Kaira Note
The Hymmnos dialect Kaira was used to craft Songs in the Kaira Islands, a series of very small islands that were entirely destroyed during the Grathnode Inferia. It was, indeed, a mean to communicate with a Song Server, however the Song Server was exceptionally special in that it was designed in the form of a little girl, known as Archyet. Apart from functioning as a walking Song Server, Archyet was also a weapon - an instrument of war. In fact, she was part of the project coded Project A. - one of the last hopes for Sol cluster to turn the tide of the war against El elemia. The project never came into fruition, and by the beginning of Second Era, Kaira Islands along with its Hymmnos Note as well as Archyet were quickly forgotten.
The Kaira dialect is highly unique, mostly unintelligible to speakers of Standard Hymmnos save for the very few loanwords from Cluster and Cult Ciel Notes.
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Orthography
Kaira Note can be written in both Hymmnos script and Latin script, just like every other Hymmnos dialects. However, it does not use the same "alphabet" (ie. the order of letters) as other dialects, and instead, has its own alphabet.
The standard Hymmnos alphabet is: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Meanwhile, the Kaira alphabet is: A B G D E Z H I J C L M N CH O P R S T U V X LY
CH and LY are treated as one single letter. F, K, Q and W are not used. Y is never used alone, only as LY.
Some Kaira letters are pronounced differently from Standard Hymmnos, making it hard for people to recognize Kaira as a dialect of Hymmnos.
A is /a/ like Japanese ha.
B is /v/ like English very.
G is in free variation between /ɣ/ like (modern) Greek gamma and /ʁ/ like French rouge.
D is in free variation between /d/ like Japanese da and /ɾ/ like Japanese ru.
E is in free variation between /ɛ/ like English pen and /e/ like Japanese te. Generally /ɛ/ in stressed syllables, else /e/.
Z is /s/ like Japanese sa.
H is /h/ like Japanese ha.
I is /i/ like Japanese ki.
J is /j/ like Japanese ya.
C is /k/ like Japanese ka. It doesn't change sound when preceding E or I.
L is /l/ like English love.
M is /m/ like Japanese ma.
N is /n/ like Japanese na, but /ɴ/ like Japanese hon in word-final position.
CH is /x/ like German Buch.
O is in free variation between /ɔ/ like English for and /o/ like Japanese no. Generally /ɔ/ in stressed syllables, else /o/.
P is /p/ like Japanese pa.
R is /r/ like Spanish perro.
S is /z/ like Japanese za.
T is /t/ like Japanese ta.
U is /u/ like Italian tu.
V is /f/ like English fly.
X is /ɕ/ like Japanese shi.
LY is exactly the same as J.
Names of the letters (for spelling purpose and reciting the alphabet) are as follows: A, Be, Ge, De, E, Ezza, Hata, I, Jota, Ce, La, Ma, Na, Echo, O, Pe, Ra, Seta, Te, U, Ve, Xi, Lya.
Vocabulary
Being a secretly-developed language used for a separate Song Server, the vast majority of Kaira words were crafted from scratch. Only a selected few words were borrowed from Cluster and Cult Ciel Notes. There was no influence from any other dialect, not even from Central Note (Sol cluster detested Sol ciel after all).
Kaira words are not compatible with any Song Server other than Archyet, likewise Archyet does not accept any non-Kaira word, beside the few loanwords that had been inputted into her internal memory.
Another unique feature of Kaira words is that all words in their basic form must end in a vowel or N (which is treated as a vowel in Hymmnos anyway). Loanwords often have a vowel added at the end to meet this requirement. Whenever a word ends with a consonant, you can tell immediately that is has already been inflected.
Grammar
A simple example, "I happily become a song" in comparison with Standard Hymmnos:
Standard: Was yea ra chs hymmnos mea.
Kaira: Lye seto lullam.
Lye = emotion of happiness
seto = become
lullam = to (a) song
Syntax
Adjectives and adverbs generally follow nouns and verbs, instead of preceding them. So "beautiful flower" is sen sgelle (literally "flower beautiful").
