Kx'alou Tsa

Kx'alou Tsa, or Kx'alou Speech, is the native language of the last of the Kx'alouan people and their charges. Given the loss of Kx'alouan culture and the Kx'alouan homeworld, no known relatives of this language survive to the modern day.

Notes

While most of the phonology had been completed in early 2019, I decided to add dh [ð] and gh [g͡ɣ] to the phonology while typing up this webpage in Aug 2024 for eveness' sake. I've elected to leave p [p] uneven, though, because I like the vibe of that lone p [p].

Finalizing Kx'alou Tsa's history of sound changes from Old Kx'alou Tsa to Kx'alou Tsa is my first order of business for this conlang in Aug 2024, really. That, and finalizing what little grammar I have for it.

Work that still needs to be done:

• Evolution from parent to daughter language,
• Deciding on more grammatical things,
• And building up the lexicon.

Last updated 8/9/2024. (Image last updated 8/12/2024.)

History

TBA.

Phonology

Kx'alou Tsa has a highly unevenly distributed phonetic inventory; it is highly alveolar and velar, yet notably lacks nasals in both these categories. It also includes a three way distinction of unvoiced, ejective, and voiced consonants in most of its consonantal inventory.

		bilabial	dental	alveolar	velar
nasal	voiced	m [m]
stop	unvoiced	p [pʰ]		t [tʰ]	k [kʰ]
	ejective			t' [tʼ]	k' [kʼ]
	voiced			d [d]	g [g]
affricate	unvoiced			ts [t͡s]	kx [k͡x]
	ejective			ts' [t͡sʼ]	kx' [k͡xʼ]
	voiced			dz [d͡z]	gh [g͡ɣ]
fricative	unvoiced		th [θ]	s [s]
	voiced		dh [ð]	z [z]
approximant	voiced			r [ɹ]
lateral approximant	voiced			l [l]	hl [ɫ]

	front	central	back
closed	í [i]
near-closed	i [ɪ]
close-mid			ou [ɤ]
mid		u [ə]
open-mid	e [ɛ]
open	a [a]		au [ɑ]

Allophony

The /t/ in /tr/ and /rt/ clusters has an allophonic variation of [t͡ʃ].

Phonotactics

Syllables follow a (C)(C)V(C)(C) syllable structure, with the most common variations being CVC, CV, CCV, CCVC, CVCC, and VCC, in which C is any consonant and V is any vowel or diphthong.

Sound Changes

TBA.

Grammar

Nouns

[Subject to being a WIP]

Kx'alou Tsa treats most things English would consider adjectives as nouns to be possessed.

e dau tsoupí ts'aim? e dau lroumíd?
[Q have hunger 2ps? Q have thirst?]
Are you hungry? Thirsty?

Otherwise, Kx'alou Tsa tackles many "adjectives" by compounding nouns into strings of nouns.

ek la ksaum medhou kx'alou tsa.
[tell me 3ps with kx'alou speech]
She told me in the Kx'alouan language.

ek ksaum ts'aim medhou ts'aim oumam tsa.
[tell 2ps you with 2ps human speech.]
Tell her in your human language.

Verbs

Verbs do not conjugate for time in Kx'alou Tsa; time must be appended with words like "now" "yesterday" "tomorrow" "soon" etc, etc.

Syntax

Kx'alou Tsa is, for the most part, a VOS word order language.

Translation Gallery

TBA

TBA

TBA

TBA

TBA

TBA

Lexicon

MASSIVE WIP.

e [ɛ] - question particle
ek [ɛk] - v. to tell, to inform
medhou [mɛ.ðɤ] - with
mel [mɛl] - v. to be (locationally); to be located (at)
paud [pɑd] - n. one (the number)
touk [tɤk] - n. place
t'ag [tʼag] - while, during
dau [dɑ] - v. to own, to possess, to have
tsa [t͡sa] - n. speech, saying; a dialogue marker.
tsoupí [t͡sɤ.pi] - n. hunger
ts' [t͡sʼ] - a sound used to express negativity or disapproval.
ts'aim [t͡sʼaim] - second person singular pronoun
kx'alou [k͡xʼa.lɤ] - name of the kx'alouan homeworld.
sou [sɤ] - "uh" "but"
la - first person singular pronoun
lroupí [lɹɤ.pi] - "and so" "because of this"
lroumíd [lɹɤ.mid] - n. thirst
hlaum [ɫɑm] - a purposeful mark; a symbol; a letter, a character