Xomitec

Xomitec (Xo:mi.te;)

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Xomitec (*Xo:mi.te;*) is a language in the Xomaksh Language Family, part of the larger Qrnql Language Family. Pups do not know of the existence of the Qrnql family, and as such, Xomitec is used as the type language for the Xomaksh family.

It is notable for its tone system, romanized with the Latin alphabet’s punctuation symbols.

• By 2012AR, the Xomil Empire conquered Permechiko and some of the Fwonnel Peninsula. It maintains control of a vast swath of territory by 2067AR, when my comic takes place.
• In the south, Xomitec is the native language of tens of millions, while in the north it is the language of government and business, ruling over a population that speaks Permechikan, Cahilan, and many other languages

History

• Around 14,000BR (Before the Rediscovery of Human Technology) the Proto-Qrnql culture thrived in the upper Rocky Mountains during the warmest climactic period seen in tens of thousands of years prior. As the climate cooled down, Proto-Qrnql society fragmented.
• By 12,000BR the rapidly expanding Proto-Prnth groups forced the Qrqnl to split into northern and southern branches. The southern branch would be continually forced south for thousands of years before permanently settling in Gentri (the northern coast of South America) by 4,000BR. Dog linguists call this the mysterious origin of the “Xomaksh” language family.
• The various Xomaksh tribes would farm during the dry season and travel hunter/gatherer style during the wet season.
• During the 1200’s-800’sBR, Cahilan groups invaded the Gentri coast and established the precursors to the Gentririxian civilization. This again forced the Xomaksh peoples to migrate further southwest. 
• These southern Xomaksh people began a lifestyle based on the line between the Amazonian jungle and the Andes mountains, beginning the Qron era.
• During the Qron Era, Xomaksh groups coalesced into a handful of more centralized authorities which would become key powers in the mountains and jungles of Chelsia (South America) for hundreds of years.
• The Xomixul were the most powerful of the tribes for about 1,000 years, from 600AR-1600AR, on occasions unifying the realms but most often acting as the most influential of the lot. Xomixul became the lingua franca of the Xomaksh groups by 900AR. They had no writing of their own, though they often used logographic symbols for business and taxation transactions that were inspired by the Tarel logography from the Tarel Islands to the east.
• In the 1500’s, another wave of Cahilan migrations caused significant unrest throughout northern Chelsia. These migrants were nomadic and sedentary refugees fleeing from the chaos caused during the Permechikan Span Dynasty’s conquest of much of the continent, culminating in the War of the Pearl (the fall of the Fwonnel Peninsula to Permechiko).
• These refugees mixed with the already-declining Xomixul hegemony, forming an underclass that would last hundreds of years. They spoke Cahilan languages, but were highly literate, writing with the Arodjun djoPeidog alphabet. 
• The djoPeidog alphabet was easy to use and was adapted to the early modern Xomitec language, adjusting for Xomitec’s tonal vowels. This adjusted script is called Se.ta.i; “Branches” by the modern Xomitec peoples.
• The Xomitec groups remained small but functional kingdoms until the Unification in 1995, reacting to the weakening of the Permechikan hegemony.
• The Xomil Empire was established in 1996 after the conquest of the Gentririxian province of Scatae, led by Ka;te.o;, a dictator of royal Xomixul descent.
• After the Nashan Empire easily captured and briefly occupied the Permechikan cities of Pemex and Dedun from 2010-2011, Ka;te.o; seized his opportunity to sweep his armies through the undefended southern regions of Permechiko.
• Xomil fully conquered Permechiko as soon as the Nashan occupation ended. Since then, the Empire (and later Republic) of Xomil has controlled the majority of all Permechikan and Cahilan-speaking peoples. As such, the Xomitec language has been highly influential during the 21st century AR.

