Xema

DATE	2006-2016
GENERAL RULES	No diphthongs, only in borrowed terms. Hugely complicated, many cases.
RELATED	Bys-sáma Rac,mamoqei Aŝan

Along with Rac,mamoqei, Xema is one of my oldest and thoroughly developed languages. It was created for a fantasy world I was writing when I was younger and it's ridiculous, I'm very fond of it.

Xema is the primary language of the Tipan Empire. The grand capital of this sprawling empire is the holy city of Kalamurth, where Xema was born. Although day-to-day most inhabitants of Tipa speak the simpler sister language Bys-sáma, Xema still holds fast as the language of politics and religion.

Pronouns

Xema has a complicated system of pronouns. The speaker must be aware of their own place in the hierarchy as well as the listener's or that of the subject of conversation. Misuse of pronouns is considered extremely rude and confrontational. I gotta make the page wider to fit in this ridiculous table hang on.

* The "topic of conversation" pronoun is only used once a subject has been introduced and is the topic of conversation. A specific pronoun is usually only used once, but can be repeated for emphasis.

** sath is also used to refer to an abstract topic, though other pronouns may be used if the speaker wishes.

• Pronouns must also be used in conjunction with a case prefix.
• The final vowel of a case prefix may be dropped if the pronoun begins with a vowel.

AFFIX	CASE
si-	nominative (subject)
ti-	accusative (direct object)
mi-	dative (indirect object)
kos-	ablative (movement or cause)
thi-	genitive ("of" or possessive)
na-	vocative (addressee)
ki-	locative (location)
nu-	instrumental (object used to perform action)

• The speaker is often put in last place to show deference.
• nakiini tihone salwe, "I saw you"
• BUT: nakiini sihone talwe, "you saw me"

Verbs

• Infinitive indicated by -n suffix (eg. xalthan, "to be") which is replaced by tense when conjugating.
• Don't conjugate according to person (eg. xalthasu salwin, "I am"; xalthasu sidurn, "they are").
• A negative is indicated by a ko- prefix.

AFFIX	TENSE	EXAMPLE
-su	present	xalthasu salwin, "I am"
-xe	near future	xalthaxe salwin, "I will be soon"
-thu	distant future	xalthathu salwin, "I will be one day"
-ni	near past	xalthani salwin, "I was recently"
-tu	distant past	xalthatu salwin, "I was long ago"
-pe	present conditional	xalthape salwin, "I would be"
-nape	past conditional	xalthanape salwin, "I would have been"
-ma	present progressive	xalthama salwin, "I am being"
-thima	future progressive	xalthathima salwin, "I will be being"
-nama	past progressive	xalthanama, "I was being"
none	imperative	xalthan, "be!"

Example sentences

• English: Did they (in the distance) see us (close by)?
  Xema: kane nakiini siduninta timininthe
  Transliteration: question see.past nominative.they(DISTANCE) accusative.us(CLOSE)


• English: We (younger) made it (topic of conversation) for you (older).
  Xema: kunani tisath mihalinan simiinine
  Transliteration: make.past accusative.it(TOPIC) dative.you(OLDER) nominative.we(YOUNGER)


• English: I (casual) will see you (casual) in the distant future (uncertain).
  Xema: nakiithu tihone kun salwe
  Transliteration: see.far-future accusative.you(CASUAL) uncertain nominative.I(CASUAL)


• English: If you (inferior) were there, I (superior) would have seen you (topic of conversation).
  Xema: xu xanathani kamam sihon xe, xiim nakiinape salwinanth tihal xe
  Transliteration: if1 locate.recent-past there nominative.you(INFERIOR) if2, then1 see.past-conditional nominative.I(SUPERIOR) accusative.you(TOPIC) then2

Numbers

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0
ale	rile	diirle	hale	hiine	mole	xana	dine	kupe	nur

For numbers with multiple digits, you read out the numbers from smallest to largest. The final vowel is dropped when reading out numbers except for the final digit.

• 47: xanhale
• 3629: kuprylmoldiirle

Like every aspect of Xema, the number system is unnecessarily complicated. Numbers must also be appended to a counter to indicate what is being counted, and there are a bonkers number of counters. This system does mean that a speaker does not have to follow the number with the noun of what is being counted; they can just say "six" and the counter will give the listener context.

• 47 farm animals: xarxanhale
• 3629 live people: tokuprylmoldiirle (modified from tok-kup[...] as consonants can't be followed by the same consonant)

Writing system

Writing examples