Kail (Traditional)
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Overview
Kail is the dominant language of the Th'ega Federation, spoken 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
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
According to several polls of Kail learners, the vast majority of people find the noun endings some of the most difficult things to master when starting out. When transliterated into languages like Xeno, the tone shift in nouns is generally depicted as an 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 English apostrophe. With one of these "apostrophe endings", you have to shift your tone to a lower one while pronouncing the ending. 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 mis-translated 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 object first, the subject and then the verb. Similar to some terrestrial languages, descriptive words (e.g. adverbs) come after the thing/action they are describing. A demonstration of this can be found below.
!IMPORTANT NOTE!
Due to a variety of reasons, this article is undergoing a rewrite. What you have read above this note fits the new canon and some parts - or even all - of the following paragraphs are subject to major changes in the coming days. Please take this into account if you encounter any inconsistencies
Take Vell'ae Ikrael's famous quote as an example of the word order rule.
"Ikum Kavla'an! Endro'i ektas proficilus kran'ae aktam!"
The most common English translation of this is "My God! The city looks like something out of a horror film!". Breaking down the sentence, the rule becomes clear. "Endro'i ektas proficilus" is the easiest part, literally translating as "The city looks (like)". An easy way to remember "proficilus" would be to associate it with the word "profile", as their meanings are somewhat similar. "kran'ae aktam!" is normally the part people get wrong, as they think "kran'ae" translates as "horror" as in "horror film". Actually, "aktam" is the Kail word for "horror" in that context, with "kran'ae" being the word for "film". So now we can literally translate the last sentence of Ikrael's quote as
"The city looks like (something) from a film horror"
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 English. Almost all Th'ega do not speak any of the popular languages of their intergalactic 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 |
| Yuets-laha | Thank you | Thank you |
| Ganz-laha | You're welcome / No problem | You're welcome |
| Projha | Great / Good | Great |
| Crojha | Bad / Not good | Not great |
| Igranui | Sad / Upset | Sad / Upset |
| Krasya-Crojha | Ill / Sick / Unwell | Bad health |
| Konvederacia Humandia | Confederacy of Humanity | Humans' Confederacy |
| Cammonvelt Praketi Economicas Mihjareki | The Commonwealth | The Commonwealth of United Economic Nations |
| Deljato | DELYATU | DELYATU |
| Ahenthia Irao Korparathia | Cooperative Triple Alliance | Triple Cooperative Alliance |
| Orjhana ke Tschevina | Shevin Leaders (Shev'ra) | Leaders of the Shevins |
| Ahenthia Praketi Syvstema Amvrothia | 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 |
| Endro'i Eftymolghia | The Etymology | The Etymology |
| Mihjarek Humandia | Empire of Mankind | Mankind's Empire/Humanity's Empire |
| Endro'i Unionyaa | The Union | The Union |
| Endro'i Ahenthia Praketi | The United Alliance | The Alliance of Unions |
| Endro'i Kalatrakia 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 incredibly similar to their English counterparts. This is because they are actually English 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....
| Pronunciation | Description (English) |
|---|---|
| Liploa! | An indicator of extreme distaste towards something |
| Anstej?! | Generally used as a ruder form of "What the hell?!" |
| Yuets Anstej?! | Closest translation is "Who the hell are you?!" or "What the hell have you done?!" |
It should be noted that context is 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 put a stress on 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 phykala-laha? | How are you? | How are you? |
| An projha, yuets-laha | I'm good, thanks | I am great, thank you |
| An crojha | I'm not great / I'm bad | I am not great |
| An mi krasya-crojha | I'm ill | I am in bad health |
| Laha-kretkani Hjeno? | Do you speak Xeno? | Do you speak Xeno? |
| Laha-kretkani Har'Thana? | Do you speak Xa'Thin? | Do you speak Xa'Thin? |
| Kretproha-laha nievi? | Where do you live? | Where do you live? |
| Kretproha-laha ortso? | Where do you come from? | Where do you originate? |
| Phykala-laha ____? | Are you ____? | Are you ____? |
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.)
| Verb | Infinitive | I | You (S.) | He/She | It | We | You (Pl.) | They |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| To go | Croa | Cro | Cros | Croj | Croer | Crok | Crose | Croe |
| To have | Vera | Ver | Vers | Verj | Verer | Verk | Verse | Vere |
| To do | Kalta | Kalt | Kalts | Kaltj | Kalter | Kaltk | Kaltse | Kalte |
| To say | Iora | Ior | Iors | Iorj | Iorer | Iork | Iorse | Iore |
| To make | Hala | Hal | Hals | Halj | Haler | Halk | Halse | Hale |
| To work/labour | Keta | Ket | Kets | Ketj | Keter | Ketk | Ketse | Kete |
| To sleep | Neha | Neh | Nehs | Nehj | Neher | Nehk | Nehse | Nehe |
A couple rules you may have noticed from this table are:
- Infinitives end with an "a" sound.
- 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 a completely regular verb - even its infinitive is identical to the other forms! Shown below is the conjugation table for the verb.
| Verb | Infinitive | I | You (S.) | He/She | It | We | You (Pl.) | They |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| To be | Ana | Ana | Ana | Ana | Ana | Ana | Ana | Ana |
The Plural
The plural of the Kail language has two forms, dual and normal plural. When counting two objects, the plural is added by putting -nik at the beginning of the word. The normal plural, used for more than two object is used by adding a -k at the beginning of the word.