Classical Kazaoribanashi
Overview
Classical Kazaoribanashi (also Proto-Kazaoribanashi), transcribed as Caitên Vart in the language itself, is the archaic form of Kazaoribanashi language. The only real remnants of the classical language is in the saga titled Kwazân Melízine, "The Tale of Three Oceans," and in several other very old poems. All other literatures left behind are in Third-Era (modern) Kazaoribanashi (Zeitenwart). The language dates back even to way before the First Era, thus information regarding the ancient Kazaori society is scarce; nevertheless, because all Classical Kazaoribanashi oral literatures are supplied with translation into present Kazaoribanashi, it is not impossible for linguists to recreate the classical language's phonology and grammars.
There are still disagreements over whether Classical Kazaoribanashi is really the ancient version of Kazaoribanashi, or a related but different language. Evidences such as the strikingly similar lexicon and the fact that speakers of Kazaoribanashi can partly understand the Kwazân Melízine saga (without the need of translation) lead to the conclusion that it is indeed what that evolved into today's Kazaoribanashi by the El Elemia Ethnic Language Research Institute.
As a whole, Classical Kazaoribanashi shares many similarities with Third-Era Kazaoribanashi in fields of phonology and vocabulary. Its grammar, however, is highly different, as it is a heavily fusional language with incredibly many declensions and conjugations. Modern Kazaoribanashi, while highly synthetic compared to contemporary Hymmnos and Ar ciel languages, is surprisingly simple in comparison with Classical Kazaoribanashi. Since Kazaoribanashi didn't start borrowing Hymmnos words until the First Era, Hymmnos influence in Classical Kazaoribanashi is nonexistent.
Transliteration
Despite being the ancestor of Third-Era Kazaoribanashi, Classical Kazaoribanashi enjoys a perfectly regular transliteration system instead of its descendant's highly irregular and confusing orthography. As such, it requires the use of more than just 52 characters, and thus cannot be transcribed using the Hymmnos script.
The additional 6 letters used only for transliterating Classical Kazaoribanashi include: â, ê, é, í, ô and ú. There are also 5 digraphs, cz, gn, rr, rz, sz. On the other hand, j and q are not used except for writing proper nouns of foreign origins.
Phonology
It goes without saying that Classical Kazaoribanashi has a phonology system highly similar to that of the modern language. There are still, however, a few noteworthy differences.
Consonants
- Voiced velar plosive /ɡ/ and fricative /ɣ/ do not exist. The voiceless counterpart /x/ does, however it remains unchanged before /i/ and /j/ instead of turning into an allophone /ç/.
- No word-final dental fricative - in fact, no dental fricative at all.
- Palatal nasal /ɲ/ exists. It probably became /nj/ or /n/ in the modern language.
- Voiced stops/fricatives, affricates, semivowels and /h/ are not allowed in word-final position.
In columns with two consonants, the ones on the left are voiceless, and the ones on the right are voiced. Letters in parentheses are orthographic representation of the phoneme.
| Bilabial | Labio- dental |
Dental | Alveolar | Post- alveolar |
Palatal | Labio- velar |
Velar | Uvular | Glottal | |
| Plosive | p (p) b (b) | t (t) d (d) | k (k) | |||||||
| Nasal | m (m) | n (n) | ɲ (gn) | ŋ (g) | ||||||
| Trill | r (rr) | |||||||||
| Affricate | ts (c) | tʃ (cz) | ||||||||
| Fricative | f (f) v (v) | s (s) z (z) | ʃ (sz) ʒ (rz) | x (x) | ʁ (r) | h (h) | ||||
| Approximant | j (y) | w (w) | ||||||||
| Lateral approximant |
l (l) |
Vowels
- No rounded front vowel nor unrounded back vowel. In general, the number of vowels are less than Third-Era Kazaoribanashi.
- No nasal vowel, though this is still in dispute, as vowel + /ŋ/ combinations sometimes sound like nasal vowels.
- No liaison nor elision. Two vowels following each other, even if one of them is a schwa, must be pronounced separately.
- Only two "real" long vowels, /iː/ and /uː/, but three diphthongs. Apparently, those diphthongs didn't become full long vowels until late First Era, when Kazaoribanashi language was already approaching the verge of extinction.
