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."

 

Kikxotian Proverb, religion and animals

Just linking to a reddit post I did today with a Kikxotian proverb plus a bunch of talk about how animals work.

https://www.reddit.com/r/conlangs/comments/gss3ra/aphorisms_proverbs_and_sayings_22/fs7yzl7/

I'll paste it here too

Toúījāb Kīkxot - Hard mode
Ōmūfakh vit ayyōp phophalgīí ūkītos ūmpa mōnak gaxitpa
[oːmuːħǝk' ʕɪ θǝhoː p'ɔp'ǝlgiː juːxiːθɔ suːmpǝ moːnǝ gːǝʃɪtpǝ]

<ōCūCaC>.MFKh vit <aCCōC>.YYP ~<oCCīC>.Ph<al>GÍ ūkītos ūmpa mōnak <CiCCa>.G<ax>TP
<AGN.IV>apostasy REL <INTRS.II>.night  HAB~<TRNS.II><AGEN>.see two.times CONJ.SS NEG <TRNS.IV><PSS>.blessing

"A silent apostate sees twice and isn't rewarded"

First to explain the proverb. I took the original one to mean that you should focus on one thing at a time lest you complete neither. Well, I admit I twisted that a bit to fit better with Kikxotian society. The essential cultural (and linguistic) details are as follows:

Kikxotian religion is centered on worship of Kikxo. Kīkxo [kiːkʃɔ] is the great protector and anyone who serves him will be protected from evil. The opposite of Kikxo is Khluzā [k'lʊtʃaː] "The Envious One" (or one of his many other names). Khluza is jealous of Kikxo and wants to destroy everything Kikxo has out of spite. Kikxo is more than powerful enough to protect his followers but this is costly and he won't protect someone who doesn't appreciate it. Khluza doesn't protect his followers (why would they need protection? He is the source of evil) but he does "reward" them in this life with the things he has power over. He gives no protection in the afterlife though.

There are many types of followers of Khluza. The word used here literally means apostate, as in someone who rejects Kikxo. Apostates are a type of ōmūkaqzō [oːmuːxǝq'tʃoː], "demon person, follower of Khluza" (the other two main groups there are heretics (ōqūúab [oːq'uːwǝb]), and blasphemers (ōbūvaj [oːvuːʕǝdz])). Ayyōp literally means "to move silently" and has specific reference to night and shadows, which are seen as evil times. In this phrasing, it basically means crypto-, so the final phrase could be translated as "crypto-apostate". While a crypto-apostate's heart might be in the right place (well wrong place but you get what I mean), just silently rejecting Kikxo is not sufficient for Khluza to reward you, since you aren't really undermining anything with your action. It's like slacktivism, but worse.

Ophgīí is a transitive verb. There's no object but it is implied. Since ōmūfakh refers to a human, the phrase should use pihma [pɪʔmǝ]. Using the word which refers to the things an animal sees is a derisive remark, though fitting with the rest of the proverb. The lack of zō at the end of ōmūfakh makes this even more degrading. Here, the phrasing can basically be interpreted as "someone who is looking in two directions".

Putting all these together, the phrasing basically means "someone who half asses two things gets nothing", which I think gets close enough to the original proverb. Though you could also interpret it as "If you're gonna be bad, be evil" which is not a very wholesome proverb at all.

---

Now for the questions. Animals are specifically the domain of two (of the four) "clans" in the broader food-producer caste. The herders (wyīúu [ɹiːwʊ] are in charge of taking care of domestic animals, while the hunters (rxību [rǝʃiːvʊ]) deal with wild animals and animal processing. Small scale farmers often have animals like oxen (cōmum [tsoːmʊm]) and horses (kōduh [koːðʊʔ]) that they keep themselves. It's not uncommon to keep ferrets (sōtum [soːθʊm]) or cats (zhōluq [tʃ'oːlʊq']) as mousers. Dogs (rōxub [roːʃʊb]) are also fairly common in rural settings among all groups of people. Otherwise, people outside of those clans don't interact with animals much.

