Pokht

Pokht
bokhtjoeğ
Pronunciation	[ˈb̥ɔxddʒøːw] [ˈb̥ɔxddʒøːj]
Created by	Jukethatbox
Date	2024
Setting	Radael
Native to	Pokhtreg
Ethnicity	Pokht peoples
Language family	Taskaric Iskeric Ilyic Pokht-Izhkut Pokht
Early forms	Proto-Taskaric Proto-Iskeric Proto-Ilyic Old Izhkut
Dialects	Western Nağtjur Vizhnall Southern Yamuzeğ Fasnakhi Eastern † Mokhtjen †
Official status
Recognised minority language in	Ingdikh
Regulated by	Bokhtjoesrenyeğ (unofficial)

Pokht (Pokht: bokhtjoeğ, pronounced [ˈb̥ɔxddʒøːw, ˈb̥ɔxddʒøːj]; Izhkut: jënn pokht) is a Taskaric language or group of languages spoken by various Pokht peoples in the region of Pokhtreg, namely in southern Izhkutrëa and parts of northern Ingdikh. It is also spoken by a significant diasporic community on the island of Etzeán, especially in Néekh territories such as Arkhûz and the greater Tûznam Basin.

Linguistically, Pokht is a descendant of Old Izhkut, making it a sister language of Izhkut and the now-extinct Ilyod language. However, unlike other Old Izhkut descendants and its ancestor itself, Pokht is much more inflectional than the more isolating Izhkut, and incorporates a rich verbal paradigm that conjugates on person, tense and aspect. Pokht also retains the masculine-feminine gender of Old Izhkut, which Izhkut dropped.

Dialectology

Pokht varieties historically constitute a dialect continuum, which once encompassed the entire Pokhtreg; the notion of a singular Pokht language was primarily introduced by Izhkut colonial segregatory practices which distinguished the Pokht peoples(hitherto not recognised as a single people) as different from the supposedly superior Izhkut. As such, the contemporary classification of Pokht is incredibly controversial among the Pokht peoples, as its classification as one language evokes the lingering effects of Izhkut colonialism but also contradictingly evokes the antithetical Pokht independence movement, which has advocated for unity among Pokht peoples against a common Izhkut aggressor.

Historical extent

Pokht was historically divided into three dialectal phyla, named the Western (damzin), Eastern(ranyeğ) and Southern (meğshella) phyla. The Eastern dialects were historically the most spoken and documented; Eastern dialects such as Mokhtjen (MOHŢEM; modern Pokht: muğtjoela) developed their own literary tradition centuries before modern Izhkut itself, and even in tandem with the existing Old Izhkut literary tradition of the time. Notably, Pokht was not considered a single language at this time, and neither were the various Pokht peoples. Instead, the various closely related peoples living in Pokhtreg identified themselves via their city-state of origin.

Izhkut colonialism

After the turn of the BH, the era of city-states in Petrum and Pokhtreg very quickly disappeared as larger nation-states began to rise; most notably, the Ilyod and Izhkut in Petrum. However, due to the more mountainous terrain of Pokhtreg, coordination on the scale of nation-states akin to Ilyod and Izhkutrëa, who resided on flatter terrain, was effectively impossible. Thus, though many city-states expanded physically and various wars were wrought, none achieved the size and power of the early Petruic nation-states.

In 100 BH, Ilyod and Izhkutrëa went to the war for the final time as a considerably weakened Ilyod finally surrendered to an equally devastated Izhkutrëa, who, after 20 years of continuous war, was none too kind to the finally occupied Ilyod. By 150 BH, the indigenous Ilyod people and language were all but annihilated; the immense violence required to complete this genocide in such a short time frame greatly alarmed the Pokht nation-states, who had been at peace for several years while the Ilyod and Izhkut fought. This alarm was warranted, as by 200 BH, the Izhkut were already planning a land invasion of the Pokht city-states, and by 205 BH Pokhtreg had been plunged into war for the first time in 17 years.

Phonology

Consonants

	Labial	Dental	Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	b̥	t d		c	k g	(ʔ)
Affricate			(tʃ) dʒ
Nasal	m	n		ɲ	ŋ
Fricative	f v	s z	ʃ ʒ		x ɣ	h
Tap or flap			ɽ
Semivowel	(w)			j
Lateral approximant		l		(ʎ)	ɫ

/f v/ vary between bilabial and labiodental depending on the dialect.

/j w ɣ/ are all allophones of the phoneme /ɣ/; its pronunciation varies on position. After vowels /u ɔ ø/ at the end of a word, it extends the vowel and alternates between /j~w/ depending on the speaker, as in bokhtjoeğ. In the medial position of a compound word, it typically only extends the vowel and is unwritten, as in bokhtjoesrenyeğ [ˈb̥ɔxddʒøːˌsɽeɲə]. After word-final /e/, it simply turns /e/ into /ə/, as in srenyeğ [ˈsɽeɲə], though in some dialects it may also be pronounced with a /w/, hence the preservation of the letter. Before voiceless plosives it becomes /k/; before voiced, it becomes /g/. In either way, it is written ⟨g⟩. In all other places, it is pronounced as velar fricative /ɣ/.

/dʒ/ is devoiced in word-initial and word-final positions, such as tjoell [ˈtʃøɫ] "blue" or malatj [ˈmɑlɑtʃ] "gourd". In word-medial places, it is always voiced and additionally typically geminated, specifically after velar obstruents /k g x ɣ/ and the nasal /n/ (which is always palatalised before /c dʒ/), such as in brihṇdagtjeğ [ˈb̥ɽihn̩dɑgddʒə(w)] "euphemistic" and bintjim [ˈb̥iɲddʒim] "he hops".

/l ɫ/ are contrastive everywhere except initial positions where only /l/ occurs, so tjoel [ˈtʃøl] "while" contrasts with tjoell [ˈtʃøɫ] "blue".

Vowels

	Front		Central	Back
Close	i			u
Mid	e	ø	(ə)	ɔ
Open			ɑ

Pokht preserved all Old Izhkut vowels apart from /ɛ/, which merged with /e/. Additionally the originally close-mid /o/ of Old Izhkut was lowered to an open-mid /ɔ/.

Grammar

Verbs

Almost all Pokht verbs behave the same way across a regular verbal paradigm, depending on whether the root ends in a consonant, open/mid or close vowel. The lemma or citation form is always the imperative in Pokht.

	Indicative	Continuous	Conditional	Potential
Present