Kiryattic

Kiryattic κιρϊαϊα κϊαλη
Pronounced:	[ˈkir.ja.ja ˈca.lɛ]
Species:	Human
Spoken:	Central Macedonia
Total speakers:	500,000 (2015)
Writing system:	Greek
Genealogy:	Proto-Uralic Proto-Finnic Kiryattic
Credits
Creator:	Lumi
Created:	January 5th, 2026

Kiryattic (/ˈkir.jæ.tɪk/ in the US or /ˈkir.jə.ˌtɪk/ in the UK, less often "Kiryish" /ˈkir.jɪʃ/) is a Finnic language spoken in Greece. Kiryattic is most distinguishable by its loss of vowel harmony, as well as its preservation of word final Proto-Finnic *k (as modern /ɣ/) and *h (as modern /k/).

Classification

Kiryattic is a Finnic language, belonging to the Finnic branch of the Uralic family, making it related to Finnish, Estonian, and, more distantly, Hungarian. Kiryattic is one of the only Finnic languages that doesn't fit in the Finnic dialect continuum, as it's diverged enough to be distinctly separate. Despite this distance from the other Finnic languages, it still shares many features.

The Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, United States, classifies Kiryattic as a level III language in terms of difficulty for native English speakers, citing the sheer amount of morphology it possesses.

Official Status

Kiryattic is a recognized minority language of Greece, and an official language in Central Macedonia.

It is given legal protections as a minority language by the Greek government, including protections against discrimination. Kiryattic is viewed positively by most in Greece, and has shown up in several pieces of media, including literature and film. It is also used within some schools, especially those that offer classes for the language.

Kiryattic has gained more global recognition in recent years with the advent of short form content allowing for the viral spread of music and clips that include people speaking it.

History

Kiryattic is a descendant of late Proto-Finnic, though it isn't attested till the early 13th century in Greece, written in an adaptation of Greek miniscule that is largely still used (hence why many letter forms seem odd or wrong).

Overview

Not much is known about the early period of Kiryattic, as verified attestations don't start till around 1250, though attestations as early as 1100 are claimed, these are unverified at best.

Linguists believe Kiryattic was the last to split from the other Finnic languages, making it the youngest of them. It's estimated to have split off around 800AD. From around 800AD to the late 1000's it's thought the Kiryats were migrating across Europe to Greece, where they'd finally settle around and in Naissus (Modern-day Niš) under emperor Basil II. Over the next century, they'd continue to move towards Greece proper, till they settled across Macedonia (Modern-day Central Macedonia).

Linguistic research on Kiryattic began in the mid 1600's, following linguists trying and failing to fit it into the Indo-European family, from there, many early proponents of the Uralic family took interest in it, such as Martin Fogel and Georg Stiernhielm. Fogel especially took interest in it due to the geographic distance, being quick to try and establish which language it's closest to, and concluding it must at least be decently close to Finnish, but he failed to explain the grammar issues.

In the mid 1980's, the Academy of Kiryattic Linguistics finalized a standardized form of the language, in this was a section titled "The Great Reformation", a section over the grammar of the language, it's notable for altering the language. This standardized language has since been the form taught in schools, so it's been widely adopted by those born after its publication. Due to the preservation of the pre-reform language by the older generations, the older forms are still taught, albeit they're taught as outdated forms, for purposes of understanding and communicating with the older generations.

Early Period (before 1600)

Kiryattic is believed to have split off from Proto-Finnic around 800AD, as the last language to do so. Following this is roughly 2 centuries of migration to Naissus, over which they'd pick up some influence from other languages along the way, notably Germanic and Slavic. This influence would be through loan words exclusively though, as no settlement stayed long enough to pick up more.

From roughly 1050AD to 1200AD, Kiryattic was spoken by the Kiryats in Naissus, where they'd pick up the first of their Greek influence, this was far more notable though, as they'd stay in Greece permanently, where Greek would start to influence grammar, mostly syntax.

