High Kickish

High Kickish Qaisik
Type
Synthetic
Alignment
Accusative
Head direction
left
Tonal
No
Declensions
Yes
Conjugations
Yes
Genders
No
Nouns decline according to...
Case	Number
Definiteness	Gender
Verbs conjugate according to...
Voice	Mood
Person	Number
Tense	Aspect

General Information

Standard High Kickish (natively Qaisik /!ˀʌisikʰ/) is a language spoken by the Cittus (Sītul ya /siːtʰɯl jʌ/), insect-looking sapients from the planet Ess (Gçēr /ᶢǂeːr/) and one of the founding species of the Allied Intelligences, from the country Kickland and associated states (Qaisixhuāl /!ˀʌisiǁʰɯʌːl/), particularly in the above-ground communities. SHK is the standard variety, taught in schools.

Phonology

Pulmonic consonants

	alveolar	dorsal	epiglottal	glottal
stop	t tʰ	k kʰ		ʔ
affricate	ts2
fricative	s2		ħ	h
approximant	ɹ l1	j	ʕ

1. /l/ is devoiced before a voiceless consonant or at the end of an utterance.
2. /s/ and /ts/ are retracted to [ʃ] and [tʃ] before /j/.

Clicks

Due to the Cittus not possessing a uvula, all clicks are pronounced with the back articulation in the pharynx.

	retroflex1	lateral	palatal
voiced	ᶢ!	ᶢǁ	ᶢǂ
aspirated	!ʰ	ǁʰ	ǂʰ
glottalized	!ˀ	ǁˀ	ǂˀ

1. Sub-apical flapped alveolar.

Vowels

	front	back
high	ɪ iː	ɯ ɯː
low	ɛ e̞ː	ʌ ɤ̞ː

• Diphthongs: falling /ʌɪ/, /ɛɪ/, /ɯɪ/, rising /ɯʌ/, /ɯʌː/
• Triphthong: /ɯʌɪ/

Phonotactics

(C)V(F)

• C can be any consonant.
• Vowels cannot be consecutive.
• V can be any short or long vowel, or any diphthong or triphthong.
• Word-finally F can be any stop, sibilant, or alveolar approximant.
• Word-initial clusters are limited to: non-glottal stops, sibilants, or clicks + /ɹ/ or /j/, and /lɹ/.
• Word-medial clusters are limited to: liquids + non-glottal stops, sibilants, or clicks, /kʰs/, /ɹl/, and any word-initial cluster.
• Coda /ʔ/ and /ɹ/ don't occur after falling diphthongs or triphthongs.

Stress

To determine stress placement in High Kickish, one needs to learn about syllabic weight. A syllable containing a short monophthong and no syllable-final consonants is considered to be light (L), whereas a syllable containing any long vowel, diphthong, triphthong, or syllable-final consonant is considered to be heavy (H). Stressed vowels are of a high pitch on short monophthongs or a high-falling pitch on long monophthongs, diphthongs, and triphthongs. ex. near-minimal pair xhi'e [ˈǁʰɪ́ʔɛ] "spit" vs xī'e [ˈǁˀîːʔɛ] "two-headed worm".

Patterns:

• -HH, -LHL, penultimate is stressed. ex. Sītul "Cittus"
• -HLL, -HHL, antepenultimate is stressed. ex. gqādare "antenna"
• -LH, ultimate is stressed. ex. ceħetā "speaking"
• -LLL, penultimate is stressed. ex. 'ale "you (sg. fem.)"

Orthography

Native writing system

Basics

The native writing system of Kickish is an alphabet.

Diacritics

There are two diacritics in the alphabet.

• the diacritic marked Vi: the falling diphthong diacritic. It is placed below the consonant following the vowel to be modified.
• the diacritic marked VV: the vowel lengthener. It is placed below the vowel it modifies.

Punctuation

The punctuation marks in the grid are a full stop, hyphen, and colon/semicolon. There are no equivalents of a quotation mark, exclamation point, question mark, or comma.

Writing direction

The Kickish alphabet is written in the same direction as the Latin alphabet, that is: horizontal lines from left to right, starting at the top.

