Kazaoribanashi Language

Contents 1 Overview 2 Classical Kazaoribanashi 3 Phonology 3.1 Consonants 3.2 Vowels 3.3 Stress 4 Grammar 4.1 Nouns 4.1.1 Plurality 4.1.2 Nominative case 4.1.3 Objective case 4.1.4 Genitive case 4.1.5 Foreign word declensions 4.2 Pronouns 4.2.1 Direct object pronouns 4.3 Verbs 4.3.1 Tenses and aspects 4.3.2 Moods 4.3.3 Auxiliary verbs 4.3.4 Adverbs 4.3.5 Gerunds 4.3.6 Irregular verbs 4.4 Subordinate clauses 4.5 Questions 4.6 Inversion 5 Number system 6 Vocabulary 6.1 Loanwords 7 Verb conjugation summary 7.1 -IR verbs 7.2 Non-IR verbs 7.3 sta 7.4 peux 7.5 veux 7.6 haben 7.7 leur 7.8 yukar 7.9 haf 7.10 au 7.11 wea 7.12 lurreir 7.13 dir 7.14 hrattír

Overview

Kazaoribanashi (風織噺), known as Zeitenwart in the language itself, is a language spoken by the Kazaori (風織) people who live on an isolated island to the west of Sol ciel. It originated from Risshizentsukuyomi (律詩前月読), an ancient language used by the Tsukikanade (月奏) people in Ar ciel. Despite having evolved separately from Hymmnos, Kazaoribanashi has borrowed a lot of Hymmnos words of various dialects into its vocabulary.

Kaza (風) means "wind," ori (織) means "weaving" and hanashi (噺) means "talking." So Kazaoribanashi means "Language of the wind weavers." The Kazaori people are often known for using the wind which naturally blows through their floating island as the source of power for their everyday life. It is said that this tradition of theirs have been borrowed by the mainland people during the First Era, and traces of it still retain in certain places in Sol cluster.

Currently, there is no known native speaker of the language - the Kazaori people have extincted. However, they have left behind a grand collection of poems, songs and sagas, although all of which are in oral form and thus exist many grammatical and lexical inconsistencies. Furthermore, it's still sometimes being used as a traditional and ceremonial language in several villages in Sol ciel and Sol cluster.

The language can be transcribed using the Hymmnos script, as it contains the same 52 letters as Hymmnos does, though there are other transliteration methods which make use of more or less letters.

Unlike Hymmnos, which had departed from Risshizentsukuyomi's complex agglutinative grammar and became a mostly isolated language (except for a few dialects like Cluster Note), Kazaoribanashi is still a strongly synthetic language, expressing fusional grammatical rules such as abolishing the SVO structure in favor of a three-case system, the use of articles instead of subject markers and the addition of tenses, aspects and moods. In return, it lacks Hymmnos' ability to express complex layers of emotions.

Classical Kazaoribanashi

Main article: Classical Kazaoribanashi

Among the many Kazaori oral literatures remained, there is a small group that uses a classical version of the currently-used Kazaoribanashi language. There are still disputes over whether that language is actually the old form of Kazaoribanashi, or is a completely different language altogether.

Phonology

Kazaoribanashi phonology is fairly similar to that of Hymmnos. However, there are still some noticeable differences between them:

• Inclusion of velar fricatives /x/ and /ɣ/. Those are not allophones of /k/ and /g/, but rather, separate phonemes. Moreover, /x/ becomes /ç/ before /i/ and /j/. Example: vianchiel /viãçjɛl/ ("purity").
• Inclusion of the nasal vowel /ã/. This sound can also be found in Hymmnos, but only in a few words from the Ancient Metafalss dialect.
• Lack of nasalized consonants, which is common in most Hymmnos dialects of the Meta Falss region.
• The letter r represents an alveolar trill /r/ when written rr, otherwise an uvular fricative /ʁ/ in all positions.
• The letter s at the end of a word is often (but not always) pronounced as a dental fricative /ð/ (or, depending on speakers, /θ/), unless written as ss, se or ce. Note, however, this /ð/ is treated as /s/ for inflection purposes, and becomes /s/ after being inflected. Examples: iris /iʁɪð/ ("eye"), but ess /ɛs/ ("inside").
• Likewise, s also usually becomes voiced /z/ when it comes between two vowels. Examples: ilusya /ilyzjə/ ("to shine"), presia /pʁezjə/ ("please").
• Liaison occurs between two words, the latter of which begins with a vowel (but not a reduced vowel). If the preceding word also ends in a vowel, a /z/ is added between them, to avoid hiatus. Example: y infel /i zinfəl/ ("to love it").
• Elision occurs between two words, the first of which ends in a reduced or unpronounced e (see Stress section below), and the other begins with a vowel. In that case, the reduced/unpronounced e is ignored, and the two words are pronounced "connected" to each other. This is represented in orthography by an apostrophe. Example: n' infel /ninfəl/ (contracted from ne + infel, "to not love").

Consonants

In columns with two consonants, the ones on the left are voiceless, and the ones on the right are voiced. Phonemes in brackets are allophones.

	Bilabial	Labio- dental	Dental	Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Palatal		Labio- velar	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
						Plain	Labial
Plosive	p   b		t   d						k   ɡ
Nasal	m		n						ŋ
Trill				r
Affricate				ts	tʃ   dʒ
Fricative		f   v	(θ)   ð	s   z	ʃ   ʒ	(ç)			x   ɣ	ʁ	h
Approximant						j	(ɥ)	w
Lateral approximant				l		(ʎ)

Vowels

With a total number of 19 vowels (13 oral vowels, 1 nasal vowel and 5 long vowels), Kazaoribanashi has a significantly expansive vowel system.

