Kirmitite

[Shemtov]

Kirmitite (native name C̣haalu Kirmit) is the language of a civilization in a river delta on the other side of the desert that borders the
Chóonak'íit-speakers savannah to the northeast.

Phonology:
/p b pˤ t d tˤ ts dz tsˤ t͡ʃ d͡ʒ t͡ʃˤ k g q ʔ/ <p b ṗ t d ṭ c z c̣ ch j c̣h k g q '>
/m n/ <m n>
/f s ʃ x ħ ʕ h/ <f s š h̠ ḥ 3 h>
/r/ <r>
/l j w/ <l y w>

/i i: u u: (ə) a a:/ <i ī u ū e a ā>
/ai/
Schwa is marginally phonemic, occuring only in some forms of the verb and some broken plurals.
Phonotactics: CV(C)(C)

Nouns:
Nouns have two genders: Masculine and feminine. Except in a few words like 'īm, which refer to natural feminines, feminines end in post-alveolars and /j i i: ai/. All other nouns are masculine.
The definite article:
The singular definite article is <Fa> while the plural is <3u>. They are prefixes, and in definite nouns are the only way of showing singulars from plurals:
Farūj "The star"
3urūj "The stars"

Regular Indefinite nouns take plurals based on gender:
Masculine plural ending is (a)l, while the feminine is (i)n:

Ṗirut "an Obelisk"
Ṗirutal "Obelisks"

Rūj "a star"
Rūjin "stars"

Nouns have construct states, which means they are possessed by the noun the follows. The masculine form ending is (w)u, while feminine ending is (y)i.
Rūji faḥūnai
"A star of the moon"

The plural of the masculine contruct form is lu, while the feminine is (i)ni:
Rūjini faḥūnai
"Stars of the moon"

[Shemtov]

Pronouns:
1P sing: Nī
1P Plr: Na3u
2P sing masc: Cū
2p plr masc: Zū
2p sing fem.: Chī
2p plr fem: Jī
3p Sing Masc: 'as
3p plr masc: 'asal
3p sing Fem: 'aš
3p plr Fem: 'ašī

The possessive suffixes, shown with Rūj "star":
My star: Rūjan
Our star: Rūju3
Your (masc) star: Rūjac
You all's (masc )star: Rūjaz
Your (Fem) star:Rūjach
You all's (Fem)star: Rūjaj
His star: Rūjas
Her star: Rūjaš
Their (masc) star: Rūjal
Their (Fem) star: Rūjin

[Shemtov]

Because there is a null copula in the present tense, simple sentences can now be formed.
The rule is that the head noun comes first if it is the first or second person, or possessed by first and second person and last if third person:
Nī firu Kirmit
Nī fir-u Kirmit
1P person-CON Kirmit
"I am a Kirmitite"

Firu Kirmit 'as
"He is a Kirmitite"
The negative is formed by the particle h̠ā before the subordinate noun noun:
Baquban h̠ā fir
"My slave is not a person"


Broken Plurals:
Broken plurals are usually used for animals and body parts. There are 5 classes enumerated by Kirmitite Grammarians:
1. Monosyllabic nouns with a long vowel. The vowel is shortened:
Ṗār "Dog" Ṗar "dogs"
2. Monosyyllabic nouns with short vowels, the vowel is elided, and the prefix 'a is put in front. sometimes the vowel is replaced by a schwa, depending on euphonic rules:
Rim "Hand" 'arm "Hands"
3. Polysyllabic nouns with final long vowel. the long vowel is shortened. Mac̣ūh "stallion" Mac̣uh "Stallions"
3. Polysyllabic nouns with short final vowel. The short vowel is elided and sometimes the vowel is replaced by a schwa, depending on euphonic rules:
Qariš "tooth" Qarš "Teeth"
5. Polysyllabic nouns ending in a vowel. the vowel is elided or shortened:
Risā "Ram" Risa "Rams"

[Void]

This looks really great. Do continue posting some more.

A question, though: class 2 of plurals, how do you deal with potential homophones? Wouldn't a theoretical *ram be the same as rim?

[Shemtov]

This looks really great. Do continue posting some more.

A question, though: class 2 of plurals, how do you deal with potential homophones? Wouldn't a theoretical *ram be the same as rim?

