Kosi

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  • Language name: Kosi
  • Language author: Trebor Jung
  • Started: December 2003
  • Abstract: I wanted to make a Uralic-esque language - but not a clone. Important features of Kosi include: (1) Tense is only optional (as in Chinese) and is indicated with temporal adverbs; perfectness takes its place. (2) Some grammatical functions are marked with ablaut (as in English and Kebreni), as well as with affixation. (3) Much of the vocabulary is Uralic: ir- 'to write', kek 'blue', and öt 'five' come from Hungarian; kaheks 'eight', kel- 'to speak', and tuli 'fire' come from Finnish. Some lexical items were borrowed from Romance: am- 'to like', mer 'ocean', mil 'one thousand'. (4) The language has numerous irregularities and oddities.

Internal History

Like Latin in Roman times on Earth, Kosi is the auxiliary language of the planet Kosia. It is the scholarly language, and the source of many creole languages spoken by the common people; cf. Vulgar Latin. Kosi's descendants have a distinct, non-Kosian feel slightly horrifying to the scholars. Previous to 1902, speaking one of the creoles in the presence of a scholar was punishable by imprisonment; happily, nowadays such speech is frowned upon by educated people but for speaking such a tongue will only result in laughter.

Kosi has many creoles, the main ones being Hezy /hez@/ and Huzí /huzi/. The most-liked (or rather, least-disliked!) of these creoles on the part of the scholars is one called Kezi /kezi/. On November 10, 2003, the Kosian Supreme Linguistic Assembly (SLA) passed a resolution making Kezi the second official language.

There are three forms of Kosi: Ancient Kosi, Classical Kosi, and Modern Kosi. The grammatical sketch and lexicon in this document is Modern Kosi material.

Ancient Kosi apparently had quite a large phonemic inventory and a complex grammar. Unfortunately, specifics are unavailable at this time because the scholars are still debating.

We know much more about Classical Kosi than Ancient Kosi, as scholars have been able to get an idea of what it might have sounded like. We know that Classical Kosi had a larger phonemic inventory than Modern Kosi; beside the consonants of Modern Kosi, Classical Kosi probably had the following extras: /f, K_d, S, tS, J, K_j, L, J\, q, G\/. The vowel system was quite different, and was probably something like /I, i:, Y, y:, E, e:, 9, 2:, a, a:, {, 7, O:, O, o:, M, U, u:/. Traces of the old phoneme inventory can be found in Modern Kosi: /i/ and /e/ (from /I/ and /E/) still back to /M/ and /7/ respectively, and consonantal length is still used (rare though it is) phonemically: tuli 'fire' vs. tulli 'wind'.

Grammar

Phonology

Kosi's phonemic inventory is as follows:

Consonants

Labial Labiodental Dental Alveolar Lateral Palatal Velar Glottal
Stops p, b t, d c k
Nasals m n
Fricatives v th, dh, s h
Affricate ts
Liquids r l
Glides j

Vowels

Front Mid Palatal Back
High i, ü û (1), u
Mid e, ö y jo ô (1), o
Low a ja

Diphthongs: ae /ai)/, au /au)/

Stress falls on the first syllable of a word.

Syllable structure is (C)V(C). If the addition of a suffix to a root or another suffix would cause an awkward consonant or vowel cluster, the epenthetic vowel /i/ or consonant /j/ is added. The following consonants do not cause this because they are pronounced as syllabic consonants: /m l n r/.

(1) These vowels are remnants of Classical Kosi's phonology, and are only found in words whose roots contained the vowels /i/ and /e/ which were backed to /M/ and /7/.

Morphology

Nominal and Adjectival Morphology

Case

Case Example (with noun has 'house')
Nominative has
Accusative hasyt
Dative hasad
Genitive hase
Instrumental hasi
Illative hasn
Allative hasjak
Inessive hasaik
Superessive hasult
Adessive hasim (2)
Elative hasel
Delative hasar
Ablative hasüb
Terminative hasjo
Commetative hasr
Benefactive hasaenk
Formal hasken

(2) -am may also be used temporally: ötam.

Possession

  • (non-nominative forms derived with the suffixes -l (accusative) and -n (dative))
Person Example (with noun has 'house')
1s hasmi
2s hasta
3s hasen
1p haspa
2p hasüt
3p hasyva

Plural

The first vowel of a root is changed as follows: i > û, ü > u, e > ô, ö > e, y > i, a > e, o > ö, u > ü.

Demonstratives

  • (non-nominative forms derived with the suffixes -t (accusative) and -n (dative))
Person Example (with noun has 'house')
1s hastu
2s hasti
3s hassa
1p hastü
2p hastû
3p hasse


Concordance Rules

Adjectives must agree in case and number with the nouns they modify. The same operations and suffixes are used for declension of adjectives and nouns. Use of quantifiers does not affect the number: öt 'five' + has 'house' = öt has 'five houses' - not *öt hes.

