ʾAšdu Yat-Vṛḵaž

Vrkhazhian (YŠDD YT-VṚḴẔKM, Yašdad Yat-Vṛḵaẕīkam) is a Northern Hašakam language that is spoken in the region known as Vṛḵaẕ. The earliest form of this language, known as Old Vrkhazhian, was spoken around 10 000 years ago.

Vrkhazhian Yašdad Yat-Vṛḵaẕīkam
Pronounced:	[jaɕdad jatβɹ̩xaʑikam]
Spoken:	Vrkhazh (Vṛḵaẕ)
Total speakers:	Unknown
Writing system:	ʾAlaḵav Yat-Vṛḵaẕīkam
Genealogy:	Proto-Haṣakaṃ Languages ʾIšam ʾIn-Hīmoškem Proto-Highalic Proto-Vrkhazhian Old Vrkhazhian Middle Vrkhazhian Modern Vrkhazhian
Typology
Morphological type:	highly fusional, weakly agglutinative
Morphosyntactic alignment:	nominative-accusative
Basic word order:	SOV/VSO
Credits
Creator:	Malcolm G. Holborne
Created:	March 2014

History

Dialects

Vrkhazhian has at least two major dialects and at least ten other minor dialects.

The table below lists two of the major dialects:

Dialects of Vrkhazhian

Dialect	Location
Ḵadačīkam	Centered around the city of Tam-Ḵadač
ʾAlšardīkam	To the south of the city of Tam-Šamašet

Ḵadačīkam is recognized as the standard dialect of writing and communication.

Phonetics and phonology

Consonants

Vrkhazhian has a phonemic inventory of 45 consonants and 9 vowels. Some consonants in Vrkhazhian can be light (pre-aspirated), plain or dark (uvularized/pharyngealized); most stops have all three variations, while some fricatives have only plain and dark variations and some approximants and one nasal have only light and plain variations.

Vrkhazhian Consonantal Phonemes

		Bilabial	Alveolar	(Alveolo)- Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	Light		hn [ʰn~n̥]
	Plain	m [m]	n [n]			ṉ [ɴ]
Stop	Light	hp [ʰp]	ht [ʰt]		hk [ʰk]	hq [ʰq]
	Plain	p [p] b [b]	t [t] d [d]		k [k] g [g]	q [q]	ʾ [ʔ]
	Dark	ṗ [pʶ~pˤ] ḅ [bʶ~bˤ]	ṭ [tʶ~tˤ] ḍ [dʶ~dˤ]
Affricate			ḏ [ʦ]	č [ʧ~ʨ] j [ʤ~ʥ]
Fricative	Plain	f [ɸ] v [β]	s [s] z [z]	š [ʃ~ɕ] ẕ [ʒ~ʑ]	ḵ [x] ğ [ɣ]	ḥ [χ~ħ]	h [h]
	Dark		ṣ [sʶ~sˤ] ẓ [zʶ~zˤ]
Approximant	Light		hr [ʰɹ~ʰɾ~ɹ̥̥]
	Plain		r [ɹ~ɾ]	y [j]	w [w]
Trill			rr [r]			ṟ [ʀ]
Lateral Approximant	Light		hl [ʰl~l̥]
	Plain		l [l]
	Dark		ḷ [lʶ~lˤ]
Lateral Fricative			ḻ [ɬ~ɬʲ]

Vowels

Vrkhazhian Vowel Phonemes

	Front	Central	Back
Close	ī [i]	i [ɨ]	ū [u]
Close-mid	ē [e]		ō [o]
Mid		u/ə [ə]
Open-mid	e [ɛ]		o [ɔ]
Open	a [a]

Vrkhazhian Diphthongs

IPA	Letter	Example
ae̯	aẏ	like eye
ao̯	aẇ	like cow

Allophony

In Vrkhazhian, the stop consonants /t d/ become [θ ð] in word-final positions if they occur before front vowels /ɛ e i/ and sometimes /a/ if it is part of an affix. The stop consonants /t d/ also become retroflexed [ʈ ɖ] if they occur before a labial approximant /w/. The consonant /h/ becomes [ç] before a palatal approximant /j/ and becomes [χ] when it is geminated.

Stress

Stress in Vrkhazhian is generally placed on the last or second-to-last syllable.

