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Classical Kasshian (Watakasshi) was the language of the Kasshi from the Anarchic Era to the early Second Empire.

Contents 1 Phonology and Orthography 1.1 Consonants 1.2 Allophones 1.3 Vowels 1.4 Syllables 1.5 Stress 2 Grammar 2.1 Nouns 2.1.1 Gender 2.1.1.1 Pluralization Patterns 2.1.2 Number Suffixes 2.1.3 Cases 2.1.3.1 True Cases 2.1.3.2 Pseudo-Cases 2.1.4 Stem-Changes 2.2 Verbs 2.2.1 Voice 2.2.2 Tense 2.2.3 Conditional 2.2.4 Personal Suffixes 2.2.5 Aspect 2.3 Clitic Pronouns 2.4 Free Pronouns 2.5 Adjectives 2.5.1 Gender 2.5.2 Number Suffixes 2.5.3 Comparison 2.5.4 Superlative 3 Syntax 3.1 Verb Types 4 Vocabulary

Phonology and Orthography

Consonants

	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveopalatal	Palatal	Velar
Stops	P, B		T, D			K, G
Nasals	M		N			(Ng')
Affricates			Ts, Dz	(Ch), (J)
Fricatives		F, V	S, Z	Sh, Zh	(Ç)
Liquids			L, R
Glides	W				Y

Italics represent allophones, while parentheses indicate marginal phonemes.

Allophones

• T and D are [ts] and [dz] in some dialects before /i/ or /j/ (/j/ is absorbed into [ts] and [dz])
• S and Z are [S] and [Z] before /i/ or /j/
• L is /r/ after dental consonants

Vowels

There are only three vowel phonemes - /i a u/, which may be long or short. Long vowels are indicated in romanization by either doubling or the use of a macron (e.g., both ii and ī are used). Macron cannot be used if the two vowels belong to different morphemes, e.g., the plural suffix -i added to a noun ending in -i will be written -ii and never -ī. /i/ and /u/ are both pronounced [e] and [o] (and romanized that way) in closed syllables. There are two diphthongs, /aj/ and /aw/

Syllables

Legal onsets in Kasshian are 0, consonant, and consonant followed by a glide or liquid. Legal codas are fricative, N (assimilates in place), L, or gemination of the following consonant. Geminate consonants may not be followed by /l/ or glides. Where inflectional morphology would otherwise create a geminate followed by l, y, or w, no gemination occurs.

The marginal phonemes ch, j, ç, must be followed by vowels while ng must be preceded by a vowel and cannot be geminated. In addition, ch, j and ç can only be geminated if an /i/ follows. W and Y must be followed by vowels, and may not be geminated.

Ç is an odd phoneme in Kasshian. Historically, it was derived from /kj/ and /ki/ (although later sound-changes have created new /kj/ and /ki/). In the modern language, /çi/, when unstressed, preceded by a vowel, and either word-final or followed by a voiceless consonant, becomes /ç/, which is pronounced as a single mora, treated as a coda. When word-initial and followed by a voiceless consonant, it also often simply /ç/. Thus, çitauçi may be pronounced /çtawç/

Stress

Stress is regularly on the penultimate mora. Long vowels count as two morae, and, as mentioned above, word-final ç counts as a single mora.

Grammar

Nouns

Gender

Kasshian has seven nouns, marked by a prefix, which has both singular and plural forms. Nouns in dictionaries generally give both the singular and plural forms, due to the difficulty of predicting the correct plural form of a gender-prefix, the result of several sound-changes between Common Kasshi and Classical Kasshian.

• Gender I (begins with ch-, tr-, or p- [very rare]) - Female human or supernatural being
• Gender II (n- or m-) - Male human or supernatural being
• Gender III (s- or sh-) - Epicene human or supernatural being (including hermaphroditic beings)
• Gender IV (ç-, k-, or qu-) - Animals associated with people (domesticated animals, common pests, some animals with symbolic or religious significance)
• Gender V (l-) - Other animal
• Gender VI (w-, u-, or o-) - Other animate (includes social institutions)
• Gender VII (p-) - Inanimate

P- for Gender I nouns is extremely rare.

The distinction between genders VI and VII is somewhat arbitrary, as is the distinction between IV/V and V/VI.