After 1200AD, it seems they began moving towards Greek proper, where they'd eventually settle in Macedonia in 1327AD, an event thought to be recorded in some historic texts from the time that mention the arrival of a strange people who spoke differently from the local Greeks, though it seems the Kiryats were accepted by the locals, as it's likely they could speak Greek.

From 1327AD onward, no more migration happened, but it seems the language nearly faced death around 1450AD, being noted in a Greek text, "I have noticed the [Kiryats]¹ seem to have lost touch with their tongue, only the elders speak it well, and very few of the youth speak it at all. It seems to me they favor [Greek]" (1: The Greek reads "Northern foreigners").

Early Modern Period (1600 to 1850)

Kiryattic was only sparsely written, even during the time we have verified records of it, and it wouldn't get to a literary position till the late 1600's, when linguists took interest in it for clearly not fitting in the Indo-European family, it was then a small set of linguists took up trying to link it to other languages, when similarities between it and Finnish were noticed, early proponents of a link between Finnish and Hungarian, such as Martin Fogel and Georg Stiernhielm, took interest in it as well.

These early linguists would start work on reconstructing a "Proto-Finnic", relying on Kiryattic at points for the conservative features it does retain, such as final -γ where the other Finnic languages have nothing. The discovery of the link between Kiryattic and the Finnic languages is attributed to Martin Fogel. At points, linguists realized Kiryattic could be incredibly divergent in certain areas, such as grammatically, where Kiryattic very often showed signs of regularization or even leveling, this made linguists retiscent to use it for reconstructing grammar, instead using it mainly for reconstructing the general phonological structure of words, where it is rather helpful.

The dual forms of Kiryattic have caused much debate among linguists, as the way they fit into the language seems to suggest they're incredibly old, possibly even from Proto-Finnic, but had that been the case, you would expect to see remnants of a dual in the other Finnic languages, but there isn't one, so it's now generally agreed that the dual was an early innovation that over time became more and more settled into the inflection systems till it was no more noticeable than the other suffixes.

A debate around the dual forms is about why the nouns recieved a vowel, but the verbs recieved -δ, one of the more accepted theories proposes that due to the nature of how number is marked on the two, the origin of the dual affix reduced differently, so in nouns it reduced to a vowel to fit into the pattern, while on verbs it reduced to *-ks, then through regular sound change it become -δ, this is also why most linguists believe the dual originates from the reduction and eventual suffixation of *kakci, which would have been *kaksi at the time, the idea is it went through several stages of reduction:

In nouns: *kakci > *kaksi > *kaks(ə) > *-kas- > *-ah- > -a-/-á-

In verbs: *kakci > *kaksi > *kaks(ə) > *-kaks > *-aks > *-ks > *-gz > *-dð > -d

Another dispute has been held over the negative forms, it's thought they come from the suffixation of Proto-Finnic *e-, which does well explain the forms, but the process behind it remains unknown, though it likely at least began through Jespersen's cycle, which explains the negative being post-verb.

The plural verb forms have also been a point of contention, they're clearly composed of the singular form with -έ affixed to the end, but the origin of these forms is unknown, though it's been suggested it comes from the ending on several (but not all) of the verb forms in Proto-Finnic, and this is widely accepted as no better explanation exists. Another problem is figuring out the order all of these changes happened in, as that greatly impacts the expected forms.

The chronology of these changes greatly dictates how we would expect modern Kiryattic to look, so below is a widely accepted theory.

1: Jespersen's cycle and subsequent suffixation of the negative

2: Leveling of the verbal plural to -έ

3: Innovation of the dual, using the plural as a model

Modern Day (1850 to now)

In 1985-87, the Academy of Kiryattic Linguistics (AKL) finalized a standardized form of the language that regularized the grammar (but didn't level.it), this is the form of the language taught in schools, leading to most younger speakers using a variant of it, while older speakers continue to use the old forms, this can sometimes cause problems in communication between younger and older speakers. While this form is spoken natively by most Kiryats, especially the younger generations.

