Sikhsin
Sikhsin (full name: Sikisinihfarhrulfarn), pronounced: /‘sik.sin/ or /si.ki.si.ni.fa’rul.farn/ is a logical, constructed language created by Reed Potvin in October of 2022. Sikhsin is a priori language, meaning it has no vocabulary influenced by other languages. It relies heavily on pattern and in no attempt to be naturalistic, is highly regular. Lots of Sikhsin’s ideas are portrayed within simple particles, written and/or spoken.
Linguistic Properties
Sikhsin is a language with no relation to any other language whatsoever and heavily relies upon roots to form every word. These roots create new words usually with adjective, connected to each other by using the letter <h> which is silent in speech. For example, To move - tra → To walk - trahuamn (uamn /wamn/, by way of the self).
Phonology
Sikhsin consists of 15 consonants and 3 vowels:
Sikhsin’s alphabet (with pronunciations): a, b, d, f, g, h /∅/, i /i/ ~ /j/, k, l, m, n, p, r, s (ss /ʃ/), t, and u /u/ ~ /w/ Symbols like <.> are also used in certain circumstances.
Alongside these letters are Auxiliary letters. In Sikhsin, these are symbols, they have no sound, but are written for grammatical purposes:
1. <.>: <.> is used when separating two verbs, when one is modifying the other. For example: tsakhsant.ksi ika a, which means, “I could have hurt you”.
2. </>: </> is used when creating a relative clause, in speech it is usually pronounced as a pause. For example: tarmhmast a ika/ taskhuamn i ata tarka, which means, “I like you, since you’re nice to me”.
3. <->: <-> is silent yet is written in script. It creates a complementary clause, for example: tarmhmast a uunkahkilt-sankakilt, which means “I like cats and dogs”.
Morphology:
Sikhsin has regular parts of speech (verbs, nouns, adjectives, adpositions, adverbs, numerals, particles and pronouns) and there are many ways of distinguishing them. Sikhsin is based on a number of root words which form most other words in the language, these roots carry their part of speech inside of them. If a root is a noun, its syllable structure is CVC, verbs: CC(V), adjectives and adverbs: CVCC, adpositions: CV, and pronouns are simply V. This way, by looking at a word you can tell what part of speech it is, and further more, convert it to other parts of speech. The two conversions in Sikhsin are noun to adjective and verb to noun. Since nouns have a CVC structure, add -n to create the adjective form. Since verbs are CC(V) structure, change it to CVC with vowels between the consonants. In fact, the full name “Sikhisinifarhrulfar” come from Sikhsinfarn, meaning to speak converted into a noun, Sikhisinifar. This conversion only happens when it is one of the two possible conversions. For example, fish, ssisshsinmast, is a noun, yet it does not have the syllable structure of one since it is a compound word. Fish comes from animal + water, not directly from a single verb, so, it gains its new structure.
Syntax:
Sikhsin has a general and rigid syntax pattern. Noun - Adjective, Possessee - Possessor, Verb - Auxiliary, Noun - Postposition, VSO.
Semantics:
If one tried to switch up the syntactical patterns, they would get a sentence which doesn’t make sense, non logical to the language. A sentence like “I hear you” is “glihnumn a ika”, not, “glihnumn ika a” that makes no sense to the VSO language. “Glihnumn a ika” covers all meanings, I hear you, you are heard by me, by me, you are heard, etc. Although, there does happen to be another sentence, “glihnumnhnamn ika” which means, by way of me, you are heard, which emphasizes the first person’s interaction in the sentence. If one removes the accusative case ending on “you” the sentence, “glihnumnnamn ika” becomes “glihnumnnamn i” which does have a different meaning: by way of me, you hear.
Vocabulary
A few roots:
solid, uat
abstract, far
fluid(abstract), sinhfarn
positive, tarm
negative, sant
numeral-related, sikt
temporal, iumn
change, task
conservative, kist
big, bint
small, lakt
age, uant
status, uak
edible, fant
non-edible, tast
proximity, uiss
living, mint
upwards, iapt
downwards, kusst
round, mas
square, rul
right, mant
left, tans
animal, ssiss
movement/to move, tra
plural, kilt
self/I, a
you(SG), i
he/she/it, u
that, ut
past, firl
future, tink
by way of me, namn
by way of you, nimn
by way of it, numn
by way of the self, uamn
money, kim
place, kak
to produce, ski
general/obvious, mast
to be, ksi
masculine, disst
feminine, nifss
to know, gli
In Sikhsin there exists a category of word that are technically roots, although not really considered roots sinc they are not general enough to be a root:
dog uun noun /wun/ cat san noun /san/
ARTCILE WRITTEN BY: Reed Potvin