Some animals are quite respected in the culture. Of special note are the bear (gōduk [goːðʊk]), sheep (kōkub [koːxʊb]), and honeybee (dōsur [doːsʊr]), each of which gives their name to one of the broader castes (which can best be thought of as "nobles", "peasants" and "tradesmen" respectively). Some animals like yōyup [hoːhʊp] (flying night creatures, eg. owls and bats) and snakes (wōluf [ɹoːlʊħ]) are feared. In the foothills, seeing a kherū [k'erʷ] ("a kind of eagle", this is a loan from a local language and is given in the mountain dialect) is considered good luck. Similarly, islanders are fond of parakeets (raíīd [rǝjiːd], also a loan word given in dialect). In general, Kikxotians like seeing birds (kōzur [koːtʃʊr]) and they don't consider owls to be birds.

As for nature, the Kikxotians aren't very environmentally conscious. Forests are respected but the average person doesn't enter them, rivers are polluted and marshes are deliberately filled in (marshes are considered bad in their religion). In general, people stick to villages, towns and cultivated fields unless their clan dictates otherwise. The hunter clan is actually considered very suspicious because their duty requires that they spend lots of time in the wilderness. That being said, because of their dislike of the wilderness, Kikxotians are very good and transforming land into something more palatable. This has the double effect (seen as good in their eyes) of disrupting "traditional" structures in their colonies (ātufr [aːθʊħǝr]), making it easier to bring Kikxo's word to new, captive audiences.

---

While I'm here, I should probably mention the animal name patterns. Basically, sometime between ~2500 years ago (when TbKt broke off from its closest relatives to the west) and ~1500 years ago (when its first literary tradition started), there was a massive shift in animal words. Many animal words, including some of the most common ones, were replaced with epithets. They were attached to various verbs and could basically be translated as "the X one". For example, rōxub is clearly related to rxību, so whatever the old word for dog was, it got replaced with "the hunting one".

Other animal words kept their general form but were forced into the new pattern (which was probably a bit more recent and in line with other analogical levelings that occurred in the early literary era). Kōduh appears to be one of these nouns. Loanwords for animals followed this pattern as well, being turned more or less into a root and then converted to fit. Shōbum [s'oːvʊm] "fish" seems to be a case of this. As inland pastoralists, either didn't have a strong connection to their original word for fish or they loaned one from the original inhabitants of their land to refer to a certain type of fish that then generalized to all fish.

After (or probably during) all this analogy, new verbs started to be coined off the animals. As such, many of the verbs in this class are quite specific and do provide reminders to all Kikxotians about animals, even if they don't interact with them much.

More dialects and some phrases

Just some things that I have been thinking about the last few days, regarding TjKt mostly. First is that there is a dialect common along the coastal regions best known for the sound change [+syllabic, +short]->Ø/C_$, that is short vowels deleting in open syllables (of roots, ie etymologically). This preserves words like jāmah "faith" but not jimha "to believe in something" which instead would become jem(h) (I threw in a /ɪ/->[ɛ] as well :p). Of course, this leads to problems with words like jmohi "faithful", so I'll need to put in some more rules so that not only consonants are left. Maybe only word final deletion in that case, which would then result in a closed syllable. Another alternative would be lengthening word final short vowels if the previous vowel is also short. In this cases the options would end up being jnoh or jn(h)ī respectively. I'm kind of preferring the second option right now, it leads to some interesting stuff. I also need to figure out how to avoid clusters of intital CCC coming from CCVC roots, which leads to option 3, metathesis to CVCC. Then we'd have jom(h) as the word coming out. Yeah, not sure what to do yet. I think option 3 works the best overall. Hmm, maybe some sort of chain thing. Changes start from the right side of the word, which can change a open to a closed syllable and save the word. This can end up looking with case 1. When the final vowel is already long and the form is (V)CCVCV: then metathesis occurs to CVCCV: (option three). So the word jmohi turns to jnoh but jmuhā "thing which causes belief" becomes jmahā->jam(h)ā (/u/->[ə] in analogy with the short i sound change). Ujmahū "faithfully" becomes jamhū  because the metathesis eliminates the closedness of the first syllable.

Going down the whole 4th class (ignore the colors, html is hard), I think we get the following forms (bolded if different from standard): 

CāCaC

CCoC

ūCeCC

CeCC

CōCāC

aCCōC

CCīC

CaCCū

CūCaC

CaCCā

īCCōC

CaCCū

3rd:

CōCoC

īCCaC

CaCCī

CāCC

ūCCāC

CīCūC

āCCāC

CaCC

CīCoC

āCīCC

CCūCō

CCīoC

2nd:

āCuCC

CīCeC

CaCC

aCCōC

ūCCoC

CCaC

oCCīC

CCīC

aCCīCā

CaCC

CōCaC

CaCCī

CīCoC

1st:

CīCC

CūCC

eCCūC

CCīC

CCōC

CāCaC

CeCC

ūCeCC

CeCCī

CCaC

CīCaC

Somehow there are no duplicates within a class. Praise Kīkx!

I might throw in some mergers as well, like the alveolar affricates merging with the palatal-alveolar ones. I do think this one will preserve the pharyngeals, and I think the ejectives might weaken to pharyngealized consonants, with a loss of the non-stop ejectives. It also doesn't spirantize intervocalic stops, but does contrast consonant length intervocalically.

So let's compare some sentences now (though I haven't worked on semantic/grammatical/pragmatic stuff, so it's basically only applying sound changes at this point).

"People pray to Kikxo so that they are blessed"
Úīkmo nonsīnī Kīkxo mābíi gagaxātap-gātāp[wi:kŋɔ nɔnsi:ni: xi:kʃɔ ma:bjɪ ɣəɣəʃa:θəpga:θa:p]
Úīk nonsīnī Kīkx mābī gagaxātap-gātāp[wik nɔnsi:n:i ki:kʃ ma:bi: gəg̵əʃa:təpga:ta:p]

Pretty similar with that one

"The fishermen are eating dog in the lake"
Shbīmuzō fatiúja rōxub qal gfutī[sʼbi:mʊtʃo: ħəθɪwdzə ro:ʃʊb qʼəl għʊθi:]
Spīnzō fateúj rōxab qal gafthī[spi:ntʃo: ħətewdʒ ro:ʃəb ɢǝl gəħtˤi:]

That one is pretty similar too. Let's try two more.

"I have seen stars in the desert and heard wind on the island"
Yān khopihma kōkob qal thuyī ūmpa khoniyka citham qal úlunī[ha:n kʼɔfɪʔmə xo:xɔb qʼəl tʼʊhi: ju:mpə kʼɔni:kə tsɪtʼəm qʼəl u:lʊni:]
Yān khpehm kōkob qal tahyī ūmp khnek ztham qal úalnī[ha:n qpɛʔm̩ ko:kɔb ɢəl təʔhi: ju:mp qnɛxk tʃˤtˤəm ɢəl wəlni:]

"Sentient beings talk and eat"
Tiújī ūtiúj ūmpa tiúja[tɪwdzi: ju:θɪwdz u:mpə θɪwdzə]

Teújī ūteúj ūmp teúj[tɛwdʒi: ju:tɛwdʒ u:mp tɛwdʒ]

---

Outside of dialects, I've been thinking about sayings and such. Euphemism and the like as well. One root I was thinking about is NSP "to travel (in a group)". Some important words from this root are nōsup "caravan" and ansōp "to travel (in a group); to go from one point to another for trade". Now the transitive stem onsīp isn't really used formally, at least without an applicative. Well, it makes sense that this could be used as a causative "to make a group of people travel". While this could mean like "to send off a caravan" but more normally/colloquially it means "to exile a group" or even "to ethnically cleanse/force a migration".  It doesn't have to necessarily be malevolent. For example a gafto "flood" could force people to evacuate, such as in the sentence lbupī onaxsīp gafto "The people evacuated the village because of the flood" (lit. "As for the village, a flood forced it away")

Another interesting use of NSP is nōsup-nōsōp "to give a caravan to someone" (since these types of verbs always have recipients for direct objects). This, when taken literally, is a little strange. However, in actual use it means "to invest in someone's business venture (usually by supplying capital)" since rich merchants would earn money by giving up-and-coming merchants the right to use their goods and caravan in exchange for a cut of the profits. This later extended to a general meaning of "to invest (in someone)". It then later also gained the meaning of "to give an inheritance to someone" since those same goods later became the basis of many a merchant's son's inheritance.

This construction in general is known for having a large number of idiomatic meanings. A classic is sīqro-sīqri "to give give a butt to someone". This has come to mean "to kiss up to someone, to show deference to someone" since within Kikxotian culture, to bend over like this would be a sign of making yourself vulnerable to someone (specifically for their gain...they aren't a very progressive culture).  pōjop-pōjōp "to give death" is another example, here meaning "to execute" as opposed to the more generic pījūp "to kill". There's āruyt-ārāyt "to give a tongue" or rather "to claim a bounty (from someone), stemming from the tradition of cutting off the tongue of a person or animal to show that you killed them.

