- Reader's note: This page will be under consistant construction. Important update! Anything listed with possible change will be marked with a * next to it.
Part 1. The Sounds
Like most languages, you use your mouth (assuming you have one) to speak. It starts with one sound, then a few more, and then we get a word. Likewise, you aren't likely to get far, not knowing the sounds of any different language. After all, it isn't just the words that are different... Take a look at this guide to learn the sounds of this Ta'agra dialect.
A a - ah as in father
Ā ā - a as in hat
B b - as in boy
D d - as in doughnut
E e - as in exit
Ē ē - as in day
Ph ph/F f - as in phone
G g - as in good
H h - as in happy
X x - as in bach
I i - as in icky
Ī ī - as in sea
J j - as in bonjour
K k - as in kite
L l - as in long
M m - as in mom
N n - as in nerd
O o - as in oh
Ō ō - as in row
P p - as in pocket
R r - as in Russian (roll the r)
S s - as in sad
Š š - as in she
Č č - as in chicken
T t - as in tap
Th th - as in this
U u - as in oops
Ū ū - as in oops, but lips more rounded
V v - as in van
Vh vh - this is a new sound. Start making a "V" sound, then make a "w" sound after it.
Y y - as in you
Z z - as in zoo
D + j - jump
Congrats. You made it.
Part 2. Nouns
As we have all learned, things in life really are just nouns. People, places, and things make up what you see around you. They tell us the main topic of what's being talked about, and keep us from saying things like "Long, yellow, pointy, writing stick" to say something as simple as "pencil".
Now that we fully have achieved grammatical Nirvana of what a noun is, we can continue to the more important things. In this part, you will learn how nouns are different in sex, and in roles of the sentence. As nouns in Kuraphi, ( I did mention it was the name of the dialect? No? Well there you go. ) go far beyond just plural and possessive.
Noun Genders
When I mentioned nouns having sex, I did not mean, nouns reproduce. I was referring to grammatical gender. Neither does this mean Kuraphi objects and places have reproductive organs, if they do, you're in the wrong part of Elsweyr. Grammatical gender simply separates certain nouns based on their endings or how they change in a sentence. For example; Maka, meaning tail, is feminine and would become makata in the plural. But, indar meaning friend, which is masculine, would become indarā meaning friends.
You can always tell the gender by its ending (lie, but I like to make you feel confident.) Note. There are only 2 genders in Kuraphi.
The endings for most feminine words are~
< -a >
< -e >
< -t )
See, not so hard right?
Masculine is pretty straightforward~
< -consonant >
< -o >
The rest are most likely to be masculine, however, just to be sure I will leave an f. for feminine and m. for masculine in any future dictionaries. Now that you have learned that nouns have sex and why, we're ready to move on to declen~ Why are you laughing?
Grammatical Declensions
Now that we have learned what noun gender is. It's time for us to learn what declension is. What is declension? Well, keep your pants on and your tail (if you have one) between your legs. Declension is a set of endings a word takes to indicate its role in a sentence. Different endings happen for each of the two genders. There are 5 declensions in Kuraphi. But today, we are going to learn the first.
The Nominative Case
The nominative case (part of declension) is the dictionary form of your average word. The nominative case of a word is taking nothing and is always the subject of the sentence. Take a look at the following nouns;
Sukod m. - hand
Mārzet f. - scroll, book
Likewise, you are probably going to have more than one sukod or some mārzet[s] in your inventory. So, we have plural. Which is quite easy. Take note, there are a few irregularities like English (As in sheep/sheep.) But no need to worry, the nominative version of plural happens... I'd give it 60% of the time. All of which are regular. Anyway, note the following.
For masculine and feminine nouns, you add -ā
Sukod ( hand ) becomes -> Sukodā ( hands ), sounds pretty right? Wrong, it sounds manly, because this is a masculine noun.
Same goes for nouns ending in -o. Example; Kelo - Hat -> kelā.
For feminine nouns, you add -nā
Maka - tail (sing.)
