Kharos S'fik

Introduction

Kharos S'fik was created 1/2006 by Pascal A. Kramm.

It is used in Conlang Relay 13.

Culture

The speakers of Kharos S'fik, the Hoka, are a fringe group living on Hokkaido, Japan's northern-most island, just like the Ainu.
Their name stems back from the late 16th century, when they first made contact with westerners (most likely Portuguese) who named them "Hocaidoes". They eventually adapted the name for themselves, but shortened it to "Hoka".

Origin

When analyzing their language, and also judging from their original Phoenician-derived script, it seems most likely that the Hoka were originally tribes coming from today's Germany and Scandinavia, as you can still find Germanic-sounding words in their vocabulary. From their original habitat, they moved more and more eastwards, crossing all of Russia on the way (which had quite an impact on their language), always looking for a good place to stay. They eventually set over to Sakhalin, and from there to Hokkaido, where they finally settled down, with their language being significantly influenced by Japanese over time.

Grammar

Sentences have SOV order. All words consist of sound units which are usually made up of CV (consonant-vowel) pairs, though vowel-only or consonant-only units are also possible. Final consonants are tacked onto the preceding unit. Every unit takes the same time to pronounce.

Script

Kharos S'fik has three scripts, two of which are still used today.
The transcriptions into the roman script for all three scripts were devised by a German merchant around the 1870s to faciliate trade, after Japan had ended its period of isolation with the Meiji Revolution in 1868 and opened itself to trade with foreigners again.

Fenix script

Fenix Script

The Fenix script is the original and oldest script. Like many other scripts (including our roman script), it probably developed from the phoenician script.

Its use today is limited to formal occassions, for headlines, or to express special emphasis (where the roman script would use bold or italic text).

Khaful script

Khaful Script

The Khaful script appeared some time after the Fenix script. It uses the same vowels and vowel marks, but completely different chars for all consonants.

It was apparently only used for a short time period alongside with the Fenix script and disappeared again soon.
It is not used at all anymore today.

Tifet script

Tifet Script

When Buddhist scriptures arrived, people were very fond of the Tibetan handwriting the scriptures were composed in. Compared to the Fenix script, it seemed much more practical as letters were connected, and thus it could be written more fluently.

Aesthetical considerations probably further helped it to eventually replace the Fenix script as the everyday purpose script.
Today, this is still the main script used for most occassions, with few exceptions where the Fenix script is still used.

Phonology

This table presents the alphabet (khakra) in its proper order.

Sound	Ipa	Initial	Medial	Final	Unit by itself
a	a	O	O	O	O
ä	æ,E	O	O	O	O
i	i	O	O	O	O
u	u	O	O	O	O
au	aU	O	O	O	O
e	e,E	O	O	O	O
ei	aI	O	O	O	O
o	o,O	O	O	O	O
eu	oI	O	O	O	O
k	k	-	O	O	-
kh	ç	O	-/-	-/-	-/-
kh	x	-/-	O	O	-
kr	kʁ	O	O	O	O
ch	ç	O	O	O	O
cj	ʝ	O	O	-	-
nj	ɲ	O	O	-	-
t	t	O	O	O	-
d	d	O	O	-	-
n	n	O	O	O	-
p	p	-	O	O	-
f	f	O	O	O	O
w	v	O	O	-	-
m	m	O	O	O	-
z	ts	O	O	O	-
j	j	O	O	-	-
r	ʁ	O	O	-	-
l	l	O	O	O	-
q	kw	O	O	-	-
x	ks	O	O	O	-
sh	ʃ	O	O	O	O
s	s	O	O	O	O
h	h	O	O	-	-

