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 Pheyn Yeotl (literally "All is one"), which sees completeness and wholeness as perfection.

Phonology

Consonants

Xetlaqui consonants

	Bilabial	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 β	θ ð	s z		ʃ				h
Approximant				ɬ		j
Trill			r

Vowels

Xetlaqui consonants

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Close-mid	e eº		o
Mid		ø
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]	See above.
eu	[ø]
g	[g]
h	[ʔ]
i	[i]	Never pronounced as [j].
k	[k]
l	[ɬ]
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]	Pronounced as [pʰ] in Old Xetlaqui.
qu	[kʷ]	Always followed by a, e, i or o.
r	[r]
sh	[ʃ]
t	[t]
th	[θ]	Pronounced as [tʰ] in Old Xetlaqui.
tl	[tɬ]
tz	[ʦ]
u	[u]	Never pronounced as [w].
v	[β]
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 -tli in the nominative singular. The predominant letters in the ending forms of this declension are e and o. Words ending with a vowel followed by a d, g, m, t and th don't have -tli in the nominative singular. Words ending in aotl, eotl or eutl add a h before the other suffixes.

	xintli bee		challi house, home		uzgarri saw		yaotli war
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Nominative	xintli	xinek	challi	chalek	uzgarri	uzgarek	yaotli	yaohek
Genitive	xino	xinok	chalo	chalok	uzgaro	uzgarok	yaoho	yaohok
Dative	xinur	xinuri	chalur	chaluri	uzgarur	uzgaruri	yaohur	yaohuri
Accusative	xineo	xineok	chaleo	chaleok	uzgareo	uzgareok	yaoheo	yaoheok
Predicative	xinen	xineni	chalen	chaleni	uzgaren	uzgareni	yaohen	yaoheni

Second declension

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

	voratl mouth
	Singular	Plural
Nominative	voratl	vorak
Genitive	vorea	voreak
Dative	vorar	vorari
Accusative	vorao	voraok
Predicative	voran	vorani

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.

	heri sun
	Singular	Plural
Nominative	heri	herik
Genitive	heria	heriak
Dative	herir	heriri
Accusative	herio	heriok
Predicative	herin	herini

Lexicon

Main article: Xetlaqui/Lexicon