Introducing the Yole-Chort [Cxernian] languages

 So I've been meaning to do a language family for a while and finally got around to sketching it out. Originally I wanted to do a proto-lang as it truly should be: constructed from the daughter languages. Well that proved unfeasible, so instead my current strategy is thinking of a word in a daughter language and then working backward. Not as cool, but a lot easier. I am going to try to keep the proto-lang fairly unspecified though. As far as world building is concerned, this family is the dominant language on the west continent, which goes from about the equator to quite south. There's other families there (and plenty of substrate influence) but it's still by far the largest. Anyway, some history.

Kikxotian explorers first encountered Cxernian speakers on the islands that stretch between the Moon People's home and the western continent. Eventually after reaching the main continent itself, some clever people started to notice minor similarities between the languages of the islands (the so called Yolean languages) and the languages the dominated the coast. More exploration eventually uncovered more language with similarities. After deciding that Proto-Viggo-Viggo wasn't a very informative name, they decided to name the family after the word for "person" in two of the languages, hence Yole from the language of Greater Rock Island (one of the Far Island languages and the first encountered by Kikxotian explorers) and Chort from Central Plateau Mountain Valley (the largest of the languages spoken in the mountains). Cxern (possibly [cχʷərn] but the actual pronunciation of X is unknown) is the reconstructed word for "person" in their reconstructed ancestor, hence the other name for the family, the Cxernian languages.

Proto-Yole-Chort was likely spoken some 6 to 7 thousand years before present in the mountains central to the continent. This placement is based on some of the reconstructed words, its location in the middle of the current spread, and because the greatest diversity is still found in that region. It's thought that the Cxernian languages spread with the invention of agriculture, especially the sweet potato. Some reconstructed words relating to this location and time period include *adiH "sweet potato" (seen in GRI as tete, in CPMV as adha and in Imperial Great Delta as arè), *QuSayaG "mountain peak" (GRI kwena "heaven", CPMV ahuśā "high holy place", IGD kohě "mountain") and *kelun "terrace, garden plot" (GRI hulo "earthworks", CPMV ūt "garden", IGD klung "paddy"). They likely had domesticated yaks or some other beast of burden before the family broke up based on words like *muNis "beast of burden" (reflexes include GRI mulisa "trade boat", CPMV amume "yak", IGD pùnê "water buffalo").

The internal classification of the Cxernian languages is not well understood. It's hypothesized that there's between 4 and 8 primary branches. The Badlands and Forest languages are well accepted as forming a Western Branch, and the Upriver and Delta languages are often (but controversially) linked together in an Eastern branch on basis of the treatment of *Q as /k/, and some lexical similarities (the Island family is occasionally placed here as well, and sometimes even as a branch of the Delta languages). The Mountain Valley languages are traditionally treated as their own branch. The so called Jungle Farmer and Jungle Hunter languages are often linked together but the evidence is lacking despite their close proximity (it's mainly typological as the so-called jungle languages are much more dependent marking than most Cxernian languages). Finally, the poorly attested Hill languages (known mostly as an ancient substrate of West Mountain Valley languages and as a small remnant dialect cluster deep in the mountains) are conventionally treated as part of the Western branch but it may actually be it's own primary branch or better treated as coordinate with Proto-Western instead of a daughter. 

The subbranches of the primary branches are better understood. There's well over 30 surviving branches today, many of which have time depths of over 2000 years (and thus are comparable to Romance or Germanic languages in diversity). There's also many dead, but influential branches such as the so called "Old Raiders" language which left its loans and influence across the western part of the continent 2500 years ago (so before the Kikxotian branch of the Western Plains languages separated from its parent!) and most of the Hill branch. A lot of the subbranches seemed to have started diversifying around 2000 years ago, which incidentally is around when the Proto-Kikxotians headed east. Maybe there was some sort of global climate shock which influenced migratory patterns or something.

My current game plan is to define sound changes up to branching points, since I have their spatial and temporal positions well defined and from there create languages as needed. And if there's nowhere a language idea fits, I can just establish a new branch somewhere. Hard parts right now are grammar evolution and making sure I get both family internal and external loans right. There's a lot of other languages on the continent after all and I don't want to have a simple grammar in the protolanguage but I also want a very typologically diverse family, so we'll see what happens. Another issue is deciding what amount of sound change is sufficient for a new branch and over a given time period. By the end, I should have about Indo-European levels of diversity, so a lot. As for storage, I'll probably keep the proto-language's dictionary in a spreadsheet, since that will make tracking the different branches much easier (and in theory I can even automatically apply sound changes). But I think I have a good start.