		Front		Near- front	Central	Back
		Unrounded	Rounded
Close		i   iː	y		ɨ	u   uː
Near-close				ɪ
Close-mid		e   eː	ø			o   oː
Mid					ə
Open-mid		ɛ				ɔ
Near-open					ɐ
Open	Oral				a   aː
	Nasal				ã

Stress

Stress in Kazaoribanashi is fairly regular. In general, stress falls on the penultimate syllable (which is also the first syllable in two-syllable words). However, all nouns in genitive case have stress on last syllable. Furthermore, some words have irregular stress patterns, those must be memorized for perfect pronunciation.

Unstressed a and e are often reduced into /ə/. Moreover, word-final e are often silent and unpronounced. Of course, like any other rules in Kazaoribanashi phonology, there are countless exceptions which have to be memorized. Also, diphthongs and vowels represented by digraphs, like /ɛ/ (represented as ai) or /ɨ/ (represented as aw) are never reduced.

It has been suggested that accent marks be used to reflect stress patterns, but in practice this is never done.

Grammar

In Kazaoribanashi, nouns are inflected to reflect case (nominative, objective or genitive), while verbs are conjugated to reflect tense (past and non-past), aspect (simple, perfect and imperfect) and mood (indicative, subjunctive and imperative). The language has no adjective - instead, all adjectives are verbs, and are treated in the same way.

General sentence structure is SOV (Subject - Object - Verb), with main verb being the last component of a sentence. Subordinate clause is put before noun, and connected using the relative pronouns wi (that/who/which) and out (about). So, for example, instead of saying "I eat a sweet apple," in Kazaoribanashi you say something like "I a which to-be-sweet apple eat."

Nouns

Nouns in Kazaoribanashi have three cases: Nominative (representing the subject), objective (representing the object, both direct and indirect) and genitive (representing possession).

Plurality

Like Hymmnos, nouns in Kazaoribanashi are naturally not distinguished between singular and plural - reise could mean either "traveler" or "travelers." However, when used with articles, the articles explicitly state the plurality of the noun. For example, rre reise means "the traveler" (singular) and per reise means "the travelers" (plural). Likewise, dal reises means "to the traveler" (singular) and del reises means "to the travelers" (plural).

Nominative case

The nominative case is the basic case, and is the form of nouns found in dictionaries. It is used as the subject of a sentence. Nouns in nominative case may take the articles rre (definite singular), per (definite plural), ar (indefinite singular) and dois (indefinite plural).

Examples: rre reise (the traveler), dois iris (some eyes), rakura (tear), etc.

Objective case

The objective case represents the object/target of the verb executed by the subject. It is used together with various particles, including de (direct object), sos (indirect object), ut (to), tes (into/onto), el (from), ess (in/inside/on), der (by/through), com (with). The articles for objective case are la (definite singular), lei (definite plural), an (indefinite singular) and ein (indefinite plural).

Some particles contract with certain articles:

• de + la = dal
• de + lei = del
• de + an = anw
• de + ein = dein
• ut + an = tou
• ut + ein = ten
• el + la = ella
• el + lei = ellen
• ess + an = esse
• ess + ein = sein
• com + la = col
• com + lei = quel
• com + an = can
• com + ein = cain

Examples: sos la reises (for the traveler), ten irises (to some eyes), el rakuras (from tear), etc.

To get an objective noun from its nominative form, simply add -es (if it ends in a consonant) or -s (if it ends in a vowel). If the noun ends in c or g, it becomes ch or gh before adding the -es suffix. If the noun ends in l, m or n, that consonant is doubled before adding the -es suffix. This does not apply to pronouns which are irregular (see Pronoun section below).

Genitive case

The genitive case is used to give the noun possession of another noun. Articles for this case are dem (definite singular), dont (definite plural), art (indefinite singular) and dris (indefinite plural).

Examples: dem reisen (of the traveler), dris irisen (of some eyes), rakurae (of tear).

To get a genitive noun from its nominative form, check its ending. If it ends in:

• A voiceless consonant, add -en to it: iris -> irisen.
• A voiceless consonant + e, add -n to it: reise -> reisen.
• A voiced consonant (other than l, m or n), add -em to it: tab -> tabem. This includes y.
• A voiced consonant (other than l, m or n) + e, add -m to it: jenge -> jengem.
• Either c or g, add -hen or -hem respectively: nac -> nachen, keg -> keghem.
• Either l, m or n, double the consonant and add -e to it: pom -> pomme.
• A vowel preceded by l, m or n, double l, m or n (unless already doubled) and replace the vowel with e (if the vowel is already e, it remains unchanged): papana -> papanne, enne -> enne.
• A vowel other than e and not preceded by m or n, add -e to it: rakura -> rakurae. Note that w is considered a vowel while y is not.

Putting it all together, a sentence like "Tears fall from the eyes of a traveler" will be:

Rakura ella irises art reisen enknel.

Tear (nom.) - from the eye (obj.) - of a traveler (gen.) - fall.

The verb enknel means "to fall." Verbs will be explained in detail later in the Verb section.

Note: The genitive can be put either before or after the possessed noun. However, when both the genitive and the possessed noun have articles (as in the above example), it is always put after the possessed noun, to avoid two consecutive articles (including objective case's contracted articles).

