Chakobsa Grammar: Difference between revisions
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==Background== | ==Background== | ||
In the ''Dune'' books, Frank Herbert drew on several real-world languages for his Chakobsa, most notably {{wl|Arabic}}. However, the name of the language is taken from {{wl|Chakobsa|a real Northwest Caucasian language}}. With ''Dune'' being set tens of thousands of years in the future, any similarity to a current language on Earth would be highly unlikely, and in any case coincidental. However, many instances of book Chakobsa had been lifted almost verbatim from real-world languages. As a solution less literal meanings were given to these phrases by Peterson. For example, the phrase ''Lisan al-Gaib'', given by Herbert as meaning “The Voice from the Outer World”, is from the Arabic | In the ''Dune'' books, Frank Herbert drew on several real-world languages for his Chakobsa, most notably {{wl|Arabic}}. However, the name of the language is taken from {{wl|Chakobsa|a real Northwest Caucasian language}}. With ''Dune'' being set tens of thousands of years in the future, any similarity to a current language on Earth would be highly unlikely, and in any case coincidental. However, many instances of book Chakobsa had been lifted almost verbatim from real-world languages. As a solution less literal meanings were given to these phrases by Peterson. For example, the phrase ''Lisan al-Gaib'', given by Herbert as meaning “The Voice from the Outer World”, is from the Arabic ''Lisān al-Ḡayb'' (“Tongue of the Unseen”), which in the romanization of Chakobsa is rendered by Peterson as {{m|chak|lisaan al-gayib}}, a clipping of the phrase {{m|chak|lisaanaha al-gayib||the universe is whispering}}. | ||
==Nouns== | ==Nouns== | ||
Revision as of 02:04, 14 April 2024
Chakobsa is a language characterized by its non-concatenative morphology and root system. It has both agglutinative and fusional features. Roots can appear in an unmodified or a modified form. It is a polypersonal, nominative-accusative, and mostly verb-subject-object (VSO) language. Nouns are inflected for number and case, and verbs for aspect, voice, and mood, as well as for subject agreement in person and number. Some notable features of the language are inflected prepositions and broken plurals.
Background
In the Dune books, Frank Herbert drew on several real-world languages for his Chakobsa, most notably Arabic. However, the name of the language is taken from a real Northwest Caucasian language. With Dune being set tens of thousands of years in the future, any similarity to a current language on Earth would be highly unlikely, and in any case coincidental. However, many instances of book Chakobsa had been lifted almost verbatim from real-world languages. As a solution less literal meanings were given to these phrases by Peterson. For example, the phrase Lisan al-Gaib, given by Herbert as meaning “The Voice from the Outer World”, is from the Arabic Lisān al-Ḡayb (“Tongue of the Unseen”), which in the romanization of Chakobsa is rendered by Peterson as lisaan al-gayib, a clipping of the phrase lisaanaha al-gayib (“the universe is whispering”).
Nouns
Nouns decline for six cases, as well as two numbers. The cases of Chakobsa are nominative, accusative, genitive, locative, allative, and ablative. The numbers are singular and plural. The different noun declensions are determined by whether the final sound of the root is a consonant, a vowel, or a glide.
Verbs
Verbs conjugate for aspect, voice, and mood and agree with their subjects in person and number. There are two aspects: imperfect and perfect; three voices: standard, causative and passive; and three moods: indicative, infinitive, and imperative. Verbs have six infinitive forms, one for each aspect-voice combination, and three imperative forms, one for each voice (all based on the imperfect).