Names and Introductions

 Just copying a reddit post here to preserve it. I really need to do better about differentiating the dialects, though I guess these prompts didn't really give much room to showcase some of the more unique features.

For Toúījāb Kīkxot:

Ustū ūíick Kōzurīkkab ūmpa ūwiny līúan íāpī. Ustū pmīfuzō ocāk nphuvatū īn rxību. Ūtiúj toúījāb kīkxot

[ʊstu: ʔu:jɪts ko:tʃʊri:kǝ vu:mpǝ u:ɹɪn li:wǝn jɑ:fi: ʊstu:p mi:ħʊtʃ ōtsɑ:k ŋəp'ʊʕǝθu: wi:n rǝʃi:vʊ u:θi:dz dɔwi:dzɑ:b ki:kʃɔt]

Ustū ūíick     Kōzur-īkkab ūmpa   ūwiny     līúan  íāpī. Ustū pmīfu  -zō ocāk   nphuva-tū   īn  rxību.  Ūtiúj toúīj   -āb  kīkxo-t
1S.N have_name bird -shine and.SS have_year twenty four. 1S.N spearer-M  and.DS caste -1S.N DEF hunter. speak language-CMP god  -CMP.

"My name is Kōzurīkkab and I am 24. I am a spearman of the hunter clan. I speak Toúījāb Kīkxot"

Key thing that isn't clear from the translation is that being a spearman in the hunter clan is very low status (relative to other hunters and to other soldiers) because it's technically working out of caste. I used neutral pronouns here.

This is a fun little prompt, I might do more when I get home tonight (in other languages and in dialects).

e:

The above was the standard dialect, but let's meet someone from the coast [the next few are close enough grammatically that I'm not going to gloss unless asked].

Stū ūíezk Xōwokpot ūmp ūwen līúan rāv. Baberm xīpltū qal lōbop dagnatmā. Īw ūpegd ges xīpltū úethl nphavmā. Ūteúj túījāb kīkxat

[stu: ʔu:jɛtʃ kʃo:ɹɔkpɔt u:m pu:ɹɛn li:wǝn ra:ʕ bǝbɛrm ʃi:pl̩tu: ɢǝl lo:bop dǝgnǝtma: i: ɹu:pɛgd gɛs ʃi:pl̩tu: wɛtˤɫ nǝpˤǝʕma: u:tɛwdʒ dwi:dʒa:b ki:kʃǝt]

"My name is Xōwokpot and I am 35 years old. I help my husband in his shop. We are rich but my husband complains about his clan. I (we) speak Toúījāb Kīkxot"

---

Up near the mountains, we meet a young boy.

Yån uíeck Win umpa uwen xayu. Wawibuth kobuk gundåy dichhåhån. Saxo monak lepha usapåpúågad ages lepha usapåkúobuk. Yån utejetúåúijåb kikxåt tíåúijåb viggå kmurutxíub

[hɑn ujets kɹin umpǝ uɹen ʃǝhu ɹǝɹivut' kovu gundɑh dits'ɑʔɑn sǝʃo monǝk lep'ǝ usǝfɑpwɑɣǝ ðǝɣes lep'ǝ usǝfɑkwovuk hɑn uθedzetwɑwidzɑb kikʃɑ tjɑwidzɑb ʕigɑ kŋurutɕub]

"My name is Win and I am 11 years old. I watch sheep with my brothers. We don't have much money but we have lots of sheep. I speak Toúījāb Kīkxot and I speak the Mountain People's language (Toúījāb Vīggo Kmūrit) too"

Asking him to say the same thing but in Toúījāb Vīggo Kmūrit/ Towwu pũ saho

Rĩ ãnã hã pũ yiko. Hã pũ rãnã sahu. Hã võ hã pũ viukka e xa’u mõ feode ũppõ. Saho pũ paga issẽ age saho pũ xa’u reinõ. Hã go towisa kiso võ towwu pũ saho bilau towwu

