Kjaxono language

Kjaxono is a language belonging to the Xjedgjaŋ language family, primarily spoken in Xjetjeŋ and in small communities across Brausia.

Phonology

See main article: Kjaxono phonology

Consonants

Kjaxono's consonant inventory of [however many..] phonemes is typical of other Xjedgjaŋ languages. However, compared cross-linguistically, Kjaxono's phonology is quite unusual. Even for Xjedgjaŋ languages, it features a rich series of uvular consonants

Consonant phonemes of Kjaxono

		Bilabial		Alveolar		Post-alveolar	Velar		Uvular	Glottal
		plain	palatalized	plain	palatalized		plain	palatalized
Nasal		m /m/	mj /mʲ/	n /n/	nj /nʲ/		ŋ /ŋ/	ŋj /ŋʲ/	ng /ɴ/
Plosive	voiceless	p /p/	pj /pʲ/	t /t/	tj /tʲ/		k /k/	kj /kʲ/	q /q/	' /ʔ/
	aspirated	ṕ /pʰ/	ṕj /pʲʰ/	t́ /tʰ/	t́j /tʲʰ/		ḱ /kʰ/	ḱj /kʲʰ/	q́ /qʰ/
	voiced	b /b/		d /d/			g /g/	gj /gʲ/	gq /ɢ/
Affricate	voiceless			c /t͡s/	cj /t͡sʲ/	tš /t͡ʃ/	x /k͡x/	xj /k͡xʲ/	qx /q͡χ/
	voiced			ż /d͡z/	żj /d͡zʲ/	dž /d͡ʒ/	ǧ /ɡɣ/	ǧj /ɡɣʲ/	q̌x /ɢʁ/
Fricative	voiceless			s /s/	sj /sʲ/	š /ʃ/	x̌ /x/	x̌j /xʲ/	x̌q /χ/	h /h/
	nasalized			ś /s̃/	śj /s̃ʲ/
	voiced	bh /β/		z /z/	zj /zʲ/	ž /ʒ/			rq /ʁ/
Liquid				l /l/	j /ʎ/				r /ʀ/

Notes

• The status of /ʀ/ is extremely variant among Kjaxono speakers. It can be alveolar, post-velar, or even dental. In some speakers, it has merged with the voiced uvular fricative /ʁ/.
  • Most speakers pronounce /ʀ/ as /ʀ̥/ word-finally. This is not a universal phenomenon; [.efawifaewjiegjiwg]
• Fairly irregularly, some speakers pronounce /ʎ/ as a post-palatal lateral approximant /ʎ̞/. This occurs most commonly when in the same syllable as a uvular sound.
• /β/ and /ʁ/ are occasionally devoiced at the start of words.
• /s/ and /sʲ/ are pronounced word finally as dento-alveolars, /s̟/ and /s̟ʲ/, or even as dentals /s̪/ /s̪ʲ/.
• /x/ is usually pronounced as /ɣ/ when between front vowels (i.e /i(:)/, /æ/, and /e:/).
• In some speakers, /χ/ has merged with /x/. In addition, /k͡x/ and /k͡xʲ/ have merged with /q͡χ/.
• In the northernmost dialects of Kjaxono, voiced consonants inbetween vowels have become aspirated and voiced, and in some local dialects even into ejectives. In the dialects with ejectives, these have not affected affricates.

Vowels

Kjaxono plain vowels

	Front		Back
	short	long	short	long
Close	i /i/	ǐ /i:/	u /u/	ǔ /u:/
Open	a /æ/	e /e:/	o /o/	ǒ /o:/

All Kjaxono vowels with the exception of /e:/ can be nasalized, as shown below.

Kjaxono nasalized vowels

	Front		Back
	short	long	short	long
Close	i̖ /ĩ/	ǐ̖ /ĩ:/	u̖ /ũ/	ǔ̖ /ũ:/
Open	a̖ /ã/		o̖ /õ/	ǒ̖ /õ:/

Orthography

Kjaxono uses a modified form of the Mallian alphabet called the malqtksa̖.

Grammar

See main article: Kjaxono grammar

Kjaxono is a decisively agglutinative language, with plentiful fusional and polysynthetic characteristics. Kjaxono, along with other languages of the [...] language family comprise the only example of languages with a morphosyntactic alignment of transitive-intransitive - with the subject of an intransitive verb being inflected for an intransitive case. This feature is one of the most notorious features of Kjaxono. Otherwise, Kjaxono nouns rather simply decline for only 2 cases - transitive and intransitive, as previously stated. In addition, while not explicitely inflected, Kjaxono nouns also have 2 numbers - singular and plural. Kjaxano features no grammatical gender and no adjectival agreement of any form.

