Rinap

Rinap (Kni Nape Rinhikhyr) was created for the fantasy world of Grundet in the beginning of 2013, and it was intended to be the main language of the seventh era Eastern Empire with over 10 million native speakers. This a priori language belongs to Herookian language family, but at the moment, it is the only one completed. The language itself suffered a decline during fifth and sixth era, but was soon revived and partly reconstructed based on ancient texts. The old Doslox writing system was also returned into use. Since the new language is a bit clumsy and spoken over a wide region, many different dialects appeared.

Phonology

Consonants

	Bilabial	Labio-dental	Dental	Alveolar	Post-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	m			n		ɲ
Plosive	p b			t d			k g
Fricative		f v	θ ð	z s	ʃ ʒ		x	χ	h
Affricate				ts			kx
Approximant						j
Trill				r
Lateral app.				l

Phoneme /ɲ/ appears in the beginning of past participles such as 'nabeat' meaning 'gone', and 'ng' is pronounced as /ɲ/ in words such as kang /kɑɲ/ meaning time. 'Z' is often /ʒ/ in the beginning of words, but also if preceeded by /ɲɑ/. 'S' preceeding a consonant is often pronounced as /ʃ/. 'J' used at the end of a word is pronounced as /i/.

'H' is most often pronounced as /χ/, but also appears /x/ at the end of words, and sometimes /h/ before vowels in the beginning of words. 'H' is also pronounced as /f/ when preceeded by a non-sibilant frigative (such as /χ/ and /θ/) plus vowel: 'dohuho' becomes /doχu:fo/ (meaning 'many sheep').

Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	i y	u
Open-mid	ɛ œ	ɔ
Near-open	æ
Open		ɑ

Before vowels in the beginning of words, /y/ and /i/ become /jʷ/ and /j/.

Phonotactics

Most common syllable structure is CV, and the other possible ones are (C)(C)V(C)(C) where C is for consonants and V for vowels and diphthongs.

Diphthongs

Diphthongs are very common in short words and come in great variety. Their pronunciation doesn't much differ from the combined vowel sounds, but the component sounds do come closer to each other, for example the most common 'ao' is /ao/ instead of /ɑɔ/ and ea /ea/ rather than /ɛɑ/. However, word forming and declension can produce stranger vowel combinations which are pronounced more easily by lengthening and/or modifying vowel sounds: thöa /θɜ:ɐ/ (Though the author is not sure about this)

Orthography

Writing system of Doslox has graphemes derived from pictograms, and their order is based on an old story ('Halox Dozkepyr' or Hunter's Day' which is where the name originates): [1]. Later, Wadoslox was developed to simplify the script and make it easier to read: [2]. Each grapheme represents a singe phoneme or syllable, but the words for original pictograms didn't sometimes even include the actual letter - rather the sound was thought to be essential to the word: for example, symbol for 'j' comes from 'nanyalt' /nɑnjɑlt/ meaning 'loved'. With Doslox, every word can be written without raising your pen of the paper.

Special marks in the beginning and at the end of sentences are used to separate them from another |sentence| thus marking initials and dots or to indicate whether they are an interrogative (zo-question) or an imperative <sentence>: |neym juhhmi(zoneyh phe) where the second '|' has been left out. Mid-sentence upper case letters can be marked with a line under the letter. With Latin script of course, these marks aren't used to avoid misunderstandings.

Romanized versions and their pronunciation:

• A - /ɑ/ Symbol 'o' also used for their sun, Halla, as originally.
• K - /k/
• P - /p/
• D - /d/
• E - /ɛ/
• B - /b/
• H - /χ/, /x/ or /h/
• NI - /ni/ 'called'-symbol in names, e.g. 'Hithul ni-Xathen' means 'Hithul called-bear'
• KH - /kx/
• NA - /ɲa/ Past participle prefix
• V - /v/
• F - /f/
• D - /d/
• M - /m/
• Ö - /œ/
• O - /ɔ/
• HO - /χɔ/
• L - /l/
• I - /i/
• W - /w/
• Y - /y/
• ZO - /ʒɔ/ Question-prefix
• R - /r/
• T - /t/
• TH - /θ/
• X - /ks/
• G - /g/
• Z - /z/ or /ʒ/
• S - /s/ or /ʃ/
• PH - /pʰ/
• Ä - /æ/
• J - /j/
• N - /n/
• HI - /hi/ Rarely used, most often for 'as'
• U - /u/

