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).

Modern Izhkut is divided into two main dialect groups: Mainland and Colonial. Mainland dialects are spoken in Izhkutrëa proper, and historically were the basis of Standard Izhkut, though modern Mainland dialects have mostly diverged from the Standard to varying degrees(even the least divergent dialects, such as those of Ubëes, have incorporated many slang words that are not recognised in Standard Izhkut). Colonial dialects are a diverse dialect continuum primarily spoken in the Izhkut Colonies(Standard Izhkut: Misogra, Lege misogra; Colonial Izhkut: Uesi), characterised by a phonology and grammar distinct from Standard or Mainland Izhkut, as well as a vocabulary heavily influenced by languages indigenous to the Colonies and also great internal diversity; Colonial dialects themselves are generally divided into Bay Area(in and around the Gibios Bay) and Strait(around the Chepsëh strait) dialect continua that have their own distinct vocabulary and slang, if similar phonology and grammar.

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 Izhkutrëan government.

Phonology

Consonants

This table only shows the consonants in Mainland Izhkut.

	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Post-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	p b		t d			ɟ	k g
Nasal	m	(n̪)		n		ɲ	(ŋ)
Fricative		f v	(θ) (ð)	s z	ʃ ʒ		x	(h)
Tap or Flap	(ɾʷ)			ɾ		(ɾʲ)
Semivowel						j
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)".

Though in Old Izhkut /h/ was its own phoneme, /h/ merged into /x/ some time during the transition to modern Izhkut. However, by the time of the development of Colonial dialects, /h/ reappeared as an allophone of /x/ after /ɛ/, /e/ and /i/(and later replaced /x/ as a whole). This allophonic use of /h/ seeped into Mainland dialects and eventually Standard Izhkut by 256 BH, and has remained a sanctioned part of Izhkut phonological rules to this day.

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	youth

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

Phonotactics

Izhkut syllables follow the rule of (C)(r)V₁(V₂), where C represents any consonant apart from the flap, r represents the flap, V₁ represents any vowel, and V₂ represents any vowel that isn't identical to V₁.

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.

Vocative

In Mainland dialects, a vocative particle, i, is always placed before formal singular second and third person pronouns. For example:

Luën i la sëm?

"What would you like?"(lit. "Want o thou what?")

Luën i sa ge luhus reosh.

"He would like the chicken soup."(lit. "Want o he the soup chicken.")

Traditionally, Izhkut royalty also used the particle before the singular first-person pronouns, the Izhkut equivalent to the royal we in English. For example, Margaret Thatcher's famous "We have become a grandmother" phrase would be:

Zre delun a i na mizhmalla.

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(h not pronounced)
• Mosëoch: no distinction

Syntax

Like most Taskaric languages, Izhkut syntax is mostly isolating, with grammatical mood and tense shown by preceding and proceeding particles.

Constituent order

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

Verbs

Mood

Imperative

The imperative mood in Izhkut is highly regular: the particle ma is placed before the verb, as so:

Ma yush leg'abarm.

"Shut the windows."

While m'u(pronounced [mu]) is used when the proceeding vowel is a copula, as in:

M'u lan!

"Be good!"

The negative imperative mood is, in contrast, heavily irregular and dependent on dialect; see § Negative imperative.

Passive/active voice

In Izhkut, the active voice is uninflected whereas the passive voice is indicated by a proceeding zre particle. For example:

Drapuk g'ivi.

"The man eats."

"The man is being eaten" would be:

Zre drapuk g'ivi.

Aspect

Dichotomic aspect(perfective/imperfective) is optional, but can be shown(and is commonly done so in Colonial dialects) by one of two particles:

• lae verb - perfective(le verb in Colonial dialects.)
• lun verb - imperfective

Tense

Present tense is left unmarked. Tenses apart from present tense are shown by proceeding particles:

• verb ya - far past
• verb a - past
• verb oë - future
• verb oëhe - far future(rarely used)

Negation

The Izhkut equivalent of "no" is mera in Mainland dialects. In Colonial dialects, the negative pronoun/determiner hem is used in place of mera.

Hem

The Izhkut negative pronoun, hem, has many uses. When placed before the copula, it means "There is no (more)".

Hem u griu. - "There is no (more) juice."

It is also composes part of many other negative pronouns:

• hemiu - nobody, no one
• hemdë - nothing
• hemloa - nowhere
• hemzin(Colonial eye dialect hemzhin) - never

Finally, hem acts as a negative determiner, as in:

Lam na hem zai.

"I have no money."

Negative imperative

In Mainland dialects, the imperative is marked by the preceding particle ma, while the negative imperative is usually marked by the particle h'ma(hem + ma, pronounced [xˈma]). In Southern Mainland dialects, double negatives are also used in negative imperative phrases, a feature borrowed from Pokht:

H'ma drapuk hem yosh.

"Don't eat pork."(lit. "Don't eat no pork.")

Negative imperatives are, however, very differently expressed in Colonial dialects. First, in Colonial dialects, imperatives are generally unmarked; Ma yush "Shut up" in Mainland dialects would simply be Yush in Colonial dialects.

Though the negative imperative is marked, how exactly this is marked depends on dialect. In Bay Area dialects, the negative imperative is marked by mera(the negative interjection in Mainland dialects) or alternatively eye dialect m'ra, and is placed after the verb, in contrast to the precedent placement of Mainland h'ma, e.g.:

Drapuk mera yosh. / Drapuk m'ra yosh.

"Don't eat pork."(lit. "Eat not pork.")

In Strait dialects,

Word derivation

Adjective form

Nouns can be converted to adjectives by adding the suffix -re(-ar in Colonial dialects), as in gilab "sand" > gilabre/gilabar "sandy".

Dialects

Colonial

Main article: Colonial Izhkut