Older Kraliy
Older Kraliy is an a priori language that would have been spoken somewhere in Central Asia or Siberia a few centuries ago, before diverging into modern Kraliy languages. The name of the conlang is derived from its native word for 'speech' or 'language': krˈlɐ.
The language would not have had a native writing system, though linguists would have developed two orthographies long after its extinction: a Latin orthography closely tied to the IPA transcription of the language and a Cyrillic orthography.
Phonology and orthographies
Consonants
Older Kraliy has the following consonantal inventory. The table shows the Latin and Cyrillic transcription of the phonemes; any differences between the former and the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) will be noted below.
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Dorsal | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m / м | n / н | |
| Stop | p / п | t / т | k / к |
| Affricate | tˢ / ц | ||
| Fricative | s / с | h / х | |
| Rhotic | r / р | ||
| Lateral | l / л | ||
| Glide | j / й | w / ў |
Notes:
- The phoneme transcribed as tˢ (or Cyrillic ц) may have been realized as a true affricate /ts/, an aspirated /tʰ/ or, possibly, an aspirated affricate /tsʰ/.
- Stops (/p/, /t/, /k/) are otherwise unaspirated.
- The fricative transcribed as h (or Cyrillic х) might have been either a glottal /h/ or a velar /x/.
- The rhotic consonant /r/ might have been a flap [ɾ].
- Rhotics, laterals and glides can be syllabic. Syllabic /j/ and /w/ result in the vowels /i/ and /u/, transcribed as i, u in Latin script and as и, у in Cyrillic. Syllabic /r/ and /l/ are still transcribed as r, l (Cyrillic р, л).
Vowels
The language features three 'true vowels' (not derived from syllabic glides): /ɐ/, /ə/ and /ɨ/. These are typically transcribed as such in Latin script (ɐ, ə, ɨ), although some might choose to use a, e, y instead. The former conventions is used in the dictionary. In Cyrillic, the vowels are typically transcribed as а, є, ы. It should be noted that the Cyrillic orthography does not use letters for palatalized vowels: /jɐ/ will be transcribed as йа, not я.
Vowel length is distinguished for all vowels, and it is typically marked with the IPA length mark ː (or a colon if the proper character is unavailable) as in pwɐː (Cyrillic пўаː) or krəː (Cyrillic крэː).
In addition to these three central vowels, Older Kraliy commonly features /i/ and /u/ as syllabic counterparts to the glides /j/ and /w/. These vowels will often alternate with their consonantal forms in inflectional paradigms.
The sequences /jɨ/ and /wɨ/ are realized as long /iː/ and /uː/ and are written as such in the Latin transcription while the Cyrillic orthography preserves the underlying form. Thus, /twɨ/ [tuː] is spelled as Latin tuː or as Cyrillic тўы.
Other
Older Kraliy phonotactics allow for (C(C))V(C) or (C)S syllables, where S stands for for a syllabic consonant.
Syllable-initial clusters may either consist of any non-glide followed by /j/ or /w/ or a stop or tˢ followed by /r/ or /l/. Similar restrictions apply to (C)S syllables: /i/ and /u/ may occur after any consonant other than a glide while syllabic /l/ and /r/ may only follow a stop or tˢ. Onset-less /i/ and /u/ are rare, but permitted.
All consonants other than /j/ and /w/ are allowed word-finally. Word-medially, only /m/, /n/, /s/, /h/ and /r/ are permitted. The clusters /nh/ and /stˢ/ tend to simplify to /n/ and /st/. Gemminate consonants are not permitted: an instance of /n.n/ would also be simplified to /n/.
Prosodic stress is phonemic and independent from vowel length. In native words, stress is restricted to the two last syllables of a polysyllabic word and is not allowed for syllabic consonants including /i/ and /u/ (syllabic /j/ and /w/; long /iː/ and /uː/ may be stressed as they are analysed as having an underlying /ɨ/). Loanwords and onomatopoeia may occasionally break this patterns. In the Latin orthography, prosodic stress is marked by placing the IPA stress mark (or simply an apostrophe) at the beginning of the syllable while the Cyrillic orthography places an acute accent on top of the stressed vowel: krˈlɐ / крла́ː.