Among this reform was many new loanwords from Greek to replace older words that could be seen as potentially offensive or derogatory, many of these already existed within the language, but were now the standard, such as "σκϊύλάσ" (From Greek "σκῠ́λᾰξ") replacing older "πενιγγα" (From Proto-Finnic *penikka), this specific example was already common among younger speakers, and it became especially so with the rise of the internet.

Since the late 1970's, past tense forms of the optative and potential have been developing, being fully solidified when the reform was published, as it included this development in a regularized form. This is extremely notable for being one of the few major developments in the modern language that happened naturally.

With the rise of the internet, the language has been changing less and less, as the language is continuously documented and cemented in its current form. Social media has further slowed evolution, as the informal language reaches a kind of written standard as well due to the sheer amount of written content that people write and consume every day.

Distribution

Modern Kiryattic is spoken throughout Central Macedonia, primarily around the Thessaloniki metropolitan area. Outside of Central Macedonia it is rare, though it can be heard in some areas of the rest of Macedonia, as well as among some immigrants in the Americas.

Kiryattic is the primary language of roughly 350,000 people, with another 150,000 that only use it at home or in private. Despite this, it's estimated every Kiryat knows at least basic Greek, if not fully fluent, this is likely due to the geographic distribution of Kiryattic, generally being spread thin across Central Macedonia, leading to Greek being almost necessary for daily life, much to the dismay of many Kiryats.

In recent years, there have been efforts to increase the number of speakers throughout Greece, as to facilitate Kiryattic being used more in public. The Academy of Kiryattic Linguistics has especially pushed for this, being one of the reasons they published a standard form of the language. Kiryattic has generally been held in a positive light, so most of Greece has been open to offering language classes to students in school, which have been decently popular among younger people. The L2 speaker population is estimated to be around 1,000,000, with roughly half of those reporting they're fully fluent in the language.

Within Greece, Kiryattic is overseen by the Academy of Kiryattic Linguistics, which is responsible for most thing concerning the language, especially preservation and education. The Academy was established in 1831, and has generally been viewed positively since, though it has had troubles occasionally, such as when it ruled in 1853 for schools to prioritize teaching Kiryattic over Greek and foreign languages, though that was quickly withdrawn upon seeing the public disapproval. Beyond that, the Academy has been responsible for dealing with foreign diplomacy regarding the language, and it has advocated heavily for more foreign support of the language, such as attempting to get an official Kiryattic translation of all UN materials, though that particular effort has been largely ineffective.

In recent years, Kiryattic has been recognized as a minority language by the Greek government, and the Academy of Kiryattic Linguistics has gained the authority to make multilingual road signs in areas where Kiryattic is spoken by a significant amount of people (20% or higher), and in areas where it has been spoken for a significant amount of time (like Thessaloniki, where it has been spoken for at least 500 years). The Academy has also been granted the authority to make official translations of government documents. With the recognition of Kiryattic as a minority language, it has also been given status as an official language of Central Macedonia, which gives it protections otherwise not granted.

Phonology

Phonology

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal		m		n	ɲ	(ŋ)
Plosive	Voiceless	p		t	c	k
	Voiced	b		d	ɟ	ɡ
Fricative	Voiceless	f	θ	s~z	ç	x
	Voiced	v	ð		ʝ	ɣ
Approximant				r, l	j

Vowels

	Front	Back
High	i(ː)	u(ː)
Mid-High	e(ː)	o(ː)
Mid-Low	ɛ(ː)	ɔ
Low	a(ː)

Orthography

Monographs

Letter	Transcription	Name	Pronunciation
α	a	α	/a/
β	v	βε	/v/
γ	g	γε	/ɣ/
δ	d	δε	/ð/
ε	e	ε	/e/
η	ē	η	/ɛ/
ζ	z	ζε	/z/
θ	th~þ	θε	/θ/
ι	i	ι	/i/
ϊ	ï	ϊο	/j/, /ʲ/
κ	k	κε	/k/
λ	l	λε	/l/
μ	m	με	/m/
ν	n	νε	/n/
ο	o	ο	/o/
π	p	πε	/p/
ρ	r	ρε	/r/
ς	s	ςε	/s/
τ	t	τε	/t/
υ	u	υ	/u/
ϋ	ü	υ βενη¹	/ʷ/
φ	f	φε	/f/
χ	h	χε	/x/
ω	ō	ω	/ɔ/

1: Literally "υ as β", referencing the /w/-like sound.