In contrast, verbs are by far the most inflecting part of speech in Kjaxono. In some cases, they can represent entire sentences by themselves. Kjaxono verbs are often the epicenter of linguistic research into the language, and verbs in the Xjedgjaŋ language family as a whole are generally one of their most known attributes in linguistics as a whole. For a overview, see §6 Verbal System and Kjaxono verbs.

Pronouns

Personal pronouns in Kjaxono

	Singular					Plural
	First-person	Second-person	Third-person			First-person	Second-person	Third-person
			Kjarelen	Non-kjarelen	Inanimate			Kjarelen	Non-kjarelen	Inanimate
Transitive	ce	ǐŋce	kjace	hamce	żoxe	cet	ǐŋcet	kjacet	hamcet	żoxet
Intransitive	zu	zeb	bekjo	hecjo		żecjet	cjet	kjabǒt	hamǒżt

In Kjaxono, only pronouns are inherently given a gender. There are three genders used: Kjarelen, used for Kjarelen species individuals, Non-kjarelen, used for non-kjarelen species individuals, aswell as non sapient animals and animate phenomena and objects, such as rain, cities, and so on, and inanimate, used for inanimate objects. Pronouns in Kjaxono are not differentiated via sex; one differentiates the sex of the noun replaced via said noun's sex being added after the pronoun. Consider the following phrase:

Nouns

As stated previously, Kjaxono nouns inflect for two cases, and 2 numbers. The transitive case is unmarked, and marks the subject of a transitive verb. The intransitive case is marked by the suffix -(ie)b. The intransitive case marks the subject of an intransitive verb. The intransitive cases sometimes takes slightly different marking based on the final phonemes of the noun it is attached to. Generally, if the noun ends with 2 or less consonants, only -b is attached; otherwise, -ieb is attached.

Case

Aside from Kjaxono's morphosyntactical alignment, case in Kjaxono is fairly straightforward. As previously stated, Kjaxono nouns inflect for two cases - the transitive and intransitive. The transitive case is unmarked and the intransitive case is marked by the suffix -(ie)b. This case's form is somewhat irregular - pronouns in the intransitive case are transparently different from their normal forms. In addition, they take slightly different forms when being applied to proper names, and inanimate nouns.

The rules for applying the intransitive case for nouns are fairly straightforward. Some speakers of Kjaxono have merged the rules for proper names and inanimate nouns with those from ordinary nouns. This is more common in [insert dialect here], but can be found across Xjetjeŋ.

Intransitive case

	Romanization	IPA	Example	Stem Meaning
Nouns ending with a single consonant, or vowel	-b	/b/	miagqub	cat
Nouns ending with two or more consonants	-ieb	/ie:b/	bhqǔngqieb	village
Proper names ending with a single consonant, or vowel	-bh	/β/	aqcjambh	aqcjam
Proper names ending with two or more consonants	-abh	/æβ	migqeżkabh	migqeżk
Inanimate nouns ending with a single consonant, or vowel	-ab	/æb/	qa'roab	building
Inanimate nouns ending with two or more consonants	-abh	/æβ/	aicŋabh	tree bark

Articles

There are four articles that are used in Kjaxono. They are suffixes that are attached onto the noun directly. Kjaxono has two types of article - the definite and indefinite - which change form slightly based on their plurality or lack of plurality. The articles are notably different from how plurality is marked on nouns. Articles do not change based on the ending of the nouns of which they mark, occasionally leading to consonant clusters of three to even four consonants.

Kjaxono articles

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	-kjoŋ /kʲoŋ/	-tjex /tʲek͡x/
Plural	-ŋje /ŋʲe:/	-tax /tæk͡x/

Verbal system

See main article: Kjaxono verbs

Verbs are the most complex part of speech in Kjaxono. It is by far the most difficult aspect of Kjaxono for new speakers of the language to learn, due its system-wide irregularity and general difficulty. Oftentimes, conjugation can encode all of the information needed to parse a sentence.

The verbal system of Kjaxono comprises two main paradigms, which differ based on the transivity and volition of the verb in question. The two paradigms are traditionally called the Objective paradigm (for transitive verbs, and verbs with positive volition - i.e meaning the action was intended) and the Nonobjective paradigm (for intransitive verbs, and verbs with negative volition - i.e meaning the action was not intended). Kjaxono verbs rely on agglutinative affixes and apophony in both paradigms.