Foreign word declensions

Nouns (usually proper nouns) that are not native to Kazaoribanashi language, when used within the language, are also declined to reflect inflection, however they do not follow native words' declension rules. Added suffixes are not directly connected to the noun like with native words, but rather, are separated by a hyphen.

First thing first, and the most important rule, the objective form of foreign words is exactly the same as the nominative form, thus particles is the only way to distinguish the two cases. On the other hand, genitive form, as usual, depends on a word's ending. If it ends in:

• A voiceless consonant, add -en: Scarlet -> Scarlet-en.
• A voiced consonant (other than l, m or n), add -em: Fleur -> Fleur-em.
• Either l, m or n, add -le/-me/-ne: Marvel -> Marvel-le.
• A vowel (regardless of the preceding consonant), add -te: Giulietta -> Giulietta-te.

Pronouns

Pronouns in Kazaoribanashi also have three cases - nominative, objective and genitive. The genitive form is put directly after the possessed noun or phrase. Pronouns do not take articles. Most of the pronouns are similar to that of Hymmnos, but unlike Hymmnos, in formal situations it's obligatory to include all pronouns, including first person singular. Not including the nominative pronouns can be considered rude, and is strictly limited to casual conversations.

Pronouns in nominative case:

• First person singular: mio.
• Second person singular: sera.
• Third person singular: herr (male), harr (female), sorr (object).
• First person plural: merra.
• Second person plural: yorra.
• Third person singular: herra (male), harra (female), sorra (object).

Pronouns in objective case:

• First person singular: mea.
• Second person singular: yos.
• Third person singular: hes (male), has (female), sono (object).
• First person plural: mean.
• Second person plural: yors.
• Third person singular: hers (male), hars (female), sors (object).

Pronouns in genitive case:

• First person singular: emea or mu (the second form is used after a noun ending in a vowel).
• Second person singular: esea or su (the second form is used after a noun ending in a vowel).
• Third person singular: hes (male), has (female), sono (object).
• First person plural: mean.
• Second person plural: yora.
• Third person singular: hers (male), hars (female), sors (object).

Examples of the genitive case:

• reise mu: my traveler.
• tou irises esea: to your eye (lit. "to an eye of you").
• per irisen rakura hes: the tears of his eye.

Direct object pronouns

The objective pronouns can be used as direct object pronouns, in which cases they are put right before the main verb without the need of a direct object particle de. There is also a special pronoun, y, which can be used to replace a general direct object in a wide range of situations. Examples:

• Mio yos infel: I love you.
• Mio y haf: I have it.
• Harr y yukar: She goes there.

Verbs

Verbs in Kazaoribanashi have the following structure:

Verb root (+ Mood suffix) or (+ Tense/aspect suffix)

The verb root is simply the verb form found in dictionary. In linguistic terms, it's called the infinitive. Examples: enknel ("to fall"), revir ("to return"), linen ("to tell"), etc.

Negative form of a verb is achieved simply by adding ne before the verb, and passive form of verb is achieved by adding re before it. Examples: ne revir ("to not return"), re linen ("to be told").

Like Hymmnos, there is no distinction between transitive and intransitive verb - when a verb is used in its transitive form, it takes a direct object (together with the direct object particle de). There is also a reflexive form, used when the action takes the subject as its object, often translated into myself, yourself, etc. Example: Mio se linen ("I tell myself").

Note that ne comes before direct object pronouns (including re, se and y), which come before adverb. Particle comes either before or after all of them, except ne, depending on sentence structure. Examples:

• Herr ne re linen: He is not told.
• Mio n' y haf: I do not have it.

There is no "to be" verb in Kazaoribanashi. "A equals B" structure is simply expressed using nominative + objective. And as for "A is B" structure, where B is a trait or characteristic, a verb describing that adjective will be used normally.

Examples:

• Mio alices: I am Alice.
• Sacra rudje: Blood is red.

There exists, however, sta, a pseudo-verb for "to be" used in negative and interrogative sentences. Examples: Mio alices nesta ("I am not Alice"), Sta sera alices? ("Are you Alice?")

Note that ne and sta contract into nesta.

Tenses and aspects

Kazaoribanashi language features two tenses - past and non-past. Each tense has three possible aspects - simple (or plain), perfect and imperfect. The simple aspect is used to describe an action that takes place regularly, an obvious fact, or when an action's completeness is unimportant. The perfect aspect is used to describe an action that has already been completed by the mentioned time. The imperfect aspect is used to describe an action that is already in process during the mentioned time.

Each tense/aspect combination can be roughly compared to the English tenses:

• Non-past simple: Equals English present simple tense, I do.
• Non-past perfect: Equals English present perfect tense, I have done.
• Non-past imperfect: Equals English present continuous tense, I am doing, or present perfect continuous, I have been doing.
• Past simple: Equals English past simple tense, I did.
• Past perfect: Equals English past perfect tense, I had done.
• Past imperfect: Equals English past continuous tense, I was doing, or past perfect continuous, I had been doing.

Kazaoribanashi has no future tense, the non-past form is used, often with an adverb of time to clarify the meaning.

To conjugate a verb into its correct tense and aspect, one adds a suffix to the verb root:

• Non-past simple: Nothing (use the infinitive form).
• Non-past perfect: -ich.
• Non-past imperfect: -is.
• Past simple: -at.
• Past perfect: -acht.
• Past imperfect: -ait.

Traditionally there was also a non-past simple suffix, -it. However, it has fallen out of use, and nowadays the infinitive is used instead.