Pluralization Patterns

There are a number of common patterns of pluralizing the gender-prefix. Asterisk indicates gemination of the following consonant. C indicates s, f, z, v, l, n, or m and in the singular forms is always followed by another consonant other than l, r, y, or w. Sometimes there are changes in C between the singular and plural, s -> t, f -> p, z -> d, v -> b.

There are a total of 12 patterns of pluralization, but not all patterns are distinguished in each gender, each gender distinguishes from 9 to 11 patterns. Many nouns can switch between genders, especially between I/II/III and IV/V.

A noun always remains in the same pattern when changing gender. For example: the noun sumataç, pl. sommataçii falls into pattern I because of the su-/so*- alternation. Thus, a female slave is chimataç/chemmataçii and a male slave namataç/nammataçii (as pattern I is marked by chi-/che*- for gender I and na-/na*- for gender II). The noun solmyava/sollamyavai (fisher) falls into pattern III because of the soC-/so*Ca- alternation (C in this case being l). Thus, a female fisher replaces soC-/so*Ca- with cheC-/che*Ca- and a male with naC-/na*Ca- thus chelmyava/chellamyavai and nalmyava/nallamyavai. Çika/çifikai (fish, edible) falls into pattern VI/VII (merged patterns) because of the ç-/çif- alternation. Thus fish in gender V (which indicates non-edible fish) becomes lika/lafikai (ç-/çif- replaced by l-/laf-)

The final column is the incorporated form, the form used when a noun is incorporated into a verb.

The /f/ in the plural forms of genders IV-VII becomes /v/ before voiced obstruents and nasals.

Gender I

Gender II

Gender III

Gender IV

Gender V

Gender VI

Gender VII

Incorporated

Singular

Plural

Singular

Plural

Singular

Plural

Singular

Plural

Singular

Plural

Singular

Plural

Singular

Plural

Pattern I

chi-

che*-

na-

na*-

su-

so*-

çi-

çef-

la-

laf-

wa-

waf-

pi-

pef-

Ø

Pattern II

chi-

na-

su-

Pattern III

cheC-

che*Ca-

naC-

na*Ca-

soC-

so*Ca-

çeC-

çefCa-

laC-

lafCa-

waC-

wafCa-

peC-

pefCa-

C-/Ca-³

Pattern IV

ch-

chily-

ny-

naly-

sh-

suly-

ç-

çify-

ly-

lafy-

uy-

wafy-

py-

pify-

y-

Pattern V

chell-

n-

nall-

sw-¹

soll-

çeff-

l-

laff-

w-²

waff-

peff-

l-4

Pattern VI

tr-

nr-

sr-

çif-

laf-

waf-

pif-

Ø

Pattern VII

ch-

n-

sw-¹

Pattern VIII

p-

chilw-

m-

nalw-

sulw-

qu-

çif-

lw-

laf-

p-

w-

Pattern IX

tr-

chell-

nr-

nall-

sr-

soll-

kl-

çeff-

lal-

laff-

wal-

waff-

pl-

peff-

l-

Pattern X

çifl-

lafl-

wafl-

pifl-

Pattern XI

chī-

chekka-

nā-

nakka-

sū-

sokka-

çī-

çekka-

lā-

lafka-

wā-

wafka-

pī-

pefka-

ka-

Pattern XII

chegga-

nagga-

sogg-

çevga-

lavga-

wavga-

pevga-

ga-

¹Note: /w/ is dropped before u- or o- initial roots. This means that Patterns V-VII may be realized as su-/sollu- (rather than *swu-/sollu-), su-/sru- and su-/su- or so-/sollo-, so-/sro- and so-/so-. Pattern VIII can never have u-/o- initial roots. Genders I and II in such cases follow the same pattern as for sw. Thus chu-/chellu-, etc. This makes Patterns II and VII difficult to distinguish in some gender III nouns. Pattern II always has a consonant followed by l, r, w, or y, or the consonants sh, zh, ch, j, or ç at the start of the root. If it does not start with one of those, then it's Pattern VII. If it does, then it could be either II or VII, but is more likely to be II.

²w- is dropped before u- or o-

³C- after vowel-final prefixes, Ca- otherwise

⁴l- dropped after vowel-final prefixes

Note that in some cases, there is no change in the prefix between singular and plural. Also, note that for genders I and II, pattern II is partly merged with pattern VII. Thus, if you know that a gender II noun has a na-/na- pattern, you can't be sure if gender I is chi-/chi- or cha-/cha-. Likewise, a chi-/chi- noun could be ni-/ni- or na-/na- in gender II. Same caviats found in footnote 1 apply.

