Xetlaqui

Xetlaqui is an a priori conlang created by Elia Ansaloni in 2013 and currently under development. The name Xetlaqui literally means "good language". It is intended to be part of a fantasy setting, being spoken by a human race living in a vast region known as Xinchal or the Hive.

Although Xetlaqui is an a priori conlang, it has been inspired by several natural languages, mainly Nahuatl, Basque, Armenian, Irish and Korean. It is designed to reflect the philosophy of the Hive, also known as Yeotl Han (literally "All is one"), which sees completeness and wholeness as perfection.

Phonology

Consonants

Xetlaqui consonants

	Bilabial	Labio- dental	Dental	Alveolar		Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar		Glottal
				Central	Lateral			Plain	Labialized
Nasal	m			n
Plosive	p			t d				k g	kʷ	ʔ
Affricate				ʦ ʣ	tɬ	ʧ
Fricative	ɸ		θ ð	s z	ɬ	ʃ				h
Approximant		ʋ		ɫ			j
Trill				r

Vowels

Xetlaqui consonants

	Front	Back
Close	i	u
Mid	e eº	o
Open-mid	ɛ ɛº	ɔ
Open	ä äº

Alphabet

Xetlaqui has its own writing style (which is currently being developed), but can be transcribed using Latin characters. The alphabet has a one to one letter-sound correspondence, even if few letters can be read in two different ways.

Latin script	Pronunciation	Further information
a	[ä]
ao	[äᵒ]	The stress never falls on "o".
ch	[ʧ]
d	[d] / [ð]	Pronounced as [ð] when ending a word or when followed by an apostrophe.
e	[ɛ] / [e]	Generally pronounced as [ɛ] when the stress falls on it, but the two are equivalent.
eo	[ɛᵒ] / [eᵒ]	The stress never falls on "o".
g	[g]
h	[h] / [ʔ]	Pronounced as [h] only at the beginning of a word.
i	[i]	Never pronounced as [j].
k	[k]
l	[ɬ]	Pronounced as [l] in some dialects.
ll	[ɫ]
m	[m]
n	[n]
o	[ɔ] / [o]	Generally pronounced as [ɔ] when the stress falls on it, but the two are equivalent.
p	[p]
ph	[ɸ]
qu	[kʷ]	Always followed by a, e, i or o.
r	[r]
sh	[ʃ]
t	[t]
th	[θ]
tl	[tɬ]
tz	[ʦ]
u	[u]	Never pronounced as [w].
v	[ʋ]
x	[ʣ]	-
y	[j]	-
z	[s] / [z]	No specific rule about its use as voiced or voiceless.

Grammar

Xetlaqui is an agglutinative language with declensions for names and adjectives and very few irregular verbs. Nouns and adjectives are gender neutral.

Declensions

There are three declensions and eight cases in Xetlaqui.

First declension

Nouns and adjectives of this declension end in consonant in the nominative singular. The predominant letters in the ending forms of this declension are e and o. Nouns and adjectives ending with a vowel followed by a single consonant (except for d, l, t, th and tl) form the plural by adding -tli instead of -i. Nouns ending with a vowel followed by l form the plural by dropping the l and adding -lli.

	xith star		thep mountain		chal house, home
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Nominative	xith	xithi	thep	theptli	chal	challi
Genitive	xithe	xithek	thepe	theptlek	chale	challek
Dative	xithur	xithuri	thepur	theptluri	chalur	challuri
Accusative	xitho	xithok	thepo	theptlok	chalo	challok
Instrumental	xithod	xithodi	thepod	theptlodi	chalod	challodi
Locative	xithem	xithemi	thepem	theptlemi	chalem	challemi
Active	xithov	xithovi	thepov	theptlovi	chalov	challovi
Predicative	xithen	xitheni	thepen	theptleni	chalen	challeni

Second declension

Nouns and adjectives of this declension end in consonant in a in the nominative singular. The predominant letter in the ending forms of this declension is a.

	aztla work, job
	Singular	Plural
Nominative	aztla	aztlak
Genitive	aztle	aztlek
Dative	aztlar	aztlari
Accusative	aztlao	aztlaok
Instrumental	aztlad	aztladi
Locative	aztlam	aztlami
Active	aztlav	aztlavi
Predicative	aztlan	aztlani

Third declension

Nouns and adjectives of this declension end in consonant in i in the nominative singular. The predominant letter in the ending forms of this declension is i.

	ezqui red
	Singular	Plural
Nominative	ezqui	ezquik
Genitive	ezque	ezquek
Dative	ezquir	ezquiri
Accusative	ezquo	ezquok
Instrumental	ezquid	ezquidi
Locative	ezquim	ezquimi
Active	ezquiv	ezquivi
Predicative	ezquin	ezquini