Difference between revisions of "Vaktrian language"

From The League Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Line 159: Line 159:
 
| /s/ ''s''
 
| /s/ ''s''
 
| /ʃ/ ''š''
 
| /ʃ/ ''š''
|
+
| /z/ ''z''
 
| /x/ ''c''
 
| /x/ ''c''
 
| /h/ ''h''
 
| /h/ ''h''

Revision as of 13:38, 11 July 2022

Vaktrian
Ⲯⲁⲕⲧⲣⲓⲁⲋⲧ
Vaktrıast
Coptic liturgic inscription.JPG
6th century BCE inscription
RegionTerranihil
Era8th century BCE - present
Vaktrian alphabet (8th c. BCE - 6th c. CE), Romanyan script (~6th c. CE - present)
Official status
Official language in
Terranihil
Language codes
ISO 639-3vak
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

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.

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

Consonants
Labial Coronal Palatal Velar Glottal
dental alveolar post-alveolar
Plosive /p/ p /t/ t /k/ k
Fricative voiceless /f/ f /θ/ ŧ /s/ s /ʃ/ š /z/ z /x/ c /h/ h
voiced /v/ v /ð/ đ
Affricate /ts/ ž /tʃ/ č
Nasal /m/ m /n/ n
Liquid /r/ r, /l/ l
Semivowel /j/ ı
Vowels
Short Long
High /i/ i /u/ u /iː/ ǐ /uː/ ǔ
Mid /ɘ/ e /oː/ o
Low /a/ a /aː/ ǎ

Diphthong: au, eu

Grammar

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, -as, -is, 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. The suffix usually replaces the t, s, or ı at the end of a verb. Suffixes for verbs with irregular endings often place ıa after the verb but before the suffix.

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 -r -m
Subjunctive -ra -ıa -ıma
Conditional -rin -n -min
Potential -rač -ıač -mač
Imperative -ruk -ıuk -muk
Interrogative -riš -ıš -miš
Progressive No mood -c -p
Subjunctive -ca -sa -pa
Conditional -cin -sin -pin
Potential -kač -sač -pač
Imperative -cu -suk -puk
Interrogative -ciš -diš -piš

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 -aŧ
Accusative -aı -saı -ŧaı
Dative -al -sal -ŧal
Genetive -ila -sila -ŧila
Instrumental -uš -suš -ŧuš
Allative -ip -sip -ŧip
At locative -ant -sant -ŧant
On locative -arm -sarm -ŧarm
In locative -až -saž -ŧaž

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. Genetive case pronouns act as possessive determiners; e.g. kamla avrun means "my house" and avrun kamla means "the house is mine".

Vaktrian personal pronouns
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 ašant ašarm ašaž
Dual stuıam stumaı stumal stumla stumuš stumant stumarm stumaž
Plural smaŧa smaŧaı smaŧal smaŧla smaŧuš smaŧant smaŧarm smaŧaž

Relative pronouns include run, which is modified with noun cases similar to adjectives.

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 čaı ŧaı
Medial časr isan ŧǐn
Distal ačal isal iŧan

Modifiers

  • -em denotes someone who does something; e.g. miskrnem comes from miskrn (battle) to mean warrior.
  • -ast denotes belonging to something; e.g. Aštaırastı (Astrian), komunast (communist).
  • -astıa is the noun form of the above; e.g. Aštaırastıa (Astrianism), komunastıa (communism).
  • -erv denotes location; e.g. plarcerv (winery) from plarce (wine).
  • -nin is the dimunitive; e.g. uršaftnin (pony) from uršaft (horse).

Writing system

Modern era