Number Suffixes

Plural is marked in both the gender prefix and in a suffix to the root. The basic suffix is -i, but there are several complications

• -tu, -du, -nu, -pu, -bu, -mu, -fu, and -vu usually become -pi, -bi, -mi, -pi, -bi, -mi, -fi, and -vi
• Words ending in ai or au don't change for plural.

See below for further complications

Cases

Case suffixes follow the plural suffix, if any. Note, /i/ and /u/ become [e] and [o] in closed syllables

True Cases

• Absolutive - No suffix
  • Absolutive is used for the subject of an intransitive verb or the object of a transitive verb
• Ergative -(a)l
  • Ergative is used for the subject of a transitive verb
• Genetive -(a)f
• Dative -(a)z
• Instrumental -ni
  • Used to indicate the instrument used to perform an action, also used in causative constructions to indicate the person made to do something (e.g., "The woman made her servant clean the house")
• Benefactive -na
  • Used to indicate the person for whom an action is performed
• Commitative -n(an)
  • Indicates that an action is done together with a noun

Pseudo-Cases

These cases are formed by clitics added to the noun. They do not affect stress, nor do adjectives agree in these.

• Locative -av
  • Takes genetive. Indicates the location of an action, generally indicates on the surface of
• Ablative -ta
  • Takes genetive. Indicates motion away from an object, generally from the surface of
• Allative -za
  • Takes dative. Motion towards, generally on to the surface of
• Perlative -ni
  • Takes instrumental. Motion over the surface of
• Inessive -ka
  • Takes genetive. Indicates inside of
• Elative -tu
  • Takes genetive. Out of
• Illative -ba
  • Takes dative. Into
• Perillative -bav
  • Takes instrumental. Through
• Circumlocative -ji
  • Takes commitative. In the vicinity of
• Circumablative -ku
  • Takes genetive. From the vicinity of
• Circumallative -ma
  • Takes dative. To the vicinity of
• Circumperlative -man
  • Takes instrumental. motion near

Stem-Changes

In addition to the plural change listed above

• Stop/Fricative alterations - some nouns end in a fricative in the singular, and replace the fricative with a stop (s/t, z/d, f/p, v/b) in the plural and before the genetive and dative suffixes, e.g., pyalef "path", pifyalipi "paths", pyalipaf "of a path"
• Gemination - some consonant-final nouns geminate the final consonant before the plural suffix, e.g., wamushan "dawn", wafmushanni "dawns"
• Hidden Consonants - Nouns that end in a vowel in the singular, and add a geminated fricative in the plural, and a non-geminated fricative before the dative and genetive suffixes, e.g., trāna "friend", trānasaf "of a friend", chellānasshi "friends"
• A/i - Some nouns that end in -a drop the a before the plural, e.g., lanidana "a food animal", lafnidani
• Nouns ending in long vowels fall into one of four classes
  • Class I - long vowel changed to short vowel + k before plural suffix and genetive/dative suffixes. Thus, -ā -> -aç (plural), -akaf (singular genetive)
  • Class II, III, and IV shorten the vowel before the plural suffix, undergo different changes before genetive and dative suffixes
    • Class II: ā, ī, ū -> ag, ig, ug
    • Class III: ā, ī, ū -> a, i, u
    • Class IV: ā, ī, ū -> ā, ya, wa
• Also, keep in mind the allophonic nature of the i/e and u/o pairs, and the s/sh and z/zh pairs. A root that ends in oC will become uCi, for example, "man", nrakos, "men", nallakushi

A number of irregular alterations also exist

Verbs

Verbs can take several prefixes and suffixes, in the following pattern

• Voice-Tense-Conditional-Verb-Auxilary-Personal-Aspect

Voice

There are five voices in Kasshian

• Anti-Passive S-/Su-/Sw-/So-
  • Anti-passive is used to promote an ergative noun to absolutive. The absolutive is either dropped or changed to instrumental, and any instrumental noun becomes perlative
• Reflexive K-/Ku-/Kw-/Ko-
• Dative-Object P-/Pa-
  • Dative-object is used to promote a dative noun to absolutive. Absolutive and instrumental make the same changes as in anti-passive
• Reciprocative Tan-