The basic standard syntax in Kaira Note is [Subject] - [Verb] if the verb is intransitive, such as the above example, but [Object] - [Verb] - [Subject] if the verb is transitive. For example, "I happily love you" is as follows:
Ublye mai eda mirt.
Ublye = emotion of happily loving the listener
mai = you
eda = love
mirt = I (do)
A loose translation keeping the proper word order would be "I am happy that you are loved by me." However, this is not a passive sentence, the passive voice will be explained in another section below.
Furthermore, conjunction words may trigger a special syntax rule called "Verb-second." This rule ensures that under certain circumstances, the main verb is the second element in the sentence. Not all conjunction words trigger this effect, but when they do, word order becomes [Conjunction] - [Verb] - [Subject] or [Conjunction] - [Verb] - [Object] - [Subject].
Some common words that trigger Verb-second: jen ("and" or "thus"), alche ("but").
Some adverbs can also be moved to the beginning of a sentence, and also trigger Verb-second. Examples are: gia ("never"), rilen ("always"), vori ("again"), etc.
So, "And I love you" is Jen Ublye eda mai mirt.
Emotion words
Except for emotionless sentences, main sentence starts with an emotion word. In the above examples, the emotion word is Lye. Of course, conjunctions still come before emotion words.
Emotion words in Kaira Note are divided into two levels: level one and level two. As a common rule, they all have their initial letter capitalized.
There are six level one emotion words: Lya, Lyi, Lyu, Lye, Lyo and Lyn. Those words express the singer/speaker's emotion toward the topic described in the sentence, and should be straightforward enough.
Level two emotion words are far more elaborate, with a total of 13 bases that can be fused with any of the six emotions, resulting in 13 x 6 = 78 possible emotions (even though some of them are purely theoretical and have little practical use). They express the singer/speaker's emotion toward the listener.
Level two emotion words are further categorized into five pairs and three isolated emotions. Each of the five pairs consists of two emotions that contradict each other, yet the five pairs themselves form two circles of emotions that support each other in a closed flow, for example the "light" flow of emotions goes like this: Care → Trust → Love → Desire → Protection → Care → ...
When one cares about someone else, one understands more about them, thus trusting them. When trust reaches its climax, one falls in love with the person whom they trust. Love leads to desire - the feeling of wanting to own the person whom they love, sometimes could be negative traits such as sexual lust and craving domination. But in every case, desire leads to protection of the person whom one desires, possibly overprotective at times. And by protecting someone, one cares about them. Thus the circle repeats itself.
Similarly, the "dark" flow of emotions goes as follows: Ignorance → Doubt → Hatred → Boredom → Destruction → Ignorance → ...
Then finally there are three isolated emotions: Pity, Envy and Fear.
The basic formation of level two emotion words is [Base] + [Level one]. The base is one of the 13 emotions explained above, and expresses the essence of the emotion the singer/speaker bears toward the listener. Then you add one of the six level one emotion words to express the state of the emotion.
The 13 bases are as follows:
Care: Chari- ⇔ Ignorance: Apole-
Trust: Tuton- ⇔ Doubt: Clev-
Love: Ub- ⇔ Hatred: He-
Desire: Rai- ⇔ Boredom: Geva-
Protection: Lanc- ⇔ Destruction: Degl-
Pity: Vita-
Envy: Parse-
Fear: Batt-
Examples of level two emotion words: Charilya ("I care about you and I will do my best to"), Ublye ("I gladly love you"), Railyu ("I am sad and I need you"), Degllyo ("I want to kill you to quell my anger").
Only either level one or level two emotion word can be used in a sentence. After all, one cannot focus on more than one emotion toward two different targets at the same time.
Remember: emotion words simply express the singer/speaker's emotion. They are not verbs. They cannot substitute verbs.
Emotion keeper syntax
Just like Standard Hymmnos, Kaira Note has some sort of emotion keeper syntax, though it's more correct to call it "emotion repeater" instead. What it does is to take the emotion word in a sentence and saves that emotion into Archyet's buffer memory. Then, any time after that, you can recall the emotion from the memory, without having to repeat the emotion word again and again. It follows this pattern:
[Emo] = ABC
# DEF
# XYZ/.
The above is exactly the same as follows:
[Emo] ABC
[Emo] DEF
[Emo] XYZ
The equal sign tells the Song Server that the emotion to the left is to be saved temporarily into buffer memory. The number sign then recalls the emotion from memory. In the end, a /. is put to indicate that the emotion is no longer needed, the emotion will be erased from buffer memory, and you can then proceed with other parts of the Hymn normally.
