Last update: 5 April 2007

Kadhrein

An Dekavurian noble famously opined after visiting the country in 1053 that "the Kadhrein tongue contains so many short words filled with consonants, and is so often spoken through the nose, that it is unpleasant to listen to, and it is difficult to understand how it has spread across such a large area, because its sensory appeal is thus so limited". This opinion betrays the then-fashionable equation of the vigour of a language with its supposed inherent aesthetic qualities, and was doubtless coloured by the fact that its speaker had just been rebuffed in an attempt to marry a rich Kadhrein woman, but it nonetheless reveals two of the most distinctive features of Kadhrein: the preference for closed monosyllables and the existence of nasal vowels. Moreover, in contrast to other contemporary Liotic languages, Kadhrein is largely an isolating language with SVO word-order, in which respect it somewhat resembles English and French.

Kadhrein has many dialects, with the western ones (those geographically furthest from Dekavur) being the most progressive and the eastern and northern the most conservative. The variety of the language described here is the one most widely spoken and understood, which is typical of the more populous western regions.

Phonology

Stress

Vowels

Two further distinctive characteristics of Kadhrein are the pronunciation of /a/ as a front vowel [a], unlike the more typical Liotic [A], and the nasalisation of vowels before syllable-final nasal consonants, for example /gø~J/ for geuny "daughter" and - with loss of the nasal consonant altogether - /fa~d/ for fand "tree". In the more progressive dialects, the high-mid vowels /e o ø/ are realised as diphthongs [ei ou øy].

In most dialects except those of the conservative east, the vowels were further subjected to vowel affection or umlaut if the following vowel was one of /i a u/; in general, /i/ raised or fronted a preceding vowel, /u/ raised or rounded, and /a/ lowered. For example, aisgíoch "bites" became etyikh, where the original initial /a/ was raised to /E/ by the following /i/; similarly, méinhiúch "melts" became meunzhukh, where the original /e/ (from /ei/) was rounded to /ø/. Here's a picture illustrating the changes; the colours are red, green, and blue for /a i u/-affection respectively.

/i/ and /u/ affection were also triggered at the starts of words by /j/ and /w/, for example eóc "new" > /joga/ > /jOg/ by /a/-affection > oeg /Øg/ and bairr "narrow, confined" > /wart/ > ort. /ji/ and /wu/ became /e/ and /o/ by dissimilation, for example buineach "eats" > /wuJEx/ > ounyekh and ile "back" > /jiL/ > eily.

As a result of these vowel developments, many Kadhrein words have different vowels from their Liotic cognates; compare etyikh with South Liotic ashkih or Ivrien atyekh.

Consonants

Despite the similarity of the consonant-system to that of Machren, it operates according to very different rules, and a different system of transcription is therefore used:

• The palatal stops /c J\/ are transcribed TY DY.
• The palatal and velar fricatives /C j\ x G/ are transcribed SH ZH KH GH.
• The remaining palatals /L J/ are transcribed L N before palatal consonants and LY NY otherwise.
• /N/ is transcribed N before /k x G/ and NG otherwise; NGG thus represents /Ng/.

The following were the most noticeable developments in the Kadhrein consonant system.

1. The mutation system was lost altogether.
2. Initial broad /b/ became /w/ before a vowel, with which it later coalesced, causing /u/-affection; e.g. baolad "roof" > /wØld/ > euld.
3. Older slender dentals and slender velars merged in the new palatal series; thus didy "slow" and dady "easy" from Liotan daoit and daic both had /J\/ from two different Liotan sources.
4. Intervocalic /b d J\ g/ became voiced fricatives /v D j\ G/, merging with the original Liotan voiced fricatives. Intervocalic /p t c k/ similarly voiced to /b d J\ g/, and in a related development /s/ was lost before a stop. These changes constituted a chain-shift in the obstruents; it may be observed in dasgoch "starves", doc "crab", pag "bow", and ceógh "bear", which became dakokh dog pagh hoegh.
5. /f v x G/ vocalised to /i i u u/ before another consonant, in addition to /p\ B C j\/: deachar "village, town" > /J\exra/ > J\eur/ > dyeur.
6. /T D/ "de-lisped" to /s z/, as in caill "dog" > /kaT/ > kas and llada "protrusion" > /lad/ > laz, causing inherited /s z/ to weaken to /h r/ initially before a vowel and between vowels (math "lump" > /mas/ > mah amd ceódh "share" > /CØz/ > hoer). Kadhrein /s/ thus often continued Liotan /K/, which ultimately derived from Sunovian /l/; the commonest example is the general negative sen "not", which derived from lle-N via /Ten/.
7. /r_j/ merged with /r/, which thus continued older /z r r_j/ as in hoer, rot "journey" and pour "eight" respectively.