[ɾĩ ʔɑ̃nɑ̃ hɑ̃ pũ jiko hɑ̃ pũ ɾɑ̃nɑ̃ sɑhu hɑ̃ xʷõ hɑ̃ pũ xʷiuk:ɑ ʔe xɑʔu mõ ɸeode ʔũp:õ sɑho pũ pɑgɑ ʔis:ẽ ʔɑge sɑho pũ xɑʔu ɾeinõ hɑ̃ go towisɑ kiso xʷõ tow:u pũ sɑho bilaw tow:u]

Rĩ  ãnã hã pũ  yiko. Hã pũ  rãnã sahu. Hã võ  hã pũ  viukka        e      xa’u  mõ  feode ũppõ. 
Win COP 1S GEN name. 1S GEN year 11.   1S and 1S GEN older_brother D.R/NR sheep HAB BENE  watch.
Saho pũ  paga  issẽ  age saho pũ  xa’u  reinõ. Hã go    towisa  kiso   võ  towwu pũ saho bilau towwu
1P   GEN money small but 1P   GEN sheep big.   1S D.R/R Toúījāb Kīkxot and Towwu pũ saho can   speak

"Rin is my name. My years are eleven. My brothers and I watch over sheep. We don't have much money but we have a lot of sheep. I can speak Toúījāb Kīkxot and Towwu pũ saho."

---

An old man sits on the docks in the Central Islands

Yān ūíesk Osīlīkī ages rīnkoān íeska yān Māyíūs. Ūren kas līúan teya. Sbīmuzō yān, uynasū sbīmuzō pīhmoān. Īn rōsus olsúīg makāyntah umkahū, osūmah sub. Tūtīs toúīsāb kīksot gundāy nesap ages ūserl ūtīs toúīsāb sbīmut het toúīs pīhmotān

[hä:n u:jesk ɔsi:li:ki: ǝges ri:nkɔä:n jeskǝ hä:n mä:hju:s u:ren kas li:wǝn tehǝ sbi:mʉco: yä:n ʉhnǝsu:s bi:mʉco: pi:ʔmɔä:n i:n ro:sʉs ɔlswi:g mǝkä:hn̩tǝʔ ʉmkǝʔu: ɔsu:mǝʔ sʉb Tu:ti:s tɔwi:sä:b ki:ksɔt gʉndä:h nesǝp ǝges u:ser lu:ti:s tɔwi:sä:b sbi:mʉt het tɔwi:s pi:ʔmɔtä:n]

Yān  ūíesk     Osīl  -ī  -kī  ages rīnko -ān íeska yān Māyíūs. Ūren       kas līúan  teya.   Sbīmu -zō  yān, uynasū  sbīmu -zō  pīhmo -ān.
1S.N have_name gather-BEN-God but  friend-1S call  1S thinker. have_years two twenty twelve. fisher-man 1S,  equally fisher-man father-1S.
Īn  rōsus ol<s>úīg   makāyntah umkahū, osūmah    sub. T~  ūtīs  toúīs   -āb  kīkso-t   gundāy nesap     ages ūserl ūtīs  toúīs   -āb  sbīmu -t   het toúīs    pīhmo -t  -ān
DEF frog  <DEF>treat locals    evilly, believers too. HAB~speak language-CMP god  -CMP with   travelers but  like  speak language-CMP fisher-CMP REL language father-CMP-1S

"My name is Osīlīkī but my friends call me Māyíūs. I am 52 years old. I am a fisherman, like my father. The soldiers don't treat locals well, even believers. I speak Toúījāb Kīkxot with travelers, but prefer to speak Toúījāb Sbīmut, which is my native language."

And now in his native tongue, Knǝnʔtǝǝʔ

Mã plɛ̃g Osiiliikii dǝd nköm mã splɛ̃g Mäyũs. Mã lɨlããp kǝs liiwǝn tehǝ lrããp. Mã mǝmusäyäw, mǝmusäyäw tdɔ̈b mã. Hrëëy jɛt hǝhcɨ̃t mkäntǝǝʔ, kikiiso ʔǝk. Mã kntəəʔ knənʔtəəʔ kiiso thiʔ mäwãy, dǝd mã mwɔɔt knənʔtəəʔ kbǝ tdɔ̈b

