ʾAšdu Yat-Vṛḵaž

Vrkhazhian (ʾŠDDW YT-VṚḴẔKM, ʾĪšaddū 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 ʾĪšaddū Yat-Vṛḵaẕīkam
Pronounced:	/ʔiçadːu jat βɹ̩xaʝikam/
Spoken:	Vrkhazh (Vṛḵaẕ)
Writing system:	ʾAḵūva 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

History

Dialects

Vrkhazhian has at least two major dialects and several minor dialects.

The table below lists two of the major dialects:

Dialects of Vrkhazhian

Dialect	Location
Khadachian (Ḵadačīkam)	Centered around the city of Tam-Ḵadač
Shamashetian (Šamašetīkam)	In and around the city Tam-Šamašet

The use of the Khadachian dialect is widespread in most of Vrkhazh, thus it is recognized as the standard dialect for writing and communication. All children in Vrkhazh are expected to learn Khadachian throughout their education.

Phonology

Consonants

The table below shows the 42 consonant phonemes found in Vrkhazhian. When consonants appear in pairs, the voiceless counterpart appears on the left, and the voiced counterpart appears on the right:

Vrkhazhian Consonantal Phonemes

		Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	Light	hm [ʰm~m̥]	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]	ṭ [tʶ~tˤ]
Affricate			ḏ [t͡s]	č [t͡ɕ~c͡ç] j [d͡ʑ~ɟ͡ʝ]
Fricative		f [ɸ] v [β]	s [s] z [z]	š [ɕ~ç] ẕ [ʑ~ʝ]	ḵ [x] ğ [ɣ]	ḥ [χ~ħ]	h [h]
Approximant	Light		hr [ʰɹ~ʰɾ~ɹ̥]
	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]
Mid	ē [e̞]	ə [ə]	ō [o̞]
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] if they occur before rhotics /r ɹ ɾ/ and in word-final positions if they occur after front vowels /ɛ e i/. The stop consonants /t d/ also become retroflexed [ʈ ɖ] if they occur before a labial approximant /w/. Stop-glottal stop clusters are respectively analyzed as ejectives and implosives word-initially and intervocalically. The consonant /h/ becomes [ħ] when it is geminated.

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, and the letters <ẏ ẇ> are the non-syllabic vowels of their respective diphthongs. CV and CVC are most common syllables in Vrkhazhian, while in contrast, C and CCVCC, are the rarest. Though not listed in the phonemic inventory table above, there also exists a syllabic rhotic /ɹ̩/ in Vrkhazhian that is written as <ṛ> as well as two syllabic nasals /m̩ n̩/ written as <ṃ ṇ>.

All words that appear to begin with vowels are analyzed as containing a glottal stop before them, which is ussually omitted in fast speech. Vrkhazhian is very strict in preventing hiatus between vowels; this is done by adding an epenthetic /h/ between the two vowels. The only one exception is an epenthetic /a/ placed between uvular and uvularized consonants and a front vowel.

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 also recognizes four- and five-letter roots, however, these are uncommon. 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 six cases (nominative, accusative, genitive, lative, ablative, and distributive). The table below shows the noun vīkīm (ruler) declined in various cases.

Noun paradigm

	Noun (masc.)	Noun (fem.)	Noun (neut.)
Nominative/Accusative singular	vīkīm-ī	vīkīm-a	vīkīm
Genitive singular	vīkīm-īr	vīkīm-aš	vīkīm-ūn
Lative singular	vīkīm-aj-ī	vīkīm-aj-a	vīkīm-aj
Ablative singular	vīkīm-īf-ī	vīkīm-īf-a	vīkīm-īf
Nominative/Accusative plural	vīkīm-īl	vīkīm-an	vīkīm-ad
Genitive plural	vīkīm-īr-ū	vīkīm-aš-ū	vīkīm-ūn-ū
Lative plural	vīkīm-ēj-īl	vīkīm-ēj-an	vīkīm-ēj-ad
Ablative plural	vīkīm-ūf-īl	vīkīm-ūf-an	vīkīm-ūf-ad

The distributive case in Vrkhazhian is used to denote something occurring to each individual of a set, thus the noun can only be declined for singular number. The meaning of the distributive case is roughly translated as "each" or "per". The prefix "šar-" is used to denote the distributive.

