Kaatim

Natively known as: Kaatim /kaːtim/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind... niing bå ziin hån bå lung niing bèn bå kat naaha daale mùh Pronunciation: /niːŋ bɜ ʒiːn hɜn bɜ luŋ niːŋ bɛn bɜ kat ˈnaːha ˈdaːle mʌh/ Kaatim word order: and he stood holding hat his and turned his face wet the wind to

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b d g h jː k l m n t w ŋ ʒ β

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m	n			ŋ
Stop	b	t d			k g
Fricative	β		ʒ			h
Approximant				jː
Lateral approximant		l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: a aː e i iː u uː ɐ ɑ ɛ ɜ ʌ

	Front	Central	Back
High	i iː		u uː
High-mid	e
Low-mid	ɛ	ɜ	ʌ
Near-low		ɐ
Low	a aː		ɑ

Syllable structure: Custom defined Stress pattern: No fixed stress Word initial consonants: b d g h k l m n ʒ β Mid-word consonants: b d g h l m mjːn n t w Word final consonants: d h l lt m n nt t ŋ
Phonological changes (in order of application):

• ɜ → e / _#
• l → ʎ / V_V
• n → d / #_
• k → ʔ / _#
• C → ∅ / _g
• e → a / _t
• t → ʔ / V_V
• {m,n} → ŋ / _k
• u → o / _m
• a → e / _u
• u → o / _n
• ŋ → n / _#

Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ɑ	o
ɐ	à
ɛ	è
ɜ	å
ʌ	ù
jː	y
ŋ	ng
ʒ	z
β	v
V₁ː	V₁V₁
C₁ː	C₁C₁

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Grammar

Main word order: Subject Verb Object (Prepositional phrase). “Mary opened the door with a key” turns into Mary opened the door with a key. Adjective order: Adjectives are positioned after the noun. Adposition: postpositions

Nouns

Nouns form plural with separate plural word:

Plural

Particle before the noun: βuː - vuu ebùlii /βuː ebʌˈliː/ dogs

Articles

Definite	mem /mem/ the
Indefinite	gi /gi/ a, some

Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Not used for mass (uncountable) nouns: ‘Walking in the mud’ would always translate to ‘Walking in mud’.
• Used for personal names in third person: ‘The Maria has left for school’
• Used for languages: ‘The English’

Uses of indefinite article that differ from English:

• Not used for non-specific countable nouns: non-specific means ‘I am looking for a (any) girl in a red dress’, whereas specific means ‘I am looking for a (particular) girl in a red dress’

Pronouns

1st singular	duu /duː/ I, me, mine
2nd singular	ni /ni/ you, yours
3rd singular	bå /bɜ/ he, she, him, her, his, hers, it, its
1st plural	kaam /kaːm/ we, us, ours
2nd plural	hè /hɛ/ you all, yours (pl)
3rd plural	ii /iː/ they, them, theirs

Possessive determiners

1st singular	duu /duː/ my
2nd singular	ni /ni/ your
3rd singular	bå /bɜ/ his, her, its
1st plural	kaam /kaːm/ our
2nd plural	hè /hɛ/ your (pl)
3rd plural	ii /iː/ their

Verbs

Present	No affix vùn /βʌn/ learn
Past	Prefix bɑ- bovùn /ˈbɑβʌn/ learned
Remote past	Prefix aː- aavùn /ˈaːβʌn/ learned (long ago)

Kaatim uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: ʒaː - zaa vùn /ʒaː βʌn/ will learn

Progressive aspect
The ‘progressive’ aspect refers to actions that are happening at the time of speaking, such as I am learning.
Kaatim uses a standalone particle word for progressive:

Progressive

Particle before the verb: kɜ - kå vùn /kɜ βʌn/ is learning

Habitual aspect
The ‘habitual’ aspect refers to actions that happen habitually, such as I learn (something new every day), as opposed to actions that happen once (I learned something).
Kaatim uses a standalone particle word for habitual:

Habitual

Particle before the verb: me - me vùn /me βʌn/ learns

Perfect aspect
The perfect aspect in English is exemplified in ‘I have read this book’, which expresses an event that took place before the time spoken but which has an effect on or is in some way still relevant to the present.
Kaatim uses an affix for the perfect aspect:

Perfect

If starts with vowel: Prefix h- Else: Prefix hu- huvùn /huˈβʌn/ have learned

Numbers

Kaatim has a base-10 number system:
1 - kùm 2 - ang 3 - vàn 4 - ii 5 - gaal 6 - vuu 7 - hå 8 - uu 9 - lat 10 - ding 11 - kùm niing ding “one and ten” 100 - kùm bèt “one hundred” 101 - kùm bèt kùm “one hundred one” 200 - ang bèt 1000 - kùm hèn “one thousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If starts with vowel: Prefix m- Else: Prefix mɑ- Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix ɑ- Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix a- Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix β- Else: Prefix βɛ- Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Prefix diː- Noun to verb = Prefix mɜ- Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix e- Tending to = If starts with vowel: Prefix ʒ- Else: Prefix ʒi- Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix d- Else: Prefix daː- Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If starts with vowel: Prefix β- Else: Prefix βɜ- One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Prefix gaː- Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Prefix u- Diminutive = Prefix aː- Augmentative = Prefix ɐ-

Dictionary

2693 Words.

Successor Languages

• Kair Lymèh

Spoken by

• Kaatin