Khaz
Phonetics and phonology
Consonants
| Labial | Dental | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ||||
| Stop | p pʰ b bʱ | t d | k kʰ g gʱ | |||
| Fricative | f | s z | ʃ | (χ) (ʁ) | ||
| Trill | r1 | (ʀ) | ||||
| Approximant | l | j | ||||
- The /r/ phoneme may be realised as either an alveolar trill (r), a uvular trill (ʀ), a voiced uvular fricative (ʁ), or a voiceless uvular fricative (χ).
The lack of a corresponding aspirated series in the dental stops is believed to have resulted from an earlier shift where the dental aspirate *tʰ became a dental lateral *ɬ̪ʰ, which later simplified to the /ʃ/ of today. A similar process is believed to have happened with the voiced counterpart, ultimately merging with /z/.
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Closed | i | u | |
| Mid | e | o | |
| Open | a |
All vowels come in both long and short variants. Long vowels are written with a circumflex (â, ê, î, ô, û). The length distinction is phonemic, e.g. indicative azbâzún (‘I write’) versus optative azbazún (‘That I may write’)
Grammar
Morphology
Verbal morphology
Verbs are inflected for tense (present, past, future), mood (indicative, optative, imperative), and voice (active, passive). Generally, verbal roots are of the fashion CVC- which are then built on to form the relevant mood-inflected stem either by a process of vowel lengthening or by aspiration of the final consonant. These are the conjugated finitely by affixing voice, person and tense markers.
Finite verbs
Firstly, to construct the verb, the appropriate stem has to be derived from the root. The indicative stem is formed by lengthening the root vowel (CVC- → CVːC-) whereas the optative mood is formed by aspirating the final consonant (CVC- → CVCʰ-). After this step has been performed, if the verb is desired to be passive, an a- will be prefixed. Finally, the relevant person prefixes are added together with the appropriate tense suffix.
The person prefixes are the same across all categories save the imperative and are given in this table.
person singular plural 1 az- karaz- 2 uz- karuz- 3 iz- kariz-
The tense suffixes are invariable. For the present (pres) add -ún, the future (fut) -án, and for the past (pst) -át.
The imperative mood is marked by prefixing tar- for the second person singular and kar- for the plural to the optative mood stem. No tense markers are added.
Thus, a fully inflected or finite verb may look like this:
- azabakhún ‘I wish to be seen’ from √bak-
- tarmah ‘Know!’ from √mah-
Infinitive verbs
There are several kinds of infinitives, firstly the simple ones, which formally correspond to the stems of the finite verbs and then the complex ones, which are usually formed from the root itself.
The simple infinitives are of the same form as the voice inflected stems, i.e., they are identical to finite verbs stripped of their person and tense markers. E.g., bāk ‘to see’, bakh ‘wish to see’, abāk ‘to be seen’ (< √bak-).
The complex infinitives is a class made up of two kinds of infinitives. One is the verbal noun which denotes the verbal action pure and simple, the other the infinitive of purpose.
The verbal noun (vnoun) is formed by adding -ín to the root. It denotes the action pure and simple and does not engage in verb syntax. As it readily exposes the root, it is also used as the lemma form for all verbs.
- bakín ‘the act of seeing’
The infinitive of purpose (prps) is formed by adding -áyim to the root. This form is used in conjunction with verbs of motion to indicate purpose.
- zirakáyim azfârún êbuyâkhrôm ‘I travel to the fortress to explore’
Nominal morphology
Nouns are marked for both case and number. The inflections always fully harmonise with the final vowel in the word stem with the exception of the possessive case, which only does so partially. There is an opposition between front (e, i) and back vowels (a, o, u) which is reflected in the final vowel of the polysyllabic suffixes (a/u vs. i). All but the final vowel harmonises with the vowel of the last syllable in a word. A word with a nominative ending in -â will in the accusative plural have -amaz. Likewise, a word ending in -ô will have -omaz as its accusative plural.
| Noun declension | ||
|---|---|---|
| case | singular | plural |
| Nom. | -Ø | -Vz |
| Acc. | -Vm | -VmVz |
| Poss. | -Vlun | -Vlunaz |
| Cons. | -VzVl | -VkVzVl |
| ânaya silver | ||
|---|---|---|
| case | singular | plural |
| Nom. | ânaya | ânayaz |
| Acc. | ânayam | ânayamaz |
| Poss. | ânayalun | ânayalunaz |
| Cons. | ânayazul | ânayakazul |
| êkêš vessel | ||
|---|---|---|
| case | singular | plural |
| Nom. | êkêš | êkêšez |
| Acc. | êkêšem | êkêšemiz |
| Poss. | êkêšelun | êkêšelunaz |
| Cons. | êkêšezil | êkêšekezil |
Adjectives and adverbs
Adjectives and adverbs (adpar) are identical in form with the exception of a few suppletive pairs. This means that ašûbu (‘new’) can be used both with a noun: ašûbu zaphrâ (‘new flower’) and in a verb phrase: ašûbu izil-râkát amunam (‘she recently found a bracelet’). They belong to one of the simplest parts of the morphology as they do not inflect for case or number. They are always found before their heads (adj + noun).
Personal pronouns
Derivational morphology
Verbal derivation
The verb system has a rich system of derivational affixes that may be used to expand on the meaning of the basic monosyllabic root.
The k-prefix is the first and most commonly encountered verbal affix, where basic verbs go from CVC- → kaCVC-. It carries a basic meaning of intensity and is also used for emphasis. For example, izlâbát (‘he has fallen’) versus izkalâbát (‘he has truly fallen’).
Lexical category changes
It is possible to derive new verbs, adjectives, and nouns from each other by applying the relevant suffix.
Adjectives
These may be nominalized with several suffixes.
The singulative suffix -(z)ôn creates nouns characterised by the adjective.
- ašûbuzôn (‘the new one’) from the adjective ašûbu.
The abstract suffix -(a)dda creates nouns that mean ‘the quality of the adjective’.
- sûkhnâdda (‘oldness’) from the adjective sûkhnâ (‘old’).
Augmentatives and diminutives
Many of these have been strongly lexicalised with a meaning that is not always transparent. It is prudent to memorise all pairs of words and not rely on the meaning always being clear.
Nominal augmentatives are formed with the infix -nV-, where V stands for a short echo vowel. Generally, it is spliced in before the last syllable, as in the following examples.
- êbuyâkhrô (‘fortress’) and êbuyânakhrô (‘castle’, ‘great fortress’)
- arûza (‘mound’) and arûnuza (‘hill’).
Nominal diminutives are formed by suffixing -mô. Occasionally the stem is clipped, as in the second example.
- têph (‘drop’) and têphmô (‘droplet’), as found in the flower name ašitêphmô (‘snowdroplet’).
- efâyamri (‘sea voyage’) and efâyamô (‘short naval excursion’)
These can further be combined with the other augmentative and diminutive affixes. E.g., tefâyamô (‘a short naval excursion that is great in its size’)