Kiravic Coscivian: Difference between revisions

Kiravic is a highly {{wp|synthetic language|synthetic}} language that encodes a great deal of grammatical and semantic information in single words through use of relational morphemes (as is evident in the formation ''ápniverþē'', "in any other book"), and frequently derives new words through processes of compounding. It is noted for its complex array of {{wp|determiners}} and adpositional {{wp|noun cases}}, as well as for its {{wp|deontic mood|deontic}} mood. Kiravic is an {{wp|Ergative-absolutive language|ergative-absolutive language}} in terms of morphosyntactic alignment. As in other Cosco-Adratic languages, a great deal of grammatical information that most languages communicate through verb conjugation, such as {{wp|grammatical tense|tense}}, {{wp|grammatical aspect|aspect}}, and {{wp|grammatical mood|mood}} is instead expressed through a large number of specific absolutive cases. Also like other Cosco-Adratic languages, Kiravic has a very high relative abundance of nouns and adjectives over verbs: By most counts, there are some 50-70 Kiravic verbs, depending on the dialect and the degree to which certain foreign loans such as ''gib'' are considered. Though unusual among world languages, this is not as extreme as in some related Cosco-Adratic languages, which have as few as 3 true verbs, and as [[Izoravi language|Izoravi]], which may have no verbs at all.

Kiravic grammar is heavily inflected and follows an {{wp|Ergative–absolutive alignment|ergative-absolutive}} pattern of morphosyntactic alignment. The essential elements of Kiravic sentences are nominals (nouns and pronouns) and verbs, with most grammatical information encoded through nominal inflection. A complete Kiravic subject-predicate sentence comprises, at minimum, an nominal in the absolutive case and a verb.

The two most important noun cases in sentence formation are the '''absolutive''', which marks the object of a transitive sentence or the subject of an intransitive sentence, and the '''ergative''', which marks the subject of a transitive sentence. This is illustrated below using vowel-stem Class III nouns, which take the suffix ''-th'' in the ergative ''-n'' in the simple present absolutive.

''Sta <u>rusto'''n'''''</u><br>

"The person sees"

''Sta rusto'''th''' <u>fidi'''n'''</u>''<br>

"The person sees the building"

The jussive mood (for forming commands) is also marked on the absolutive noun.

"See the building"

''<u>Luktu'''t'''</u> send erú''

<br>

"Let them eat <u>cake</u>"

{| class="wikitable mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"  

|- style="vertical-align:middle; font-family:Tahoma;"

| Class I (-uv)

| Class II (-a)

| Class III (-n)

| Class III (-r,-m)

| Class IV (k)

| Class II Plural

|- style="vertical-align:middle;"

As in all other Cosco-Adratic languages, numerals exist separately as nouns (the names of numerical values) and as adjectives (used to quantify nouns). As such, all numerals have three forms: nominal, cardinal, and ordinal. Kiravic numerals follow a split vigesimal system with a base of 20 and a superbase of 100. As such, Kiravic only has distinct names for ''every other'' power of ten.

For historical and cultural reasons, Kiravic lexicographers often distinguish between culturally "foreign" loanwords and loanwords from other Cosco-Adratic languages or languages within the Coscivian cultural sphere. Different literary registers and stylistic forms of Kiravic vary in their commitment to {{wp|linguistic purism}}, with some being more welcoming of foreign loans than others. Nonetheless, as Kiravian society has never been isolated from other cultures, words with ultimately non-Coscivian etymologies can be found in most strata of the Kiravic lexicon.

{{wp|Goidelic languages|Gaelic}} is without a doubt the language that has contributed the largest number of loandwords to Kiravic. Most basic ecclesiastical terminology has come to Kiravic through Gaelic, such as ''Æglasta'' ("church", from Gaelic ''eaglais'') ''Avrenn'' ("Mass", from ''aifreann''), and ''Þíarna'' ("God", "the Lord", from ''Thíarna''). In many Kiravic dialects, Gaelic loans have displaced many common words of Coscivian origin, such as ''práta'' ("potato", versus Coscivian ''ēln''), ''portán'' ("crab"), and ''fovar'' ("autumn", from ''fomhar''). ''Práta'' and ''fovar'' in particular have gained currency nationwide and are acceptable in most literary forms of Kiravic.

Other important loandwords to Kiavic from Ixnayan languages include ''mestiśuv'' ("person of mixed Coscivian and non-Coscivian descent", from {{wp|Portuguese|Tryhstian}} ''mestiço''), ''gipklé'' ("cede territory under the threat of force", from [[Lebhan language|Lebhan]] ''gib clay''), and ''bola'' ("bomb", from [[List of Hekuvian Latin Words#P|Hekuvian Latin]] ''pyrobola'').

*'''Telmarine Kiravic''' is spoken in and around [[Cities of Kiravia#Telmar|Telmar]], [[Ventarya]]. Kalvertan Coscivian is the prevailing language of the surrounding area, but was supplanted by Kiravic after the city became the operational hub of the Kiravian Navy. Although it is located far south of the Southern Kiravic dialect belt, Telmarine Kiravic is in fact an outlying Northern dialect, reflecting the influence of the many navy yard workers relocated from Valēka. It is also heavily influenced by Svéaran Kiravic and by Maritime Coscivian.