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← Reconstructing the Sarkaz Language

Created: 2026-09-07
Translations of this post: en-US zh-Hans 

note

This is a game lore article about the Sarkaz language in Arknights, and is not related in any way to real-world knowledge.

This post has been published on SKLand, NGA and Reddit. Feel free repost this article, but please credit the author Micfong and give the original link.

PRO KOL SARKAZIM!

Over the past two or three years, our understanding of the Sarkaz language has grown a lot clearer as more material has been released. It began with the decipherment of the alphabet (1, 2, 3, 4), and continued through a few studies of my own (1, 2, 3), the posts of @龙门城邦地理 (1, 2), @timnj1's series of articles on other forums (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6), Dr. u/tunaOfSpace's work on Reddit (link), and the analyses of many other Doctors. We therefore now have enough information to make reasonable inferences about how Sarkaz is put together, and to reconstruct it as a complete language.

This article covers the etymology, grammar and internal logic of Sarkaz from the ground up, and should deliver a complete specification of the language. The contents are as follows:

  1. A sample of standardised Sarkaz
  2. Overview of the attested material
  3. Earlier decipherment work
  4. Possible origins of Sarkaz
  5. Phonology and orthography
  6. The apostrophe marker and the construct state
  7. Nouns
  8. Personal pronouns
  9. Adjectives, demonstratives and quantifiers
  10. Verbs
  11. The negative prefix sar-
  12. Syntax
  13. Numerals
  14. Overview of word formation
  15. Constructing new words
  16. Sample new words
  17. Open questions
  18. Roots and core vocabulary
  19. Complete list of coined words
  20. Misc, acknowledgements and references

Since the Sarkaz script has not been encoded in Unicode, this post writes Sarkaz mainly in its romanised form; the native script appears only in images. The letterforms are based on Dr. @罗醭坦's font, to which I have added glyphs for š/Š, č/Č, ǧ/Ǧ and '. Note also that Sarkaz makes no distinction between upper and lower case. In the romanisation used here we adopt whichever mix reads most easily. Dr. @罗醭坦's Sarkaz font distinguishes case simply by letter size.

For the sake of completeness, the Sarkaz examples given here include invented roots; their sources and rationale are set out in §4 - Possible origins of Sarkaz, §15 - Constructing new words and §19 - Complete list of coined words. As a rule of thumb, within any series of examples the earlier items are attested in game and the later ones are constructed by myself. The Sarkaz reconstructed here is a complete language built along the same lines as the attested material and vocabulary. It should reflect everything that has been made public accurately, but may diverge from future material that Hypergryph has not yet released. Expect errors in this post as I'm not a linguistics expert.

This post marks correct Sarkaz in code blocks and incorrect Sarkaz in *code block with an asterisk.

1 - A sample of standardised Sarkaz

Below are the first three articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights translated into Sarkaz.

Article 1. 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.

1i: Kol kazam yaladeliš, et in dignitat et in iuram sem esa hofši et ekuale.
Sem esa teebina et teeconscientio, et debe abada inter sem kum leb'ahim.

Article 2 (trimmed). Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

2i: Kol kaz pote laqah kol iuram et hofešam kod in ze declaration elenkohateliš, sine kol diferentio de gener, de color, de seczo, de qlim, de religion, de opinion politiko aut alteri, de origin'kaz aut de origin'kazam, de proprietat, de yaladem, aut de alteri stato.

Article 3. Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

3i: Kol kaz esa teeiur de hayem, de hofeš, et de securitat'kaz.

The morpheme-by-morpheme breakdown of the first sentence of Article 1 is shown below:

The words in these three examples, coloured by etymological origin:

2 - Overview of the attested material

Most of the material we have comes from the EN server's translations of Sarkaz proper nouns in the story, together with the Sarkaz text scattered throughout IS#5 "Sarkaz's Furnaceside Fables". The important ones are listed here for reference.

2.1 - Passages

The following passage appears in the PV for IS#5 "Sarkaz's Furnaceside Fables":

qe nisazzte eld passam.
qe malihate kerda qlim.
manerit ele qlimam. maradit ele agašlehemam.
et in eld urbusil nečateliš. in eld qav'palifanil benulitel.
maraditazam luqimi kerda passam isfaeliš.
qri eld šwiǧemam. šeraqimam koneliš.
qri šeraqimam. kazdelimam koneliš.
passam sarkazo isfit.

Text on the CN January 2025 reward artwork for IS#5:

qunanamel ipsi sar isfa nečata.

2.2 - Proper nouns

From the EN server's story text:

  • Sarkaz "Sarkaz, 'the rootless'"
  • Teekaz "Teekaz"
  • Kazdel "Kazdel, 'homeland'"
  • Qui'sartuštaj "Qui'sartuštaj, 'undying hope'"
  • Qui'saršinnag "Qui'saršinnag, 'hope that must not be divided'"
  • Duq'arael "Duq'arael, 'the sovereign's red(?)'"
  • Qui'lon "Qui'lon"
  • Gul'dul "Gul'dul"
  • Balor'sača "Balor'sača"
  • Qalid'čoa "Qalid'čoa, 'key'"
  • Duq'kanfališ "Duq'kanfališ"

And our beloved Wiš'adel:

  • Wiš'adel "Wiš'adel, 'wish of home'"

2.3 - Words and phrases

From the IS#5 PV:

  • kerdem "rebirth"
  • hal "hatred"
  • agašlehem "thought"
  • vul'fanasm "fantasy"

Track titles from IS#5:

  • Nar'aejeph Saralteri (No alternatives)
  • Sura Saraǧul'tee (Arise My Friends)
  • Malihirmam Benevolentes

Collectibles and UI text from IS#5:

  • kerda kaz "new homeland"
  • la'yre agašleho qandecte "catalogue of imagined entities"
  • dwumo resonale "echoes of the age"
  • prophationam nečatum "chapter of prophecies"
  • kal'agašleho upharaelad "collected records of scattered thought"
  • vul'fanas eczbitie "exhibition of fictions"

Reward-screen tabs from IS#5:

  • agaš "archive / intelligence"
  • hed'hant "headhunt"
  • misionam "missions"
  • iutor "recruit"
  • esqa "squad"
  • tabulo "shop"
  • tesauro "depot"

3 - Earlier decipherment work

The links above have already did quite a lot of work towards deciphering those material, including a (Chinese-)Sarkaz dictionary I compiled earlier. Here we'll briefly summarise the important conclusions from each author:

  • @timnj1: after Chapter 13 landed on the EN server, was the first to point out that all the attested material can be cut into monosyllabic CVC/CVV morphemes; that kaz, qui and sar are three recurring components; that sar- is a negative morpheme; and that Kazdel is a "home-home" tautological compound.
  • My own earlier studies: the apostrophe ['] is a Semitic-style construct state, equivalent to English of. I also summarised a number of important Sarkaz etymologies and suffixes. Most native Sarkaz vocabulary comes from Semitic, alongside a large body of Latin loans.
  • u/tunaOfSpace: pointed out that -el + -iš and -im + -am are two recurring suffix pairs.
  • Beyond this, we have also observed that every verb appears to have a Semitic-style consonantal stem, to which a vowel -a or -e, the perfective -it, or the passive -eliš is added.

It is worth noting that noun phrases are not uniformly head-initial. @timnj1 argued from Qui'sartuštaj that Sarkaz is thoroughly head-initial, i.e. that Sarkaz does not say "red apple" but "apple-red". Attributive nominal modifiers do indeed follow the head (the construct state, and the -o relational adjective), but qualitative adjectives uniformly precede it, as in eld passam "old roads", kerda qlim "a new language", sar isfa nečata "writing without end". This makes "qualities before, relations after" an important characteristic of Sarkaz.

4 - Possible origins of Sarkaz

Looking at the attested material, we find that almost all the vocabulary a basic, early civilisation would need comes from Semitic, while Latin supplies predominantly the vocabulary of a more organised society, along with conjunctions and prepositions. We therefore propose that Sarkaz took shape in two stages:

  1. Before the Sarkaz formed large organised societies, the language was used mainly for speech. Sarkaz at this stage was highly simplified and lacked any standard, and so contained only basic vocabulary of the "world", "home", "hope", "hatred", "sovereign" variety. Most of these words come from Semitic.
  2. At some point Sarkaz was standardised by some power, and given a register suited to archives, decrees and officialdom. Latin was introduced as the principal source for the written language. From this point Sarkaz began to borrow Latin heavily for the vocabulary a regularised grammar requires, including:
    • Function words: et "and" and in "in"
    • Institutional vocabulary: tabulo "shop", tesauro "depot", mision "mission", iutor "recruit", esqa "squad", hed'hant "headhunt", nečata "writing", and so on.
    • The written register itself: the incantation Rhodes Island operator Logos writes in combat is scribo imperium, which is a complete Latin sentence.

Further, the Sarkaz word qalid "key" comes from Ancient Greek κλείς, which later passed into Aramaic as qlīdā and Arabic as iqlīd. We therefore place the boundary between these two stages at roughly the Middle Aramaic period, i.e. between the 3rd century BCE and the 3rd century CE.

The reconstructions in this post proceeds on this hypothesis. When coining new words and grammatical structures, we sort vocabulary broadly into two classes:

  • Semitic-sourced vocabulary: the basic, the bodily, the emotional, the kinship-related, the natural, the sacred. For example, "blood", "grief", "oath", "root", "stone", "mother", "seven", "mountain".
  • Latin-sourced vocabulary: the structural, the institutional, the administrative, the technical, the written. For example, "ledger", "writ", "court", "treasury", "clause", "register", plus function words.

This distinction will guide every section of this post.

5 - Phonology and orthography

We now make reasonable inferences and extensions to fill in the parts of the language we do not have. Here is the Sarkaz alphabet:

5.1 - Phonemes

The phonemes attested in Sarkaz are:

  • Consonants: b, č, d, f, g, ǧ, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, š, t, v, w, z
  • Vowels: a, e, i, o, u

Note that Sarkaz has no x, no y (as a vowel), and no independent c, even though the Sarkaz alphabet does contain c, x and y. Judging from the Chinese transliterations of proper nouns, most letters have values close to their English counterparts, with the following exceptions:

Letter Value Confidence
š /ʃ/ High, from the Chinese transliterations
č /tʃ/ High, from transliteration convention
ǧ /ʒ/ By transliteration convention; see below
q /q/, uvular Distinguished from k; see below
' /ʔ/, glottal stop By transliteration convention, but unconfirmed

On ǧ**:** it occurs in exactly one word, saraǧul, whose source is Arabic غ (ghayn, /ɣ/). To keep the diacritic system internally consistent (š /ʃ/ — ǧ /ʒ/ — č /tʃ/ form a tidy set of postalveolars), we take it to be /ʒ/. Arabic ghayn to /ʒ/ is perhaps no more than an ordinary sound change. This way no spelling needs special treatment.