No capital letters are used in the Latin orthography. When writing the language in Cyrillic, capitals are used at the beginning of a sentence or a proper name. Punctuation largely follows French and Russian usages (for Latin and Cyrillic, respectively) except for replacing colons with commas as the former might be confused with vowel length markers.
Grammar
Older Kraliy grammar would be best classified as fusional, although earlier agglutinative components can still be easily identified. The most common word order is VSO, although VOS is also possible. Adverbial phrases typically precede the verb while adjectival phrases, relative clauses and possessives follow the noun they apply to. The language has a nominative-accusative alignment. Pronouns may be dropped and, since verbs fully agree with their subjects, pronouns are seldom used in subject position.
Verbs
Older Kraliy verbs conjugate for tense, aspect and mood, agree with their subjects in person, number and grammatical gender and, optionally, may hint at their direct objects.
Conjugation paradigms mostly depend on whether the final syllable of a verb stem accepts a coda or not. Differences, however, are minimal and seek only to accomodate for that fact.The main conjugattion models are the pwɐː conjugation that accepts an additional coda (as seen in the third-person animate non-past form pwɐn), the ər conjugation that cannot accept a coda consonant (resulting in the third-person animate non-past form ˈərɐn) and the tˢuˈtˢwəː conjugation which alternates between two stems, one ending in a syllabic consonant (including /i/ or /u/) and one using the consonantal form of the same phoneme (third-person animate non-past tˢuˈtˢwən but past tense tˢutˢuˈlɐː). Few irregular verbs exist, most notably the copula mɨm and the negative verb rɐ, although the latter is only irregular in some of its stress patterns.
Mood
Moods other than the realis (which is assumed on verbs by default) are expressed through particles that may either precede the verb or be prefixed to it.
The irrealis mood is used for suppositions and hypotheses, in order to mark a sentence as a polar (yes-or-no) question and to issue polite commands. Irrealis is marked with the particle i for consonant-initial verb stems or the prefix /j/ (written as an independent particle j) for vowel-initial verbs.
True imperatives are formed with the particle rəː. In comparison to commands issued with the irrealis mood, true imperatives might be perceived as being harsh, although they are expected in situations where the speaker asserts their authority.
A volitive mood indicated with the particle hɐ might be used to express wishes, although it seems to have been mostly replaced by the irrealis aside from a handful fossilized expressions.
A renarrative mood marked with the particle si is used for reported speech as in the following example:
What did she say?
si rɐˈlɐtˢ pjəˈrɐː ɐ ləsˈkjɐrju.
[She said] That she didn't saw the soldiers.
Aspect
Older Kraliy only shows aspect to a limited degree. This is usually done through suffixes placed immediately after the verbal stem such as inchoative -tˢɨ for 'beginning to' and cessative -suː for 'stopping'. These may also be found as a derivational affixes, as in puˈtˢɨː (to catch, to hunt) from pwɐː (to hold). Notice that this kind of derivation may alter the original verb stem.
Although the language does not have a true progressive/continuous aspect, actions in progress may be implied by placing a temporal adverb at the beginning of the sentence: sɨs (now) for present-tense verbs or tə (then) for past-tense verbs.
Tense
Older Kraliy verbs may be conjugated for past, non-past or lack any tense marking at all ('zero-tense'). Past tense endings typically include the syllable lɐ while non-past endings include the phoneme /n/, the exact form of this suffixes depends on the personal agreement.
Generic statements such as 'birds fly' (sjəˈrɐrɨ ɐ siˈlɐjə lɐː) will be typically expressed with zero-tense verbs. Tenseless verbs are also commonly found in irrealis moods (although not when irrealis is merely used to form polar questions).