Technically diphthongs should not be included in the table of vowels below, but for comparision's sake they are. Letters in parentheses are orthographic representation of the phoneme.
| Front | Near- front |
Central | Near- back |
Back | |
| Close | iː (í) | ɨ (â) | uː (ú) | ||
| Near-close | ɪ (i) | ʊ (u) | |||
| Close-mid | e (é) eɪ (ei) | o (o) oʊ (ou) | |||
| Mid | ə (e) | ||||
| Open-mid | ɛ (ê) | ɔ (ô) | |||
| Near-open | ɐ (a) | ||||
| Open | aɪ (ai) |
Stress
It would be impossible to determine the stress rules of Classical Kazaoribanashi, but in general it has been agreed upon that it does not have a set stress pattern, or, more likely, no word stress at all. All vowels are to be pronounced fully, there is no vowel reduction.
Grammar
As mentioned above, Classical Kazaoribanashi is highly different, and much more complex, than that of the modern language. It is agglutinative with an unusually high number of case declensions, as well as verb conjugations that reflect person and number, which were lost during the transition to modern Kazaoribanashi. Yet, its verb is also much more simple than that of Third-Era Kazaoribanashi, as it lacks distinct forms like gerunds and moods like subjunctive.
General syntax is SOV (Subject - Object - Verb), similar to the modern language, though this order does not have to be followed strictly, due to extensive use of cases. Subordinate clauses however are always put before noun. Again, like Third-Era Kazaoribanashi, the classical language has no adjective, rather all adjectives are predicative verbs, and are conjugated like any other verbs.
Noun declensions
Nouns in Classical Kazaoribanashi are also classified into four groups, called first declension, second declension, third declension and fourth declension, respectively, depending on their ending.
There is no article, but there are plural suffixes.
Cases
Classical Kazaoribanashi has as many as 25 cases, maybe even more, depending on analysis. Most of those cases have disappeared during the transition into modern Kazaoribanashi, and separate particles are used instead, most likely due to influence from Hymmnos. The genitive case is the only one that remained, while the other 24 cases merged into nominative and objective cases.
Moreover, Classical Kazaoribanashi is not a Nominative-accusative language like Third-Era Kazaoribanashi nor Hymmnos. Rather, it is an Ergative-accusative language, also known as Tripartite language. That means the subject of an intransitive verb and the subject of a transitive verb are treated differently - the former takes the absolutive case (unmarked) and the latter takes the ergative case (marked) - while the object of a transitive verb takes the accusative case. In comparison, modern Kazaoribanashi treats both of them as the nominative case (unmarked).
Absolutive case
The absolutive case is used to mark the subject of an intransitive verb. This case is unmarked and has no ending.
Example: Sorêl slêpi ("The sister sleeps").
Accusative case
The accusative case is used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. Its endings are -es and -s.
Example: Sorêles slêpiset ("He/she puts the sister into sleep").
Dative case
The dative case is used to mark the indirect object of a transitive verb. Its endings are -of and -bof.
Example: Sorêles miof yídi ("He/she gives the sister to me").
Ergative case
The ergative case is used to mark the subject of a transitive verb. Its endings are -er and -r.
Example: Sorêler slêpisetmi ("The sister puts me into sleep").
Vocative case
The vocative case is used to call out to or address someone. Its endings are -ei and -nei.
Example: Sorêlei! ("Hey sister!")
Abessive case
The abessive case is used to mark the lack of something. Its endings are -ana and -naisz.
Example: sorêlana ("without sister").
Benefactive case
The benefactive case is used to mark the purpose or intention of an action. Its endings are -ivi and -ví.
Example: sorêlivi ("for sister's sake").
Causal case
The causal case is used to mark the cause or reason of something. Its endings are -elí and -dú.
Example: sorêlelí ("because of sister").
Comitative case
The comitative case is used to mark the company of something. Its endings are -esô and -se.
Example: sorêlesô ("together with sister").
Essive case
The essive case is used to mark the state of being something. Its endings are -ézé and -rzé.
Example: sorêlézé ("as a sister").
Genitive case
The genitive case is used to mark possession of a noun over another noun. Unlike the modern language where you can put possessor either before or after the possessed (but after is preferred), in Classical Kazaoribanashi the genitive must always be put before the possessed noun. Its endings are -ên and -ne.
Example: sorêlên ("of sister").
Instrumental case
The instrumental case is used to mark the instrument or method used to execute the verb. Its endings are -ô and -dô.
Example: sorêlô ("using sister").