Vowel digraphs

Letters	Transcription	Pronunciation
αι	ai	/ai̯/
αυ	au	/au̯/
ει	ei	/ei̯/
ευ	eu	/eu̯/
οι	oi	/oi̯/
ου	ou	/ou̯/

Consonant digraphs

Letter	Transcription	Pronunciation
βπ	vp	/b/
γκ	gk	/g/
δτ	dt	/d/
νγ	ng	/ŋ(ɣ)/
νκ	nk	/ŋk/

Doubled letters are always long unless representing the coda position, where they're short, such as in "κϊαλϊλγ" /caʎʝ/.

A consonant followed by "ϊ" is always palatalized, in clusters, all consonants are palatalized, such as "λϊγκ" being /ʎɟ/. A general rule is only one "ϊ" per cluster, and it's always the earliest one, so if a compound would end up with "κϊλγϊ", it'll become "κϊλγ".

Morphology

Kiryattic is agglutinative like the other Finnic languages. The grammar is incredibly easy to analyze due to its extreme consistency and regularity that makes it simple to separate suffixes from roots.

An odd part of Kiryattic morphology is the development of a dual form from *kakci, it's not known how this developed, but it's an important aspect of the modern morphology.

Nouns

Nouns are some of the oddest bits of Kiryattic morphology, as they've undergone so much regularization that many of the forms look nothing like the Proto-Finnic.

Inflection of "κιάλε" (ε/α/ι pattern)

	singular	dual	plural
Nominative	κϊαλη	κϊαλη	κϊαλη
Accusative	κϊαλετ	κϊαλατ	κϊαλϊτ
Genitive	κϊαλε	κϊαλα	κϊαλϊ
Dative	κϊαλελγ	κϊαλαλγ	κϊαλϊλγ
Formal	κϊαλενη	κϊαλανη	κϊαλϊνη

An important aspect of nouns is the possessed forms (or "possessive forms" in Finnish grammar), these are the forms of nouns with a suffix marking who's possessing it (thus acting like "my", "your", "their", etc...)

Possessive suffixes

Singular	1st	-με
	2nd	-σε
	3rd	-κε
Dual	1st	-μα
	2nd	-σα
	3rd	-κα
Plural	1st	-μϊ
	2nd	-σϊ
	3rd	-κϊ

Noun patterns

There's several patterns, they can be generalized to the endings of the genitive Above you saw "κϊάλη", an -ε/-ά/-ι pattern noun, so the others will be presented below.

Inflection of "χαρα" (α/αα/υο pattern)

	singular	dual	plural
Nominative	χαρυ	χαρυυ	χαρβυ
Accusative	χαρατ	χαραατ	χαρβοτ
Genitive	χαρα	χαραα	χαρβο
Dative	χαραλγ	χαρααλγ	χαρβολγ
Formal	χαρανυ	χαραανυ	χαρβονυ

Inflection of "ελάϊέ" (ά/άά/ιε pattern)

	singular	dual	plural
Nominative	ελαϊη	ελαϊηη	εληϊη
Accusative	ελαϊατ	ελαϊατ	εληϊετ
Genitive	ελαϊα	ελαϊα	εληϊε
Dative	ελαϊαλγ	ελαϊααλγ	εληϊελγ
Formal	ελαϊανη	ελαϊαανη	εληϊενη

Cases

The cases are a rather central part of Kiryattic, but many are falling out of use.

The abessive and comitative are essentially extinct, and the cases for movement are quickly becoming the same.

The lost cases are typically replaced by an adverb of adposition, or their meaning is taken by another case.

Comitative: "-ν", replaced by "μιτ", thought to come from Old High German "mit".