Collation

The Kickish alphabet has some semblance of order. Vowels are first, then pulmonic consonants, then clicks.

i, e, a, u, ', g, r, t, ħ, d, l, y, ye, ya, k, h, s, c, j, q, qh, gq, x, xh, gx, ç, çh, gç

Romanization

letter	a	ā	c	ç	çh	d	e	ē	g	gç	gq
phoneme	/ʌ/	/ʌː/	/ts/	/ǂˀ/	/ǂʰ/	/t/	/e/	/eː/	/k/	/ᶢǂ/	/ᶢ!/
letter	gx	h	ħ	i	ī	j	k	l	q	qh	r
phoneme	/ᶢǁ/	/h/	/ħ/	/i/	/iː/	/ʕ/	/kʰ/	/l/	/!ˀ/	/!ʰ/	/r/
letter	s	t	u	ū	x	xh	y	'
phoneme	/s/	/tʰ/	/ɯ/	/ɯː/	/ǁˀ/	/ǁʰ/	/j/	/ʔ/

Parts of speech

• Nouns: people, objects, and ideas, ex. ārga "body"
• Articles: signifies definiteness, ex. ye "the (fem)"
• Pronouns: stands in for repeated or known nouns, ex. disus "you two (fem)"
• Verbs: actions, ex. gu "give"
• Auxiliary verbs: verbs which add grammatical information, ex. uaic "should"
• Adverbial prefixes: prefixed equivalents of adjectives and adverbs, ex. xhi- "loudly"
• Postpositions: relations between nouns and other words, ex. a "of"
• Polar particles: truth value indicators and interjections, ex. sīk "no"
• Conjunctions: conjoins various words in various ways, ex. ut "and"

Nouns

Gender and Number

Genders are three:

1. Feminine: used for female Cittus and some inanimate objects. Shows singular, dual, and plural number.
2. Masculine: used for male Cittus and some inanimate objects. Shows singular and plural number.
3. Juvenile: used for juvenile Cittus who have not yet differentiated into male and female, and some inanimate objects. Shows singular and plural number.

Here is the regular declension, though some nouns break this pattern.

	singular	dual	plural
Feminine	-0/e	-es/us	-el
Masculine	-i	-il
Juvenile	-a/ā/u	-al/ul

Pronouns

Pronouns are a very recently closed subclass of nouns, inflecting for all of the same categories as nouns and even matching some nouns in form (e. g. the word for little one, srā is the ordinary 3s.juv pronoun). They are however also marked suppletively for three levels of formality.

	singular	dual	plural
1	rūs	rūle
2.f	'ale	disus	disel
2.m	'ali	disil
2.juv	'ala	disal
3.f	ħe	ħus	ħel
3.m	cai	cail
3.juv	srā	srāl

Article

There is no indefinite article. The definite article inflects for gender and is placed after a noun. The article is not used with proper nouns.

Feminine	ye
Masculine	y
Juvenile	ya

• The masculine definite article y attaches to the noun as a /j/, and in speech lengthens the typical masculine ending -i. If the y is bordered by consonants on both sides for any reason, it merges with the feminine article, ye. ex. 'ergi y "the twin", 'ergil ye gqi "with the twins"
• The definite article contracts to y- before a postposition beginning in a vowel. ex. tatāri y-ū "from the soul"

Verbs

Verbs have three conjugation classes and are a closed class of about 120. They conjugate according to four tenses (present, future, simple past, discontinuous past), two evidentialities (direct, indirect), two voices (active, passive), and deference to the listener(s).

Conjugation classes

Verbs may be one of three conjugation classes:

1. u verbs: the largest class.
2. ħ verbs: the verb stems can only end in a vowel.
3. i verbs: the smallest class with the most irregular verbs.

Nonfinite forms

The citation form of verbs is the passive participle or gerund, which are identical (-ūd, -ħīd, -īd). There is also a supine used with auxiliary verbs and to mean "in order to verb" (-utā, -ħetā, -etā), and an active participle (-uis, -ħeis, -ais).

Finite forms

	u			ħ			i
	dir	ndir		dir	ndir		dir	ndir
present	-u	-uas		-ħe	-ħas		0	-as
continuous past	-uci			-ħeci			-(i)ci
discontinuous past	-u'	-ura		-ħe'	-ħera		-i'	-(i)ra
future		-uris			-ħeris			-(i)ris

Affix ordering

(adverbial)-	stem	-(deference)-	-(voice)-	-person

Deference

The deferential suffix is an important part of the honorific system of Kickish. It expresses respectful submission to the judgement or will of the listener(s), and is used in each of the registers of formality. Depending on region in Qaisixhuāl, the deferential suffix could be -eir, -ēr, or -ēy, among others. When traveling Qaisixhuāl, it is imperative that one uses the correct suffix for the region. The suffixes also differ depending on the relative age/genders of the speaker and listener. Some verbs also have suppletive formal forms.

	same gender	different gender
younger	-āy-	-ēg-
older	-ēr-	-ūj-

Passive

The passive construction consists of taking the citation form of a verb and adding the universal passive endings (shown below).

	dir	ndir
present	-i	-as
continuous past	-ici
discontinuous past	-i'	-ra
future		-ris

• ex. Rūle qharīdas. "I feel like we are being watched."