• h is also used to indicate long vowels
• kr is regarded as a single consonant

Babel text

Bereshit (Book of Genesis) Chapter 11, 1-9

• 1 Tep khanaz mira en s'parakh de sam khotop ta ha.
• 2 In futesh ch'mas til osot, umanen in Shinara falakh ta tarof okh dä kholoni ta ch'mas.
• 3 Etin til s'jäl ta tal: "Nu f'rokhot! Lata fokin tichel ch'mas okh etin taxan s'cjikrat!" Etin tichel f'samen ishi okh tajära f'samen morat ta fenutaz.
• 4 Tokrat etin ta tal: "Nu f'rokhot! Lata fokin s'tat de toran til nebo fa fokin s'dani, s'da fokin nei sufa khanaz jorat s'ka kha s'farakh."
• 5 Fut HaShem ch'ta ta f'rokhot fa fidet s'tat okh toran ch'toen in ta s'dani.
• 6 HaShem ta tal: "Fal khom en ch'toen de en s'parakh etin khon tata fechin ch'mas, nada etin khikak ch'mas s'ka ise nei wos'mosh fa etin.
• 7 Nu f'rokhot! Lata fokin ch'ta iti okh s'parakh af etin s'mush'cjen, s'da etin nei s'jäl s'ka f'seh."
• 8 S' HaShem etin sufa khanaz jorat s'farakh, okh etin ta f'rek s'dani s'tat.
• 9 Dakha s'tat Fafel ta kha nam, khara HaShem dä s'parakh af khanaz mira s'mush'cjen; til dä, HaShem etin sufa khanaz jorat ta s'farakh.

Translation:

• 1 Now the whole world had one language with the same words.
• 2 Journeying eastwards, men found a plain in Shinar and settled there.
• 3 They said to one another: "Come! Let's make brick and burn it thorougly!" They used bricks instead of stone and tar instead of mortar.
• 4 Then they said: "Come! Let's build a city for us with a tower up to the sky, to make a name for us, so that we are not scattered over the whole earth."
• 5 But HaShem came down to see the city and the tower men were building.
• 6 HaShem said: "If as one people with one language they have begun doing this, nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.
• 7 Come! Let's go down and confuse their language, so that they will not understand each other."
• 8 So HaShem scattered them over the whole earth, and they stopped building the city.
• 9 Therefore the city was named Babel, because there HaShem confused the language of the whole world; from there HaShem scattered them over the whole earth.

Lexicon

Kharos S'fik	English
A
af	of
CH
ch'mas	to make, to do
ch'ta	down, downwards
ch'to	man, person
D
dakha	therefore
dä	there
de	with
E
-en	plural suffix (infrequently used)
en	one
et	it
etin	they (mixed gender)
F
fa	for
fal	if
falakh	flat; a plain
fechin	begin; beginning
fenutaz	use
fidet	see
fok	I
fokin	we
f'rek	stop
f'rokhot	come
f'samen	instead (of)
f'seh	understand; understanding
fut	but
futesh	journey
H
ha	have
I
iki	go
in	in; continuous action particle
ise	to be; being
ishi	stone
J
jorat	earth
KH
kha	passive particle
khanaz	whole
khara	because (of)
khikak	plan
kholoni	settlement, colony
khom	as
khon	this
khotop	word
L
lata	let
M
mira	world
morat	mortar
N
nada	nothing
nam	name
nebo	sky
nei	not
nu	imperative particle
O
okh	and
osot	east
S
sam	same
s'cjikrat	burn; fire
s'da	so that
s'dani	build; building
s'farakh	spread, scatter
s'jäl	self, oneself, one another
s'ka	future particle
s'mush'cjen	confuse; confusion
s'parakh	language
s'tat	city, town
sufa	over
T
ta	past particle
tata	perferct particle
tajära	tar
tal	say
tarof	find
taxan	much, many, a lot
tep	now
tichel	brick
til	until, to, towards
tokrat	then
U
uman	man, human
W
wos'mosh	possible

Numbers

 1 en
 2 dua
 3 tari
 4 fea
 5 fif
 6 ches
 7 sem
 8 hach
 9 kiu
10 des
11 des en
12 des dua
13 des tari
14 des fea
...
20 dua des
30 tari des
42 fea des dua
...
99 kiu des kiu

100 chak
1,000 sen
10,000 man

100,000 des man
1,000,000 chak man
10,000,000 sen man
100,000,000 man man

As they originally didn't have separate numbers for 8 and 9, they adopted those from Japanese into their language.
Same goes for the words for 100, 1,000 and 10,000.