Jalaia

Jalaia is the language spoken in the fictitious nation of Kuarjalainankuna as well as the most common language used by the Deities of Anarturia. It is highly agglutinative.

Background

Jalaia is the spoken language of the Kingdom of Kuarjalainankuna in my constructed world of Anarturia. It is heavily based on Uralic and Semitic languages.

History

Use in Lauredonia

Jalaia was used in the Great Elven Kingdom of Lauredonia, one of the four dominant kingdoms of Avrón during the Era of the Beginning. During these years, the language corrently known as Proto-Esseyainan was spoken, which also became the root for the Levynätystä and Eijiouwan languages. It was spoken across the majority of the Skenörrjavage peninsula.

Phonology

Consonants

	Bilabial	Labio-dental	Dental	Alveolar	Post-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m̥ m			n̥ n			ŋ̊ ŋ
Plosive	p				t d		k	ʔ
Fricative				s				h
Affricate			θ
Approximant		ʋ				j
Trill				r
Lateral fric.				ɬ
Lateral app.				l

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i y		u
Close-mid	e ø		o
Near-open	æ
Open		ä

Phonotactics

Phonotactics greatly differ between official and colloquial Jalaia. An example of this is the number of consonants that an initial consonant cluster is permitted to have.

Official Jalaia

In official Jalaia, a syllable usually follows the following pattern: (C)(C)V(C)(C)(C). A syllable either begins with one consonant or two consonants, even when in written language the syllable begins with a vowel. In the latter case, in spoken official Jalaia, the syllable begins with an unwritten glottal stop.

A syllable can end with one, two or three consonants, or, in written language, with a vowel. In spoken language, however, the end of the syllable will be marked with an unwritten glottal stop.

An example would be the word "enkyvnästettetinäs", "I do not like you", which is pronounced [ˈʔeŋ̊kyʋ̯næsˌtet:etˌinæs]. Remember this word for the next example.

Colloquial Jalaia

Colloquial Jalaia does not have a written counterpart, but unlike spoken Official Jalaia, Colloquial Jalaia is the most used version of Jalaia in informal situations and for direct communication. A syllable can follow the following pattern: (C)(C)(C)(C)(C)V(C)(C)(C)(C)(C). A syllable begins with any number between zero and five consonants, and can end in any number between zero and five consonants.

Unlike Official Jalaia, Colloquial Jalaia does not require that a glottal stop is pronounced in the locations where it is so required in Official Jalaia. Also in theory any five consonants could make up the consonant clusters, however, only certain consonant combinations will be pronounced in completeness, with on most occasions at least one or two consonants omitted.

We once again take as example the word ""enkyvnästettetinäs", which in Colloquial Jalaia is pronounced as [ˈen̥kʋ̯næsˌtet:eʔˌnæs].

Similarities between Official and Colloquial Jalaia

Vowel harmony

Jalaia uses vowel harmony in all circumstances to the effect that any affixes can be altered if the affix contains a sound that is affected by vowel harmony.

Vowel harmony requires that words have only either front or back vowels, with the central [ä] considered to be front rather than central for purposes of grammatical comprehensibility. This means that the front vowels [ä], [o] and [u] and the back vowels [æ], [ø] and [y] cannot be used in the same word. The vowels [e] and [i] are neutral and can be used regardless of the vowels used in a word.

Whether a word uses front vowels or back vowels can can influence a word's meaning; e.g. compare:

"taa", meaning "river", pronounced [tä:]

"tää", meaning "knee", pronounced [tæ:].

This effect is continued with affixes; e.g. compare:

"taatta", meaning "from the river", pronounced [ˈtä:t:ä] in Official (O) or [ˈtä↘.tä] in Colloquial (C)

"täättä", meaning "from the knee", pronounced [ˈtæ:t:æ] (O) or [ˈtæ↘.tæ] in (C).

This effect continues with all the affixes that contain a non-neutral vowel; e.g. compare:

"taattammasan", meaning "to your location from the river", pronounced [ˈtä:t:äm:äsän] (O) or [ˈtä↘.ʔm:ä̚sän] (C)

"täättämmäsän", meaning "to your location from the knee", pronounced [ˈtæ:t:æm:æsæn] (O) or [ˈtæ↘.ʔm:æ̚sæn] (C)

"taaittaiuuias olanis", meaning "[it] was where one moves inside between the rivers", pronounced [ˈtä:ʲit:ä.i.u:.i.äs ˈolänis] (O) or [ˈtä:↘.täju:jä̚s ˈonis] (C)

"tääittäiyyiäs olanis", meaning "[it] was where one moves inside between the knees", pronounced [ˈtæ:ʲit:æ.i.y:.i.æs] (O) or [ˈtæ:↘.tæ̚jy:s ˈonis] (C).