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
Standard form	Standard Izhkut
Dialects	Mainland dialects North(Ilyod) dialects Ubëes dialect South(Pokht) dialects Izhkrilin dialects Colonial dialects Bay Area dialects Usergonefa dialect → Skindfik Strait dialects Shepsë dialect Ebënzinu dialect Mosëoch dialect
Official status
Official language in	Izhkutrëa, Ingdikh, Pokht, Ilyod
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 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/.

	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], and Ubëes is pronounced [ˈubɛɪ̯s].

Prosody

Stress

Stress in Izhkut is generally prototonic.

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.

Morphology

Articles

Izhkut has no indefinite articles. Definite articles are inflected on number and proceeding sound.

	Consonant	Vowel
Sing.	ge	g'
Pl.	lege	leg'

Personal pronouns

			Case
			Nominative	Genitive		Accusative	Dative
				Singular	Plural
Singular	1st		na	nai	naid	nade	nadea
	2nd	informal	See § T-V distinction.
		formal	la	lai	laid	lade	ladea
3rd			sa	si	seid	sid	siud
Plural	1st	incl.	ena	enai	enaid	enna	enae
		excl.	ouna	ounai		ounna	ounnai
	2nd		ela	elai	elaid	elade	eladde
	3rd		mena	menai	menaid	menna	mensi

Izhkut personal pronouns are inflected on case almost identically to Old Izhkut, though number inflection is dropped for all cases except the genitive.

However, modern Izhkut also departs from Old Izhkut grammar through various forms, such as T-V distinction in plural second-person as well as the use of pitch-accent to differentiate nominative and accusative.

T-V distinction

Main article: Izhkut dialects § T-V distinction
Standard Izhkut employs a T-V distinction for singular second-person pronouns. Though the V is regular across most dialects and has highly regular inflection(la, lai, laid, etc.), the T is much more variable among dialects and its inflection is highly irregular. However, some common dialectal examples include:

• Mainland dialects: usually lu, lun, lai or no distinction
  • Northern dialects: ru, lu
    • Rëshpi dialects: in
  • Southern dialects: a, ai or no distinction
• Colonial dialects: various
  • Bay Area dialects: uses singular third-person pronoun sa
    • Usergonefa: sa, muos(pejorative)
  • Strait dialects: uol, ol
    • Shepsë: ra
    • Ebënzinu: uol, sa, ha(pronounced [a])
• Mosëoch: no distinction

Syntax

Constituent order

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