Among the commonest dialectal differences are the pronunciation of /L/ as [j] in the most progressive dialects and the retention of original /T D s z r_j/ in many of the eastern dialects, which did not undergo the last two stages above.

Phonotactics

• Fricative, liquid, or nasal + stop: fend "tree", euld "roof".
• Liquid or nasal + fricative: seirkh "a hair".
• Fricative + liquid, as in moezl "pale" (compare French words like ivre).

Grammar

Nouns and adjectives

Uniquely in Liotic, Kadhrein nouns and adjectives neither inflect nor distinguish gender. Number and definiteness are instead indicated by the article.

No article is required for a singular indefinite noun; for a plural indefinite noun, the article is hoer, derived from Liotan ceódh "part of, a share of". The definite article is o, plural i; the demonstrative particle is one of iv "this", akh "that", and or "yonder".

• fend "a tree", hoer fend "(some) trees"
• o fend "the tree", i fend "the trees"
• fend khat "a tall tree", i fend khat "the tall trees"
• o fend khat akh "that tall tree", i fend akh "those trees"
• fend akh "one of those trees", hoer fend akh "some of those trees"

Possession

Possessed noun (+ article-n) + possessor
Possessed noun + preposition (+ article) + possessor

The first construction is more formal: euld ity "a house's roof", euld on ity "the house's roof". The second is more usual in speech, thus oeld tyou ity and oeld tyoekh ity respectively. tyoekh is a compound of tyou "on" and the singular definite article.

Comparisons

• Comparitive/Equative: particle + adjective + a (+ article) + noun
• Superlative: article + noun + particle + adjective

The particle is ras "the same as" for the equative and uv "more" or kouny /koJ/ "less" for the other two. The a in the comparitive combines with the article to make ou in the singular and ei in the plural.

• uv khat a fend "taller than a tree", kouny khat a fend "not as tall as a tree"
• o fend uv khat "the tallest tree", o fend kouny khat "the least tall tree"
• ras khat ou fend "as tall as the tree"
• uv khat ei fend "taller than the trees"

Pronouns

There are no separate possessive (genitive) forms of the pronouns; possession is indicated by placing the pronoun in front of the possessed noun, thus o hom ity "my house", hom ity "one of my houses".

The initial c- in the third person is a relic of Liotan eich in the emphatic construction; shan shely shor shal shiny derives from eich plus an el or al in.

The possessive pronouns derive from compounds with camh, and are formed by adding -k to the pronoun with -m -ny -ly becoming -n -n -l and -z dropping out; thus honk "mine", shelk "hers", ank "yours (plural)".

The demonstrative pronouns are formed with komv and the demonstrative particles: komv iv "this one", komv akh "that one", komv or "yonder one".

Prepositions

Pronominal forms of the prepositions are formed simply by appending the appropriate termination to the simple preposition, thus reh "to me", katar "from above it". The prepositions also combine with the definite articles, changing the directive endings to -oekh -ukh -okh in the singular and to -eish -eush -esh in the plural, thus roekh fend" to the tree", dyec fend "out of the trees". The prepositional pronouns are not used to qualify a noun: "to my house" was roekh hom ihty, not reh ihty.

Note also the triplets imve imvou imva "hither, here, hence", akhe akhou akha "thither, there, thence", and orkhe orkhou orkha "to yonder, yonder, from yonder".