Do note that the /. is very important: if you forget it and continue to put new emotion sounds, then those new emotion sounds will be nulled and those sentences will be perceived as emotionless by Archyet.
Even more important note: if you accidentally forget to end the emotion keeper syntax with /. and keep going until the Hymn ends, then not only does none of the emotion sounds after the equal sign have any effect, but the emotion saved into Archyet's buffer memory will also remain there meaninglessly. Her buffer memory has a limit - it can only save up at most 128 level one or 32 level two emotion words at once. If any further emotion is fed, Archyet will break down and be forced to reboot herself, which is both inconvenient and dangerous to her system.
In other words, every time you forget to put a /. to end your emotion keeper syntax, Archyet is indirectly damaged a little. Please think of the loli Song Server.
Noun declensions
Kaira nouns have two numbers, singular and plural. A distinct feature of the language is that every plural is irregular. In other words, every word has a distinct plural form that cannot be derived easily from its singular form, and must be memorized. For example, plural form of lulla ("song") is laudu ("songs"), and plural form of sen ("flower") is aoga ("flowers").
That said, there is also a regular way to make plural nouns: by adding the word var (literally "of a lot" but should be perceived as "a lot of") before the noun. Plural forms of lulla and sen can be written as var lulla and var sen respectively. This method, however, is considered lacking in artistic value.
Nouns have six cases: ergative (subject of a transitive verb), absolutive (subject of an intransitive verb OR object of a transitive verb), dative (~to), locative (~in/inside/on/at), ablative (~from) and genitive (~of). Since all nouns end in a vowel, declension for the six cases are very simple and regular: you just add a suffix to the end of the word.
Ergative: -t
Absolutive: n/a (unmarked)
Dative: -m
Locative: -ch
Ablative: -z
Genitive: -r
For example, declension of the word lulla ("song") is: lullat, lulla, lullam, lullach, lullaz, lullar.
If the word ends in N, then there are some irregularities which are only reflected when written and not when sung/spoken. For example, declension of sen ("flower") is: sent, sen, semn, sehn, senz, sern.
In some words with more than one syllable and the last syllable's vowel is an E, the E might be deleted when adding some of the case suffixes. This is somewhat irregular. For example, declension of sgelle ("beautiful") is: sgellt, sgelle, sgellem, sgellch, sgellz, sgeller.
Adverbs are invariable, but when used attributively, adjectives agree with nouns both in case and number, but not definiteness. Examples:
sen sgelle = beautiful flower
sern sgeller = of beautiful flower (agreement in case)
aoga banella = beautiful flowers (agreement in number)
aogar banellar = of beautiful flowers (agreement in both case and number)
But there is no agreement in number if var is used to mark plurality:
var sen sgelle = beautiful flowers
And there is no agreement at all if the adjective is used predicatively:
Lye aoga sgelle = Flowers are beautiful
Pronouns
Kaira Note does not distinguish gender in its pronouns, however there is a separately distinguished first person dual form (ie. "you and me" or "the two of us"), so there are seven pronouns. Of course, each of those pronouns can, and must be, declined according to the contents of the sentence. Their declensions are mostly regular, though there are some alternate forms in the ergative and genitive cases.
Below are the seven pronouns, and their declension following the order of cases detailed in the above section. Irregulars are marked with an asterisk.
First person singular: mirt*, mire, mirem, mirch*, mirez, mer*
Second person singular: mait, mai, maim, maich, maiz, mair
Third person singular: zat, za, zam, zach, zaz, zar
First person dual: giet, gie, giem, gieg*, giz*, gir*
First person plural: somat or sat*, soma, sonam*, somach, somaz, sar*
Second person plural: seot, seo, seom, seoch, seoz, seor
Third person plural: jerut or jut*, jeru, jerum, jeruch, jeruz, jur*
The first person singular pronoun in its absolutive form when used as subject of intransitive verb is always abbreviated. Otherwise, when it's used as an object of a transitive verb, it remains.