Makanā - tails (pl.)
Now, let's go back to our other word, mārzet, ( scroll, book ) This has no ending for plural.
Mārzet/Mārzet ( scrolls, books ). *Note, since khajiit are lazy at speaking, they tend not to keep track of which nouns do this. So a t.pl. Will be placed next to nouns like such.
Example; Kravhat - sand
Very often these -t nouns will shift to either "-či" or "-kā". These will also be noted in future dictionaries.
Now that you are aware on how plurals are formed for nominative cases. I'm going to give you a few vocabulary words of varying gender. Put each in their plural for practice. Note: All feminine nouns in this list are.
Šīr m. - tribe
Ifekā f. - family
Ešīdd m. - farmer
Vel m. - day
Šekirā f. - huntress
Denn m. - night
Sētka f. - tree
There are 3 more forms of declension. 2 fem and 1 masc, which will be provided by the end of this course.*
Learner's note!* Those of you whom may be familiar with the Ta'agra project should know that this is an entirely separate dialect. One should also note that Ta'agra is a creole of separate different tribal languages, sprinkled with some Elven and Human cognates. Kuraphi is a more purified dialect than Ta'agra, but one should also know, it's only spoken in very rural villages of Southeastern Elswyer. Therefore a khajiit, including myself, would be surprised if a foreigner began speaking this dialect.
Moving on...
The Accusative case
The accusative case is the second case of Kuraphi declension in nouns. But, what does accusative mean? Are we accusing noun of something? Indeed we are! The accusative case simply marks the direct object of a sentence. For example, in the sentence "I see the apple." apple would be the accusative of this sentence, because it is taking on the verb see.
Like the plural in nominative the nominative case, the ending changes for both genders.
For feminine nouns taking on a verb, the endings are...
< -m >
< -č/kām >
Simple, isn't it? Exactly, now for masculine nouns, things are a bit different.
< -no change >
< -u >
The -u for masculine accusatives is if the noun is something animate E.I alive. In this sense, you would see your indara, that is, if it's a living person or animal. Similarly, -a ending feminine nouns will take on the -m and the -t, the -ām. But that's not all... What if you see multiple of something? No need to worry. Only one noun form changes in plural accusative. The rest are the same as nominative.
"I see my indaru." - This is correct.
"I read mārzet." - Looks like we're still safe here.
"I climb sētkama." - Ah-ha! There we have it.
For -a ending plural accustive feminine (geesh, this is quite a bit...) nouns, you simply add -a to the -m.
Now to carry on to the next case...
The Genitive Case
Also known as possessive, this case simply expresses "of" or "-'s" of two nouns, one of which, is in possession of the other. Probably one of the easiest cases yet. As the ending is the same for all genders.
Genitive ending for feminine nouns
< -u >
< -ī > (drop the -t and add the -ī for -t nouns.)
And for masculine.
< -af/-afi >
Super easy, right? Well, hold your britches there, you'll need to know the order of the possession. Look at this example provided. -> Sel makavī. lit. "tip tail's". The general meaning is still noted, that the tip is of the tail. To put it this way, imagine an invisible "of" between the words. Another example I can give is my own name actually. I come from the lovely town of Shakar, and generally, my family has used Shakar as their surname for quite awhile now. Therefore, we are "of Shakar" In a sense, Ralvz'jeshka Shakaraph literally means "Ralvz'jeshka of Shakar".
For more than one thing being possessed, you add something else, but the sound is still close.
For plural feminine possessive...
< -vā >
For plural masculine possessive...
< -avō >
So, we can get sel šetkavā - "The tip of the trees" for feminine nouns, and šekira dennavō - "Huntress of the nights" (Which is actually a book, quite a good moral story for young kittens.)
Congrats! You have learned your 3rd case!
The Dative Case
The dative case, is personally, the most annoying case, in my case of experience... If you get what I mean.
