Charos S'fik

About

Modern Charos S'fik is an evolved version of Traditional Kharos S'fik.
It was created 5/2006 by me (Pascal A. Kramm).

Culture

The speakers of Charos S'fik, the Hoka, are living majorly on Hokkaido (Japan's northern-most island), but a good amount of them also live on Honshû (the Japanese main island), and there mostly in the Kantô region. A small amount is still living on the Russian island Sakhalin north of Hokkaido.
Their name stems back from the late 16th century, when they first made contact with westerners (most likely Portuguese) who named them "Hocaidoes". They eventually adapted the name for themselves, but shortened it to "Hoka".

Origin

When analyzing their language, and also judging from their original Phoenician-derived script, it seems most likely that the Hoka were originally tribes coming from today's Germany and Scandinavia, as you can still find Germanic-sounding words in their vocabulary. From their original habitat, they moved more and more eastwards, crossing all of Russia on the way (which had quite an impact on their language), always looking for a good place to stay. They eventually set over to Sakhalin, and from there to Hokkaido, where they finally started settling down, while some moved on to Honshû and settled mostly in the Kantô region. Their language became significantly influenced by Japanese over time.

Modernisation

Starting with the Meiji Restauration of 1868, the Modernisation also reached the Hoka and eventually gave rise to Modern Charos S'fik.
The new script of Modern Charos S'fik, based upon the handwriting script of Charos S'fik, was influenced by the intensive trade and relations with Korea.

Grammar

Sentences have SOV order. All words consist of sound units which are usually made up of CV (consonant-vowel) pairs, though vowel-only or consonant-only units are also possible.
Final consonants are tacked onto the preceding unit. Every unit takes the same time to pronounce.
The stress lies on the first consonant-only unit or otherwise on the last unit.

Script

Modern Tifet Script

The Modern Charos S'fik script evolved from the original Tifet handwriting script.

In its creation, the Korean Hangul alphabet was taken as a model for the vowels and the syllable stacking.

Phonology

The Phonology has changed somewhat from the traditional version.

Alphabet

This table presents the alphabet in its proper order.
It is named chakra, after its first two consonant letters.

Sound	Ipa	Initial	Medial	Final	Unit by itself
a	a,ʌ	O	O	O	O
ä	æ	O	O	O	O
e	e,ɛ	O	O	O	O
ei	aɪ	O	O	O	O
i	i,ɪ	O	O	O	O
u	u,ʊ	O	O	O	O
o	o,ɔ	O	O	O	O
eu	oɪ	O	O	O	O
ja	ja,jʌ	O	O	O	O
jä	jæ	O	O	O	O
je	je,jɛ	O	O	O	O
ju	ju,jʊ	O	O	O	O
jo	jo,jɔ	O	O	O	O
jeu	joɪ	O	O	O	O
ch/kh	ç/x	ch	kh	kh	ch
kr	kʁ	O	O	O	O
k	k	-	O	O	-
t/d	t/d	t	d	t	-
n	n	O	O	O	-
f	f	O	O	O	O
m	m	O	O	O	-
p	p	-	O	O	-
j	j	O	O	-	-
r	ʁ	O	O	-	-
l	l	O	O	O	-
sh	ʃ	O	O	O	O
s	s	O	O	O	O
h	h	O	O	-	-

• kr is regarded as a single consonant
• initial vowels use a null-consonant (as in Korean Hangul)

Pronunciation rules

Two consonants have a different pronunciation, depending on their position in the word:

• ch/kh: ch if word-initial, kh otherwise.
• t/d: t at the beginning or end of a word or at the end of a syllable, d at the beginning of a syllable inside of a word.

If consonants are followed by any of the ja vowels (ja, jä, je...), many change their pronunciation:

• ch+ja -> cja [ʝa]
• kh+ja -> cha [ça]
• kr+ja -> kkha [kxa]
• k+ja -> kja [kça]
• t+ja -> tja [tça]
• d+ja -> dja [dʝa]
• n+ja -> nja [ɲa]

• f+ja -> fj [fja]
• p+ja -> pj [pja]
• s+ja -> sj [sja]

The consonants m, j, r, l, sh, h cannot be followed by a ja vowel.

Babel text

(coming soon)

Lexicon

(coming soon)

Numbers

(coming soon)