Kythish

Introduction

Kythish (cwiþeś), also known as Hacean, is a Germanic language spoken in the cantons of Kythe, on the world of Oktosii. It is derived from Old English, with a sizeable Celtic influence.

Phonology

Alphabet

Kythish is written using a variant of the Latin alphabet, omitting some letters and adding several more. The collation order is as follows:

a á b c ć d ð e é f g ǵ h i í j l m n ŋ o ó p r ŕ s ś t þ u ú v w ẃ ƿ y ý z ź

In addition, there are four glyphs used exclusively for more divergent dialects, these are as follows:

ç ḉ (collated between ć and d)

ø ǿ (collated between ó and p)

There are also 7 consonantal digraphs, 6 standard and one dialectal, which result from initial consonant mutation. In the rare occurrence that they need to be collated, they are placed directly between the parent consonant and the next letter in the alphabet. These digraphs are as follows:

bh ch çh dh gh ph th

Note: Sometimes hƿ is considered a digraph, due to pronunciation differences, but it has no special collation position.

Phonemes

See Kythish phonemes.

Morphology and Syntax

In general, Kythish word order follows the SVO, IP-V2 pattern; that is, the verb must always be the second concept in a clause or subclause. There are two exceptions to this, though neither are uniform: In perfective constructions, the verb may be at the very end of the sentence (SOV), and in imperative constructions, the verb will often be first (VSO). In addition, Kythish is a Place-Manner-Time language.

Adjectives and Adverbs

Kythish adverbs and adjectives are considered one and the same natively, and both follow the word they modify, though there is no practical restriction on head-final phrases for nouns.

A small number of adjectives and adverbs are bare stems, but most are derived from nouns or verbs, or indeed other adjectives and adverbs, using suffixes:

-ec, -eś	Pertaining to [noun]. In addition, -eś is almost exclusively used for the names of languages derived from place or race names.
-sum, -swm	Pertaining to [verb] (or, less frequently, [noun]). The latter suffix was formerly dialectal.
-lýs	Without [verb] or [noun].
-fowƿ	Epitomising or bountiful in [verb] or [noun].

See the Kythish lexicon for more.