Context usually deals with it, thogh if you want to be specific you put the plural in the construct state (which for broken plurals is the same as singulars) and follow it with a classifier.
Example:
Qaš "Ewe"
Qiš "Vagina"

'aqeši firi
"vaginas of a woman"

'aqeši ṭazūm
"Ewes of the flock"

[Shemtov]

The grades of the transitive verb:
The transitive verb has three grades, that effect how they interact with the object.
The first grade is the absolute grade. It is the basic form of the verb, and is used with the object marker 'ak or 'aki (depending on gender) before the object:
Farain jaisit 'ak baquban
"The King is killing my slave"

The second grade is the Nominal Grade. It is formed from bisyllabic verbs the same way broken plurals are formed before nouns. As monosyllabic verbs are really rare, I will not consider the formation of their nominal grade in this post. It is used to emphasize the object, and does not require the object marker:
Farain jaist baquban
"It is my slave the king is killing"

It is also used when two verbs come in contact with each other, the verb in the nominal state being like a conjugated verb, and the absolute grade being like an infinitive in IRL IE languages.
Verb Gaṗat "To desire"
Farain gaṗet jaisit 'ak baquban
"The king desires to kill my slave"

The third grade is the pronominal grade, which takes an object marker, when the object has alraedy been referred to. It is formed like the Nominal grade, but with the vowel ū attached to the end. The pronominal suffixes are the same as the possessive suffixes:
Farain jaistūs
"The king is killing him"

[Shemtov]

Tense and aspect are formed by proclitics on the verb:
Plain present tense: ∅
Habitual present: Mu
Plain past: ri
Perfective past: h̠ī
Habitual past: Bi
Future: 3ā

Thus:
Farain h̠ījaist baquban
"It was my slave the king had been killing"

Farain muqapūṭ 'ak yin
"The king habitually drinks wine"

Farain 3āqapūṭ 'ak yin
"The king will drink wine"

THE DATIVE PROCLITIC:
The dative proclitic is rū.
It can become a dative pronoun like this:
To me: Rūn
To us: Rū3
To You (masc) : Rūc
To You all (masc ): Rūz
To You (Fem) :Rūch
To You all (Fem): Rūj
To Him: Rūs
To Her : Rūš
To them (masc) : Rūl
To them (Fem) : Rūn

Thus
Farain rūn šakec̣ faṗirut
"It is an obelisk the king is giving me"

Some verbs require a dative dubject, most notably the verb 3ūput "to like"
Rūn 3ūput 'ak ṗirutal
"I like obelisks"

[Shemtov]

The locative Clitics:
The locative clitics are divided into two categories, the locative clitic (at the location) on one hand, and the ablative and allative clitic on the other.
The locative clitic has three forms, all proclitics: The indefinite proclitic, the definite singular proclitic, and the the definite plural proclitic, which are Li-, La- and Lu-
Farain muqapūṭ 'ak yin luṗirut
"The king habitually drinks wine at the obelisks"

The ablative and allative clitics each have two forms an indefinite proclitic, and a definite enclitic:
maṗirut- To an obelisk.
Faṗirutam- to the obelisk
Būṗirut-From an obelisk
Faṗirutub- From the obelisk:

Nī matāṭ maṗirut
"I go to an obelisk"

'as dūbaj taru faqasīlub
"He rides from the trade route"

[Shemtov]

Relative clauses are formed by speacial relative proclictics:
Past tense: Da
Present tense: Hū
Future: ḥī

Fafir damatāṭ maṗirut, 3ājaisit 'ak baquban
"The man who went to the obelisk, will kill my slave"

[Shemtov]

To form an actor noun from the verb one adds the prefix mā to the plain form of the verb.
mājaisit
"A murderer"

Mīrat
"To plow"
māmīrat
"A farmer"

To form a noun of place the same prefix is added with the suffix -ā
māmīratā
"A farm"

To form the noun of instrument, the suffix -ī is added; all such nouns are thus feminine.
māmīratī
"A Plow"

[Shemtov]

Atributive Adjectives inflect for gender, number and definiteness. they come before the noun
The declension of the adjective ṭūl "Bad"
Masculine singular: ṭūl
Masculine plural: ṭūlal
Feminine singular: ṭūli
Femninine plural: ṭūlīy
Masculine definite singular: Faṭūl
Masculine definite plural: Haṭūl
Fem. definite singular: Faṭūli
Fem. definite plural: Haṭūli

Predicative adjectives put the masculine singular form of the adjective after the noun:
Farūj ṭūl
"The star is bad"

Comparision is formed by NOUN A ša NOUN B ADJECTIVE:
Ṗar ša risa ṭūl
"Dogs are worse then rams"

[Shemtov]

h̠ā is used before the verb to negate it.

Farain h̠ā hū3ākt rūjin, 'as zaq
"The king who doesn't listen to the stars is cursed"

[Shemtov]

The mood proclitics:
Imperative: Qa
Jussive: cū
Hypothetical: sī
Conditional: nu

What I call the jussive is used a third person imperative, an optative and a propositive:
Na3u cūmatāṭ maṗirut
"Let us go to the obelisk"

The hypothetical is used for all other irrealis statements:
Zaq farain h̠ā sī3ākt rūjin
"Cursed is the king who doesn't listen to the stars"


The conditional is used a the protasis of a conditional sentence
Farain h̠ā nu3ākt rūjin, 'as zaq
"If the king doesn't listen to the stars, he is cursed".