Examples

Regular verbs

Gūd [ˈkɯːt]: to give, gutā, guis

	Present	Continuous past	Discontinuous past	Future
Direct	gu	guci	gu'
Indirect	guas		gura	guris

Ceħīd [tsɛˈħiːt]: to speak, ceħetā, ceħeis

	Present	Continuous past	Discontinuous past	Future
Direct	ceħe	ceħeci	ceħe'
Indirect	ceħas		ceħera	ceħeris

Hēlīd [ˈhe̞ːliːt]: to arm, bring weapons, hēletā, hēlais

	Present	Continuous past	Discontinuous past	Future
Direct	hēl	hēlci	hēli'
Indirect	hēlas		hēlra	hēlris

Irregular verbs

Ī [ˈiː]: be. 'To be' has no non-finite forms. If any are needed, its suppletive deferential form, Īħīd, is used.

	Present	Continuous past	Discontinuous past	Future
Direct	ī	ici	i'
Indirect	yas		ira	iris

Ūd [ˈɯːt]: to do, utā, uis

	Present	Continuous past	Discontinuous past	Future
Direct	ū	uci	u'
Indirect	uas		ura	uris

Syasīd [ʃjʌˈsiːt]: to go, syasetā, syasais

	Present	Continuous past	Discontinuous past	Future
Direct	syi	syaci	sya'
Indirect	syas		syara	syaris

Uaicīd [ˈɯʌɪtsiːt]: should

	Present	Continuous past	Discontinuous past	Future
Direct	uaic	uaici	ua'
Indirect	uaicas		uaicra	uaicris

come, give, take

	Present	Continuous past	Discontinuous past	Future
Direct
Indirect

Adverbial prefixes

Adjectives and adverbs do not exist as separate words in Kickish. Instead, they can be translated as nouns, nominal phrases, or as a closed but rather large set of Adverbial prefixes. Each adverbial prefix has two forms: a default form and a modified form used if the default form would break the phonotactic rules. ex. tel(i)- "first", isu(')- "last", raj(a)- "proper", xū(')- "middle", xhi(')- "loudly"

Postpositions

Kickish	gloss	English
a	gen	of
'ur	ade	at
e	ine	in
rei	superess	on
rig	subess	under
xu	intr	between
çhai	bene	for
si-çhai	antibene	to harm
'ēr	instr	using
gqi	com	with
si-gqi	abe	without
xha	equ	like
ji	form	as
ē	lat	to
qhui	perl	through
ū	abl	from
sā	pretemp	before
se'	posttemp	after

Polar particles

Polarity is the truth value of a statement. In Kickish it is represented with the four polar particles. If modifying a part of speech they are always placed before and separated with a hyphen. If the following word begins in a vowel, then it will gain an unwritten initial glottal stop (except if following sik). They can also function as a standalone utterance.

#	polarity	proclitic	independent	translations
0	affirmative	0	ā	yes
1	intensive	duai		truly yes
2	unknown	duhē		maybe
3	negative	si(k)	sīk	no
4	interrogative	ra	rac	what

Syntax

Case is not marked, so word order is relatively strict. SVO is the norm.

Noun phrase

noun	(article)	(postposition)

• ex. Gçēr ū Sītul ya
• Cittus.V-fem.sg ABL Cittus-pl DEF-juv
• the Cittus of Cittus-V

Verb phrase

postpositional phrases	verb(-nonfinite suffix)	(helping verb)	object

• ex. ceħeis xhilalūdi
• speak-act.part loud-birth-pass-dir.cont.pst
• ... was born speaking loudly

Formality

There are three primary registers of speech.

1. formal: used in professional situations.
2. ordinary: the unmarked register, safe to use within the family.
3. slang: used to signify familiarity to the listener, whether that be respect as friends or as sarcastic rudeness.

Vocabulary

Because of differences in anatomy and physiology, many categories of words are very different from their Earthly counterparts.