Grammar and Syntax

Rinap is a nominative-accusative language so the subjects of transitive and agents of intransitive verbs are treated as the same. Transitive verb objects are declined into the objective case: 'Zodoih phe nik pemoztek doileke knoik?' (¿See you the bird beautiful that?) 'Do you see those beautiful birds?' This 'naphuk' or 'k-language' is the formal way of speaking so in casual situations and dialects the postfixes are often omitted.

Primary word order is VSO, and since verbs conjugate, the pronouns can be dropped off in simple sentences: 'Neym geva.' 'I'm here.' Interrogative sentences always begin with interrogative 'zo'-words or verbs formed with 'zo'-prefix such as in the first example above. If interrogative word is at the beginning, verb comes the second: 'Zowa neo do?' or simply 'Zowa neo?' meaning 'Where is it?'

Relative clauses are being avoided although relative pronouns exist and are recommended for use. They can be used similarly to question words altering the word order: 'Zoze nei Narok sohi zuo si Laha?' translated to 'Where is Narek who comes from Laha?' If the relative pronoun is left out, spoken sentence can be shortly paused or in written language marked with comma: 'Zoze nei Narok, zuo si Laha?' In this specific example, past participle can be used: 'Zoze nei Narok, si Laha nazut.' but this almost means 'To where has Narok from Laha come?'

Rinap is quite head-initial so that all determiners except articles are placed after the noun: 'kni gekhu okku pär knoi' 'the house small my that'. The order for those is article-noun-adjective-possessive-demonstrative as in the example. It should be noted that articles are used even if there is a demonstrative pronoun.

Pronouns

Personal

Pronouns have three cases: Nominative is used when the pronoun is subject or agent in a sentence, but nominative pronoun can be dropped off in simple senteces: 'Beam pa po kweo' 'I'm going there.' Objective form is used when pronoun is an object or with prepositions such as 'for': 'Bekoram dek ki phik.' 'I'll give it for you.' Possessive pronouns are used to indicate ownership: 'Sapam pär' 'My hand' In more formal speach, the possessive pronouns are also given suffixes depending on the head noun they're determining: 'Sapam päry' and plural 'Sapamoh pär(y)s'

	1st singular	2nd singular	2nd sg. polite	3rd sg. masculine	3rd sg. feminine	3rd sg. neutral	3rd sg. inanimate	1st plural	2nd plural	2nd pl. polite	3rd plural
Nominative	pa	phe	Pheor	thy	thi	tha	do	phoo	peooh	Pheohar	thoo
Objective	pök	phik	Pheik(h)	thuk	thek	thok	dek	phoek	pewek	Pheohox	thoek
Possessive	pär	phor	Pherör	thur	ther	thor	dör	phoör	phewör	Pheökhör	thoör

Second singular polite is used when talking to a person with higher social status, for example an elder, priest or noble. The rare second plural polite is especially used when addressing court members or the Six Elemental Guardians of Golden Islet. 3rd singular neutral is used if the gender of a person, who is being talked of, is not known: 'Donba thor' 'His/her book'.

There is only one reflexive pronoun for all, 'par' (self), which is used together with objective case when subject does something to itself: 'Doe thek.' means 'She sees her.', but 'Doe thek par.' means 'She sees herself.' Similarly 'Xamimho phoek par' 'We wash ourselves.' However, if subject does something by itself, 'pre' is used: 'Doe thek pre.' 'She sees her by herself.'

Demonstrative

Demonstrative pronouns can be used by themselves or as determiners. There are different forms for singular, plural and three levels of distance. When working as determiners, they are declined with postfixes to indicate the case, where -k is for objective and -r for possessive, or gender of (often) definite nouns by adding -y for masculine and -i for feminine. Examples: 'Neo kwa dongi!' 'This is interesting!' 'Kny tut hoke kfey.' 'That distant big town.'