[Shemtov]

Expressing "To have":
The verb Tām is an irregular verb, that's always considered to be in the nominal grade. It requires the a dative subject:
Rū farain tām yin
"The king has wine"

In informal situations tām can be omitted, with the dative head noun signifiying the act of possesion:
Rūn Ṗār
"I have a dog"

[Omzinesý]

The grades of the transitive verb:
The transitive verb has three grades, that effect how they interact with the object.
The first grade is the absolute grade. It is the basic form of the verb, and is used with the object marker 'ak or 'aki (depending on gender) before the object:
Farain jaisit 'ak baquban
"The King is killing my slave"

The second grade is the Nominal Grade. It is formed from bisyllabic verbs the same way broken plurals are formed before nouns. As monosyllabic verbs are really rare, I will not consider the formation of their nominal grade in this post. It is used to emphasize the object, and does not require the object marker:
Farain jaist baquban
"It is my slave the king is killing"

It is also used when two verbs come in contact with each other, the verb in the nominal state being like a conjugated verb, and the absolute grade being like an infinitive in IRL IE languages.
Verb Gaṗat "To desire"
Farain gaṗet jaisit 'ak baquban
"The king desires to kill my slave"

The third grade is the pronominal grade, which takes an object marker, when the object has alraedy been referred to. It is formed like the Nominal grade, but with the vowel ū attached to the end. The pronominal suffixes are the same as the possessive suffixes:
Farain jaistūs
"The king is killing him"

What does grade actually mean? Stem of some inflectional subparadogm?

The examples would give more if glossed.

[Shemtov]

What does grade actually mean? Stem of some inflectional subparadogm?

.

It's a templatic morphology; I'm basing the verb system on late Coptic, and "grade" is the term used in the literature- it seems to be a similiar system to Hebrew Binyanim, or at least analyzed as being from the same source in Proto-Afro-Asiatic, though obviously used for a different purpose.

[Shemtov]

The copular sentence can be formed in the past and future tense by adding the proclitic to the secondary noun. The past tense is ri and the future tense is 3ā
Fafir ribaquban
"The man was my slave"

the conditional nu can be used, too:
Fafir nubaquban, farain jaistūs
Fa-fir nu-baqub-an, fa-rain jaist-ū-s
DEF-man COND-slave-1P DEF-king kill-PRONOM-3P
"If the man was my slave the king would be killing him"

[Shemtov]

Voice is shown by particles that proceed the TAM particles:
Passive: c̣i
Intensive: 'aq
Reflexive: reduplication of the TAM particle. 'a if in the plain present


baquban c̣ijaisit 'ak Farain
"My slave was killed by the king"

Farain 'aqh̠ījaist baquban
"It was my slave the king slaughtered"


Farain h̠īh̠ījaisit
"The king has committed suicide"

[Shemtov]

The particle 'ar is used as the conjunctive particle between nouns, in other words the equivalent of English "and":

Farain 'ar šūmalas h̠ā hū3ākt rūjin, 'as zaq
"The king and his officers that don't listen to the stars are cursed"

'ar is used after a plain noun to mean "also" or "even":
Farain 'ar h̠ā hū3ākt rūjin, 'as zaq
"Even a king who doesn't listen to the stars is cursed"

Before a noun it means "more then:
'ar farain h̠ā hū3ākt rūjin, 'as zaq
"It is not just the king alone who, if he doesn't listen to the stars, will be cursed."

[Shemtov]

In addition to 'ar, Kirmitite has a rich system of nominal Coordinating conjunctions.
Hai is the negative version of 'ar, corresponding to English "nor":

Farain hai šūmalas nu3ākt rūjin, 'asal zaq
"If the neither the king nor his officers listen to the stars, they are cursed"

Hai is used after a plain noun to mean or " not even":
Farain hai nu3ākt rūjin, 'as zaq
"If not even a king listens to the stars, he is cursed"

The conjunction sa means "or":

Farain sa šūmalas nu3ākt rūjin, 'asal zaq
"If the king or his officers don't listen to the stars, they are cursed"

The conjugation sār means and/or:
Farain sār šūmalas nu3ākt rūjin, 'asal zaq
"If the king and/or his officers don't listen to the stars, they are cursed"


The particle ga, coming at the end of a list has the effect of 'ar in it's use of "and" but with the emphasis on the last noun. It may be translated as "and even"
Farain šūmalas ga h̠ā hū3ākt rūjin, 'asal zaq
"The king and even his officers that don't listen to the stars, are cursed"