Kunaka is an artificial language created by the language expert Mr.Orkun Ates to be used in his Science Fiction book titled as “The Darkside of the Moon, Volume 1: The Rise of The Kun People Against Sonach Empire” as the language of an alien race, The Kun People. Then he has further developed Kunaka language to make it a fully functioning language with its perfectly constructed grammer features. The next target is to form a Kunaka speaking community from all over the world.

 

    This book aims to give the readers a basic understanding of Kunaka for daily use. Thus instead of bothering the readers with a detailed and complicated grammar, a simplified but very effective grammar learning method has been introduced which makes the understanding of the grammar as easy and enjoyable as possible.

 

A-Kunaka Alphabets

 

The Kunaka language has two alphabets;

 

1. Latin Alphabet (plus 2 digraphs)

 

26 Letters:

a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z

21 Consonants:

b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, z

5 Vowels:

a, e, i, o, u

2 Digraphs:

ch, sh

 

     Alphabet has 26 letters (21 consonants and 5 vowels) and 2 digraphs (ch and sh).

 

1. Kun Alphabet

 

     The Alphabet has 28 special characters / letters. Each letter in Kun alphabet has its corresponding letter in Latin alphabet. Please check Kun alphabet in The Appendix-1.

 

     Our Kunaka speaking community can chose to read&write any of these two alphabets, but Latin alphabet will be used throughout this book to make the learning process faster.

 

B-Pronunciation

 

     The pronunciations of Kunaka letters are the same as the pronunciations of Turkish letters.

Please study the following letter pronunciations carefully;

 

Kunaka Alphabet

English Sound

Pronunciation Example

A a/a/                          'a' as in father

B b/b/                          'b' as in book

C c/dʒ/                        'j' as in joke

D d/d/                         'd' as in day

E e/e/, /ɛ/                  'e' as in red or 'a' as in cat

F f/f/                            'f' as in far

G g/ɡ/, /ɟ/                 'g' as in game

H h/h/                         'h' as in hot

I i/i/                             'i' as in machine

J j/ʒ/                            's' as in pleasure

K k/k/, /c/                   'k' as in kilo

L l/l/, /ɫ/                      'l' as in life

M m/m/                       'm' as in master

N n/n/                         'n' as in nice

O o/o/                         'o' as in more

P p/p/                          'p' as in spin

Q q/kju/                       ‘q’ as in queen

R r/ɾ/                            'r' as in car

S s/s/                            's' as in smile

T t/t/                              't' as in stop

U u/u/                           'u' as in ultimate

V v/v/                            'v' as in victory

W w/’dɅbəlju:/              ‘w’ as in west

X x/ɛks/                          ‘x’ as in x-mas

Y y/j/                             'y' as in you

Z z/z/                            'z' as in zigzag

​

Ch/tʃ/                            'ch' as in chimpanzee

Sh/ʃ/                              'sh' as in shine

​

​

! When two or more vowels follow each other, they must be pronounced separately, each vowel keeping its own sound and do not form a single sound.

​

Pronunciation Hints:

​

Awate  tevuga leetnan.               (We are selling books)

Maanu nusale shelu wekele.       (They came from the village)

Awate telede owa meuke.           (We have allowed him to count)

​

! The emphasis is given to the middle syllable in the 3-syllable-constructions.

! The emphasis is given to the first syllable in the 2-syllable-constructions.

! Each syllable must be pronounced separately with a short pause between them.

! Some words may have apostrophe sign ( ‘ ) which means there is a long pause after it.

Ex: Ik’naeh : No

       Ka’ah : Model verb “may”

​

C-Articles in Kunaka

​

      There are no articles in Kunaka. That means the noun “tutna” can be either “a door” or “the door”. The way to make a noun definitive, demonstratives are used such as “this”, “these”, “that” and “those”.

​

Ex:    Tu-ke : to enter (infinitive form)

          Tu : enter (verb root)

          Tu-tna : a door or the door, (an entrance or the entrance )

          Tutna-n : doors or the doors

          Na : This

          Qua : That

          Na Tutna : this door

          Qua Tutna : that door

          Nan Tutnan : these doors

          Quan Tutnan : those doors

 

D- Verb related Nouns

 

     As seen in the previous example, the word Tu-tna (entrance, door) is derived from the verb root “tu” (enter) by simply adding the suffix “-tna”. Moreover the subject performing the action is also derived from the verb root by adding the suffix “-ja”

 i.e. verb root “po” (speak), “po-ja” means “speaker”

 

! These are the unique features of Kunaka Language. Knowing this, you can easily guess the link between some verbs and the nouns.

 

Ex:   Po-ke : to speak          Po-tna : speech                   Po-ja : speaker

         Lee-ke : to read           Lee-tna : book                    Lee-ja : reader

 

E-Plurals in Kunaka

 

     Forming the plurals of the nouns is quite easy, as you simply add the suffix “-n” at the end of the singular form of the noun if the noun ends with a vowel. If the noun does not end with a vowel, but ends with a consonant then the suffix “-an” should be inserted at the end of the noun.

 

Ex:   Tutna : entrance, door                                  Dar : house

         Tutna-n : entrances, doors                           Dar-an : houses

 

F-Demonstratives

 

Demonstratives show where an object, event, or person is in relation to the speaker. They can refer to a physical or a psychological closeness or distance. When talking about events, the near demonstratives are often used to refer to the present while the far demonstratives often refer to the past.

 

! Demonstratives can be placed before the noun or the adjective that modifies the noun in Kunaka.

 

Ex:    Chu : here                                                  Shu : there

          Na Tutna : this Door                                  Na Potna  : this Speech

          Nan Tutnan : these Doors                          Nan Potnan : these Speeches

          Qua Tutna : that Door                                Qua Potna   : that Speech

          Quan Tutnan : those Doors                        Quan Potnan  : those Speeches

 

     As you can see in the above examples, the same method is applied when forming the plural form of “this” and “that”. The same way as forming the plural form of the nouns, the plural form of determinative nouns are simply made by adding the suffix “-n” at the end.

 

Please check The Nouns List in The Appendix-2.

 

Chapter Test - 1

 

Please chose the correct translations. (Questions 1-2)

 

1- those doors / this speech / there / books / reader

a) qua tutna / na potna / shu / leetnan / leeja

b) quan tutnan / na potna / shu / leetnan / leeja

c) quan tutnan / nan potnan / shu / leetnan / leeja

d) quan tutnan / na potna / chu / leetnan / leeja

e) quan tutnan / na potna / shu / leetna / leeja

 

2- nan leetnan / qua poja / chu

a) those books / that speaker / here

b) these books / this speaker / here

c) these books / that speaker / there

d) these books / that speaker / here

e) these books / those speakers / here