On q**:** it occurs only in words of Semitic origin, such as qui, qe, qlim, qalid. To keep it distinct from k, we rule that Latin-sourced vocabulary never uses q, and that Latin qu- /kw/ always enters Sarkaz as k-: quod → kod, quomodo → komo, quia → kia, quaeso → keso, and so on. The presence of q alone therefore tells you whether a word is of Semitic origin.

5.2 - Stress

Sarkaz stress cannot currently be determined, but given the language's Semitic character, stress should normally fall within the last two syllables. We provisionally place it on the penultimate syllable, except that compounds made of two monosyllabic roots take stress on the final syllable: kaz-DEL, sar-KAZ.

5.3 - Syllable structure

Sarkaz syllable structure comes in two types:

  1. Core roots are all monosyllabic CVC/CVV: sar, kaz, del, qui, tee, duq, wiš, hal, eld, qav, gul, lon, nag, taj, tuš and so on. These roots carry all compound word formation.
  2. The bulk of the vocabulary is polysyllabic, and permits consonant clusters the first type forbids: malihate, agašlehem, nisazzte, vul'fanasm, malihirm, urbusil. The attested initial clusters are ql- and šw-; the final clusters are -sm, -rm, -nt, -ld, -zzt.

Geminate consonants also exist (pass, nisazzte), though where Semitic uses gemination for the intensive and causative stems, Sarkaz appears to make no use of it.

5.4 - Orthography of Latin loans

From the attested Latin loans we can generalise the following set of rules for borrowing Latin vocabulary into Sarkaz.

Latin loans should conform to the following:

Latin Sarkaz Example
c c lice < licere, qandecte, eczbitie
ch k makino < machina, skolo, karto
qu- k kod, komo, kia
x cz eczbitie < exhibitio, eczemplar, piczel
th t tesauro < thesaurus
ph f fisiko < physica
y i fisiko < physica

Note that k in a Latin-sourced word must come from qu- or ch-, never from c.

Exception: nečata < necatum writes Latin c as č. Given that Sarkaz already has the letter c, this may be some special rule in the official setting, but it is hard to generalise from at present.

Declensions should be handled as follows:

  • First and second declension nouns → stem + -o: tabulo < tabula, tesauro < thesaurus
  • Third declension -tio/-sio → -ion: mision < missio, prophation, translation
  • Third declension consonant stems → take the oblique stem: ordin < ordo/ordin-, civitat, iur < ius/iur-
  • Third declension adjectives in -alis → -ale: resonale, oficiale, ekuale
  • Verbs → stem + thematic vowel -a / -e: lice, pote, debe, vole, navige, lege

6 - The apostrophe marker and the construct state

The apostrophe marker ['] is the most distinctive feature of Sarkaz, and its source is the Semitic construct state. In Semitic, the construct state expresses a dependency relation between nouns, equivalent to English of. Here we discuss how the apostrophe is used and extend it sensibly.

6.1 - Marking the construct state

In the construct state the head comes first and the modifier follows, marking the dependency. X'Y means "Y's X". For example:

  • hal'saraǧul "hatred between friends"
  • wiš'adel "wish of home"
  • passam'sarkaz "the roads of the Sarkaz"
  • qalid'čoa "key of opening"
  • duq'arael "the sovereign's red"
  • qav'idan "boundary of time (time zone)"
  • saraǧul'tee "my friend"
  • leb'ahim "heart of brothers"

Possession also uses the apostrophe marker; see §8 - Personal pronouns.

Further, when the first noun ends in a sibilant (s, š, z) and the second begins with a stop (b, d, g, k, p, q, t), an a is inserted after the apostrophe. Thus wiš + del → wiš'adel, not *wiš'del.

This rule accounts for the otherwise unexplained a- in Wiš'adel. None of the other attested apostrophe forms previously triggered it, including hal'saraǧul (l+s), passam'sarkaz (m+s), qav'palifanil (v+p), gul'dul (l+d), qalid'čoa (d+č), balor'sača (r+s), duq'arael (q+vowel), qui'sar- (vowel+s). This is probably the reason it was not noticed before.

6.2 - Separating loanwords

Note that hed'hant < headhunt does not fit the "Y's X" structure. We therefore judge the apostrophe to be dual-purpose: its second function is an innovation of the standardisation period discussed below. When standardisation began importing polysyllabic loanwords in bulk, the mark was pressed into service as a morpheme separator in loanwords.

To tell the two uses apart, we rule that if both sides of the apostrophe are words that can stand alone in Sarkaz, it is a dependency structure; if either side cannot stand alone, the apostrophe is merely separating a loanword. Both halves of hal'saraǧul are independent words, so it is a dependency structure. Neither half of hed'hant is, so it is a loanword.

7 - Nouns

Sarkaz has several fairly clear nominal morphological features.

7.1 - The plural suffix -am

To pluralise a Sarkaz noun, nouns ending in a consonant simply take -am.