Abessive: "-ττη", replaced by "αανω", thought to be from Old High German "āno", "āna", or "ānu"

Allative: Developed into the dative case, original allative meaning replaced by "προς" + the dative. "προς" is believed to be from the Ancient Greek of the same spelling.

Illative: "-ε", replaced by "ις", thought to be from Ancient Greek "εις".

Elative, Ablative, Translative: "-στη", "-λτη", "-δη", replaced by "εγ", apparently from Ancient Greek "εκ".

Adessive: "-λλη", replaced by "πρη'", thought to be from Old Church Slavonic "pri".

Inessive: "-σση", replaced by "ε", apparently from Ancient Greek "εν".

Pronouns

Pronouns

	1st			2nd			3rd
	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	μινυ	μινβυ	μινϊη	ςινυ	ςινβυ	ςινϊη	ινυ	ινβυ	ινϊη
Accusative	μινυτ	μινβατ	μινϊατ	ςινυτ	ςινβατ	ςινϊατ	ινυτ	ινβατ	ινϊατ
Genitive	μινυ	μινβα	μινϊα	ςινυ	ςινβα	ςινϊα	ινυ	ινβα	ινϊα
Dative	μινυλγ	μινβαλγ	μινϊαλγ	ςινυλγ	ςινβαλγ	ςινϊαλγ	ινυλγ	ινβαλγ	ινϊαλγ
Formal	μινυνυ	μινβανυ	μινϊανη	ςινυνυ	ςινβανυ	ςινϊανη	ινυνυ	ινβανυ	ινϊανη

Verbs

Verbs are highly complex, and like nouns, have dual forms.

Inflection of "λόύτάάγ" (a-ie)

Positive		Indicative		Conditional		Optative		Potential		Imperative
		Present	Past	Present	Past	Present	Past	Present	Past
Singular	1st	λευτα	λευτϊε	λευταδ	λευτϊεδ	λευταυ	λευτϊε	λευτανε	λευτϊενε	λευταα
	2nd	λευτατ	λευτϊετ	λευταθ	λευτϊεθ	λευταυτ	λευτϊετ	λευτανετ	λευτϊενετ	λευταατ
	3rd	λευτη	λευτϊη	λευταδη	λευτϊεδη	λευταυ	λευτϊη	λευτανη	λευτϊενη	λευτηη
Dual		λευταδ	λευτϊεδ	λευταδ	λευτϊεδ	λευταυδ	λευτϊεδ	λευτανεδ	λευτϊενεδ	λευτααδ
Plural	1st	λευτανη	λευτϊενη	λευταζϊη	λευτϊεζϊη	λευταυνη	λευτϊενη	λευτανενη	λευτϊενενη	λευταανη
	2nd	λευτατη	λευτϊετη	λευταθη	λευτϊεθη	λευταυτη	λευτϊετη	λευτανετη	λευτϊενετη	λευταατη
	3rd	λευτηη	λευτϊηη	λευταδηη	λευτϊεδηη	λευταυη	λευτϊηη	λευτανηη	λευτϊενηη	λευτηη
Participle		λευταβη	λευτϊεβη	λευταζη	λευτϊεζη	λευταυβη	λευτϊεβη	λευτανεβη	λευτϊενεβη	λευτααβη
Negative		Indicative		Conditional		Optative		Potential		Imperative
		Present	Past	Present	Past	Present	Past	Present	Past
Singular	1st	λευτακε	λευτϊεκε	λευταχε	λευτϊεχε	λευταυκε	λευτϊεκε	λευτανκε	λευτϊενκε	λευταακε
	2nd	λευτακετ	λευτϊεκετ	λευταχετ	λευτϊεχετ	λευταυκετ	λευτϊεκετ	λευτανκετ	λευτϊενκετ	λευταακετ
	3rd	λευτακη	λευτϊεκη	λευταχη	λευτϊεχη	λευταυκη	λευτϊεκη	λευτανκη	λευτϊενκη	λευταακη
Dual		λευτακεδ	λευτϊεκεδ	λευταχεδ	λευτϊεχεδ	λευταυκεδ	λευτϊεκεδ	λευτανκεδ	λευτϊενκεδ	λευταακεδ
Plural	1st	λευτακενη	λευτϊεκενη	λευταχενη	λευτϊεχενη	λευταυκενη	λευτϊεκενη	λευτανκενη	λευτϊενκενη	λευταακενη
	2nd	λευτακετη	λευτϊεκετη	λευταχετη	λευτϊεχετη	λευταυκετη	λευτϊεκετη	λευτανκετη	λευτϊενκετη	λευταακετη
	3rd	λευτακηη	λευτϊεκηη	λευταχηη	λευτϊεχηη	λευταυκηη	λευτϊεκηη	λευτανκηη	λευτϊενκηη	λευταακηη
Participle		λευτακεβη	λευτϊεκεβη	λευταχεβη	λευτϊεχεβη	λευταυκεβη	λευτϊεκεβη	λευτανκεβη	λευτϊενκεβη	λευταακεβη

