Kiravic Coscivian

Kiravic Coscivian
Kirrona, Kiravirona
Native to	Great Kirav
Region	Mid-Oceanic Mid-Continental
Ethnicity	Kir people
Native speakers	250-300 million (L1) 480-500 million (L1+L2)
Language family	Cosco-Adratic Kasavic-Koskan Varakoskan Kironic Right-Hand Kironic Kiravic Kiravic Coscivian
Standard forms	Literary Kiravic Standard Kiravic
Writing system	Coscivian script
Official status
Official language in	Kiravia Saint Kennera Pribraltar
Language codes
ISO 639-3	kir

Kiravic Coscivian (Kiravic: Kiravirona, Kiravikoskirona) is a Cosco-Adratic language spoken primarily in the Kiravian Federacy, where it serves as the official and national language. It is the largest Cosco-Adratic language by number of speakers, both native and acquired. Originally spoken in the Mid-Oceanic area of Eastern Kirav corresponding to the United Provinces during the Viceregal Period, the Kiravic Sprachraum expanded with the spread of Coscivian settlement to include most of Upper, Central, and Northwestern Great Kirav, as well as the Western Highlands, positioning it to become the dominant language of the emerging multilingual federation.

Kiravic is a highly 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 determiners and adpositional noun cases, as well as for its deontic mood. Kiravic is an 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 tense, aspect, and 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 between 20 and 30 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, which may have no verbs at all.

Genealogically speaking, Kiravic Coscivian belongs to the Kironic languages, a division of the Trans-Kiravian language family. Its closest living relatives are Dir (~8,000 speakers) and Kinnír (~50,000 speakers). It has, especially in its various regional dialects, absorbed vocabulary from other Kiravian and Celtic languages through social contact. There are three distinct literary registers of the language, Nohærikiravirona ("Literary Kiravic"), Oskandikiravirona ("Standard Kiravic"), and Ixtikiravirona (High Kiravic), with recognisably different conventions as to vocabulary, syntax, orthography, and style.

Grammar

Kiravic grammar is heavily inflected and follows an 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.

Ergative-Absolutive

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 Form III nouns, which take the suffix -th in the ergative -n in the simple present absolutive.

Kal vōn	Kal vōth dralín
drink man.ABS	drink man.ERG rye.ABS
The man drinks	The man drinks the rye

In copular phrases where select verbs such as é ("be") or èk ("become"), both nouns remain in the absolutive case, e.g. kēvōn é thuxan ("this man is a soldier").

Indirect

Kiravic has few verbs, so many actions are expressed through noun-verb couplets (compare the English examples "eat dinner" vs. "dine", "make a sale" vs. "sell"). For example, "to push" in Kiravic is va stugon (lit. "do a push"), "to welcome" is tá rædor (lit. "to give welcome"). The second, or indirect, object, which does not form part of the couplet, is marked in the indirect case, indicated by the suffix -m for Form I and Form II nouns, and -nt or -d for Form III nouns.

Erú stugost va rukum	Erú stugost va tovam	Erú stugost va vālint	Erú stugost va sālird	Erú stugost va vośaym
person.ERG push.ABS-PAST do bucket.IND	person.ERG push.ABS-PAST do woman.IND	person.ERG push.ABS-PAST do case.IND	person.ERG push.ABS-PAST do chair.IND	person.ERG push.ABS-PAST do horse.IND
They pushed the bucket	They pushed the woman	They pushed the case	They pushed the chair	They pushed the horse

Tense, Aspect, and Mood

The tense (past, present, future, jussive), aspect (imperfect, perfect), and mood (indicative, jussive, deontic, subjunctive, and potential) of a sentence are marked on the absolutive noun serving as either the subject or direct object of the sentence.

Tense and Aspect

Absolutive nouns further decline for tenses that position the sentence in time. In modern written Kiravic, there is a simple set of three tenses: A past tense, a future tense, and a "present" tense. The "present" tense can be used for habitual and aorist expressions ("she drives to work", "birds lay eggs"), and is ambiguous with regard to whether the process is discrete or continuous (kal kua for "I drink" and "I am drinking"). Historical and dialectal forms of the language had further tense inflections providing greater specificity, but in modern standard registers further specification is communicated periphrasically or inferred from context.

Present	Past	Future
Sta rustoth fidin	Sta rustoth fidist	Sta rustoth fidisto
"The person sees the building"	"The person saw the building"	"The person will see the building"

In every mood and tense, absolutive nouns can be further declined for perfective aspect, indicating that the underlying process is complete.

Present perfect	Past perfect	Future perfect
Sta rustoth fidisti	Sta rustoth fidisté	Sta rustoth fidiśtnô
"The person has seen the building"	"The person had seen the building"	"The person will have seen the building"

Jussive mood

The jussive mood is used to form commands, exhortations, and orders. In addition to direct imperatives from the speaker to a second person (e.g. "Listen!"), it can also be used to express one's wishes regarding a third party (e.g. "Let the rain come down", "[May he] rest in peace"). On regular nouns, the jussive is indicated by the suffix -t (Forms I and II in both aspects, IV and r-stem III in the imperfect) or -xt (Form III n-stem in both aspects, Form IV and Form III r-stem in the perfect) appended to the noun stem. There are no tense distinctions in the jussive mood, but the perfective aspect (e.g. "Have it done by tonight") can be specified with a further suffix -i.