Active is marked with no prefix

Tense

• Past F(a)-
• Future Nai-/Ny-

Conditional

• If Vi-
• Contrafactual Gwa-
  • Indicates an "if" statement that is contrary to fact
• Then Os-/Us-

Personal Suffixes

	Singular	Dual	Paucal	Plural
1st	-u	-*of, -lof, -uf	-tai	-ni
2nd	-fen	-f(i)ni	-f(i)na
3rd rational	-tas	-chi	-tan
3rd non-rational	-l, -*a, -la	-li, -*i, -i	-n(a)

Verbs agree with the noun in the absolutive. "Rational" means referring to a human or spirit, thus generally genders I, II, or III, while non-Rational refers to any other noun, including all body-parts, some of which normally take the gender of their possessor.

Certain stem-changes occur when personal suffixes are added.

• Stop-final verbs - these verbs end in -ku, -tu, -pu, -gu, -du, or -bu in the 1st person singular. In the 1st dual, 3rd non-rational singular and 3rd non-rational dual, the stop is kept, and the l form is used in the suffixes. t and d are also retained before endings beginning with t and ch In all other persons, t, p, d and b are changed to s, f, z, v, while k and g are dropped, with the preceding vowel lengthened.
• -chi becomes -shi after an s, -zhi after a z. When added to a verb ending in -t, the consonant and suffix merge to become -cchi, while when added to a verb ending in -d, they merge to -jji.
• The t-initial suffixes change to /d/ after a verb ending in d
• The f-initial suffixes change to /v/ after a verb ending in v
• Vowels in parentheses are lost after verbs ending in vowels
• Asterisk indicates gemination. The presence or absence of gemination in a particular verb must be learned
• After stems ending in vowels, the l-initial suffixes (except -la) drop the l.

Aspect

• Prospective -ma/-n
  • Indicates that an action is about to begin or was about to begin, generally with the implication that the action is due to intentional preparation
• Inceptive -tu
  • Indicates the start of an action
• Non-Punctual -ç(i)
  • Non-punctual indicates that an action takes place over a period of time, rather than in an instant
• Punctual (no suffix)
  • Punctual indicates that an action takes place in an instant, or in a brief period of time viewed as an instant. Combined with the present tense, it indicates that an action has just happened
• Habitual -v(a)
  • Habitual indicates that an action is done frequently and with some regularity, but not necessarily at the reference moment
• Cessative -l(a) (-ra after s)
  • The inverse of inceptive, indicates the completion of an action
• Perfective -nu
  • Indicates that an action has been completed, and that the result of the action is still in effect

Notes:

• The personal suffixes -fen and -tan merge with the aspect suffix -la to become -fenna and -tanna
• The personal suffix -tas merges with -çi to become -tasshi
• The second form of the suffixes is used after vowels (u and i become o and e).
• When combining third person non-sentient singular and plural with the prospective, non-punctual, habitual, or cessative, it is the aspect suffix that loses its vowel (e.g., -lav, not -lva)

Clitic Pronouns

Clitic pronouns may be added to nouns and verbs. They are placed immediately after the inflected verb, but without affecting stress. For nouns, they are placed immediately after the noun itself to indicate inalienable possession (affecting stress), and after the inflected noun for alienable possession (not affecting stress). For verbs, the following order is used 1^st person – 2^nd person – Genders 1-3 abs/erg – Genders 1-3 acc – Gender 4-5 erg – Genders 4-5 abs – Gender 6 erg – Gender 6 abs – Gender 7 erg – Gender 7 abs

	First Person				Second Person
	singular	dual	paucal	plural	singular	dual	plural
Nominative	ku	sa	na	chi	el	dri	ina
Accusative	qui	sai	nai	chī	ili	drī	inai
Genetive	qua	sau	nau	chiwa	iwa	driwa	ima

	Gender I			Gender II			Gender III
	singular	dual	plural	singular	dual	plural	singular	dual	plural
Absolutive	chi	chel	chen	na	nal	nan	su	sol	son
Accusative	chī	chili	chini	nai	nali	nani	swi	suli	suni
Ergative	chika	chekka	chenga	naka	nakka	nanga	suka	sokka	songa
Genetive	chiwa	chima		nau	nama		sau	suma