But no need to worry. It was simply the word order. But back to the topic, the dative case simply marks the indirect object of the sentence. That is, the accusative effecting a seperate noun. For example; "I gave the ball, to you." to you is the dative part of this sentence. It goes for anything else as well. "I throw the ball to/at the wall." Thankfully, you are only going to use this case for certain verbs. Diddly dee!
The ending for feminine in the dative are...
-oi
The ending for masculine nouns is...
-oy
Aaaaaaaaaaand, to plural things up.
For plural femineine dative...
-yom
...and for masculine...
-oya
So, in this sense, we can now construct a simple English/Kuraphi sentence; "I give the mārztām [to] my indarak."
My oh me, looks like we're on the final case of declension, what could it be...?
The Prepositonal prefixes
You may be asking yourself; "Good grief, what fancey new word could this mean?" But what you should be asking is "What part of nouns am I learning?". In this case, Kuraphic makes its prepositions into prefixes. You read that right. Take a look~
< tāz- + genitive = from/off of >
< pra- + nominative = in >
< pra- + accusative = into/onto >
< pra- + dative = at >
< v(e)- + nominative = on >
< v(e)- + accusative = onto >
< azd- + nominative = inside >
< rud- + genitive = outside of >
< voy- + accusative = with >
The first endings are for if the noun ends in a vowel. The second, if it ends in a consonant. Some dialects drop the final vowel on the endings.
Congradulations! You have learned all cases of Kuraphi declension!
To practice your new skills, a list of words will be provided. Be sure to check back for reference if you are not sure how to decline these nouns.
Šīr - tribe
Ipheka - family
Ešīdd - farmer
Vel - day
Denn - night
Šieka - huntress
Sētka - tree
Indar - friend
Maka - tail
Sukod - hand
Eīva - life
Mārzat - scroll
Lar - scene
Kadja - desert
Sel - tip
Rašīdd - mage
Īnja - sky
Asat - side
Lelapa - paw
Dojīdidd - guard/soldier (of a camp or establishment)
Falāka - party
Ugel - house
Kailō - food
Part 3. Personal Pronouns
It makes me proud to see how far you've gotten. Welcome to the point where we learn words about people. After all, when talking, we generally talk about people. In this lesson, we will learn the words (or personal pronouns if you prefer) I, you, he, she, etc.
Like nouns, personal pronouns have cases as well. But for now, we are going to learn the nominative of the pronouns.
Ata - I
Akō - you (formal)
Kō - you (informal)
Ron - he/it
Rona - she
Plural...
Azīnn - we
Kīn - ya'll (formal/informal)
Šinn - they
Now, unlike European languages where pronouns change completely, E.I, "I - me". Kuraphic stays true to its declension in pronouns to some degree.
< Under Reconstruction >
Please take a moment to rest before the insanity breaks loose from having to remember all this...
Good?
Then let's move on to adjectives!
Part 4. Declension of Adjectives
Now before you moan and groan about remembering more endings to silly little description words, I'd like to advise you that; Most of the endings repeat themselves. We'll practice with the word, injir, blue.
Masc. Fem. Pl.
- Nom. Injir (Rašīdd) Injira (maka) Inji (muku/Rašīdd)
- Acc. Injir (Rašīddū) Injira (Makam) Inji (mukama/Rašīddū)
- Dat. Injir (Rašīddak) Injira (Makani) Inji (mukōn/Rašīddamū)
- Gen. Injir (Rašīddaph) Injira (Makavī) Inji (Mukavā/Rašīddavō)
- Prep. Injir (Rašīddi) Injira (Makaya) Inji (Mukumū/Rašīddumū)
The only things you need to pay attention to are;
The adjective forming -ir for forming adjectives from feminine nouns, (injir comes from inja - sky).
For masculine nouns, you simply add -az. The declenion is slightly irregular, with feminine as -za.
Example; "Fayaz" -> "Fayza"
If it's a natural noun, then it will usually end in -i. Otherwise, the declension of a non-specific ending adjective is;
-(no ending) -masc -i -masc.
-a -fem. -aya -fem.
-i -plural. both. -i -pl.
