Mokha language
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Mokha | |
---|---|
Khaskalhk'aa | |
Pronunciation | [xaskaɮk’aː] |
Native to | Mokhavia, Safjal |
Ethnicity | 6,140,000 Mokha |
Native speakers | 6,041,000~ (98%) |
Standard forms | Coastal (Mokhavia)
Inland (Safjal)
|
Dialects |
|
Official status | |
Official language in | Mokhavia |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-1 | mk |
ISO 639-2 | mkh |
ISO 639-3 | mkh |
Mokha ([ˈmoʊhə, -kə], Mokha: Khaskalhk'aa [xaskaɮk’aː]) is a language spoken in northern central Argis. It is the official language in Mokhavia, and one of the working languages in Safjal. It is spoken by approximately 6 million native speakers in Mokhavia, Safjal and among the Mokha diaspora. It has tree dialects groups: Coastal, Inland and Highlands. The language is not related to any other language in the region, and is classified as a language isolate.
Writing system
Mokha is written in the Latin script, where it employs many polygraphs for the sounds that arent represented by the base script.
A.a | B.b | C.c | C'.c' | Ch.ch | Ch'.ch' | D.d | Dz.dz |
Dlh.dlh | E.e | F.f | G.g | H.h | I.i | J.j | K.k |
K'.k' | Kh.kh | L.l | Lh.lh | M.m | N.n | O.o | P.p |
P'.p' | Q.q | R.r | S.s | Sh.sh | T.t | T'.t' | Tlh.tlh |
Tlh'.tlh' | U.u | V.v | W.w | X.x | Y.y | Z.z | ' |
Detailed table of the Mokha alphabet with each letter's phoneme:
Order | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Latin upper case | A | B | C | C' | Ch | Ch' | D | Dz | Dlh | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | K' | Kh | L | Lh | M | N | O | P | P' | Q | R | S | Sh | T | T' | Tlh | Tlh' | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | ' |
Latin lower case | a | b | c | c' | ch | ch' | d | dz | dlh | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | k' | kh | l | lh | m | n | o | p | p' | q | r | s | sh | t | t' | tlh | tlh' | u | v | w | x | y | z | ' |
IPA sound | a | b | t͡s | t͡s’ | t͡ʃ | t͡ʃ’ | d | d͡z | d͡ɮ | e | f | ɡ | - | i | d͡ʒ | k | k’ | x | l | ɬ~ɮ | m | n | o | p | p’ | k | ɾ | s | ʃ | t | t’ | t͡ɬ | t͡ɬ’ | u | w | w | ks | j | t͡s | ʔ, ᵊ◌ |
Phonology
Consonants
Mokha has 29 consonant phonemes. In old Mokha there used to be a distinction between plain and aspirated plosive sounds, but with it's transition into modern Mokha, the plain plosives became voiced, the voiceless consonants are still sometimes pronounced aspirated, depending on the region.
Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plosive/ Affricate |
voiced | b | d | d͡z | d͡ɮ | d͡ʒ | ɡ | ʔ |
voiceless | p | t | t͡s | t͡ɬ | t͡ʃ | k | ||
ejective | p’ | t’ | t͡s’ | t͡ɬ’ | t͡ʃ’ | k’ | ||
Fricative | s | ɬ~ɮ | ʃ | x | ||||
Nasal | m | n | ||||||
Approximant | l | j | w | |||||
Rhotic | ɾ |
Vowels
Mokha has six vowels which have a short and long form:
Front | back | |
---|---|---|
Close | i, iː | u, uː |
Mid | e, eː | o, oː |
Open | a, aː |
The language follows a vowel harmony system, where it groups up the vowels into three groups, front (i, e), central (a), and back (o, u). The front vowels follow i-harmony, the central follow a-harmony, and the back follow u-harmony.
Grammar
Mokha builds morphologically complex words by adding suffixes. For example, ch'elh is 'brother', ch'elh'sk is 'brothers', gich'elh'sk is 'my brothers', tagich'elh'sk is 'from my brothers'.
Nouns
The language has an 11 case system:
Case | Affix | Examlple Type 1: | Examlple Type 2: | Examlple Type 3: |
---|---|---|---|---|
Nominative | -Ø | ewak (canoe) | maske (dog) | salh (bow) |
Genitive | -(A)lh | ewakalh (of a canoe) | maskelh (of a dog) | salh'lh (of a bow) |
Dative | -u/w | ewaku (to a canoe) | maskew (to a dog) | salhu (to a bow) |
Accusative | -i/y | ewaki (canoe) | maskey (dog) | salhi (bow) |
Instrumental | -(A)sA | ewakasa (with a canoe) | maskesi (with a dog) | salh'sa (with a bow) |
Comparative[a] | -(A)dlhA | ewakadlha (as a canoe) | maskedlhi (as a dog) | salhdlha (as a bow) |
Locative | -(A)mAA | ewakamaa (at/in a canoe) | maskemii (at/in a dog) | salhmaa (at/in a bow) |
Allative | ka(')- | ka'ewak (to/towards a canoe) | kamaske (to/towards a dog) | kasalh (to/towards a bow) |
Ablative | ta(')- | ta'ewak (from a canoe) | tamaske (from a dog) | tasalh (from a bow) |
Benefactial | -(A)rA | ewakara (for a canoe) | maskeri (for a rain) | salh'ra (for a bow) |
Vocative | -ee -/oo |
ewakee (canoe!) | maskoo (dog!) | salhee (bow!) |
- ↑ The comparative case can be combo-ed with comparative affix, so the meaning shifts to "than", ex: yaadlha (as ice), ch'alawalh yaadlha (cold as ice)
Mokha uses Comparison affixes:
- Positive - Bassic form of the word: big - saw
- Negative - Negation of the word: (yo-) "unbig" - yosaw
- Comparitive - Form for comparison relative to something, used with the Comparative case: (-('A)lh) bigger - sawalh
- Superlative - Form showing absolute relative to a group: (-('A)lhk(A)) bigest - sawalhka
Verbs
Verbs in Mokha take a number of affixes to mark person, direction, tense, aspect, mood, and other, auxiliary verbs are also used to modify the verb.