Flicking

Flicking (colloquially: Caravan Cant) is the common name for Simplified Zejaach and is the lingua franca of the Marrow Desert. It derives from Traditional Zejaach, the native language of the indigenous thri-kreen tribes, and borrows many written grammatical and spelling conventions from Qartagonian.
As its official name suggests, Flicking originated as a simplified version of Zejaach which could be spoken by mortals who lacked the unique mouth morphologies and added limbs of the language's original thri-kreen speakers. However, the language remains a largely signed language, with concepts conveyed both via hand signs and vocalizations. As such, Flicking has two grammatical systems which work in tandem to form meaning. Many words homophones, with differences in meaning relayed bother through context and hand signs.
Flicking hand signs presume the speaker has four digit, raptorial hands similar to a thri-kreen. In cases of humans or other five-digit mortals, the last two digits are treated as a single finger. It has largely removed aspects of Traditional Zejaach that are impossible for mortals to replicate, such as antennae twitches, mandible trills, carapace color changes, and lower shitaach hand signs. However, slight head tilts and hand orientations remain a part of the signing lexicon. Additionally, the language lacks any labial or plosive sounds, as the thri-kreen lack the lip structures necessary to produce these sounds.
While much of the language has been transcribed by Qartagonian merchants in standard lettering to be used as a written language, in practice most, if not all Flicking speakers use it for in person communication. The majority of native Flicking speakers cannot read the language. It is considered the first language of most Marrowmen, though many Herijahl of thri-kreen descent prefer to communicate using Traditional Zejaach. It is known throughout the Niru River Valley, Marrow Desert and Mashiq as a trade language and commonly spoken in the regions various bazaars, souks, and caravansaries.

Natively known as: Taanie Zejaach /tɐnɪɘ ˈzɘʥɐʧ/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
nii ni zhu aar rozh qath nii fuch rozh shiitla heyq wa niikhe
Pronunciation: /ni nɪ ʒɯ ɐr roʒ qað ni fɯʧ roʒ ˈʃitla ħeq wa ˈnixɘ/
Flicking word order: and stood he holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: /d f j k l n q r s t w x z ð ħ ɡ ʃ ʒ ʔ ʥ ʧ/

↓Manner/Place→	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Alveolo-palatal	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Glottal
Nasal			n
Stop			t d				k ɡ	q		ʔ
Affricate				ʧ	ʥ
Fricative	f	ð	s z	ʃ ʒ			x		ħ
Approximant						j
Trill			r
Lateral approximant			l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: /a e i o ɐ ɘ ɪ ɯ/

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		ɯ
Near-high	ɪ
High-mid	e	ɘ	o
Near-low		ɐ
Low	a

Syllable structure: Custom defined
Stress pattern: Penultimate — stress is on the second last syllable
Word initial consonants: d, f, j, l, n, q, r, s, t, w, x, z, ð, ħ, ʃ, ʒ, ʥ, ʥʥ, ʧ
Mid-word consonants: d, dd, f, j, kr, l, ll, n, nt, q, qq, r, rr, s, t, tl, x, ð, ħ, ʃ, ʔ, ʥ, ʥʥ
Word final consonants: l, n, q, r, s, x, z, ð, ħ, ɡ, ʃ, ʒ, ʥ, ʥʥ, ʧ

Phonological changes (in order of application):

• s → ʃ / _{i,e}

How to read phonological rules
Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ʔ	’
x	kh
ð	th
ʃ	sh
ɣ	gh
ħ	h
!	°
ʥ	j
j	y
ɐ	aa
i	ii
ɪ	i
ɯ	u
e	ey |eh
ɘ	e
ʌ	o
ʧ	ch
ʒ	zh
ʥʥ	jj

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Grammar

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

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 recipeint of something: man gives ball to dog.
• Locative is the location of something: man goes to town.
• Ablative is movement away from something: man walks from town.

