"Mahan" is somewhat equivalent to "do", but can come before
any sentence that does
not begin with "how", "what", "when", etc.
Aside from the subject-verb-object structure, adjectives, adverbs and prepositional phrases
can
be placed anywhere in the sentence you want. However, connectives used as prepositions
must
always precede their objects.
Parts of Speech
Kankonian has six parts of speech: (1) Nominals -- nouns and pronouns; (2) Verbs; (3)
Modifiers
-- adjectives and "determiners" like each, this, many, etc.; (4) Adverbs; (5)
Connectives
-- conjunctions and prepositions; (6) Sentencials -- interjections or any other single word
that expresses a complete thought.
Nominals
Nouns can take just about any ending under the sun, but they all name the same things that
do
nouns in English: jungle, Povoi, rock, hammer, rain, laser, sound, peace, Philippe, Sophie,
genocide, bizarrerie, sanctity, meter, modulus, refutation, rice, epitome, orchid, lizard,
amoeba, Rasaphism, fluorine, etc.
Plurals are usually formed by removing the last syllable down to its first vowel and adding
-as:
heles -> helas, daka -> dakas, yaramoshi -> yaramoshas. Nouns with the last syllable accented
or
only one syllable take -es: riyathal -> riyathales, ptort -> ptortes.
Irregulars include:
babi - babitos
bwolwo - bwolwu
garakhe - garakhien
tapi - tapitis
thimiya - thimeis
tshiko - tshikos
vare - varis
yea - oyeas
zuras - zurdefi
To express "one of", cut off everything (if anything) after the terminal vowel of
the plural
form and add "t":
tshikas (girls) -> tshika + t = tshikat (one of the girls)
likakes (necks) -> likake + t = likaket (of our our necks)
varis (plants) -> vari + t = varit (one of these plants)
garakhien (garakhien) -> garakhie + t = garakhiet (one of the garakhien)
zurdefi (leopards) -> zurdefi + t = zurdefit (one of the leopards)
bwolwu (eyes) -> bwolwu + t = bwolwut (one of my eyes)
Proper names, such as Gadami, Gemahas, Ching, Connie, Dan and Zafiya, are
pronounced
and spelled as in their native languages. There are no words for Mr., Mrs., Miss or Ms. in
Kankonian. When speaking to Kankonians, simply use their last name; when speaking to
other nationalities, address them by the title in their native language.
Possession is formed by putting "na-" at the beginning: na tshika (the girl's), na
hansht (of
the hanscht), na Tara (Tara's).
Articles (the/a/an) are not used.
All pronouns are androgynous. Since "he", "she" and "it"
all become "wan", the problem of having
two "wan's" in the same sentence can be solved by changing one to a specific noun
or name, or
changing an "it" to "this" or "that" (ham). Different forms
are used for singular and
plural in all three persons, except for the numberless "o". The pronouns are listed
under "Verbs"
in the present-tense paradigm of "akran".
Kankonian is very much a word-order language (subject-verb-object): "I" and
"me", "he" and
"him", etc. are not distinguished. "Ile" means both "they"
and "them"; both "she" and "her" can
be represented by "wan".
When you are speaking to someone, put "zha" before their name: Zha Phoriphio, nasuet er lei! = Phoriphio, come over here! (Lit: ADDRESS Phoriphio, come-IMPERATIVE at here).
To say "my" or "mine", use "na" before the pronoun: na
is. "Your" or "yours" would be "na
ar". How to say "oneself"? For the reflexive, use "zhi-" before the
pronoun: zhiis (myself), zhideir
(yourselves), zhiwan (itself), zhio (oneself), etc. Since pronouns and nouns are not
distinguished
as two different parts of speech in Kankonian, it is also correct to use zhi before a word or
name:
Dan mogheghen zhi-Dan ad wan = Dan blamed himself for it. (Lit: Dan blame-PAST
REFLEXIVE-Dan for it).
Verbs
Verbs in Kankonian are preceded by subjects and take the following conjugation:
akran - to take
is akranas - I take
ar akranas - you take
wan akranas - s/he takes, it takes
wir akranas - we take
deir akranas - you all take
ile akranas - they take
o akranas - (generic) one takes
The same pronouns can be used with these different tenses:
Infinitive: Is fuiras keleuk Tzalla Kurukskilti.
I want to explore the Dzalleh Speleothem.
Past: Aurea polaten Cliff.
Aurea tapped Cliff on the shoulder.
Future: Wir rezhelos er Silansia 4 spilines.
We will arrive at Silancia in 4 hours.
Imperative: Guisaet karaph umbe!
Feed the dog now!
Pluperfect: Is eduienen barien na venta.
I had cut the animal's spleen out.
Future perfect: Wir phorenos 10,000 babaritas olme.
We will have gained 10,000 employees universewide.
Stagnative: Faru ar ihalek e dorumphi.
Someday you'll end up in jail.
akranen - took
akranos - will take
akranaet - Take --- !
akranenen - had taken
akranenos - will have taken
akranek - will take (if things don't start getting better...)
The infinitive passive adds -iz; add another suffix as you do in the active:
akraniz - to be taken
akranizas - is taken
akranizen - was taken
akranizos - will be taken
akranizaet - Be taken!
akranizenen - had been taken
akranizenos - will have been taken
akranizak - will be taken
The last, in the stagnative, would be used in telling someone who chronically refuses to lock
up
their items that their property is going to be taken one day. Kankonian doesn't have a special
way
to denote a past participle, so for "has taken", you have to say simply
"took": akranen.
The most important of all verbs is to be. This is how to conjugate it:
Infinitive: e - to be
Present: as - is, am, are
Past: en - was, were
Future: os - will be
Imperative: et - Be (good, etc.)!
Pluperfect: enen - had been
Fut. perfect: enos - will have been
Stagnative: ak - will be
There is no gerund in Kankonian. To say, "Being dumb is unattractive", rephrase it
as "As
develu e amb" (It is unattractive to be dumb).
"Yakh" is used to denote conditional voice. Simply put it before the clause
to be "conditionalized":
akh is as algas, is morgenos palu shakti. Were I rich, I would buy a new house.
To stay "stopped coming", "continues to try", "keep
saying", etc., use the particle
"va" in between the inflected verb and the infinitive: "khaten va nasu",
"rotuas va novos".
Modifiers
Adjectives may come before or after a nominal. To inflect them, use "re" before the
comparative
and "tri" before the superlative. The negative comparative takes "hi";
the negative superlative,
"los":
venit - good
re venit - better
tri venit - best
hi venit - less good, not as good
los venit - the least good
Some adjectives in English do not exist as adjectives in Kankonian, but instead exist only
as
verbs: dyamad = to be asleep, yin = to be necessary, etc. Therefore, "Tshika esinas"
means "The
girl is pretty" (is pretty being the verb). To say "the pretty girl", restate
as "the girl who is
pretty" (tshika az esinas).
Adverbs
Adverbs of manner are formed by putting "we" after an adjective: venit we (well),
develu we
(unattractively).
Question words
The following adverbs and nominals begin questions:
Mui, meaning "and", is repeated without commas in between each item in a
lengthy series --
this often gets shortened in speech to sound something like "mwee" to save
time.
Kankonian uses a connective of intermediate traversal: ob (equivalent to the first
"to" in
"from Kankonia to Chatony to Javarti").
The connective "ad" (to, for) is always used with verbs like "give", even
where we would use
an indirect object: ayinet ad is (give me). The word "benus" (translated as
"type", "species",
"kind", "variety", etc.) as well as words like "flavor",
"color", "breed", "brand" and "make" all
take the word "ad" to mean "of".
Family relations also take "ad" instead of "na" (my brother is
"surten ad is", not "surten
na is").
Sometimes we separate the prepositional object from the rest of the main clause and use it
as
the subject or object of the main clause. Ex: I have the shoes on which he spat (I have the
shoes
he spat on). In Kankonian, we use "az" (which or whom), followed by a connective
(on) and then
the dependent prepositional clause (he spat): Is anas tzatakas az ash wan uspisen. (Lit. I
have-PRESENT shoe-PLURAL which on he spit-PAST).
Sentencials
The following interjections are used:
Also intriguing are some chance coincidences in native words to words from Terrestrial
languages: Kankonian "ad" (for/to) and Latin "ad"; Kankonian
"durd" (soil) and English
"dirt"; Kankonian "payas" (noetic) and English "pious"
(religious); Kankonian "o" (or)
and Spanish "o". As "pious" was mutilated in pronunciation from its
Latin roots, one can
only assume this particular case complete chance, but the others (especially short words) seem
to
have some universal tendency among us. If "durd" and "dirt" look
striking, recall
that the bur sequence in "bury", "burrow" and "buru" (a
burrowing Himalayan lizard
often sighted by early explorers but probably now extinct) has been found by linguists in
words
of languages from all over Earth. Dur is not too far from bur, and it seems
sensible that innate in all races with human genes and capable of human range of phonemes
living on any planet is a tendency to associate /hard consonant + back-mouth vowel +
rhotic/
with the earth (which itself begins with the "ur" sound in English)! The M sound is
almost
universal in words for mother (including the Kankonian helemas); tik or
dik denotes
an elongated object, bodily extremity, or concept of "one" to cultures everywhere on
Earth; dr-
appears in about a dozen English words pertaining to water (drain, drench, drop, dry) and
-ump
in many more suggesting a rounded mass (bump, hump, clump). Perhaps there is a bit of
atavism in all languages.
Click here to learn more about the planet of Kankonia (Venska Solar
System, Lehola galaxy).
Click here to learn more about the Lehola galaxy as a whole.
Click here to learn more about the Kankonia's history.
Kankonian - English
A B D E F G H I K L * M N O P R S T U V W Y Z
English - Kankonian
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
Kankonian was created by James E. F. Landau.
Write to him here.