Cokkel
Cokkel ([ˈtʃok.kel], formerly Cokjazik) is an artistic language that uses false cognates to build its core vocabulary. Its grammar is mostly influenced by Uralic and Turkic - its flair might be best describes as "Central Asian".
Etymology
The name of this language derives from the words "cok", meaning "many, much" and "kel" meaning "language". This refers to the fact that this language derives its vocabulary and part of its grammar from many languages.
Orthography
The Cokkel alphabet contains all 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, each corresponding to one sound. Cokkel is analyzed as having 6 vowels and 20 consonants.
| Letters in Cokkel | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aa | Bb | Cc | Dd | Ee | Ff | Gg | Hh | Ii | Jj | Kk | Ll | Mm | Nn | Oo | Pp | Rr | Ss | Tt | Uu | Vv | Ww | Xx | Yy | Zz | |
All of these are pronounced exactly like their IPA counterpart except for ⟨c⟩, ⟨q⟩ and ⟨x⟩.
- ⟨c⟩ is pronounced as /tʃ/, that is, like the "ch" in "China"
- ⟨q⟩ is pronounced as /ʔ/, that is like the pause of airflow in "uh-oh"
- ⟨x⟩ is pronounced as /ks/, that is like the "x" in "taxi"
Phonology
Consonants
| Labial | Coronal | Dorsal | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | |||
| Stop | p b | t d | k ɡ | ʔ | |
| Affricate | t͡ʃ | ks* | |||
| Fricative | f v | s z | h | ||
| Approximant | w | l | j | ||
| Trill | r | ||||
* "ks" is technically not widely deemed an affricate. However it is analyzed in this language as such to fit phonotactical rules.
Vowels
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | i y | u |
| Close-mid | e | o |
| Open | a | |
Prosody
Stress falls on the penultimate syllable for non-compound words. In compound words the primary stress is on the first syllable and the secondary stress on the first syllable of the compound.
Phonotactics
Cokkel uses a strict (C)V(C) rule. That is, that a syllable must have at least one vowel, and may have an onset and a coda consonant.
Grammar
Cokkel's sentence structure is SVO. It is an nominative-accusative aligned language. It has aritcles for nouns and uses seven cases and three tenses.
Verbs
Verbs conjugate to tense and person.
| mi | tu | o | mis | tus | os | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Present | gezem | gezen | gez | gezemes | gezenes | gezes |
| Past | gezdem | gezden | gezde | gezdemes | gezdenes | gezdes |
| Future | gezgem | gezgen | gezge | gezgemes | gezgenes | gezges |
There are two affixes to indicate tense and six to indicate person, with the tense affix coming before the personal affix. These regular affixes are listed below:
| Future | Past |
|---|---|
| -g- | -d- |
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | -m | -m-s |
| 2nd | -n | -n-s |
| 3rd | -un |
Nouns
Nouns decline to number, definitiveness and case. The possessive can be constructed via noun + personal pronoun ending but isn't deemed a case in itself.
Articles
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| Definite | al | las |
| Indefinite | yci | ycis |
Cases
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | -s | |
| Accusative | -n | -n-s |
| Genitive | -s | -s-s |
| Dative | -t | -t-s |
| Ablative | -p | -p-s |
| Locative | d- | d-s |
| Instrumental | l- | l-s |
Swadesh list
| English | Cokkel | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| I | mi | derived from English "me" and the Irish and Turkish -m ending. |
| you | tu | from Spanish "tú" and Hungarian "te". |
| we | mis | plural of "mi" |
| this | kono | from Japanese kono and Hmong no |
| that | cono | original |
| what | ha | onomatopoeic (huh?) |
| who | hu | from English "who" |
| not | ne | from Dutch "nee" and Hungarian "nem" |
| all | ol | from Greek "ola" and English "all" |
| many | cok | from English "chock-full", Hungarian "sok" and Turkish "çok" |
| one | yci | from Finnish "yksi" and Japanese "ichi" |
| two | du | from Korean "tul/dul" and Indonesian "dua" |
| big | noi | from Hawaiian "nui" and Hungarian "nagy" |