User:IlL/A Danified analytic Neo-Arabic

Knench
Xraəni
Created by	Inthar
Setting	Verse:Irta
Native to	Irta Libya
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic Central Semitic Northwest Semitic Canaanite Ancient Knench Middle Knench Knench

Knench (/nɛntʃ/, from Old Knench χnānī via Old Azalic ngoinisχ; natively Xraəni /xɾaənɪ/ or nɨɨm Xraən /nɨːm xɾaən/) 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.

Most modern Knench people are Remonitionists; some (particularly in North America and Cualand) are Muslim, 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, Icelandic, 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.

R-intrusion similar to that in our timeline's Southern British English occurs after aa ææ ee oo iə uə ə and before a vowel. R-intrusion does not occur in Judeo-Knench.

Prosody

Stress

Stress tends penultimate or final.

Intonation

Phonotactics

Morphophonology

Orthography

Modern Knench has a shallow orthography using an alphabet descended from the Paleo-Hebrew script.

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) or -sə (after V), (from haz-ze and haz-zū)
- -u nouns become -ləs: apu, apləs 'an apple, the apple'
Plural: -il, replacing the plural suffix -ə if any (from ha-2ili), -u + -il > -ul
- aplə, apul 'apples, the apples'

Words ending in an R-colored vowel add an intrusive R between the final vowel and the plural suffix.

pdoo 'a tree', pdoorə 'trees'
lɨɨ 'a god', lɨɨwə 'gods'

Some irregular plurals: penš, plenš = human

Examples:

śadə /ɹ̝̊adə/ = an apartment/flat
śadrəs /ɹ̝̊adrəs/ = the flat
śadrə /ɹ̝̊adrə/ = flats
śadril /ɹ̝̊adrɪl/ = the flats
śadə kruw = a big flat
śadrəs kruw = the big flat
śadrə krulə = big flats
śadril krulə = the big flats

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

Predicative adjectives

The predicative/adverbial marker bə + bare form is used for predicative adjectives: Ri śadrəs bə kruw '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')

Example: kruw 'big', de kruw 'as big as'; ro kruw 'so big; very big indeed', kruwðr '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 = what? (nominal)
- archaic ida (*hajj dabar 'what thing')
ew = who? (*2ajj hū)
- poetic mi
ajšə = which?
énə = where?
məðé = when?
majn = why?
- archaic/poetic maləx (*ma lak 'what's the matter')
xam = how many?
xiəlt = how?

Verbs

Almost all verbs use only one form. Etymologically this form may be

the infinitive construct or the imperative
a deverbal noun pattern
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': 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 '(question particle)', 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.

Đavíð þaś žin nə? = Is David going to bed? (neutral)
Đavíð nə þaś žin? = Is it David who's going to bed?
Fows nə tə [neśú] jaś Marí amž? = Did you marry Marí yesterday?
Fows tan [neśú] jaś Marí amž? = Is it you who married Marí yesterday?

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.	wejð 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.	hejð i	hejs tə	hejs ti	hie u	hieþ oj	hejn nu	hejs tim	hilu'm
śuð	future indep.	fowð i	fows tə	fows ti	fow u	foəl oj	fown nu	fows tim	folu'm
śuð	past indep.	woś i	þoś tə	þoś ti	joś u	þoś oj	noś nu	þoś tim	jośu'm
buð	future indep.	powð i	pows tə	pows ti	pow u	poəl oj	pown nu	pows tim	polu'm
buð	past indep.	pax i	tpax tə	tpaj ti	pax u	tpax oj	pax nu	tpaw tim	paw'm
leht	future indep.	lawð i	laws tə	laws ti	law u	laəl oj	lawn nu	laws tim	lalu'm
leht	past indep.	lax i	tlax tə	tlej ti	lax u	tlax oj	lax nu	tlaw tim	law'm
kaht	future indep.	kawð i	kaws tə	kaws ti	kaw u	kaəl oj	kawn nu	kaws tim	kalu'm
kaht	past indep.	kax i	tkax tə	tkaj ti	kax u	tkax oj	kax nu	tkaw tim	kaw'm
ðeht	future indep.	nawð i	naws tə	naws ti	naw u	naəl oj	nawn nu	naws tim	nalu'm
ðeht	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 C1 is a guttural, the l- usually resurfaces:

C1 = ayin: ląbur 'to go past'
C1 = aleph/he: lévuð 'to bake, to fire', lézuð 'to be crazy, to be cool' (or vuð, zuð)
C1 = heth: lętul 'to cease/stop'

*-t verbs

leht = to go by foot
kaht = to take
žeht = to go back
žef = to sit
les = to be born
res = to go down
reš = to acquire; to get
ðeht = to give
xeht = to carry, to owe, should
tseht = to go out, to start X-ing
žoot = (of time) to go by
goot = to hit; also a (pseudo-)auxiliary for "to do X correctly"
doot = to know
toot = 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:

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

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.