Nominative	No affix osh /oʃ/ doɡ (doinɡ the verb)
Accusative	If starts with vowel: Prefix ħ- Else: Prefix ħɘ- hosh /ħoʃ/ (verb done to) doɡ
Genitive	Prefix a- aosh /ˈaoʃ/ doɡʼs
Dative	If starts with vowel: Prefix n- Else: Prefix nɪ- nosh /noʃ/ to (the/a) doɡ
Locative	Prefix fɯ- fuosh /ˈfɯoʃ/ near/at/by (the/a) doɡ
Ablative	Prefix ɯ- uosh /ˈɯoʃ/ from (the/a) doɡ

Singular	No affix osh /oʃ/ doɡ
Plural	If starts with vowel: Prefix ʃ- Else: Prefix ʃi- shosh /ʃoʃ/ doɡs

Articles

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	la /la/ the	yaɡ /jaɡ/ a
Plural	jer /ʥɘr/ the	seq /sɘq/ some

Pronouns

	1st singular	2nd singular	3rd singular	1st plural	2nd plural	3rd plural
Nominative	ii /i/ I	ju /ʥɯ/ you (masc)	zhu /ʒɯ/ he, she, it	je /ʥɘ/ we	woch /woʧ/ you all	ze /zɘ/ they
Accusative	zezh /zɘʒ/ me	e /ɘ/ you	fech /fɘʧ/ him, her, it	theh /ðe/ us	nu /nɯ/ you all	shaa /ʃɐ/ them
Genitive	chaar /ʧɐr/ mine	ro /ro/ yours	aa /ɐ/ his, hers, its	chaa /ʧɐ/ ours	roh /roħ/ yours (pl)	khiis /xis/ theirs
Dative	khii /xi/ to me	la /la/ to you	qaa /qɐ/ to him, her, it	shiij /ʃiʥ/ to us	dii /di/ to you all	iiq /iq/ to them
Locative	a /a/ at me	i /ɪ/ at you	rej /rɘʥ/ at him, her, it	soh /soħ/ at us	reh /re/ at you all	feh /fɘħ/ at them
Ablative	du /dɯ/ from me	u /ɯ/ from you	taa /tɐ/ from him, her, it	khaa /xɐ/ from us	ya /ja/ from you all	sor /sor/ from them

Possessive determiners

1st singular	nii /ni/ my
2nd singular	he /ħɘ/ your
3rd singular	rozh /roʒ/ his, her, its
1st plural	se /sɘ/ our
2nd plural	iijj /iʥʥ/ your (pl)
3rd plural	qi /qɪ/ their

Verbs

Present	No affix aɡ /aɡ/ learn
Past	Prefix sɘ- seaɡ /ˈsɘaɡ/ learned
Future	Prefix o- oaɡ /ˈoaɡ/ will learn

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

Progressive

Particle before the verb: dɯ - du aɡ /dɯ aɡ/ is learninɡ

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).
Flicking uses a standalone particle word for habitual:

Habitual

Particle before the verb: ða - tha aɡ /ða aɡ/ learns

Numbers

Flicking has a base-10 number system:
1 - zhih
2 - eth
3 - tash
4 - sehɡ
5 - shaakh
6 - fuq
7 - aakh
8 - hekh
9 - ro
10 - iq
11 - iq nii zhih “ten and one”
100 - yyoy “hundred”
101 - yyoy nii zhih “hundred and one”
200 - eth yyoy
1000 - okh “thousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If starts with vowel: Prefix t- Else: Prefix tɐ-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix dɯ-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ʧ- Else: Prefix ʧɐ-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix t- Else: Prefix tɐ-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ħ- Else: Prefix ħe-
Noun to verb = If starts with vowel: Prefix ʒ- Else: Prefix ʒɪ-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix a-
Tending to = If starts with vowel: Prefix l- Else: Prefix la-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix ɯ-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If starts with vowel: Prefix d- Else: Prefix dɪ-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Prefix ɘ-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Prefix ɘ-
Diminutive = Prefix ɐ-
Augmentative = Prefix qɪ-

Dictionary

4556 Words.

Root Languages

• Qartagonian
• Traditional Zejaach

Spoken by

• Marrowmen

Common Phrases

Oii khii''i!

"Greetings" or "Peace be with you" - lit: "Be satisfied (with food)!"

Aatha urey!

"Farewell!" - lit: "Don't starve!"