Karnathi

1 · Language overview

The Common Tongue

Karnathi is the shared language of ports, mixed crews, trade routes and frontier settlements. It uses stable roots, explicit subject–verb–object order and short independent markers, with documented Aithárion, Uldren, Grorzk and Sarzaz influences.

The name combines the Karnathi roots karn “bridge” and thi “speech”. An attested variant explanation joins karna “bridge”, attributed to Grorzk, with -thi “tongue; speech”, attributed to Aithárion. These attributions belong to Karnathi’s own description and do not establish words in the contributing languages.

Established influences

Shared roots and contact forms

Contact vocabulary follows Karnathi grammar: a borrowed noun takes the plural -azh, and a borrowed action uses the Karnathi time and aspect particles. Similar-looking words in different languages can have different meanings.

The numerals also reflect contact: Aithárion supplies several low numbers and thiga; Uldren shapes ziuz and zibim; Sarzaz supplies zheldu, vithi, ihom, nura and nureu. These are the standard Karnathi forms.

2 · Sounds and pronunciation

Letters and sounds

The alphabet is a b d e f g h i j k l m n o p r s t u v z, with the digraphs sh zh th kh gh ng tz. Karnathi does not use c, q, w, x or y: write k for /k/, ks for /ks/, f for /f/, i for the vowel /i/ and j for /j/, as in kom, ksor, fel and jorn. There are no silent letters.

Vowel sequences, length and stress

Every vowel is pronounced. Adjacent different vowels form separate syllables and never glide: vael is /ˈva.ɛl/, koria is /ˈko.ri.a/. A doubled vowel is one long vowel: aa → /aː/. Long vowels convey emphasis or reverence and mean longer duration, not louder speech: vael /va.ɛl/ “ship” becomes vaael /vaː.ɛl/ “great or revered ship”. A doubled consonant is held slightly longer.

Stress falls on the next-to-last syllable of the complete word; a one-syllable word is stressed on its only syllable. An acute accent, used only in names and formal forms, marks a stress that breaks this rule, and a word carries at most one: Drungárr /ˈdruŋ.gaːr/ (formal “warrior”), Velunár /vɛ.luˈnaːr/. The everyday spelling uses no macrons; expressive writing shows prolonged sounds by doubling the vowel.

The Karnathi shift

Words taken into Karnathi from neighboring tongues are reshaped sound by sound so that they fit the common tongue. Native roots and all Karnathi affixes stay as they are. The shift is applied to each letter or digraph of the borrowed word at once:

If a shifted word would match an existing Karnathi word, it adds a final -a: vela “to drill” beside vel “flight”. A root keeps its shifted form in every compound and derivation.

3 · Writing system

Karnathi is written in the Roman alphabet. Sentences begin with a capital and end with a period, question mark or exclamation mark. Commas are sparing; pauses matter in speech and poetry. Names and sentence openings take capitals. Proper names keep their bearers’ spellings; ordinary borrowed words follow Karnathi spelling.

Compounds are written solid. A hyphen is written inside a word only where two elements meet and their letters would otherwise read as a digraph or as one long vowel: luma-akh “lover”, not lumaakh. A hyphen may also expose the structure of an unfamiliar compound or number.

Names are recorded only for the letters above; the others are called by their sounds.

4 · Word construction

Once introduced, a root never changes its stem: khleg, pa khleg, nuk khleg and thil khleg all keep the same root.

Compounds place the descriptor first and the head last; the last root names the category of the whole word. zharrok combines fire and stone; velvael combines flight and ship; krazmet is blood-metal; velunvael (sky + ship) is a starship; shrenbael (writing + house) is a book. New compounds keep complete roots. The historical forms velvael and rokhalla keep their established shapes.

Derivation comes before inflection: grovar-akh-azh, translators, written grovarakhazh. An ending is productive only on a recognizable base; a borrowed whole word is not split by its final letters. Some entries show further word-specific endings (-nar, -anar, -an, -un, -tun, -mel, -kar, -ro, -bar, -r); these belong to their words and are not general rules.

5 · Grammar and sentence structure

Word order

The default order is subject–verb–object. Karnathi has no case endings; word order and particles show relationships. Modifiers come before nouns: durm rok “dark stone”, kran vael “red ship”, gurth drungar “old warrior”. Time, place, manner and reason words may open a sentence.

The verb group runs: subject → time → aspect → nuk → ve → verb → object → other phrases.

Negation, questions and commands

nuk comes before the verb: Ekh nuk skek. I do not run. Zu nuk skek. You do not run.

A yes/no question keeps statement order and adds kha at the end with rising pitch: Zu khleg kha? Do you understand?

Question words take the place of the missing information: vu who, vath what, vesh where, nozh when, viha how, vathru why. Do not add kha to a question that already has one: Vu gonu? Who comes? Zu velin vath? You see what?

A command is the bare verb root without a subject: Skek! Run! Harth! Stop! A negative command begins with nuk: Nuk skrek! Do not run!

Modals and voice

Put the modal, then ri, then the unchanged verb: pek can, murth must, gral want, zonk need. Ekh pek ri skar se mak. I can repair the machine. nuk before the modal negates the modal: Ekh nuk murth ri gren. I do not have to go. nuk after ri negates the action: Ekh murth ri nuk gren. I must not go.

