The Future Tense

Under the new development of Kareyku we would only have 3 transitions according to hierarchy. The Future Tense would be expressed then:

1. expressed by infix -keyo-
2. expressed by infix -deyo-
3. expressed by infix -teyo-

Pretty simple, this would get us such constructions as:

qappakeyo I will eat
tokiteyo He will protect

Further developed with evidentials:

qappakeyo-s  I will eat (fact)
oshan tokiteyo-n I hear he will protect them
tanadeyo-ch You will speak to him (I assume)

As for their negative forms:

1. expressed by infix -ki-

2. expressed by infix -di-

3. expressed by infix -ti-

pile qappakis I will not eat fish

oshan tanakilcha I will obviously not talk to them

Relative clitic

The equivalent of a relative clause is dealt in Kareyku with a Relative clitic. The clitic is attached as a normal suffix at the end of the noun and the declension if any. The clitic is -ja and such examples exist as:

vineru-ja       kevire       qappa-ta-l     pile

person-REL    never       eat-4T-EVD     fish

"A person who is known to never eat fish"

The clitic is highly productive and somewhat related to the topic marker, -ejen.

Karey-ja            tan-ey-ta          poko-lyo

Kareyku-REL     speak-IMP-4T    house-LOC

"The Kareyku spoken at home" or "The Kareyku as spoken at home"

Impersonal infix

Kareyku has an impersonal infix -ey- attached to the verb. So for example, in sentences:

     tan-ey-te               odanu          poko-lyo

speak-IMP-4T.NEG   you-POSS       house-LOC

This can be translated into "He doesn't speak at your house" or "One doesn't speak at your home". In addition the -ey- infix can be used to make a kind of irrealis construction approximate to subjunctive.

shin          ikejen         tyasa      tan-ey-te

3RD.SG     I-TOP        prefer     speak-IMP-4T.NEG

I prefer he didn't speak

Pretty simple, but it can be used in so many constructions and variations, also compounded with the evidentials and others.

Noun Declensions

Kareyku has a number of declensions for the noun (and some even more verbs). It is interesting to note that while there are 2 cases which could be identified with the dative, there is no accusative. This has lead many specialists to believe that Kareyku cases are only post-positional. But the classical nomenclature prevails.

Case	Suffix	Example	Translation
allative	-lto	pokolto	towards the house
benefactive	-kume	pokokume	for the house's sake
translative	-bara	pokobara	through the house
locative	-lyo	pokolyo	at the house
comitative	-ni, -i	ikani, odani	with me, with you
abessive	-wan	pokowan	without the house
causative	-beki	pokobeki	because of the house
ablative	-wo/-mo	pokowo	from the house
genitive	-na	pokona	the house's
instrumental	-qa	pokoqa	by means of the house
dative	-ran	yaran, daran	for me, for you

The first dative is mostly an allative actually and indicates direction, so for instance 'komalto mari!' 'come here!' or simply 'komalto!' can be used as an order. While the other would be used as 'I have a flower for you' or what is the same 'for your benefit' or any other circumstance in which you would use a dative, in fact, it's mainly used with animate nouns. The first mostly used in the sense of direction, as in a letter sent to, but the latter as in it was given to.

Then you have the use of the comitative vs. abessive, ikan odani 'you and I' vs. pokowan ikan han 'without my house I'm nothing'. But this is not intruding with the instrumental sense of 'with' which would require the instrumental proper.

The causative can be used with nouns and with verbs. For example ikanu lanibeki tanatas because my heart tells me so, and in the verb it is the causative mood, qappakanbekis I fed him.