The jussive mood is marked on the direct object of the command or exhortation.

Andix lōrt kal	Luktut set erú	Ventati va telerp tyusk
more beer.ABS-JUS drink	cake.ABS-JUS eat 3PL.ERG	work.ABS-JUS-PERF do end.TERM day.GEN
Drink more beer	Let them eat cake	Have the work done by EOD

Where there command or exhortation has no direct object, the verb is converted to its nominal equivalent, and the jussive is then marked on this verbal noun instead.

xʌt V	xʌxt V
noun.ABS-JUS verb	noun.ABS-JUS-PERF verb
[You?] verbal noun	Let there be verbing

Irrealis moods

There are three irrealis moods: the deontic, subjunctive, and potential. All three tenses and both aspects are expressible in each of the irrealis moods, each of which is indicated with a modal infix followed by a final vowel suffix indicating tense and aspect.

The deontic mood expresses what should or ought to be true. In regular nouns, it is marked with the infixes -śv- (Formes I, II) and -ś(t)n- (Forms III, IV)

Kasa mavis er	Kú stugośtne va tovam	Lé áldaśva asos gavónird
1SG.ABS-DEO now go	person.ERG push.ABS-DEO-PAST do woman.IND	happen law.ABS-DEO against gluttony.IND
I should go now	I should have pushed the woman	There should be a law against gluttony

The subjunctive mood expresses what would be true. It is often used to express conditional statements, accompanied by a phrase with the particle vís ("if"). In regular nouns, it is marked with the infixes -tn-(Forms I, II), -stn- (Form III), and -n- (Form IV).

Vate er inox sarés	Kú síkrantastna dhikur	Dhōratno èk vólrix
3SG.ABS-SUBJ-PAST go new city.LAT	1SG.ERG that-argument.ABS-SUBJ NEG.put	countryside.ABS-SUBJ-FUT become beautiful
He would have gone to a new town	I wouldn't make that argument	The countryside would become beautiful

The potential mood expresses what can or could be true. In regular nouns, it is marked with the infixes -kv-(Forms I, II), -thv- (Form III), and -xv- (Form IV).

Vaga èk xorítukva	Kú norôthve ğrifêras dhiset	Krú andix iśkevathakvo irdikês kal
3SG.ABS-POT become citizen.ABS-POT	1SG.ERG sleep.ABS-POT-PAST last.night NEG.take	1PL.ERG more whiskey.ABS-POT-FUT sometime drink
He could have gone to a new town	I couldn't sleep last night	We can drink more whiskey sometime

₦

Full Table of Absolutive Case Paradigms
Lemma	Form I (-uv)	Form II (-a)	Form III (-n)	Form III (-r,-m)	Form IV (k)	Pronoun	General Plural	Form II Plural
	plaiduv	stóra	toren	brégar	irak	ikú	xutor	stóra
Indicative
Present	plaiduv	stóra	toren	brégar	irak	ikua	xutorya	stóræ
Past	plaiduve	stóru	torest	brégarst	iragst	ikane	xutoryu	stóráve
Future	plaiduvo	stóravo	toresto	brégarsto	iragsto	ikano	xutoryavo	stórávo
Present Perfect	plaiduvé	stóravé	toresté	brégarsté	iragsté	ikané	xutoryavé	stórávé
Past Perfect	plaiduvi	stórui	toresti	brégarsti	iragsti	ikani	xutoryui	stórávo
Future Perfect	plaiduvô	stóravô	torestô	brégarstô	iragstô	ikanô	xutoryavô	stórávô
Jussive
Jussive	plaidut	stórat	torext	brégart	irakt	ikurat	xutoryat	stóræt
Jussive Perfect	plaiduti	stórati	torexti	brégarxti	irakxti	ikurati	xutoryati	stóræti
Deontic ("should")
Present	plaiduśva	stóraśva	toreśtna	brégarśtna	irakśna	ikasa	xutoryaśva	stórásva
Past	plaiduśve	stóraśve	toreśtne	brégarśtne	irakśne	ikase	xutoryaśve	stórásve
Future	plaiduśvo	stóraśvo	toreśtno	brégarśtno	irakśno	ikaso	xutoryaśvo	stórásvo
Present Perfect	plaiduśvé	stóraśvé	toreśtné	brégarśtné	irakśné	ikasé	xutoryaśvé	stórásvé
Past Perfect	plaiduśvi	stóraśvi	toreśtni	brégarśtni	irakśni	ikasi	xutoryaśvi	stórásvi
Future Perfect	plaiduśvô	stóraśvô	toreśtnô	brégarśtnô	irakśnô	ikasô	xutoryaśvô	stórásvô
Subjunctive ("would")
Present	plaidutna	stóratna	torestna	brégarstna	irakna	ikata	xutoryatna	stórásna
Past	plaidutne	stóratne	torestne	brégarstne	irakne	ikate	xutoryatne	stórásne
Future	plaidutno	stóratno	torestno	brégarstno	irakno	ikato	xutoryatno	stórásno
Present Perfect	plaidutné	stóratné	torestné	brégarstné	irakné	ikaté	xutoryatné	stórásné
Past Perfect	plaidutni	stóratni	torestni	brégarstni	irakni	ikati	xutoryatni	stórásni
Future Perfect	plaidutnô	stóratnô	torestnô	brégarstnô	iraknô	ikatô	xutoryatnô	stórásnô
Potential ("could")
Present	plaidukva	stórakva	torethva	brégarthva	iraxva	ikaga	xutoryakva	stórákva
Past	plaidukve	stórakve	torethve	brégarthve	iraxve	ikage	xutoryakve	stórákve
Future	plaidukvo	stórakvo	torethvo	brégarthvo	iraxvo	ikago	xutoryakvo	stórákvo
Present Perfect	plaidukvé	stórakvé	torethvé	brégarthvé	iraxvé	ikagé	xutoryakvé	stórákvé
Past Perfect	plaidukvi	stórakvi	torethvi	brégarthvi	iraxvi	ikagi	xutoryakvi	stórákvi
Future Perfect	plaidukvô	stórakvô	torethvô	brégarthvô	iraxvô	ikagô	xutoryakvô	stórákvô