The passive marker ve comes directly before the verb. The affected noun becomes the subject; a named agent follows prek “by”: Se bael pa ve karnar prek ekh. The house was built by me.

Coordinated verbs may share one subject, but time or aspect markers are repeated when they change.

Joining clauses

Coordinate with gau “and”, val “but” and okh “or”. A reason follows hedu “because”; a condition begins with ven “if”. Each clause keeps subject–verb–object order: Ven zu ul lithu, vur thil gren. If you are ready, we will go.

gi introduces a complete content clause: Ekh khleg gi zu ul lithu. I understand that you are ready.

A relative clause follows its noun, begins with ji and leaves out the noun’s position: se krel ji hurn ekh the friend who helps me; se mak ji ekh skar the machine that I repair. pum closes a relative or embedded clause when another verb follows and the boundary would be unclear: Se krel ji ekh velin pum ul lithu. The friend whom I see is ready.

Prepositions and comparison

Prepositions stand before the noun phrase and never change its form. Predicate qualities need the copula ul: Se vael ul garra. The ship is big. Use gor before an adjective for “more” and gar for “most”; tham introduces the standard: Se vael ul gor garra tham se bael. The ship is bigger than the house.

Add -li to an adjective for a manner adverb: velar “fast” → velarli “quickly”. Manner adverbs normally follow the object, or the verb if there is no object. Independent time and place words stay unchanged.

6 · Nouns, pronouns and verbs

Nouns, articles and possession

Nouns have no grammatical gender and no case endings. Add -azh to the whole noun for the plural, keeping every root letter: rok → rokazh, drungar → drungarazh, bael → baelazh (houses), velunvael → velunvaelazh (starships).

se means “the” for any number; ek means “a, an” and is singular. Omit articles for general substances and unspecified plurals. A numeral comes before the noun, and quantities other than one take the plural: thje garra baelazh two big houses. Mass nouns naming a substance stay unpluralized.

Possession is noun + ru + owner, where the owner may be a noun or pronoun: Rok ru Yrsa Yrsa’s stone; se bael ru sira the mother’s house.

Descriptive adjectives come before the noun. The demonstratives zi “this” and za “that” replace the article; ziazh “these” and zaazh “those” are their plurals.

Pronouns

Subject and object forms are identical: Ekh velin zu. I see you. Every possessive uses ru: ru ekh “my”, ru zu “your”, ru zur “their”. ud refers to an object, creature, system or any entity without an assigned personal pronoun. Repeat a name when two antecedents would make a pronoun unclear. zir is the reflexive object: Rin velin zir. She sees herself. alel means “each other”: Vur hurn alel. We help each other.

Verbs, time and aspect

Verbs never change for person or number. The dictionary gives the bare action root, used after a subject, in a command and after ri. Time and aspect are shown only by particles; no ending or apostrophe marks tense.

Use at most one time marker and one aspect marker per verb group; without them, time and aspect come from context. Helpers may be left out in informal speech when understood.

ul is the invariant copula: Ekh ul lithu. I am ready. Zur pa ul lithu. They were ready. haur expresses possession: Ekh haur ek hanil. I have a hammer. nuk precedes the verb or ve: Ekh pa nuk khleg. I did not understand. Ekh ur nuk shren. I am not writing.

7 · Numbers and counting

Count in base ten. A multiplier comes before its scale and smaller values follow: thje-thiga 20, thje-thiga-hesk 21, dliuz-ihom-thje-thiga 320. A single scale word means one of that scale: thiga 10, ihom 100. To multiply a multiword number by a scale, group the multiplier in writing or pause before the scale in speech.

The ordinal prefix elth- marks position: elth-hesk first, elth-thje second. Use digits for serial numbers, coordinates and exact technical measurements. A fraction uses prek: hesk prek thje, one divided by two, one half. Decimal digits follow bomd “decimal point” and are read one by one.

8 · Formality, honorifics and social speech

These are optional cultural expressions and do not replace ordinary subject–verb–object speech. Use plain Karnathi for mixed crews. Technical words name a specific object or process; do not replace a precise root with a ceremonial synonym.

granthar is a respectful greeting; zora expresses thanks. Commands may omit greetings in an emergency. In careful writing, repeat the subject when switching actors; in fast speech an understood subject may be dropped only within one speaker’s turn.

9 · Naming conventions

Names such as Yrsa keep their bearers’ preferred forms. Borrowed tribal honorifics are permitted, such as Skrek’tar “commander, war-leader” and formal Drungárr “warrior”. A translated role follows the name; native clan particles remain part of the quoted name.

10 · Words with several functions

A word may carry more than one listed sense; every sense is kept under one headword. khleg is the noun “mind, thought” and the verb “understand”. kran is blood and red; valk is banner and book; durun is strength and strong; kren is make and count; jorn is speak and shout. thurak means enemy and, in the phrase Yrsa velin thurak, orc; harth means stop and yield; bruk means eat and food.

11 · Common phrases

12 · Grammar and usage examples

13 · Lexicon