The Topic Marker

Kareyku employs what is called a Topic Marker. This marker varies greatly depending on the language, in the case of Kareyku it not only serves to mark the topic of a statement, but also can be translated as "in regards to" or "talking about...", so for instance you can use it in a sentence like

mas-ejen    qappa-ka-l        pilé

food-TOP   eat-2TR-EVD    fish

Regarding food, I'm known to eat fish

It can also mean "I prefer fish" or "I like fish the most". The topic marker being -ejen and replacing any final vowels, it can also be used with pronouns, in which case they have some different kind of forms, so ikan '1st sg.' would turn into ikejen and pen '2nd sg.' would be pejen. So, as can be seen it is used to specify.

kar-ejen       tana-ka-ch        Karey-qa

speech-TOP   speak-2TR-EVD   Kareyku-INSTR

As regards to languages, I speak Kareyku

This last one uses the suffix -qa which means 'by means of' and is used in such constructions. Note that the name Kareyku will be rendered Karey- when any suffixes are used. It can also be used in other senses, for example with the question adverb to specify the subject of the question

Cham-ejen   tana-da-s?

what-TOP      speak-3EV-EVD?

What are you talking about?

And this would be answered of course using the topic marker, so

pok-ejen

about a house/houses

Always remembering that it can refer to a single house previously mentioned or maybe to houses in general, depending on the context.

Declarative particles

As Kareyku lacks a copular verb it relies in declarative particles. This particles are used to express a state or mood, there are three declarative particles in Kareyku. The first particle is la which mean a 'state or mood in which the subject is feeling or being', so, for example, to express such a construction as 'I'm happy' would be realized in Kareyku as

wilé la
happiness DECL
I'm happy or I feel like happiness

In this particular case the person feeling happy is gathered from context. If I express it, or declare it, I am the one who must be happy. The second particle is ku which means 'to be in a stance for' barely.

tanaka ku
speak-1T DECL
I'm ready to speak to you

To express you are ready to engage some activity. It also depends on the context, but in this case the one who is ready is the same as the subject of the verb. There is a subtle difference between the two of the above expressed declarative particles. For example to express to different things about one verb

qappaka la
eat-2T DECL
I feel like eating or I'm hungry/I want to eat

compare to

qappaka ku
eat-2T DECL
I'm ready to eat

The first could be understood to mean 'I'm hungry' or 'I'm in the mood to eat (something)' this relies heavily in context, while the second can be said when you take your sit at the table and want the feast to commence, or maybe when you want someone to start serving the food. You can always add evidentials to these. The last declarative particle is shu this is not really a particle in the same sense as the others, but Kareyku grammarians still do group it as a declarative particle. It means completion of an action or to do something until the end. This is mostly used when ordering something to be carried through.

qappada shu!
eat-3T DECL
Eat up! or eat it all!

You can hear a mother say to her child. Needless to say it has some other uses, such as if someone wants to tell you something but takes a lot to finally say what he means to say, you can always snarl

ikan tanada shu!
1st say-3T DECL
Tell me already!

In this sentence the meaning is the same as the translation, and you can thus see how important context is in Kareyku specially in relation to the declarative particles which are widely used. This is the same kind of particle you use in the respectful greeting pendibeki wilé ladome, the evidential always attached to the declarative particle.

About ambiguity in Kareyku

As you may have noticed in previous posts, the transitions do not cover all the who-to-whom possibilities in Kareyku. While you have transitions which clearly state from 1st person to both 2nd and 3rd person independently, you don't have this from 2nd and 3rd person subjects. Thus -da can either mean you-to-me or you-to-him/her/it, and the same goes for -ta, which can mean either 3rd-to-me, 3rd-to-you or even 3rd-to-3rd (a different 3rd person that is, since you have a reflexive).

Tokida you protect me/he/she/it
Tokita he/she/it protects me/you/him/her/it

So, how can you clearly mark the object or patient in this sentences? Well, Kareyku relies in these cases in context. But even when context is not clear enough you can always use the independent pronouns to mark it. In those cases where you mark the pronoun, the subject will always be understood to be the subject of the transition.

