Kefentāt

Kefentāt is the native language of the dragons of the continent of Amara. It was originally spoken primarily in the Drywind Desert and Tangled Jungle prior to the founding of the Kingdom of Aētheli, but has since spread widely. In the modern era, Kefentāt is neither the lingua franca of the kingdom nor the primary trade language. Officially, it is the language of the monarchy and is used to write all official laws and decrees of the kingdom. Unofficially, the Kefentāt script and a relatively small number of words in the language have been absorbed into the magical and spiritual practices of the Beast Shifters on the continent.

Dictionary

1800 Words.

Syntax

Main word order: Subject Object Verb (Prepositional phrase). “Mary opened the door with a key” turns into Mary the door opened with a key.
Adjective order: Adjectives are positioned before the noun.
Adposition: postpositions

Phonology

Kefentāt has a fairly simple phonological system, with syllables typically having a maximum of one initial consonant, one vowel, and possibly one final consonant. Consonant clusters tend to occur between syllables, but consonants or vowels are rarely if ever doubled. The language utilizes ejective consonants, which are pronounced by restricting and arresting the outgoing airstream to cause a buildup of pressure at the forward articulation, so that when the arrest of the airstream is released it leaves the mouth with a dramatic burst of air.

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m			n
Stop	p pʼ			t tʼ				k kʷ kʼ	ʔ
Affricate				ʦʼ ʦ	ʧʼ ʧ
Fricative		f	θ θʼ	s	ʃ				h
Approximant							j
Lateral fricative						ꞎ
Lateral approximant				l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: a aː e eː i iː o oː u uː
Kefentāt utilizes vowel harmony, which requires syllables containing front vowels to be paired only with other front vowels in the additional syllables (and similar for back vowels). The effect vowel harmony has on the language is most prominent during conjugation or new-word derivation.

	Front	Back
High	i iː	u uː
High-mid	e eː	o oː
Low	a aː

Morphology

Verbs in Kefentāt are modified for both tense and aspect, which indicates both when an action happened (in the past, now, in the future), but how it extends over time. As mentioned above, vowel harmony contributes to changing suffixes depending on whether the word being conjugated contains front or back vowels.

Verb affixes

	Perfective	Habitual	Progressive	Perfect
Past	If contains {o,u,oː,uː}: Suffix -oː Else: Suffix -aː k'iā /ˈkʼiaː/ learned	If contains {o,u,oː,uː}: Suffix -oː Else: Suffix -e k'ie /ˈkʼie/ learned (often, habitually)	If contains {o,u,oː,uː}: Suffix -ok Else: Suffix -ek k'iek /ˈkʼiek/ learning	If contains {o,u,oː,uː}: Suffix -oːk Else: Suffix -ak k'iak /ˈkʼiak/ had learned
Present	If contains {o,u,oː,uː}: Suffix -op Else: Suffix -ep k'iep /ˈkʼiep/ learn	If contains {o,u,oː,uː}: Suffix -uː Else: Suffix -i k'ii /ˈkʼii/ learn (often, habitually)	If contains {o,u,oː,uː}: Suffix -uːm Else: Suffix -aːm k'iām /ˈkʼiaːm/ learning	If contains {o,u,oː,uː}: Suffix -u Else: Suffix -e k'ie /ˈkʼie/ have learned
Future	If contains {o,u,oː,uː}: Suffix -uː Else: Suffix -aː k'iā /ˈkʼiaː/ will learn	If contains {o,u,oː,uː}: Suffix -o Else: Suffix -eː k'iē /ˈkʼieː/ will learn (often, habitually)	If contains {o,u,oː,uː}: Suffix -uːl Else: Suffix -aːl k'iāl /ˈkʼiaːl/ will be learning	If contains {o,u,oː,uː}: Suffix -uk Else: Suffix -eːk k'iēk /ˈkʼieːk/ will have learned

Nouns in Kefentāt are classified into animacy or inanimacy. Animacy is not necessarily tied directly to life - most beasts are animate nouns, but trees and plants are often inanimate nouns.

Adjective affixes

	Animate	Inanimate
Singular	If contains {o,u,oː,uː}: Suffix -u Else: Suffix -e qehee /ˈkʷehee/ big (dog)	If contains {o,u,oː,uː}: Suffix -u Else: Suffix -i qehei /ˈkʷehei/ big (tree)
Plural	If contains {o,u,oː,uː}: Suffix -on Else: Suffix -eːn qeheēn /ˈkʷeheeːn/ big (dogs)	If contains {o,u,oː,uː}: Suffix -ok Else: Suffix -aːk qeheāk /ˈkʷeheaːk/ big (trees)

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If contains {o,u,oː,uː}: Suffix -ok Else: Suffix -eːk
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If contains {o,u,oː,uː}: Suffix -oː Else: Suffix -i
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If contains {o,u,oː,uː}: Prefix uː- Else: Prefix i-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If contains {o,u,oː,uː}: Suffix -o Else: Suffix -e
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If contains {o,u,oː,uː}: Suffix -uʔ Else: Suffix -eʔ
Noun to verb = If contains {o,u,oː,uː}: Prefix so- Else: Prefix se-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If contains {o,u,oː,uː}: Suffix -up Else: Suffix -aːp
Tending to = If contains {o,u,oː,uː}: Suffix -uː Else: Suffix -i
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If contains {o,u,oː,uː}: Suffix -u Else: Suffix -a
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If contains {o,u,oː,uː}: Suffix -o Else: Suffix -i
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If contains {o,u,oː,uː}: Suffix -o Else: Suffix -e
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If contains {o,u,oː,uː}: Prefix puː- Else: Prefix pi-
Diminutive = If contains {o,u,oː,uː}: Suffix -u Else: Suffix -e
Augmentative = If contains {o,u,oː,uː}: Prefix kʷuː- Else: Prefix kʷaː-

Writing System

Kefentāt script was originally developed as a carved language, often inscribed on wood, stone, or bone with dragon claws. The earliest forms of the writing system are pictographal, but this was eventually simplified into the modern system of writing. Kefentāt is written top-to-bottom, left-to-right, with words and sentences arranged vertically. Vowels are modified between short and long vowels by including an open circle in one of the curves of the letter, while consonants are modified between regular and ejective forms by including a closed dot. The letter for a glottal stop is added below and to the right of the letter where the stop occurs, similar to subscript notation.