Sbikt

Official language of the United Haladn
Note: written form is referred to as "Skribt"

Writing System

The Skribt alphabet, to the Uamind, is perfectly phonetic, in which each symbol stands for its own sound. Diacratics indicate voiced/voiceless, etc. Symbols are joined; subject phrases and verb phrases also tend to be written joined and are only separated into individual words in the Juberian alphabet.

Geographical Distribution

Official language of the United Haladn in Bdali

Phonology

Common vowel pronunciations for each vowel: “A” pronounced /ɑ/ (“ah”) ; “E” pronounced /ɛ/, /ə/, /eɪ/ (“eh/uh/ey,”) ; “I” pronounced i (“ee,”) ; “O” rarely used alone (mostly grammatical) and pronounced /oʊ/ (“oh”) ; “U” rarely used alone and pronounced /u/ “oo”
Glides: “J” pronounced /j/ (like a Y) ; kind of acts like a tilde to connect consonants and vowels with a “yy” sound, like año in Spanish would be spelled phonetically “anjo” in Sbikt, also sometimes used like an H as a vowel softener
Consonants: common consonant sounds are bilabial /p/ and /b/; alveolar stops /t/ and /d/, fricatives /s/ and /z/, liquids /l/ and /ɹ/; velar /k/ and /g/; nasals /m/, /n/, and /ŋ/

Morphology

Nouns

Tonal prefixes define tone in nouns: “ve” is reverent or appraising, no prefix is neutral, “bo” is casual, and “hel” is derogatory; “ve” and “bo” require a hyphen if the subsequent letter (in the Juberian/Latin alphabet) is a vowel
Article prefixes come after tonals: “ar” is specific (like “the” or “this/these” or “that”), “ihn” is general (like “a/an”), and “ega” is possessive (like “my” or “their”)

• Specifics and generals aren’t like English’s. You wouldn’t say “I ate a (general) banana” because the way they see it, there was only one banana you ate, but you still do say “I would like a (general) banana” because any one will do

• Possessives are not distinguished by gender, number, or perspective in and of themselves; “my bag” is the same as “your bag,” except the way we’d distinguish it would be by adding a pronoun/name, so it would be like “I [possessive]bag” or “Sam [possessive]bag”

• Possession and belonging are grammatically two different things: to imply that something specifically rightfully belongs to or is an inseparable part of something, the suffix “-d” is added to the end of a noun, e.g. “Balad ve-arskrind” is translated to “The [revered] Book of Balad” implying that Balad either wrote the book or that his ownership of it is sacred or significant, not just “Balad’s book” (which would be “Balad egaskrin”) implying mere possession (the “-d” replaces the possessive infix)*

Suffixes in nouns determine number (plurality) : “-n” is plural, but implies something deliberately put together, “-(a)p” is plural but implies things thrown together, “-ifan” is archaic and implies an uncountable or unknowable amount of things, “-(i)k” implies a lack of something, and no suffix usually implies singular but can also mean an unknown but potentially countable plural. Words already ending in these letters do not need alteration; context is necessary to understand number (for example, “uamin” is the same word for “people” and “person”)
*Used most often to make geographical names (like America -> American) : it would be “[place name] uamind,” or “person of [place name].” People of the UH just refer to themselves as Uamind, not Haladn Uamind. Also used for body parts, which is important: “mi akard” is my finger, one of the many I have on my hand; “mi egaakar” is a finger I happen to have in my possession, which I probably stole

Adjectives

Defining adjectives are prefixes that come after article: defining adjectives (like if you want to say “my blue coat” as opposed to any of your other coats) can only be simple or simple relativeadjectives
Simple adjectives: basic color, size, quality

• Colors: red = “red,” orange = “sol,” yellow = “shin,” green = “vid,” blue = “cal,” purple = “ibanja,” black/dark/darkness = “sklin,” white/bright/light = “inja,” gray = “sklinja”

• Size: small = “jam,” medium or middle = “rana,” large = “bibi”

• Quality: good = “veb” bad = “hal” fair = “vil”

Relative adjectives: add “-aq” to make something less [adj], “-asq” to make it the least [adj], “-il” to make it more [adj], “-ilja” to make it the most [adj], “-qua” to make it the same. The word “ar-sep” (specific article + adjective “sep” meaning “other”) by itself is an indicator like “than” that means something is being compared to something else specifically

Complex adjectives: synonyms for simple or relative adjectives; these carry cultural connotations and/or tend to be longer words; instead of being part of a noun, they come after a noun introduced by the word “oblja,” meaning “that [to be]” or “of” or “which”
See "Vocabulary" for an example of correct use of adjectives

Verbs

Verb conjugation prefixes: “ejk” is 1st person, “djo” is 2nd person, “tin” is 3rd person, “kar” is inanimate

Syntax

Subject-verb-object

Vocabulary

Angles Cardinal directions, general directions, ship directions, and the angles on a clock all use the same words: “ban” is north/12/forward, “rald” is east/3/right, “haut” is south/6/behind, “veda” is west/9/left, and “mebdal” is axis/center/self/soul (noun or adjective)

Adjective Use

“Arskrin” = “the book,” “arredskrin” = “the red book,” “arredilskrin” = “the redder book,” “arredilskrin ar-sep arskrin” = “the redder-than-this-book book,” “arskrin oblja redil ar-sep arskrin” = “the book that is/happens to be redder than this book,” “arskrin oblja rominim” = “the book that is scarlet” (there is no “the scarlet book”)

General

Nouns Uamin (person, human) ; hala (land, particularly a nation; “halad” is a nation and national government structure belonging to/led by someone, “halabem” is a leader or owner of a nation) ; madi (island/landmass) ; kalu (sky) ; dat and sun (meeting and parting)
Verbs Bin (to be) ; vogd (to go) ; fasi (to do)

Spoken by

• Uamind

Common Phrases

min egadat

hello

min egasun

goodbye

Mi egabalashk oblja shigan karbin tu uglibdogip

My flying bucket is full of eels