Several rules to keep note of:

• If the root ends in a consonant, simply add the suffix after that consonant.
• If the root ends in a vowel, replace that vowel with the entire suffix.
• If the root ends in c or g, they become ch or gh before adding one of the suffix non-past tense suffixes.
• If the root ends in ce/ci/cu/cy or ge/gi/gu/gy, they become s or j before adding one of the past tense suffixes.
• If the root ends in l, m or n, they are doubled before adding the suffix.
• Some verbs, especially auxiliary verbs (see section below) are irregular.

Verbs in Kazaoribanashi can be divided into three groups:

• Verbs that end in -ir (also called -IR verbs) are regularly conjugated, by removing the -r at the end to get the verb root, then adding one of the aforementioned suffixes.
• Verbs that do not end in -ir (also called non-IR verbs) but do not belong to the third group are also regularly conjugated, by adding one of the aforementioned suffixes directly onto the verb (the infinitive form is the verb root). Most of the verbs in this group are native Kazaoribanashi words instead of being borrowed from Hymmnos.
• Verbs that do not belong in either of the above are irregular, their conjugations must be memorized.

For example, conjugation of the verb selena ("to sing a Hymn" or "to play a song") is as below:

• Non-past simple: selena.
• Non-past perfect: selenich.
• Non-past imperfect: selenis.
• Past simple: selenat.
• Past perfect: selenacht.
• Past imperfect: selenait.

Another example, conjugation of the verb bierce ("to torment," "to punish") is as below:

• Non-past simple: bierce.
• Non-past perfect: biercich.
• Non-past imperfect: biercis.
• Past simple: biersat.
• Past perfect: biersacht.
• Past imperfect: biersait.

And yet another example, conjugation of the verb fernir ("to smile") is as below:

• Non-past simple: fernir.
• Non-past perfect: fernich.
• Non-past imperfect: fernis.
• Past simple: fernat.
• Past perfect: fernacht.
• Past imperfect: fernait.

Moods

There are three moods in Kazaoribanashi language - indicative, subjunctive and imperative. The indicative mood is the standard forms of the verbs as we've seen above (which includes the six tense/aspect combinations), used in ordinary or factual sentences.

The imperative mood is used to make requests or commands. Normally, one can make polite request simply by adding presia before an indicative sentence. However, to give strong requests or forceful orders, the imperative mood is used. To conjugate a verb into imperative mood, simply add the suffix -e to the root, following the regular rules of adding suffixes into verbs. There is no subject in imperative sentences, the subject is naturally always "you" (the person being talked to).

Examples of the imperative mood:

• Face!: Do it!
• Mea infelle!: Love me!

Negative imperative, however, is acquired by adding -na to the end of a verb conjugated in non-past subjunctive mood (see below). In other words, add the suffix -ina to the verb root to change it into negative imperative.

Examples of negative imperative:

• Yukina!: Do not go!
• Mea infellina!: Do not love me!

The subjunctive mood, sometimes called conjunctive mood, is quite different. It is used to indicate a hypothetical or anticipated action or state. It's often used in sentences with the auxiliary verbs veux ("want to do something") and leur ("should do something"), in subordinate clauses of certain main verbs like soare ("to wish"), and in conditional sentences aiph...so... ("if...then...") See Auxiliary verb section below for more information.

Conjugation of the subjunctive mood only has simple aspect, by adding a suffix into the verb root, following the regular rules of adding suffixes into verbs:

• Non-past: -i.
• Past: -assi.

In the spoken language, the subjunctive mood is also sometimes used to create a faux-future tense.

Examples of the subjunctive mood:

• Mio wi sera mea infelli soare: I wish that you love me.
• Aiph sera y capirassi, so sera selenassi leurracht: Had you understood that, you should have had sung.

When used with the first person plural pronoun, the subjunctive mood can also represent first person plural volitional imperative. For example, Merra slepi means "Let's sleep" (or, more precisely, "Let us sleep").

Auxiliary verbs

Some verbs in Kazaoribanashi are auxiliary verbs (also called "helping verbs," or, incorrectly, "modal verbs"). They never appear alone, but together with another verb that is the main verb of the sentence. There are four such verbs in Kazaoribanashi language: peux ("can do something"), veux ("want to do something"), haben ("have to do something") and leur ("should do something").

In a sentence with an auxiliary verb, the auxiliary verb appears last in the sentence and they take tense/aspect suffix. The main verb comes right before the auxiliary verb:

• For the auxiliary verbs peux and haben: The main verb takes the "participle suffix" after them, to indicate that they are the main verb of a sentence with an auxiliary verb. However, in conditional sentences, the main verb is still conjugated into subjunctive mood as usual.
• For the auxiliary verbs veux and leur: The main verb is conjugated into subjunctive mood.

The participle suffix is -o. It is added following the rules for adding past tense suffixes to verbs.

Conjugation of auxiliary verbs are irregular. First of all, they have no imperfect aspect. Furthermore, haben has no perfect aspect, while leur has no past simple form. For more information, please see the Irregular verbs section below.

Examples with the verb selena ("to sing a Hymn"):

• Mio seleno peux: I can sing.
• Mio selenassi veurich: I have wanted to sing.
• Mio seleno hast: I had to sing.
• Mio selenassi leurracht: I should have had sung.

Furthermore, some verbs like chs ("to change") can be either ambitransitive or auxiliary verbs in sentences, and those are regularly conjugated.

Adverbs

Adverbs are usually put before the verbs they modify. In general there are two types of adverbs in Kazaoribanashi language.

