Vusut Kop'alsit (Koppaite conlang) grammar basics !
So, eh, how can I warn you ? This is straight from my own conlang-building notes. It was written and translated to english by a french-speaking teenager that has no idea about what she's doing and doesn't know the linguistics terms for the stuff she writes about. There might - and will - be mistakes. Also it uses a bit of colored text so if it's not read-able for you I can explain or change it ^^
Pronouns depend not only on gender but also on “class” (based on @cosmiccroak's Koppaite headcanons) . They are regular and aren’t declined. A suffix is added to the pronouns depending on the class of the subject.
Tool pronouns take a "hik"
Pinkblood pronouns take a "ku",
Captain pronouns take a "how"
An animal, object or a non-Koppaite speaker is designated by a “neutral” pronoun, the pronoun radical without any class suffix.
Plural pronouns take a -ve (plural suffix), after the class suffix if there’s one.
The "kit" suffix designates a group with people from different classes.
Koppaite word order is Subject – Verb – Objects – Tense mark
Britt’ny vohlkik hattenir n’yumuh spah
Brittany drinks fruit juice.
If there is a second verb in the phrase, it sits right after the first one.
Alf sehlvik pokik pasunve spah
Alph likes to repair machines.
Verbal tenses and tense markers
The tense mark sits at the end of the phrase and indicates the verb tense.
Present: spah
Past: zeshtun
Future: yuh
Britt’ny katik yumuh’pasun spah
Brittany uses the juice machine.
Drek vakutik po’pon zeshtun
Drake built a spaceship.
Shari vohlkik yumuh kite’po’pon yuh
Charlie will drink juice in the spaceship.
In spoken Koppaite, it is possible to emphasize a specific part of the sentence by adding a short click sound at the beginning of the word. Just like inflexions and emphasis can slightly change a sentence’s meaning, the place of a click in a phrase can alter the signification.
Keh ihtik mihow n’nyuw’eh zeshtun.
They were my friend – them, and not someone else.
Keh ihtik mihow n’nyuw’eh zeshtun.
They were my friend – Even though it was said or implied they were not.
Keh ihtik mihow n’nyuw’eh zeshtun.
They were my friend – Not someone else’s!
Keh ihtik mihow n’nyuw’eh zeshtun.
They were my friend – Not anything else.
Keh ihtik mihow n’nyuw’eh zeshtun.
They were my friend – in the past.
There is no “standard” click sound as Koppaite isn’t a click language the way some real-world languages are. The most common sound is a lateral click, though a palatal or dental click may also be used.
A full conversation without a single click is possible and not even rare, especially in more formal contexts such as politics, work, administration. They are most common is conversation between members of the same class. On the other hand, heavy clicking might indicate annoyance, anger or excitement.
Clicks are not written, only spoken. However, some transcriptions in roman letters use the IPA symbols for click consonants (dental ǀ, lateral ǁ or palatal ǂ clicks). It is considered impractical as Koppaite does not make a distinction between these three sounds.
If marking the clicks is necessary, a ! is used in Koppaite script, while in both Koppaite and roman script it is also common to put the emphasized word in bold or italics.
