Kail (Traditional)

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"We began as wanderers, and we are wanderers still."

This content is a part of Borealis Universe.

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Index / Lexica / Timeline

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Overview

Template:Language Infobox V2Kail, in its traditional form, is the dominant language of the Th'ega Federation, spoken natively by up to 86.3% of the population. A member of the Kallic Group, Kail is closely related to other Th'ega languages, such as Prochae or Zheiona-Kallic. Like many things originating from Kavla, the language has been slow in its evolution, though as of 200,000 CE it is experiencing a period of - relatively - rapid growth thanks to coming into contact with alien languages.

A variant of Kail designed to be easier for humans and other intelligent species to understand can be found here.

History

Currently, experts believe Kail to have originated from one of the very first Erdoki-Kallic languages, in particular, what is now known as Uzhedo. Many links can be found between Kail pre-1470,100 CE and the few pieces of remaining Uzhedo literature. As the Th'ega progressed technologically, the language shifted heavily away from its Erdoki-Kallic roots and started becoming less similar to languages like Uzhedo.

Around 147,100 CE, the more complicated rules of Kail began to be set in stone by some of Kavla's best scholars. Most languages in the Kallic Group are generally fairly similar with the major differences generally arising in pronunciation as well as the tones that Kail uses, similar to the ancient Terran language of Cantonese. Communication between settlements was frequent and normally face-to-face due to the tightly-packed nature of this ring, which left little room for development. Dialects of Kail, Prochae and Zheiona-Kallic are becoming more diverse on the numerous worlds under the control of the Th'ega Federation, slowly constructing a language barrier that may stop easy (un-aided) communication between the different languages in as little as a century.

After this growth plateaued, Kail remained relatively unchanged up until around 175,900 CE. At this point, a mass migration had begun. Many isolated Th'ega settlements near the poles of Kavla began re-integrating into equatorial society, bringing many new technologies to the equatorial settlements as well as a plethora of new words. Since contact was made with other civilisations, Kail has entered a period of - relatively - rapid growth.

Basics of Kail

Taken from the Federation's native cluster's bestselling book, Kail in a Nutshell by Dr. Iasonas Georgiou and Ith'ae Orikan.

Chapter One: Basic Rules

When starting to learn Kail, many people find the special endings difficult, especially the tones.. When transliterated into languages like Xeno, the tone shift in nouns is generally depicted as a vertical line about a quarter of the script's height, elevated so its upper tip is at the same level as most letters' - similar to the ancient Latin apostrophe. With one of these "apostrophe" endings, you have to shift your tone from a high pitch to a low pitch. Some common rules for the transliterated endings can be found below.

• The ending " 'an " can be translated as "God of" followed by the word the ending was attached to. For example, "Arenis'an" translates as "God of the Cosmos"

• The ending " 'en " can be translated as the title Mr or Sir, but the word "Annhei" is commonly used for this purpose. Similarly, the " 'ae " in female names can be translated as Miss or Mrs, though "Annkre" is morely frequently used.

• " 'ion " is often mistranslated as "City of", but actually has no literal meaning. It is solely used to denote that someone is referring to a city.

Another important rule to remember is word order:

• Word order matters in Kail. A typical Kail sentence will have the verb first, followed by the object and then finally the subject. As Traditional Kail is an inflected language, subjects and objects can be distinguished by their case. Similar to some terrestrial languages, descriptive words (e.g. adverbs) come after the thing/action they are describing.

Take Vell'ae Ikrael's famous quote as an example of the word order rule.

"Kavlak'an! Proficij ektaj kranae-aktam nu"

The most common English translation of this is "My God! The city looks like something from a horror film!". Breaking down the sentence, the rule becomes clear. "Proficij ektaj" is the easiest part, literally translating as "The city looks (like)". An easy way to remember "proficij" would be to associate it with the word "profile", as their meanings are somewhat similar. "kranae-aktam!" is idiomatic, so it cannot be separated into the words "horror" and "film". In most contexts, the phrase means something like "scary video" or "scary film". The "nu" generally means "from", and is closely related to the word "ju", meaning "in". So now we can literally translate the last sentence of Ikrael's quote as

"The city looks like (something) from a scary [horror] film"

=== Chapter Two: Common Words and Phrases ===

If you're planning a trip to Raelka or Kavla, be prepared to get blank looks when you speak Xeno or other human languages. Almost all Th'ega do not speak any of the popular languages of their cosmic neighbours, save for a few. While this may not be the case after 200,002 CE (due to planned education reforms by presidents Ukayien and Druyen), you'll just have to learn Kail. If you're learning any language, it's always useful to know some common words and phrases. Below are two tables with common words/phrases and their closest English translations. The names of various nations are also included.