Nominals

As in all other Cosco-Adratic languages, the most important word class in Kiravic is the noun, and nouns account for the vast majority of the total lexicon. Nouns are the primary bearers of meaning, and most information in a typical Kiravic sentence is contained in its noun phrases. Having few verbs compared to most languages, Kiravic relies heavily on case governance and verb-noun constructions to approximate what many languages might express with a single, unitary verb. As such, noun morphology in Kiravic is rather complex, and the various noun cases can be used to convey a number of different meanings.

Kiravic nouns inflect for two numbers (general, plurative), four 'grammatical' cases (absolutive, ergative, genitive, indirect), six 'constructive' cases (purposive, instrumental, essive-formal, essive-modal, considerative, and referential), and five local cases (locative, ablative, vialis, allative, and proximative). Within the absolutive case, nouns further inflect for five moods (indicative, deontic, subjunctive, potential, jussive) and two aspects (imperfect and perfect); in the non-jussive moods they inflect for three tenses (past, present, and future) and in the jussive mood for two [ ]s (direct, indirect). Thus for each noun headword there are seventy-four (74) inflected forms.

Number

Nouns inflect for two forms of grammatical number: general and plurative. The general form of a noun is unmarked, and it may be semantically singular, collective, uncountable, or plural according to context; the plurative form is specifically plural. Among native speakers and in Literary Kiravic, the plurative is used rather sparingly, and never in the company of numerals (e.g. vôrux ethruv "five tree" rather than vôrux ethruya "five trees"). In Standard Kiravic and the Svéaran dialect, plurative marking is more frequent. Marking enumerated plurals with the plurative in Standard Kiravic is acceptable and was formerly obligatory, but has become less common since Reunification.

As illustrated in the following section, there are only two declension patterns for plurative nouns. Form II (-a) nouns take a unique plurative suffix for each case. On all other nouns, the plurative base form is composed of the general absolutive form + the suffix -ya and is then declined as if it were a Form II singular noun.

Case - Grammaticals

There are four general declension patterns in Kiravic, characterised by the suffixes taken in the absolutive, genitive, and ergative cases:

• Form I - Absolutive -v ⇒ genitive -l, ergative -k
  
• Form II - Absolutive -a ⇒ genitive -á, ergative -k
  
• Form III - Absolutive -n, -r, -m ⇒ genitive -sk, ergative -th
  
• Form IV - Absolutive -k ⇒ genitive -ğsk, ergative -yth
  

A minority of nominals, some of them among the most frequently used, do not conform to these patterns. The relative pronoun rín, for example, follows Form I in the absolutive cases but Form III in all others, while Kirav does the reverse. Others follow special forms, exhibit stem changes or suppletion, or are fully irregular.

Regular declension paradigms for the grammatical and absolutive cases of Forms I-III nouns are laid out below:

Form I - istuv
Case	General		Plurative
Ergative	istuk		istuyak
Genitive	istul		istuyá
Indirect	istum		istuyam
Absolutives
Number	General		Plurative
Aspect	Imperfect	Perfect	Imperfect	Perfect
Present	istuv	istuvi	istuya	istuyi
Past	istuve	istuvéi	istuyave	istuyavéi
Future	istuvo	istuvói	istuyavo	istuyavói
Jussive	istuvu	istuvúi	istuyavu	istuyavúi

Form II - rona
Case	General		Plurative
Ergative	ronak		ronæk
Genitive	roná		ronæ
Indirect	ronam		ronám
Absolutives
Number	General		Plurative
Aspect	Imperfect	Perfect	Imperfect	Perfect
Present	rona	ronavi	ronáv	ronávi
Past	ronave	ronavéi	ronáve	ronávéi
Future	ronavo	ronavói	ronávo	ronávói
Jussive	ronavu	ronavúi	ronávu	ronávúi

Form III (n stem) - vālin
Case	General		Plurative
Ergative	vālith		vālinyak
Genitive	vālisk		vāliskya
Indirect	vālint		vālintya
Absolutives
Number	General		Plurative
Aspect	Imperfect	Perfect	Imperfect	Perfect
Present	vālin	vālisti	vālinyav	vālinyavi
Past	vāliste	vālistéi	vālinyave	vālinyavéi
Future	vālisto	vālistói	vālinyavo	vālinyavói
Jussive	vālistu	vālistúi	vālinyavu	vālinyavúi

Form III (r stem) - kenor
Case	General		Plurative
Ergative	kenorth		kenoryak
Genitive	kenorsk		kenorskya
Indirect	kenord		kenordya
Absolutives
Number	General		Plurative
Aspect	Imperfect	Perfect	Imperfect	Perfect
Present	kenor	kenorsti	kenoryav	kenoryavi
Past	kenorste	kenorstéi	kenoryave	kenoryavéi
Future	kenorsto	kenorstói	kenoryavo	kenoryavói
Jussive	kenorstu	kenorstúi	kenoryavu	kenoryavúi

Case syncretism is fairly common. The most common syncretic pattern variant is Form I nouns that take the Form III suffix -sk in the genitive, a prominent example being the word Kirav (genitive Kiravsk rather than Kiral).