Singular Plural
kaz person kazam
qlim language qlimam
mision mission misionam
pass road passam
agašlehem thought agašlehemam

Nouns ending in -a/-e replace that vowel with -am. Nouns ending in another vowel, which cannot be replaced, take a linking glide matched to that vowel on phonological grounds:

Ending Glide Example
-i -y- luqimi → luqimiyam
-o -w- proiecto → proiectowam
-u -w- tribu → tribuwam

7.2 - The collective suffix -im

Note that kazdelimam can be cut into kazdel + -im + -am, where -im derives from the Hebrew masculine plural ־ִים. On semantic grounds we take -im to attach to proper nouns to mean "the people of somewhere", with the following -am as the plural suffix.

Noun Collective
sarkaz Sarkaz sarkazim the Sarkaz peoples
kazdel Kazdel kazdelim the peoples of Kazdel
del home delim a household
ah brother ahim brothers

7.3 - The gentilic suffix -o

The attested material has sarkaz → sarkazo ("Sarkaz-", "the Sarkaz language"), where -o forms a postposed gentilic adjective interchangeable with the apostrophe construct state: passam sarkazo = passam'sarkaz. To avoid confusion with the -o of Latin loans, we rule that the gentilic -o applies only to proper nouns; elsewhere the apostrophe marker is used.

Noun Gentilic adjective
sarkaz Sarkaz sarkazo Sarkaz-
kazdel Kazdel kazdelo Kazdelian
teekaz Teekaz teekazo Teekaz-

7.4 - The nominalising suffix -m

It is hard to miss that many abstract nouns end in -m, so we take -m to be a nominalising suffix. It turns adjectives, verbs, nouns and so on into abstract nouns. A vowel -e- may be inserted where the stem ends in a vowel or where phonology otherwise requires it.

Source Noun
vul'fanas fictional vul'fanasm fantasy
kerda new kerdem rebirth
eld old eldem antiquity
isfa to end isfem ending
duq to shatter duqem destruction
haza to see hazem a viewing
tana to give tanem gift, donation

7.5 - The locative suffix -il

A Sarkaz word can take -il after the stem to form a noun of place. The suffix appears to come from Latin īle, "place for something". In Sarkaz, -il can denote buildings, rooms, sites and the like.

Source Place
agaš archive agašil archive building
del home delil dwelling
hal hatred halil place of hatred
nečata writing nečatil scriptorium
lege to read legil library
abada to labour abadil workshop
selem image selemil gallery
daem flight daemil airport
qav boundary qavil checkpoint

Note that not every word of place is derived: kaz and del are basic nouns, and tabulo and tesauro are existing place words with no suffix. -il is therefore a derivational suffix only, not a marker on all words of place.

7.6 - Other Notes

Sarkaz nouns have no case, no gender, no articles and no dual, and the head itself does not inflect. Number, collectivity, relation and so on are all expressed by suffixes or the apostrophe marker.

8 - Personal pronouns

The only personal pronouns in the attested material are qe "I" and tee "my", so we need to create a full set to complete the pronoun system.

8.1 - The pronoun table

Independent (subject) Dependent (possessive)
1sg (I) qe
2sg (you) ne
3sg (he/she/it) se
1pl (we) qem
2pl (you) nem
3pl (they) sem

The dependent series can only be used inside an apostrophe construct state: saraǧul'tee "my friend", saraǧul'ne "your friend", saraǧul'se "his friend", del'qem "our home", passam'sem "their roads", and so on.

Apart from the first person singular, the dependent and independent forms are identical, because tee is the only pronoun in the Sarkaz system with a special use of its own (see below).

8.2 - Preposed tee

tee can occasionally be preposed: tee saraǧul "my friend", tee del "my home".

Beyond that, tee- is an older prefix meaning adjectivally "having, endowed with". It forms a matched positive/negative pair with sar-:

  • sarkaz "one deprived of a homeland"
  • teekaz "one granted a homeland"
  • teequi "one who holds hope → idealist"
  • sartelo "offline"
  • teetelo "online"
  • teetoda "grateful"
  • teeabadem "having work in hand → busy"
  • teebina "endowed with reason"

In general, the prefix tee- means "having, endowed with", while the standalone dependent tee means "my". Thus teequi "one who holds hope" versus tee qui "my hope".

Note that no other pronoun may be preposed: *ne saraǧul, *se del and *qem passam are all ungrammatical Sarkaz.

9 - Adjectives, demonstratives and quantifiers

Adjectives, demonstratives and quantifiers all precede the noun:

  • eld passam "old roads"
  • kerda qlim "a new language"
  • ze passam "this road"
  • ele qlimam "these words"
  • rab kazam "many people"
  • šalaš passam "three roads"
  • kol kazam "all people"

9.1 - Demonstratives and quantifiers

The common demonstratives are:

  • ze "this (proximal)"
  • ele "these"
  • hu "that (distal)"
  • rab "many, great, much"
  • kol "all, every, each"

Note in particular that rab covers both "many" and "master", consistent with Proto-Semitic *rabb-.

9.2 - Comparatives and superlatives

Sarkaz has no grammatical marking for the comparative or superlative. Therefore:

  • rab can mean "many" or "more"
  • tob can mean "good", "better" or "best"

The precise sense must be judged from context.