Grammar

Morphology

Overview

Vrkhazhian is a highly inflecting triconsonantal root language. Most roots consist of three consonants (triliteral), though there are many words that consist of two letter (biliteral) roots. Vrkhazhian does not recognize four- and five-letter roots. Between and around these roots various infixes, suffixes, and prefixes are used to carry grammatical functions or derived words.

Roots containing the consonants <y>/j/ and <w>/w/ are considered weak roots, and exhibit irregular verb forms.

Nominal morphology

Vrkhazhian has three grammatical genders, masculine, feminine and neuter. These genders are strictly semantic, thus most nouns, such as inanimate objects, fall into the category of neuter.

Vrkhazhian has two numbers (singular and plural) and five cases (nominative, accusative, genitive, lative, and ablative). The table below shows the noun vīkīm (ruler) declined in various cases.

Noun paradigm

	Noun (masc.)	Noun (fem.)	Noun (neut.)
Nominative/Accusative singular	vīkīm-a	vīkīm-ē	vīkīm
Genitive singular	vīkīm-īl	vīkīm-an	vīkīm-ūn
Lative singular	vīkīm-aj-a	vīkīm-aj-ē	vīkīm-ajī
Ablative singular	vīkīm-īh-a	vīkīm-īh-ē	vīkīm-īhī
Nominative/Accusative plural	vīkīm-al	vīkīm-ēn	vīkīm-ad
Genitive plural	vīkīm-īlū	vīkīm-anū	vīkīm-īr
Lative plural	vīkīm-ēj-al	vīkīm-ēj-ēn	vīkīm-ēj-ad
Ablative plural	vīkīm-ūh-al	vīkīm-ūh-ēn	vīkīm-ūh-ad

Construct state

Most nouns in Vrkhazhian can also be placed in the construct state, which is used for genitive constructions and denotes that the noun is the possessed object. Using the noun ʾalkad (soldier, guard), the declensions of the construct state are shown below:

Noun paradigm

	Noun (masc.)	Noun (fem.)	Noun (neut.)
Singular	ʾalkad-ī	ʾalkad-a	ʾalkad-ū
Plural	ʾalkad-īt	ʾalkad-at	ʾalkad-ūm

Nouns containing biliteral roots are placed into the construct state patterns CVraC for singular number and CarC2VC2 for plural number. An example of this is the noun šīm (house) which, when placed into the construct state, becomes šīram for singular number and šarmīm for plural number. Nouns containing biliteral roots that are placed in the construct state are also declined for gender in the nominative case.

Adjectival morphology

Adjectives in Vrkhazhian are marked for gender and number in agreement with the noun they modify. Adjectives are also divided into classes where only certain types of roots can go. For example, only adjectival verbs such as d-b-n (to be heavy) can go into the adjective pattern CaCCa. The table below shows the declension of the above root d-b-n in the pattern CaCCa which turns it into the adjective "heavy":

Adjective declension

	Adjective (masc.)	Adjective (fem.)	Adjective (neut.)
Singular	ʾədbūn-a	ʾədbūn-ē	dabna
Plural	dabnīk-īl	dabnīk-en	dabnīk-a

Adjectives can either precede or follow the noun depending on the type of adjective. Adjectives pertaining to physical features such as colour, size, shape and material always precede the noun, while adjectives pertaining to other features such as opinion, age, origin and condition always follow the noun.

Verbal morphology

Verbs in Vrkhazhian are conjugated for number (singular and plural), tense (infinitive, past simple, past progressive, present simple, present progressive, and future) and voice (active and passive)

Verb patterns

The table below shows the conjugation of the root d-n-j (to crush)

Verb Conjugations

	Active Singular	Active Plural	Translation	Passive Singular	Passive Plural	Translation
Infinitive	dannaja	ʾadnīyaj	to crush	dūnnēja	ʾadnūšīj	to be crushed
Past	nōdnoj	nadnūjam	crushed	nūdnūj	nīdnajam	was crushed
Past Progressive	yūdnoj	yūdnējam	was crushing	yīdnaj	yīdnūjam	was being crushed
Present Simple	dūnaj	dūnjam	crush	danēj	danjam	is crushed
Present Progressive	hūdnaj	hūdnījam	is crushing	hadnēj	hadnojam	is being crushed
Future	ʾadnej	ʾadnejam	will crush	ʾīdnīj	ʾīdnījam	will be crushed

