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Mokha language

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Mokha
Khaskalhk'aa
Pronunciation[xaskaɮk’aː]
Native to Mokhavia, Safjal
Ethnicity6,140,000 Mokha
Native speakers
6,041,000~ (98%)
Standard forms
Coastal (Mokhavia)
Inland (Safjal)
Dialects
  • Coastal
  • Inland
  • Highlands
Official status
Official language in
 Mokhavia
Language codes
ISO 639-1mk
ISO 639-2mkh
ISO 639-3mkh
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For a guide to IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

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, u,
Mid e, o,
Open a,

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 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!)
  1. 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.

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.