Phonology

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(Where the IPA differs from the romanization, the IPA phoneme symbol is written in /slashes/)

| | | | | | | | -------------- | ------ | -------- | ------- | ----- | ------- | | | Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | | Plosive, Click | p | t, ! | | k | q /ʔ/ | | Nasal | m | n | | | | | Fricative | | s, x /ʃ/ | c /ç/ | | h | | Liquid | | l | | | |

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Xo:mi.te; features a 6-vowel system with four tones (or three if you don’t count the Neutral/Short tone). In the Romanization, these punctuation symbols are used for tones, so sentences are ended with | for commas and // for periods.

| | | | | ---- | ----------------------- | ----------- | | | Front | Back | | High | i. i: i; i' y. y: y; y' | u. u: u; u' | | Mid | e. e: e; e' | o. o: o; o' | | Low | a. a: a; a' | |

| Neutral/Short | . | ˧ | |---------------|---|----| | High/Long | : | ˥ | | High-Falling | ; | ˥˩ | | Low-Rising | ' | ˩˨ |

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Orthography

The Modern djoPeidog alphabet was adapted into the *Se.ta.i; my’ Xo:mi.te;*

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The big differences are the tonal varieties of vowels, and the use of capital letters on all nouns and verbs.

The numerals are base-12 and use the Fwonnel numerals up to the 1,000’s, and a hybridized Permechikan numeral system for digits higher than 11,000.

Spelling

The Se.ta.i; script is pretty straightforward, as it was introduced rather recently.

There are two main recent sound changes that you may notice when reading Se.ta.i; texts:

• /m/ may be written as “p” in the middle of words
• /t/ may be written as “c” before /i/
• Vowels may be written using the Neutral/Short tone letters before codal consonants, especially in grammatical particles

These trends are relatively sporadic. Sometimes it may occur, sometimes not. You may notice an extra dot diacritic added above letters that are acknowledged to be spelled different from pronunciation. Spelling became official with the introduction of the dictionary in 1996. Being so recent, these inconsistencies appear rather often.

Morphology

Xomitec morphology is relatively simple. There are no prefixes and only a few suffixes that take on different meanings depending on the grammatical positions to the word. All other grammatical information is conveyed with various particles and word order.

Most suffixes were once entire syllables unto themselves, but in casual speech have been eroded into the codal consonants /m, n, s, x, c, l/

• Verb tense suffixes /m, l, s/
• topic/subject/object marker prepositional suffixes /s, x, n/
• Noun article suffixes /m/

Almost all of these have particle versions, which are often used to increase politeness in dialogue, especially with the verb tense suffixes.

Word Order

Xomitec uses grammatical particles, but the most common word order is

SOV

Or more specifically

TOPIC - (NOUN 1) - (NOUN 2) - VERB

The important thing is that the emphasised topic goes at the beginning and the verb goes at the end, and that other nouns, whether subjects, direct objects, or indirect objects, are stated in order of their agency in the sentence.

• Questions technically have a different word order, we’ll discuss that later.

Pronouns

| 1S | *to;* | |-----|--------| | 1P | *ta:i.* | | 2S | *la;* | | 2P | *ly:* | | A3S | *se;* | | A3P | *sy:* | | I3S | *he;* | | I3P | *sy:* | | 4? | *na.mi:* |

Particles

Every noun in a Xomitec sentence must be followed by a particle denoting its place in the sentence. The particles are as follows:

| Grammar Particles | Singular | Plural | Non-Nominal | |-----------------------------|----------|--------|-------------| | Topic Marker | *xe.* | *xe:la.* | *xi.* | | Subject Marker | *ku.* | *ku:lu.* | *xi:* | | Indirect Object Marker | *to.* | *to:la.* | *to:xi.* | | Object Marker | *(m)o.* | *mo:la.* | *xo:xi.* | | Neutral/Mediopassive Marker | *lo.* | *lo.la.* | *xo:* | | Negation | *cu.* | *cu:l* | *cu:xi.* |

