Mokha language

Mokha
Khaskalhk'aa
Pronunciation	[xaskaɮk’aː]
Native to	Mokhavia, Safjal
Ethnicity	6,140,000 Mokha
Native speakers	6,041,000~ (98%)
Language family	Language isolate
Standard forms	Coastal (Mokhavia) Inland (Safjal)
Dialects	Coastal Inland Highlands
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 five 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'. The language employs an SOV word order.

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)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!)

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.

Language Examples

Universal Decleration of Human Rights: article 1:

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Wesc'a khask kha'atyap'ask imatask way pa'ask tlhegekyimi way tookh'skumu. Desk seyi walhalaw ne k'uu way satlh'a, way t'weyi ya shkeyi kad'skilhaywask ne ch'elhiw t'alh.