1: The imperative was restructured early on, it now follows the present indicative, but with the vowel (here -á-) doubled.

2: The difference between the old past and the new past is the forms alone, they're identical in usage.

As can be seen, Kiryattic has unique negative forms, these developed from the suffixation of Proto-Finnic *e- (negative verb) to the connegative form, these connegative forms were later lost, leaving only the negative forms.

In modern everyday speech, the imperative is often reduced down to the 1st person singular forms (Ex. "λευτάά" and "λευτάάκε") and a pronoun is used instead of inflecting, so "You will find" is "σινυ λευτάά" in informal speech, while in proper speech it's "λευτάάτ"

The following table is the inflection of "-βη", the participle ending.

Inflection of "-βη" (ά/άά/ιε pattern)

	singular	dual	plural
Nominative	-βη	-βηη	-βϊη
Accusative	-βατ	-βαατ	-βϊετ
Genitive	-βα	-βαα	-βϊε
Dative	-βαλγ	-βααλγ	-βϊελγ
Formal	-βανη	-βαανη	-βϊενη

Syntax and Semantics

Word order is almost entirely free, even describer-describee (adjective/numeral-noun) order varies, descriptors typically come before the described, but it's possible to construct it differently, "the good puppy" is typically constructed "χύϋε νε σκϊύλάσ" ("the good puppy", lit. "good the puppy"), but it's also possible to use the essive to denote it, as in "νε σκϊύλά χύϋενά" ("the puppy that's good", lit. "the puppy in a state of good"), however, when speaking of health, only the second construction is used, thus "you are well" is rendered as "σινε χύϋενά" (lit. "you in a state of good").

Cases

Now, this may seem out of place here, but this is for the uses of the cases, not their forms.

Nominative: Subject. Also used for both arguments in an "A = B" argument.

Accusative: Direct object.

Genitive: Used for possession, birthplace, and occasionally for relationships in older or poetic language. Instrumental: Closer to an instrumental. Identical to the genitive in form

Dative: Indirect object.

Formal: Used to mark a state of being, or as "to be".

Comparison

UDHR Article 1

Kiryattic
κωκκη ιννιμιςε ςιννϊδη βαπαανυ και ςαμυ ε αρβολγ ϊυ ε δικϊεομβυ. ϊαρκη ϊυ ςινϊθς ινϊαλγ, και οφιλυ φερεςθωη ιςεγκϊλγ κϊινονϊανυ.

/kɔk.kɛ in.ni.mi.se siɲ.ðʲɛ va.pa:.nu kai sa.mu e ar.volɣ ju e ði.ce.om.vu | jar.kɛ ju siɲθʲsʲ i.ɲalɣ kai o.fi.lu fe.res.θɔ.ɛ i.seɟʎʝ ci.no.ɲa.nu/

Literal
All human beings, if born, are free and equal in dignity and in rights. Reason and conscience to them, and they should act to themselves as a fellowship.

English
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.