Ācutr-ācātr "to give a choice" is a very interesting one. At face value, this is a good thing. However in actual use this means "to threaten". Kikxotians value choices and agency. Therefore, in sentencing and other such arrangements, the criminal would often be given a choice in their punishment. In many private arrangements, "choices" are given as well even if everyone knows that only a certain option will be decided. Plenty of corrupt individuals and criminals would preface (such as in a tax shakedown or protection scheme) their demands with "I'm giving you a choice" until this became a euphemism for "to threaten". For some people, some back euphemism stuff has even happened where the original ācutr "choice" has come to mean "threat".

A few others ones. Wsuzī-wsūzū "to give a marsh" is to give someone something that is utterly worthless in order to mock them. It's like a white elephant gift but without the prestige. Tōwow-tōwōw "to give ice" is to do something to someone that has only temporary benefits before fading away. For example, a really terrible doctor might be accused of "only giving people ice" instead of actually healing them. Nōvos-nōvōs "to give a plow" is to endebt or enslave someone. 

Point is, this is a very productive but also highly context based construction. Many of these simply have to be learned, especially in the dialects where the first part is dropped. Like in any language, the meanings can't simply be learned as a derivation of common root, but instead as component of the culture. How else would we know that rōxub-rōxōb is "to invite someone on a day outing" or wxurā-wxūrū is "to be a quisling". Let alone that naxōíox-nōíōx is "to take someone in for the night" (this one is almost exclusively used in the passive, the active has a meaning like "to give thanks to a host".  Neither would be guessable from the root which means "grass").

Just a lot of musings

Dialects in TbKt

Based on a reddit post, here's some info on a couple TbKt dialects:

So island speech! First thing to talk about is the changes to the phonetic inventory, which has undergone some series changes.

• The ejectives have merged with the plain stop series (except [qʼ] which shifted to [ʔ]).
• The palatal-alveolar series has shifted to a pure palatal (under Knǝnʔtəəʔ's influence) while /ʃ/ merged with /s/.
• The alveolar affricates have lenited to the fricatives, with [z] then merging with [s].
• The pharyngeal fricatives shifted to [h]
• /ɹ/-> [r]
• The vowels have stayed relative the same, except that /i/ has shifted to [e] and /u/ to [ʉ] (with it losing rounding in some speakers as well).
• some changes in sequences and the various assimilation/sandhi rules, most notably /h/->ø /VV (if both V are of the same quality), loss of nasal assimilation and intervocalic lenition, and allowance of syllabic consonants. {+syllabic, -long}>ø/[𝛂,+long]C or _C[𝛂,+long] is also found in the dialect, for root words at least.

These changes mostly reflect that the native Kntic languages have a much smaller consonant inventory and even greater tolerance for consonant clusters. Anyway, these changes alone can result in very different words, for example bāfaw [bɑ:ħəɹ] to bār [bä:r] or zhōjos [tʃʼo:dzɔs] to zōs [co:s], but also very little change at all, like pījūp [pi:dzu:p] to pīsūp [pi:su:p] and gīsto [gi:stɔ] to gīsto [gi:stɔ]
The next important differences are morphological and include:

• Many of the imitative reduplications are instead known only by the second part of the word, that is the echo.
• Full reduplication is instead replaced with left-bound back-reduplication (very much a feature of the local languages)
• The aspects are done with adverbs instead of affixes, with the perfective taken as a default instead of the imperfective.
• Possessed nouns are not marked as such anymore, instead possession is shown simply through juxtaposition.
• Compounds aren't marked anymore

Syntax is changed as well, mostly the shift to a more topic-prominent structure and VS being used in intransitive sentences instead of SV.
Semantics is a major difference, with lots of words being loaned from the local languages, for example kwīs "seaweed" and krnaí "canoe". Other words have shifted in meaning as well, though I'm not sure how right now. Also (combined with pragmatics, I guess), the semantic differences between the human and non-human nouns and verbs (such as "to eat (human)" vs "to eat (non-human)") have been lost and replaced with one or the other.
Pragmatics is another area where the dialect differs from the standard. Much of the formality system is lost, with only the familiar pronouns being used now (or sometimes pronouns borrowed from Kntic languages, in which the Kntic ones generally act as informal and the TbKt ones as formal). As previously mentioned, it is much more topic-prominent than the standard.