Verbs

subject + preverbal particle + participle

This structure is derived from the Liotan emphatic structure with eich, and in the unmarked verbal phrase the "participle" is thus actually the descendant of the Liotan relative inflection of the verb; thus hom a meris, the Kadhrein for "I give", originates not in mairíor but in (eich) shamh aich mairíoth.

There are further imperfective and perfective verbal forms which derive from the compound Liotan verbal phrases with active participles and prepositional pronouns, for example hom az meris "I am eating" derives at some length from eich shamh a dhoich mairíolt llath. The full set of basic active forms, with their approximate English equivalents, is thus as follows.

These participles, and the two passive participles shown below, are the only inflected forms of the Kadhrein verb.

Thematic vowels

The passive participles are only used as adjectives. A sentence like *hom az haloedy is thus not possible for "I have been washed"; the correct form is khom az haloesht hom, with the impersonal pronoun as subject.

Further particles

The more progressive urban dialects drop the initial /a/ from these compound particles.

Every preverbal particle has interrogative and negative variants. The negative changes the initial a- to se- (in more conservative dialects the- /TE-/ or le-), and the interrogative changes it to fei-; thus:

• hom se meris "I am not giving"
• hom fei meris "am I giving?"
• hom sezbe meris "I do not need to give" (the negative of azbe)
• hom feizbe meris "do I need to give?"

Most of these particles are used in place of older Liotan modal verbs. A few modal verbs survive, such as einzheis "wants"; these govern participles in the usual way, for example hom a einzheis meruit "I want to give".

"To be"

These are used in sentences of definition, identity, and expression of quality, much as in Liotan. The older uncompounded versions of the prepositions are retained in such sentences: e hoer foukh toeg "the apple is red" (naturally or inherently), do hoer foukh toeg "the apple is red" (temporarily, from an external cause).

Numbers

The higher numbers are him "400" and reiny "8000".

Compound numbers are formed slightly differently from Liotan. The word for the smallest number precedes the noun, with all other words following it; for example:

• mel toeg kir "eleven apples"
• mel toeg heir "21 apples"
• mel toeg kir heir "31 apples"
• nav toeg ingeir hang him "886 apples" (6 + 80 + 2 x 400)
• mel toeg kir hom "eleven of my apples"
• o mel toeg kir hom "my eleven apples"

Except for shel "first" and hov "second", the ordinal numbers append -a to the cardinals, thus sheisa "third", poura "eighth".

Conjunctions

Derivation

Syntax

Word order

Adverbs

Relative clauses

o geuny a ounyes o toeg "the girl is eating the apple"
shely an kanzot "she was singing"

combine to give, using the pipe (vertical bar) to separate the clauses for ease of visual identification:

o geuny a ounyes o toeg | su an hanzot "the girl who was singing is eating the apple";

Two slightly more complicated examples are:

o geuny a ounyes o toeg | hom oenz meris su rely "the girl is eating the apple which I gave to her"; here the relative pronoun refers to the object of the relative clause.
o geuny a ounyes o toeg | hom oenz meris cor red "the girl to whom I gave an apple is eating it".

Dependent clauses

hom a einzheis ounyoet "I want to eat"
hom a einzheis o sheil hanzot "I want her to sing"

Emphasis

e hom a meris i toeg roekh geuny "*I* give ..."
ei toeg hom a meris su roekh geuny "I give the *apples* ..."
oe geuny hom a meris i toeg red "... to the *girl*"

Unlike in Liotan, sei, the past tense of the copula is used if the main verb is in the past tense. sei plus o and i gave seu and si, and so the past tense forms of the examples above are:

sei hom oenz meris ... "*I* gave ..."
si toeg hom oenz meris ... "I gave the *apples* ..."
seu geuny hom oenz meris ... ".. to the *girl*"

Interrogatives

gish oenz meris i toeg roekh geuny "who gave the apples to the girl?"
gish hom oenz a meris i toeg red "to whom did I give the apples?"
gish hom oenz a meris su roekh geuny "what did I give to the girl?"

Note also gi geuny hom oenz meris i toeg red "which girl did I give the apples to?"

Indefinites