[ma̰plɛ̰ŋ̥ osi:li:ki: ɗǝd̥̚ n̩ko̤m̥ ma̰splɛ̰ŋ̥ ma̤jṵs ma̰lɨla̰ˀa̰p̚ kǝs li:wǝn̥ tehǝ l̩ɾa̰ˀa̰p̚ ma̰mǝmusa̤ja̤w ma̰mǝmusa̤ja̤w tɗɔ̤b̥̚ ma̰ʔ hɾe̤:j ɲɛt̚ hǝhcɨ̰t̚ m̩ka̤ntǝ:ʔ kiki:so ʔǝk̚ ma̰kn̩tǝ:ʔ knǝnʔtǝ:ʔ ki:so tʰiʔ ma̤wa̰y ɗǝd̥̚ ma̰mwɔ:t̚ knǝnʔtǝ:ʔ kɓǝ tɗɔ̤b̥̚]

Mã=plɛ̃g      Osiiliikii dǝd nköm   mã=s-   plɛ̃g      Mä-yũs.   Mã=lɨ- lããp     kǝs_liiwǝn_tehǝ l<r>ããp.
1S=have_name Osiiliikii but friend 1S=CAUS-have_name AG-think. 1S=PRG-grow_old fifty_two       <INST>year.
Mã=m- <mw> <ä> <y>   säw,  <mw> msäyäw tdɔ̈b   mã. Hrëëy jɛt hǝ~hcɨ̃t    m-<ä>kntǝǝʔ,  ki~ kiiso ʔǝk.
1S=AG-<RFL><AG><CAPT>fish, <RFL>fisher father 1S. Frog  NEG PL~respect AG-<AG>speak, DIM~Kikxo too.
Mã=kntəəʔ <nʔ> kntəəʔ kiiso thiʔ mä-wãy, dǝd mã mwɔɔt knənʔtəəʔ kbǝ tdɔ̈b
1S=speak  <NOM>speak  Kikxo for  AG-go,  but 1S like  language  GEN father

"My name is Osiiliikii, but my friends call me Mäyũs. I am 52 years old. I am a fisherman, like my father. The frogs don't respect us Mkäntǝǝʔ, even followers of Kīkxo. I speak Toúījāb Kīkxot with foreigners, but I like my father's tongue."

 

88 lines about 44 Demons

A little Halloween special, let's learn about some of the demons (omūkaq) and monster the kikxotians believe in. A lot might be presented in more informal ways (only the second part of a reduplication for example, or using back reduplication to represent full reduplication). This isn't meant to represent a specific dialect (though some are regional monsters), it's to fit the semi-poetry of the piece. With all apologies to the Nails

1. Vcūpa comes out the swamp to play; his stench makes me want to cry
2. Olūgaw looks mighty nice but her teeth are no lie.
3. Lālīwl feast till the sun comes up and starve throughout the day
4. Yyīpu get you what you want, but you'll never be able to pay.
5. Mrisu has an unnerving smile, with gifts that trap your soul
6. Gdīku is much simpler, he'll just eat you whole.
7. Dōkhol īkkabat looks pretty from a distance; but he'll steer you wrong
8. Jarif cannot be seen, as you flee her mournful song.
9. Pjūpō nimasat may be dead; you'd never know as you're chased
10. Āginx āpijpat is a stout old chap; you must flee in haste.
    
11. Rokāmr seems mighty harmless, as he sucks you in
    
12. Ovūmac won't give you the time, not even when you sin.
    
13. Lvutā mwomit is looking for a student, but her advice isn't prudent
14. Olūvat puthlūt needs a teacher, but he's most impudent.
    
15. Fqilu sees without eyes, his nose ensure you can't hide
    
16. Wyīúu mkoqit approaches in confidence, a presence you mustn't abide.
    
17. Omūlad bōmāshat is another sultry soul, she watches as you sleep
18. Cuwphīcu is sailors' bane foremost, and drags slow ships into the deep.
    
19. Tikat looks like a massive bat, from above he cracks your skull
    
20. Zhimar stalks from underground, your bones won't make his teeth dull.
    
21. Knupi takes things that are not his, gold is his bread and butter  
22. Āruyt tībilat prefers your blood a la carte, as it flows into the gutter.
    