• Use of adjectival verbs as adverbs: Add -esco to a verb root (as usual, c and g become ch and gh, l, m and n are doubled, and vowels are replaced with e). Examples: bautifalesco ("beautifully", from bautifale, "to be beautiful"), marfesco ("lovely", from marfo, "to be lovely").
• Use of special adverbial words. Examples: anco ("still"), forso ("maybe").

Gerunds

Gerund, commonly known as "verbal noun," is a special verb form that takes the role of a noun, and represents the action of doing that verb. For example, the nominative gerund of the verb fernir ("to smile") is fernier ("smiling"), used in contexts such as "Smiling is happiness." Since a gerund itself is essentially a noun, it also has three cases (nominative, objective, genitive) like all other nouns.

To conjugate a verb into gerund form, simply add -er (nominative gerund), -es (objective gerund) or -en (genitive gerund) to the verb root. However, with -IR verbs, the -i at the end of the root is not replaced by -er/-es/-en as usual, but rather, kept intact. Thus the gerund forms of fernir are fernier, fernies, fernien and not ferner, fernes or fernen.

Examples:

• Mier singes: Seeing is believing.
• Ester nor n' ester: To be or not to be.

Moreover, the objective and genitive gerund forms of adjectival verbs are also used to describe a "permanent" or "natural" trait, as opposed to the standard simple indicative form which describes a "circumstantial" or "temporal" state. Compare:

• Harr bautifale: She is beautiful, but only under certain conditions like when wearing makeup.
• Harr bautifaller: She is always, naturally, essentially beautiful on her own.

Likewise with the genitive gerund:

• ar weal meddine: a girl who is happy.
• ar meddine ween: a girl who is always happy (lit. "a girl of being happy").

This use of gerunds has become rarer and rarer in actual speech, though.

Irregular verbs

While the majority of verbs in Kazaoribanashi are regularly conjugated, some verbs, in particular auxiliary verbs, are irregular.

Some of the most commonly used irregular verbs are sta ("to be," only used in negative and interrogative sentences), peux ("can do," auxiliary verb), veux ("want to do," auxiliary verb), haben ("must do," auxiliary verb), leur ("should do," auxiliary verb), yukar ("to go"), haf ("to have"), etc.

For a complete list of irregular verbs and their conjugations, see the Verb conjugation summary section below.

Subordinate clauses

Subordinate clauses are marked by relative pronouns, the most common of which are wi (that/who/which) and out (used to quote indirect speeches and thoughts), but interrogative pronouns (see Questions section below) can sometimes also be used as well.

Subordinate clauses are always put before the noun. If the clause consists of only a verb, the verb is used directly without the need of a relative pronoun. Example: presir sera ("precious you").

If the clause consists of more than just a verb, a relative pronoun is put before the phrase, but after objective particle (if any). For example:

Harr de wi tes la cielles revich sorelles has infel.

She (nom.) - (obj. particle) - (sub. clause) - to the sky (obj.) - has returned - sister of her - love.

"She loves her sister who has passed away" (lit. "She loves her sister who has returned to the sky").

In the above example, wi can be replaced with darr ("who"), but this is rare and feels archaic.

Questions

In Kazaoribanashi, the standard word order for indicative sentences is strictly SOV (Subject - Object - Verb). That is because word order is used to create interrogative (question) sentences.

In an interrogative sentence, word order becomes VSO (Verb - Subject - Object), or VOS (Verb - Object - Subject) if the sentence features a direct object pronoun, and interrogative pronouns (what, who, where, when, why, how) are put in the very front of the sentence. Exceptions are questions of ownerships (of which, whose) and quantity (how much, how many), in which situations the interrogative pronoun is put right before its corresponding noun. Those, however, are better treated as general genitive nouns rather than interrogative pronouns.

The interrogative pronouns also have cases. Like normal pronouns, they do not have articles. However they may still take particles as usual. They are also used as conjunctions in subordinate clauses, though as mentioned in the Subordinate clause section above, wi and out are more commonly used, unless for emphasizing and clarifying purposes.

Below is a table that lists all interrogative pronouns.

	Nominative	Objective	Genitive
What	corr	cos	cosse
Who	darr	das	dasse
Where	╼	tours	╼
When	╼	lors	╼
Why	╼	pars	╼
How (in what manner)	╼	meu	╼
How (in what state)	╼	tis	╼
How much (how many)	╼	╼	scie

Examples of questions:

• Harr anw hymmnes selena: She sings a Hymn.
• Selena harr anw hymmnes?: Does she sing a Hymn? (lit. "Sings she a Hymn?")
• Cos selena harr?: What does she sing/play? (lit. "What sings she?")
• Darr selena anw hymmnes?: Who sings a Hymn?
• Selena harr anw dasse hymmnes?: Whose Hymn does she sing?
• Tours selena harr anw hymmnes?: Where does she sing a Hymn? (lit. "Where sings she a Hymn?")
• Lors selena harr anw hymmnes?: When does she sing a Hymn?
• Pars selena harr anw hymmnes?: Why does she sing a Hymn?
• Meu selena harr anw hymmnes?: How (using what method) does she sing a Hymn?
• Tis selena harr anw hymmnes?: How (how good/bad) does she sing a Hymn?
• Selena harr dein scie hymmnes?: How many Hymns does she sing?
  • In "How many..." questions, plural articles are always used.

For emphasis, one can also add ess or tes before tours, ess before lors, sos before pars and der before meu.

In "A equals B" structures, there are two ways of asking the same question, one by treating the interrogative pronoun as subject, and one by treating it as object. For example, there are two ways of asking the question "Who is she?" - Darr sta has? and Das sta harr? The former is used to emphasize on "who" while the latter is used to emphasize on "she." Both of them are grammatically correct and are used depending on contexts. This of course only applies to "what" and "who" questions, since other interrogative pronouns only have one form.

