Vrkhazhian

Vrkhazhian (ʾEšd Yat-Vṛḵažaẇ) is a Western Hašakam language that is spoken by the Vrkhazhi who live in the Empire of Yat-Vṛḵaž. The earliest form of this language, known as Classical Vrkhazhian, was spoken as early as 950 years ago.

Vrkhazhian ʾEšd Yat-Vṛḵažaẇ
Pronounced:	/e̞çt jatβɹ̩ˈxaʝao̯/
Spoken:	Vrkhazh (Yat-Vṛḵažu)
Writing system:	ʾAḵva Yat-Vṛḵažaẏka
Genealogy:	Hašakam Languages Himoshian Takshian Proto-Vrkhazhian Classical Vrkhazhian Modern Vrkhazhian
Typology
Morphological type:	moderately fusional and agglutinative
Morphosyntactic alignment:	nominative-accusative
Basic word order:	SOV (active voice)/VSX (passive voice)
Credits
Creator:	Malcolm G. Holborne

History

Dialects

Vrkhazhian has two major dialects and several minor dialects. The area of the two dialects are divided by two distinct sides; the north-eastern portion of Vrkhazh contains the majority of speakers of Mukhebic, while the south-western portion of Vrkhazh contains the majority of speakers of Uzerian. The numerous smaller dialects are spread in and around these two halves with varying degrees of density.

The table below lists the two major dialects:

Dialects of Vrkhazhian

Dialect	Location
Uzerian	South-West Vrkhazh (originating from the city of Tom-ʾEzru)
Mukhebic	North-East Vrkhazh (originating from the city of Tom-Ṃḵebu)

Mukhebic is considered the dialect of business and trading, originating from the city of Mukheb, which along with Qazhd, make up one of the Pillars of Trade and Commerce. Uzerian is considered the dialect of politics and military affairs, originating from Uzer, the Capital City where the Emperor and Empress reside. When conducting business and trading with others, it is expected to communicate in the Mukhebic dialect while the Uzerian dialect is used for everything involving politics and the military. The knowledge and fluency of both dialects is a must for any meaningful life in the Vrkhazhian Empire.

Phonology

Consonants

The table below shows the 38 consonant phonemes found in the Uzerian dialect of Vrkhazhian:

Vrkhazhian Consonantal Phonemes

		Bilabial	Alveolar		Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
			Central	Lateral
Nasal		m [m]	n [n]				ṉ [ɴ]
Stop	Preaspirated	p͛ [ʰp]	t͛ [ʰt]			k͛ [ʰk]	q͛ [ʰq]
	Voiceless	p [p]	t [t]			k [k]	q [q]	ʾ [ʔ]
	Emphatic	ṗ [ɸ~ʍ̝~w̝]	ṭ [θ]			ḳ [q]	q̇ [χ]
	Voiced	b [b]	d [d]			g [g]
Affricate	voiceless		ẕ [t͡s]	ć [t͡ɬ]	č [c]
	voiced				j [ɟ]
Fricative	voiceless	f [ɸ]	s [s]	ś [ɬ]	š [ç]	ḵ [x]	ḥ [χ]	h [h]
	voiced	v [β]	z [z]		ž [ʝ]	ḡ [ɣ]
Approximant			r [ɹ]	l [l]	y [j]	w [w]
Trill			ř [r]				ṟ [ʀ~ʁ]

Vowels

	Front	Near- front	Central	Near- back	Back
Close	i u e̞ ə o̞ a
Near-close
Close-mid
Mid
Open-mid
Near-open
Open

The vowel phoneme /a/ is analyzed as being a continuum of open vowels ranging from front to back that are in free variation.

Romanization of Vowel Phonemes

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i [i]		u [u]
Mid	e [e̞]	ə [ə]	o [o̞]
Open	a [a]

Vrkhazhian only has three diphthongs:

Vrkhazhian Diphthongs

IPA	Letter	Example
ae̯	aẏ	eye , pie
ao̯	aẇ	cow, out
ɛo̯	eẇ	mayonaise

Mukhebic Dialect

Unlike the more conservative Uzerian dialect, Mukhebic shows a lot more divergence from Classical Vrkhazhian, likely due to frequent trade in the region where it's spoken. Notable changes are:

• The vowels /e o/ raise to /i u/ and diphthongs /aj aw/ become /ai̯ au̯/.
• Medial /ya wa/ clusters become /i u/
• Gains a new vowel /y/ derived from /ju/ and /jo/, as well as a palatalized /u/.
• The vowel /ə/ becomes /yi̯/ after palatal consonants, /yu̯/ after velar consonants, and /ai̯/ after all other consonants.
• The emphatic consonants ⟨ṗ ṭ ḳ q̇⟩ maintain their secondary articulation although they become velarized.
• The consonants /q qˠ/ merge into their velar counterparts becoming /k kˠ/.
• The consonant /ʀ/ becomes /ʕ/.
• Gains the consonant /ɳ/ from palatalized /n ɴ/.
• The consonant /ɴ/ becomes /ŋ/.
• The consonants /β/ and /w/ merge to become /w̝/, and /ɸ/ becomes /f/.
• The preaspirated consonants /ʰp ʰt ʰk ʰq/ become /fː sː xː χː/.

Allophony

• The alveolar stop consonants /t d/ become [θ ð] in word-final positions after front vowels.
• The velar stop consonants /k g/ are assimilated into /q/ near /q ʰq ɴ χ/.
• The nasal consonants /n ɴ/ are analyzed as [n] before alveolar consonants, [ɲ] before palatal consonants, [ŋ] before velar consonants (including /w/), and [ɴ] before uvular consonants.
• The vowels /a i ə u/ are lowered to [ɑ e̞ ɐ o̞] if they occur after /q ʰq ɴ χ/.

Syllable Structure

The syllable structure of Vrkhazhian is analyzed as (C)C(V)(C)(C), where C stands for a consonant, V stands for a vowel. The consonants ⟨r m n⟩ also have syllabic counterparts /ɹ̩ m̩ n̩/ which are romanized as ⟨ṛ ṃ ṇ⟩.

Words cannot have a vowel hiatus, so an epenthetic /j/, /w/, or /h/ is added between the two vowels.

Stress

Stress is penultimate if the last syllable is open, and ultimate if the last syllable is closed.

Grammar

Morphology

Overview

Vrkhazhian is a highly inflecting language, and morphologically, it is a triconsonatal root language: a kind of non-concatenative morphology whereby its roots consist of an abstract set of consonants which a pattern of vowels called transfixes are placed between. Most of these roots consist of three consonants (triliteral), though there are many words that consist of two-letter (biliteral) and four-letter (quadriliteral) roots. Very rare, however, are five-letter (pentaliteral) roots, all of which are entirely nouns.

Nominal morphology

Main article: Nouns in Vrkhazhian

Vrkhazhian nouns are called maḡimud (singular maḡimu). They are declined for case, gender, and number. Specifically there are five cases (nominative, accusative, genitive, allative, and ablative) and two numbers (singular and plural). Additionally, Vrkhazhian has three grammatical genders: masculine, feminine and neuter. These genders are based on sex and strictly semantic, thus most nouns, such as inanimate objects, fall into the category of neuter.

Adjectival morphology

Adjectives in Vrkhazhian are marked for gender and number in agreement with the noun they modify. Adjectives follow nouns except for adjectives pertaining to colours, which instead precede the noun. Adjectives are almost entirely derived from verbs, with a few exceptions.

Most adjectives take the form ʾeC₁C₂aC₃, such as this adjective derived from the verb d-n-n (to be heavy):

"Heavy"

	Adjective (masc.)	Adjective (fem.)	Adjective (neut.)
Singular	ʾednan-i	ʾednan-a	ʾednan-u
Plural	ʾednan-il	ʾednan-an	ʾednan-ud

Adjectives pertaining to colours take the form C₁aC₂C₂aC₃, such as this adjective derived from the verb ḵ-r-m (to be white):

"White"

	Adjective (masc.)	Adjective (fem.)	Adjective (neut.)
Singular	ḵarram-i	ḵarram-a	ḵarram-u
Plural	ḵarram-il	ḵarram-an	ḵarram-ud

Adjectives pertaining to diseases take the form C₁aC₂awaC₃, such as this adjective derived from s-ḡ-b (to decay, to rot):

"Necrotic"

	Adjective (masc.)	Adjective (fem.)	Adjective (neut.)
Singular	saḡawab-i	saḡawab-a	saḡawab-u
Plural	saḡaẇb-il	saḡaẇb-an	saḡaẇb-ud

Adjectives also have elative counterparts. The elative takes the form C₁aC₂C₁aC₃ and conveys a superlative meaning in most contexts and a comparative meaning in contexts involving comparisons.