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	ʾalīkd-īt	ʾalīkd-at	ʾalīkd-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 in Vrkhazhian are placed into different stems depending on the type of adjective the root is. For example, only adjectival verbs pertaining to size and mass, such as d-b-n (to be heavy), are placed into the pattern CaCCa, while verbs pertaining to shapes, such as ḵ-l-k (to be round) are placed in the pattern toCCeC. The table below shows the declension of the root ʾ-w-d (to be short) as well as a few other roots placed into their respective stems:

Adjective declension - Size/Mass

	Adjective (masc.)	Adjective (fem.)	Adjective (neut.)
Singular	ʾūd-ī	ʾūd-a	ʾaẇd-a
Plural	ʾaẇd-īl	ʾaẇd-an	ʾūd-ūm

Adjective declension - Shape

	Adjective (masc.)	Adjective (fem.)	Adjective (neut.)
Singular	toḵlek-ī	toḵlek-a	toḵlek
Plural	toḵlak-īl	toḵlak-an	toḵlak-ūm

Adjective declension - Colour

	Adjective (neut.)
Singular	ʾazaẇwīl
Plural	ʾazaẇl-ūm

Adjective declension - Condition

	Adjective (masc.)	Adjective (fem.)	Adjective (neut.)
Singular	ʾīhrōd-ī	ʾīhrōd-a	ʾīhrōda
Plural	ʾīhrōd-īl	ʾīhrōd-an	ʾīhrōd-ūm

Adjective declension - Age

	Adjective (masc.)	Adjective (fem.)	Adjective (neut.)
Singular	saǧǧol-ī	saǧǧol-a	saǧǧol
Plural	sūǧǧal-īl	sūǧǧal-an	sūǧǧal-ūm

Adjective declension - Observation

	Adjective (masc.)	Adjective (fem.)	Adjective (neut.)
Singular	ʾīfmanb-ī	ʾīfmanb-a	ʾīfmanab
Plural	ʾīfmīnb-īl	ʾīfmīnb-an	ʾīfmīneb

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

Definite marking

Vrkhazhian has an definite affix "ṛ-" that indicates that its noun is a particular one (or ones) identifiable to the listener. It may be something already mentioned or uniquely specified. The affix is attached to the noun and the adjective(s) that modify 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) and m-n-š (to write):

Verb Conjugations

	Active Singular	Active Plural	Translation	Passive Singular	Passive Plural	Translation
Infinitive	ʾadnīyaj		to crush	ʾadnūbīj		to be crushed
Past Simple	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 Conjugations

	Active Singular	Active Plural	Translation
Infinitive	ʾamnazīš		to write to self
Past Simple	nōlmonīš	nalmūnšam	wrote to self
Past Progressive	yūlmonīš	yūlmēnšam	was writing to self
Present Simple	lūmnaš	lūmnašam	write to self
Present Progressive	halmūnaš	halmūnšam	is writing to self
Future	ʾīlmaneš	ʾīlmanšam	will write to self

Verb moods

Vrkhazhian has five moods, jussive, potential, conditional, commissive and subjunctive. The particles "čar" and "yaj" can be used with moods to indicate the past and future tense respectively. The table below shows the conjugation of the root ṗ-m-t (to walk) in active voice, while the table shows the conjugation of the root b-h-l (to punish, discipline) in passive voice.

Verb Mood

	Active Singular	Active Plural	Translation	Passive Singular	Passive Plural	Translation
Jussive	jīṗmat	jīṗmetam	have to walk	jūbhīl	jūbhūlam	have to be punished
Potential	ʾībēṗmat	ʾībēṗmētam	can walk	ʾībībhūl	ʾībībhōlam	can be punished
Conditional	ʾīmaṗmat	ʾīmaṗmūtam	would walk	ʾīmobhīl	ʾīmobhīlam	would be punished
Commissive	ḵūṗtamīt	ḵūṗtamtam	shall walk	ḵabtehūl	ḵabtehlam	shall be punished
Subjunctive	ṇtaṗmīt	ṇtaṗmītam	may walk	ṇtībhūl	ṇtībhūlam	may be punished

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. Adverbs are placed into the stem ʾeCCaCū. An example of this is when the root ʾ-n-l (to be blind) is placed into the stem, it becomes "blindly".

Adverb declension

	Singular	Plural
Adverb	ʾeʾlanū	ʾeʾlanyam

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". Cardinal numerals precede the nouns they modify and are placed in the construct 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 vīkīm and ʾalkad (which becomes ʾalīkdad in plural); when a numeral is placed before them they become ʾaẏnī vīkīmī (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 (masc.)	Cardinal (fem.)	Cardinal (neut.)	Ordinal (neut.)
1	ʾaẏnī	ʾaẏna	ʾaẏnū	ʾeʾyan
2	nīmī	nīma	nīmū	nūmmēš
3	dajī	daja	dajū	dūjjēš
4	hatī	hata	hatū	hūttēš
5	ʾaẕafī	ʾaẕafa	ʾaẕafū	ʾūẕfēš
6	ʾapetī	ʾapeta	ʾapetū	ʾūptēš
7	ʾaramī	ʾarama	ʾaramū	ʾūrmēš
8	šabbī	šabba	šabbū	šūbbēš
9	ʾadīkī	ʾadīka	ʾadīkū	ʾūdkēš
X (10)	yamī	yama	yamū	yūmmēš
E (11)	ʾījītī	ʾījīta	ʾījītū	ʾūjtēš
10 (12)	ʾīlaẏkī	ʾīlaẏka	ʾīlaẏkū	taʾlīk

