Kishari Language

The Kishari language (Ksh. Kyşary lanur /kɯˈʃa.rɯ ˈla.nur/) is a minority language spoken within the periphery of former Fulkreykk. It is an agglutinative language, prepending or appending affixes to words to apply grammatical meanings.

Kishari originated on the world Kishas (Ksh. Kyşas), which is now within Lyudareyksk space. During the early expansion into space of the First Fulkreyksk Authoritariat, the humans of Kishas were also colonizing planets outside their own star system. Upon first contact, the Kishari people voluntarily chose to join Fulkreykk, giving them a more comfortable position within the Authoritariat compared to those who were conquered by the Thedish military.

Phonology

Kishari consonants are somewhat standard for a galactic language, if a bit peculiar for lacking the labiodental fricatives /f/ and /v/, as well as having the voiceless uvular plosive /q/.

Kishari has vowel harmony: vowels in affixes must agree with the vowels in the root word:

There are four pairs of corresponding front/back vowels, and no neutral vowels.

Phonotactics

Kishari has somewhat-limiting (C)V(C)(C) phonotactics - syllables must contain a vowel, but may start with one optional consonant, and may end with up to two consonants.

Writing system

This article uses the scientific transliteration of Kishari. Its native writing system can be viewed here:

Grammar

Kishari is an agglutinative SVO language with restricted word order. Nouns' case inflections do not distinguish between nominative and accusative; rather, similarly to Tylan, nominative noun phrases appear before the verb, and accusative noun phrases appear after it. Nominals in Kishari do not have any concept of gender or noun classes, nor are they ever compounded.

Nouns and adjectives

Kishari nouns are inflected for number, possessor, and case:

These cases are used to inflect the following meanings:

• Nominative/Accusative
  • Subject/direct object marking: A noun in the nominative/accusative case is the subject of the sentence when it comes before the verb, and the direct object when it goes after the verb
  • Copula/linking: Two noun phrases in the nominative/accusative case adjacent to each other are equated with each other
• Locative
  • Spatial location: Similar to the meanings of prepositions "in", "on", "at", "by", or "near"
  • Spatial direction: Similar to the meanings of prepositions "to", "into", or "onto"
  • Temporal location: Used with words that refer to certain times, such as kün "day", ancu "sunrise"
  • Locative absolute: Similar to the meaning of temporal location, the locative absolute combines two complements with the meaning "when..."
• Instrumental
  • Instrument/means of carrying out an action: typically translated as "with" or "using"
  • Accompaniment: indicates the accompaniment by people or things of a noun or verb; this usage typically follows the modified phrase
  • Agent of a passive construction: In passive-voice constructions, the instrumental case marks the agent
• Genitive/Possessor
  • Possessive constructions: Marks the possessor in such a construction: e.g. öröbit Samwylak "Samuel's vehicle" - öröb "vehicle" takes the 3rd-person possessor suffix -it, and Samwyl "Samuel" takes the genitive/possessor case suffix -ak
  • Natural possessions: Derives a word that indicates a "natural" or implied possession of the noun, e.g. Düs "Düs, the god of the sky and stars" becomes Düsek "the temple of Düs"; qoca "teacher" becomes qocak "a particular lesson taught by the teacher". These can be further inflected with noun suffixes, such as Düsekşi "in the temple of Düs", qocakşy "during the teacher's lesson"
  • Partition: The genitive case marks the source of a partition, selecting an item or subgroup from a larger group, e.g. parça panyrak "piece of cheese". Possessive marking on the head noun is optional; when it is present, it is unrelated to the genitive noun, e.g. parçam panyrak "my piece of cheese". Can be used with both cardinal and ordinal numbers, e.g. ütiş epörek "three of the houses", ikendis qogaporak "the second planet". Partition of pronominal groups is done using possessive suffixes, e.g. bisimner "one of us" from bis "one" and -imner "of us"
• Dative/Benefactive
  • Indirect object: Marks the indirect object of a sentence, always goes after the verb, yet may go either before or after the direct object, if there is one.
  • Cui bono - to whose benefit: Marks the person, group of people, or cause that benefits from an action.
  • Dative of possession: In existential sentences "he/she/it has..." the possessor is usually put into the dative case, and the possessed is made subject of a copula construct.
• Ablative
  • Motion away from: Marks motion away from a place, out of a building or container, or off of a platform or surface.
  • Causal-initial: Marks nouns that are the cause of an action being done or event happening.
  • Agent of mediopassive verbs: Marks nouns that are the agent in sentences where the patient takes the nominative position, due to the verb having a mediopassive-voice suffix.
  • Place of origin: The name of a country, planet, city, or region put into the ablative case may modify a noun to indicate the thing or person's place of origin, e.g. Ybladysapaddon "thing/person from Vladizapad", Tedenrektön "thing/person from Fulkreykk", Mehhürdijjendön "thing/person from Mechyrdia"