"Heavier/heaviest"

	Adjective (masc.)	Adjective (fem.)	Adjective (neut.)
Singular	dandan-i	dandan-a	dandan-u
Plural	dandan-il	dandan-an	dandan-ud

Elative adjectives pertaining to colours take the form C₁aC₂eṭC₃.

"Whiter/whitest"

	Adjective (masc.)	Adjective (fem.)	Adjective (neut.)
Singular	ḵareṭm-i	ḵareṭm-a	ḵareṭm-u
Plural	ḵareṭm-il	ḵareṭm-an	ḵareṭm-ud

Absolutive Superlative adjectives take the form C₁aC₂aṟC₃is and conveys a superlative meaning without comparison or being beyond comparison. An example is m-n-b (to be beautiful):

"Absolutely beautiful/beautiful beyond compare"

	Adjective (masc.)	Adjective (fem.)	Adjective (neut.)
Singular	manaṟb-is-i	manaṟb-is-a	manaṟb-is-u
Plural	manaṟb-is-il	manaṟb-is-an	manaṟb-is-ud

Verbal morphology

Main article: Verbs in Vrkhazhian

Vrkhazhian verbs are called madsiṟud (singular madsiṟu). Because Vrkhazhian is a triconsonantal root language, the fundamental part of the verb form is the transfix, a discontinuous affix inserted between a root (which is collectively called masčišu and translated as "pattern"), though they primarily only convey the grammatical voices (active, passive, causative, and reflexive). There are five tenses (past, past progressive, present, present progressive, and future) and these are indicated by prefixes attached to the base form. There is only one aspect: the perfect, called saẕkeru, which is indicated by reduplicating the entire verb. Additionally, there are also five moods (indicative, jussive, subjunctive, commissive, and propositive) and these are also indicated by prefix, placed closer to the base form than the tense prefixes. Lastly, verbs are also conjugated for number, singular and plural, with the plural indicated by the suffix -am.

When referring to a particular verb pattern, they are referred to by a derivation of the canonical (exemplary) verb d-s-ṟ (to do, to perform, to execute, to act). For example, when referring to the verb pattern of the citation form of a verb, which is the active present singular indicative, it is called dusaṟ because that is the active present singular form of the verb.

Pronouns

Personal Pronouns

In Vrkhazhian, there are 14 pronouns, each of which have their own forms for each of the five cases. In singular and plural, the 2nd and 3rd persons differentiate gender, while the 1st person does not. Instead, the 1st person plural pronouns are distinguished by clusivity: the inclusive 1st person plural includes the speaker and the addressee, while the exclusive 1st person plural excludes the addressee.

Personal Pronouns

		Nominative		Accusative		Genitive		Allative		Ablative
Person		Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
1st	inclusive	žaẏ "I"	yeš "we"	šadib	ʾažib	šadik	ʾažik	šadiš	ʾažiš	šadit	ʾažit
	exclusive		ṉal "we"		ṉalib		ṉalak		ṉaleš		ṉalat
2nd	masculine	kal "you"	ćul "you"	kalib	ćulib	kalak	ćulak	kaleš	ćoleš	kalat	ćulat
	feminine	kan "you"	ćun "you"	kanib	ćunib	kanak	ćunak	kaneš	ćoneš	kanat	ćunat
3rd	masculine	ḡal "he"	nul "they"	ḡalib	nulib	ḡalak	nulak	ḡaleš	nuleš	ḡalat	nulat
	feminine	ḡan "she"	nun "they"	ḡanib	nunib	ḡanak	nunak	ḡaneš	nuneš	ḡanat	nunat
	neuter	ḥol "they"	ṗal "they"	ḥolib	ṗalib	ḥolak	ṗalak	ḥoleš	ṗaleš	ḥolat	ṗalat
4th		ʾaḥ "one"		ʾaḥib		ʾaḥak		ʾaḥeš		ʾaḥat

The 4th person pronoun is a special pronoun that refers to generic or indefinite persons, usually translated as "one". An example of this is in the sentence:

ʾAd ʾaḥ tubedu susal, ʾaḥ ḥolib wiplal.

"If one takes a book, one must give it [back]."

