This conlang is the predecessor of Asiul. It was my very first conlang, invented at high school, and was discontinued once I started studying linguistics and started seeing its deficiencies. Still, being my first, it still has a special place in my heart. This page describes its grammatical features (which should not be taken as an example of a good conlang).

Kabukanisch is the German name of the language. It is derived from Kabuki, the name of the main deity of the Ashes, as the Asiuluiam were initially called. (Kabuki, on the other hand, was named after the grumpy cat in Animal Crossing, whom I loved very much as a child…) The language’s endonym was Asiul, but I will call it Kabukanisch on this site to distinguish it from its modernized version.

The language was also known under the name Sincranisch (endonym Dakiuz) and spoken by the Clouds (Dakiuzuiam). Yes, the two people originally spoke the same language without knowing, because they did not communicate with each other. Being high school kids, my friends and I thought that this was rather funny. The name Sincranisch derives from the Clouds’ main deity Siancra who respresented the sun.

When I invented this language, I knew some English, French, Latin and Japanese apart from my native language German. I disliked French though, so I think it had zero impact on Kabukanisch, but English, Latin and Japanese influences are visible in some parts.

I did write a five-lesson text book to teach the language to my friends. Each lesson contained an entry from the diary of protagonist Aleya, who came from the Dimensions and was learning Asiul herself. The text introduced new grammatical features and vocabulary, and was followed by the typical text book exercises. This text book is my main source for this page apart from my memory. It is actually a really nice text book, at least I mimicked the style of the average German high school language text book really well.

Phonology and Orthography

In this section, I will introduce the phonology and orthography of the language, as far as I remember or have documented it. The orthography is given in italics. Just as in German, all nouns have to be capitalized.

	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular
Stop	p, b p, b	t, d t, d		c/k, g k, g
Fricative	f f	sh, z, s ʃ, s, z			r ʀ
Affricate	v v	ts t͡s
Nasal	m m	n n
Approximant		l l	y j

The consonant inventory of Kabukanisch offers no surprises: It’s basically the consonant inventory of German, my native language. The orthography, on the other hand, is not very German-y, but seems to have been more inspired by English or the average fantasy language. It is pretty straightforward except for a few notable quirks:

• The velar stop [k] can be written both k or c. This has to be learned per word and there is absolutely no system to it.
• The letter z denotes the voiceless fricative [s] and the the letter s the voiced stop [z], so they are used opposite to their IPA notation. My reasoning was that the sharpness of the letter z was much more adequate for a voiceless sound and the round shape of s seemed more fitting for a voiced sound.
• Just like in German (and English), the letter x is used for the sound combination [ks], which also occurs in the language.

	Front	Central	Back
High	i i~ɪ		u u~ʊ
High-mid	ei eː		‘oe oː
Low-mid	e ɛ		o o~ɔ
Low		a a

Kabukanisch’s vowel inventory is actually a little more exotic than one might expect. It does not have a length contrast like German and is missing the umlaut vowels ö and ü, because I found them unaesthetic, if I remember correctly. It does have the typical five vowels a, e, i, o, u, but with a few twists:

• The letter e is always pronounced as low-mid [ɛ], never as high-mid [e], as it would be the case in German open syllable. I explicitly note this in my Kabukanisch text book: “Im Kabukanischen wird das E wie ein deutsches Ä ausgesprochen. […] Ein kurzes E wie im Deutschen gibt es also nicht.” (“In Kabukanisch, the E is always pronounced like a German Ä [i.e. ɛ]. […] So there is no short E as in German.”)
• We do have the letter combination ei though, which is always pronounced as long high-mid [eː]. I think I got this from Japanese where I had seen this happen.
• The single letters i, u, and o, on the other hand, were not explicitly specified for height. I assume that their pronunciation varied between [i, u, o] in open and [ɪ, ʊ, ɔ] in closed syllables, as in German.
• There was ‘oe, however, which is always pronounced as long high-mid [oː], similar to ei.
• Without the apostrophe, the letter combination oe is pronounced [wa], except after the letters (!) c, r, s and v, where it’s [oː] even without the leading apostrophe. In my text book, I explain that it used to be long open [ɔː] in the past.
• In addition, there are the diphthongs ae [aɛ̯] and ai [ai̯]. These are both phonemic and must be pronounced with care. I definitely got ae from Latin ([aɛ̯] is the pronunciation we were taught in school).
• Apostrophes have to be used to separate the vowel combinations ae, ai, ei, and oe when the two participating vowels are supposed to be pronounced independently.
• Two identical vowels directly following each other must be pronounced separately as two syllables.

The syllable structure is usually simple CV(C), but the occasional heavy consonant cluster did occur. I don’t think there was any (conscious) system to it. The same goes for stress.

Grammar

Kabukanisch most commonly shows SVO word order, although this is not set in stone and words may be shifted around for emphasis. The morphosyntactic alignment is nominate-accusative, but the roles are only marked by word order, there are no case markers. Accusative and dative pronouns are marked in writing only, being suffixed to the verb with a dash:

• Nerya-yuu necte’is-vuam aen den Kabuki.
• Nerya-HON tell-PERF-we much of Kabuki
• “Ms Nerya has told us a lot about Kabuki.”