Gender IV

Gender V

Gender VI

Gender VII

singular

dual

plural

singular

dual

plural

singular

dual

plural

singular

dual

plural

Absolutive

çi

çel

çen

la

lal

lan

wa

wal

wan

pi

pel

pen

Ergative

çika

çekka

çenga

laka

lakka

langa

waka

wakka

wanga

pika

pekka

penga

Genetive

çiwa

çima

lwa

lama

wau

wama

piwa

pima

Free Pronouns

Free pronouns take standard case suffixes. They vary by gender (first form is feminine, second is masculine, third is epicine). Third person pronouns take standard gender prefixes

• 1st person singular: Trī/Nrī
• 1st person dual: Chellespi/Nallespi/Sollespi
• 1st person paucal: Chellesshi/Nallesshi/Sollesshi
• 1st person plural: Chempi/Nampi/Sompi
• 2nd person singular: Chā/Nā
• 2nd person dual: Chevvaibi/Navvaibi/Sovvaibi
• 2nd person plural: Chempā/Nampā/Sompā
• 3rd person singular: Eshna
• 3rd person plural: Eshni
• 3rd person reflexive singular: Jītal
• 3rd person reflexive plural: Jītali

Adjectives

Adjectives are inflected like nouns. They are placed after the noun and agree in number, gender, and case. In predicate position, they take the prefix sa-, and become verbs meaning "to be X", e.g., chika "old", sachika "to be old"

Gender

Like nouns, adjectives take prefixes to indicate gender. Where semantically appropriate, therefore, adjectives can have one of 14 gender/number-prefixes, using the same patterns as nouns. Adjectives are commonly given in dictionaries in gender I (or gender VI if gender I is not semantically appropriate), with both the singular and plural given, with gender IV plural also listed when the gender I plural does not suffice to determine the correct pattern (i.e., gender I merges Patterns IX and X which are distinguished for genders IV-VII, and sometimes merges Patterns II and VII).

Number Suffixes

Like nouns, plurality is also marked by the suffix -i. The same complications as for nouns apply to adjectives

Comparison

Comparison is indicated with an infix, that varies depending on the adjective

• For adjective beginning with CVC-, -tu- is added immediately after the first vowel (chika - old, chituka' - older)
• For adjectives beginning with CVV- (Long vowels count as VV), -p- is added after the first vowel (zhīku - beautiful, zhipiku - more beautiful)
• For adjectives beginning with Cl-, -atu- after the first consonant (mlichi - thick, matulichi - thicker)
• For adjectives beginning with CC-, -tu- after the first consonant (nvau - clean, ntuvau - cleaner)

The object of comparison takes the ellative case

Superlative

Superlative is also indicated with an infix, varying accordign to the adjective

• For adjectives beginning with CV-, -la- is added after the vowel (chika - old, chilaka - oldest)
• For adjectives beginning with CC- or Cl-, -la- is added after the consonant, -la- becomes -ra- after t, d, n, s or z (mlichi - thick, mlalichi - thickest)

Syntax

Basic word order is VSO, with modifiers consistently following their head.

Verb Types

There are 9 main categories of verbs, determined by the cases their arguments take

• Standard Verbs
  • Intransitive
  • Transitive
  • Ditransitive
• Experiential Verbs (emotions, senses)
  • Experiencer-Subject
    • Experiencer is in the ergative, source of experience is in the absolutive
  • Experiencer-Object
    • Experiencer is in the dative, source of experience is in the absolutive
  • Experiencer-Equal
    • Experiencer is in the inessive, source of experience is in the absolutive
  • Some verbs can call into differing experiential categories, with different connotations; experiencer-subject tends to connote a degree of control, while experiencer-object tends to indicate lack of control. Experiencer-equal tends to connote a state
• Verbs of Mental Action
  • Mental Action I
    • Person performing the action is in the ergative, recpient of action is in the absolutive (e.g., dakas "to ignore", person doing the ignoring is ergative, person being ignored is absolutive)
  • Mental Action II
    • Agent in teh dative, patient in the absolutive
  • Like Experiential verbs, but less common, some verbs of mental action may switch categories. Mental Action II tends to imply that the agent is affected by his or her action
• Others
  • Dative-Object
    • Agent is absolutive, affected noun is in the dative.

Vocabulary

• Galhafan Swadesh lists - includes Classical Kasshian and its ancestor Common Kasshian
• Classical Kasshian Family Terms
• Classical Kasshian Numbers