ʾAšdu Yat-Vṛḵaž

Vrkhazhian (YŠDD YT-VṚḴẔKM, Yašdad Yat-Vṛḵaẕīkam) is a Northern Hašakaṃ language that is spoken in the region known as Vṛḵaẕ. The earliest form of this language, known as Ancient Vrkhazhi, was spoken around 10 000 years ago.

History

Dialects

Vrkhazhian has at least two major dialects and at least ten other minor dialects. The table below lists two of the major dialects

Dialects of Vrkhazhian

Dialect	Location
ʾŪbyahīkam	Centered around the city of ʾŪbya
ʾAlšardīkam	To the south of the city of Ḵadač

ʾŪbyahīkam is recognized as the standard dialect of writing and communication.

Writing System

ʾAlḵavaht Yat-Vṛḵaẕīkam [ˈʔalxaβaʰt ˈjat-βɹ̩ˈxaʑikam] is the official writing script of Vṛḵaẕīkam [βɹ̩'xaʑikam]. The script consists of 30 letters, their names being asssigned by actual words in the language through acrophony. The writing direction of the script is boustrephedon, and can start in any horizontal direction preferred, though the most common starting direction is Right-to-Left.

History

The script has been around for at least 7,500 years, with few changes and alterations to the letter forms since it's inception. The true origins of the writing system is unknown, however, it is based partially off of the logographic script of a sister language known as Ḫadīṯča [χaˈdiθt͡ʃa].

Letter names

ʾAlḵavaht Yat-Vṛḵaẕīkam

Letter	Name	Meaning	Phoneme
	ʾAl	wind	ʾ [ʔ]
	Ḵav	human	ḵ [x]
	Vav	cane	v [β]
	Hīt	lock	h [h]
	Dat	skull	d [d]
	Ḏīm	fruit (also blood)	ḏ [t͡s]
	Bal	path	b [b]
	Sūm	tunnel	s [s]
	Ẕat	helmet (also child)	ẕ [ʒ~ʑ]
	Yav	scythe	y [j]
	Ka	water	k [k]
	Gē	wing	g [g]
	Lam	hand	l [l]
	Maʾ	bowl or cup	m [m]
	Neš	peace	n [n]
	Ǧaẏm	name	ǧ [ɣ]
	Pak	head	p [p]
	Jīm	pillar	j [d͡ʒ~d͡ʑ]
	Rū	snake	r [ɹ~ɾ]
	Faš	vulture	f [ɸ]
	Šīm	house	š [ʃ~ɕ]
	Waj	shield	w [w]
	Tal	gate	t [t]
	Čī	hook	č [t͡ʃ~t͡ɕ]
	Zab	branch	z [z]
	Ḻam	tree	ḻ [ɬ~ɬʲ]
	Ḫak	roof	ḫ [χ~ħ]
	Qar	you (2nd person masc. pl.)	q [q]
	Ṟat	fear	ṟ [ʀ]
	Ṉod	ear	ṉ [ɴ]

Phonetics and phonology

Consonants

Vrkhazhian Consonantal Phonemes

		Bilabial	Alveolar	(Alveolo)- Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	Light		hn [ʰn~n̥]
	Plain	m [m]	n [n~nʲ]			ṉ [ɴ]
Stop	Light	hp [ʰp]	ht [ʰt]		hk [ʰk]	hq [ʰq]
	Plain	p [p] b [b]	t [t~tʲ] d [d~dʲ]		k [k] g [g]	q [q]	ʾ [ʔ]
	Dark	ṗ [pʶ~pˤ] ḅ [bʶ~bˤ]	ṭ [tʶ~tˤ] ḍ [dʶ~dˤ]
Affricate			ḏ [ʦ~ʦʲ]	č [ʧ~ʨ] j [ʤ~ʥ]
Fricative	Plain	f [ɸ] v [β]	s [s] z [z]	š [ʃ~ɕ] ẕ [ʒ~ʑ]	ḵ [x] ğ [ɣ]	ḫ [χ~ħ]	h [h]
	Dark		ṣ [sʶ~sˤ] ẓ [zʶ~zˤ]
Approximant	Light		hr [ʰɹ~ʰɾ~ɹ̥̥]
	Plain		r [ɹ~ɾ]	y [j]	w [w]
Trill			rr [r]			ṟ [ʀ]
Lateral Approximant	Light		hl [ʰl~l̥]
	Plain		l [l]
	Dark		ḷ [lʶ~lˤ]
Lateral Fricative			ḻ [ɬ~ɬʲ]

