Vaktrian language

Vektranamic
Ⲯⲉⲕⲧⲣⲁⲛⲁ̄ⲙⲁⲋ vektranāmas
6th century BC inscription
Region	Terranihil
Era	16th century BC - 2nd century AD (and until present in liturgy)
Revival	8th century AD
Language family	Indo-European Ecro-Avansertian Terranilic-Azumanakan Terranilic Vektranamic
Writing system	Vektranamic alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–

Vektranamic (Vektranamic:Ⲯⲉⲕⲧⲣⲁⲛⲁ̄ⲙ̄ⲙⲓ, Vektranámi) is a classical language of Terranihil belonging to the Terranilian-Azumanakan branch of the Ecro-Avansertian language family. It arose in south eastern Terranihil in the mid 2nd millenium BC from its predecessor, Proto-Terranilic, as the first recorded Terranilic language. It used the Vektranamic alphabet, derived from Greek. It was the language of the ancient Vektranamic Empire that existed from 1500-600 BC. It is the sacred language of X religion, the language of classical X philosophy, and of the X church.

Etymology

Vektranāmas (Ⲯⲉⲕⲧⲣⲁⲛⲁ̄ⲙⲁⲋ) is the endonym from which "Vektranamic" is derived. Vektranāmas likely comes from the words vaktram (ⲯⲁⲕⲧⲣⲁⲙ), meaning "mouth", and anaıam (ⲁⲛⲁⲓⲁⲙ), meaning "goat". Together the word means "goat mouth".

History

Classical Vektranamic

1600-1000 BC

Middle Vektranamic

1000-400 BC

Late Vektranamic

400 BC-200 AD

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Coronal			Palatal	Velar	Glottal
			dental	alveolar	post-alveolar
Plosive		/p/ p	/t/ t				/k/ k
Fricative		/f/ f	/θ/ d	/s/ s	/ʃ/ š		/x/ c	/h/ h
Affricate				/ts/ z	/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
Low	/a/ a		/aː/ ā

Diphthongs: ai, au, ia, iu

Morphology

Vektranamic 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

Vektranamic 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. Vektranamic 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 Vektranamic 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
	Instrumental	-irust	-ust	-imust
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
	Instrumental	-acust	-dust	-apust

Person

Person	Singular	Dual	Plural
First	ka-	ta-	ma-
Second	ha-	ti-	mri-
Third	sa-	stu-	smu-

Attributative verbs

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

Nouns

Vektranamic 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	-az	-saz	-ṭaz

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.

Vektranamic 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 nine 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.

Vektranamic personal pronouns

Person	Number	Case
		Nominative	Accusative	Dative	Genetive	Instrumental	At locative	On locative	In locative
First	Singular	kama	kamaı	kamal	kamila	kamuš	kamant	kamar	kamaz
	Dual	taıan	tanaı	tanal	tanila	tanuš	tant	taıarm	tanaz
	Plural	maıa	amaı	amal	maıala	amuš	maıant	maıarm	maıaz
Second	Singular	hama	hamaı	hamal	hamila	hamuš	hamant	hamar	hamaz
	Dual	tila	tilaı	til	tilal	tiluš	tilant	tilarm	tilaz
	Plural	mraıa	maraı	maral	mraıala	maruš	mraıant	mraıarm	mraıaz
Third	Singular	saša	sašaı	sašal	sašila	suš	sašant	sašarm	sašaz
	Dual	stuıam	stumaı	stumal	stumila	stumuš	stumant	stumarm	stumaz
	Plural	smaṭa	smaṭaı	smaṭal	smaṭila	smaṭuš	smaṭant	smaṭarm	smaṭaz

Vektranamic uses afa- to denote reflexivity in pronouns (e.g. afamaıa is themselves).

Vektranamic 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