Khattish

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Khattish Zupett [zɯpət'] is the language of Khat region in Grundet. Khattish derives from Proto-West-Herookuan languages. While Khattish is a cousin language of [[Sceptrian}}, the strong influence from Kher languages has made it hard to recognize the shared traits.


Phonology

Consonants

Standard Khattish features a strict set of phonemes with mostly four places of articulation. Dialects show some variations such as labio-dental and post-alveolar fricatives.

The IPA symbol is shown after the romanization if they aren't the same.

Bilabial Alveolar Postalveolar Velar Uvular
Nasal m n ng ŋ
Plosive Voiceless p t k kw
Voiced b d g gw ɢ
Fricative Voiceless f ɸ~f s ss ʃ h x
Voiced v β~v z zz ʒ x ɣ
Ejective pp p' tt t' kk k'
Affricate pf c t͡s cc t͡ʃ kh kx
Trill pr ʙ r rr ʀ
Approximant w w~ʋ l ɹ~l j ɰ~j
  • Plosives can be geminated
  • /f/, /v/ and /ʋ/ are allophones of /ɸ/, /β/ and /w/ with close vowels
  • /l/ and /j/ come with front vowels while /ɹ/ and /ɰ/ are used with back vowels


Vowels

Front Central Back
Close Unrounded u ɯ
Rounded ú u
Mid é e e ə~ɵ
Open-mid Unrounded a ʌ
Rounded á ɔ
  • Can be long
  • /ɵ/ appears as an allophone of /ə/ after voiced consonants

Phonotactics

Orthography

Formal Khattish uses featural abjad script Cekara shown above with its romanization. See also the modern script.


Morphology

  • roots slightly similar to semitic roots: voiceless bi- and triliterals (while Kher have quadriliteral roots which work more like semitic ones)
    • voicing & ejective→affricate as one derivation process: √p-p → b-p and p-b
    • derivation with affixes as well

Pronoun

Noun

Animate (AN) and inanimate (IN) grammatical genders, singular and plural numbers

Noun cases:

  • Absolutive (ABS): Subject of intransitive verbs and direct object of transitive ones
    • base form
  • Ergative (ERG): Agent of transitive verbs
    • final é
  • Dative (DAT): Indirect objects and beneficials
    • final k with AN and ee with IN
  • Genitive (GEN):
    • final l with AN and j with IN
  • Locative (LOC):
    • final h
  • Causative (CAU):
    • final f

Adjective

Verb

Apposition

postpositions

Numeral

decimal base


Syntax

ergative-absolutive alignment, word order SOV (verb-final), head-medial