Case - Constructives

In addition to the three grammatical cases which establish the structure of a sentence, Kiravic nouns also decline for several "constructive cases" that are used to form noun phrases.

• Genitive - Indicates possession, composition, and origin. Also forms infinitive constructions with the verbal nouns (see below).
• Purposive - Indicates purpose or destination.
• Instructive - Instructive.
• Essive (formal) - Formal essive.
• Essive (modal) - Modal essive.
• Considerative - Considerative.
• Referential - Referential.

Proper and Indeclinable Nouns

Proper nouns are subject to the same declension rules as common nouns. By convention, one declines a Coscivian personal name by changing the surname only (e.g. "The office of Irasur Mérovin" would be adikuv Irasur Mérovisk rather than adikuv Irasursk Mérovin), with the forename treated as a noun adjunct. Similarly, when declining a compound geographic name such as Mount Xýzyro (Nár Xýssyrov) or the River Kaviska (Rurin Kaviska), only the general noun is declined while the specific appellation remains unchanged (Nárē Xýssyrov, Rurinst Kaviska). Foreign names and brand names that cannot be readily Coscivised can be fit into the structure of a Kiravic sentence using auxiliary prepositions like áu ("of") and ōs ("as"), but most style guides for formal writing encourage using the indeclinable name as an adjunct to an appropriate Kiravic common noun. For example, "There was a fire in Gulnaz" (the capital of Kayistan) would be translated as Lé spóre sarēs Gulnaz ("There was a fire in the city of Gulnaz").

Nouns (continued)

Kiravic does not employ articles. Definacy is inferred from context, though in the absence of contextual clues to the contrary, nouns are generally interpreted as being definite by default. In situations where contextual clues might be ambiguous and there is a need to clarify definacy, the determiner lē- can be used to specify that a noun is indefinite, e.g. Ar koé lē-asdrárdas, tos dhé voé asdrár klesk skúl ("I spoke with a salesman, but he was not the salesman from your company"). The determiner irdi- accomplishes the same distinction with greater emphasis (Thá vú irdisarēs Kannurē - "She is in some city in Kannur"). The determiners kē-, sí-, and śo- ("this", "that", "yonder") can be used to clarify that the referend is definite.

Adjectives and Adverbs

Kiravic adjectives inflect for three degrees (basic, comparative, and superlative). Adjectives precede the nouns they modify except in zero-copula phrases, and are not inflected to agree with them in class, case, or number.

i-stem
thansix - "based"
Base	thansix
Comparative	thanséx
Superlative	thansíx

a-stem
xanax - "tranquil"
Base	xanax
Comparative	xanáx
Superlative	xanæx

o-stem
inbox - "full"
Base	inbox
Comparative	inbóx
Superlative	inbôx

All adverbs are notionally derived from adjectives by switching the final -x to an -s (kávix "good" → kávis "well", lādéx tarśumt "stronger than iron" → lādés tarśumt "more strongly than iron").

Verbs

Kiravic verbs are a small, closed class of between 20 and 30 words in contemporary written use. Many (perhaps most) Kiravic verbs express semantic primes, such as lé ("exist, occur, happen"), va ("do"), èk ("arrive, become"), ka ("make"), er ("go"), kur ("put"), and send ("take", "consume", "undergo").

A few verbs have definite and quite specific meanings (e.g. imré "to wax", park "to pour a nonliquid but continuous mass, e.g. grain"); however, the majority have undergone considerable semantic bleaching and serve as light verbs that couple with nouns and adpositions to express units of meaning that languages such as Ænglish would usually communicate with a single, unitary verb. For example, there is no Kiravic verb meaning "to push", but the light verb va ("do") applied to the noun terrar ("a push") encodes virtually the same concept. Some further examples are listed below:
[Light verb examples]
The range of meanings assumed by light verbs can thus be quite broad: Sta, for example, can mean "see", "hear", "feel", "taste", "smell", "perceive", "realise", or even "imagine", according to what arguments it takes. Verbs are not conjugated. Instead, tense, aspect, and mood are marked on nouns in the absolutive case, as detailed in the previous section.

Spoken Kiravic dialects often have verbs not present in the written registers, some of which are quite versatile. Śak, used in Niyaska and eastern Etivéra, can mean "raise/lower", "steal", "work out", "jump", "damage", "bungle", or "break up/crush into pieces". However, many spoken varieties of Kiravic, especially those used by speech communities that shifted to Kiravic from another languages (e.g. Urom or immigrant groups) employ markedly fewer verbs than the written registers.

