Hakdor

Hakdor (natively known as Iuqilol /juʤiˈlol/) is any of various language modes employed by the Hakdor (also known as “the Blighted”), a genetically modified race of humanoids on Aterra.

• Hakdor words

Phonology

Unlike standard human languages, the language of the Hakdor is not based exclusively on phonology. Instead it is based on a series of “modes,” of which phonology is just one expression. It is possible for a group of Hakdor who primarily use a vocal language to communicate instantly with a group whose language is primarily manual, written, or melodic, since all the modes are just reflexes of the same processes.

However, since spoken language is the theme of this exercise, the average approximate phonology of verbalized Hakdor follows. ̩

Consonants

	Labial	Coronal	Palatal	Dorsal
Stop	p p · b	t t · d	q ʧ · ʤ	k k · ɡ
Fricative	f f · v	s s · z	c ʃ · ʒ	h x · (#h)
Nasal	n · (#m)	n · n		n · (ŋ#)
Approximant	u · w	r · r	i · j	l · l

Vowels

	Front	Back
High	i ·	· u
Mid	e ·	· o
Mid	a ·

Phonotactics

• The standard syllable is CVC with a maximum CC at syllable boundaries.
• 〈N〉 is a homorganic nasal which is realized as [m] in onsets, [n] when intervocalic, and [ŋ] word-finally.
  • E.g. nanan ‘name’ = [manaŋ]
• 〈I〉 and 〈U〉 may be recognized as consonants or vowels depending on adjacent phonemes. The Hakdor language is structured in such a way that nearly every word follows a pattern of CVC(VC), so if they appear adjacent to a consonant, they’re vowels; otherwise, they’re consonants. (The sole exception to the CVCVC rule occurs in verbs when the particle ra is written as a suffix to the verb, resulting in a CVCCV structure.)

Orthography & Romanization

Hak	Rom	IPA	Comp
i	i	i~ɪ	Like 〈i〉 in machine.
e	e	e~ɛ	Like 〈ay〉 in day.
a	a	a~ɑ	Like 〈a〉 in father.
o	o	o~ɔ	Like 〈o〉 in rope.
u	u	u~ʊ	Like 〈oo〉 in food.
p	p	p	Like 〈p〉 in pool.
p	b	b	When between two vowels, 〈p〉 is like 〈b〉 in able.
t	t	t	Like 〈t〉 in take.
t	d	d	When between two vowels, 〈t〉 is like 〈d〉 in radar.
q	ch	ʧ~ʨ	Like 〈ch〉 in cheese.
q	dj	ʤ~ʥ	When between two vowels, 〈q〉 is like 〈g〉 in rages.
k	k	k	Like 〈k〉 in keep.
k	g	ɡ	When between two vowels, 〈k〉 is like 〈g〉 in eagle.
f	f	f~ф	Like 〈f〉 in fine.
f	v	β	When between two vowels, 〈f〉 is like 〈v〉 in every.
s	s	s	Like 〈s〉 in seek.
s	z	z	When between two vowels, 〈s〉 is like 〈z〉 in hazard.
c	sh	ʃ~ɕ	Like 〈sh〉 in shake.
c	zh	ʒ~ʑ	When between two vowels, 〈c〉 is like 〈s〉 in usual.
h	h	h	At the beginning of a word, like 〈h〉 in hand.
h	kh	x	When between two vowels or word-finally, 〈h〉 is like 〈j〉 in Spanish rojo.
n	m	m	At the beginning of a word, like 〈m〉 in moon.
n	n	n	In the middle of a word, like 〈n〉 in any.
n	ng	ŋ	At the end of a word, 〈n〉 is like 〈ng〉 in English singing.
u	w	w	Like 〈w〉 in awake.
r	r	r~ɾ	Like 〈rr〉 in Spanish perro.
i	y	j	Like 〈y〉 in yell.
l	l	l	Like 〈l〉 in like.

For improved readability, our “presentation form” transliteration differentiates between the letters W and U; Y and I; M, N and NG; H and KH; and the voicing pairs P~B, T~D, CH~J, K~G, F~V, S~Z, and SH~ZH; though in the Hakdor alphabet these letters are not distinguished.

The vowels are pronounced roughly as they are in Spanish, though there can be wide variation from one speaker community to another and even from individual to individual.

Morphology

Substantives

Gender and Number

Hakdor nouns lack grammatical gender and number. The pronouns show rudimentary reduplicative plural forms.

Possession

Possession is indicated with the adposition -is which is suffixed to the substantive it modified (very similar to English “-’s”). In addition to standard possession of nouns, it is also used with pronouns to form the basis of the possessive pronouns rather than a separate genitive-like construction. (More under #Adpositions, below.)

• Sitra takuc lauik cekis.

  ‘That is my stone.’ (“Is that-thing stone me-of.”)

Pronouns

Personal pronouns are fairly simple in scope. The third person does not have gender distinction, but accounts for animacy. The first person plural has clusivity (i.e. there is a difference between “we including you” and “we but not you”). The inclusive pronoun, cesan, is used for both singular and plural (i.e. “you and me” and “you all and me”); the derivation “**cesasan” is not correct, though is sometimes heard from children.

The personal pronouns are:

Singular		Plural
cek	‘I, me’	cecek	‘we, us’
cesan	‘you and I, we’
san	‘you’	sasan	‘you (all)’
tui	‘he, she’	tutui	‘they’
tak	‘it’	tatak	‘they, those’

Adpositions

Hakdor has a small, closed set of adpositions which follow the noun phrase (i.e. post-positions). Many common “locational” prepositions are formed with a combination of directional phrases and pertingent, allative, apudessive, genitive, or translative adpositions. For example, ‘behind you’ might be translated as kecak-et san-is – literally, “next to the back of you.”

	Meaning	Type	Example
as	to, towards	Allative	Qetra cecek tis riqanol–as. ‘We are going to town.’
is	of, belonging to, ’s, related to, from, away from	Genitive	Sitra tuiek iatup cek–is. ‘This is my parent.’
un	with, by means of, using	Instrumental	tikra tui tak tikun–un. ‘He hits it with a hammer.’
of	for, for the purpose of, for the benefit of	Benefactive	Sitra qeiot –ek tis san–of. ‘This flower is for you.’
uq	on, touching, adjacent to, affixed to	Pertingent	Uekra qotec (kireu–is) tis nukip–uq tui–is ‘There is a (tree’s) leaf on his arm.’
ai	with, in the company of	Commitative	Uekra pepan tis iatup–ai tui–is ‘The child is with her father.’
et	by, next to, near, at, in	Apudessive	Uekra tui tis riqan–et tui–is ‘He is at his house.’
ik	through, past, beyond, along	Translative	Iaqetra tui tis qitulik kireuol–is ‘She walked through the forest.’

Some nuance can be added using different relational adpositions, e.g. using the pertingent instead of the apudessive: kecak–uq san–is ‘behind you’ ~ “on (touching) the back of you.” Allative changes the meaning yet again: kecak–as san–is ‘behind you’ ~ “to(ward) the back of you.” Genitive imparts the opposite meaning from allative: kecak–is san–is ‘from behind you’ ~ “out from the back of you.” Translative indicates motion that does not have an origin or destination: kecak–ik san–is ‘behind you’ ~ “past the back of you.” Directional deixes are shared with the parts of the body normally associated with said directions.

Vocabulary

• Hakdor words