Kiryaakattic: Difference between revisions

|name=Kiryaakattic

|nativename=κιρϊάάκϊάν κϊάλε

|pronunciation={{IPA|ˈkir.jæː.ˌcɛ̃ ˈcæ.le}}

|ethnicity=Kiryaakats

|agency=Academy of Kiryaakattic Linguistics

Kiryaakattic is a Finnic language spoken in Greece. It, as with most Finnic languages, remains decently conservative. Kiryaakattic is most distinguishable by the preservation of word final Proto-Finnic *k (as modern /g/) and *h (as modern /k/).

Kiryaakattic is a Finnic language, belonging to the Finnic branch of the Uralic family, making it related to Finnish, Estonian, and, more distantly, Hungarian. Kiryaakattic is one of the only Finnic languages that doesn't fit in the Finnic dialect continuum, as it's diverged enough to be distinctly separate. Despite this distance from the other Finnic languages, it still shares a notable amount of features, such as:

:Shared basic vocabulary that shows mostly regular sound correspondence to the other Finnic languages.

The Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, United States, classifies Kiryaakattic as a level III language in terms of difficulty for native English speakers, citing the sheer amount of morphology Kiryaakattic possesses.

Kiryaakattic is a recognized minority language of Greece, and an official language in Central Macedonia.

Kiryaakattic is given legal protections as a minority language by the Greek government, including protections against discrimination. Kiryaakattic is viewed positively by most in Greece, and has shown up in several pieces of media, including literature and film. It is also used within some schools, especially those that offer classes for the language.

 

Kiryaakattic has gained more global recognition in recent years with the advent of short form content allowing for the viral spread of music and clips that include people speaking it.

Kiryaakattic is a descendant of late Proto-Finnic, though it isn't attested till the early 13th century in Greece, written in an adaptation of Greek miniscule that is largely still used (hence why many letter forms seem odd or wrong).

Not much is known about the early period of Kiryaakattic, as verified attestations don't start till around 1250, though attestations as early as 1100 are claimed, these are unverified at best.

Linguists believe Kiryaakattic was the last to split from the other Finnic languages, making it the youngest of them. It's estimated to have split off around 800AD. From around 800AD to the late 1000's it's thought the Kiryaakats were migrating across Europe to Greece, where they'd finally settle around and in Naissus (Modern-day Niš) under emperor Basil II. Over the next century, they'd continue to move towards Greece proper, till they settled across Macedonia (Modern-day Central Macedonia).

Linguistic research on Kiryaakattic began in the mid 1600's, following linguists trying and failing to fit it into the Indo-European family, from there, many early proponents of the Uralic family took interest in it, such as Martin Fogel and Georg Stiernhielm. Fogel especially took interest in it due to the geographic distance, being quick to try and establish which language it's closest to, and concluding it must at least be decently close to Finnish, but he failed to explain the grammar issues.

In the mid 1980's, the Academy of Kiryaakattic Linguistics finalized a standardized form of the language, in this was a section titled "The Great Reformation", a section over the grammar of the language, it's notable for massively altering the language, to the point you could argue the grammar is artificially constructed. This standardized language has since been the form taught in schools, so it's been widely adopted by those born after its publication. Due to the preservation of the pre-reform language by the older generations, the older forms are still taught, albeit they're taught as outdated forms, for purposes of understanding and communicating with the older generations.

Kiryaakattic is believed to have split off from Proto-Finnic around 800AD, as the last language to do so. Following this is roughly 2 centuries of migration to Naissus, over which they'd pick up some influence from other languages along the way, notably Germanic and Slavic. This influence would be through loan words exclusively though, as no settlement stayed long enough to pick up more.

From roughly 1050AD to 1200AD, Kiryaakattic was spoken by the Kiryaakats in Naissus, where they'd pick up the first of their Greek influence, this was far more notable though, as they'd stay in Greece permanently, where Greek would start to influence grammar, mostly syntax, though it may be that the Greek influence was part of the development of the dual.

After 1200AD, it seems they began moving towards Greek proper, where they'd eventually settle in Macedonia in 1327AD, an event thought to be recorded in some historic texts from the time that mention the arrival of a strange people who spoke differently from the local Greeks, though it seems the Kiryaakats were accepted by the locals, as it's likely the Kiryaakats could speak Greek.

From 1327AD onward, no more migration happened, but it seems the language nearly faced death around 1450AD, being noted in a Greek text, "I have noticed the [Kiryaakats]¹ seem to have lost touch with their tongue, only the elders speak it well, and very few of the youth speak it at all. It seems to me they favor [Greek]" (1: The Greek reads "Northern foreigners").

Kiryaakattic was only sparsely written, even during the time we have verified records of it, and it wouldn't get to a literary position till the late 1600's, when linguists took interest in it for clearly not fitting in the Indo-European family, it was then a small set of linguists took up trying to link it to other languages, when similarities between it and Finnish were noticed, early proponents of a link between Finnish and Hungarian, such as Martin Fogel and Georg Stiernhielm, took interest in it as well.