Verbal Nouns

Each verb is paired with a noun, known in Kiravic as its Nureden ("master noun"). These nouns serve a similar semantic and syntactic role to infinitives and gerunds in Levanto-Sarpic languages. Verbal nouns are among the most frequently used words in the language and are extremely productive as derivational morphemes, forming the basis of many compounds. In some cases, there is a clear etymological relationship between the verb and its master noun (va "do" : vara "activity"), while in others there is not (thá "stand" : itur "status, position"). Several verbal nouns are grammatically irregular.

Adpositions

In Kiravic, adpositions are typically affixed to their objects as suffixes rather than written as separate words, but can be written as such to improve clarity in particularly complex sentences. For example, while "I came here with a cake" would ordinarily be written "Kú kēdés vediƌ lúktūdas, the form "Kú kēdés vediƌ das lúktuv" is also grammatically valid.

While professional linguists, especially outside Kiravia, treat these appended adpositions as independent postpositions, in Kiravia they are thought of and taught as noun cases. The reason for this discrepancy lies in historical linguistics: When Kiravic was developing as an Iatic-based creole, the practice of appending adpositions to their objects developed as a replacement for most of Iatic's more morphologically-complex cases in order to better communicate with non-native speakers while the original Iatic syntax was kept.

Syntax

The most common word orders in Kiravic are verb-subject-object (VOS) and subject-object-verb (SOV), though the highly inflected nature of Kiravic grammar allows for a moderate degree of liberty in word order. In most dialects, the VSO configuration is preferred for sentences with simple predicates (e.g. Set vú norôst - "He took sleep", "He slept") whereas the SOV configuration is preferred for sentences with compound predicates, such as the very common light verb constructions with indirect objects (e.g. vú terrarst va rukum - "He did a push to the bucket", "He pushed the bucket").

Adpositional phrases modifying verbs most often precede the verb in VSO sentences and follow it in SOV sentences. Adjectives and adverbs precede the words that they modify.

[Word order redux]
[Questions & Answers]
[na particle]
The particle na is used as a boundary marker separating potentially ambiguous phrases (usually adpositional) in the predicate from one another. [Recursion, Relative clauses, Dependent clauses, etc]

Case governance

An important way in which Kiravic produces a full and rich range expression with a very limited number of verbs is through case-governed constructions.

Noun phrases

Infinitive phrases

Infinitive phrases are a subset of noun phrases that have a verbal noun as the nucleus and perform a similar function to infinitives and gerunds in languages with more synthetic verb morphology. Nominalisation of a verb phrase into an infinitive phrase involves regular transformations of grammar and syntax.

The formula for the infinitive form of a transitive verb phrase is as follows:

[Verb] [Subject - Ergative] [Direct object - Absolutive] ⇒ [Verbal noun] [Direct object - Genitive] [Subject - Prolative]

Whereas the word order of transitive verb phrases is fairly free (see above), the word order of corresponding infinitive phrases is fairly fixed. Optionally, for longer phrases, the subject may be placed between the verbal noun and direct object. Indirect objects remain in the indirect case and are placed between the genitive direct object and the prolative subject. Other constructive nouns (e.g. benefactives) also retain their cases and are placed between the direct object (or indirect object, if present) and the subject, in the same order as they appear in the verb phrase.

If the verb is modified by an adverb, the adverb is converted to its adjectival form when nominalising.

[Adverb] [Verb] [Subject- Ergative] [Object - Absolutive] ⇒ [Adjective] [Verbal noun] [Object - Genitive] [Subject - Prolative]

The formula for the infinitive form of an intransitive verb phrase is as follows:

[Verb] [Subject - Absolutive] ⇒ [Verbal noun] [Subject - Genitive]

Lexicon

See also: Glossary of Coscivian Terms

Lexicographers divide Kiravic words into six principal categories according to their etymological journey:

• Sovisíndix ("same as that") words: Words of a High Coscivian provenance that have retained their original spellings and (often) pronounciations. They include words that have been inherited from spoken Iatic Coscivian through several stages of spoken descendant languages which have survived without modification (e.g. Kiravic róva / Iatic róva, "spring"; Kiravic verþa / Iatic verþa, "book"), as well as forms borrowed directly from literary High Coscivian in more recent times (avórua, "environment"; vūroska, "rhetoric"). Words in this category can be further divided among numerous subcategories based on their internal composition, date of borrowing from High Coscivian, and previous etymological heritage.

• Onśapurnix ("vocally ground-down") words: Words of a High Coscivian provenance that have undergone sound and spelling changes. This includes words that have changed over the course of linguistic evolution from spoken Iatic Coscivian to modern Kiravic through several intermediary stages, as well as early direct borrowings from High Coscivian that have becomed thoroughly "nativised". Onśapurnix words form a large and important share of the Kiravic lexicon, including most of the most frequently used words in the language, such as function words, almost all verbs, and basic concrete nouns. They are even more common in spoken and dialectal Kiravic than in the formal literary registers.

• Dheśtravundix ("internally/natively composed") words: Compounds and morphological derivations newly composed in Kiravic from High Coscivian and other classical roots according to Kiravic morphological rules. A related class are the duîsovisíndix ("pseudo-Sovisíndix") words that were newly composed in Kiravic using High Coscivian (or other classical) morphological rules, in order to resemble an authentic sovisíndix direct borrowing. Duîsovisíndix words are very common in the Ixtikiravirona or "High Kiravic" literary register (see below), uncommon in Nohæric Kiravic, and traditionally proscribed in Standard Kiravic.