23. Wixax can't move fast, so the trees are his base
    
24. Shotūr will never move at all, yet you must beware his embrace.
    
25. Thavdo literally cannot be described, an agony you can't survive
    
26. Twuwi seems to be a peaceful field, until your footsteps turn it alive.
    
27. Ksuphā is just a shadow, her presence wrecks your mind
    
28. Sōfok úyukāt is a sickly light, stare too long to go blind.
    
29. Zōtod cpuwāt teaches one thing: not every book is an ally
    
30. Awābth must not be trusted, for he's the dark one's spy.
    
31. Xsīmu īípachat walks in silence, as he sucks your life
    
32. Tbīlu tdocit stays quiet too, but she prefers to use a knife.
    
33. Khāpas rxībut is slow and meaty; hunt it and meet your doom
    
34. Brumā thāxakhat moves you fast, in her hand your life shall zoom.
    
35. Wxurā fōdāíat seeks his court, his words are little snares
    
36. Rqīnu āxudcat wants your pity, never trust his wares.
37. Karol preys on those with heart, your mercy shall be your end
    
38. Khāmfukhā prays for those alone, his companionship is pretend.
    
39. Fapōmuf has a fearsome sting, the pain will never leave
    
40. Laíōpul lies in wait, to feed on those that grieve.
    
41. Hnibu hunts in plain sight, his traps are travelers' rests,
    
42. Smufā catches those who are tired, you'll wake up as he digests.
    
43. Qcilu lives in dark caves, he makes our tunnels fall
    
44. Khluzā, cursed be his name; he's the king of them all.
    

This of course is a small sampling of the demons in their world. Some are pretty normal to our sense of monsters, like the Pjūpō nimasat (lit. running corpse) which is basically just a revenant or the Omūlad bōmāshat (forbidden beauty) which is a classic ghost lady like a kuntilanak. Others aren't so much monsters in the way we think of them so much as archetypes of corrupted people, like the Hnibu (so-called builder) who kills people in collapsing buildings, the Āginx āpijpat (killing grinder) who is basically just a serial killer who disposes of the bodies by turning them into flour or the Ovūmac (self-centered person), an eerily beautiful spirit who encourages you to give up everything for nothing in return. Some are very animalistic like the bat-like Tikat (thing which descend from the sky) or the stinging bug Fapōmuf (great wasp). Some are actually more like cursed objects like Zōtod cpuwāt (devouring ink/the devil's ink) which grant wishes at the cost of your life or Rokāmr (great heap) which is a pile of stuff that eats people. And then there's the eldritch ones, like the Thavdo (flattening) which somehow forces people into 2-dimensions, the Twuwi (so called snowfield), which is a field of snow that eats people, or the Ksuphā (thing that makes others uncomfortable) which is a presence or being that drives people crazy.

More on TbKt dialects

 Just a couple notes, as inspired by a reddit post.

• The islands dialect probably doesn't maintain the symmetrical voice system. Instead, it is strictly actor oriented at all times, much like its substrate languages. However the undergoer infix remains in a number of contexts. First of all, it is often used when the undergoer is relevant to the discourse, basically acting as a definiteness marker for undergoers. I haven't decided if this will include subordinate clauses or only happen in main clauses. It might be the case where it works as a definiteness marker in main clauses, but as a relative marker when the head is an object.
  
• Other as of yet unused dialects include the Central Plains, the Lower Plains, probably one for the rivers/delta region and maybe some for the Western Plains as it slowly turns into related languages (though these might be better understood as sister languages not descended from Classical Kikxotian). The Central Forest region probably has one as well. Probably either Central Plains or Lower Plains is the prestige dialect and likely one of the two is also the most conservative/closest to Classical Kikxotian. This of course isn't everything but it helps fill in the map and create an actual dialect continuum defined by phonological changes. 
• I want a dialect that has some consonant mutation. The basic idea is that loss of initial vowels (and final /ǝ/) resulted in a dialect where some class I and IV verbs are distinguished in transitivity only by lenition (and others not at all). Funnily enough (because I knew very little when making my roots 6+ years ago), in class I lenition would represent transitivity while in class IV it would represent intransitivity. My guess is that since class IV is a lot more common than class I, analogy would probably switch them to be the same (except maybe with some heavily used verbs). Not sure how this would interact with the undergoer voice, but if it does then there's also a set of verbs (Class II verbs and some ditransitive verbs) which have a mutation in said voice. For example the root NYK ("ear", I) vs TÚJ ("mouth", I) vs BFW ("hatred", IV):
• ūniyk -> nīk "to listen"
• niyka -> nīk "to hear something"
• ūtiúj -> þīj "to speak"
• tiúja -> tīj "to eat something
• ūbifw -> ṿifā "to be afraid"
• bifwa -> bifā "to hate something"
  
• In general, I want to think more about grammar and syntax, not just phonology. Also define things without needing to get too strange, as some of my current dialects are weird (which is why I highlighted them)

e: I'm dumb, lenition marks intransitivity in both classes.