Desiderative mood (to want to do something) may be expressed with a tenseless form of məː being suffixed to the verb stem in place of a tense marker: This, however, is only allowed when the intention is current; otherwise məː must be used as an auxiliary verb, displaying the proper tense and subject-agreement markings followed by the infinitive form of the primary verb (displaying object-agreement suffixes if needed).
I see the boar.
I want to see the boar.
I saw the boar.
I wanted to see the boar.
The desiderative is not to be confused with the volitive mood. Contrary to what their etymologies might suggest, the former indicates that the subject wants to do something while the latter indicates that the speaker wishes something to happen.
You want to see the boar. (desiderative pseudo-tense)
I hope you see the boar. / May you see the boar! (volitive mood)
Future is typically expressed using the non-past tense (also employed for the present tense).
Subject agreement
Aside from infinitives, Older Kraliy verbs must conjugate to agree with their subjects in person, number and, in the case of third person subjects, grammatical gender/animacy. This is done through a suffix that may get fused with tense affixes if any. These endings may also be fused with the optional direct object markers which will be discussed later.
Unlike contemporary English, Older Kraliy clearly distinguished between singular you (2s) and plural you (2p). A clusivity distinction is made for plural first person: inclusive we (1p.IN) when the listener is included (we ~ you and me [and others]) or exclusive we (1p.EX) when the listener is not (we ~ me and others, but not you).
Singular third person agreement also reflects the gender and animacy of the subject, being either masculine, feminine, neuter animate or neuter inanimate. Masculine and feminine are reserved for men and women (respectively) who have completed all initiation rites to be deemed as adults, as well as for adult foreigners of a similar age-range (approximately 15 years old or more). Teenagers and children below that age are considered to be neuter animate, as are people of unknown gender, groups of people (even if entirely comprised of adults of a given gender) and animals other than insects. Plural third person only indicates animacy.
As subjects are already marked in the verb, using nominative pronouns is pleonastic. However, although they would rarely be used in a transitive sentence, a pronoun may be used at the end of an intransitive or reflexive sentence (even as this might break the usual VSO word order). This usage doesn't seem to be emphatic but merely a matter of style.
Object agreement
Older Kraliy verbs may also be marked for the number and animacy of their direct object or as reflexive.
Direct object marks are used when the speaker has a specific direct object in mind. This often corresponds with the definiteness of the object which, as Older Kraliy has no articles, is not marked otherwise. Compare
Did you see a man? (no direct object marking)
and
Did you see the man? (verb marked for an animate singular direct object).
(The particle ɐ is not to be confused with a definiteness marker, its usage will be explained later)
Reflexive marks are used for transitive verbs where the subject coincides with the object as well as for mutual actions (X does something to Y and vice-versa); the mutual particle rjɐ is needed at the beginning of the sentence for the latter usage. Reflexives are also required for certain otherwise intransitive verbs such as motion verbs.
I see myself.
The man and the woman see themselves. [in a mirror, for instance]
rjɐ pjəˈnɐrɨ ɐ tuːnɨ tˢəːn lɐː.
The man and the woman see each other.
I walked. [reflexive always required for motion verbs like this]
Auxiliary verbs
Many constructions require auxiliary verbs in Older Kraliy, most prominently the negative, with the verb rɐ. Other auxiliaries include məː for 'to want' (if not incorporated into the verb as explained above), kjəm for 'to be able' (to have the ability to do something) and twəm for 'to be allowed to'.
Auxiliary verb constructions are formed by conjugating the auxiliary for all grammatical categories other than the direct object marks followed by an infinitive form of the primary verb, with direct object marks if applicable.
You were holding them.
You were not holding them.
In case more than one auxiliary verb applied, only the first one will be conjugated with all other auxiliaries coming later in their base infinitive form. Although there is some amount of freedom regarding the order of auxiliaries, the negative auxiliary rɐ must always appear in first place.
You were not able to hold them.
It is possible to use only the auxiliary verbs if the primary verb can be deduced from context:
You did not.
You were not able [to do it].
