Pohko

Pohko (pɔhkɔ), or in a direct English translation 'language', is the language used by the Federation of Xah. It is a constructed language, designed by linguists to be as neutral and precise as possible, and to keep control of Xahian culture by not including concepts and definitions that go against the Sevenfold Path. Additionally, the vocabulary of each caste is kept distinct, with only those who need to interact across caste boundaries being given access to caste-specific terms. Pohko is gender neutral, with no distinction between genders, and attempts to be as inclusive as possible, within designated caste roles.
The language has no direct linguistic ancestors, deliberately so, as the Leaders wished to entirely detach Xahian society from all previous cultural indicators. It has 20 consonants and 6 vowels, and is written using a 3x3 grid - this gives each letter a 9-pixel length that can be transmitted in binary simply, and each letter is designed to be unique, regardless of direction or rotation. There is a handwritten alphabet for informal use, but this is discouraged for official documents, due to the possibility of mis-translation of badly drawn letters or numbers.

Writing System

Pohoko uses a new alphabet, with each phoneme formed into a symbol able to be displayed on a 3x3 grid.

For ease of use, the Leader Caste decided to retain the Arabic numeral system of before the Amnesiac Virus for the numbers.

Phonology

Consonant inventory: b c d f g h j k l m n p r s t w ŋ ɟ ɲ ʧ

	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato- alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m		n		ɲ	ŋ
Stop	p b		t d		c ɟ	k g
Affricate				ʧ
Fricative		f	s				h
Approximant					j
Trill			r
Lateral Approximant			l

Co-articulated phonemes

	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel Inventory: a i u ɔ ɛ ʌ

	Front	Back
High	i	u
Low-mid	ɛ	ʌ ɔ
Low	a

Morphology

Adjective → adverb Prefix si-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) Prefix ʌ-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) Prefix ʌ-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) If starts with vowel: Prefix n- Else: Prefix nʌ-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) If starts with vowel: Prefix g- Else: Prefix gu-
Noun to verb If starts with vowel: Prefix p- Else: Prefix pa-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) If starts with vowel: Prefix w- Else: Prefix wi-
Tending to If starts with vowel: Prefix f- Else: Prefix fɔ-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) If starts with vowel: Prefix n- Else: Prefix ni-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) If starts with vowel: Prefix s- Else: Prefix sʌ-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) Prefix mɛ-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) If starts with vowel: Prefix ʧ- Else: Prefix ʧu-
Diminutive If starts with vowel: Prefix n- Else: Prefix nʌ-
Augmentative If starts with vowel: Prefix ɟ- Else: Prefix ɟʌ-

Syntax

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

Nouns

Singular	No affix du /du/ 'person'
Plural	If ends with vowel: Suffix -bd Else: Suffix -ʌbd dubd /dubd/ 'people'

Articles

Definite	fú /fʌ/ the
Indefinite	che /ʧɛ/ a, some

Definite articles:

• Definite article can be omitted: ‘I am going to supermarket’

Indefinite article:

• Not used for non-specific mass (uncountable) nouns: non-specific means ‘Would you like some (any) tea?’ whereas specific means ‘Some tea (a specific amount) fell off the truck’

Pronouns

1st singular	tú /tʌ/ I, me, mine
2nd singular	tuch /tuʧ/ you, yours
3rd singular	fu /fu/ it, its
1st plural	lu /lu/ we, us, ours
2nd plural	tu /tu/ you all, yours
3rd plural	kur /kur/ they, them, theirs

Verbs

Future	Present	Past	Remote Past
If ends with vowel: Suffix -nim Else: Suffix -im disgim /ˈdisgim/ will learn	If ends with vowel: Suffix -t Else: Suffix -ʌt disgút /ˈdisgʌt/ learn	If ends with vowel: Suffix -n Else: Suffix -ʌn disgún /ˈdisgʌn/ learned	If ends with vowel: Suffix -nt Else: Suffix -ʌnt disgúnt /ˈdisgʌnt/ learned (long ago)

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

Progressive

If starts with vowel: suffix -b Else: suffix -ib  disgib /ˈdisgib/ 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).
Pohko uses an affix for habitual:

Habitual

If ends with vowel: Suffix -s Else: Suffix -ɔs disgos /ˈdisgɔs/ 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.
Pohko uses an affix for the perfect aspect:

Perfect Aspect

If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʧ  Else: Suffix -ɔʧ disgoch /ˈdisgɔʧ/ have learnt

Vocabulary

Numbers
Pohko has a base-10 number system:

0 - útt
1 - lú
2 - ma
3 - bo
4 - dopf
5 - wu
6 - núngd
7 - e
8 - che
9 - bi

'sud' is used to express a decimal point, with subsequent numbers expressed in sequence:

3.14 - bo sud lú dopf

Numbers larger than nine are expressed as exponentials:

10 - lú nal lú "one to the power of one"
11 - lú nal lú gu lú "one to the power of one and one"
20 - ma nal lú "two to the power of one"
57 - wu nal lú gu e "five to the power of one and seven"
100 - lú nal ma "one to the power of two"
101 - lú nal ma gu lú "one to the power of two and one"
200 - ma nal ma "two to the power of two"
1000 - lú nal bo "one to the power of three"

Large, complex numbers are either expressed as a sequence of numbers, without the 'nal' identifier, or if all the numbers are not important to the precision required, with a combination of 'sud' and 'nal'.

491,253 - dopf sud bi lú nal núngd (4.91 to the power of six)