Tskxul

Tskxul
Tskxul
Pronunciation	ʦkʼul
Created by	Aquatiki
Date	2025
Setting	Something distantly related the Avatar movies
Native to	None
Language family	Indo-European Italic Tskxul
Early form	Proto-Tskxul
Writing system	Latin

Tskxul (autoglossonym: tskxul; Tskxul: [ʦkʼul) is a Italic language, with strong influence of Na'vi. It is the result of a prolonged contact among members of the language.

While its vocabulary derives for the most part from Vulgar Latin, Na'vi influence is most notable in its phonology and its some of its grammar.

Etymology

The language name derives directly from the Latin word for 'exile', suggesting the speakers were isolated from Earth and somehow transported to and transmuted to be able to live on Pandora. Again, in an unknown way, these people find a way onto our planet and apparently back into human form, so they are twice exiles. Ultimately from Latin exsul (“exile (person)”), it came to refer to "a person in exile on Earth, after having been exiled on Pandora."

Orthography

The Tskxul alphabet consists of 24 symbols, some of which are used to make digraphs. There seven vowels are and twenty consonant sounds, include the glottal stop written with an apostrophe.

Letters of the Tskxul alphabet
'	Aa	Ää	Ee	Ff	(g)	Hh	Ii	Ìì	Kk	Ll	Mm	Nn	Oo	Pp	Rr	Ss	Tt	Uu	Vv	Ww	(x)	Yy	Zz

• The letter x is used to make ejectives, named kx, px, and tx.
• The letter g is only used to distinguish n from ng.
• The syllabic consonants are written as doubles of their letter, namely rr and ll.

Phonology

Consonants

	Labial	Alveolar	Dorsal	Glottal
Nasal	m	n	/ŋ/ ng
Ejective	/pʼ/ px	/tʼ/ tx	/kʼ/ kx
Stop	p	t	k	/ʔ/ '
Fricative v-	f	s		h
Affricate		ts
Fricative v+	v	z
Liquid		/ɾ/ r
Lateral		l
Glide	w		/j/ y

When in the coda, the voiceless stops are unreleased. In all positions, the voiceless stops are unaspirated.

Vowels

	Front	Back
High	i	u
Near High	/ɪ/ ì
Middle	/ɛ/ e	o
Low	/æ/ ä	/ɑ/ a

There are also five diphthongs and two syllabic consonants: ay, aw, ey, ew, oy, rr, and ll.

Phonotactics

• Allowed simple onsets: p, t, k, px, tx, kx, ’, m, n, ng, r, l, w, y, f, v, s, z, ts, h, ø
• Allowed complex onsets: {f, s, ts} + {p, t, k, px, tx, kx, m, n, ng, r, l, w, y}
• Allowed nucleus: a, ä, e, i, ì, o, u, ay, aw, ey, ew, oy, rr, ll
• Allowed coda: p, t, k, px, tx, kx, ’, m, n, l, r, ng, ø

The only exception to this formatting is that a syllabic consonant nucleus requires an onset consonant (not null), and may not take a coda consonant.

Vowel hiatus is common. VCV is typically syllabified as V.CV.

Morphophonology

Mutation

In certain situations, several consonants undergo mutation (or lenition).

Consonant	px	tx	kx	p	t	k	ts	'
Mutation	p	t	k	f	s	h	s	ø

Simplifications

• Because identical vowels cannot occur next to each other, they contract
• It is possible for the syllabic consonants to occur immediately after their consonant-counterpart. When this happens in an unstressed syllable, the pseudovowel disappears. In a stressed syllable, the infix disappears. Pseudovowels in monosyllables behave as though unaccented.
• In rapid speech final -e is frequently elided when the following word starts with a vowel.

Grammar

Tskxul has singular, dual, plural. All are formed by prefix

• tu+ (from duo) makes the dual
• plu+ (from plūrēs) makes the plural

Pronouns

	sg	dl	pl
1st excl	yo	tuyo	now
1st incl	ø	yotxu	noy
2nd	txu		voy
3rd anim	ya	tua	ear
3rd inanim	yi	tui	eor

Verbs

Lexical entries for verbs look different from other words because the contain middle dots where the second and third infix locations are. For example, sa.ngftxì.

Sample Texts

Our Father

Pxätrr noytsri tswi sto ìn skxäl,
sìsatingftxì nom txu
fäsìsastingsìkx nom txu
sìfi wolung txu, fretswo ìn skxäl tswom ìn txrr
pxan noytsri kxotxitstan ton novi oy

Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our sins,
as we forgive those who sin against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
Amen.