Passikaans language

Passikaans

Pronunciation	/ˈpʰæsɪkʰɑns/
Spoken natively in	Shireroth (Southwestern Shireroth)
Number of speakers	611,000
Language family	Shiritho-Benacian Passikaans
Writing system	Latin (Passikaans variant)
Official status
Official language in	Shireroth, Barony of Lakhesis
Regulated by	Language Institute of the Highpassian Veldt
Language codes
MOS-9 codes	psk

Passikaans is a Shirerithian conlang of the Shiritho-Benacian family of languages. It evolved from the earlier Lishkan, and is slightly influenced by Lakhesian, but only subtly. It is spoken in Highpass, and also in parts of Thanatos. Local legends say that the language was formed when people attempted to imitate the sound of Veldt grass blowing in the wind. Passikaans is a harsh-sounding language.

Orthography and Sounds

Vowels

a - as in cat. IPA: æ
e - as in pet. IPA: ɛ
i - as in kit. IPA: ɪ
í - as in meat. IPA: iː
o - as in lot. IPA: ɒ
ó - as in caught. IPA: ɔː
y - as in Uh? IPA: əː
ú - as in goose. IPA: uː

aa - long /a/ as in father

Consonants (Pronounced as in British English)
b, d, f, g, h, k, l, m, n, p, s, t, v, w,

x - as in Scottish 'loch'
z - as in sheep

dv - 'v' as in viola
dt - 't' as in transport

Grammar

Sentence Structure

The grammar of Passikaans is ridiculously simple, but its simplicity can lead to ambiguity and awkward compound words. This explains the large number of awkward and ambiguous people in Highpass.

Sentences are usually Subject-Verb-Object. It is important that sentences maintain this order because there is no grammatical case for nouns.

Verbs

Verbs in the dictionary are shown in the infinitive, such as kraam (to go).

Affixes are added to the end of verbs to change the tense. This is simple, as Passikaans has only 3 tenses (unlike the 13 in English which include such beasts as Present Perfect Progressive).

To place a verb in the Past Tense (it has taken place), either 'ezem' or 'zem' is appended to the infinitive form of the verb. 'ezem' is added if the plain verb ends with a 'z'. So the phrases 'I went', 'I have gone', 'I was going' could all be rendered as Aai kraamzem.

To place a verb in the Present tense (it is happening now/it happens regularly/it happens conditionally), the verb remains the same as it is found in the dictionary. So 'I go' and 'I am going' are rendered as 'Aai kraam'.

To place a verb in the Future tense (it will happen/it is going to happen), either 'zyk' or 'ezyk' is appended to the infinitive form of the verb. 'ezyk' is added if the plain verb ends with a 'z'. So the phrases I will go, and I am going' to go are rendered as Aai kraamzyk.

Imperative

To make a verb imperative, as in "Run!", or "Go...", the prefix o- is added to the verb. If the verb starts with a vowel, the prefix ot- is added. For example, "Go!" is "Okraam!" and 'fight!' is 'ofaat!'.

Nouns & Adjectives

Nouns

Here are some nouns:

steik - stick
lúp - wolf
kaasa - house
kaans - language
laal - light
kep - rock
lól - time
vaak - fire
mont - mountain
dlex - brush
nezt - nest
amu - person
nemba - number
gepit - area, territory

Pluralize a noun by appending -en. If it ends with a vowel, append -nen. 'Sticks' is Steiken, while 'Houses' is Kaasanen

Adjectives

Here are some adjectives:

veldt - pertaining to the Veldt
dvendv - transparent
aak - making the noise 'aaak'
kan - big
kó - good, kind, easy, bright
akó - bad, nasty, difficult, dull
míf - stray

Describe a noun by placing an adjective before it to form a compound word e.g. bright light = kólaal, toothbrush = dendtdlex, transparent toothbrushes = dvendvdendtdlexen.

Questions

Passikaans uses several 'question words' to indicate that a phrase is interrogative.

vot - general 'what?' vaal - how? ven - when? vó - who? vai - why?

To ask a yes/no question one writes a statement and adds ,vot? to the end. A questioning tone of voice should be used as in English.

e.g 'Do you fight' is Zpa faat, vot?, or 'You fight, what?'

To ask a question with a definite answer (not yes/no), one replaces the missing information with one of the question words.

Information

Passikaans was created by Oze McMahon. It is apparently based on Dutch and English.