Shin tokida you protect him (you are protecting him)
Odan tokita he protects you (he's protecting you)

Pretty simple. To this, of course many additions can be made. For example the use of prepositions or even evidentials.

ikani odan tokitas.
1st-ADD 2nd protect-4T-EV
He is protecting you with me

I thought this was worth mentioning. Needless to say, the object or patient of the transition can be either omitted or expressed. In those cases where the patient is a pronoun to over express it will have an emphatic sense, otherwise it's just correct.

tokikal ikanu lani
protect-2T-EV 1st-GEN heart
I am known for protecting my heart

The Past Tense

The past tense employs in Kareyku the following transitions for the positive:

Transition 1 is expressed by infix -kan
Transition 2 is expressed by infix -dan
Transition 3 is expressed by infix -tan

So pretty much the same as the present plus the suffix -n. Thus the same happens for the negative, which is:

Transition 1 is expressed by infix -ken
Transition 2 is expressed by infix -den
Transition 3 is expressed by infix -ten

Pretty simple. Note that the past tense ends in -n and so when using an evidential it will take the long version. This is the explanation why you have long and short evidentials, the long ones are mostly used when the past is used, because Kareku doesn't allow nasal + consonant codas. Thus:

tokikansi. I protected (it). With fact evidential.
qappakanni. I ate (it). With hear-say evidential.

Evidentials focus

As mentioned before, the evidentials can be affixed to verbs, nouns or adjectives with different results. In fact in a sentence the place where one affixes the evidentials makes subtle changes in the sense of the sentence. For example, if we go back to our sample sentence: qappaka pile.

Using the "hear-say evidential" we can get qappakan pile or qappaka pilen. The first one means "I've heard I eat fish", while the second would be closer in meaning to "Fish is what I've heard I eat". The difference is very subtle, but can be used for rhetorical purposes.

In fact qappakach pile means "I assume I eat fish", but qappaka pilech means "I assume that what I eat is fish". That's why a sentence like qappaka piles sounds a lot like "What I'm eating IS fish". Depending where the evidential is placed the focus shifts.

Evidentials usage

To clear up some doubts about evidentials I will clarify some with examples. For instance, how the "obvious evidential" is used. It is the equivalent to the usage we give to tone in this context, "duh!" and the like.

In a given dialogue:

- Chaman koy?
- pilelcha!

This can be translated into:

- What is this?
- Duh! It's a fish! or It's a fish, don't you see it?

Hence the interpretation as a rude or very informal referential. The "fact evidential" is really more neutral, but still informal. While it is common in normal speech, it can be rude using it to someone you don't know or an elder, or someone who deserves respect altogether.

Now the "infamous evidential" always marks someone for something his famous for abusing. For instance if you say qappatal can mean "he is famous for eating" as in "he enjoys it very much". But saying qappatalya will yield the sense "he is famous for eating" as in "he can't stop eating" or "he's a fat-ass". This ending used to be the much more formal, much older form of -l, used about people like the king "his majesty is most famous for defeating his enemies" and over time through popular usage it came to be pejorative but in a sense of excess.

Even if between friends you would tend to use -s the "fact evidential" it would be good to remind that when facing someone's father, for instance, it'd probably be better to use -sha "I believe". Even in the same example as before:

- Chaman koy?
- What is this?
- pilesha.
- I believe it is fish.

While you could answer pile or piles to a friend or acquaintance.

odanibeki las wile.
I'm happy for being with you.

Evidentials

Evidentials are used in Kareyku to mark how evident one statement is or the source of said statement. Only one evidential marker can be used each time, and they can be used either with verbs, adjectives or nouns. There are seven evidentials in Kareyku:

-s, -si Determines that the statement is fact either empiric or to the speaker.
-n, -ni Determines that the speaker heard about the statement.
-ch, -chi Determines that the speaker assumes the statement to be true.
-l, -li Determines that the thing being referred is famous for doing what is stated.

-sha Determines that the speaker "believes" the statement to be true.
-lya Determines that the thing being referred is infamous for doing what is stated.
-lcha Determines that the statement is obvious.