Conjunctions

and (ut), or (yu)

Numbers

The Cittus typically crawl on all six limbs, but they do use their first two pairs of limbs for manipulation. On each foot they have three clawed fingers, and the first pair each additionally have a clawed thumb. Their counting base is twelve, achieved by counting the fingers of their manipulative limbs, not counting the thumbs.

Numerals are masculine gender when used as nouns, and take the place of the definite article when applied to nouns. Some numbers change form when counting and the numbers 2, 3, and 4 have different forms for different genders.

	No.		12+No.	No.*12
#	standard	count	standard	standard
1	te'	tē	te' qhās	qhās
2	ku/kui/kua	kū	ku(0/i/a) qhās	kuās
3	lei/lā	lē	l(ei/ā) qhās	lelās
4	tarede/taredi/tareda	tared	tared(e/i/a) qhās	tareduās
5	ħaca	ħac	ħaca qhās	ħacalās
6	ħaitu'	ħaitu'	ħaitu' qhās	ħaitulās
7	'ēhes	'ēhes	'ēhes qhās	'ēhesuās
8	jūr	jūr	jūr qhās	jūruās
9	xhai	xhai	xhai qhās	xhailās
10	dare'a	dare'	dare'a qhās	darelās
11	gīca	gīc	gīca qhās	gīcalās
12	qhās	qhā	qhās	cyār

• Large numbers are the reverse of a typical English number, ex. 28₁₂/32₁₀ jūr kuās.
• The gross (12²) position is separated from any number 12 and below with ut "and", ex. te' ut cyār.
• Ordinal numbers are expressed with a suffixed -(r)ar. First through fourth are irregular: 'alta, sugrar, selrar, and sadrar.

Anatomy

• body: j ārga
• head: f dare
• gnathal plates: m krehil
• teeth: j 'īcal
• eyes: f krīcus
• antenna: f gqādarus
• neck: m ja'uai
• breathing tubes: j ħarsal
• dermal armor: f xadeksel
• armor ridges: f lartūl
• underside: f 'artēħe
• back: f ħīre
• appendage: f çheg
• arm/first appendage: f telçheg
• middle appendage: f xūçheg
• leg/last appendage: f isuçheg
• wrist/ankle: m drēyui
• finger/toe/claw: j tyusa
• thumb: j gairiltais a tyusa

Family members

• jādre/i: mother/father
• jaje/i: mom/dad
• jādrajādre/i: grandmother/grandfather
• hēhe/i/a: older sister/brother/juvenile sibling
• cēce/i/a: younger sister/brother/juvenile sibling
• 'erge/i/a: twin
• seigre/i/a: older female/male/juvenile cousin
• daite/i/a: younger female/male/juvenile cousin
• tyurle/i: wife/husband
• 'alrikse/i: mother/father-in-law
• gqaile/i: older sister/brother-in-law
• çhirle/i/a: younger sister/brother/juvenile sibling-in-law
• 'age/i/a: daughter/son/juvenile child
• 'aga'age/i/a: granddaughter/grandson/juvenile grandchild

Colors

Introduction

The Cittus live around a star which spits out more light in the ultraviolet than our own. They have adapted to see a wider range of color than us, granting them not three dimensional color like us Humans, but four dimensional color. One of the odd consequences of this is that the Cittus can tell the difference between magenta (red+blue), violet (blue+UV), and purple (red+blue+UV) .

Notation: colors are notated as a combination of 1s and 0s representing the presence or absence of a primary color in the order Red-Yellow-Blue-Ultraviolet. For example, 1010 is the combination of red and blue (magenta) and 0101 is the combination of yellow and ultraviolet (ultyellow).

All color words are nouns.

Simple colors

"Simple" colors are those formed by pure primary color combinations.

notation	Kickish	translation	Human sight
0000	rēd	black	black
1000	'akser	red	red
0100	ūgye	yellow	yellow
0010	gxais	blue	blue
0001	kaili	ultra	black
1100	cīldi	orange	orange
1010	gxusra	magenta	magenta
1001	trā'	ultred	red
0110	yē'	green	green
0101	çarci	ultyellow	yellow
0011	sahise	violet	violet
1110	jādase	white	white
1101	degase	ultorange	orange
1011	druida	purple	purple
0111	halase	ultgreen	green
1111	teħa	full white	white

Complex colors

"Complex" colors are those that cannot be described in ones and zeros. Some complex colors have dedicated names, while most are combinations of words. Any simple color can be described as teħ(i)- "light" or rēd(i)- "dark", and combinations of colors can be described as more one color than others by adding that specific color before the general color, for example, cīldi "orange" with more 'akser "red" than yellow would be 'aksercīldi "red-orange".