Of course there are other differences as well, but that gives a decent over view. Now, some comparisons.
fīs mlodi-mlodizun [ħi:s nlɔðɪmlɔðɪtʃʊn] "she is very beautiful" demlode mā [demlɔde mä:] "s/he is very beautiful"
yānolūs khotiúja īn ryītuāb cōmum [hɑ:nɔlu:s kʼɔθɪwʣi:n ri:θʊɑ:b ʦo:mʊm] "I (formal) have eaten (formal) the ox tongue" rītu sōmum yān līrūl [ɾi:tʉ so:mʉm hä:n li:ɾu:l] "The ox tongue, I've eaten it"
Fīs fazīxūf owāxc [ħi:s ħətʃi:ʃu: ħɔɹɑ:ʃts] "S/he is reading some writing" mā zīsūnamos orās* [mä: ci:su:nəmɔ sɔɾä:s] "S/he is reading some writing"

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The mountain dialect is mostly notable for some unusual phonological features, namely "suprasegmental semivowels". Basically, in contrast to the standard (and most other dialects), the semivowels /j/ <í> and /w/ <ú> do not turn into long vowels after consonants or put between two consonants. Instead, they have lost most of their features, including being a full segement, except intervocalically. Also, final close vowels (long and short) have turned into their respective semivowels (while /i/->/e/ elsewhere and some other vowel mergers have left it with a six vowel, lengthless system overall). For example kmuri [kŋʊrɪ] "mountain range" is kmurí [kŋurʲ] and dīkholu [di:kʼɔlʊ] "weather" is dikhålú [dikʼɑlʷ]. These are generally barely audible in isolation. However, it usually surfaces on the following word, either as a full semi-vowel (when vowel initial) or as palatalization/labialization on the last consonant of the cluster, often with /ə/ <a> or an echo vowel added where the semivowel once was. Some examples:
kmurutlíachí [kŋurutlʲətʃʼ] which is composed of kmurí and tlachí "big". The semivowel attaches right, and the CCC cluster is broken up as CVCC with an echo vowel.
dikhålúitwå [dikʼɑlwitɹɑ] "cold weather", where itwaw "weather" begins with a vowel.
lúuní "island" (which comes from úlunī [u:lʊni:], there is metathesis (or rather, segment shifting) because of the initial semivowel) combines with pozåh [potʃɑʔ] "boat (from pōzoq) to be lúumpíozåh as in "islands and boats" or more completely yan pehma lúumpíozåh "I see islands and boats"

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Other features often found in TbKt dialects:

• changed vowel systems, especially the development of [e]
• consonant stuff, including more fricatives, loss of one of the series or things like that. The uvular and pharyngeals are especially commonly lost
• loan words (which the standard is very resistant too)
• simply different constructions
• different pronouns

It a lot of things like that. It's late and I'm tired, so I'll be done for now, but I hope you learned a bit about some of the many Kikxotian dialects.

Dialectal variation among the Speakers of Toúījāb Kīkxot: Part 1

Just some thoughts I had earlier.

So I've always wanted Toúījāb Kīkxot to have dialects, because it is supposed to be a somewhat natural language and also because that's a thing I haven't really explored before. Well, I haven't actually documented or really even thought up what dialectal variation there would be yet, but I was thinking about it more today.

What I was realizing is that culturally, the Úīkmo Kīkxot consider Toúījāb Kīkxot to be a sacred language, the language of God (Kīkxo) himself. Now this isn't unusual, but then I remembered that I wanted their religion to have a sizeable history and that even the first revelations would be given in Toúījāb Kīkxot. What this does is give the language itself a long history, putting it in a similar situation as Classical and Modern Standard Arabic, really.

So the conclusion that I came to was that Toúījāb Kīkxot continues to be the liturgical and literary language of the Úīkmo Kīkxot. It also is the lingua franca of the region, but like MSA no one really speaks its natively. There are more conservative dialects than others, but none are exactly the same as the original Toúījāb Kīkxot as it was first understood. Like with Arabic, pretty much everyone considers themselves to simply be speaking dialects of Toúījāb Kīkxot, even when the differences are enough that two varieties aren't mutually intelligible. The dialects are, in general, more open to loanwords than the standard, though still

Toúījāb Kīkxot is written with a logographic system and the standard continues to dominate the written word, so dialects are very rarely written out. In my transliterations, I respect these by leaving the roots and inflections intact and follow them as they would be used in the standard. However, I will occasionally refer to a dialect and in those cases, all assimilation and sound changes will be written out to give a better feel of the differences between dialects and the standard.

Well, hopefully this all works out.