Basic Sentences

| Intransitive | TOPIC | TOPIC MARKER | VERB | | | | | | ------------ | ---------------------------- | -------------- | -------------------------------- | ------------------------------ | ------------------- | -------------------------- | ---- | | | *xo'lo;* | *xe.* | *!u.li.* | | | | | | | knee | TOPIC | hurt | | | | | | | "(My) knee hurt(s)." | | | | | | | | Transitive | TOPIC | TOPIC MARKER | SUBJECT/OBJECT | SUBJECT/OBJECT MARKER | VERB | | | | | *se;ni.* | *xe:la.* | *to;* | *ku.* | *tu:* | | | | | worm | TOPIC PL | 1S | SBJ | buy | | | | | "I bought worms." | | | | | | | | Ditransitive | SUBJECT | SUBJECT MARKER | DO/IO, whichever is more animate | DO/IO Marker, the more animate | DO/IO, less animate | DO/IO marker, less animate | VERB | | | *xo'ni.* | *ku.* | *cu.qu'* | *mo* | *se;* | *to.* | *ny.* | | | Mother | SBJ | cat | DO | 3S | IO | give | | | "Mother gives a cat to him." | | | | | | |

Adjectives

Adjectives precede nouns and are separated by their own particles. There are three adjective particles:

| *my'* | default, currently | *"ci:u.li. my' ca.i;"* | "happy child" | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------ | ---------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------- | | *ma'* | formerly | *"ci. ma' ca.mo:"* | "formerly soft arm," "(my) arm, which was once soft" | | *my:* | hypothetically | *"ni:!o; my: co'li."* | "potentially rainy day," "day which might be rainy" | | | | | | | For adjectives used in copular sentences which are not attached to any objects, use the neutral topic markers "lo.", "lo.la.", or "xo:". | | | | | | NEUTRAL (Noun) | NEUTRAL MARKER | NEUTRAL (Adjective) | | | *La;* | *lo.* | *qo;* | | | "You are silly." | | |

Verb Tense

Past Preterite is the unmarked verb form.

If a specific time, system similar to Mandarin's is used, blended with Japanese.

A temporal lexeme is given the topic position in a sentence when it needs to be specified, without the need for any other markings.

Tenses are some of the only suffixes permitted in Xomitec, placed at the end of verbs as follows:

Simple Tenses

| Past | -- | "tu:" | "bought" | |-----------------------|----|--------|------------| | Present (Progressive) | -m | "tu:m" | "buying" | | Present (Habitual) | -l | "tu:l" | "buys" | | Future | -s | "tu:s" | "will buy" | (these suffixes once were the words "mo:", "ly:i.", and "so:i;", but have naturally become suffixes except for when engaging in highly polite speech)

Perfect Forms

Perfect Forms exist for the verb suffixes as well. Note that these create a technical exception to the standard phonotactic rules. This is also because of contractions that took place over time. This situation is the only exception to the phonotactic rules:

| Perfect Tense Markers | | | | |-----------------------|-----|-------|--------------------| | Past Perfect | -lm | tu:lm | "had bought" | | Present Perfect | -n | tu:n | "has bought" | | Future Perfect | -ls | tu:ls | "will have bought" | To create more complex perfective constructions, various adverbs may be used.

Moods

There are two primary deontic mood markers: Imperative and Volitive.

Imperative creates commands, and is formed by enclosing a clause in *ny.s __ ly.s* in transitive and ditransitive clauses. For intransitive sentences, the verb can stand on its own or using a Grammarless form, depending on the speaker.

Volitive expresses desire, and is formed by enclosing a clause in *ny.ls ___ ly.ls*.

In both forms, only one each is required, but it’s the most grammatically clear and emphatic to use both.

Other moods can be expressed with adverbs or adverbial phrases.

Adverbs

Adverbs precede verbs and adjectives.

Adverbs are often unmarked, though if it is a polysyllabic word that ends with a vowel with the ' or ; or . tones, said vowel reduplicates, but with the . tone.

| Unmarked | Adverb Marked | Meaning | Sentence | Translation | |----------|---------------|--------------------|-----------------------|----------------------| | po'la: | po'la: | "again" | "To; xe. po'la: lo:" | "I did (it) again." | | co; | co;o. | "regularly, often" | "Sy: la. co;o. lo:l" | "They often do (it)" | These rules apply for adverbs, those which are attached to a verb or adjective. Adverbials, appositives, and absolute phrases often take the topic position in a sentence.