The Kikxotian Calendar

This goes way back to the beginning of Toúījāb Kīkxot. I one day I was biking and thinking as one does while biking dozens of kilometers a day in roughly memorized routes. A year can easily be divided into 13 months of 28 days, with one day to spare (most years). That day would probably have special meaning. What about a religion that views that as the day that their God takes a rest. You could have one set of believers that take that to mean that he isn't watching over them that day, removing them from his protection and therefore necessitating staying inside and being quiet. But then there could be a schism of people who saw that day as a gift from the God, a chance to let loose and party (even then I was aware that the concept of the calendar wasn't unique, my focus was on the religion elements, specifically the schism). Well that spiraled into what is TbKt today. Anyway, some key terms:

• Mīcorū "day"
• Mcurī "week"
• Qúutī "month"
• Wānay "year"

Days and years are the same length as on Earth. The Kikxotians divide the calendar into 14 solar months (which lines up with the 14 Shīyto; this was a recent change when I realized that 13*28=14*26), each named after common activities in them. I do not know what those are yet. The year begins and ends around the winter solstice. I decided on this (rather than spring) because winter is a dreadful time where people need a lot of help, so people need a lot of protection during it. Thus, he wants to be most rested for it, while people don't actually need that help in the booming times post harvest, near the end of his cycle. As far as what happens on this day, that depends on the sect. See, the original prophet said that Kikxo slept on that day but he didn't say what that meant. There was however, an understanding that you should be careful on that day, which turned into staying inside and not doing much of anything except sleep. The great schism happened a few hundred years later (about 1000 years before the "present"), when a new prophet declared that people had misunderstood Kikxo's will. He intended for people to rest like him, but that includes resting from fastidiously keeping every commandment. Many prophets and schisms later have resulted in the current practice which at the extremes is a day of absolute seclusion or a day of public hedonism. It's also apparently a day for sectarian conflict (in this case usually from the traditionalists who take advantage of Kikxo not looking to scare the reformists straight). Oh and leap years get 2 days of this "festival".

The weeks alternate between having 6 or 7 days, leaving each month with 26 days. The "extra" days are treated as minor festival days, where the devout like making extra sacrifices (and some sects even declare that Kikxo takes a nap on these days and acting accordingly). Market days vary based on location. This is an agricultural society, so people work most days and the length of weeks is less important than knowing when festivals (spread across the year) are.

 There are no fixed hours. Instead days are measured according to the relative position of the sun. They start with the morning (xōwok) at sunrise. From about 3 or so hours after sunrise to 3 or so hours after noon it's kīkobū. The late afternoon is lgīsa, which goes until about an hour before sunset. That time till the sky is completely dark is known as amkōq. Finally there is night (sāmaf) which is undivided until the next morning/day. In general, the Kikxotians are not fond of night or darkness, so there's not much nightlife that goes on. People go to bed (assuming it isn't too early) and wake up in the morning. If they wake up, they pray for protection from omūkaq (demons). Sometimes the early hours of night are known as thāxakh winagat (fire time), since it is customary to have a big fire in your house during that time. By analogy, the wee hours before or around dawn can be called thāxakh āwung (ash time), since the fire has mostly burned down by then (and āwung wīnig "ember" is too long). Note that this is one of the few uses of winag for fire, since it normally is the same as ash but obviously that doesn't work here.

So yeah, that's an overview of the Kikxotian calendar, which has since been adopted by their neighbors. Not too complicated, overall.

Īn Cōroj: A brief description of the World

I've been meaning to work on this for a while but keep getting busy (I started this in August 2020 apparently. But I'm finished with my first year and have a fairly lazy summer coming up, so I ope to do a fair bit of world building these next few months). Anyway, this is a whole bunch of background on the Kikxotian world so that the geography and context makes more sense for other posts. The core of this post was actually outlined in a reddit post I made around the end of September 2020, so I will copy and expand it from there. 

