Lagmīnaklek

Lagmīnaklek (Hagt: ) or Lagnaklakar (Lagmīnaklek: ) is a Western He language. It is the most widely spoken language of Minaklakar and the second most prestigious language of the region after Hagt.

Etymology
Lagmīnaklek is a Hagt exonym derived from lag 'language' and Mīnaklek ('southern land'). The native endonym for the language is Lagnaklakar is derived similarly from Hagt lag and naklek 'south'.

Consonants
The consonant phonemes of Lagmīnaklek are as follows:


 * {| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"

! colspan=2 | ! Bilabial ! Alveolar ! Retroflex ! Palatal ! Velar ! Glottal ! colspan=2 | Nasal ! rowspan=3 | Stop ! voiceless ! aspirated ! voiced ! colspan=2 | Fricative ! colspan=2 | Approximant ! colspan=2 | Trill
 * + Consonant phonemes of Lagmīnaklek
 * m || n || || ɲ ⟨ñ⟩ || ŋ ||
 * p || t || || t͡ɕ ⟨c⟩ || k || ʔ ⟨'⟩
 * pʰ ⟨p'⟩ || tʰ ⟨t'⟩ || || t͡ɕʰ ⟨c'⟩ || kʰ ⟨k'⟩ ||
 * b || d || || d͡ʑ ⟨j⟩ || ɡ ⟨g⟩ ||
 * || s || ʂ ⟨š⟩ || ɕ ⟨ś⟩ || x || h
 * || l || || j ⟨y⟩ || w ||
 * || r || || || ||
 * }

All consonants may be geminate. However, a geminate consonant is only pronounced as such if followed by a vowel, regardless of its position in the word. For example:


 * Hiŋkk uxš. [hiŋkː uxʂ] — He drank the milk.
 * p'ikk'i [ˈpʰikʰːi] — dull


 * Hiŋkk ligiš. [hiŋk ˈligiʂ] — He spat the milk.
 * likks [liks] — he spits

Vowels

 * {| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"

! ! Front ! Back ! Close ! Open
 * + Vowel phonemes of Lagmīnaklek
 * i || u
 * colspan=2 | a
 * }

Writing system


The Lagmīnaklek script is based on the Hagt script. It consists of 23 letters, representing 27 phonemes. Unlike Hagt, Lagmīnaklek is strictly written left-to-right, without spaces between words.

Hagt loanwords are unchanged when written in Lagmīnaklek. For example, the word for "heart", xumpar is written as hump (Hagt word) + -ar (Lagmīnaklek nominative ending).

Grammar
Lagmīnaklek is a head-final agglutinative language. The basic word order is subject–object–verb (SOV). Adjectives, determiners, numerals and relative clauses precede nouns; possessors precede possesees.

Nouns
Nouns take one of either four declensions: a-declension, i-declension, u-declension and athematic declension.

Notes
 * 1) The endings -ar and -a are used when the root of the word ends in a consonant, while -r and -ñ are used when it ends in a vowel or r.
 * 2) All stem-final stops assimilate to the suffix -k, forming a final geminate [k]. Similarly, all stem-final nasals become velar, e.g. hinddar → hiŋkks, iplanar → iplaŋk.
 * 3) When the word root ends in an obstruent plus a nasal consonant, the final nasal becomes a in the genitive and vocative cases, e.g. ikmar "help", ikaha "help's", ika "O help!'; budnar "self", budaha "self's", buda "O self!. If it ends in any consonant plus a liquid, an epenthetic a is inserted between the consonant and liquid, e.g. diŋrur "wrongfulness", diŋarha "wrongfulness's", diŋar "O wrongfulness"

Adjetives
Adjetives usually precede nouns and take the particle gaŋks, placed between the two. Adjectives loaned from Hagt instead follow the noun and do not take a conjoining particle. These do not take the usual -ś ending when predicate, instead, they require the copula gašš, unlike Hagt.

Verbs
Verbs are inflected for tense, aspect and mood. Similarly to nouns, verbs belong to one of either four conjugations: a-conjugation, i-conjugation, u-conjugation and athematic conjugation.


 * 1) Similar to the genitive and vocative cases, if a verb root ends in an obstruent plus a nasal, the nasal becomes a in the present and imperative forms. If it ends in any consonant plus a liquid, and an a is inserted between the consonant and the liquid. The same applies for the causative and passive voice suffixes, e.g. ikmiš "to help", ikaksašš "to cause to help", ikakaš "to be helped".
 * 2) Final stops and nasals assimilate to the place of articulation and, for stops, voicing of the [k] in present tense marker, e.g. iñš "to walk", iŋks "walk(s)"; uppš "to fall", ukks "fall(s)".
 * 3) Similar to nouns, the endings -ar and -a are used if the verb root ends with a consonant; if it ends with a vowel or r, -r and -ñ are used.
 * 4) The infinitives of each conjugation are declined as nouns of their respective declensions.

Evidentiality
Lagmīnaklek has four evidential suffixes that are added to verbs:

Vocabulary
Lagmīnaklek is spoken during the golden age of the Hagt language. Consequently, Hagt has a lot of influence on Lagmīnaklek, including a number of loanwords and partially on its grammar.

Compounds from Hagt follow the usual Hagt head-initial order instead of the native head-final one. Thus, the word for "skull" is either ujuŋhir (literally "head-bone", native) or xurslukar (literally "bone-head", borrowed). Some commonplace loanwords may be used together with native terms following the native order. For example, xumbdugur "heartache" and ñiśixulnaŋkar "bestiary" (compare xulnaŋkmaxskar).

Example text


The following text is a short letter of unknown author, inked into a block of wood, and an English translation.

Šiggilkha Bugliśuppha Cimuxawr tinš: Xumpar duggukks. Gugar laśś gasks. Xurkar mur liŋir knamp iniśukks.

Cimuxawr son of Bugliśuppar of Šiggilgir said: My heart aches. My son is dead. The body shall be cremated in three days from now.