As you can see, adjectives aren't entirely affected by declension. Which is a good thing for many learners. Why I even bothered to show this, even I can't tell you.
Adjective vocab. We'll start with colors, then proceed to other miscellanious descriptions.
Inji - blue (light blue)
Ūdis - black
Vičir - white
Basar - green
Enur - yellow
Fayaz - purple
Yenbali - orange
Kīš - red
Vnači - grey
Yakir - tan
Vāvsaz - brown
Aījinaz - young (from Aījin - child/non-adult)
Ktapat - old
Tāulamek - great
Nimšir - small
Zodovoši - strong
Mojkaz - weak
Lāmapi - rich
Kodami - poor
Vayēmai - tall
Nivači - short
Kyekši - good-looking
Yōvotzi - ugly
Moloji - thirsty
Uxāvodir - hungry
Drappi - fast
Osarai - slow
Kajevi - hot
Lapči - cold
Yotzoi - happy
Ničemen - sad
So, now we can say we have injita mārzet or that you know of a zdovša šieka. Of course khajiit would live in a kajeva kadja, which explains why all these words sound funny. Too much sand in their mouth...
Interrogatives
Another fancy word for the how, what, who, when, why, (in English, they're called the "Wh" words) in Kuraphic, "What" and "Who" decline a little irregularly, but are easier to remember, irregular doesn't always mean super different.
Lān - what, nom/acc - Lān, dat - Lāk, gen - Lāvo, prep - Lānu
Fan - who, acc - fanam, dat - Fānak, gen - Fānz/Fāna, prep - Fānu
Saz - how
Zirda - when
Zašla - why
Bas - so, so that.
ya - and, even, also, too.
az - but, and, even, as well as. (Or and emphasis particle)
Last but not least, let's be a little specific with what we point at/reference when talking.
Han - this (both fem/masc). acc - Hanam, dat - Hanak, gen - Hafi
Hatta - these - acc - Hatta, dat - Hattoy, gen - Havō
Now that you have the basis of how adjectives work, try practicing them by matching them with the correct noun.
Part 5. Verbs
Many people dread the ever-changing and inconsistant "action words" of any language. But I am willing to say, you will also find this in Kuraphic, but with a refreshing and motivating truth; There are only 4 irregular verbs in the whole language. Not only so, but you'll find that Kuraphic verbs, also make a little more sense than English in some sense.
Conjugation
Conjugation is simply the addition/modification of a verb to change its meaning. Compare "to see" to "sees". Kuraphic does this as well, but to a bit of a more complex extent. Let's start with an example of simple present tense with "Nakū" - to go.
Ata - yanakava/vi
Kō - tinakava/vi
In - nakava/vi
Ina - nakava/vi
Azīnn - oyanaka
Šinn - hinakava/vi
Now, let's disect this. The stem, main meaning, of the verb is preserved as "Nak" the person doing the action is represented by a prefix "Ya- I, ti- you, etc." and the present tense marker "-a-'" is inserted into the stem to indicate tense. Both -va and -vi are very formal versions of how to tell the gender of the person you are talking to. But many just use the less formal -y for both genders. Let's try a verb with less... valency.
"Mošū" - to see.
Ata - yamošava/vi
Kō - timošava/vi
In - mošava/vi
Ina - mošava/vi
Azīnn - omošava/vi
Šinn - himošava/vi
Just practice these and attempt to remember the simple pattern of the verbs. If you want to use -n, by all means. Don't construct sentences with a direct object just yet. We're getting there.
Let's construct a simple sentence in Kuraphic.
In mošavata - He sees her. The -ta ending indicates the "her"' in this instance, if you recall our pronouns in accusative and dative.
This will be an important feature to remember as it will help with making sense while speaking. Take this short dialogue;
Azdu: Kō az kyekša šekiram timošay bet? - Do you see the pretty huntress?
Halir: Šog, yamošatz. - Yes, I see (her). Note that -va isn't required here.
Here, you are simply providing data in the form of a simple ending.