Izhkut

Izhkut
Ishcot
jënn izhkut
Pronunciation	[ˈɟɛ̂n̪ iʒkʊt]
Created by	Jukethatbox
Date	2022
Native to	Izhkutrëa
Ethnicity	Izhkut people, Pokht people
Native speakers	126,000,000 (256 BH) 234,000(L2)
Language family	Taskaric Iskeric Ilyic Pokht-Izhkut Izhkut
Early forms	Proto-Taskaric Proto-Iskeric Proto-Ilyic Pokht-Izhkut Old Izhkut
Official status
Official language in	Izhkutrëa, Ingdikh, Pokht
Recognised minority language in	Minūrun

Izhkut(jënn izhkut, Izhkut: [ˈɟɛ̂n̪ iʒkʊt]), also known as Ishcot is the most spoken Taskaric language in Radael, with a native speaker population of 126,000,000 people, and it is spoken by another 234,000 as an L2 language, primarily by students in the nation of Ingdikh, where learning the language is a compulsory part of the curriculum. The language as a whole also operates as a lingua franca in the scientific community in Birnu, as well as in diplomacy on the continent. It is also one of the 8 official languages in the West Birnu Economic Union(WBEU).

Despite the region of Pokht, a vassal of Izhkutrëa, having its own native sister language of Izhkut, Pokht(Izhkut: gɛn bɔxt), Izhkut has in recent times all but replaced Pokht due to the strict cultural assimilation policies of the Izhkut central government.

Phonology

Consonants

	Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Post-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	p b		t d		ɟ	k g
Nasal	m	(n̪)	n		ɲ	(ŋ)
Fricative		(θ) (ð)	s z	ʃ ʒ		x	(h)
Tap or Flap	(ɾʷ)		ɾ	(ɾ̠)	(ɾʲ)
Semivowel					j	w~ɰ
Laterals			l

[n̪] is an allophone of /n/, usually pronounced at the end of a word, such as in jën [ˈɟɛ̂n̪] "language, speech". [θ] and [ð] are lenited allophones of /t/ and /d/, though where this lenition actually occurs depends on dialect. The general rule is that /t/ and /d/ are lenited after an /e/ or diphthong ending in -/ɪ̯/, e.g. retam [ɾeθam] "button" or yeid [jeɪ̯ð] "legend (person)".

Vowels

Izhkut has a lot of vowels and diphthongs, most of which preserved from Old Izhkut.

Izhkut phonemic vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Close-mid	e		o
Open-mid	ɛ
Open		a

Additionally, four of the six phonemic vowels have non-syllabic allophones that appear in diphthongs.

Non-syllabic allophones of Izhkut phonemic vowels

	Phoneme	Allophone
Close	i	ɪ
	u	ʊ
Close-mid	e	ɨ
	o	ɔ

All six phonemic vowels can form valid diphthongs with their non-syllabic counterparts. Two identical vowels next to each other in a diphthong don't occur either, nor does /eɛ̯/ or /ɛɨ̯/.

final       initial		a	i	u	o	e	ɛ
a		-	aɪ̯	aʊ̯	aɔ̯	aɨ̯	aɛ̯
i		ia̯	-	iʊ̯	iɔ̯	iɨ̯	iɛ̯
u		ua̯	uɪ̯	-	uɔ̯	uɨ̯	uɛ̯
o		oa̯	oɪ̯	oʊ̯	-	oɨ̯	oɛ̯
e		ea̯	eɪ̯	eʊ̯	eɔ̯	-
ɛ		ɛa̯	ɛɪ̯	ɛʊ̯	ɛɔ̯

Though /eɛ̯/ and /ɛɨ̯/ don't occur in any dialect, some older, primarily Pokht-derived placenames still orthographically retain these diphthongs, e.g. the city of Kohfëef. However, these diphthongs are replaced with i-initial or i-final dipthongs, so Kohfëef is pronounced [ˈkoxfɛɪ̯f] or [ˈkoxfeɪ̯f].

Prosody

Stress

Stress in Izhkut is generally prototonic. When a syllable contains an /ɛ/ ⟨ë⟩ it is automatically primarily stressed.

Pitch-accent

Izhkut incorporates a two-tone pitch-accent system very similar to Swedish. The two tones, often called contour I(falling tone) and II(mid/no tone), vary between dialects, though their placements are the same.

Meaning (I)	Contour		Meaning(II)
	I	II
whistle	sillu	silu	silo
wail (n.)	ouggu	ougu	wheat
place	dost	dost

Contour I is usually orthographically indicated by the doubling of the proceeding letter, with contour II left unindicated.

Syntax

Constituent order

Izhkut, like most Taskaric languages, uses a VSO(verb-subject-object) constituent order.