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Zikãti

Zikãti

Zikãti () is an agglutinative language I am currently working on as an experiment. It doesn’t have any worldbuilding around it yet and may never have. I’m mostly experimenting with vocabulary generation with a language relying heavily on affixes modifying the meaning of a root word.

Phonology

Consonants

Zikãti has a moderately small consonant inventory with seventeen phonemes. Three of these phonemes are prenasalized plosives, and its alveolar consonants are laminal.

b
d
g
h
k
l
m
mb
n
nd
nz
p
q
r
s
t
z
bilabial lamino-alveolar velar labial-velar glottal
nasal m n g
nasalized plosive mb nd
nasalized sibilant affricate nz
plosive p b t d k q
affricate z
fricative s h
trill r
lateral approximant l

Vowels

Zikãti has a total of six vowels, which makes it relatively average in terms of size. Three of these vowels are nazalised:

a
ã
ẽ
i
õ
u 
(conlanging-graphviz-feature-tree vowels :label "vowels")
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Zikãti Vowels Featural Tree

Syllable and word structure

Group Consonants
C m n g mb nd nz p b t d z k q s h r l
C2 g p b t d z k q r h
V i u ẽ õ a ã
V[-nasal] i u a
V[+nasal] ã ẽ õ

Prefixes follow the (C2)V[-nasal] phonetic structure, with C2 being optional. Suffixes follow the CV[+nasal](C2) structure with C2 being optional.

Roots are a bit more complex, with a C(V[+nasal](C2)C)V[-nasal](C2) structure.

The only consonants that can follow the vowels õ and ẽ are non-nasal plosive consonants. These two vowels cannot follow the consonants m, n, or g. If such an occurence is created be it while constructing a word or when they co-occur between words, a dummy is added.

A word may contain one or more core roots which affixes cannot separate but which can aggregate around this word core. A word can consist of its bare core only, or the core surrounded by affixes. The amount of prefixes and suffixes is independent from each other.

Grammar

Word structure

Affixes

Most words in Zikãti is an agglutination of affixes around one or more roots or words. Roots are relatively rare to find by themselves since most of them are bound morphenes and not words by themselves, such as kãti which expresses the idea of a mountain but doesn’t really mean anything on its own, speakers of Zikãti cannot use it by itself.

For the meaning of some abbreviations in the list of prefixes and suffixes, see Abbreviations.

Prefixes
hi-
INSTV
hu-
TOOL
i-
COL
ka-
POSSIB
pi-
DIM
qa-
AUG
qi-
ADJ
qu-
PROG
ra-
LOC
ru-
NEG
ti-
CAUS
zi-
PERS
Suffixes
-dãt
PART
-gãs
AGAT
-hãr
NECESS
-hẽ
INTR
-kõt
PARTN
-nzẽz
AVER
-rã
TR
-sõr
NOMIN
-zãr
PASS

Word order

Zikãti is a postpositional language following the SOV word order in main clauses, meaning the verb comes last whereas the subject comes first and the object slots itself between the subject and the verb. However, due to the language’s agglutinative nature, the speaker can omit them in the sentence if the verb’s agreement is enough in context to determine what is being talked about.

::: tip Example

sahhẽqulur

  • sah-hẽ-qu-lur
  • spirit.mind-INTR-PROG-2sg.NOM.PST

You were thinking

::: ::: tip Example

zimbi mbisõr mbirãilih

  • zi-mbi mbi-sõr mbi-rã-i-lih
  • PERS-meat.food meat.food-NOMIN meat.food-TR-3s.NOM.NPST-3s.ACC.NPST

The cook prepares a meal

:::

Other elements that are not the subject or the object, such as a dative or an oblique element, get slotted between the subject and the object.

::: tip Example

zimbi pimbi ziirailik timbirãhilih

  • zi-mbi pi-mbi zi-i-ra-i-lik ti-mbi-rã-hi-lih
  • PERS-meat.food DIM-COL-LOC-COL-person.human CAUS-meat.food-TR-3s.NOM.PST-3s.ACC.PST

A cook fed a villager a snack

:::
Noun phrase order

In noun phrases, adjectives, relatives clauses, numerals, possessives, and genitives preceed the noun while determiners follow it. By order of element closest to the noun, they rank as follows:

  • determiner
  • possessive
  • adjective
  • numeral
  • genitive
  • relative

Verbs

Verbs in Zikãti agree with their subject and object in person and number, with anaphoric clitics, but these clitics also indicate the tense of the verb. Zikãti has two tenses: past and non-past which expresses present and future as well as near-past when its events still carry over to the present.

Anaphoric clitics are suffixed to the verb with the subject first followed by the object’s clitic.

non-past subject non-past object past subject past object
1s qa tut raq qut
2s lu pia lur a
3s i lih hi lih
4s bu qur bu qur
1px gai ar gai tar
1pi zu iq qir zur
2p lai iaz uit iaz
3p pi up au up
::: tip Example
kãtikõthẽqa
I hike
kãtikõthẽbu
it hikes
kãtikõthẽgai
we (but not the interlocutor) hike
:::

Abbreviations

ACC
accusative
ADJ
adjective
adj.
adjective
adv.
adverb
AGAT
agative (prone to smth, liking)
AUG
augmentative
AVER
avertive, badness
CAUS
causative
COL
collective, collection
con.
concept
DIM
diminutive
INSTV
instantiative
INTR
intransitive verb
LOC
locative
n.
noun
NECESS
necessitive
NEG
negative
NOM
nominative
NOMIN
nominalisation, nominalizer
NPST
non-past
PART
participle
PARTN
partisan
PASS
passive verb
PERS
person
POSSIB
possibility, capacity, ability
PROG
progressive, process
PST
past
TOOL
thing, tool
TR
transitive verb
vi.
intransitive verb
vt.
transitive verb

Vocabulary

mbi - meat, food

mbi (n.)
meat, food
mbisõr (n.)
a meal
mbihẽ (vi.)

to cook, to prepare food

::: tip Example

qumbihẽqa

  • qu-mbi-hẽ-qa
  • PROG-meat.food-INTR-1s

I’m preparing food / I’m cooking

:::
mbirã (vt.)

to cook (something)

::: tip Example

zimbi mbisõr qumbirãiqur

  • zi-mbi mbi-sõr qu-mbi-rã-i-qur
  • PERS-meat.food meat.food-NOMIN PROG-meat.food-TR-3s.NOM-4s.ACC

The cook is cooking the meal

:::
mbirãzãr (vt.)

to be cooked by

::: tip Example

mbisõr zimbi qumbirãzãrbulih

  • mbi-sõr zi-mbi qu-mbi-rã-zãr-bu-lih
  • meat.food-NOMIN PERS-meat.food PROG-meat.food-TR-PASS-4s.NOM-3s.ACC

The meal is being cooked by the cook

:::
qimbi (adj.)
edible
mbidãt (adj.)
cooked
zimbi (n.)
a cook, chef
rambi (n.)
a kitchen
zirambi (n.)
a chef
humbi (n.)
a knife
humbihẽ (vi.)
to stick a knife in something
humbirã (vt.)
to cut
zihumbi (n.)
a butcher
zihumbihẽ (vi.)
to prepare meat
zihumbirã (vt.)
to butcher
humbirãsõr (n.)
a cut
timbirã (vt.)
to feed someone
timbihẽ (vi.)
to feed oneself
qambi (n.)
a meal, feast
pimbi (n.)
a snack

keti - mountain

kãti (n., concept)
mountain
kãtisõr
a mountain
pikãti (n.)
a hill
qakãti (n.)
summit