9.3 - Nouns used as adjectives

An ordinary noun can directly modify another noun, preceding it just as an adjective does:

  • prophationam nečatum "chapter of prophecies"
  • vul'fanas eczbitie "exhibition of fictions"
  • dwumo resonale "echoes of the age"
  • zahab division "gold division"
  • papiro sefer "paper book"
  • yad nečatem "handwriting"

Proper nouns, however, must take -o and follow, or else use the apostrophe construct state:

  • passam sarkazo "the roads of the Sarkaz"
  • passam'sarkaz "the roads of the Sarkaz"

10 - Verbs

Sarkaz verbs do not vary for person, number or tense; they vary only for aspect and voice. Time is expressed lexically and by context, and an unmarked verb reads as present or future depending on context.

10.1 - Stems

Every Sarkaz verb has a consonantal stem; the citation form adds a final vowel -a or -e to that stem. All suffixes attach to the stem, not to the citation form.

Citation form Stem
nečata to write nečat-
malihate to speak malihat-
kone to establish kon-
sura to rise sur-
marada to rebel marad-
nisazzte to forsake nisazzt-
haza to see haz-
isfa to end isf-
šapal to bring low šapal- (no thematic vowel)
halak to walk halak- (no thematic vowel)
laqah to receive laqah- (no thematic vowel)

10.2 - Inflected forms

Sarkaz verbs have three main inflected forms: perfective, passive and negative, marked by just three affixes: -it, -eliš and sar-. The imperative is identical to the plain form and the prohibitive to the negative, with the subject simply omitted. The rules are as follows:

Form Rule Example
Plain citation form malihate to speak
Perfective stem + -it nečatit has written
Passive stem + -eliš nečateliš is written
Negative prefix sar- sarmalihate not to speak
Imperative citation form, subject omitted čoa! open!
Prohibitive sar- + citation form, subject omitted sarmalihate! do not speak!

Some common verbs (for the full lexicon see §19 - Complete list of coined words):

Plain Perfective Passive Negative
nečata to write nečatit nečateliš sarnečata
malihate to speak malihatit malihateliš sarmalihate
kone to establish konit koneliš sarkone
sura to rise surit sureliš sarsura
čoa to open čoit čoeliš sarčoa
marada to rebel maradit maradeliš sarmarada
nisazzte to forsake nisazztit nisazzteliš sarnisazzte
šapal to bring low šapalit šapaleliš saršapal
haza to see hazit hazeliš sarhaza
tana to give tanit taneliš sartana
esa to be esit —— saresa
isfa to end isfit isfaeliš sarisfa

isfa is the only irregular verb in Sarkaz. Its passive keeps the thematic vowel, giving isfaeliš where the regular form would be *isfeliš. Its perfective isfit is still regular.

10.3 - The participial-noun suffix -el

-el attaches to a verb stem to form a participle or participial noun: benulitel, qunanamel, konel "builder", visitel "visitor", masel "finder", navigel "browser".

-el differs from the Latin-derived -tor in that -el is used for agents generally, while -tor is used for offices. Thus navigel "browser" and servel "server" are things in the act of doing, while operator "operator" is a post.

10.4 - The copula esa

On the evidence of the attested material, every Sarkaz sentence has a verb, so we need to introduce a copula. We choose esa "to be", from Latin (see §4 - Possible origins of Sarkaz). Its perfective is esit, its negative saresa; it has no passive. For example:

  • qe esa sarkaz. "I am a Sarkaz."
  • kazdel saresa del'tee. "Kazdel is not my home."
  • hal'saraǧul esa eld. "The hatred between friends is ancient."
  • se esit kerda. "It was once new."

10.5 - Modal verbs

We likewise need modal verbs to express possibility, ability and obligation. We borrow the following from Latin:

  • pote "can, may"
  • debe "ought, must"
  • vole "want, intend"
  • lice "be permitted"

These give Sarkaz a modal system, for example:

  • qe pote malihate sarkazo. "I can speak Sarkaz."
  • ne debe nisazzte eld passam. "You must forsake the old roads."
  • qe sarpote malihate sarkazo. "I cannot speak Sarkaz."

Note that the negative prefix sar- (see §11 - The negative prefix sar-) attaches to the modal verb, not to the main verb.

Modals give Sarkaz a precise way to say "cannot" or "will not", but since sar- already covers both "not" and "cannot", "I cannot speak Sarkaz" can equally be written qe sarmalihate sarkazo; the modals serve only as reinforcement where ambiguity might arise.

10.6 - The verbalising suffix -hate

A noun can take the suffix -hate to form a verb meaning "to cause, to bring about".

Noun Verb
mali word malihate to speak
wiš wish wišhate to wish
hal hatred halhate to hate
kerdem rebirth kerdemhate to renew, refresh
hazem viewing hazemhate to display
tob good tobhate to make better
šem name šemhate to call, to name
neder oath nederhate to promise
sudar veil sudarhate to veil, to hide
agašlehem thought agašlehemhate to consider
efes nothing efeshate to empty
qui hope quihate to await, to expect
halakem march halakemhate to move

11 - The negative prefix sar-

sar- can negate any part of speech, as shown below:

Part of speech Source Negated form
Noun kaz home sarkaz one without a home (Sarkaz)
Verb malihate to speak sarmalihate not to speak
Adjective tuštaj perishing sartuštaj undying
Attributive verb isfa to end sar isfa without end
Passive masa to find sarmaseliš not found

sar- is written together with the word when it negates a finite verb, a noun or an adjective (sarmalihate, sarkaz, saresa), but stands as a separate word when it negates a verb used attributively (sar isfa nečata "writing without end").

sar- is remarkably common in Sarkaz, which may have something to do with their long history of exile and homelessness.