Subordinate verbs
As mentioned before, Old Kraily sentences are verb-initial. Verbs occurring in other positions can be assumed to be subordinate verbs describing a noun. Subordinate verbs conjugate the same as primary clause verbs and may be followed by all the arguments of a regular verb in order to form a complete subordinate clause.
A verb phrase immediately following a noun describes it with the noun occupying the role of the verb's subject:
The man sees the woman.
... the man that sees the woman
If the described noun is the direct object of the subordinate verb, the verb must be preceded with the particle ɐ. Other prepositions are used for other roles.
... the woman that the man sees
Relative clauses who do not occur at the end of a sentence are separated from the rest of the sentence with a comma:
putˢɨˈlɐːtˢu tˢəːn ɐ pjəˈlɐh ɐ tuː, kɐˈrɐmu.
The woman that the man saw hunted the boar.
Adjectives
Adjectives are treated as intransitive verbs. Thus, rather than having a word for 'big', Older Kraliy has the verb nwɐː which would properly be translated as 'to be big'. These adjective-like intransitive verbs may be used predicatively as the primary verb of a sentence or attributively as a subordinate verb describing a noun. This means that 'adjectives' will always agree with their nouns in the same way verbs agree with their subjects (person, number, gender, animacy) and may express tense and aspect just as any Older Kraliy verb would:
We are big.
The man is big.
A big man.
The boars were big.
Nouns
Older Kraliy nouns inflect for number (singular vs plural) and case. Animacy is relevant to determine how number is marked and whether a noun in direct object position requires an accusative marker or not. Nouns for humans, animals other than fish and bugs (insects and other small critters such as spiders and worms), body parts and groups of animate entities are considered animate. Additionally, fire, water and bodies of water seem to have been variously regarded as animate or inanimate depending on the dialect (eastern dialects typically treated them all as animate while western varieties considered these nouns to be inanimate).
As in verb conjugation, Older Kraliy declension is fusional although earlier agglutinative elements can be easily identified. Inflectional models depend on animacy and on the shape of the noun: whether they begin and end with a consonant, a syllabic consonant or a vowel and their stress pattern.
Number
Number marking firstly depends on whether the noun is animate or inanimate.
In animate nouns, the base form of the noun is used for singular while a suffix (involving an /ɨ/, a /j/ or both, depending on the case and inflection paradigm) is used for plural. Plural marking remains mandatory even when the noun is followed by a numeral.
Number marking is optional for inanimate nouns, which will often appear with no number affixes at all. Explicit singular may be indicated with the prefix /jə/ (used for any vowel-initial noun or for monosyllabic consonant-initial nouns) or /i/ (otherwise). This singular prefix is usually restricted to instances where a plural referent might be usually expected, although it might also be used for emphasis. On the other hand, explicit plurals, formed with the same suffixes found in animate nouns, are considerably more common even in non-emphatic speech they although may be replaced with the unmarked forms whenever context allows.
Case
The grammatical roles of each noun may be indicated through case or prepositions.
The nominative case is the base form of a noun. In addition to being used for nouns in subject position, the nominative form is also required for most prepositions.
The accusative case is typically expressed with the suffixes an /u/, a /w/ or a /wə/. This case is required for animate nouns in direct object position. For inanimate nouns, the nominative case is used instead:
I see a boar (animate, takes the accusative form of kɐˈrɐm, 'boar').
I see a tree (inanimate, the nominative form ˈkjəːsə, 'tree', is preserved).
A dative case form is required for indirect objects. This case is marked with the prefix ər-, clearly related to the verb ər (to give) although it is also used for other ditransitive verbs.
The conjunctive case, marked with the suffix -nɨ, indicates that the noun accompanies something else. It corresponds to the conjunctions where English would have the word 'and' to unite articulate two noun phrases or to the preposition 'with', both in its commitative/adhesive use (with ~ along) or in its instrumental use (with ~ employing, using as a tool). The conjunction of two nouns is expressed by having one of them (most commonly the first one) take the conjunctive case. Thus 'the man and the woman' could be expressed as ˈtuːnɨ tˢəːn or, less commonly, as tuː ˈtˢəːnɨ.
