User:Bukkia/sandboxIII

Qihep (in Qihep: Qixēp [ˌkʷiˈxeːp]) is a constructed fantasy language

Phonology

Consonants

Consonants
	Bilabial		Labio- dental		Dental		Alveolar		Post- alveolar		Palatal		Velar		Labialized velar		Labialized velar
Plosive	p	b					t	d					k	g	kʷ		(ʔ)1
Nasal		m		(ɱ)2			n					ɲ		(ŋ)3
Vibrant								r
Fricative			f	v			s		ʃ				x				h
Affricate							ʦ		ʧ	ʤ
Approximants												j		w
Lateral approximants								l

Note:

• [ʔ]¹is not recognised as an independent phoneme but it is inserted between two vowels, or between two identical consonants.

• [ɱ]² and [ŋ]³ are considered allophones of the normal nasal phonemes in front of [f]/[v] and [k]/[g]/[kʷ] respectively.

Vowels

Vowels
	Front		Near- front		Central		Near- back		Back
Close		i(ː)								u(ː)
Close mid		e(ː)								o(ː)
Mid					ə(ː)
Open					a(ː)

Every vowel can be distinctively short and long.

No dipthongs are allowed. If two vowels are adiacent in a compound word, a glottal stop ([ʔ]) emerges to keep them separated.

Transcription

Qihep uses a logographic script, but it can be transcribed in Latin form:

Letter

a

ā

b

c

d

e

ē

f

g

ǵ

h

i

ī

j

k

l

m

n

ń

o

ō

p

q

r

s

ś

t

ts

u

ū

v

w

x

y

ȳ

IPA

[a]

[aː]

[b]

[ʧ]

[d]

[e]

[eː]

[f]

[g]

[ʤ]

[h]

[i]

[iː]

[j]

[k]

[l]

[m]

[n]

[ɲ]

[o]

[oː]

[p]

[kʷ]

[r]

[s]

[ʃ]

[t]

[ʦ]

[u]

[uː]

[v]

[w]

[x]

[ə]

[əː]

Morphology

Tipologically speaking, Qihep is an isolating language, that means its words never change nor add any additional ending to show number, gender, tense, aspect, etc.

We followed those men: Ul la nār vran ta śak fa

Analysing the sentence:

• Ul: means I
• la: it's a grammatical particle which shows the idea of plural
• nār: means that
• vran: means man
• ta: it's a grammatical particle, conveying the idea of past
• śak: means follow
• fa: it's a grammatical particle, conveying the idea of action complete

Grammar roles and complements are conveyed by the position in the sentence, by grammatical particles and by postpositions. Grammatical particles are not strictly needed and can be left out of the sentence if the meaning is clear from the context. For example, in the previous sentence, the particle ta can be easily omitted if it's clear that we are talking about the past.

Even if there is no strict morphology, Qihep words can be compounded to form new words and a complex derivational morphology does exist. For example:

• xep, mouth + svūk, sound → xepsvūk, voice
• troj, to build + -kȳt, noun for the result of the action → trojkȳt, building

Nouns

Nouns do not change for number or for gender.

Nouns denoting humans or animals can be linked to a definite gender by prefixing the terms tan, male or res, female:

• vran, human → tanvran, man, resvran, woman.

By reduplicating the nouns we can express the meaning of a collective noun:

• vran, human → vranvran, people, population

The particle la can be postponed after the nouns to express plurality, but it conveys also the idea of "many".

• vran(vran) la, many people

Pronouns

Personal pronouns

Pronouns show a limited gender distinction and mandatorily use the grammar particle la for plural if they refer to plural forms.

Person	English	Form	Explanation
1st	I	ul
2nd	you	ma
3rd	he	tȳn	for humans or animals, male or without defining gender
3rd	she	rȳs	for humans or animals, strictly for female
3rd	it	qem	for objects or small animals
3rd	it	do	indicates something undefined, object or idea, which it has already been talked about, aforementioned

When referring to more people or objects, particle la is mandatorily postponed after the pronouns:

• ul, I → ul la, we

Pronouns do not change for case, as they do in English, but they express their role by using the position in the sentence:

• ul tȳn nat piǵ kra, I can't see him
• tȳn ul nat piǵ kra, He can't see me

Interrogative pronouns

There are two basic interrogative adjectives and pronouns

Form	English	Explanation
wē	who, which	for humans and animals
wū	what, which, where	for objects and small animals, it can also express location with locative verbs

• Ma wē ta piǵ fa lo, Who did you see?
• Tȳn la wū skyt sty lo, What are they doing?
• Rȳs wū stā sty lo, Where is she?

Other interrogative pronouns are formed by adding specific nouns:

wū + meś, place	= wūmeś	where, in which place
wū + tsēd, time	= wūtsēd	when, in which period
wū + dān, moment	= wūdān	when, in which moment
wū + cin, way	= wūcin	how, in which way
wū + prīc, reason	= wūprīc	why, for which reason
wū + tsel, purpose	= wūtsel	why, for which purpose

Demonstrative pronouns

There are three demonstrative adjectives and pronouns

Form	English	Explanation
tyk	this	for something or somebody near both the listener and the speaker
qē	that	for something or somebody near the listener but far from the speaker
nār	that	for something or somebody far from both the listener and the speaker