Cemkarjy

The transliteration presented here maps closely to the Cemkarjy writing system, and therefore features some of its ideosyncrasies.  

Consonants

	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Velar	Uvular
Stop	p /p'/ b /b/		t /t'/ d /d/	k /k'/	g /ɢ/
Nasal		m /ɱ/	n /n/
Trill					r /ʀ/
Fricative		f /f/ v /v/	s /s/ z /z/	h /x/
Lateral Fricative			l /ɬ/ j /ɮ/	c /ʟ̥/
Affricate			ts /t͜sʼ/ tl /t͜ɬ'/	kh /k͜xʼ/

Note that all voiceless stops and affricates are always ejective.

Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	i /i/	y /ɯ/ u /u/
Mid	e /ɜ/	o /ɔ/
Open	a /ɐ/

 

Vowel Combination

When multiple vowels are adjacent, sounds may get modified or added according to the following table. Note that when three or more vowels are in sequence, modifications get applied from the last vowel to the first. Combinations not noted in the table do not occur in words.   For example, the sequence yya may be transformed as:   ɯɯɐ → ɯɯjɐ → ɯ͜ujɐ   note that, if the transformation were applied in the opposite order, this would lead to the illegal combination /uɐ/.  

	i-	ɯ-	u-	ɜ-	ɔ-	ɐ-
-i	i͜ɯ	ɯxi	uː	ɜxi	ɔxi	ɐxi
-ɯ	ixɯ	ɯ͜u	uː	ɜxɯ	ɔxɯ	ɐxɯ
-u		ɯ͜u	uː
-ɜ	ijɜ	ɯjɜ		ɜ͜i
-ɔ	ijɔ	ɯjɔ			ɔː
-ɐ	ijɐ	ɯjɐ				ɐː

 

Phonotactics

  The syllable structure of Cemkarjy is:   (C) - V - (C) - (C)   Where V may be any vowel or diphthong and C may be any consonant. In syllables with two consonants in the coda, they must use different methods of articulation, with lateral fricatives counting as the same methods as fricatives. Note that this is the structure after vowel transformations are applied.

Nouns

Number Marking

Cemkarjy nouns can be either implicit singular or implicit plural. To use a noun with a different number than its implied number, a suffix must be added according to the table below. The first suffix shown is used where allowed by the phonetic rules, otherwise the second variant is used.  

Number	Suffix
Singular (implicit plural)	-ol, -col
Plural (implicit singular)	-er, -ir

 

Verbs

  In the base form, all verbs end with a double vowel, which is pronounced as either a long vowel or a diphthong as explained in the phonology section.  

Time Conjugation

  Cemkarjy features five categories of time which verbs may be conjugated into:  

• Distant Past: Describes events which happened a long time ago, typically classified as either before the birth of the speaker or as more than a typical (Yytsuuri) lifetime ago, never used for events the speaker has experienced.
• Past
• Present
• Future
• Timeless: Used in statements which do not happen in a specific timeframe, in most cases similar to a gnomic or habitual aspect.

 

Time Category	Suffix
Distant Past	-tarn
Past	-da
Present	-n
Future	-he
Timeless	-

 

Participles

  Each temporal category also may form a participle, which are used in more advanced tenses.  

Time Category	Suffix
Distant Past	-taarj
Past	-daan
Present	-nyg
Future	-kheij
Timeless	-cuigr

 

Nominalization

  Cemkarjy verbs feature multiple classes of nominalization:  

• Action Nominalization: describes the action itself
• Actor Nominalization: describes something or someone that performs the action described by the verb
• Patient Nominalization: describes something or someone the action described by the verb is performed upon
• Instrument Nominalization: describes something used to perform the action described by the verb
• Effect Nominalization: describes the effect of the action described by the verb

  Nominalization uses a circumfix as described in the table below.

Action	ac-R-c
Actor	ac-R-rev
Patient	ac-R-ned
Instrument	fac-R-vr
Instrument	fac-R-gj