So for instance, if we have the previous example sentence: qappaka pile 'I eat fish'. We can further develop it into:

qappakas pile. I eat fish (it's a fact, I'm doing it).
qappakan pile. I eat fish (I have heard, I don't remember).
qappakach pile. I eat fish (I assume, because I'm eating it).
qappakal pile. I eat fish! (I'm famous for that!)

qappakasha pile. I believe I eat fish.
qappakalya pile. I eat fish (I'm infamous for it, because I eat too much or I don't finish them).
qappakalcha pile. I eat fish (duh! It's obvious!)

Evidentials have an active role in formality and informality contrast and in politeness vs. rudeness. For instance, it is considered in Kareyku culture that you should not always be sure of things you say, even when talking about yourself the continuous use of the "fact evidential" can result in rudeness. The rudest of them all, of course, is the "obvious evidential" which is considered very aggressive and rude, you should never point out to others they don't know something, even when you are right or even if the fact is really obvious.

The case with the "infamous evidential" is interesting. It used to be a respectful or augmentative equivalent of the "famous evidential" but as time passed it started to be felt pompous and so developed as a satirical comment, thus infamity for doing something too much.

Transitions

Kareyku doesn't use pronominal affixes per se. Although it does have independent pronouns the verb is inflected with what are called "transitions". The transitions indicate the "who to whom" character of the verb. There are 3 main transitions:

From 1st person to someone else
From 2nd person to someone else
From 3rd person to someone else

In the last two cases independent pronouns are provided to avoid confusion when needed. The logic for Kareyku speakers behind this is that you can only know your intentions. When someone has a present only the giver can know if you are going to give the present to me or to him, hence, the most complete transitions are from the first person, the one I'm sure.

Transition 1 is expressed by infix -ka
Transition 2 is expressed by infix -da
Transition 3 is expressed by infix -ta

This transitions are only for the Present tense. Kareyku doesn't use a negative particle, there are two different conjugations, positive and negative, for each tense. The negatives being:

Transition 1 is expressed by infix -ke
Transition 2 is expressed by infix -de
Transition 3 is expressed by infix -te

So, if you have the verb qappa 'to eat', qappaka means 'I eat (it)'. If you use pilé meaning 'fish' then you get qappaka pilé 'I eat fish' and the negative would be qappake pilé 'I don't eat fish'. The transitions are needed even when there is a subject present, and intransitive verbs take a transition as a subject but regardless the object. Thus, qappaka, can mean 'I eat (it)' as well as 'I am eating'.

Phonetics

Kareyku uses a five vowel system similar to Latin. These are the Kareyku consonants:

Stops: p, t, k, b, d, g
Palatal: ch /tʃ/, j /d͡ʒ/
Fricative:s, sh /ʃ/, h /x/
Nasals: n, m
Laterals: l
Liquid: r /ɾ/
Uvular: q /q͡χ/
Semi-consonants: w /w/, y /j/

These are all the sounds in Kareyku. The diphthongs being: ay, ey, oy, au, eu, ou.

An accent is used to mark where a particular word should be stressed when it is not in the second to last syllable.

The Language Kareyku

Kareyku is a language that was long due. While I was working on some college exams I came across a very old paper with, what it seemed to be, notes on a language I had apparently abandoned. When I started looking at it I realized immediately that it was a very old jotting and that it had been discarded long ago, but as time had passed I decided I could give this language a better finale.

The notes were very inconsistent and even contradictory at times, with few examples jotted down with no translation which cannot be understood now. I tried to take as much of the original flavors of the language as I could and structure it, while giving sense and meaning to the sentences. What resulted is Kareyku.

Many years of reading about this language and that language gave me plenty of ideas I didn't have at the time I discarded it. Mostly this language consists of these new ideas rather than the original which is scarce and impossible to decipher, but not very developed.

I hope you enjoy it!