Ákat objects: counting the pebbles

If there's one widely known "myth" about the development of Ákat, it has to be the two century argument between Nakap Philosopher factions around how plurals should be formed in the revised language.

Like all good myths, this story hides a kernal of truth within its exaggerations. The debate was long-lasting, and did lead to some very heated personal disputes. But the arguments were not about how to reform the plural system, but rather whether the system should be evolved from the base languages or should rather be simplified. Earlier philosophers preferred the former option while younger generations argued for the latter. In the end, the debate was bought to a close by the passage of time: those preferring an evolved option died before those arguing for a simplified option.

The pluralisation systems used in the base languages were often complex, and inconsistent, with a large number of object words forming their plurals regularly in some languages and irregularly in others. For many early Philosophers the search for a systemised basis in the roots of those languages that could explain these outcomes was a key aim in their work. Unfortunately, none of their proposed hypotheses withstood scrutiny - the best system managed to explain some 70 per cent of pluralisation strategies through five rules (one for each object gender) and a series of phonological constraints.

For a philosophical movement dedicated to purifying the very language in which they constructed their thoughts, even the best evolved hypothesis was not good enough. Younger philosophers argued that the pluralisation system was complex not because of sound change through the ages, but rather because of deliberate contamination of the root language by other, lesser languages. They argued that the best way forward was to ignore the most obvious irregularities and simplify the system as far as possible, with an aim of uncovering the ancient system through applying known phonetic and grammatical changes to the most regular pluralisation strategies across the object classes. The results of the new approach, while not satisfying any group of Nakap philosophers, did find favour within the wider Nakap communities.

Demonstrating object number

Each Ákat object can be classed as either a count object or a mass object. This division impacts on how plural forms of the word should be interpreted:

count objects are those objects that can be lined up and counted, for instance houses, goats, children, etc; a number of abstract objects can also be counted such as an examination, a sense or a story
mass objects, while often occurring in states that can be counted, are more often weighed or measured, for instance water, obesity, blackness; often Ákat speakers treat objects that seemingly could be counted quite easily as mass objects: facts, disabilities, endeavours
a few objects can be treated as both a count object and a mass object - this includes the words ákis/ýkis (person/crowd) and nakus/nykus (immediate family/tribe): the only way to distinguish these words is through context - how they are being used in the wider conversation or narrative

Plural formation

Object pluralisation in the modern form of Ákat is demonstrated by changes in the object's class marker. There are five pluralisation forms in the language, which are used for both count objects and mass objects: singular; paucal; plural; nullar; and undetermined.

Object class	Singular	Paucal	Plural	Nullar	Undetermined
People	á	é	ó	ú	ý
Nature	à	èi	òi	ù	ỳ
Made	ta	tel	tol	tu	tyhn
Thought	na	nei	noi	nu	ny
Dangerous	sa	sei	soi	su	syhn

Examples of count and mass object pluralisations:

Object	Count/mass	a form	e/ei/el form	o/oi/ol form	u form	y/yhn form
tasys	count	tasys one ball	telsys a few balls	tolsys many balls	tusys no balls	tyhnsys balls in general
átis	count	átis one promise	étis a few promises	ótis many promises	útis no promises	ýtis promises in general
ýcic	mass	ácic a drop of water	écic a beaker's worth of water	ócic sufficient water in which a body can be immersed	úcic a lack of any water	ýcic water in general
syhncic	mass	sacic the area of sea being viewed	seicic the area of sea that can be sailed in one day	soicic all the seas of a given type	sucic former seas, the lack of a sea	syhncic seas in general
tyhntexpapâp	mass	tatexpapâp the floor in (say) a small room	teltexpapâp a large, continuous expanse of floor	toltexpapâp all the floors in (say) a building	tutexpapâp lacking a floor	tyhntexpapâp floors in general
ákis	count	ákis one person	ékis a few people	ókis many people	úkis no people	ýkis persons in general
ýkis	mass	ákis a small minority of people	ékis a large minority of people	ókis a large majority of people	úkis an insignificant number of people	ýkis people in general
nakus	count	nakus one family unit	neikus a few family units	noikus many family units	nukus no family units	nykus family units in general
nykus	mass	nakus a small minority of the tribe	neikus a large minority of the tribe	noikus a large majority of the tribe	nukus an insignificant number of the tribe	nykus tribes in general

Counting

Ákat, like all other Telik languages, counts using a base 8 system. The Ákat system was regularised over nine centuries ago, and hasn't changed since that time.

The following table provides details of each unit in each power range. The digits before the word are base 8; those that follow in brackets are base 10.

8° (1)	8¹ (8)	8² (64)	8³ (512)
1: hnip (1)	10: hnapis (8)	100: hriep (64)	1000: hrapies (512)
2: hnit (2)	20: hnatis (16)	200: hriet (128)	2000: hraties (1024)
3: hnif (3)	30: hnafis (24)	300: hrief (192)	3000: hrafies (1536)
4: hnix (4)	40: hnaxis (32)	400: hriex (256)	4000: hraxies (2048)
5: hnik (5)	50: hnakis (40)	500: hriek (320)	5000: hrakies (2560)
6: hnil (6)	60: hnalis (48)	600: hriel (384)	6000: hralies (3072)
7: hnim (7)	70: hnamis (56)	700: hriem (448)	7000: hramies (3584)
0: hnis (0)

The examples that follow (which is the 5 times multiplication table) show how these numbers are combined:

5: hnik	36: hnafil	67: hnalim	120: hriep-ehnatis
12: hnapit	43: hnaxif	74: hnamix	125: hriep-ehnatik
17: hnapim	50: hnakis	101: hriep-ehnip	132: hriep-ehnafit
24: hnatix	55: hnakik	106: hriep-ehnil	137: hriep-ehnafim
31: hnafip	62: hnalit	113: hriep-ehnapif	144: hriep-ehnaxix

Another example, this time using the 30 times multiplication table:

36: hnafil	264: hriet-ehnalix	512: hriek-ehnapit	740: hriem-ehnaxis
74: hnamix	322: hrief-ehnatit	550: hriek-ehnakis	776: hriem-ehnamil
132: hriep-ehnafit	360: hrief-ehnalis	606: hriel-ehnil	1034: hrapies-ehnafix
170: hriep-ehnamis	416: hriex-ehnapil	644: hriel-ehnaxix	1072: hrapies-ehnamit
226: hriet-ehnatil	454: hriex-ehnakix	702: hriem-ehnit	1130: hrapiep-ehnafis

Counting count and mass objects

Simple count numbers (anything between 0 and 63) can routinely be affixed to the object they are counting, employing the "and" modifier e- to do so. This allows the speaker to be more precise about the numbers and quantities of the particular objects under discussion or consideration. Numbers can be added to both count objects and mass objects: