View source for Kygami

{{Infobox language
|name=Kygami
|family=Liyuric
|early-forms=Proto-Liyuric
|scripts=Lunar (Nuyxo) script<br>Latin script
|country=[[Aylongam]] ([[Viren Islands]])
|endonym=Kygam /ˈky.ɣam/
|exonym=Virenese
|lang-code=kgm
}}

'''Kygami''' (/kɪˈgɑː.mi/; natively ''miō Kygam'' [mjoː ˈky.ɣam]), also known as '''Virenese''', is a Liyuric language spoken on the [[Viren Islands]]. It is closely related to [[Xindvâ]], and shares a large amount of vocabulary. Compared to Xindvâ, its phonetic inventory is much smaller, and its grammar retains more inflection than its sister, with a more agglutinative morphology, but still has analytic syntax.

==Phonology==
===Consonants===
Kygami has either 17 or 18 consonant phonemes, depending on how /j/ is analyzed:
{| class="wikitable"
! colspan="2" | 
!'''Labial'''
!'''Dental'''
!'''Alveolar'''
!'''Dorsal'''
!'''Glottal'''
|-
! colspan="2" |'''Nasal'''
|m
|n
|
|ŋ ⟨ng⟩
|
|-
! rowspan="2" |'''Plosive'''
!voiceless
|p
|t <sup>1</sup>
|ts ⟨c⟩ <sup>1</sup>
|k
|ʔ ⟨q⟩
|-
!voiced
|b
|d <sup>1</sup>
|dz ⟨z⟩ <sup>1</sup>
| 
|
|-
! colspan="2" |'''Fricative'''
|f
|
|s <sup>1</sup>
|ɣ ⟨g⟩
|h
|-
! colspan="2" |'''Liquid'''
|w
|
|l ~ ɾ ⟨l/r⟩ <sup>2</sup>
|(j ⟨i⟩)
|
|}
# In some dialects, /t ts/, /d dz/ and /s/ may palatalize to /tʃ/, /dʒ/ and /ʃ/ before /i y/.
# /l ~ ɾ/ is realized as [ɾ] ⟨r⟩ intervocalically, and [l] ⟨l⟩ elsewhere.

===Vowels===
Kygami has a symmetrical 15 vowel system with long and short pairs, except for /ɨ/, which only occurs in unstressed syllables.
{| class="wikitable"
! rowspan="3" | 
! colspan="4" |'''Front'''
! colspan="2" rowspan="2" |'''Central'''
! colspan="2" rowspan="2" |'''Back'''
|-
! colspan="2" |unrounded
! colspan="2" |rounded
|-
!short
!long
!short
!long
!short
!long
!short
!long
|-
!'''Close'''
|i
|iː ⟨ī⟩
|y ⟨y⟩
|yː ⟨ȳ⟩
|ɨ ~ ɯ ⟨û⟩ <sup>1</sup>
|
|u
|uː ⟨ū⟩
|-
!'''Mid'''
|e
|eː ⟨ē⟩
|ø <sup>2</sup>
|øː ⟨ø̄⟩ <sup>2</sup>
| 
|
|o
|oː ⟨ō⟩
|-
!'''Open'''
|
|
|
|
|a ~ ɐ ⟨a⟩
|aː ⟨ā⟩
|
|
|}
# /ɨ/ occurs exclusively in unstressed syllables.
# In most dialects, /ø(ː)/ is phonetically [ɵ(ː)]. It is transcribed this way for historical reasons and typing convenience.

===Phonotactics===
Maximal syllable structure in Kygami is CVC or CVV, where the onset can be any consonant, but the coda can only be a voiceless stop (excluding /ts/), nasal, or /l/. /ŋ/ never occurs word-initially, while /s/ occurs almost exclusively word-initally. Syllables with a long vowel or diphthong cannot have a coda. Diphthongs are not readily distinguished from two vowels in hiatus, as each vowel counts as its own mora.

Stress is determined by the morae of a word. Each vowel (with an optional preceding consonant) and coda consonant are considered one mora. A syllable with a long vowel has two morae. So for example, fāngat has four morae: fa-a-nga-t. In a non-compound word with three or more morae, primary stress falls on the the antepenultimate mora; e.g., ''hiniwa'' and ''sizō'' are stressed on ''hi-'' and ''si-'' respectively. If the stressed mora would be the second mora of a long vowel or a coda, stress automatically moves back one mora, hence fāngat is /ˈfaː.ŋat/ and not /faˈa.ŋat/.

==Grammar==
Kygami preserves much of the verbal inflection that has been lost in Xindvâ. Each affix can stack upon others to produce complex inflections, such as ''putimuseragȳfe'' “if it had not been being eaten”, though words like these are rare.

Much like Xindvâ, Kygami uses verb-subject-object (VSO) word order.

[[Category: Language]]