Directions

		gqukā'a
	gqukā'aral		gqukā'açhē
ralci				çhēci
	'ūteral		'ūteçhē
		'ūte

• Also considered cardinal directions are up (ħīri) and down ('artēħi), which can combine with the other directions to form some very specific directions, ex. 'artēħigqukā'açhē "down and to the northeast"

Time

Divisions of time

• The year (28 riksel, ~413 earth d): qālehe ye
• The month (19 or 20 sejail): rikse ye
• The day (12 'altal, ~18 hrs): sejai y (lit. "the sun")
• The hour (60 sugrarel): 'alta ya (lit. "the first [division of the day])
• The minute (60 selrarel): sugrar ye (lit. "the second [division of the day])
• The second (~1.5 s): selrar ye (lit. "the third [division of the day])

Calendar

The Kickish solar calendar has 28 months (riksel) of either 19 or 20 days each. The fifth month alternates between 19 and 20 days every other year. A day of Cittus-V lasts merely a little less than 18 hours. The calendar has no weeks. Instead, the first, fifth, and eleventh days of the month are named (Srūse, Krūse, and Lrūse), and the other days count down to the next named day. Days are named according to the following formula: Month a Named day sā number. For example, the first three days of the year are: Telsēhag a Srūse, Telsēhag a Krūse sā lei, and Telsēhag a Krūse sā kui.

#	Name	Meaning	Days
1	Telsēhag	"the first spring"	20
2	Jeiksa	"god of the ground and homes"	20
3	Hixuladul	"spring festival"	19
4	'Asaira	"god of love and friendships"	20
5	Ħacarik	"the fifth month"	19/20
6	Ħaitu'irik	"the sixth month"	20
7	Isusēhag	"the last spring"	19
8	Teluilres	"the first summer"	20
9	Elēte'i	"god of light and knowledge"	20
10	Cēkrari	"god of wild nature"	20
11	Yargutū	"god of war"	19
12	Qhāsrik	"the dozenth month"	20
13	Syīħetārik	"month of pilgrimage"	20
14	Isu'uilres	"the last summer"	20
15	Telilerguā	"the first autumn"	19
16	Taredeqhāsrik	"the dozen-fourth month"	20
17	Higutreil	"harvest festival"	20
18	Juigquħud	"ancient emperor"	20
19	'Ēheseqhāsrik	"the dozen-seventh month"	19
20	Jūrqhāsrik	"the dozen-eighth month"	20
21	Isulerguā	"the last autumn"	20
22	Teliqhisāg	"the first winter"	20
23	Çacuār	"god of death and the cold"	19
24	Kuāsrik	"the two-dozenth month"	20
25	Te'ekuāsrik	"the two-dozen-first month"	20
26	Kukuāsrik	"the two-dozen-second month"	20
27	Leikuāsrik	"the two-dozen-third month"	19
28	Isuqhisāg	"the last winter"	20

Stellar system

Body	Translation	Type	Color
Sejai	"Sun"	F9-type star	white
Urduħīd	"Seared"	sulfurous molten	white
Xeyal	"Flakes"	asteroid clumps	gray
Salēr	"Waterworld"	waterworld	blue
Gçēr	"World"	inhabited terrestrial	purple
'Ergus	"Twins"	twin dwarf planets	gray
'Īdratuje	"Empress"	gas giant	beige
Halasēr	"Greenworld"	ice giant	cyan
Sahisēr	"Violetworld"	ice giant	blue
Rēdēr	"Darkworld"	ice giant	black

Example text

Lraigesel ye srāl a 'idigqal ut līkerdel e līkerde ut 'akya gqi lalūdas. Srāl gūdas qaicisūd a ħūsel ut hicel ye çhai te' ū hēhel ji rajakasuis uaicas.

intelligent-f.pl DEF-f dignity-juv.pl and freedom-f.pl INE freedom-f.sg and equality-juv.sg COM birth-PASS-NDIR.PRES 3p.juv GEN / 3p.juv give-PASS-NDIR.PRES smart-think-GER GEN ability-f.pl and other-f.pl DEF-f BENE one ABL older.sibling-f.pl FORM proper-act-ACT.PART should-NDIR.PRES /

"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood." (Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

Literal translation: "The intelligent ones were born with freedom and equality in their dignities and freedoms. They were given of reasoning's abilities and should be acting properly as older sisters from one for the others."