Kotava

As an a priori constructed language, Kotava is not related to any other language, natural or constructed. The word order is very free, but current practice leans toward object–subject–verb All objects and other complements must be introduced by prepositions. There are also innovations involving conjunctions and prepositions (i.e. its system of locative prepositions).

Kotava is written with the Latin alphabet, but does not use the letters H or Q. The letter H, which was only used to palatalize an L, M, or N, before it, was eliminated and replaced by the letter Y in all cases. It uses no diacritics except for an acute accent, only used to mark the first person of verbs, which is accented on the final vowel. Like in French, a space is added between text and exclamation or question marks.

In Kotava, words are pronounced exactly as written, without exceptions.

Most consonants are pronounced as in English, but C is pronounced as English sh, J as in French (or the s in English pleasure), the X as in Scottish loch, and the R is rolled.

The consonants (in IPA form) are:

The vowels are pronounced as in Spanish, Swahili, or Tahitian, with no differences of length and no nasalization.

There are five diphthongs: ay, ey, iy (very rare), oy, uy (very rare).

The stress rule in Kotava is regular for all polysyllabic words: on the last syllable (ultima) if the word has a final consonant; on the second from last syllable (penult) if the word has a final vowel, except for the first person of conjugated verbs, which is stressed on the last syllable, marked with an acute accent.

Kotava has strict morphological rules, outlined in a table which prescribes order and interaction. All parts of speech are marked, so there is no ambiguity. Nouns and pronouns are invariable and there is no system of declensions. There are no affixes of gender or plurality, both of which can be indicated with particles or other words, if necessary. One unusual feature of Kotava is a "euphonic" principle which matches endings of adjectives and other modifiers with their nouns.

The main personal pronouns are the following:

The reflexive pronoun is int and the reciprocal pronoun is sint. Possessives are created by adding -af to the personal pronoun.

Other pronouns include coba (thing), tan (unknown person), tel (known person), and tol (one of two).

Verbs are conjugated into three tenses (present, past, and future) and four moods (realis, imperative, conditional, and relative). In addition, there are mechanisms for voices, aspects, modalities and other nuances, permitting a great deal of subtlety in expression. There are seven persons for verbs, including an inclusive and exclusive first person plural.

The first person singular is used as the verb's lemma. Suffixes to the root indicate person and tense. The following table exemplifies this with the verbs tí (to be) and estú (to eat):

The following modifiers can be used before the verb:

The past tense is indicated by a -y- interfix before the verb's final vowel:

• jin danká ("I sing") → jin dankayá ("I sang")

Similarly, the future tense is indicated by a -t- interfix:

• rin estul ("you eat") → rin estutul ("you will eat")

There is no grammatical gender. To indicate the sex/gender of a person or animal, -ya is used for females and -ye for males. [1]

Kotava has five grammatical voices:

1. active - jin doalié (I combat)
2. passive - jin zo doalié (I am combated)
3. reflexive - jin va int tcaté (I wash myself)
4. reciprocal - sin va sint disuked (they consider each other)

Numbers take the form of radical prefixes that can be suffixed with certain attributes. The prefixes are:

Suffixes:

• -oy (cardinal numbers)
• -eaf (ordinal numbers)
• -da (years)
• -ka (days)
• jon- … -af (multiplied by)
• fuxe- … -af (divided by)
• vol- (negative numbers)

Mathematical signs:

• = dum (equals)
• + do (plus)
• - bas (minus)
• × jon (times)
• / fuxe (divided by)