Kuptii (Kup-Tee)

Natively known as: kupte̊e̊ /ˈkuptɛː/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
pʼãs chyʼo kʼupʼ ṣi pawchyʼaw iyãchy pʼãs ṣi wãṣ wiit kʼeknyu apʼ ṣõs
Pronunciation: /pʼãs cʼo kʼupʼ ʂi ˈpɔcʼɔ ˈijãc pʼãs ʂi wãʂ wiːt ˈkʼekɲu apʼ ʂõs/
Kupte̊e̊ian word order: and he stood his hat holding and his wet face turned the wind to

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: c cʼ h j k kʼ m n p pʼ s t tʼ w ɲ ʂ ʔ ʦ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m	n		ɲ
Stop	p pʼ	t tʼ		c cʼ	k kʼ	ʔ
Affricate		ʦ
Fricative		s	ʂ			h
Approximant				j

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: a aː ã e eː ẽ i iː ĩ o oː õ u uː ũ ɔ ɔː ɔ̃ ɛ ɛː ɛ̃

	Front	Back
High	i iː ĩ	u uː ũ
High-mid	e eː ẽ	o oː õ
Low-mid	ɛ ɛː ɛ̃	ɔ ɔː ɔ̃
Low	a aː ã

Syllable structure: (C)V(C) ?
Stress pattern: Penultimate — stress is on the second last syllable ?
Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ʔ	ʻ
ɔ	aw
ɛ	e̊
c	chy
j	y
ɲ	ny
ʂ	ṣ
ʦ	ts
Vː	VV

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Grammar

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

Nouns

Nouns have six cases:

• Nominative is the doer of a verb: dog bites man.
• Accusative is the done-to of a verb: man bites dog.
• Genitive is the possessor of something: dog’s tail hits man.
• Dative is the recipient of something: man gives ball to dog.
• Locative is the location of something: man is in town.
• Ablative is movement away from something: man walks from town.

Nominative	No affix paachyʼ /paːcʼ/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	If starts with vowel: Prefix p- Else: Prefix pi- pipaachyʼ /ˈpipaːcʼ/ (verb done to) dog
Genitive	Prefix ĩ- ĩpaachyʼ /ˈĩpaːcʼ/ dogʼs
Dative	Prefix ʂɔ- ṣawpaachyʼ /ˈʂɔpaːcʼ/ to (the/a) dog
Locative	Prefix i- ipaachyʼ /ˈipaːcʼ/ near/at/by (the/a) dog
Ablative	If starts with vowel: Prefix ɛːnp- Else: Prefix ɛːnpũ- e̊e̊npũpaachyʼ /ɛːnˈpũpaːcʼ/ from (the/a) dog

Singular	No affix paachyʼ /paːcʼ/ dog
Plural	If starts with vowel: Prefix eːmj- Else: Prefix eːmjeː- eemyeepaachyʼ /eːˈmjeːpaːcʼ/ dogs

Articles

Kupte̊e̊ian has no definite article ‘the’, or indefinite article ‘a’.

Pronouns

	1st singular	2nd singular	3rd singular	1st plural	2nd plural	3rd plural
Nominative	nyi /ɲi/ I	awts /ɔʦ/ you	chyʼo /cʼo/ he, she, it	e̊tʼ /ɛtʼ/ we	chyʼĩ /cʼĩ/ you all	muu /muː/ they
Accusative	patʼ /patʼ/ me	chyʼiipʼ /cʼiːpʼ/ you	kʼetʼ /kʼetʼ/ him, her, it	ni /ni/ us	e̊̃ /ɛ̃/ you all	wawn /wɔn/ them
Genitive	chyikʼ /cikʼ/ mine	ṣaa /ʂaː/ yours	ṣi /ʂi/ his, hers, its	õ /õ/ ours	ĩ /ĩ/ yours (pl)	teeny /teːɲ/ theirs
Dative	kʼeechy /kʼeːc/ to me	wawː /wɔː/ to you	oochy /oːc/ to him, her, it	ku /ku/ to us	kẽkʼ /kẽkʼ/ to you all	su /su/ to them
Locative	so /so/ at me	naa /naː/ at you	pĩt /pĩt/ at him, her, it	pii /piː/ at us	naany /naːɲ/ at you all	kii /kiː/ at them
Ablative	paw /pɔ/ from me	chyaw /cɔ/ from you	tawː /tɔː/ from him, her, it	aw /ɔ/ from us	we̊̃ /wɛ̃/ from you all	pe̊k /pɛk/ from them

Possessive determiners

1st singular	chyikʼ /cikʼ/ my
2nd singular	ṣaa /ʂaː/ your
3rd singular	ṣi /ʂi/ his, her, its
1st plural	õ /õ/ our
2nd plural	ĩ /ĩ/ your (pl)
3rd plural	teeny /teːɲ/ their

Verbs

Present	No affix sii /siː/ learn
Past	Prefix kũ- kũsii /ˈkũsiː/ learned

Kupte̊e̊ian uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: pẽ - pẽ sii /pẽ siː/ will learn

Progressive aspect

The ‘progressive’ aspect refers to actions that are happening at the time of speaking, such as I am learning.
Kupte̊e̊ian uses an affix for progressive:

Progressive

Prefix o- osii /ˈosiː/ 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).
Kupte̊e̊ian uses a standalone particle word for habitual:

Habitual

Particle before the verb: kos - kos sii /kos siː/ 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.
Kupte̊e̊ian uses an affix for the perfect aspect:

Perfect

Prefix kʼã- kʼãsii /ˈkʼãsiː/ have learned

Numbers

Kupte̊e̊ian has a base-10 number system:
1 - pʼõt
2 - aap
3 - wõ
4 - kĩ
5 - kʼawː
6 - kʼe̊
7 - kʼoo
8 - taw
9 - ke̊e̊
10 - uunmee
Hundred - ne̊khõ
Thousand - nyõ

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Prefix ɛ-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix pu-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix pʼ-
Else: Prefix pʼo-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix ã-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Prefix kʼe-
Noun to verb = If starts with vowel: Prefix cʼ-
Else: Prefix cʼɛː-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix kʼ-
Else: Prefix kʼiː-
Tending to = If starts with vowel: Prefix p-
Else: Prefix pɔ-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix o-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Prefix kuː-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If starts with vowel: Prefix k-
Else: Prefix ki-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ʂ-
Else: Prefix ʂi-
Diminutive = If starts with vowel: Prefix n-
Else: Prefix nɔː-
Augmentative = Prefix aː-

Geographical Distribution

Kuptii is spoken exclusively on the Kuptiian Archipelago, and by those who reside there.

Dictionary

3044 Words.