• Dheśtraguamix or Vūlidheśtrax ("native-born/truly native") words: Words that were neither inherited from an ancestral language or borrowed from another language, to include native coinages, onomatopœia, nonce words, derivations from proper names, and elevated slang and colloquial terms. Some lexicographers also assign natively-formed compounds constructed by nonstandard morphological rules - such as portmanteaux, blends, truncations, and syllabic abbreviations - to this category, even if they include classical or foreign roots. The minor "Open Kiravic" register and the experimental "Recorded Kiravic" style of writing, which both seek to emulate contemporary spoken Kiravic more than the major literary registers do, make much more extensive use of native-born words than their competitors.

• Manitovix ("accreted") words: Words of non-classical and non-native provenance that are not considered "foreign" in origin. The membership and subdivision of this category is a matter of some contention among Kiravic linguists, but by its broadest definition includes loanwords of non-classical origin borrowed into post-classical spoken ancestors of Kiravic from other languages in the Coscivian cultural sphere and words morphologically derived therefrom, and direct borrowings into Kiravic from other modern Coscivian languages and languages in the Coscivian cultural sphere.

• Velśix ("foreign") words: All words borrowed from outside the Coscivian cultural sphere, including "near-foreign" loans from Urom, Finno-Kiravite, and Celtic languages, and "far-foreign" loans from all other languages.

Kiravic has a rich and copious lexicon so replete with synonyms and terms with very subtle yet profound distinctions from one another in meaning, register, tone, and connotation that there exists an entire class of reference works, termed îhadsomethingforthis-shite-uv, that serve to help writers navigate the nuances of the language to maximal rhetorical or artistic effect by providing detailed explanations of relationships between various words with extensive cross-references that go far beyond the offerings of a typical English thesaurus. The overlarge vocabulary of literary Kiravic is attributable in large part to the semi-independent development of different literary registers in the pre-modern and early modern periods, and to the diffusion of words across dialectal boundaries.

The bulk of Kiravic Coscivian vocabulary is either inherited from High Coscivian or newly synthesised from High Coscivian roots. Much of this High Coscivian patrimony is ultimately derived from other languages that provided loanwords to High Coscivian as far back as pre-Imperial times, including Iathei Coscivian, Stairovix Coscivian, Thygiastran Coscivian and [that non-Coscivian one]. A great deal of words have entered Kiravic from the various vernacular languages of ethnic communities living in Kiravia, particularly major ones such as Eshavian Coscivian and Great Antaric Coscivian. The lexicon continues to grow with a steady stream of new coinages and borrowings.

Pronouns

Kir/Kirth/Kirsk

[Personal and other -ú pronouns] [Aon]

Since the Civil War, it has become increasingly common for speakers to apply the ú-stem declension paradigm to demonstrative and delimiter roots in order to form new personal pronouns, such as irdú ("someone"), æbú ("anyone"), síhú ("that guy"), śohú ("that hoe over there"), and more. At present only irdú and æbú have been taken up into formal written Kiravic to any appreciable degree; other such pronouns are considered nonstandard and may connote informality.

The prounoun rív serves as the head of an embedded or dependent clause. It is functionally equivalent to the Ænglish "that" ("Know that you are loved") and "the fact that" ("The fact that you lied is my real concern"). Its declension is irregular.

Lí Vurdhak rív skú é torpix

Other pronouns follow the regular Form III declension patterns. These include (pro)nominalised delimiters (kēn "this", sín "that", śon "that yonder", xin "what?", irdin "something", æbin "anything", dhin "naught").

A third person collective pronoun, vonem can be used to refer to a group that one is a part of, but at a distance, and also to refer to members of such a group besides oneself taken to be representative of or acting on behalf of the group as a whole.

Numerals

Kiravic numerals have three forms: nominal, cardinal, and ordinal. The cardinal and ordinal forms are morphologically adjectives, and specify quantity and order, respectively. The nominal form is a morphological noun, which can be used to denote a group of that number (síğuir, "those four") or the name of the number itself in abstract.

Kiravic numerals follow a vigesimal system with a base of 20 and a superbase of 400. Kiravic only has distinct names for every other power of ten. The Kiravic words for the numbers 1-20 are reproduced below.

#	Nominal	Cardinal	Ordinal	#	Nominal	Cardinal	Ordinal
1	Thun	Thux, Thix	Thox, Vèurox	11	Dívuv	Dívux	Dívox
2	Yun	Yux, Yunux	Yunox, Ídox	12	Mār(uv)	Mārux	Mārox
3	Kír	Kírux	Kírox	12¾	Yaruv	Yarux	Yarox
4	Ğuir	Ğurux	Ğurox	14	Almuv	Almux	Almox
5	Vôr	Vôrux	Vôrox	15	Xivuv	Xivux	Xivox
6	Som	Somux	Somox	16	Rusuv	Rusux	Rusox
7	Isēm, Ismuv	Ismux	Ismox	17	Iğuv	Iğux	Iğrox
8	Lamar, Harduv	Hardux	Hardox	18	Vigruv	Vigrux	Vigrox
9	Randin, Randuv	Randux	Randox	19	Adhruv	Adhrux	Adhrox
10	Kōsuv	Kōsux	Kōsox	20	Féuv	Féux	Féox

Scientific Terminology

In the modern era, Kiravic has avoided directly borrowing scientific and technical terms from Latin, Ænglish, and other Western languages. The writing guides most commonly followed by Kiravian scientific journals all discourage direct borrowings, and prescribe formulas for translating Western terms into Kiravic, most often by calquing. Professional institutions such as the Kiravian Astronomical Academy (Kiravix Iselrakénax Lárutovarum) and the Kiravian Chemical Society (Kiravix Ğislokénax Askola) play an important role in formally defining Kiravic scientific nomenclature and creating paradigms to derive new words as needed.