Adverbials, Appositives, and Absolute Phrases

Adverbials, Appositives, and Absolute Phrases often go to the front of a clause and take the non-nominal topic marker "xi." The adverbial with "xi." can either by the sole topic in a clause, or it can be followed by a nominal topic marker.

| TOPIC | TOPIC MARKER | SUBJECT | SUBJ MARKER | VERB | | | |-------------------------------|--------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------|----------------|-----------------------|------| | po'la: | xi. | xo'lo; | ku. | !u.li.m | | | | again | TOPIC | knee | SBJ | hurt-PROG | | | | "Yet again, (my) knee hurts." | | (emphasis is on the fact that it's happening AGAIN) | | | | | | | | | | | | | | TOPIC | TOPIC MARKER | TOPIC | TOPIC MARKER | SUBJECT/OBJECT | SUBJECT/OBJECT MARKER | VERB | | po'la: | xi. | se;ni. | xe:la. | to; | ku. | tu: | | again | TOPIC | worm | TOPIC PL | 1S | SBJ | buy | | "Yet again, I bought worms." | | (emphasis is both on the fact that I bought WORMS, and that it's happening AGAIN) |

Prepositions

Prepositions are any of three suffixes applied to topic markers. The three are as follows:

| English Equivalent | Xomitec Suffix | |--------------------|----------------| | at/in | -s | | with/on/for | -x | | from/out of | -n | The most common place for these to go is after direct object markers, though they can be placed after any of the marker particles to create different linguistic effects.

| Ta:i. | la. | ni;ti. | mo.s | ta;m | | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------|------------|--------------|----------|--------| | 1P | TOPIC | store | OBJ-at | go-PROG | | | lit. "I am going at the store," sens. "I'm going in the store," "I'm moving about the store." | | | | | | | To create more complex prepositional phrases, use adjectives paired with logical prepositions. | | | | | | | Se; | xe. | mi:!e. my' | po'li; | mo:x | no:s | | A3S | TOPIC | behind ADJ | bush | OBJ-on | be-FUT | | "He'll be behind the bush!" or "He must be behind that bush!" or "He must be on the back of that bush!" | | | | | | | Putting a preposition on a Topic Marker can create a new adverbial situation. | | | | | | | Lu' | xe.s | Ta:i. | lo. | ci:u.li. | | | house | TOPIC-in | 1P | MEDIOPASSIVE | happy | | | "In this house, we are happy." or "At home, we are happy." |

Subordinate Clauses

To create a subordinate clause, one may say the subordinate clause as if it was a full sentence, but the following dominant clause must be begun with a reduplicated non-nominal topic marker: "xi:x(i.)" Also, the neutral, mediopassive marker may be used if the dominant clause is merely copular, ie: "xo:x(o.)" (xi:xi. and xo:xo. become xi:x and xo:x before /p, t, !, k, q/)

To; xe. lo: xo:xo. co;li. "(That which) I did was bad." To; xe. lo: xi:x to; to. co.ha.my.l "(That which) I did matters to me."

Yes/No Questions

To ask a yes/no question, make the verb the topic and give it the non-nominal marker before finishing the sentence with the word "ly'", derived from "ly.py'" which means "to be true." Use the full verb in polite circumstances.

| !u.li.m | xi. | xo'lo; | ku. | ly' | |-------------------------------------------------|-------|--------|-----|-----| | hurt-PROG | TOPIC | knee | SBJ | ? | | "Does the knee hurt?" "Is (your) knee hurting?" | For an even more basic question like "is it true?" or "is that so?" you can simply say "xi.ly'?" or more politely, "ly.py' xi.?"

Open-ended Questions

For open ended questions, you'll need to know the question words, which are as follows:

| Question Words | "Noun" | "Verb" | |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------|--------| | Who/What | ko:ni. | to' | | Why | ha; | ha' | | How/Where/Which | ka:ho. | ka' | | (Note that there are only three uestion words. Most of the time, context makes this clear, but sometimes you'll see interesting constructions to get around these restrictions.) |

| La; | xe. | ko:ni. | ku. | to' | |--------------------------------------------------|-------|-------------|-----|-------------| | 2S | TOPIC | who/what | SBJ | be ho/what? | | "Who/What are you?" (Polite) | | | | | | Sy: | la. | to' | | | | A3P | TOPIC | be who/what | | | | "Who/what are they?" (Casual) | | | | | | Lo; | xi. | La; | ku. | ha' | | do | TOPIC | 2S | SBJ | be why? | | "To do (something), why you?" | | | | | | Ha; | xi. | La; | ku. | lo; | | Why | TOPIC | 2S | SBJ | do | | "Why (is it the case that) you did (something)?" |

The "Of" Particles

The word we could best describe as "of" in English is:

ho'

This word takes the position of a grammatical particle following a noun that is subordinate to the noun that comes after it.