These early linguists would start work on reconstructing a "Proto-Finnic", relying on Kiryaakattic at points for the conservative features it does retain, such as final -γ where the other Finnic languages have nothing. The discovery of the link between Kiryaakattic and the Finnic languages is attributed to Martin Fogel. At points, linguists realized Kiryaakattic could be incredibly divergent in certain areas, such as grammatically, where Kiryaakattic very often showed signs of regularization or even leveling, this made linguists retiscent to use it for reconstructing grammar, instead using it mainly for reconstructing the general phonological structure of words, where it is rather helpful.

The dual forms of Kiryaakattic have caused much debate among linguists, as the way they fit into the language seems to suggest they're incredibly old, possibly even from Proto-Finnic, but had that been the case, you would expect to see remnants of a dual in the other Finnic languages, but there isn't one, so it's now generally agreed that the dual was an early innovation in Kiryaakattic that over time became more and more settled into the inflection systems till it was no more noticeable than the other suffixes.

A debate around the dual forms is about why the nouns recieved a -α-, but the verbs recieved a -δ, one of the more accepted theories proposes that due to the nature of how number is marked on the two, the origin of the dual affix reduced differently, so in nouns it reduced to a vowel to fit into the -ε-/-ι- pattern (thus -ε-/-α-/-ι-), while on verbs it reduced to *-ks, then through regular sound change it become -δ, this is also why most linguists believe the dual originates from the reduction and eventual suffixation of *kakci, which would have been *kaksi at the time, the idea is it went through several stages of reduction:

:In nouns: *kakci > *kaksi > *kaks(ə) > *-kas- > *-ah- > -a-

The plural verb forms have also been a point of contention, they're clearly composed of the singular form with -α affixed to the end, but the origin of these forms is unknown, though it's been suggested the -α comes from the ending on several (but not all) of the verb forms in Proto-Finnic, and this is widely accepted as no better explanation exists. Another problem is figuring out order all of these changes happened in, as that greatly impacts the expected forms.

The chronology of these changes greatly dictates how we would expect modern Kiryaakattic to look, so below is a widely accepted theory.

:2: Leveling of the verbal plural to -α, and the nominal plural to -ι- (as well as the nominal singular to -ε-)

In 1985-87, the Academy of Kiryaakattic Linguistics (AKL) finalized a standardized form of the language that leveled the grammar completely, thus making everything entirely regular, this is the form of the language taught in schools, leading to most younger speakers using a variant of it, while older speakers continue to use the old forms, this can sometimes cause problems in communication between younger and older speakers. While this form is spoken natively by most Kiryaakats, especially the younger generations, it must be noted it did not arise through natural evolution, it was explicitly engineered to be how it is by an academy, to which a reformed language would be beneficial.

Among this reformation of the language was many new loanwords from Greek to replace older words that could be seen as potentially offensive or derogatory, many of these already existed within the language, but were now the standard, such as "σκϊύλάσ" (From Greek "σκῠ́λᾰξ") replacing older "πενιγγα" (From Proto-Finnic *penikka), this specific example was already common among younger speakers, and it became especially so with the rise of the internet.

==Distribution==

Modern Kiryaakattic is spoken throughout Central Macedonia, primarily around the Thessaloniki metropolitan area. Outside of Central Macedonia, Kiryaakattic is rare, though it can be heard in some areas of the rest of Macedonia, as well as among some immigrants in the Americas.

Kiryaakattic is the primary language of roughly 350,000 people, with another 150,000 that only use it at home or in private. Despite this, it's estimated every Kiryaakat knows at least basic Greek, if they're not fully fluent, this is likely due to the geographic distribution of Kiryaakattic, generally being spread pretty thin across Central Macedonia, leading to Greek being almost necessary for daily life, much to the dismay of many Kiryaakats.

In recent years, there have been efforts to increase the number of speakers throughout Greece, as to facilitate Kiryaakattic being used more in public. The Academy of Kiryaakattic Linguistics has especially pushed for this, being one of the reasons the published a standard form of the language. Kiryaakattic has generally been held in a positive light, so most of Greece has been open to offering language classes to students in school, which have been decently popular among younger people. The L2 speaker population is estimated to be around 1,000,000, with roughly half of those reporting they're fully fluent in the language.

Within Greece, Kiryaakattic is overseen by the Academy of Kiryaakattic Linguistics, which is responsible for most thing concerning the language, especially preservation and education. The Academy was established in 1831, and has generally been viewed positively since, though it has had troubles occasionally, such as when it ruled in 1853 for schools to prioritize teaching Kiryaakattic over Greek and foreign languages, though that was quickly withdrawn upon seeing the general disagreement with the ruling. Beyond that, the Academy has been responsible for dealing with foreign diplomacy regarding the language, and it has advocated heavily for more foreign support of the language, such as attempting to get an official Kiryaakattic translation of all UN materials, though that particular effort has been largely ineffective.

