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?
