- = mediopassive
  • məð- is more productive and is used to form verbal adjectives, serving the role of passive participles
    • luri 'to amaze'; muri 'amazing'; məðuri 'amazed'

Example texts

UDHR, Article 1

Law xol plææžil ðə les im bə śraa ej bə haw łaj hogləs ej rejtil. Kalu'm ðə lugud jaś režən ej krəliəb, ej r'im bə śeht im liðali śad jaśəm hɨɨv p nažəm axə.
PASS.PST.3SG.NF all human/PL-DEF.PL be_born 3PL PRED free and PRED equal on dignity-DEF.SG and right-DEF.PL. PASS.PRES-3PL endow with reason and conscience, and PRES.3PL PRES carry 3PL behave with one_another LOC spirit brotherhood.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act toward one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Schleicher's Fable

Phrasebook

When three forms are given, the forms are respectively for addressing one man (informally), one woman (informally), and politely/gender-neutrally respectively.

  • Hlum! = Hello! / Goodbye!
  • Matin tub! = Good morning!
  • Śnitsoə tub! = Good afternoon!
  • Łaab tub! = Good evening!
  • Liəl tub! = Good night!
  • Śakə! = See you!
  • Bu də/di/dim! = Welcome!
  • Praw lah tə/ti [lam tim]! = Thank you!
  • Im tsəśiəm tə/ti/tim = Please (etym. himm jimtsā Hinn ba3ēnēxa 'if it finds favor in your eyes')
    • also pləiz (from English)
  • łeþ tub = have fun
  • Ajžə heməs kaws tə/ti [kawðu tim]? = What's your name?
  • Kawð i ðə [NAME]. = My name is [NAME].
  • Powð i men... = I'm from...
  • Lawð i les pə... = I was born in...
  • I bə fu. = I'm here.
  • (I bə) ðuəb i ðah tə/ti [ðam tim]. = I love you.
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