Partitive case
The partitive case has only one use - to decline numbers for counting. Also refer to the Plurality section below. Its endings are -ân and -bân.
Example: kaibân sorêl ("seven sisters").
Semblative case
The semblative case is used to mark the similarity of a noun to something else. Its endings are -êsso and -sso.
Example: sorêlêsso ("like a sister").
Adessive case
The adessive case is used to mark the relative or general location. Its endings are -it and -nit.
Example: lízinit ("at the sea").
Inessive case
The inessive case is used to mark the inside of something. Its endings are -aik and -naik.
Example: lízinaik ("inside the sea").
Superessive case
The superessive case is used to mark the surface of something. Its endings are -igra and -gra.
Example: lízigra ("above the sea").
Ablative case
The ablative case is used to mark movement away from something. Its endings are -êl and -kêl.
Example: lízikêl ("from the sea").
Delative case
The delative case is used to mark movement from the surface of something. Its endings are -evé and -vé.
Example: lízivé ("from above the sea").
Elative case
The elative case is used to mark movement from the inside of something. Its endings are -ak and -sak.
Example: lízisak ("out of the sea").
Allative case
The allative case is used to mark movement toward something. Its endings are -ex and -xê.
Example: lízixê ("to the sea").
Illative case
The illative case is used to mark movement into something. Its endings are -ula and -cu.
Example: lízicu ("into the sea").
Sublative case
The sublative case is used to mark movement onto the surface of something. Its endings are -ok and -touk.
Example: lízitouk ("onto the sea").
Terminative case
The terminative case is used to mark the end of a movement. More often, it is used to mark the end of time, ex. "until midnight." Its endings are -ât and -mât.
Example: lízimât ("until the sea").
Prolative case
The prolative case is used to mark movement through, via or along something. Its endings are -il and -sil.
Example: lízisil ("through the sea").
First declension
Nouns in first declension end in -p, -t and -k. To decline them, simply add the suffixes directly without any modification needed.
Second declension
Nouns in second declension end in -f, -s, -x, -l and -r. Among the four declensions, this is the largest group. To decline them, change -f into -v, -s into -z and -x into -g before adding the suffixes. The two liquid endings -l and -r remain unchanged.
Third declension
Nouns in third declension end in -m, -n and -g. To decline them, change -m into -mb, -n into -nd and -g into -gk before adding the suffixes.
Fourth declension
Nouns in fourth declension end in any vowel. To decline them, simply add the second set of suffixes (the ones that begin with a consonant instead of a vowel).
Pronouns
Plurality
Classical Kazaoribanashi has two numbers - singular and plural, with plural form marked by suffixes depending on declension patterns. However, the use of the plural is fairly limited, and only used to describe an "intentionally gathered" group as opposed to a "natural" group. For example, the sentence "The leaves on the tree fall" in Classical Kazaoribanashi would become "The leaf on the tree falls" - because the leaves on the tree, though many, are but part of a natural group and are considered one entity. Plural form would only be used in situations such as "I pick up some leaves."
Plural suffixes are also not used when there is a number or quantity determiner preceding the noun. For example, "sea" is lízi, "seas" is lízye but "seven seas" is simply kaibân lízi instead of kaibân lízye.
All pluralized nouns fall into the fourth declension, since all plural suffixes are vowels.
Possessive pronoun suffixes
Instead of using pronouns' genitive forms, Classical Kazaoribanashi puts pronoun possessions at the end of the inflected noun, after both plural and case suffixes. For example, the word for "his heart" (absolutive case) is hopleir and "inside their hearts" (inessive case) is hopaikleiri (lit. "heart-inside-their").
Verb conjugations
First conjugation
Second conjugation
Third conjugation
Irregular verbs
Accusative pronoun suffixes
Just like how Third-Era Kazaoribanashi puts direct object pronouns right before the verb without the need of a direct object particle, in the classical language, if the object is a pronoun, instead of inflecting the pronoun into accusative case (which is probably not allowed, since no such thing has ever been found in Classical Kazaoribanashi materials), a suffix is added after the verb is conjugated. These suffixes are, curious enough, mostly exactly the same as possessive pronoun suffixes used for nouns, except for the 1st singular, 2nd singular and 2nd plural. This was actually preserved in modern Kazaoribanashi, for example hes is both objective and possessive form of the 3rd person masculine singular pronoun, and so is the Classical suffix -leir.