If the verb comes with a direct object pronoun (including reflexive se and passive re), then the pronoun is put directly after the verb. On the other hand, adverb and negative ne are put before the verb (but still after interrogative pronoun), with ne following adverb (unlike normal indicative sentences where adverb comes after ne). If the verb has an auxiliary verb, however, then the main verb (either participle or subjunctive) stays at the end while the auxiliary verb is put at the beginning. For example:

• Yukar y sera?: Do you go there?
• Peux sera seleno?: Can you sing?
• Tours ne veux harr yuki?: Where does she not want to go?
• Haben mio hes killo?: Must I kill him?

To ask "How are you?" in Kazaoribanashi, one says Tis sta sera? (formal) or Tis sera? (informal), or even simply Tis? (very informal).

Inversion

In Subject - Verb sentences, and only in Subject - Verb sentences, it's possible to rearrange the sentence into Verb - Subject structure without making it a question, for emphasizing or poetic purposes. It's incorrect to use inversion in a sentence with object(s) and in long sentences, as they'll always become questions. Inversion is extremely rare outside songs and poems.

Example:

• Rre bleurem lune raklya: The blue moon cries.
• Raklya rre bleurem lune: Cries the blue moon.

Number system

Kazaoribanashi's number system greatly differs from that of Hymmnos. It is, however, quite easy to understand if you look at the example numbers table below:

1	quare	10	tore	100	vyge	1000	xale
2	quaje	11	torare	101	vyjare	1001	xalare
3	quoise	12	toraje	110	vygetore	1010	xaletore
4	quon	13	toroise	111	vygetorare	1100	xalevyge
5	quins	20	artore	120	vyjartore	1110	xalevygetore
6	quil	21	artorare	121	vyjartorare	1111	xalevygetorare
7	quaye	30	oistore	200	arvyge	2000	arxale
8	quam	31	oistorare	201	arvyjare	2001	arxalare
9	quok	40	ontore	210	arvygetore	2222	arxalarvyjartoraje

• 20 is artore (not ajtore), 200 is arvyge (not ajvyge), 2000 is arxale (not ajxale).
• 3000 is oixale (not oisxale). Likewise, 5000 is inxale (not insxale).
• Zero is a special number. Depending on context, one could either use na ("no," "not," "none") or nil (the number 0).
• Numbers in genitive form are used to count. Examples: quoisen solfage ("three sprouts"), artorille pan ("twenty-six (loaves/pieces of) breads").
• Ordinal numbers are obtained by adding the adverbial suffix -esco to the number. Examples: quaresco ("first"), rre torayesco ("the 17th").
• Furthermore, ordinal numbers also have genitive form. Examples: quarescoe dius ("first person"), rre xaloisvyjoistorayescoe revatail ("the 1337th Reyvateil").
• To simplify the numbers, even in formal texts it is acceptable to write the above examples as 3en solfage, 26e pan, 1o, rre 17o, 1oe dius, rre 1337oe revatail, and so on.
• Sometimes, when large numbers are written out, hyphens might be inserted to separate the numbers, making it easier to read them. For example, oixalayvyginstoril (3756) might be written as oixal-ayvyg-instor-il.
• Kazaoribanashi's number system only goes up to 9999 (okxal-okvyj-oktor-ok). Any number larger than that has to be expressed in Hymmnos' number system.

Vocabulary

Main article: Kazaoribanashi Vocabulary

Loanwords

It could be really difficult to tell whether if a word is native to Kazaoribanashi or borrowed, because when compared to the source language, those "loanwords" could look and sound drastically different, and sometimes carrying even different or new meanings. However, it is estimated that about 30% of words in Kazaoribanashi vocabulary are loanwords, not counting new words derived using Kazaoribanashi affixes.

The vast majority of those (up to around 25% of 30%) are borrowed from Hymmnos, due to the great influence from this language. Even very basic words such as most of the pronouns are actually also borrowed from Hymmnos. The second one being Pattaese (Lyøjz Páttæm), another Ar ciel ethnic language, at around 4% of those 30%. Other languages, such as Manaamibanashi (Gyozyinya Mana), Gločify or Fahol'ento contribute very little to the loanword lexicon.

There is no pattern to loanwords - some words' spellings remain unchanged from their original languages, despite significantly different pronunciations, ex. chs (Hymmnos loanword meaning "to become"), and some words even retain special orthographies not found in Kazaoribanashi (this does not apply when Kazaoribanashi is transcribed using the Hymmnos script though), ex. the acute accent in lapjév (Pattaese loanword meaning "love"). At the same time, some words might be modified from their original orthographies to fit Kazaoribanashi spellings, ex. fyu (from Hymmnos loanword fhyu). New words can also be derived from loanwords, ex. eau and aux (derived from Hymmnos loanword au). Finally, some words might look and sound very different from their origins, but since their meaning are exactly the same, etymological researches do show that those words are borrowed from other languages and then manifested both orthographically and phonologically, ex. bartel (from Hymmnos loanword fatele meaning "father").

Most borrowed verbs are regularly conjugated, belonging to either of the two regular verb groups, especially the first group (-IR verbs). The vast majority of borrowed nouns are also declined regularly according to declension rules, but a very few of them are irregular whose declension must be memorized separately, ex. hymn (Hymmnos loanword), lapjév (Pattaese loanword) or hvelg (Pattaese loanword).