A significant number of Kiravian scientific terms, however, are original coinages, some of which predate Western discoveries. For example, the phenomenon of synæsthesia, known as télar in Kiravic and High Coscivian, has been known to Coscivian civilisation for millennia. The Kiravic word for diuresis, śgrulva, is attested in writing as early as 20542 (1362), and occurs frequently in common parlance.

• Kōstrúlôstum - "Blood plasma", from kōstrum (blood) + lôstum (broth)
• Dharnagrám - Translation of both "parenchyma" and "Mittelstand", from dharna (brick) + grám (supporting structure)
• Ğámpraxuruv - Nebula, from ğámpra (womb) + xuruv (cloud)
• Sirrúréstor - Cloud-seeding, from sirrum (rain) + réstor (conduction, fomentation)

Foreign Loans

For historical and cultural reasons, Kiravic lexicographers often distinguish between culturally "foreign" loanwords and loanwords from other languages of Great Kirav and nearby islands. Different literary registers and stylistic forms of Kiravic vary in their commitment to 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 extra-Kiravian etymologies can be found in all but the most basal strata of the Kiravic lexicon.

Gaelic is without a doubt the language that has contributed the largest number of loanwords to Kiravic. In many Kiravic dialects, Gaelic loans have displaced previously 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. Most essential Christian terminology has come to Kiravic from or through Gaelic, such as Æglasta ("church", from Gaelic eaglais) Avrenn ("Mass", from aifreann), and Þíarna ("God", "the Lord", from Thíarna), reflecting the influence of Gaelic-speaking missionaries and their Ĥeiran proselytes in the evangelisation of the Kir.

Other important loanwords to Kiravic from foreign languages include mestiśuv ("person of mixed Coscivian and non-Coscivian descent", from Cartadanian mestiço), gipklé ("cede territory under the threat of force", from Lebhan gib clay), bola ("bomb", from Hekuvian Latin pyrobola), and śuk ("maize", from Papasimi chuqllu).

Varieties

Written Registers

There are three main literary registers of Kiravic. While all are mutually intelligible, they differ substantially in vocabulary, lexico-morphological rules, orthography, and style. Usage of one register or another varies by region as well as by context.

• Literary Kiravic (Kiravic: Vénakirrona) or Nohæric emerged from conventions established during [time period] by traditional rhetorical schools in the Kir lands when they began teaching rhetoric in the vernacular instead of solely in High Coscivian, and went on to evolve organically with the flowering of Kiravic literary culture. Nohæric is the register of prestige, and is used in the majority of long-form literature and belles-lettres, most newspapers and mid- and upmarket magazines, and polished correspondence. Native speakers prefer Literary Kiravic for most purposes, and in states where Kiravic is the prevailing language (as well as Æonara and the Overseas Regions), Literary Kiravic is the only register taught in schools.

• Standard Kiravic (Kiravic: Oskandikiravirona), also known as teléuverþarona ("schoolbook language") was developed by the Kiravian Union Directorate of Education to promote the adoption of Kiravic as the unified national language in accordance with the programme of the Kirosocialist Party. It was the result of reforms intended to rationalise, modernise, and simplify the language in order to facilitate its acquisition by non-native speakers, and also to "proletarianise" the written language to make it more accessible to the masses. Today, Standard Kiravic is the predominant register used in federal government documents (and lower-level government documents in Kiravic from non-Kiravic-speaking regions), business documents and correspondence, grey literature, and technical writing. In provinces outside the native range of Kiravic, Standard Kiravic is the register taught in schools, though Literary Kiravic vocabulary is often taught in the upper forms.

• High Kiravic (Kiravic: Ixtikirrona) is a conservative form of Kiravic modelled closely on the stylistic conventions of Traditional High Coscivian and replete with lexical borrowings from older and more arcane recensions of High Coscivian. Certainly the least commonly used of the three main registers, High Kiravic is encountered in many of the greatest Kiravic literary works, a growing number of higher-brow periodicals, and in some recent works of popular nonfiction (especially on historical or political topics). The language of legal documents and proceedings most closely resembles High Kiravic, earning it the informal appellation áldarona ("legalese"). A great deal of personal correspondence among the middle- and upper-classes during the 15th-19th centuries was written according to High Kiravic conventions, including the letters circulated among the founding fathers of the Republic, which are widely studied and recited today.

Note that the unqualified name of the language itself - Kirrona in Literary and High Kiravic, Kiravirona in Standard Kiravic - reflects each register's origins, with the former developing organically from the ethnic language of the Kir people, and the other having been designed and proliferated to be the common language of the entire nation.

There are several minor literary registers used among smaller communities, most of which adhere to style guides published by a particular literary society, university, or other institution. Today, it is often difficult to definitively say that a particular document is written in one register or another, though it is usually easy to identify which register's conventions it leans more toward.