12 - Syntax

12.1 - Basic sentence structure

Basic Sarkaz sentence structure is SVO:

  • qe malihate kerda qlim. "I speak a new language."
  • qe nisazzte eld passam. "I forsake the old roads."
  • tee saraǧul sura. "My friend rises."
  • hal'saraǧul isfit. "The hatred between friends has ended."
  • passam sarkazo isfit. "The roads of the Sarkaz have ended."

12.2 - Adverbials

Prepositional phrases and adverbs always sit between the subject and the verb, never after the object.

  • in eld urbusil nečateliš. "It is written in the ancient archives."
  • qe in kazdel esa. "I am in Kazdel."
  • se kum saraǧul'tee malihate "He speaks with my friend."

12.3 - Presentational sentences

When introducing something new (a presentational sentence, like English there was, there arose), the verb moves to the front:

  • manerit ele qlimam. "These words have endured."
  • maradit rab kazam. "Many people rebelled."

12.4 - Common prepositions and conjunctions

Sarkaz prepositions and conjunctions all come from Latin.

Common prepositions:

  • in in
  • ad to
  • de from, about
  • kum with, by means of
  • sine without
  • per through, by way of
  • pro for
  • post after
  • ante before
  • sub under
  • super above
  • inter between
  • qri through, by means of

Common conjunctions:

  • et and
  • aut or
  • sed but
  • kia because
  • si if
  • nisi unless
  • dum while
  • ergo therefore
  • tamen however

12.5 - Interrogatives

A Sarkaz question needs only an interrogative word at the head of the sentence. The interrogatives are:

  • num whether
  • kid what
  • kis who
  • kando when
  • kot how many
  • kur why
  • komo how
  • ubi where

For example:

  • num ne malihate sarkazo? "Do you speak Sarkaz?"
  • num se isfit? "Has it ended?"
  • kid ne nisazzte? "What did you forsake?"
  • ubi nečateliš? "Where is it written?"

ubi can also serve as a headless relative:

  • aut ubi qe pote abada emeti diferentio "or wherever I can make a real difference"

12.6 - Relative clauses

Sarkaz kod serves both as a relative pronoun and as a complementiser; relative clauses follow the head:

  • passam kod qe nisazzte "the road that I forsook"
  • saraǧul kod sura "the friend who rose"
  • qe malihate kod kazdel saresa del'tee. "I say that Kazdel is not my home."

ut introduces purpose clauses:

  • qe nečata ut se malihateliš. "I write, so that it may be spoken."

12.7 - Full noun-phrase order

From the analysis above, the full order of the Sarkaz noun phrase is:

[demonstrative/quantifier] [adjective] HEAD [-o relational adjective] ['dependent] [kod relative clause]

For example: ele eld passam sarkazo "these old roads of the Sarkaz".

13 - Numerals

Since numbers are never mentioned anywhere in the attested material, we must build the numerals from scratch. Following the principles set out previously, we build the Sarkaz numerals from Proto-Semitic.

13.1 - The numerals

Value Proto-Semitic Hebrew Sarkaz
0 (none) אֶפֶס ʾep̄es efes
1 *ʔaḥad- אֶחָד ʾeḥāḏ had
2 *ṯin- שְׁנֵי šənê šin
3 *ṯalāṯ- שָׁלֹשׁ šālōš šalaš
4 *ʔarbaʕ- אַרְבַּע ʾarbaʿ arba
5 *ḫamš- חָמֵשׁ ḥāmēš hameš
6 *šidṯ- שֵׁשׁ šēš šeš
7 *šabʕ- שֶׁבַע šeḇaʿ šab
8 *ṯamāniy- שְׁמוֹנֶה šəmônɛ̂ šamane
9 *tišʕ- תֵּשַׁע tēšaʿ teša
10 *ʕaśar- עֶשֶׂר ʿéśer asar
100 *miʔat- מֵאָה mēʾâ mea
1000 *ʔalp- אֶלֶף ʾélep̄ alef

Proto-Semitic has no word for "zero", so we substitute Hebrew אֶפֶס ʾep̄es (H657, from ʾāp̄ēs "to cease"), glossed in the lexicons as "ceasing, hence: end, extremity… expressing non-existence" (Isa. 34:12 "brought to nothing"; Zeph. 2:15 "I am, and there is none besides me").