Demonstrative Pronouns

There are three kinds demonstrative pronouns for three kinds of deixis: proximal, medial, and distal. The proximal indicates an object near the speaker, the medial indicates an object near the addressee, and the distal indicates and object away from both the speaker and the addressee. Demonstrative pronouns always mark their referent as definite.

	Deixis
Number	Proximal	Medial	Distal
Singular	ʾib "this"	ʾani "that"	maẏ "yonder"
Plural	ʾibim "these"	ʾanim "those"	maẏm "yonder"

Interrogative Pronouns and Adverbs

There are five interrogative pronouns and three interrogative adverbs.

Interrogative Pronouns

English	Vrkhazhian
who?	ʾelmu
what?	maʾlimu
where?	ʾolmayu
which?	ʾaqab
how many?	ʾawar

Interrogative Adverbs

English	Vrkhazhian
how?	ʾimmamat
when?	naḵ
why?	ʾičam

Relative Pronouns

The conjugation of the relative pronoun is as follows:

Number	Nominative	Accusative	Genitive	Allative	Ablative
Masculine singular	noki	ṇkibi	sažmi	ṇkeši	ṇkati
Masculine plural	ṇkil	nokbil	sažmil	nokšil	noktil
Feminine singular	noka	ṇkiba	sažma	ṇkeša	ṇkata
Feminine plural	ṇkan	nokban	sažman	nokšan	noktan
Neuter singular	noku	ṇkibu	sažmu	ṇkešu	ṇkatu
Neuter plural	ṇkud	nokbud	sažmud	nokšud	noktud

The relative pronoun agrees in gender and number with its referent. Additionally it changes the word order of a relative clause to OSV if the referent is an object of a relative clause in the active voice. If the relative clause is in the passive voice then the word order is always changed to SVX.

Numerals

Vrkhazhian uses a base-12 system of numerals, which is a positional notation numeral system using twelve as its base. In this system, the number ten can be written as ⟨X⟩, and the number eleven as ⟨E⟩. Cardinal numerals precede the nouns they modify and are placed in the governed state, while ordinal numerals are placed in the absolute state, losing all case endings; cardinal numerals also agree in gender with the noun they modify. An example of this are the nouns vakkami and ʾuldu; when a numeral is placed before them they become tibsi vakkami (one king) and mastalu ʾuldud (six soldiers). The table below lists the numbers from 1 to 12.

Numerals

Numbers	Cardinal (masc.)	Cardinal (fem.)	Cardinal (neut.)	Ordinal (neut.)
1	tibsi	tibsa	tibsu	ʾayun
2	sasri	sasra	sasru	hassir
3	lamni	lamna	lamnu	halmin
4	pśedi	pśeda	pśedu	hapśid
5	ẕarsi	ẕarsa	ẕarsu	haẕris
6	mastali	mastala	mastalu	hamastil
7	ʾarami	ʾarama	ʾaramu	haʾrim
8	šalbi	šalba	šalbu	hašlib
9	zapri	zapra	zapru	hazpir
X (10)	yagmi	yagma	yagmu	haẏgim
E (11)	ḵteli	ḵtela	ḵtelu	haḵtil
10 (12)	sẕeki	sẕeka	sẕeku	hasẕik

Syntax

Main article: Syntax in Vrkhazhian

Nominal phrases

Relative clauses follow the noun while numerals and appositions precede the counted noun. All adjectives except colours follow the noun. An example of some of these features is the nominal phrase ṛ-Vakkam Yat-Vṛḵažaẇ, ʾIḥmeki ʾAraš-Hijun, tutṗusu ḡalak numḥaḥ. "Ihmeki Arash-Hijun, the Emperor of Vrkhazh, united his people" which is analyzed in the following table:

Word	Meaning	Analysis	Part of the nominal phrase
ṛ-Vakkam	emperor	nominative construct state	Apposition
Yat-Vṛḵažaẇ	Vrkhazh	genitive neuter genitive singular
ʾIḥmeki ʾAraš-Hijun	Ihmeki Arash-Hijun	masculine singular	Proper Noun (subject)
tutṗusu	people	accusative neuter singular	Relative clause
ḡalak	his	third person genitive masculine singular
numḥaḥ	unite	active past singular

Sentence syntax

There are two basic word orders in Vrkhazhian that are used depending on the grammatical voice of the sentence. In sentences with the active voice, the basic word order is Subject-Object-Verb (SOV), while in sentences with the passive voice, the basic word order is Verb-Subject-Oblique (VSX). Compare an active sentence:

ʾEšol ṛ-ʾuldud ṛ-t-ʾeldud ʾuldam.