Verb conjugation summary

-IR verbs

All verbs that end in -ir are called -IR verbs. They are regularly and easily conjugated, without any exception. A lot verbs in this group are borrowed from Hymmnos, but there are also many native Kazaoribanashi words too.

Conjugation of an example -IR verb, fernir - "to smile":

• Infinitive: fernir
• Nominative gerund: fernier
• Objective gerund: fernies
• Genitive gerund: fernien
• Non-past simple indicative: fernir
• Non-past perfect indicative: fernich
• Non-past imperfect indicative: fernis
• Past simple indicative: fernat
• Past perfect indicative: fernacht
• Past imperfect indicative: fernait
• Non-past subjunctive: ferni
• Past subjunctive: fernassi
• Particle: ferno
• Adverbial: fernesco
• Imperative: ferne
• Negative imperative: fernina

Non-IR verbs

Verbs that do not end in -ir but are not one of the irregular verbs are called non-IR verbs. Like -IR verbs, they are perfectly regular. Most (but not all) verbs in this group are not loanwords from Hymmnos, but rather, native Kazaoribanashi words.

Conjugation of an example non-IR verb, infel - "to love":

• Infinitive: infel
• Nominative gerund: infeller
• Objective gerund: infelles
• Genitive gerund: infellen
• Non-past simple indicative: infel
• Non-past perfect indicative: infellich
• Non-past imperfect indicative: infellis
• Past simple indicative: infellat
• Past perfect indicative: infellacht
• Past imperfect indicative: infellait
• Non-past subjunctive: infelli
• Past subjunctive: infellassi
• Particle: infello
• Adverbial: infellesco
• Imperative: infelle
• Negative imperative: infellina

sta

sta means "to be," but unlike its English counterpart, it is not often used. Its use is restricted to only within negative "A is not B" and questions "Is A B?" structures, and in rare imperative sentences.

Examples:

• Darr sta wi ne mea capir' yos?: You who do not understand me, who are you?
• An lolis iste!: "Be a loli!"

Conjugation of sta - "to be":

• Infinitive: sta
• Nominative gerund: ester
• Objective gerund: estes
• Genitive gerund: esten
• Non-past simple indicative: sta
• Non-past perfect indicative: ich
• Past simple indicative: sat
• Past perfect indicative: acht
• Non-past subjunctive: esti
• Past subjunctive: stassi
• Particle: sto
• Imperative: iste
• Negative imperative: estina

peux

peux means "can do something" or "to be able to do something." It is one of the auxiliary verbs. It describes both the natural and circumstantial capability of doing something.

Conjugation of peux - "can":

• Infinitive: peux
• Nominative gerund: peuter
• Objective gerund: peutes
• Genitive gerund: peuten
• Non-past simple indicative: peux
• Non-past perfect indicative: peurich
• Past simple indicative: peurrat
• Past perfect indicative: peurracht
• Non-past subjunctive: peuri
• Past subjunctive: peussi

veux

veux means "want to do something." It is one of the auxiliary verbs. Note that it is different from "want something."

Conjugation of veux - "want":

• Infinitive: veux
• Nominative gerund: veuter
• Objective gerund: veutes
• Genitive gerund: veuten
• Non-past simple indicative: veux
• Non-past perfect indicative: veurich
• Past simple indicative: veurrat
• Past perfect indicative: veurracht

haben

haben means "must do something" or "have to do something." It is one of the auxiliary verbs. Among the irregular verbs, it has the least number of conjugations.

Conjugation of haben - "must":

• Infinitive: haben
• Nominative gerund: haber
• Objective gerund: habes
• Genitive gerund: haben
• Non-past simple indicative: haben
• Past simple indicative: hast

leur

leur means "should do something." It is one of the auxiliary verbs. It is used often to give suggestions and polite requests. It is never used for conditional constructions like in English "Should... then..."

Conjugation of leur - "should":

• Infinitive: leur
• Nominative gerund: leurer
• Objective gerund: leures
• Genitive gerund: leuren
• Non-past simple indicative: leur
• Non-past perfect indicative: leurich
• Past perfect indicative: leurracht
• Non-past subjunctive: leuri
• Past subjunctive: leussi

yukar

yukar means "to go." It's mildly irregular, though the root basically only alternates between two different stems yuk- and yur-.

Conjugation of yukar - "to go":

• Infinitive: yukar
• Nominative gerund: yurier
• Objective gerund: yuries
• Genitive gerund: yurien
• Non-past simple indicative: yukar
• Non-past perfect indicative: yurich
• Non-past imperfect indicative: yuris
• Past simple indicative: yukat
• Past perfect indicative: yuracht
• Past imperfect indicative: yurait
• Non-past subjunctive: yuki
• Past subjunctive: yurassi
• Particle: yuko
• Adverbial: yuresco
• Imperative: yuke
• Negative imperative: yukina

haf

haf means "to have something in possession." Its conjugation is fairly regular, with only a few exceptions.

Conjugation of haf - "to have":

• Infinitive: haf
• Nominative gerund: hafer
• Objective gerund: hafes
• Genitive gerund: hafen
• Non-past simple indicative: haf
• Non-past perfect indicative: hafich
• Non-past imperfect indicative: hafis
• Past simple indicative: hat
• Past perfect indicative: hacht
• Past imperfect indicative: hait
• Non-past subjunctive: hafi
• Past subjunctive: hassi
• Particle: hafo
• Adverbial: hafesco
• Imperative: hafe
• Negative imperative: hafina

au

au means "to be sad." Along with wea, it is one of the most special verbs in Kazaoribanashi language due to the fact that in non-past simple indicative form, it is gender and number dependent. If the subject is a single male or one of undefined gender, the verb remains as au. If the subject is a single female, the verb changes into eau. If the subject is a group of people, regardless of gender, the verb changes into aux. All three forms, however, are pronounced exactly the same, the difference is noticeable only in written language.