13.2 - Using the numerals

Numerals in Sarkaz are quantifiers, and so precede the noun:

  • šalaš passam "three roads"
  • asar kazam "ten people"

Sarkaz builds compound numerals by simple addition (much as Chinese does), linking the parts with hyphens:

  • asar-had 11
  • šin-asar 20
  • šin-asar-šalaš 23
  • šalaš-mea 300

Ordinals take the suffix -i and follow the noun:

  • passam hadi the first road
  • nečatum šalaši the third chapter
  • kerdem isfi the last update

14 - Overview of word formation

Morpheme Type Function
' clitic /ʔ/ dependency structure; loanword separator
sar- prefix negation, privation
tee- prefix having, endowed with
-am suffix plural
-im suffix collective, ethnonym
-m / -em suffix nominaliser
-il suffix noun of place
-o suffix relational adjective; language name
-i suffix ordinal
-el suffix participle, agent noun
-tor suffix agent noun denoting an office
-it suffix perfective
-eliš suffix passive
-hate suffix verbaliser, "to bring about"
a- epenthesis linking vowel between sibilant and stop
-y- / -w- epenthesis linking glide before the plural

Sarkaz forms compounds in three main ways:

  1. Apostrophe-marked dependency: hal'saraǧul "hatred between friends", passam'sarkaz "the roads of the Sarkaz"
  2. Compound numerals: šin-asar-šalaš (23)
  3. Synonym compounding: kazdel "Kazdel, 'homeland'". This works much like English synonym compounds such as "pathway" or "courtyard", where both halves carry roughly the same sense. That said, the only attested example of synonym compounding in Sarkaz is kazdel itself, so it should be used sparingly.

15 - Constructing new words

15.1 - Procedure

When coining a new word, follow this procedure:

  1. Check whether the concept can be expressed by combining words already in the lexicon.
  2. If not, choose an appropriate source language following the principles in §4 - Possible origins of Sarkaz.
  3. If using a Semitic source:
    1. Establish the most general Semitic form, normally Proto-Semitic.
    2. Choose a reference language in the order Hebrew > Aramaic > Arabic. The target period is roughly the 3rd century BCE, normally Biblical Hebrew and Biblical/Imperial Aramaic.
    3. Transcribe the Semitic source into Sarkaz using §15.2 - Semitic sound correspondences.
  4. If using a Latin source:
    1. Use Classical Latin as the reference, consulting Medieval Latin where necessary.
    2. Transcribe the Latin source into Sarkaz using §5.4 - Orthography of Latin loans.
  5. Check the result for spelling collisions.

15.2 - Semitic sound correspondences

Semitic Sarkaz Example
ʔ (aleph), ʕ (ayin) dropped word-initially; written ' at a morpheme boundary *ʔaḥad- → had; *ʕaśar- → asar
ḥ, ḫ h *ḫamš- → hameš; ḥāzâ → haza
ṯ š *ṯalāṯ- → šalaš
ś (Hebrew sin, /ɬ/ → /s/) s *ʕaśar- → asar; śārāp̄ → saraf; śāḥaq → sahaq
š (Hebrew shin) š *šabʕ- → šab
ġ (Arabic ghayn) ǧ /ʒ/ ghūl → -ǧul
q kept as q qôl → qol; qeraḥ → qerah
k kept as k kōl → kol
p̄ f śārāp̄ → saraf; kesep̄ → kesef; yāsap̄ → yasaf
feminine endings *-at, *-ā -a millâ → mali-; ḥāzâ → haza

The following supplementary rules apply where needed:

  1. Final ʕ is dropped. The table above gives word-initial loss and ' at a morpheme boundary, but a root-final consonant is not a morpheme boundary, so it drops: šama < šāmaʿ, reg < regaʿ.
  2. Root-medial ʔ is dropped. As above, ' marks morpheme boundaries, and a medial consonant is inside the morpheme, not between morphemes: daa < dāʾâ, masa < māṣāʾ, šala < šāʾal.
  3. Emphatic ṣ → s. Sarkaz has no emphatics, so it merges into s: masa < māṣāʾ, salah < ṣālaḥ, selem < ṣelem.
  4. Geminates within a root are simplified: šat < *šatt-, ata < ʿattâ, leb < *libb-, idan < ʿiddān, pina < pinnâ.
  5. The diphthong *aw → o: yom < *yawm-.

16 - Sample new words

English Sarkaz Source type Source
day; daylight yom Semitic Proto-Semitic *yawm-
night lel Semitic Aramaic construct lêl-
year šat Semitic Proto-Semitic *šan-t- > *šatt-
hour hora Latin hōra
time, period idan Semitic Aramaic ʿiddān
now ata Semitic Hebrew ʿattâ
moment reg Semitic Hebrew regaʿ
future futuro Latin futūr-
to see, to behold haza Semitic Hebrew/Aramaic ḥăzâ
to hear šama Semitic Proto-Semitic *šamaʕ-
voice qol Semitic Hebrew qôl
to read lege Latin legere
to find masa Semitic Hebrew māṣāʾ
name šem Semitic Proto-Semitic *šim-
to give tana Semitic Hebrew nātan, imperative tēn
to take, to receive laqah Semitic Hebrew lāqaḥ
to play sahaq Semitic Hebrew śāḥaq
to labour, to make abada Semitic Hebrew/Aramaic ʿăbad
to fly daa Semitic Hebrew dāʾâ
to sail navige Latin navigāre
water may Semitic Proto-Semitic *may-
ice qerah Semitic Hebrew qeraḥ
hand yad Semitic Proto-Semitic *yad-
all, every kol Semitic Hebrew kōl
truth emet Semitic Hebrew ʾĕmet
heart; will leb Semitic Proto-Semitic *libb-

17 - Open questions

  1. Punctuation is unsettled. For now we recommend only a conservative set: the full stop (.), comma (,), question mark (?), exclamation mark (!), colon (:), quotation marks (") and parentheses (()).
  2. We provisionally take Sarkaz to lack gender, case, tense, agreement, comparatives, a causative stem, reflexive and reciprocal pronouns, and any voice other than the passive.