Definite suffix
The equivalent to English "the" is a suffix, added after a noun. Case marker is added after definite suffix. This suffix is incidentally the same as level one emotion word (without capitalizing the first letter). Therefore, there are six definite suffixes, each corresponding to one emotion: -lya, -lyi, -lyu, -lye, -lyo, -lyn.
Examples: lullalye ("the happy song"), senlyaz ("from the flower"), tiralyur ("of the sad girl").
Definite suffix can also be appended to verbs, in which case it turns the verb into a verbal noun.
Verb tenses and moods
Verbs in Kaira Note are only conjugated by two tenses, present and past, and two moods, indicative and imperative. Since there is no such thing as past imperative, verbs essentially only have three forms: present, past and imperative. Thankfully, all verbs are regularly conjugated.
Past tense is derived from applying the infix -ett- into the last syllable of the present verb form. This applies to adjectives too. Examples: setetto ("became"), edetta ("loved"), sgellette ("was beautiful").
Imperative mood is achieved by adding the suffix -llet to the present verb form. Examples: setollet ("become!"), edallet ("love!"), sgellellet ("be beautiful!").
There is no prohibitive mood, imperative of negated pronouns is used instead (see later section).
Participles
The verb participle has a purpose of connecting, that is, it is used when there is some sort of connection with the following sentence(s). There are two participles: internal participle, which depicts connection with the same subject/agent, and external participle, which depicts connection with different subjects/agents. Participles are marked with prefixes connected to the verb with a hyphen. The internal participle is in- and the external participle is ex-. However, they change their forms depending on the first letter of the verb.
in- + b or m or p or v = im-
in- + z = iz-
in- + c = ic-
in- + l = il-
in- + n = i-
in- + ch = ich-
in- + r = ir-
in- + t = it-
in- + x = ix-
ex- + z = ez-
ex- + c = ec-
ex- + ch = ech-
ex- + s = ed-
ex- + x = e-
Example:
Lye mai in-eda jen Lye seto senlya lullam = The flower loves you so it becomes a song.
As you can see, the first phrase has no subject. Without the in- prefix, it'd become Lye mai eda which means "You love" - thus completely different meaning. That's why the internal participle is necessary.
Antipassive voice
Kaira Note does not possess a passive voice, instead it uses an antipassive construction. In order to express the passive, both the subject and the object of a transitive verb are in the absolutive case. Example:
Lye mire eda mai = I am happy that you are loved by me.
Copulae and negation
There is no "to be" verb in the Kaira dialect. Instead, each of the seven pronouns have a copula form, which equals to their corresponding "to be" form:
ha = I am
mai = you are
za = he/she/it is
gie = you and me are
soma = we are
seo = you are
ja = they are
The copulae for first person singular and third person plural are distinct, otherwise they're the same as their pronoun in absolutive form. So, "I am a girl" is simply Lye ha tira without the need of a pronoun. Likewise, "You are flowers" is Lya seo aoga.
Copula form is never used with predicative adjective (ie. not in "I am happy").
When the subject is not a pronoun, za is used as a dummy "to be" for the sentence. For example, "The girl is a flower" is Lya tiralyu za sen (literally "The girl she flower"). za is used even if the subject (and consequently its corresponding predicament) is plural.
Negation in Kaira Note has it worse. Something as simple as "I do not love you," which is generally achieved by adding an adverb in Standard Hymmnos (and many other languages in fact) actually has to be reformed into "I am not that love you I do." That is because while most languages in the world show negation by negating the verb, Kaira Note negates the pronoun instead. A negated pronoun is then followed by a subordinate clause (see section below).
nano = I am not
maine = you are not
zachen = he/she/it is not
gien = you and me are not
sarano = we are not
asuta = you are not
jachen = they are not
Examples:
Lya tiralyu zachen sen = The girl is not a flower.
Clevlyu nano la eda mai mirt = I do not love you.
These negated pronouns can take the -llet suffix to exhibit prohibition. So, "Do not love me!" is Helyo mainellet la eda mire mait!