Pronunciation	English Translation	English Translation (Literal)
Critaqua	Hello	Good to see you
Krikae	Hi	Hi
Pritaqua	Bye	Goodbye
Trikae	See you	We will meet again soon
Laha Nou	Thank you	Thank you
Ganz-laha	You're welcome / No problem	You're welcome
Crojha	Great / Good	Health
Projha	Bad / Not good	Not great
Igranui	Sad / Upset	Sad / Upset
Krasya-Crojha	Ill / Sick / Unwell	Bad health
Alaabi Bortsia	Confederacy of Borealis	Borealis' Confederacy
Mbotasin Praketi Ulabrenuj Haom	The Commonwealth	The Commonwealth of United Economic Nations
Deljato	DELYATU	DELYATU
Anshet Weliyu Irao	Cooperative Triple Alliance	Triple Cooperative Alliance
Orjhana Tschevina	Shevin Leaders (Shev'ra)	Leaders of the Shevins
Anshet Feruquam Praketi Amvrozia	Ambrosia Alliance of United Systems	Alliance of the United Systems of Ambrosia
Kranoa Hjaltla	Xcathli Republic	Republic of the Xcathli
Kranoa Praketi Vesoka	United Thesoki Republic	United Thesoki Republic
Eftymolghiu	The Etymology	The Etymology
Mihjarek Humandia	Empire of Mankind	Mankind's Empire/Humanity's Empire
Unionyaa	The Union	The Union
Ahenthia Praketi	The United Alliance	The Alliance of Unions
Alaabi Noverka	The Intergalactic Federation	The Intergalactic Federation
Noljeu Thavisma	Thavma Cluster	Thavma Cluster
Arenisi Hershtel	Herschel Space	Herschel Space

As you may have noticed, some words (particularly the names of major nations/organisations) sound similar to their human counterparts. This is because they are actually human words that have begun to seep into Kail due to more and more humans moving into the Th'ega Federation's sphere of influence. Onto what is considered quite a controversial thing to include in this book, but we feel is necessary to understand the joke-style banter Th'ega often put out among friends...

Swearing in Kail (WIP)

Pronunciation	Description (English)
Liploa!	An indicator of extreme distaste towards something.
Anstej puol?	Generally used in a similar way to "What the f*ck!?"
Yuets puol?	Closest translation is "Who the f*ck are you?!" or "What the f*ck have you done?!", depending on the context.
Iyefu	Used in expletive infixation, similar to "bloody" in "abso-bloody-lutely". Has no meaning on its own.

It should be noted that context and tone are crucial when saying words like these. Often Th'ega will misinterpret what was intended as a joke to be something serious. The correct way to jokingly say something in Kail is to lower your voice and to stress the first syllable. Using what most Xeno speakers would consider a jokey tone can and will be interpreted as an insult by Th'ega who don't understand the nuances of human languages. As promised above, here is the common phrases table.

Pronunciation	English Translation	English Translation (Literal)
Ortka laha?	How are you?	How are you?
Aan projha, yuets-laha	I'm good, thanks	I am great, thank you
Aan crojha	I'm not great / I'm bad	I am not great
Aan mi krasya-crojha	I'm ill	I am in bad health
Laha-kretkans Hjeno?	Do you speak Xeno?	Do you speak Xeno?
Laha-kretkansHar'Thana?	Do you speak Xa'Thin?	Do you speak Xa'Thin?
Kretprohs-laha nievi?	Where do you live?	Where do you live?
Kretprohs-laha ortso?	Where do you come from?	Where do you originate?
Laha ____?	Are you ____?	Are you ____?

