Vaktrian language

Vaktrian
Ⲯⲁⲕⲧⲣⲓⲁⲋ Vaktrıas
6th century BC inscription
Region	Terranihil
Era	8th century BC - present
Language family	Vaktrian Proto-Vaktrian Classical Vaktrian Vaktrian
Writing system	Vaktrian alphabet (8th c. BC - 6th c. AD), Romanyan script (~6th c. AD - present)
Official status
Official language in	Terranihil
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–

Vaktrian (Vaktrian:Ⲯⲁⲕⲧⲣⲓⲁⲋ, Vaktrias) is a language that emerged in the 8th century BCE as Classical Vaktrian. It is the language of the Vaktrian people and official language of Terranihil. It has six living dialects. Its standardized form, a modernization of Classical Vaktrian, is the lingua franca of Terranihil.

Etymology

The native name for Vaktrian is Vaktrıas (Ⲯⲁⲕⲧⲣⲓⲁⲋ in Classical Vaktrian). Vaktrıa from Proto-Vaktrian means "road" or "way". The -as suffix in Vaktrian changes a noun into an adjective, thus Vaktrıas is best translated as "[language] of the road".

History

Classical Vaktrian

800 BC - 200 AD

Northern and Southern Vaktrian

200-1200 AD

Development of dialects

1200 AD - present

Standardization

19th century

One of the most significant phonological changes from Classical to Standard is the loss of voiced plosives. Voiced plosives had dissappeared from Northern Vaktrian and most of the following dialects. Another major change is the addition of the two affricates in Standard Vaktrian.

The major morphological changes include the grammatical person for verbs becoming prefixes rather than standing alone and the locative noun cases becoming suffixes rather than standing alone.

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Coronal			Palatal	Velar	Glottal
			dental	alveolar	post-alveolar
Plosive		/p/ p	/t/ t				/k/ k
Fricative	voiceless	/f/ f	/θ/ ṭ	/s/ s	/ʃ/ š		/x/ c	/h/ h
	voiced	/v/ v	/ð/ ḍ
Affricate				/ts/ ž	/tʃ/ č
Nasal		/m/ m			/n/ n
Liquid					/r/ r, /l/ l
Semivowel						/j/ ı

Vowels

	Short		Long
High	/i/ i	/u/ u	/iː/ ī	/uː/ ū
Mid	/ɘ/ e
Low	/a/ a		/aː/ ā

Diphthong: au, eu

Morphology

Syntax tree with translation for the sentence: haı rasev cefaı damunaı havtaı inkaımaz meaning a man sees the dog in the house

Vaktrian is an agglutanative language which utilizes both prefixes and suffixes to denote verb person, tense, mood, and aspect and noun case. The word order is subject-object-verb.

Verbs

Vaktrian has three tenses: past, present, and future; two aspects: perfective and progressive; five moods: interrogative, imperative, conditional, potential, and subjunctive; and nine persons corresponding to the nine pronouns. Grammatical person and negation is expressed by verb prefixes, while tense, aspect, and mood are expressed by suffixes. Negation is denoted with a ne- prefix. Vaktrian verbs tend to have end with -at, -it, or -aı.

Negation comes before person in the prefix. The order for suffixes is tense and aspect then mood. Word structure:

negative + person + verb + tense/aspect + mood Example:

netuhatimeṭ (you might not have been eating) This allows Vaktrian to express whole sentences in single words.

Person is generally only denoted with a suffix if a subject is not given in a sentence.

Tense, aspect, and mood

Aspect	Mood	Case
		Past	Present	Future
Perfective	No mood	-ir		-im
	Subjunctive	-ira	-a	-ima
	Conditional	-irin	-in	-imin
	Potential	-irač	-ač	-imač
	Imperative	-iruk	-uk	-imuk
	Interrogative	-iriš	-iš	-imiš
Progressive	No mood	-ac		-ap
	Subjunctive	-aca	-sa	-apa
	Conditional	-acin	-sin	-apin
	Potential	-akač	-sač	-apač
	Imperative	-acu	-suk	-apuk
	Interrogative	-aciš	-diš	-apiš

Person

Person	Singular	Dual	Plural
First	ka-	ta-	ma-
Second	haı-	ti-	mri-
Third	saı-	stu-	smu-

Attributative verbs

Vaktrian allows a verb to modify a noun as an adjective with the suffix -čes.

Nouns

Vaktrian has no grammatical gender; three numbers: singular, dual, plural; and six cases: nominative, accusative, dative, genitive, instrumental, and locative.

Case name	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative		-is	-aṭ
Accusative	-aı	-saı	-ṭaı
Dative	-al	-sal	-ṭal
Genetive	-ila	-sila	-ṭila
Instrumental	-uš	-suš	-ṭuš
At locative	-ant	-sant	-ṭant
On locative	-arm	-sarm	-ṭarm
In locative	-až	-saž	-ṭaž

Genitive case is applied to the possessor noun, and the possessed noun comes before the possessed. When a possessed noun has an additionial case other than the genitive, the genitive suffix is added to the end.

Adjectives and adverbs (which are generally identical) occur after the noun or verb they modify and often end with -as. Nouns are often modified to adjectives with the -as suffix.

Vaktrian has the indefinite article haı, but lacks a definite article. The article agrees with its noun by also adopting the case suffixes.

Pronouns

Vektramic has eight personal pronouns. They are not gendered. All of the noun cases apply to pronouns; however, instrumental case denotes accompaniment rather than usage and the at locative case denotes near or around.

Vaktrian personal pronouns

Person	Number	Case
		Nominative	Accusative	Dative	Genetive	Instrumental	At locative	On locative	In locative
First	Singular	kama	kamaı	kamal	kamla	kamuš	kamant	kamar	kamaž
	Plural	maıa	amaı	amal	maıla	amuš	maıant	maıarm	maıaž
Second	Singular	hama	hamaı	hamal	hamla	hamuš	hamant	hamar	hamaž
	Dual	tila	tilaı	til	tilal	tiluš	tilant	tilarm	tilaž
	Plural	mraıa	maraı	maral	mraıla	maruš	mraıant	mraıarm	mraıaž
Third	Singular	aša	ašaı	ašal	ašla	uš	ašant	ašarm	ašaž
	Dual	stuıam	stumaı	stumal	stumla	stumuš	stumant	stumarm	stumaž
	Plural	smaṭa	smaṭaı	smaṭal	smaṭla	smaṭuš	smaṭant	smaṭarm	smaṭaž

Vaktrian uses ava- to denote reflexivity in pronouns (e.g. avamaıa is themselves).

Vaktrian has three classes of demonstratives (proximal, medial, and distal) which also denote number (singular, dual, or plural).

	Singular	Dual	Plural
Proximal	čaıa	siıa	ṭaıa
Medial	časin	isan	ṭiıan
Distal	ačal	isal	iṭan