Kyovantic

UNDER CONSTRUCTION.

Phonology and Orthography

Consonants

	Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar
Plosive	/p b/ p b	/t d/ t d				/k g/ k g
Nasal	/m/ m	/n/ n				/ŋ/ q
Trill		/r/ r
Fricative	/ɸ/ f	/θ/ þ	/s/ s	/ʃ/ ṡ		/x/ h
Affricative			/ts dz/ c z	/tʃ dʒ/ ċ ż
Lateral Fricative		/ɬ/ l
Approximant					/j/ j

• p t k are pronounced as /p̚ t̚ k̚/ at the end of a word
• b d l z ż g are pronounced as /β ð ɮ z ʒ ɣ/ in between two vowels or at the end of a word
• r is pronounced as /ð/ at the end of a word
• doubling a consonant makes its sound longer
• when a voiced and voiceless consonant are next to each other, they both take the first letter's voicing

Vowels

Tense

Tense vowels are the core and original pronunciation of the vowel.

	Front	Central	Back
Close	/i y/ e u		/ɯ u/ y o
Open-Mid		/ɜ ɞ/ a w

• tense vowels are ones that are before one consonant
• i is added after a tense vowel that is a normally lax vowel position to keep the tense pronunciation
• o u e y are pronounced as /w ɥ j ɰ/ when before or after a vowel
• a e o u w y are slightly lowered to /ɐ̜ ɪ ʊ̹ ʏ ɐ̹ ʊ̜/ at the end of a word
• doubling a vowel lengthens its sound

Lax

Lax vowels are the lowered counterpart of the original tense vowel.

	Front	Central	Back
Close-Mid	/e ø/ e u		/ɤ o/ y o
Open		/a ɒ/ a w

• lax vowels are before two or more consonants
• a u w y are all silent when in the syllable before the stressed syllable, and pronounced /ə/ elsewhere when unstressed

Diphthongs

	Front	Central	Back
Close-Mid	/øʏ/ ᵫ		/oɪ/ œ
Open		/aɪ/ æ

Stress

Stress normally falls on the first syllable of a word. However, there is irregular stress. This is denoted by an acute accent on that specific syllable's vowel to show the irregularity.

Morphology

Nouns

Nouns in Kyovantic decline based on gender, number, and case. The two articles used in the languages are suffixes.

Gender

There are three genders in Kyovantic: masculine, feminine, and neuter. Their standard form is nominative singular. Each noun's gender can usually be distinguished by the letter that that noun ends with.

Masculine

Masculine nouns usually end in a consonant, a diphthong, -ta, or -se. Any word that describes something animate and male is masculine. With words that can be different genders (e.g. teacher, student), the masculine version always ends in a consonant.

Feminine

Feminine nouns usually end in -a, -e, -o, -u, -y, -bh, -dh, -gh or -amg. Any word that describes something animate and female is feminine. With words that can be different genders (e.g. teacher, student), the feminine version always ends in -a.

Neuter

Neuter nouns usually end in -e, -o, -b, -d, -g, or any doubled vowel. Any word that describes something animate and the gender is not known or the gender is neither male nor female is neuter. With words that can be different genders (e.g. teacher, student), the neuter version always ends in -e.

Articles

There are two morphological articles in Kyovantic. One is mainly assumed.

Indefinite

The indefinite article isn't shown through a suffix, prefix, or separate word. Usually it's just assumed through the noun by itself, however, in certain situations, numbers can be used to express something similar to the indefinite article.

Definite

The definite article is a suffix that changes depending on gender, but not number nor case.

	Vowel	Consonant
Masculine	-n	-un
Feminine	-m	-um
Neuter	-q	-uq

Partitive

The partitive article is a suffix that changes depending on gender, but not number nor case.

	Vowel	Consonant
Masculine	-s	-as
Feminine	-sa	-asa
Neuter	-se	-ase

Number

There are three distinct numbers in Kyovantic.

Singular

The singular version of a noun is usually its dictionary form.

Dual

In order to express a noun dually, a suffix is added depending on gender and case.

Plural

In order to express a noun plurally, a suffix is added depending on gender and case.

Case

There are six cases in Kyovantic. They are displayed with a suffix and change depending on the specific case, gender, and number.

(In the singular nominative, a specific ending will not be written since it's the dictionary form and there's also more than one. -0 means there is no ending.)

Nominative

	Singular	Dual	Plural
Masculine	-	-t	-ee
Feminine	-	-t	-e
Neuter	-	-t	-a

Accusative

	Singular	Dual	Plural
Masculine	-0	-t	-ee
Feminine	-0	-t	-as
Neuter	-0	-t	-aai

Genitive

	Singular	Dual	Plural
Masculine	-e	-te	-æ
Feminine	-os	-tos	-acute accent added to the first syllable
Neuter	-an	-tan	-eq

Dative

	Singular	Dual	Plural
Masculine	-a	-ta	-ein
Feminine	-a	-ta	-0
Neuter	-o	-to	-oigo

Locative

	Singular	Dual	Plural
Masculine	-o	-o	-o
Feminine	-o	-o	-o
Neuter	-o	-o	-o

Instrumental

	Singular	Dual	Plural
Masculine	-aig	-taig	-aiks
Feminine	-es	-tes	-asici
Neuter	-oir	-toir	-ad

Verbs

Tense

All verbs end in -a. Take off the -a and add the corresponding ending based on person and number.

Present

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1st person	-0	-ta	-na
2nd person	-d	-da	-t
3rd person	-acute accent on the last syllable's vowel	-acute accent on the last syllable's vowel+t	- ái

Recent Past

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1st person	-y	-yta	-yna
2nd person	-yd	-yda	-yt
3rd person	-ý	-ýt	- yái

Anterior Past

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1st person	-e	-eta	-ena
2nd person	-ed	-eda	-et
3rd person	-é	-ét	- eái

Recent Future

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1st person	-u	-uta	-una
2nd person	-ud	-uda	-ut
3rd person	-ú	-út	-uái

Anterior Future

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1st person	-o	-ota	-ona
2nd person	-od	-oda	-ot
3rd person	-ó	-ót	-oái

Negative

All negative verbs end in -sa. The verb is conjugated normally, then the corresponding endings are added onto those endings.

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1st person	-sum	-s	-s
2nd person	-us	-s	-se
3rd person	-se	-se	-s