Verb moods

Vrkhazhian has three moods, jussive, potential, conditional and commissive. The table below shows the conjugation of the root ṗ-m-t (to walk)

Verb Mood

	Singular	Plural	Translation
Jussive	šīṗmūt	šīṗmatam	must/should walk
Potential	kaṗmet	kaṗmatam	can walk
Conditional	ʾīmaṗmat	ʾīmaṗmūtam	would walk
Commissive	ʾībēṗmat	ʾībēṗmētam	shall walk

The jussive mood in Vrkhazhian is mainly used for expressing obligation or duty, but when there are no pronouns or nouns in the nominative case, it can also act like an imperative, expressing direct commands to the adressee(s). While a verb in the jussive mood can be used in this way, the particle "ʾīs" is more common.

Adverbial morphology

Adverbs in Vrkhazhian are marked for number in agreement with the verb they modify. Adverbs always follow the verb they modify. Like adjectives, adverbs are divided into classes where only certain types of roots can go. For example, most adjectival verbs and some ordinary verbs can go into the adverb pattern CūCCīt. The table below shows the root ʾ-b-l (to be blind) declined in the pattern CūCCīt:

Adverb declension

	Singular	Plural
Adverb	ʾūblīt	ʾībaltū

Pronouns

Personal Pronouns

Personal pronouns in Vrkhazhian are as follows:

		Nominative		Accusative		Genitive		Lative		Ablative
Person		Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
1st	inclusive	ẕaẏ "I"	yeš "we"	šadīb	ʾaẏyīb	šadīkī	ʾaẏyīkī	šadīš	ʾaẏyīš	šadīt	ʾaẏyat
	exclusive		ṉal "we"		ṉalīb		ṉalīkī		ṉalīš		ṉalat
2nd	masculine	ʾīšī "you"	qar "you"	ʾīšīb	qarīb	ʾīšakī	qarakī	ʾīdeš	qareš	ʾīdat	qarat
	feminine	ʾatī "you"	šūn "you"	ʾatīb	šūnīb	ʾatakī	šūnakī	ʾateš	šūneš	ʾatat	šūnat
3rd	masculine	haf "he"	baʾ "they"	hafīb	baʾīb	hafakī	baʾakī	hapeš	baʾeš	hapat	baʾat
	feminine	šaf "she"	tav "they"	šafīb	tavīb	šafakī	tavakī	šapeš	tabeš	šapat	tabat
	neuter	ḥol "they"	ṗal "they"	ḥajīm	ṗajīm	ḥajakī	ṗajakī	ḥaješ	ṗaješ	ḥajat	ṗajat

Demonstrative Pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns in Vrkhazhian are as follows:

	Deixis
Number	Proximal	Medial	Distal
Singular	ʾīšar "this"	ʾanī "that"	maẏ "that"
Plural	ʾīšrūhīt "these"	ʾanīhīt "those"	maẏyīt "those"

Interrogative Pronouns

Listed below are the interrogative pronouns in Vrkhazhian:

English	Vrkhazhian
who?	ʾalīm
what?	hamat
where?	sūhal
when?	hna
why?	ʾīčam
how?	taja
which?	ʾaqab

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". Numerals precede the nouns they modify and are placed in the construct state; they also agree in gender with the noun they modify. An example of this are the nouns vīkīm and ʾalkad (which becomes ʾalīkdad in plural); when a numeral is placed before them they become ʾaẏnī vīkīma (one king) and apetū ʾalīkdad (six soldiers). Both of these words would literally translate to "one-of king" and "six-of soldiers", respectively. The table below lists the numbers from 1 to 12.

