Phonotactics
The phonotactics of kudamaf establishes which sounds exist, in what order they can stand, and which clusters are forbidden.
Nota
The complete lexicon, a translator from Italian, and a viewer that displays any text in kudamaf can be found in the language application.
Alphabet
There are only three vowels:
a e u
i and o do not exist: no word in the register contains them. There are fifteen consonants:
| Category | Consonants |
|---|---|
| dentals and velars | t d k g |
| labials | b p |
| sibilants | s z sh |
| nasals and liquids | m n r l |
| fricatives | v f |
The digraph sh counts as a single consonant and must be treated as one unit, both in syllable counting and in writing, where it occupies a single cell.
Syllables
Four syllabic forms are allowed: CV, CVC, VC, VCV (C stands for consonant and V stands for vowel). Every root is bisyllabic and ends in a consonant: this is a necessary condition, because the three derivational suffixes all begin with a vowel (see Grammar and Phonotactics) and two vowels can never touch, except between two consecutive words.
Collisions between consonants
Twenty-three consonant pairs are excluded from the language. The table is read by rows: the row gives the first letter, the column the second:
The filled cells are the clusters that the rule does not allow. The table is symmetrical, with a single exception.
The table’s only asymmetry is the directional prohibition of z before sh: in the reverse order, sh followed by z, the pair remains permitted.
Grammar
The grammar of kudamaf rests on a single principle: nothing agrees and nothing is irregular. There is no gender, number, declension, auxiliary verbs, or defective verbs. Every piece of information that Earth languages spread across several words — person, tense, mood, aspect — is here located in one single place, always the same one.
The root and the three suffixes
Every word arises from a bisyllabic root ending in a consonant. The bare root is already the noun; from there, by means of three suffixes, an equal number of forms can be built: the verb, the adjective, and the adverb.
The three cells of the root stay fixed, the suffix is added at the end.
Although four forms can be derived from any root, the Theknusian vocabulary includes only the forms that have a meaning; if gemes is the dog, gemesat is to bark and gemesen is canine, there is no verb corresponding to to act with regard to the dog, so the vocabulary does not include it.
Articles, gender, number
The noun never changes form: it has no gender and no plural. gemes means dog and dogs, sanup means girl and boy. The definite article is single and invariable, ne; the indefinite is su. Number, when it matters, is expressed with a numeral; gender, when it matters, is expressed with a specific word (e.g.: ne sanup bagag, the male child).
The verb
The verb has three tenses and no paradigm to learn:
| Tense | Suffix |
|---|---|
| present | zemat — begins |
| past -ak | zematak — has begun, began |
| future -us | zematus — will begin |
Person is never marked on the verb: it is expressed by the pronoun, which for this reason cannot be omitted. Personal pronouns fall into two series, g- for the singular and z- for the plural: ga I, ge you, gu he/she, za we, ze you (pl.), zu they, guz self. Possessives are formed by adding -na: gana mine, gena yours, guna his/hers, and so on.
Everything else is entrusted to seven invariable particles that stand before the verb and combine freely with one another:
| pe in progress | pu completed | te hypothetical | tu imperative |
| sa ability | se obligation | le passive |
The negation la opens the group and negates everything that follows.
The verb group is assembled like a row of pieces: pronoun, particles, verb with its tense.
redo image with imperative with person and passive
Prepositions, conjunctions, question words
The prepositions are almost all vowel plus consonant: a of, ut to, ez from, ek in, uz with, ar above, ub under, um between, ur toward, ap for, av without, an against, am beyond, ud until, ep during, ush through.
The conjunctions fall into families that alternate the vowel over the same consonant: va and, ve or, vu but, ven nor, vur despite; fe because, fu since, fa so that, fem in fact; ra while, re before, ru after, rem until.
The question words are short and invariable: u what, which; mu who; ba what (thing); da where; de when; du why; ta how; tam how much. The particle dez corresponds to the Italian suffix -unque (English -ever) and attaches to a question word: mu dez whoever, da dez wherever.
The subordinate clause
The language has no relative pronouns: subordinate clauses open with the conjunctions from the list above and are recognized, in writing, by the comma described in punctuation. Direct speech is no exception: it is a subordinate clause governed by the verb of saying, alnerat, and has no special marks of its own.