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LotM - Jun 20: Kyuren
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Happy June! litrobotix's Kyuren takes the cake as the LotM. Delight in its split-ergativity, a posteriori-ness, and Այբուբեն!
This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 1 Jun 2020, 20:12.

[comments] [history] Menu 1. Phonology and orthography 2. Grammar 3. Etymology 4. More on Kyuren 5. A Note on Kyuren A hearty congratulations to @[Deactivated User] for the design of a wonderful offshoot of the Iranian language family that is  Kyuren.

[top]Phonology and orthography

Kyuren possesses a seven-vowel system, though the phonemes are not aligned with the more typical spacing of a seven-vowel system, containing /i e ɛ ə u o ɒ/, with several allophones occurring due to peripheral consonants:

u/ɨ/_C[+nasal]
a/ɔ/_C[+velar]
a/æ/_Ce
i/ɐ/_C[+nasal]

There are also plentiful diphthongs, all falling and ending in either [ɪ̯ ʊ̯].

The consonant inventory is not too daunting, but does have some fun spots, particularly its inclusion of the alveolar approximates /θ̞ ð̞/. /kʷ/ makes an appearance as well, and is the only labialized consonant in the mix. Like the vowels, there are some allophones in the mix, mainly in the form of place of articulation (in the case of /n/), or voicing/palatalization.

To quote the language's summary, syllable structure:

Kyuren syllable structure is fairly allowing, and generally has the shape of (L)(S)(L)V(L)(S) L - liquids, nasals, fricatives S - stops, affricates

The author describes the Armenian-alphabet orthography as being "the most sinful writing system ever created", but you can judge that for yourself.

[top]Grammar

Kyuren features a well-documented grammar, including a whole bunch of fun derivational processes. Let's dive into some of the meat of what Kyuren has to offer. Nouns are split into classes dependent on animacy, followed by either being consonant- or vowel-final. This results in four total classes. There are four cases and two numbers: the classic singular and plural, each being available in the nominative, accusative, construct, and vocative cases. One fun quirk is the construct case's dominance of others; if a noun were to be the direct object and possessed object in the same phrase, it is marked as possessed (AKA the construct) instead of any accusative marking. This can generate sentences with transitive verbs with no accusatively-marked object, such as this delight written by litrobotix:

Սայ մարջ դայըմ։ sa-y marj day-ȩm dog-CNSConstruct state
noun being possessed
.SGSingular (number)
one countable entity
man see-1SFirst person singular (person)
speaker, signer, etc.; I
.NPSTNon-past (tense)
present, continuous and future
.IPFVImperfective (aspect)
'interrupted or incomplete'
"I see the man's dog"

Kyuren also has the joy of a nice number of irregular verbs, plus split-ergativity in the past tense, to really make those irregular verbs pop with their unpredictable past-tense stems. Verbs have two tenses (past and non-past) as well as two aspects (perfective and imperfective), as well as a basic SOV structure.

Circumpositions (aka, the sick two-headed monster of simultaneous prepositions and postpositions) also appear. Just needed to note that.

[top]Etymology

Impressively, especially for an a posteriori-lang, virtually every word in the dictionary has an etymology, whether it be the derivation or a straight-up evolution from Proto-Iranian. This language is the result of a lot of effort. Applause is suggested.

[top]More on Kyuren

That wraps up our tour of Kyuren! There's loads more to read, so check out the LexiBuild sets, articles and translations!

[top]A Note on Kyuren

Got suggestions for how the next LotM should be written? See something in Kyuren that wasn't covered and you wish it had been? Feel free to shoot me (@[Deactivated User]) a PM with your questions, comments, and/or concerns. Also feel free to drop by the LotM clan if you have other feedback, want to join in the voting process, or nominate a language!
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on 01/06/20 20:120[Deactivated User]tag fix again cuz durrr
on 01/06/20 20:11+26[Deactivated User]tag fixes
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