Difference between revisions of "Vaktrian language"
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== Nouns == | == Nouns == | ||
− | Vaktrian has no grammatical gender; three numbers: singular, dual, plural; and | + | Vaktrian has no grammatical gender; three numbers: singular, dual, plural; and seven cases: nominative, accusative, dative, genitive, instrumental, allative, and locative. |
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! Instrumental | ! Instrumental | ||
| -uš || -suš || -ṭuš | | -uš || -suš || -ṭuš | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | ! Allative | ||
+ | | -ip || -sip || -ṭip | ||
|- | |- | ||
! ''At'' locative | ! ''At'' locative |
Revision as of 16:10, 26 June 2022
Vaktrian | |
---|---|
Vaktrıast | |
Region | Terranihil |
Era | 8th century BCE - present |
Vaktrian
| |
Vaktrian alphabet (8th c. BCE - 6th c. CE), Romanyan script (~6th c. CE - present) | |
Official status | |
Official language in | Terranihil |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | vak |
Vaktrian (Vaktrian:Ⲯⲁⲕⲧⲣⲓⲁⲋⲧ, Vaktrıast) is a language that emerged in the 8th century BCE as Classical Vaktrian. It is the language of the Vaktrian people and official language of Terranihil. It has six living dialects. Its standardized form, a modernization of Classical Vaktrian, is the lingua franca of Terranihil.
Contents
Etymology
The native name for Vaktrian is Vaktrıast (Ⲯⲁⲕⲧⲣⲓⲁⲋ in Classical Vaktrian). Vaktrıa from Proto-Vaktrian means "road" or "way". The -ast suffix in Vaktrian changes a noun into an adjective, thus Vaktrıast is best translated as "[language] of the road".
History
Proto-Vaktrian
The Proto-Vaktrians were the hypothetical prehistoric predecessors of the ancient Vaktrian people and spoke the reconstructed language Proto-Vaktrian. They lived in the region of Vaktria in the 2nd millenium BCE. Analysis of the Vaktrian language shows that it is an isolated language family that does not derive from any of the neighboring language families. The speakers of Proto-Vaktrian likely originated from the Fištrunstitas bronze age culture native to the Maplas river.
Classical Vaktrian (800 BCE - 200 CE)
Classical Vaktrian is form of the language throughout most of ancient Vaktrian history. It includes the language during the Kingdom of Vaktria and during Romanyan occupation. Classical Vaktrian was first written down using the Vaktrian alphabet, derived from the Greek script, around 400 BCE. What appear to be logographic inscriptions of Vaktrian also date back to 800 BCE. The language spread across the western coast and became the language of Astrianism.
Northern and Southern Vaktrian (200 - 1200)
Around the 3rd century CE, the Vaktrian language began to diverge into two branches: nothern Vaktrian and southern Vaktrian. This aligned with cultural, religious, and political differences. The southern region of Vaktria had become heavily influenced by Romanyan, more so than the north. It remained under Romanyan rule until the 6th century and was Christianized. When it split from Romanya, the south formed itself into the Ragasan Kingdom. Meanwhile, northern Vaktria seceded from Romanya earlier in 325. Northern Vaktrians were less infuenced by Romanyan culture and language and were anti-Christian. The Septarban Kingdom actively resisted Romanyanization and Christianization by banning Christianity, expelling Christian Vaktrians, and prohibiting use of the Iberic Script. These differences led to the development of the two branches of Vaktrian.
Development of dialects
1200 AD - present
Standardization
19th century
One of the most significant phonological changes from Classical to Standard is the loss of voiced plosives. Voiced plosives had dissappeared from Northern Vaktrian and most of the following dialects. Another major change is the addition of the two affricates in Standard Vaktrian.
The major morphological changes include the grammatical person for verbs becoming prefixes rather than standing alone and the locative noun cases becoming suffixes rather than standing alone.
Classical, Standard, and spoken Vaktrian
Dialects
Geographic distribution
Phonology
Labial | Coronal | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
dental | alveolar | post-alveolar | ||||||
Plosive | /p/ p | /t/ t | /k/ k | |||||
Fricative | voiceless | /f/ f | /θ/ ṭ | /s/ s | /ʃ/ š | /x/ c | /h/ h | |
voiced | /v/ v | /ð/ ḍ | ||||||
Affricate | /ts/ ž | /tʃ/ č | ||||||
Nasal | /m/ m | /n/ n | ||||||
Liquid | /r/ r, /l/ l | |||||||
Semivowel | /j/ ı |
Short | Long | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
High | /i/ i | /u/ u | /iː/ ǐ | /uː/ ǚ |
Mid | /ɘ/ e | /oː/ o | ||
Low | /a/ a | /aː/ ǎ |
Diphthong: au, eu
Morphology
Vaktrian is an agglutanative language which utilizes both prefixes and suffixes to denote verb person, tense, mood, and aspect and noun case.