ʾEšol	ṛ-ʾuldud	ṛ-t-ʾeldud	ʾuldam
All	DEF=soldier-NOM.NEUT.PL	DEF=ACC-civilian-NEUT.PL	guard\ACT.PRES-PL

"All of the soldiers guard the civilians."

vs. a passive sentence:

Nikšemam ṛ-makšimud ṛ-maśkafud ʾim Hiqala.

Nikšemam	ṛ-makšimud	ṛ-maśkafud	ʾim	Hiqala
PASS.PST-build\PASS-PL	DEF=golem-NOM.NEUT.PL	DEF-mercury	by	Hiqala-FEM.SG

"The mercury golems were built by Hiqala"

The verb root ʾ-l-d (to guard), in the first example, is conjugated for active past singular in the active sentence agreeing in number with the subject "soldiers", while the verb root k-š-m (to build [physical]) in the second example is conjugated in the passive past plural, agreeing in number with the subject "the mercury golems".

Writing System

The Vrkhazhian Akhuva (ʾAḵva Yat-Vṛḵažaẏka [axβa jatβɹ̩xaʝae̯ka]) is the official writing script of Vrkhazhian. The script consists of 33 letters, 12 numeral glyphs, and 6 vowel diacritics. The writing direction of the script is boustrophedon, and can start in any horizontal direction preferred, though the most common starting direction is Right-to-Left.

History

The script has been in use for at least 950 years, with few changes and alterations to the letter forms since it's inception. The script is a descendant of the Proto-Vrkhazhian logographic script.

Letter names

Standard letters

The table below lists the 33 letters of the Akhuva:

ʾAḵva Yat-Vṛḵažaẏka Letter Name Meaning Phoneme ʾAlaḵ wind, breath ʾ [ʔ] Ḵav human ḵ [x] Vav cane v [β] Hit lock h [h] Dat skull d [d] Ẕim fruit, blood ẕ [t͡s] Bal path b [b] Sum tunnel s [s] Žat helmet ž [ʝ] Ṭam Ṭam horn, curve ṭ [θ] Yav scythe y [j]

ʾAḵva Yat-Vṛḵažaẏka Letter Name Meaning Phoneme Kaf water k [k] Geb wing g [g] Lam hand l [l] Maʾ bowl, cup m [m] Neš peace n [n] Ḡaẏm name ḡ [ɣ] Ṗas Ṗas poison ṗ [ɸ~ʍ̝~w̝] Pak head p [p] Jim pillar j [ɟ] Ruḡ snake r [ɹ] Faš vulture f [ɸ]

ʾAḵva Yat-Vṛḵažaẏka Letter Name Meaning Phoneme Šim house š [ç] Wad shield w [w] Ćon Ćon fish ć [t͡ɬ] Tal gate t [t] Ṟaš Ṟaš shoulder ṟ [ʀ] Čit hook č [c] Zab branch z [z] Řat fear, tail ř [r] Śam tree ś [ɬ] Ḥak roof ḥ [χ] Qut sheep q [q]

ʾAḵva Yat-Vṛḵažaẏka Letter Name Meaning Phoneme Ṉod ear ṉ [ɴ]

Vowel diacritics

The Akhuva is an abjad, thus vowels are not represented in most texts. However, vowel diacritics may be used to aid learners in reading the text and to reduce ambiguities.

Mambinud Yat-Vṛḵažaẏkud

Letter	Name	Meaning	Phoneme
	Maʾlibu	exposed	a [a]
	Mařkiku	fallen	e [e̞]
	Yatu	ground	i [i]
	Ḵoṭu	circle	o [o̞]
	Ṃḵepu	emptiness	ə [ə]
	Ḥmolu	throne	u [u]

???

Letter	Name	Phoneme
	ʾAẇdu Yav	ẏ [e̯]
	ʾAẇdu Wad	ẇ [o̯]

Numerals

Ḥalkud Yat-Vṛḵažaẏku

Numeral	Number	Name
	0	Šemt- ("none")
	1	Tibs-
	2	Sasr-
	3	Lamn-
	4	Pśed-
	5	Ẕars-
	6	Mastal-
	7	ʾAram-
	8	Šalb-
	9	Zapr-
	10/X	Yagm-
	11/E	Ḵtel-