Similarly to Mechyrdian, case suffixes can be stacked onto each other, for example, the word Düsekşi "in the temple of Düs" is parsed as Düs "Düs" + -ek genitive case "of" + -şi locative case "in", with Düsek being understood to mean "(the temple) of Düs". As an example of a plural suffix placed onto a case suffix, the word Tülendönnör "Tylans" is parsed as Tüle "Tyla" + -ndön ablative case "from" + -nör plural "-s".

Adjectives

Adjectives that are used to describe nouns are uninflected, while adjectives that are substantiated (used as nouns) are inflected as a noun would be. For this reason, adjectives always appear immediately after the noun that they modify, never anywhere else. If an adjective appears after a verb, it is used as an adverb.

Adjectives can be positive, superior comparative, equative comparative, or superlative:

Pronoun declensions

Pronouns take only case inflections, and have irregular inflections for number.

Demonstrative pronouns bol "this" and şula "that", as well as the interrogative pronoun nerşem "who/what", are declined like normal nouns when they are used on their own.

Verbs

Verbs in Kishari take inflecting affixes for tense/aspect, as well as various non-finite forms.

Tense/aspect suffixes

Kishari has an unorthodox approach to tense/aspect affixes. Rather than having one set of affixes for tense (past, present, and future) and one set for aspect (e.g. continuous, perfect, prospective), Kishari has prefixes for when the action starts and suffixes for when it ends. The tense/aspect meaning of each combination is as follows:

Temporal prefixes are listed below:

Temporal suffixes are listed here:

Uses of conditional tenses

Conditional tenses are used in conditional clauses; non-conditional tenses may not be used in conditional clauses. In fact, whether a sentence is conditional or not is determined by its use of a conditional tense. For example:

• Ti yşakoryq, uly işeqeleç (present condition, future result)

  "If you build (it), they will come"

• Neş lö yşaqadaryq, nerşem Mehhürdijjendön arasqaryq!

  "We would not have this fate if anyone from Mechyrdia were a warrior!" (past condition, present result)

Conditional statements always put the condition clause pastwards in tense of the result clause, so statements can have a past condition and present result, a past condition and future result, or a present condition and future result, but the result can never be at the same time as, or earlier than, the condition.

Non-finite forms

Kishari has two types of participle, two types of infinitive, and one imperative:

Participles are used as adjectives, while infinitives (sometimes called gerunds) are used as nouns.

Imperative forms of verbs are conjugated with a prefix:

The prefix varies based on whether the imperative is directed at a singular person or at a plural group.

Copula

Linking two nouns is usually as simple as placing two noun phrases adjacent to one another:

• Kyşarylor asqarlor!

  "Kishari are warriors!"

Sometimes, however, tense and aspect need to be inflected for, especially in conditional sentences. In order to accomplish this, tense/aspect prefixes are placed on the second noun in the linking construct:

• Weş Mehhürdijjendön arasqarloryq, weş yşataqyq tölör!

  "If you of Mechyrdia were warriors, you could accomplish so much!"

Here, asqarlor "warriors" uses the conditional past conjugation ar- -yq, indicating that it is the complement of another noun in a linking construct.

Non-inflecting affixes

Kishari also has what are called "non-inflecting affixes", that form new words from existing words without applying any grammatical meaning. These affixes are categorized in two ways: the type of word they apply to, and the type of word they form.

Denominal affixes are applied to nouns, deverbal to verbs, and deadjectival to adjectives. Noun-forming affixes form nouns, verb-forming verbs, adjective-forming adjectives, and adverb-forming adverbs.

Non-inflecting prefixes are placed after inflecting prefixes, while non-inflecting suffixes are placed before inflecting suffixes; of course, exceptions exist.

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