The word order is subject-verb-object, though sentences do not strictly follow this order since cases are denoted seperate from order.
Vaktrian uses postprepositions.
Verbs
Vaktrian has three tenses: past, present, and future; two aspects: perfective and progressive; five moods: interrogative, imperative, conditional, potential, and subjunctive; and nine persons corresponding to the nine pronouns. Grammatical person and negation is expressed by verb prefixes, while tense, aspect, and mood are expressed by suffixes. Negation is denoted with a ne- prefix. Vaktrian verbs tend to end with -at, -it, or -aı.
Negation comes before person in the prefix. The order for suffixes is tense and aspect then mood. Word structure:
negative + person + verb + tense/aspect + mood Example:
netuhatimeṭ (you might not have been eating) This allows Vaktrian to express whole sentences in single words.
Vaktrian is a zero copula language, thus there is no word equivalent to "to be".
Person is generally only denoted with a suffix if a subject is not given in a sentence.
Tense, aspect, and mood
Aspect | Mood | Case | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Past | Present | Future | ||
Perfective | No mood | -ir | -im | |
Subjunctive | -ira | -a | -ima | |
Conditional | -irin | -in | -imin | |
Potential | -irač | -ač | -imač | |
Imperative | -iruk | -uk | -imuk | |
Interrogative | -iriš | -iš | -imiš | |
Progressive | No mood | -ac | -ap | |
Subjunctive | -aca | -sa | -apa | |
Conditional | -acin | -sin | -apin | |
Potential | -akač | -sač | -apač | |
Imperative | -acu | -suk | -apuk | |
Interrogative | -aciš | -diš | -apiš |
Person
Person | Singular | Dual | Plural |
---|---|---|---|
First | ka- | ta- | ma- |
Second | haı- | ti- | mri- |
Third | saı- | stu- | smu- |
Nouns
Vaktrian has no grammatical gender; three numbers: singular, dual, plural; and seven cases: nominative, accusative, dative, genitive, instrumental, allative, and locative.
Case name | Singular | Dual | Plural |
---|---|---|---|
Nominative | -is | -aṭ | |
Accusative | -aı | -saı | -ṭaı |
Dative | -al | -sal | -ṭal |
Genetive | -ila | -sila | -ṭila |
Instrumental | -uš | -suš | -ṭuš |
Allative | -ip | -sip | -ṭip |
At locative | -ant | -sant | -ṭant |
On locative | -arm | -sarm | -ṭarm |
In locative | -až | -saž | -ṭaž |
Genitive case is applied to the possessed noun, and the possessed noun comes before the possessor. When a possessed noun has an additionial case other than the genitive, the genitive suffix is added to the end. Genetive case is also used to indicate something "of" something else.
Vaktrian has the indefinite article haı, but lacks a definite article. The article agrees with its noun by also adopting the case suffixes.
Pronouns
Vektramic has eight personal pronouns. They are not gendered. All of the noun cases apply to pronouns; however, instrumental case denotes accompaniment rather than usage and the at locative case denotes near or around.
Person | Number | Case | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nominative | Accusative | Dative | Genetive | Instrumental | At locative | On locative | In locative | ||
First | Singular | kama | kamaı | kamal | kamla | kamuš | kamant | kamar | kamaž |
Plural | maıa | amaı | amal | maıla | amuš | maıant | maıarm | maıaž | |
Second | Singular | hama | hamaı | hamal | hamla | hamuš | hamant | hamar | hamaž |
Dual | tila | tilaı | til | tilal | tiluš | tilant | tilarm | tilaž | |
Plural | mraıa | maraı | maral | mraıla | maruš | mraıant | mraıarm | mraıaž | |
Third | Singular | aša | ašaı | ašal | ašla | uš | ašant | ašarm | ašaž |
Dual | stuıam | stumaı | stumal | stumla | stumuš | stumant | stumarm | stumaž | |
Plural | smaṭa | smaṭaı | smaṭal | smaṭla | smaṭuš | smaṭant | smaṭarm | smaṭaž |
Demonstratives
Vaktrian uses ava- to denote reflexivity in pronouns (e.g. avamaıa is themselves).
Vaktrian has three classes of demonstratives (proximal, medial, and distal) which also denote number (singular, dual, or plural).
Singular | Dual | Plural | |
---|---|---|---|
Proximal | čaıa | siıa | ṭaıa |
Medial | časin | isan | ṭiıan |
Distal | ačal | isal | iṭan |