Examples:

• Herr au elui sera n' hir: He is sad because you are not here.
• Harr eau elui sera n' hir: She is sad because you are not here.
• Merra aux elui sera n' hir: We are sad because you are not here.

This is also the most irregular verb in Kazaoribanashi, with several different stems.

Conjugation of au - "to be sad":

• Infinitive: au
• Nominative gerund: cyuier
• Objective gerund: cyuies
• Genitive gerund: cyuien
• Non-past simple indicative: au or eau or aux
• Non-past perfect indicative: nyasrich
• Non-past imperfect indicative: nyasris
• Past simple indicative: nyasyat
• Past perfect indicative: nyasyacht
• Past imperfect indicative: nyasyait
• Non-past subjunctive: nyasri
• Past subjunctive: nyasyassi
• Particle: nyasyamo
• Adverbial: cyuiesco
• Imperative: shyun
• Negative imperative: nyasyamorina

wea

wea means "to be happy." Like au, it's completely different in that its non-past simple indicative form is gender and number dependent. If the subject is a single male or one of undefined gender, the verb remains as wea. If the subject is a single female, the verb changes into weal. If the subject is a group of people, regardless of gender, the verb changes into apea. Unlike with au, the three forms of wea are both pronounced and written differently.

Examples:

• Herr wea elui sera hir: He is happy because you are here.
• Harr weal elui sera hir: She is happy because you are here.
• Merra apea elui sera hir: We are happy because you are here.

Also unlike au, wea does not have as many different stems, although it's still quite irregular.

Conjugation of wea - "to be happy":

• Infinitive: wea
• Nominative gerund: weer
• Objective gerund: wees
• Genitive gerund: ween
• Non-past simple indicative: wea or weal or apea
• Non-past perfect indicative: weallich
• Non-past imperfect indicative: weallis
• Past simple indicative: weat
• Past perfect indicative: weacht
• Past imperfect indicative: weait
• Non-past subjunctive: wealli
• Past subjunctive: weassi
• Particle: weallo
• Adverbial: apesco
• Imperative: yehah
• Negative imperative: apina

lurreir

lurreir means "to fear" or "to be scared of something." It is conjugated in a fairly similar manner to a normal -IR verb.

Conjugation of lurreir - "to fear":

• Infinitive: lurreir
• Nominative gerund: lurrea
• Objective gerund: lurries
• Genitive gerund: lurrien
• Non-past simple indicative: lurreir
• Non-past perfect indicative: lurrich
• Non-past imperfect indicative: lurris
• Past simple indicative: lurreat
• Past perfect indicative: lurreacht
• Past imperfect indicative: lurreait
• Non-past subjunctive: lurri
• Past subjunctive: lurrassi
• Particle: lurro
• Adverbial: lurresco
• Imperative: lurre
• Negative imperative: lurrina

dir

dir means "to say." It's used to describe the general action of saying something.

Note: hir ("to be this/that"), kir ("to forget"), mir ("to see") and vir ("to come") are also conjugated exactly the same as dir. However, verbs like livir or revir (which are derived from vir) are conjugated like normal -IR verbs.

Conjugation of dir - "to say":

• Infinitive: dir
• Nominative gerund: dier
• Objective gerund: dies
• Genitive gerund: dien
• Non-past simple indicative: dir
• Non-past perfect indicative: dich
• Non-past imperfect indicative: dis
• Past simple indicative: dit
• Past perfect indicative: dacht
• Past imperfect indicative: dat
• Non-past subjunctive: die
• Past subjunctive: dassi
• Particle: dio
• Adverbial: desco
• Imperative: dire
• Negative imperative: dina

hrattír

hrattír is a verb borrowed from Pattaese which means "to sing" (a song). It is also the only verb borrowed from this language, and for unknown reasons remains its Pattaese verb conjugation pattern, which distinguishes singular and plural form of verbs according to subject. This distinction doesn't exist in perfect tenses and past subjunctive, but in those forms the verb "breaks" into two parts when used in questions, with the first half acting as if it was an auxiliary verb. To top it all off, there is also the acute accent that's constantly moving around or disappearing (though most people never write it down anyway). Since this verb is very commonly used, it is necessary to master it. This is also the only verb whose infinitive form is not the same as the non-past simple indicative form.

Examples:

• Harr hraat: She sings.
• Harra hrátten: They sing.
• G' alice hrud?: Has Alice sung?
• Geft harra y hrüd?: Had they sung it?
• Harra geftrüd: They had sung.

Conjugation of hrattír - "to sing":

• Infinitive: hrattír
• Nominative gerund: hrattier
• Objective gerund: hratties
• Genitive gerund: hrattien
• Non-past simple indicative: hraat or hrátten
• Non-past perfect indicative: gehrúd
• Non-past imperfect indicative: hritt or hrízjen
• Past simple indicative: hroyt or hrótten
• Past perfect indicative: geftrüd
• Past imperfect indicative: hrutt or hrúzjen
• Non-past subjunctive: hrétti or hrétten
• Past subjunctive: gehrédi
• Particle: hratto
• Adverbial: hrattesco
• Imperative: hraé or hratté
• Negative imperative: hrénna or hretténna