Numerals

Numbers	Cardinal numeral (masc.)	Cardinal numeral (fem.)	Cardinal numeral (neut.)
1	ʾaẏnī	ʾaẏna	ʾaẏnū
2	nīmī	nīma	nīmū
3	dajī	daja	dajū
4	hatī	hata	hatū
5	ʾaẕahī	ʾaẕaha	ʾaẕahū
6	ʾapetī	ʾapeta	ʾapetū
7	ʾaramī	ʾarama	ʾaramū
8	šabbī	šabba	šabbū
9	ʾadīkī	ʾadīka	ʾadīkū
X (10)	yamī	yama	yamū
E (11)	ʾījītī	ʾījīta	ʾījītū
10 (12)	ʾīlaẏkī	ʾīlaẏka	ʾīlaẏkū

Syntax

Nominal phrases

Relative clauses follow the noun while numerals and appositions precede the counted noun. Adjectives either follow or precede the noun depending on its semantic class (see adjective section above). An example of some of these features is the nominal phrase ṛ-Vīkīmī ṛ-hījīr, ʾAšahījar, ṛ-sentīstenū ʾAkrīdēhas nōšṉom 'Ashahijar, the king of the gods, built the realm of Akrideas' which is analyzed in the following table:

Word	Meaning	Analysis	Part of the nominal phrase
ṛ-Vīkīmī	king	masculine construct state	Apposition
ṛ-hījīr	gods	neuter genitive plural
ʾAšahījar	Ashahijar	nominative	Proper Noun (subject)
ṛ-sentīstenū	world	neuter construct state	Relative clause
ʾAkrīdēhas	Akrideas	genitive singular
nōšṉom	built	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-Object (VSO). Compare an active sentence:

Hīqal ṛ-havrī ṛ-mašarad nōšṉom.

Hīqal	ṛ-havrī	ṛ-mašarad	nō-šṉom
Hiqal-NOM	DEF-mercury	DEF-golem-PL-ACC	ACT-PST-build-SG

"Hiqal built the mercury golems

vs. a passive sentence:

Nīšṉamam ṛ-havrī ṛ-mašarad ʾīm Hīqal.

Nī-šṉam-am	ṛ-havrī	ṛ-mašarad	ʾīm	Hīqal
PASS-PST-build-PL	DEF-mercury	DEF-golem-PL-NOM	by	Hiqal-ACC

"The mercury golems were built by Hiqal"

The verb root š-ṉ-m (to build), in the first example, is conjugated for active past singular in the active sentence agreeing in number with the subject "Hiqal", while appearing in the second example in the passive past plural, agreeing in number with the subject "the mercury golems".

Writing System

The Vrkhazhian Alakhav (ʾAlaḵav Yat-Vṛḵaẕīkam [ʔala'xaβ ˈjat-βɹ̩ˈxaʑikam]) is the official writing script of Vrkhazhian. The script consists of 30 letters, their names being assigned by actual words in the language through acrophony. 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 around for at least 7,500 years, with few changes and alterations to the letter forms since it's inception. The true origins of the writing system is unknown, however, the glyphs are based partially off of the logographic script of a sister language known as Husroth Qhadithcha, while, as noted above, the numerals are borrowed from the script.

Letter names

ʾAlaḵav Yat-Vṛḵaẕīkam

Letter	Name	Meaning	Phoneme
	ʾAl	wind	ʾ [ʔ]
	Ḵav	human	ḵ [x]
	Vav	cane	v [β]
	Hīt	lock	h [h]
	Dat	skull	d [d]
	Ḏīm	fruit (also blood)	ḏ [t͡s]
	Bal	path	b [b]
	Sūm	tunnel	s [s]
	Ẕat	helmet (also child)	ẕ [ʒ~ʑ]
	Yav	scythe	y [j]
	Ka	water	k [k]
	Gē	wing	g [g]
	Lam	hand	l [l]
	Maʾ	bowl or cup	m [m]
	Neš	peace	n [n]
	Ǧaẏm	name	ǧ [ɣ]
	Pak	head	p [p]
	Jīm	pillar	j [d͡ʒ~d͡ʑ]
	Rū	snake	r [ɹ~ɾ]
	Faš	vulture	f [ɸ]
	Šīm	house	š [ʃ~ɕ]
	Waj	shield	w [w]
	Tal	gate	t [t]
	Čī	hook	č [t͡ʃ~t͡ɕ]
	Zab	branch	z [z]
	Ḻam	tree	ḻ [ɬ~ɬʲ]
	Ḫak	roof	ḥ [χ~ħ]
	Qar	you (2nd person masc. pl.)	q [q]
	Ṟat	fear	ṟ [ʀ]
	Ṉod	ear	ṉ [ɴ]