Vowels

Vrkhazhian Vowel Phonemes

	Front	Central	Back
Close	ī [i]	i [ɨ]	ū [u]
Close-mid	ē [e]		ō [o]
Mid		u [ə]
Open-mid	e [ɛ]		o [ɔ]
Open	a [a]

Vrkhazhian Diphthongs

IPA	Letter	Example
Dipthongs
ae̯	aẏ	like eye
oe̯	oẏ	like boy
ao̯	aẇ	like cow

Stress

Stress in Vrkhazhian is generally placed on the last or second-to-last syllable.

Grammar

Morphology

Overview

Vrkhazhian is a highly inflecting triconsonantal root language. Most roots consist of three consonants (triliteral), though there are many words that consist of two letter (biliteral) roots. Vrkhazhian does not recognize four- and five-letter roots. Between and around these roots various infixes, suffixes, and prefixes are used to carry grammatical functions or derived words.

The consonants <y>/j/ and <w>/w/ are considered weak roots, and roots containng these consonants caue irregular verb forms to appear.

Nominal morphology

Vrkhazhian has three grammatical genders, masculine, feminine and neuter. Grammatical gender in Vrkhazhian is strictly semantic, thus most nouns, such as inanimate objects, fall into the category of neuter.

Vrkhazhian has two numbers (singular and plural)and five cases (nominative, accusative, genitive, lative, and ablative). The table below shows the noun vīkīm (ruler) in the various cases.

Noun paradigm

	Noun (masc.)	Noun (fem.)	Noun (neut.)
Nominative/Accusative singular	???	???	vīkīm
Genitive singular	???	???	vīkīm-ūn
Lative singular	???	???	vīkīm-ab
Ablative singular	???	???	vīkīm-ad
Nominative/Accusative plural	???	???	vīkīm-al
Genitive plural	???	???	vīkīm-īr
Lative plural	???	???	vīkīm-īb-al
Ablative plural	???	???	vīkīm-īd-al

Construct state

Nouns in Vrkhazhian can also be placed in the construct state, which is used for genitive constructions and denotes that the noun is the possessed object. Using the noun ʾalkad (soldier, guard), the conjugations of the construct state are shown below:

Noun paradigm

	Noun (masc.)	Noun (fem.)	Noun (neut.)
Singular	ʾalkad-ī	ʾalkad-a	ʾalkad-ū
Plural	ʾalkad-īṯ	ʾalkad-aṯ	ʾalkad-ūm

Vebal morphology

Verbs in Vrkhazhian are conjugated for number (singular and plural), tense (infinitive, past, past participle, present, present participle, and future) and voice (active and passive)

Verb patterns

The table below shows the conjugation of the root DNJ - "crush"

Verb Conjugations

	Active Singular	Active Plural	Translation	Passive Singular	Passive Plural	Translation
Infinitive	dannaja	ʾadnīyaj	to crush	dūnnēja	ʾadnūšīj	to be crushed
Past	nōdnoj	nadnūjam	crushed	nūdnūj	nīdnajam	was crushed
Past Participle	yūdnoj	yūdnējam	was crushing	yīdnaj	yīdnūjam	was being crushed
Present	dūnaj	dūnjam	crush	danēj	danjam	is crushed
Present Participle	hūdnaj	hūdnījam	is crushing	hadnēj	hadnojam	is being crushed
Future	ʾadnej	ʾadnejam	will crush	ʾīdnīj	ʾīdnījam	will be crushed

Verb moods

Vrkhazhian has three moods, jussive, potential and conditional. The table below shows the conjugation of the root ṖMT - "walk"

Verb Moods

	Singular	Plural	Translation
Jussive	šīṗmūt	šīṗmatam	I must/should walk
Potential	kaṗmet	kaṗmatam	I can walk
Conditional	ʾīmaṗmat	ʾīmaṗmūtam	I would walk