(To be continuously revised.)

18 - Roots and core vocabulary

18.1 - Core roots

kaz homeland; kin · del home · sar- gone, lacking · tee- having, endowed with · qui hope · qav cord, boundary, measure · hal hatred · eld old · kerd- new · duq to shatter, to crush · wiš wish, longing · mali word · -hir light of revelation · -hate to bring about · alma world; age · arael sovereign; champion · qlim language · šanae sky · sura to rise · isfa to end · čoa to open, to unlock · kal scattered, lost · lon companion, peer · sudar veil, shroud · dwumo age, era · agaš archive, intelligence, record · -leho / -lehem thought, mind · qalid key

18.2 - Time

yom day · lel night · šat year · hodeš month · hora hour · idan period · ata now · reg moment · futuro future · kalendo date · dwumo era · qav'idan time zone

18.3 - Perception and cognition

haza to see · hazem a viewing · hazemhate to display · šama to hear · qol voice · malihir spirit-sight · lege to read · nečata to write · masa to find · šem name · bina reason · agašlehem thought · agašlehemhate to consider · sefer book · safar to count, to recount · šala to ask · ana to answer · hida riddle · emet truth · emeti true · miqre chance

18.4 - Actions

tana to give · laqah to take, to receive · sahaq to play · abada to do, to labour · daa to fly · navige to sail · halak to walk · sura to rise · šapal to bring low · kone to establish · marada to rebel · šara to endure · palat to escape · sahar to trade · bahar to choose · yasaf to add · nasa to try · salah to succeed · yašen to sleep · yalad to be born · haya to live · qava to draw taut · čoa to open · klaude to close

18.5 - Substance and daily life

may water · qerah ice · hol sand · yad hand · esba finger · leb heart · ah brother · kesef silver, money · zahab gold · sefer book · selem image · rešet net · migdal tower · misgab fortress · aron chest · maqom place · pina corner · neder oath · toda thanks · tob good · hofeš freedom · kol all · rab many

18.6 - High-frequency Latin loans

esa to be · pote can · debe ought · vole to want · lice may · et and · aut or · sed but · si if · kia because · nisi unless · dum while · ergo therefore · tamen however · in in · ad to · de about · kum with · sine without · per through · pro for · post after · ante before · sub under · super above · inter between · kod that (relative) · ut so that · num whether · kid what · kis who · kando when · kot how many · kur why · komo how · ubi where · etiam also · iam already · plerumke usually · simplice simply · keso please

19 - Complete list of coined words

See the Sarkaz-Chinese Dictionary for a complete list of all words attested or coined in Sarkaz, with their sources and etymologies.

20 - Misc, acknowledgements and references

Perhaps one day I will vibe-code build a Sarkaz dictionary site so that all this is easier to look up. Edit: the Sarkaz-Chinese Online Dictionary is now live!

Getting back into writing about Arknights after nearly two years away feels a little unreal. The world changes fast; I hope every Doctor out there is doing well.

The Chinese version of this article was written entirely by a human, and LLM is used to assist translation; otherwise LLMs were used only for looking things up and for proofreading, and I have done my best to verify everything in it. My time being limited, there are certainly oversights, and I would welcome corrections from any Doctor. This piece took well over a hundred hours to write, and is the most complicated research article I have produced to date.

What set all this off was, in fact, wanting to add a Sarkaz translation to my personal site, and somewhere along the way it turned into a complete constructed-language specification. On the site, Sarkaz is implemented by shifting every character used by 0xE000, mapping the Sarkaz alphabet into the Unicode Private Use Area, and embedding a modified version of the font mentioned above. There is also a romanised version of the Sarkaz site for anyone who wants to read it more easily. If you would rather not open it, here is the full text of my Sarkaz bio:

Qe esa Zi'Šuan Čang. Qe in Universitat'Cantabrigia matematiko disce, et kum asar šatam'hazemam esa konel, de sistemowam ad kol strato telo ad UI designo. Qe plerumke in Rust et Python abada, de nukleowam'sistemo ad telo aplicationam. Kazam etiam šemhate qe Mika'el aut Mikfong.

Wiš'tee esa: kum agaš'scientio et makinam tana ad kol sarkazim, et kum leb'tee tobhate alma. Qe vole intersectionam'kampowam: matematiko, fisiko, biologio, computation, aut ubi qe pote abada emeti diferentio. Num rab kerda? Pote esa. Qe in rab idanam haza ipsi: teequi kod haza qavqui.

Qe in sarabadem lege scientio vul'fanas et sahaq computel sahaqemam (plerumke ne pote masa had de sem kod in ze sito sudarhateliš). Kerda studio'tee esa Star'Set. Ata del'tee in UTC+1 esa.

I hope this article helps people go on making more Sarkaz and Kazdel content! Looking forward to the day Kazdel's literacy schools open on Earth.

After all this waiting Hypergryph still hasn't brought Scout back 😡 come back, o soul, come back (surely this rite works)

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to the Arknights community for its discussion and sharing on Sarkaz linguistics, and in particular to:

  • NGA user @timnj1
  • Reddit user u/tunaOfSpace
  • @龙门城邦地理 on Weibo
  • Skland user @罗醭坦
  • Skland, NGA and Reddit user @myself

Without their discussion and sharing, reconstructing Sarkaz would have been hopeless.

References