This is essentially used for prepositional phrases that are part of a larger noun phrase, rather than connected to a verb.

All the same, ho' can carry the -s -x -n suffixes to change its prepositional meaning in relation to the noun that follows it.

| se.to' | my' | Xo:mi.te; | xe. | se.ko; | ho' | cu.qa.ti' | ma' | cu:lu; | mo:.la. | ca:my: | na.i.mi. | |------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----|-----------|-------|----------------|-----|-----------|-----|-----------|---------|----------|----------| | Imperial | ADJ | Xomitec | TOPIC | responsibility | OF | anarchic | ADJ | territory | OBJ-PL | recently | inherit | | "The Xomil Empire has taken the responsibility of the anarchic territories." |

Alienable and Inalienable Possession

There are two types of possession, which also function grammatically as genitive markers, which behave the same way as the "of" particle mentioned prior.

These particles are:

qo. (alienable) [AL]

qa.i. (inalienable) [INAL]

| la; | qa.i. | ni:li.te. | |---------------------|-------|--------------| | 2S | INAL | civilization | | "your civilization" | | | | ly: | qo. | xo.li:mo. | | 2P | AL | soldiers | | "your soldiers" | Things are alienable when they are not permanent; ie. acquaintances, food, pets, objects, etc.

Things are inalienable when they are family members, body parts, culture, etc. You can distance yourself emotionally from something by literally "alienating" them.

Demonstratives

There are three demonstratives in Xomitec, which act in most ways as adjectives.

The main difference between demonstratives and adjectives grammatically is that they have their own particles.

The demonstratives and their particles are:

Ti: qi. "This/These"

Ti:ki. qi. "That/Those"

Ta:pa. qe.i. "That/Those, far away"

| Ti: | qi. | lo.po: | |----------------------------------|-------|----------------| | this | DEM | man | | "this man" | | | | Ti:ki. | qi. | ca.i; | | that | DEM | child | | "that child" | | | | Ta:pa. | qe.i. | co.li:a.i.to: | | that, far away | DEM | mountain range | | "that (far away) mountain range" |

Grammarless Forms

Sometimes, a word is stated as an interjection, a dictionary term, or otherwise without any accompanying grammatical context. This is where the “Grammarless Form” is often used. 

This is where the Anglicization “Xomil” and Fwonnelization “Slommizlun” come from:

| Grammarless Forms | Suffix | |-------------------|--------| | ends with i, e | -l | | ends with y, u | -n | | ends with a, o | -s |

Xo:mi. means “to protect” or “protection” in Xomitec. The army of Xomil would chant “Xo:mi.l” repeatedly before battle, thus why Fwonnels and Permechikans alike named them based on this grammarless form.

Influence on Modern Permechikan

By the time my comic, Dog Days / Djogawa Djororx takes place, Xomil has ruled over the majority of the former Permechikan Empire for over 50 years. Xomitec, as a language of the ruling class spoken by a small minority of the population, has had some influence trickle down to the Modern Permechikan tongue.

Permechikan has one single phonemic vowel, while Xomitec has 6 (24 if you count tones). Thus, Xomitec loanwords in Permechikan are modified quite a bit to fit into Permechikan phonology.

Xomitec: ni.pa.i.po: “shipment”; Permechikan: nupuypúwl

Xomitec: ca:ha.i. “convoy”; Permechikan: chúxuyul

Xomitec: xe. (Singular Noun Topic Marker); Permechikan: chun (Emphatic Marker, “It is so!”)

Xomitec: ly’ (yes-no question “verb”); Permechikan: luqu (Question intensifying interjection, “So, what will it be?”)