Dialects

Core Dialects

The 'core dialects' constitute the dialect continuüm spoken in the Kiravic-speaking heartland stretching across the upper-middle latitudes of Great Kirav from Niyaska to the Western Highlands.

• Northeastern Kiravic
  • Kandan or Red Kiravic is native to the parts of upstate Kaviska surrounding the city of Evira, as well as communities of ethnic Kandan populations in other parts of Northern Kirav and the Colonies. Kandan Kiravic or Red Kiravic (Hūrikirrona) - Spoken across the upper hemiboreal belt of Great Kirav by the Kandan Kir, as well as pockets of Upper Kirav.
  • Green Kiravic is spoken in Arkvera and Erusta.

• Bay Kiravic
  • Valëkan dialects
  • Estuary/Peninsula
  • Imvikvarna
  • Svéaran Kiravic - Native to the Svéa Coast and its hinterlands, over parts of Kaviska and Harma, as well as most of Bissáv, this dialect was spread to the Cape, Paulastra, the Saxalins, and part of Cartadania as a disproportionately large number of traders, sailors, whalers, and early emigrants hailed from the Svéa Coast. Svéaran is notable for its atypical nominative-accusative morphosyntactic alignment (attributed to a Anderan substrate), and for the strong Eshavian influence on its phonology and vocabulary.
  • Róvidrean Kiravic - Spoken in part of Kaviska.
  • North Niyaskan - Vulnerable dialect once dominant across North Niyaska but now rare in daily use outside of some rural communities in County Manôt and County Fermanek. More closely related to Peninsular Kiravic than to South Niyaskan Kiravic.

• South-Eastern Kiravic
  • South Niyaskan - Spoken by Niyaskan Kir and other traditionally agrarian groups across much of South Niyaska. More vital than North Niyaskan Kiravic.
  • Etivéran
  • Læran Kiravic - Spoken in southeastern Etivéra.
  • Páconic

• Inland Eastern Kiravic
• Central Kiravic
  • Sorbónian Kiravic - Spoken in the canton of Sorbón in Kastera State
  • White Kiravic (Thasikirrona) - Spoken across most of the remainder of Kastera and parts of neighbouring states by the White Kir.
  • Xúsran Kiravic is spoken mainly in the state of Hiterna.
• Midwestern Kiravic
• Western Kiravic
• Southwestern Kiravic
• Sëoran Kiravic

Peripheral Dialects

• Basin Kiravic -

• Urban Northeastern Kiravic dialects are spoken in large, multi-ethnic urban areas in traditionally Eshavian-speaking Northeastern states, such as Bérasar. Kiravic displaced Eshavian as the main language of daily life and inter-ethnic communication in these cities during the Kirosocialist era. Formed on a foundation of written Standard Kiravic as taught in schools, its spoken form reflects the influence of Eshavian (for example, having a progressive aspect) as well as diverse lexical influences from the ethnic languages of its speakers, including Gaelic and other Levantine languages spoken by the substantial Levantine-Kiravian communities in these cities.

• Upper Kiravic is spoken in north-central and northwestern Great Kirav, and borrows extensively from Central and North Coscivian languages. It has a rather singsong cadence and always distinguishes for animacy in third-person pronouns.

• Highland Kiravic is spoken in the general region of the Eastern Highlands, as well as overseas colonies settled by emigrants from this region. It borrows heavily from Celtic and Urom languages and is notable for its nasal vowels and distinct cadence. It has strongly influenced Fenian Kiravic.

• Telmarine Kiravic is spoken in and around 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.

• Xirayic is spoken in Xirya, where it is formalised and used for official purposes. One notable feature is the pronunciation of the adjectival -x suffix as -s, erasing any phonetic distinction between adjectives and adverbs. This is causes mild to moderate confusion for speakers of other dialects.

Others

• Fenian Kiravic is an ethnolect of discontinuous distribution spoken by ethnic Gaels who have shifted to Kiravic from Gaelic, and socially related communities.
• A number of Palæo-Orthodox dialects are spoken by socially insular communities who practice Coscivian Palæo-Orthodoxy. The best-studied of these dialects are Wet Tundra Kiravic on the Coscivian Sea coast, and the Arxangev dialect in Sauropod Oblast.

Society & Culture

In the Kiravian Federacy, Kiravic is the sole official and working language of the Federal government. It is the language in which all laws are written, as well as all original copies of official documents. Most federal subjects, with a few exceptions, use Kiravic as their language of governance either officially or unofficially. While all territories, intendancies, and governments-general use Kiravic as their official language by default, the more self-governing mainland states and chartered colonies are free to designate their own official languages, and several retain Kiravic only in a secondary or auxiliary capacity.

In Kiravia, Kiravic is the language of interethnic communication, business, and mass media. From the Kirosocialist period until the late 21190s all public secondary (and most public primary) education was conducted in Kiravic, and while some states (such as Sydona) have since made local languages the standard medium of instruction, most secondary education nationwide is still in Kiravic, while higher education is conducted mainly in High Coscivian. Kiravic is spoken competently by 66% of the Kiravian population, by 42% as a native language, and by 33% as their sole native language. Most Kiravic speakers are fluent, either natively or non-natively, in one or more ethnic vernacular languages.

Due to Kiravian political and economic influence overseas, especially in Ixnay, Kiravic is often studied as a foreign language abroad, especially in the Cape, Paulastra, and Caphiria.