There are nouns, adjectives and verbs. The plural is formed by adding the suffix -am.

Adjectives come before the nouns. They have a comparative suffix -i and a superlative suffix -o.

• Vu tocral cru KSY yavae’i dur Tsinalogu.
• I find even KSY exciting-CMP than philosophy
• “I find even KSY (Kabuki martial arts) more exciting than philosophy.”

Verbs have a simple past ending -u. There is also a perfect ending -is, although I often didn’t really use this as a perfect, but rather as a recent past tense. Finally, there is the “traditional past” -de, which describes something that happend regularly (traditionally) in the far past.

Kabukanisch has a decimal numeral system. Numbers higher than ten were formed by basically chaining the numerals in the way they would also be written, e.g.:

• namsol “eleven” (nam “ten” + sol “one”)
• rinaecashnamorc “two hundred thirty five” (rin “two” * ae “hundred” + cash “three” * nam “ten” + orc “five”)

Kabukanisch did not use Arabic numerals in short forms, but the capitalized first letter of the respective numeral, e.g.:

• NS “11”
• RACNO “235”

I guess this was inspired by Latin numerals.

There are also several honorific suffixes for all sorts of persons. They definitely came during my anime phase and served as Kabukanisch equivalents for Japanese -chan, -sensei, -sama, and so on. These are the honorifics listed in the text book:

• -yu (m.), -yuu (f.) – general honorific, equivalent to Mr/Ms
• -sabu (m.), -sabuu (f.) – teacher/master
• -sall (m.), -sallu (f.) – used only for the Masiuluiam, the four leaders of the nation
• -spin (m.), -spinu (f.) – used for gods
• -ni (m.), -niu (f.) – used for someone you love

The ending -u is generally used to feminize a noun referring to a person, e.g. Tiril “male teacher”, Tirilu “female teacher”. Apart from here and in the third person singular pronouns, Kabukanisch does not differentiate gender.

Language sample

I will provide two examples here: The first is from 2007 and was one of the very first texts I wrote in Kabukanisch. The relex is very strong in this one, if you know German grammar and word order. The second one is from 2010 and probably the last text I ever wrote in Kabukanisch. This one is not as German-y anymore, as I was already slightly aware at this time that I couldn’t just dress a German text in foreign words when I wanted to actually invent a new language.

Text from 2007

This is a religious text (the first in a series), describing the creation of the world by the gods. I originally invented Kabukanisch for the purpose of writing these texts, an Ashen “Bible”, so to say.

Nil	Nothing
Druvu flainu su rimia shimm Nil. Su flainu nai Damiam, nai Sinishuam, su flainu nai Paranua dis nai Temu. Su flainu nai Filonku. Ziai flainu su karu nil.	In the beginning, there was only the black Nothing. There were no plants, no animals, there was no water and no sand. There was no life. There also was no world yet.
Dis ert laenu Veneae. Goriu, bima Veneae. Su diviu ron Nil.	And then came an egg. A glowing little egg. It lived in the Nothing.
Senpu firaeu su su. Cael su flainu nai Sen dis nai Ninx, naenu cle mampi nil: Senpu. Veneae firaeu su misim. Su pomuu ec aene bima Veneaeam, mampiam ron Nil divi. Cael Nil in Nil, naenu diviu suam nilu.	One day, it divided itself. But there was no day and no night, so that was not true: One day. The egg divided itself nevertheless. It turned into many little eggs that lived in the Nothing. But the Nothing is a Nothing, so they lived nowhere.
Veneaeam lebamu cael isu divi. Naenu italvanu suam aene Pelanam. Sol Pelan shelviu suam dinedu, mampi inu Verd. Veneaeam italvanu Carsisam dis Sinishuam. Carsisam treaeu Veneaeam “Nespinam”.	The eggs wanted to live somewhere though. So they created many planets. One planet they liked well, that was the Earth. The eggs created humans and animals. The humans called the eggs “gods”.

(The humans then forget about the egg-gods, who in turn get angry at the humans and at each other and then create the Ashes and Clouds as their warriors.)

To illustrate the relex character of this text, take a look at these sentences:

• Kabukanisch: Druvu flainu su rimia shimm Nil.
• German: Anfangs gab es nur (das) schwarze Nichts.
• English, word by word: In-the-beginning existed it only black Nothing.

The only German word missing from the Kabukanisch sentence is the definite article “das”. In fact, Kabukanisch has no articles at all, the only non-German feature I originally introduced into the language, probably inspired by Latin. Even the weird movement of es “it” behind the verb is reflected in the Kabukanisch sentence.

Another example:

• Kabukanisch: Su pomuu ec aene bima Veneaeam, mampiam ron Nil divi.
• German: Es wurde zu vielen kleinen Eiern, die im Nichts wohnten.
• English, word by word: It became into many little eggs, who in Nothing lived.

In German, word order changes from SVO to SOV in subordinate clauses like this relativ clause, a movement that is also represented in the Kabukanisch sentence.

