Compounds

The bulk of Kah lexicon consists of compound words, made up from two of more roots. This means it is a vital process to understand truly how the language works. Compounding basically means that two or more words are combined in order to create a new lexeme with a new, unique meaning.

The advantage of this technique of word formation is, that the meaning of the new word can be derived from the individual elements it consists of. For example the English wordbedroom means "a room containing a bed". This kind of logic can also be used on a much more basic level: the Kah word for "argue" is ruka which consists of a combination of the rootsru "conflict" and ka "speak".

Kah was designed an oligosynthetic language, meaning a language with a very limited number of roots, which put together form the lexicon from wich statements are made. Kah has a couple of hundred basic roots from which all of the lexicon was derived.

Frequent roots
Some roots turn up quite frequently, like do for "house" or "building":

yudo  - house

talado  - factory

angado - stable

fondo  - prison

kwando  - school

The following roots occur in compounds frequently:

do  - house, building

ta  - time

pa - money

pu  - moral

ka - say, word

bu  - man

wana  - woman

sa - shape

shi  - manner, way, like

so - water, fluid, secretion

shum  - powder, grains

ki  - food, mouth

za - take

ze  - back, behind

ku - front, before

no  - direction

nu - go

ro  - round, cycle, ball

ru - conflict

yo  - all

wi  - many, much

ni  - motorized vehicle

kwa - one

Logic
Not all compounds are entirely logical but merely a collection of basic ideas describing something:

zedodi - snail

ze + do + di

back + house + bug

raju - to be patient

ra + ju

sit + feel

sempe - bone

sen + pe

body + stick

Phonotactics of compounding
Situations may occur that contradict the phonotactical rules of Kah as explained in the chapter on phonology. In these situations the following adjustments are made for the words to fit Kah phonology:

When a root ending in a nasal stop (either -m, -n or -ng) is put in front of another root, the nasal stop is made homorganic with the initial consonant of the root following it:

chen + pe  = chempe

kom + ka = konka

rum + so = runso

When a root ending in a nasal stop (either -m, -n, -s, -l  or -ng) is put in front of  f, v, h, l, or r, the final vowel of this root is reduplicated:

lam + vun  = lamavun

When a root ending with -s is put in front of another root starting with anything other than p, t, k,w or  y, the -s is followed by a reduplication of the vowel preceding it:

bas + no  = basano

yus + do = yusudo

When a root ending with -s is put in front of a root starting with y, the combination of s and yresults in sh:

mas + yun = mashun

papas + yun = papashun

bos + ya = bosha

When a root ending with -s is put in front of a root starting with  p, t or k, the -s is left untouched and directly precedes the second root:

tus + ka  = tuska

bas + tan = bastan

tus + pu = tuspu

When a root ending with -l is put in front of a root starting with anything other than p, t or k, the -l is followed by a reduplication of the vowel preceding it:

mel + mbe = melembe

When a root ending with -l is put in front of a root starting with  p, t, or k, the -l is left untouched and directly precedes the second root:

mul + ka  = mulka

bal + ka = balka

When a root ending in a  -i is put in front of a root starting with a y  the i is absorbed into the y:

wai + yun  = wayun

nai + ya  = naya

But when the result is a combination iya or iyo this is denoted as ia and io respectively:

fi + ya  = fia

ti + yo  = tio

When a root ending in a  -i is put in front of a root starting with a i  the two merge into a y:

nai + io  = nayo

When a root ending in a  -i is put in front of a root starting with a vowel, the final i changes into ay:

vai + an  = vayan

poi + an  = poyan

When a root ending in a  -u is put in front of a root starting with a  w  the u is absorbed into thew:

sau + wal  =  sawal

gau + win  = gawin

The suffix -ng
The suffix -ng- is used to change the meaning of a word to something opposite in meaning: When it is suffixed to a word ending in a consonant, the preceding vowel is inserted before it: When it's added to a monosyllabic root, this root is reduplicated: Only a very small number of roots inherently end in -ng, such as:

meng – none, zero

nong – not, no

mong – to reverse, undo

Compound roots
Most of the compound roots do not occur on their own but need an affix in order to become a word. This is done in order to be able to distinguish between words and roots. For instance the root nu"go" does not mean anything on it's own. It needs to be combined with the rootde "come" in order to produce an actual verb meaning "to go": denu. Likewise the word for water is aso, which consists of the basic root so "water, fluid"  plus the inanimate nominal prefix a-.

All of the current compound roots in use can be found below: