Kjelkian/Thri-Kreen

a language spoken by all Thri-Kreen.

Natively known as: kjelk /kjelk/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
zjiiwʔ kaalʤ kaalʤ lojl kjeː kjaa zjiiwʔ kaalʤ ljeʧa nweʂ ʃɹoː ktuk kɹelf
Pronunciation: /zjiːwʔ kaːlʤ kaːlʤ lojl kjeː kjaː zjiːwʔ kaːlʤ ˈljeʧa nweʂ ʃɹoː ktuk kɹelf/
Kjelkian word order: and he hat his holding stood and his face wet the wind to turned

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b d f j k l m n p s t v w z ɣ ɲ ɹ ʂ ʃ ʐ ʒ ʔ ʕ ʤ ʧ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Pharyngeal	Glottal
Nasal	m		n			ɲ
Stop	p b		t d				k		ʔ
Affricate				ʧ ʤ
Fricative		f v	s z	ʃ ʒ	ʂ ʐ		ɣ	ʕ
Approximant			ɹ			j
Lateral approximant			l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: a aː e eː i iː o oː u uː

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

Syllable structure: Custom defined ?
Stress pattern: Penultimate — stress is on the second last syllable ?
Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
aː	aa
uː	uu
iː	ii
ɬ	hl
ʁ	r
ŋŋ	nng
ŋ	ng

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Grammar

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

Nouns

Nouns have two cases:

• Nominative is the doer of a verb: dog bites man.
• Accusative is the done-to of a verb: man bites dog.

Nominative	No affix piim /piːm/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	If starts with vowel: Prefix iːv- Else: Prefix iːva- iivapiim /iːˈvapiːm/ (verb done to) dog

	Masculine	Feminine
Singular	If starts with vowel: Prefix ʧl- Else: Prefix ʧla- ʧlalii /ˈʧlaliː/ boy	If starts with vowel: Prefix p- Else: Prefix puː- puuʐoʤla /puːˈʐoʤla/ girl
Plural	No affix lii /liː/ boys	No affix ʐoʤla /ˈʐoʤla/ girls

Articles

Kjelkian has no definite article ‘the’, or indefinite article ‘a’.

Pronouns

	Nominative	Accusative
1st singular	kvaɹ /kvaɹ/ I	ʒa /ʒa/ me
2nd singular	kjaʤ /kjaʤ/ you	vwuu /vwuː/ you
3rd singular masc	kaalʤ /kaːlʤ/ he, it (masc)	dɲoː /dɲoː/ his, it (masc)
3rd singular fem	ʂi /ʂi/ she, it (fem)	sla /sla/ her, it (fem)
1st plural	wa /wa/ we	fwiimz /fwiːmz/ us
2nd plural	tkaa /tkaː/ you all	paa /paː/ you all
3rd plural masc	zo /zo/ they (masc)	no /no/ them (masc)
3rd plural fem	so /so/ they (fem)	me /me/ them (fem)

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	kvaɹ /kvaɹ/ my
2nd singular	kjaʤ /kjaʤ/ your
3rd singular masc	kaalʤ /kaːlʤ/ his
3rd singular fem	ʂi /ʂi/ her
1st plural	wa /wa/ our
2nd plural	tkaa /tkaː/ your (pl)
3rd plural masc	zo /zo/ their (masc)
3rd plural fem	so /so/ their (fem)

Verbs

	Present	Past	Future
1st singular	Prefix ɲuː- ɲuunwo /ˈɲuːnwo/ (I) learn	Prefix iː- iinwo /ˈiːnwo/ (I) learned	Prefix dvaː- dvaanwo /ˈdvaːnwo/ (I) will learn
2nd singular	Prefix eː- eːnwo /ˈeːnwo/ (you) learn	Prefix dvi- dvinwo /ˈdvinwo/ (you) learned	Prefix ʤo- ʤonwo /ˈʤonwo/ (you) will learn
3rd singular masc	Prefix ljeː- ljeːnwo /ˈljeːnwo/ (he/it (masc)) learns	If starts with vowel: Prefix ɹ- Else: Prefix ɹuː- ɹuunwo /ˈɹuːnwo/ (he/it (masc)) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix z- Else: Prefix zaː- zaanwo /ˈzaːnwo/ (he/it (masc)) will learn
3rd singular fem	If starts with vowel: Prefix ubv- Else: Prefix ubvaː- ubvaanwo /ubˈvaːnwo/ (she/it (fem)) learns	Prefix uː- uunwo /ˈuːnwo/ (she/it (fem)) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix l- Else: Prefix li- linwo /ˈlinwo/ (she/it (fem)) will learn
1st plural	If starts with vowel: Prefix ʤ- Else: Prefix ʤaː- ʤaanwo /ˈʤaːnwo/ (we) learn	Prefix oː- oːnwo /ˈoːnwo/ (we) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix iːnn- Else: Prefix iːnnaː- iinnaanwo /iːnˈnaːnwo/ (we) will learn
2nd plural	Prefix mo- monwo /ˈmonwo/ (you all) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix z- Else: Prefix za- zanwo /ˈzanwo/ (you all) learned	Prefix i- inwo /ˈinwo/ (you all) will learn
3rd plural masc	If starts with vowel: Prefix l- Else: Prefix liː- liinwo /ˈliːnwo/ (they (masc)) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix p- Else: Prefix pa- panwo /ˈpanwo/ (they (masc)) learned	Prefix u- unwo /ˈunwo/ (they (masc)) will learn
3rd plural fem	Prefix dnuː- dnuunwo /ˈdnuːnwo/ (they (fem)) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix mn- Else: Prefix mnoː- mnoːnwo /ˈmnoːnwo/ (they (fem)) learned	Prefix ʤda- ʤdanwo /ˈʤdanwo/ (they (fem)) will learn

Imperfective aspect

The ‘imperfective’ aspect refers to ongoing actions, such as I am learning and habitual actions, such as I learn (something new every day).
Kjelkian uses an affix for imperfective:

Imperfective

If starts with vowel: Prefix ɲj- Else: Prefix ɲjiː- ɲjiinwo /ˈɲjiːnwo/ learns/is learning

Numbers

Kjelkian has a base-10 number system:
1 - ʐu
2 - ksaa
3 - mwii
4 - lja
5 - ɲju
6 - vlu
7 - bwe
8 - me
9 - sa
10 - meː
100 - ʃɹozmo
1000 - sjol

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ns
Else: Suffix -aːns
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Suffix -aʊ̯
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -szaː
Else: Suffix -yszaː
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -nga
Else: Suffix -enga
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʁzɪ
Else: Suffix -əʁzɪ
Noun to verb = Suffix -aʊ̯
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -lço
Else: Suffix -uːlço
Tending to = If ends with vowel: Suffix -t
Else: Suffix -at
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʁt
Else: Suffix -aɪ̯ʁt
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -puː
Else: Suffix -aɪ̯puː
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʁl
Else: Suffix -əʁl
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -mpføː
Else: Suffix -ɔmpføː
Diminutive = Suffix -am
Augmentative = Suffix -aʊ̯ks

Dictionary

3033 Words.

Root Languages

• Giant/nuhte

Spoken by

• Thri-Kreen