Text from 2010

This is the text for the first lesson of the unfinished second volume of my Kabukanisch text book. Here, Aleya compares her former life in the Dimensions to her new life among the “Civilized” Asiuluiam. The text was supposed to teach the “traditional past”.

Mampi onada Laeganiam!	These strange Civilized!
E, Ilmen!	Ah, diary!
Gae sugu, vu laen den Shyandaeam. Iveru aene inu yakede dur rac – Asiuluiam rac nil silini Y’oendae, suam nil minoe siam Gvaemaam. Alu ises inu yellde ron Shyandaeam, ert alcrimuis, dis alu ises isleigreu, ert vuam nigu alcrimude dis recraede, pai Lelida inu calyu. Alu alcrimu rac, ert in Mekudu. Yak’oeyuu candeide, iraen-yu minoe si Gvaemaam, main udu Gvaemaam nil filonk-yu.	You know, I come from the Dimensions. There, a lot was different from here – the Asiuluiam here don’t have a face, they don’t show their feelings. When someone was sad in the Dimensions, then they have cried, and when someone died, then we all used to cry and shout, until the grief was gone. When someone cries here, then they are a wimp. The tribe leader used to say, one must show one’s feelings, because without feelings one does not live.
Maedu Vaecu inu vindu aya vu. Main gi Eryu nil zene vaera-gae, nada pon iraen firu den gae. Rac Vaecu in udazu. Alu gi Eryu nil vaera-gae, gae decun firu den pon.	In the past, love was (something) bad for me. Because your husband is not allowed to love you, else he must separate from you. Here, love is important. When your husband doesn’t love you, you should separate from him.
Kono rac karu in yin onada. Laeganiam candei, Nunulm in-yu rinoe, cael Asiul in yin rinoei. Nunulm eicu Asiului silini ron-su, niles iraen besk-su. Asiul iraen besk. Laeganiam silini yino Kaepuam.	The language here is also very strange. The Civilized say, the TONGUE is difficult, but Asiul is more difficult. The TONGUE, every Asiului has inside them, nobody has to learn it. Asiul you have to learn. The Civilized have too many rules.
Aene Laeganiam susam, ron Shyandaeam in-yu gedaenui. Mampi nil in shun. Laeganiam in yin gedaenu. Kidimuam nil in gedaenu yakazuam, cael mampi nil in yakede ron Shyandaeam.	Many Civilized assume in the Dimensions one is more polite. This is not so. The Civilized are very polite. Young people are not polite to each other, but this is not different in the Dimensions.
Vu levi, diae Laeganiam noecai, vuam in-yu Vadaam. Vu tocral-vuam yin uyidui dur suam. Suam cuxo mampi, mampi candei-suam, udu noecai. Vuam noecai dis cuxo ert, mampi VUAM tocral uyidu.	I believe that the Civilized think, we are savages. I find us more reasonable than them. They do this which they are told, without thinking. We think and do then what WE find reasonable.
Vu levi, diae vu noecai yino. Ninxeya!	I believe that I think too much. Good night!

I feel like this text needs a few explanations. I was also surprised by how dark it sounded for a text book snippet when I now translated it. In general, it was written a long time ago, in 2010, and my conworld still looked a little different back then and had a lot of clichés.

• Civilized was the term for the Asiuluiam living on the islands (the “civilization”) as opposed to in the Dimensions. As the term indicates and the text illustrates, the Civilized thought of themselves as superior to the “wild” tribes in the Dimensions. This is still part of the Asiulen history.
• In current lore, Civilized Asiuluiam are known for being rather emotional though, as opposed to what Aleya describes in her diary entry.
• In 2010 lore, Asiuluiam from the dimensions practiced polygamy, but at the same time were forbidden to have actual feelings for their spouses. When they started loving each other, they had to become divorced. I later found this quite weird and removed it from the lore.

I’d like to highlight a few things about the updated grammar. First, it does not mimick German’s exotic word order changes anymore:

• Kabukanisch: Main gi Eryu nil zene vaera-gae, nada pon iraen firu den gae.
  • English, word by word: Because your husband not is-allowed love-you, else he must separate from you.
• German: Weil dein Ehemann dich nicht lieben darf, sonst muss er sich von dir trennen.
  • English, word by word: Because your husband you not love is-allowed, else must he himself from you separate.

The word order in the Kabukanisch sentence is clearly more similar to English word order instead of the German one. The word order stays SVO even in the subordinate clause.

Similarly, the Kabukanisch words do not always require the same prepositions, particles or reflexives as their German counterparts anymore. In the sentence above, we reencounter the verb firu “to separate”, which we already saw in the earlier text as firae “to divide”. But while the first text had the German reflexive sich “itself” accompany firae, firu here doesn’t need it:

• Text from 2007: Senpu firaeu su su.
  • German: Eines Tages teilte es sich.
  • English, word by word: One-day divided it itself.
• This text: …nada pon iraen firu den gae.
  • German: …sonst muss er sich von dir trennen. (“…else must he himself from you separate.”)
  • English, word by word: …else he must separate from you. (no himself!)

Resources

• “Shimmuam den Llof”, volume 1 (PDF) – the aforementioned German-Kabukanisch text book