Before we cover verbs in more detail, I'll give you a list of pronouns in Kail. Unlike most major languages, Kail has two sets of pronouns depending on the tense. One is for the present and future tense(s), whilst one is solely for perfect tenses. It should also be noted that Traditional Kail is a pro-drop language (aside from a handful of exceptions), meaning pronouns can be dropped.

Group 1 (Present, near-future, future, future conditional etc)

I	Aan
You (sing.)	Laha
He	Lii
She	Luo
It (inanimate)	Pojk
They (sing./gender-neutral)	Besuk
We	Aanam
You (pl.)	Laham
They (mostly male)	Liim
They (mostly female)	Luom
They (inanimate)	Pojkuem
They (pl./neutral)	Besukim

Group 2 (Imperfect, perfect, pluperfect etc)

I	Eun
You (sing.)	Kaq
He	Ruu
She	Reiyi
It (inanimate)	Pokye
They (sing./gender-neutral)	Ahla
We	Eunem
You (pl.)	Kaqem
They (mostly male)	Ruum
They (mostly female)	Reiyim
They (inanimate)	Pokyem
They (pl./neutral)	Ahlam

If you are learning Simplified Kail, remember that only Group 1 is used, regardless of the tense. Even with these basic words and phrases, it should become easy to form basic sentences. If you are still struggling, you may find these common verbs useful (Note: Only the present tense forms of the verbs are listed.)

Singular Verbs

Verb	Infinitive	I	You	He	She	It (inanimate)	They (gender-neutral)
To go	Ye Cro	Cro	Cros	Croj	Croer	Crok	Crose
To have	Ye Ver	Ver	Vers	Verj	Verer	Verk	Verse
To do	Ye Kalt	Kalt	Kalts	Kaltj	Kalter	Kaltk	Kaltse
To say	Ye Ior	Ior	Iors	Iorj	Iorer	Iork	Iorse
To make	Ye Hal	Hal	Hals	Halj	Haler	Halk	Halse
To work/labour	Ye Ket	Ket	Kets	Ketj	Keter	Ketk	Ketse
To sleep	Ye Neh	Neh	Nehs	Nehj	Neher	Nehk	Nehse

Plural Verbs

Verb	Infinitive	We	You	They (mostly male)	They (mostly female)	They (inanimate)	They (gender-neutral)
To go	Ye Cro	Crom	Crosum	Crojum	Croerum	Crokum	Crosem
To have	Ye Ver	Veram	Versam	Verjam	Vereram	Verkam	Versem
To do	Ye Kalt	Kaltem	Kaltsem	Kaltjem	Kalterem	Kaltkem	Kaltsem
To say	Ye Ior	Iorum	Iorsum	Iorjum	Iorerum	Iorkum	Iorsem
To make	Ye Hal	Halem	Halsem	Haljem	Halerem	Halkem	Halsem
To work/labour	Ye Ket	Ketim	Ketsim	Ketjim	Keterim	Ketkim	Ketsem
To sleep	Ye Neh	Nehim	Nehsim	Nehjim	Neherim	Nehkim	Nehsem

A couple of rules you may have noticed from these tables are:

• Infinitives, somewhat similar to some human languages, use a word equivalent to "to" (in Kail, it is "ye") before the first-person singular conjugation of the verb.
• First-person singular endings just remove the "a" sound from the infinitives.
• All endings after that use the first person singular as the stem and add their respective endings.
• The conjugation for third-person, inanimate objects is different to the other third-person endings. (Note: to make pronunciation easier, an "e" has been added before the "r" ending of these third-person inanimate endings.)

As you may have gathered, a rather important verb is completely missing from the table. Unlike a lot of its terrestrial counterparts, the verb "to be" is, in the present tense, embedded in the pronoun. This basically means that rather having a pronoun and a verb (e.g. "Aan [verb]", "I [verb]"), you simply just have the pronoun perform both roles (e.g. "Aan", "I/I am")

Chapter 2.1: The Plural

In almost all cases, "-m" is added to a word (mainly verbs and nouns) to pluralise it. You will often need to add a vowel before the "-m" ending, and, as with a lot of Kail, which vowel you choose has to follow rules. Below you can find the table of first vowel/plural vowel couples.

First vowel in the word	Vowel used in the plural
O	U
E	A
A	E
I	U