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-hījūnū, 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-hījūnū	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:

ʾAšol ṛ-ʾalīkdad ṛ-ʾīʾlūdrad ʾūldam.

ʾAšol	ṛ-ʾalīkdad	ṛ-ʾīʾlūdrad	ʾūldam
All	DEF-soldier-PL	DEF-golem-PL-ACC	ACT-PST-build-SG

"The soldiers guard the civilians."

vs. a passive sentence:

Nīšṉamam ṛ-havīr ṛ-mašarad ʾīm Hīqal.

Nī-šṉam-am	ṛ-havīr	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 Akhuva (ʾAḵūva Yat-Vṛḵaẕīkam [ʔaxu'βa jat-βɹ̩xaʑikam]) is the official writing script of Vrkhazhian. The script consists of 37 letters, 12 numeral glyphs, and 10 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 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 are unknown, however, the glyphs are based partially off of the logographic script of a sister language known as Husroth Qhadithcha, while the numeral glyphs are of entirely Vrkhazhian origin.

Letter names

Standard letters

The table below lists the 30 letters that are considered part of the Akhuva:

ʾAḵūva Yat-Vṛḵaẕīkam Letter Name Meaning Phoneme ʾAlaḵ wind ʾ [ʔ] Ḵav human ḵ [x] Vav cane v [β] Hīt lock h [h] Dat skull d [d] Ḏīm fruit, blood ḏ [t͡s] Bal path b [b] Sūm tunnel s [s] Ẕat helmet, child ẕ [ʑ~ʝ] Yav scythe y [j]

ʾAḵūva Yat-Vṛḵaẕīkam Letter Name Meaning Phoneme Ka water k [k] Gē wing g [g] Lam hand l [l] Maʾ bowl, cup m [m] Neš peace n [n] Ǧaẏm name ǧ [ɣ] Pak head p [p] Jīm pillar j [d͡ʑ~ɟ͡ʝ] Rū snake r [ɹ~ɾ] Faš vulture f [ɸ]

ʾAḵūva Yat-Vṛḵaẕīkam Letter Name Meaning Phoneme Šīm house š [ɕ~ç] Waj shield w [w] Tal gate t [t] Čī hook č [t͡ɕ~c͡ç] Zab branch z [z] Ḻam tree ḻ [ɬ~ɬʲ] Ḫak roof ḥ [χ~ħ] Qar you q [q] Ṟat fear ṟ [ʀ] Ṉod ear ṉ [ɴ]

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

Vowel diacritics

Mambīnad Yat-Vṛḵaẕīkam

Letter	Name	Meaning	Phoneme
	Walaʾīd	exposing	a [a]
	Šarūd	moon	e [ɛ]
	Maṉaʾīt	flowing	ē [e̞]
	Šafaʾīd	guiding	i [ɨ]
	Šīpīj	ground	ī [i]
	Ḵamaʾīt	crawling	o [ɔ]
	Ḵalōk	circle	ō [o̞]
	Šarja	hollow, empty	u/ə [ə]
	Mūḥlek	throne	ū [u]

Kbūrad Yat-Vṛḵaẕīkam

Numeral	Name	Phoneme
	ʾAẇda Yav	ẏ [e̯]
	ʾAẇda Waj	ẇ [o̯]

Numerals

Kīʾfarad Yat-Vṛḵaẕīkam

Numeral	Number	Name
	0	Šemt ("none")
	1	ʾAẏn
	2	Nīm
	3	Daj
	4	Hat
	5	ʾAẕa
	6	ʾApet
	7	ʾAram
	8	Šab
	9	ʾAdīk
	10/X	Yam
	11/E	ʾĪjīt

Other letters

The table below lists the letters that are not considered part of the Akhuva, but are considered to be variation of the letters in the Akhuva:

ʾAḵūva Yat-Vṛḵaẕīkam

Letter	Name	Phoneme
	Ṗak	ṗ [pʶ~pˤ]
	Ṭal	ṭ [tʶ~tˤ]
	Ḷam	ḷ [lʶ~lˤ]