Comparison

Form Example (with adjective nac 'big')
Comparative of inferiority linac
Comparative of superiority denac
Superlative of inferiority tonac
Superlative of superiority runac
Equative sönac

There is no comparative conjunction: ‘X less-big Y’, 'X more-big Y', ‘X equally-big Y’, ‘X least-big Y’, 'X most-big Y'.

Verbal Morphology

Person

See possessive suffixes above; third person singular is marked with a null morpheme -0.

Aspect

Examples are with the verb keli 'to speak', adjective kek 'blue', or vila 'having reflected/illuminated light'.

Aspect Example
Perfect kel
Imperfect* kile
Habitual kelim
Inceptive keltö
Inchoative kekatö
Causative kelmit
Cessative kelse
Pausative kelda
Resumptive kelsu
Protractive kelke
Iterative kelha
Random kelvo
Frequentative keltü
Experiential kellau
Volitional* hiky
Intensive vilcö
Moderative vilkae
Attenuative veltsa
Crescendo vilnu
Decrescendo viladh
  • For imperfect, add the person endings and substitute the root vowel with the ending -i and -i with the root vowel.
  • For volitional, change the height of the first vowel: i > e, ü > ö, e > i, ö > ü, y > a, a > y, o > u, u > o.

Mood

Imperative* Kile!
Subjunctive keltae
Obligative keles
Abilitative Kelvi
Interrogative Kelviko?
  • *(see "Imperfect Aspect" above)

Valency

The suffix -yth converts intransitive verb to its transitive form, or vice versa.

Voice

Active kel
Passive kelen
Reflexive keljo
Reciprocal kelum

Switch-Reference

Derivation

Verbal noun lek 'book' (< leki 'to read'), hesti 'goodness' (< hasti 'good')
Gerund laka 'an act of reading' (< leki 'to read'), myska 'an act of singing' (< mysin 'to sing')
Verb tuli 'to burn' (< tuli 'fire'), mysin 'to sing' (< mysi 'music')
Adjective mysu 'musical' (< mysi 'music'), kal 'linguistic' (< kel 'language')
Perfect active participle leki
Perfect passive participle lekin
Imperfect active participle* like
Imperfect passive participle* liken
Personal participle* liki
  • *For the imperfect participles, substitute the root vowel with the ending -i and -i with the root vowel.
  • *For the personal participle, substitute the root vowel with the ending -i and -i with the root vowel, then raise or lower the second vowel, according to the pattern i > e, ü > ö, e > i, ö > ü, y > a, a > y, o > u, u > o.

Syntax

Basic word order is SOV. Relative clauses are formed using participles: kile man 'the man who spoke/the spoken man', inemi en 'the food I want to eat/the I-want-eat food'.

Lexicon

Kosi Etymology English
ami Spanish amar to like
e Finnish ei no
emy Hungarian ember person
es see esi food; meal
esi Hungarian eszek to eat
ev Hungarian év year
hali Hungarian hallani to listen; to hear; to perceive audibly
has Hungarian ház house
hasti Estonian hästi good; well
hul Welsh hwyl mood, atmosphere, emotion
huth Welsh chwith left (as opposed to right)
iri Hungarian ír to write
ja German/Estonian ja yes
karom Hungarian három and Finnish karom three
kek Hungarian kék blue
keli Estonian keel to speak
kesa Estonian kaheksa eight
ket Hungarian kettõ two
kinjo Welsh cinio lunch; midday meal
lec Spanish leche milk
leki Estonian lekuda to read
loti Estonian lotama to hope
luhi Swedish lugga to pull someone's hair
lunki Quechua llunk'uy to clean the plate and lick the fingers, to eat to one's heart's content
mer French mer ocean; sea
mil French mille one thousand
mys French musique music; song
naeru Rokbeigalmki ngiirau awe and respect for something dangerous
naran Hungarian narancs orange (colour)
naran rut orange (fruit)
nati Finnish to see; to perceive visually
neri Estonian neri four
ör Estonian öör evening; night
öt Hungarian öt five
piru Hungarian piros red
rut English fruit fruit
saba Arabic saba six
sali Greek psallo to sing
savi French savoir to be familiar with
so Hungarian szó word; morpheme
soba Estonian sõber loyal
sol French soleil sun, day
talva French table table
taua English tower tower
to Hungarian tó lake
tot Hungarian torta cake
tudi Hungarian tud to know (a fact)
tuli Finnish tuli fire
tulli Finnish tulli wind
ulis Polish julic street
üs Estonian üks one
vaco Hungarian vacsora dinner; supper
ved Spanish verde green
veni French venir to come
ves Finnish vesi water
vila unknown having reflected/illuminated light