Sample Text

The following text is a warning sent to the government of El Fwonk Casanosia in 2011AR, during the kxarkuvship (presidency) of Sjakko. The warning came in the form of a radio broadcast from one of the highest generals of Xomil, General Pa:hi. Ma.ho;qi. , in regards to recognizing the land claims of the Empire over the former territory of Permechiko, including some lands that the Fwonnels and Earkans were occupying.

PROCLAIMED:

• ca.i.pu.l*

proclaim-NGF

The Permechikan royal family is no more!

• Pa.ma:xi. ma' cu.cu: my' Lo'li; lo. To:a.my.*

Permechikan ADJ royal ADJ family MEDIOPASSIVE eliminate

Guided by Kalteo,

• Ca.i.ta.mo: ho'x Ka;te.o; xi:*

guidance OF-with Kalteo TOPIC

the Xomil Empire has taken the responsibility of the anarchic territories.

• se.to' my' Xo:mi.te; xe. Se.ko; ho' cu.qa.ti' ma' Cu:lu; mo:.la. ca:my: Na.i.mi.lm*

Imperial ADJ Xomitec TOPIC responsibility OF anarchic ADJ territory OBJ-PL recently inherit-PAPRF

Where Naremla of Nasha beheaded the Permechikan king,

• Lo:to. xe.s Na.le:mu.la. ho' Na:xa; ku. Pa.ma:xi. ma' Qo; mo. Co;*

location TOPIC-in Naremla OF Nasha SBJ Permechikan ADJ king OBJ behead

I have razed the empty palace.

• Qe' my' Xi:li:ta.my. xe. To; ku. !i. Pa.i.lm*

empty ADJ palace TOPIC I SBJ just raze-PAPRF

New subdivisions are being drawn for the new management as this is written.

• So. Tu;lu; xi. qo' my' Se.nu.xo; ho'la.x qo' my' Qo.lo: mo. Po:m*

while write TOPIC new ADJ subdivisions OF-for new ADJ management OBJ draw-PROG

Unfortunately, some of these subdivisions appear to be inhabited by troops from the Fwonn.

• Qo.pa.i.li. xi. !a:ka.i. ho'la.n Pu.ha:ni; ku.n Qa.i; ho' Ta:i. ho' Se.nu.xo; mo:la. ni' Co;ki.*

Unfortunately TOPIC troops OF-from Fwonn SBJ-with selection OF we OF subdivision OBJ-PL seemingly inhabit

Earkanania as a whole will be ours,

• Xo' my' Qy'ku:ni; xe. Ta:i. mo. Pa.i.to;s*

All ADJ Earkanania TOPIC we OBJ belong-FUT

Earkanania as a whole will be ours,

• Xo' my' Qy'ku:ni; xe. Ta:i. mo. Pa.i.to;s*

All ADJ Earkanania TOPIC we OBJ belong-FUT

The Nashan armies may have fallen back,

• Na:xa; my' Lai'xo; xe:la. li. Se.lm*

Nashan ADJ armies TOPIC-PL may retreat-PAPRF

but you are not a victorious nation.

• Xa;a. xi. La; cu. po'ko'to: my: !u;u.*

however TOPIC you NEG victorious ADJ nation

It would not be difficult for us, for me, to flatten your civilization.

• Ta:i. la. -- To; xe. cu. Ci: ho' Ny:li: ho' La; qa.i. Ni:li.te. mo Ny:s*

we TOPIC -- I TOPIC no difficulty OF flattening OF you INAL civilization OBJ find-FUT

No, it would be quite simple.

• Cu.l tu. po'li. xo:*

No-NGF very simple MEDIOPASSIVE-FUT

Have your soldiers away from us by the equinox, please.

• Ly.py. xi. Qa.i;ls xi:xi. Ly: qo. Xo.li:mo. xe:la. Ta:i. to:la.n Ni.ni; ho' Ta.i.ko'ta. mo.x No:s Ni:ki;te.l*

true, so TOPIC make-FUPRF SUB you AL soldiers TOPIC-PL we IO-from start OF equinox OBJ-with be-FUT please-NGF

For your sake.

• Ly: qa.i. !o.pa. to:la.x Lo:l*

you INAL sake IO- for do-NGF

• – Pa:hi. Ma;ho.qi. XKP*

- Vahi Maho’i, General