 The center of the kikxotian world (in a cultural sense, not a physical sense) is a very large bay. I've gone back and forth on it's actual size, but it's a few hundred miles across. A sea really. The Kikxotians live on the western side of this bay, with their core area being the area north of a major river up to the mountain range that separates this part of the continent from the rest of it, with their biggest city (usually the capital) on the coast just north of the delta. This is a region of rolling hills, grasslands and forests, not unlike the Midwest, California or the Western Cape. It's fairly Mediterranean in climate (but I'm not climatologist, so some things are just "a wizard did it"). These conditions prevail across the western subcontinent (since I guess it is that), though the further you get from the core kikxotian area, the more "barbaric" people get (but they're all basically relatives of TbKt), doing barbaric things like farming, being pastorialists and worshiping multiple gods who are suspiciously like the Shīyto. While I won't go into the full history of the Kikxotians here, it's thought that they basically moved into that region from the southwest some 1500-2000 years before.

I mentioned that there is a range of mountains cutting off the western part of the continent from everything else. These are very tall mountains, with a fairly inhospitalable plateau/desert near the top. Thus most travel outside the western subcontinent is done by boat. That being said, there are lots of people who live in the foot hills and lower plateaus of this mountain range. The most famous of these are the Be'oi kau Qqoi. They are shepherds, farmers (terrace and otherwise) and craftsmen. Some of their villages are on solid ground, however others are built directly in/on the cliffs. The most famous of their cities (in fact probably their only real "city") is near the headwaters of the big river, where there's some massive cliffs next to a water fall. Most of the city is on the plain, but some of it extends into the cliffs and up about 100 feet to the plateau above. There's even stairs carved directly into the rock going up to the top. Climatewise, this area is similar to the lowlands, though cooler and drier.

Going east from Kikxoland, you cross over many small to medium size islands. The largest of these is the home of the speakers of Knt, who are coastal fisherman, and their relatives. While in my head they are fairly tropical, really they are just wetter than Kikxotia, despite being at a similar latitude. I assume wind has something to do with this. Many of these islands are quite mountainous, with their own highland agriculturalists or hunter gatherer groups. I think the big island is actually a few thousand square miles, but I'd have to refer to the map again (actually it's not on the to-scale map yet, the scale of which I am still ambivalent about anyway. It's not projected either, though I bet I've made it to be mercantor).

 Keep going east and you'll reach another coast. This coast is littered with trading city states inhabited by the Mesin Uxlotsuz. Their core is centered around a delta which now that I look at it is probably a couple hundred miles further to the north of the Kikxotian capital. Imagine this area is quite a bit wetter an probably cooler than the kikxotian region. Chalk it up to that wizard again. Moving even more to the northeast, you hit a bunch of steppe.

As for all the other parts of that massive continent, I'm not really. I bet as you get north you eventually hit taiga and then tundra. There must be forests all over this continent as well, maybe especially to the southeast? A lot of really undefined things because I really just have this right now. 

There's another semi-defined continent to the south (at the nearest, a couple hundred miles from the northern continent). The northern part of this is home of Amt. They live on the coast, with a vast semi wet savanna to the south of them, ala the African Humid Period. Somewhere in this region is a set of highlands, where the Kélomèlo hail.   

 Head southwest from the main continent, crossing the ocean and you'll eventually reach another very large continent. Not much is known about this one yet, but it's the site of my next big project (an actual language family, among other things). The ocean is a lot easier to cross than the Atlantic, thanks to some nicely place islands.

And so there you have it, a very broad strokes description of the world. It's like the Mediterranean basically, which checks out since the kikxotians are basically space romans. Except not in space. But ancient Rome was defintely an influyence and something I use as a sanity check. As for my next posts, I need to do somethings on religion (Kikxotian or otherwise), put up some more profiles and maybe talk a bit about biology and this place's relationship with Earth. In fact, I can do a quick overview of that last one right now. This isn't Earth. However, it has the same size and location relative to its sun as Earth, which is important for the calendar system. Actually, I did a reddit post about the calendar today, I'll flesh that out tonight for here.