Singular	kwa	(this)	kno	(that)	kfe	(that distant, yonder)
Plural	kwaoh	(these)	khoo	(those)	kefo	(those distant)

Verbs

In Rinap, all verbs conjugate according to person, number, tense, mood and voice. Various affixes can be added and vowels change mostly according to this pattern: y → u → i → (e ↔ o) ← a ← ö. Whether 'e' or 'o' is used depends on the vowel combination: 'pei'→'peo' for 'to see'→'sees' and 'doi'→'doe' for 'to hear'→'hears'. If infinitive ends with a consonant, the last vowel is repeated for conjugated forms and then changed ('brel' as an example in the table below).

Verbs have two participle forms, present active and past, former formed with suffix 'infinitive-(i)ba' and latter with circumfix 'na(n)-infinitive-t'. The present participle can be used as an attributive verb with nouns: 'wy mub breliba' 'a running man'. When forming the past participle, three-syllable words are favoured so last vowels are sometimes omitted: for example 'benupe' → 'nabenu(p)t' ('travel' → 'travelled').

First conjugated forms of verb 'brel' meaning 'to run' and irregular 'ney' 'to be':

	1st singular	2nd singular	3rd singular	1st plural	2nd plural	3rd plural
Present	brelem	breleh	brelo	brelemho	breleho	brelomho
Imperfect	brelom	breleni	breloni	brelemhi	brelehi	brelomhi
Present	neym	neyh	nei/ney/neo	neymho	neyho	neuho
Imperfect	mein	neyni	neini	neymhi	neyhi	neuhi

Other tenses

To create the two past tenses, perfect and pluperfect, past participle form is used together with conjugated auxiliary verb 'ney' listed above: 'Neym kni gekhu päri nakholt.' 'I have built my house.' in which 'nakholt' is from 'khuol' meaning 'to build'.

Future form can be constructed by adding '-ra' to the 3rd sg. form of a verb and then again conjugating: 'dhyzo' → 'dhyzeram', 'to write' → 'I will write'.

Moods

Interrogative form is used in the beginning of questions and has always a 'zo'-prefix: 'Zoneyh rope urt?' 'Are you happy now?'

Conditional mood is formed similarly to future so that '-se' is added to the 3rd sg. and then regularly conjugated: 'baxta ji leu' → 'Baxtosemho sej leisemho bax.' in English 'to pay and to have' → 'We would pay if we had money.' Conditional form is used in the dependet clause as well.

It is possible to use the infinitive form as an imperative, but the best way is to add postfix '-xu' after the original conjugated verb: 'Ney(h)xu kweo!' or 'Ney kweo!!' meaning 'Be there!' The bare infinitive imperative is more powerful and used in sudden situations such as 'Rix!' 'Watch out!' (instead of 'rixihxu'). It is even possible to command oneself: 'Dhemumxu!' translating to self-suggestive 'Think!'

Passive Voice

When there is no active agent, but rather a patient to which something is done by someone unknown, passive voice is used. The circumfix construction: a(x)-3rd sg.-(time/mood)-my (the core verb can be conjugated). Examples 'xau' → 'Axainimy dok.' where 'to do' → 'It was done.' and 'neini nathonyt' → 'Aneinimy thoek nathonyt.' is 'had protected' → 'They had been protected.' and 'beheok' → 'Abeheokeseramy pewek.' a rare combination from 'to sacrifice' → 'You would be sacrificed in the future.' There is no way or need of marking the agent of passive (as in English the by-structure) so active voice is used: 'Xaini Hiwau dok.' meaning 'Hiwau did it' ('It was done by Hiwau')

Auxiliary Verbs

The infinitive of a main verb is used together with auxiliary verbs. Helping word 'öx' is used for negation: 'Öxöm ney kweo' 'I am not there.' Modal helping verbs such as 'lio' ('can') and 'xun' ('must') are also in use: 'Zoxunum bea po kweo?' 'Do I have to go there?'