The locative case, formed by adding the prefix sɨ- or sɨj- indicates a location within the noun or surrounded by it (for instance, something 'on a tree' would also be described with the basic locative case form sɨˈkjəːsə). Other locations may be expressed by using a preposition along the locative case, for instance ləs sɨˈkjəːsə for 'near the tree' or 'by the tree'.
Possessives are expressed with the preposition l coming between the possesed object and the posseessor. The preposition is usually pronounced as a syllabic /l/ although should the previous word end in a vowel (including /i/ and /u/), l will behave as a post-clitic: ˈkjəːsə l tuː (the tree of the man) will most likely be pronounced as /ˈkjəːsəl tuː/.
The particle ɐ
In addition to being used for certain relative clauses, the particle ɐ is required before a noun whenever it matches the last argument the verb was conjugated for. This could be either the subject (for verbs with no direct object marks) or the direct object (when marked on the verb), as shown in the following examples:
The woman is hunting a boar.
(The verb lacks direct object affixes,thus its last marked element is the subject. The particle is required since the word immediately following the verb, tˢəːn, 'woman', matches the subject)
She is hunting a boar.
(The verb lacks direct object affixes,thus its last marked element is the subject. The particle is not required since the word immediately following the verb, kɐˈrɐmu, 'boar', is the direct object rather than the subject)
The woman is hunting the boar.
(The verb has a direct object affix,thus its last marked element is its direct object. The particle is not required since the word immediately following the verb, tˢəːn, 'woman', is the subject rather than the direct object)
She is hunting the boar.
(The verb has a direct object affix,thus its last marked element is its direct object. The particle is required since the word immediately following the verb, kɐˈrɐmu, 'boar', matches the direct object)
The particle is also required after a reflexive or mutual verb immediately followed by its argument:
The boars are hunting each other.
Pronouns
Older Kraliy pronouns largely behave the same as nouns except for having a dedicate possessive form.
| Nominative | Accusative | Possessive | Dative | Conjunctive | Locative | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1s, I | ˈɨmɨ | ˈɨmu | əˈmɨ | ərˈmɨ | ɨˈnɨ | sɨˈmɨ |
| 2s, you | kjɐː | ˈkjɐwə | əˈkjɐ | ərˈkjɐ | ˈkjɐnɨ | sɨˈkjɐ |
| 3s.F, she | əˈtˢə | ˈətˢu | ləˈtˢə | ərˈtˢə | əˈtˢənɨ | sɨjəˈtˢə |
| 3s.M, he | ˈɐhə | ˈɐhu | ˈlɐːhə | əˈrɐhə | ɐˈhənɨ | sɨˈjɐhə |
| 3s.ANIM | əˈwə | əˈhuː | ləˈwə | ərˈwə | əˈwənɨ | sɨjəˈwə |
| 3s.INAN | sət | sət | ləˈsət | ərˈsət | ˈsənɨ | sɨˈsət |
| 1p.EX | ɨˈmiː | ɨˈmɨju | lɨˈmiː | ərɨˈmiː | ɨˈmiːnɨ | siːˈmiː |
| 1p.IN | siː | ˈsiːju | lˈsiː | ərˈsiː | ˈsiːnɨ | sɨˈsiː |
| 2p, you | kiː | ˈkiːju | lˈkiː | ərˈkiː | ˈkiːnɨ | sɨˈkiː |
| 3p.ANIM | lɐː | ˈlɐwə | ɐˈlɐ | ərˈlɐː | ˈlɐːnɨ | sɨˈlɐː |
| 3p.INAN | əˈtɨ | əˈtɨ | ləˈtɨ | ərəˈtɨ | əˈtɨnɨ | sɨjəˈtɨ |
Since Older Kraliy verbs agree with their subjects, pronouns are seldom used in subject position. Pleonastic pronouns, however, are often used at the end of an intransitive or reflexive sentence.