Khaz
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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 | x | (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’).
In some parts of the language there appears to be an opposition between front and back vowels. This “weak” vowel harmony is most prominent in the case-inflection of nouns. Surprisingly, the central open vowel /a/ often agrees with the back vowels.
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- (m.) / izil- (f.) kariz-
The tense suffixes are invariable. For the present (pres) add -ún, the future (fut) -án, and for the past (past) -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
The infinitive or non-finite verbs are characterised by not being inflected for either person or tense. Some of them however, do change to indicate things such as mood and voice. One analysis separates these infinitive verbs based on whether they show mood and voice or not. Another, does it on their morphological shape; the results however, are the same. They will be described using the morphological approach here, wherein they are divided into a simple and a complex group.
Simple
The simple infinitives are as one might suspect, very simple in their form. They are identical to the voice-inflected stems, i.e., they look exactly the same as finite verbs stripped of their person and tense markers. Thus from the simple root √bak- we can extract the infinitives bāk ‘to see’, bakh ‘wish to see’, abāk ‘to be seen’, and so on.
Complex
The complex infinitives are a jumbled group which all have in common their formation from the naked verb root. Luckily, their formation is readily memorable.
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 regular verbs and together with the optative present first person for the irregular ones.
- 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’
The verbal participle (ptcp), a kind of adverbial, denotes an ongoing action of the verb. It is formed by suffixing -šku.
- azalušku (‘away-dwindling’) from √LUH- (‘diminish’).
Nominal morphology
Nouns
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).
One of the simplest ways of reinforcing an adjective is by reduplicating the first syllable. Thus, ašûbu becomes ašašûbu (‘new-new’). This is a defining feature of the spoken language and occurs only rarely in the written where the augmentative infix usually is preferred.
Determiners
Definiteness
There is only one definite article nâr which is invariable for number and case. There is no indefinite article.
- nâr zaphrâ ašišidu (‘the flower is sort of snowy’)
It can be combined with several adpositions, similar to languages like Portuguese, albeit with the definite article coming first in the construction.
- nâra (‘to the’ or ‘from the’) from combining with aya (‘to’) or with az (‘from’).
- nârda (‘down to the’) from adding dala
- nârba (‘out from the’) from adding bakha
Demonstratives
Khaz makes a two-way distinction (proximal versus distal) among its demonstratives.
| Proximal (Close) | Distal (Far) |
|---|---|
| ina | ana |
Personal pronouns
The personal pronouns in Khaz are a simple matter. Mostly, they behave like nouns and inflect similarly, with the one major difference being that both the nominative singular and all plural forms inflect using an alternative stem. The third person pronoun also include a distinction for masculine and feminine that parallels the one found in the verbal pronoun prefixes.
| Person | First | Second | ||||
| Case ↓ | Number → | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | ašaz | ašnum | ušaz | ušnum | ||
| Accusative | azum | ašnum | uzum | ušnum | ||
| Possessive | azûl | aškakûl | uzûl | uškakûl | ||
| Number | Singular | Plural | ||
| Case ↓ | Gender → | Masculine | Feminine | Masculine | Feminine |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | išaz | išal | išnum | |
| Accusative | izum | izilum | išnum | |
| Possessive | iškûl | izilûl | iškakûl | |
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 ka-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.
- izlâbát (‘he has fallen’) versus izkalâbát (‘he has truly fallen’).
The ya-prefix is used to form causative verbs out of intransitive verbs.
- izil-yakhûzát izúm (‘she made him cry out’) versus izil-khûzát (‘she cried out’).
The ta-infix forms the iterative. It is placed before the last consonant in the stem.
- azrâtabún (‘I rewrite’) versus azrâbún (‘I write’).
Nominal derivation
Deverbalisation
The verb root can also serve as the basis for constructing new adjectives and nouns.
The verbal adjective, which denotes a result or state by the verb, is formed by doubling the final root consonant and adding the circumfix a-...-î.
- amahhî (‘knowing’) from √MAH- (‘know’).
The agent noun, that is someone who carries out the action, is formed by adding the circumfix ya-...-a to the verb root.
- yabika (‘builder’) from √BIK- (‘build’).
To form a result noun, the verb root takes the suffix -šdi
- râšdi (‘knowledge’) from √RAK- (‘find’).
Denominalisation
Nouns can become adjectives by adding the suffix -du.
- ašaddu (‘stony’) from ašakh (‘stone’).
Previously, there was a separate suffix -nâ, however it is no longer productive.
- enukâšnâ (‘forcefully’) from enukâš (‘impact’)
Deadjectivalisation
Adjectives may cease to be adjectives and become nouns by being nominalised with a variety 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’).
Compounds
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’)
Syntax
Phrase order
The normal word order is subject-verb-object (SVO). It can however be disrupted for stylistic purpose into several other orders.
| ukaba | a-labb-î | yarôkhaza | iz-a-yâr-át | nâr-a | azûrem |
| and_so | adlz-adlz\low-circ | wizard | 3sg.m-mediopass-come.ind-pst | def-all | island:acc.sg |
“And so the Wizard humbled came to the island”
Focalisation
Verb focus
VSO order is used to emphasise the verb phrase.
| gar-šku | gôr-amahhî-zôn | nâr | arûtulbhi-maz |
| war-ptcp | king-knowing-nmlz | def.art | traitor-acc;pl |
“It was warring he was, Gôr-Amahhîzôn against the traitors.”
Object focus
To emphasise an object, the object is broken out of the sentence and referred to with ina. The word order of the clause changes to demonstrative-subject-verb.
| aškabhal | ina | az-bâr-án |
| apple | prox.dem | 1sg-eat-ind.act-fut |
“An apple, that's what I'll eat”
Noun phrase
The noun phrase begins with the definite article nâr (if present), then follows the adjective. These always precede the noun, whereas the numeral, the genitive and the relative clause always follow it.
| nâr | amahhî | yabika | aš | bâlulun | ašakham | bâšku |
| the | wise | builder | one | lord's | stone | seeing |
“the lord's single wise builder, seeing the stone”
Verb phrase
Compound verbs
Compound verbs of the structure V+V are used regularly in Khaz. They are formed by using the verbal participle (ptcp) of the primary verb followed by a light verb which carries all the relevant inflections.
| išaz | khaz-šku | iz-kîbh-ún |
| 3sg.m.nom | speak-ptcp | 3sg.m-want.ind.act-pres |
- “he is trying to talk”
Verb framing
Khaz is a verb-framing language and often uses a compounding verbal structure to describe manner of motion for verbs.
| išal | šar-šku | izil-yâph-át |
| 3sg.f.nom | enter-ptcp | 3sg.f-stumble.ind.act-past |
- “she entered stumbling”