In recent years, Kiryaakattic has been recognized as a minority language by the Greek government, and the Academy of Kiryaakattic Linguistics has gained the authority to make multilingual road signs in areas where Kiryaakattic is spoken by a significant amount of people (20% or higher), and in areas where Kiryaakattic has been spoken for a significant amount of time (like Thessaloniki, where Kiryaakattic has been spoken for at least 500 years). The Academy has also been granted the authority to make official translations of government documents. With the recognition of Kiryaakattic as a minority language, it has also been given status as an official language of Central Macedonia, which gives it protection otherwise not granted.

!

! Nasal

! Plosive¹

| p, b

| c, ɟ

| k, g

| (f)¹

| (θ)¹, s

! Approximant

| w

|+ Oral vowels

| i

| u

| e

| o

|  

|+ Orthography

! rowspan=2 | Letter

! colspan=2 | Transcription

! rowspan=2 | Name

! rowspan=2 | Pronunciation

| colspan=2 | a

| αλφα

| /æ~a/

| colspan=2 | b

| βετα

| /b/

| colspan=2 | g

| γαμμα

| /g/

| colspan=2 | d

| δελτα

| /d/

| colspan=2 | e

| επσιλον

| colspan=2 | z

| ζετα

| /(d)z/

| colspan=2 | th

| θετα

| colspan=2 | i

| ιωτα

|  

| /j/

| colspan=2 | k

| καππα

| colspan=2 | l

| λαμδα

| colspan=2 | m

| μυ

| colspan=2 | n

| νυ

| colspan=2 | o

| ομικρον

| colspan=2 | p

| πι

| colspan=2 | r

| ρο

| σ

| colspan=2 | s

| σιγμα

| colspan=2 | t

| ταυ

| colspan=2 | u

| υπσιλον

|

| /w/

| colspan=2 | ph~f

| φι

| colspan=2 | h

| χι

| ωμεγα

It is important to note that handwritten Kiryaakattic often looks nothing like its displayed counterpart, as handwritten Kiryaakattic uses many unique letter forms, and also makes extensive use of ligatures and shorthand symbols, some of which are for Greek words, rather than native ones, as with the symbol for "και" often being used in place of native "ϊα"

[[File:"κιρϊάάκιάν κιάλε".jpg|thumb|left|upright=1|<small>A short sample of handwritten Kiryaakattic, reading "κιρϊάάκϊάν κϊάλε", this particular sample lacks the diacritics</small>]]

Kiryaakattic is agglutinative like the other Finnic languages. The grammar is incredibly easy to analyze due to its extreme consistency and regularity that makes it simple to separate suffixes from roots.

An odd part of Kiryaakattic morphology is the development of a dual form from *kakci, it's not known why or how this developed, but it's an important aspect of modern Kiryaakattic morphology.

Nouns are some of the oddest bits of Kiryaakattic morphology, as they've undergone so much regularization that many of the forms look nothing like the Proto-Finnic.

|+ Inflection of "κιάλε" (-ε/-α/-ι pattern)

| κιάλε

| κιάλά

| κιάλι

| κιάλετ

| κιάλάτ

| κιάλιτ

| κιάλεν

| κιάλάν

| κιάλιν

! Translative

| κιάλεδι

| κιάλάδι

| κιάλιδι

! Instructive

| κιάλεν

| κιάλάν

| κιάλιν

|+ Post-Reform possessive suffixes

| -μι

 

 

| -(C)αγ¹

| -σαγ

There's several patterns, they can be generalized to a few characteristics:

:Ending of the nominative dual

:Ending of the nominative plural

Above you saw "κϊάλε", an -ε/-α/-ι pattern noun, so the others will be presented below.

|+ Inflection of "χαρα" (-α/-αα/-υο pattern)

| χαρα

| χαραα

| χαρυο

| χαρυοτ

| χαραν

| χαρυοα

! Inessive

| χαρασσα

| χαραασσα

| χαρυοσσα

! Elative

| χαραστα

| χαρααστα

| χαρυοστα

| χαρααεν

| χαρυοεν

! Adessive

! Ablative

| χαραλτα

| χαρααλτα

| χαρυολτα

! Allative

| χαραλεγ

| χαρααλεγ

| χαρυολεγ

! Essive

| χαρανα

| χαραανα

| χαρυονα

! Instructive

| χαραν

| χαρααν

| χαρυον

! Comitative

| χαρανγ

| χαραανγ

| χαρυονγ

|+ Post-Reform pronouns

| μινε

| μινά

| μινι

| σινε

| σινά

| σινι

| χινε

| χινά

| χινι

| μινετ

| μινάτ

| μινιτ

| σινετ

| σινάτ

| σινιτ

| χινετ

| χινάτ

| χινιτ

| μινεν

| μινάν

| μινιν

| σινεν

| σινάν

| σινιν

| χινεν

| χινάν

| χινιν

! Allative

| μινελεγ

| μινάλεγ

| μινιλεγ

| σινελεγ

| σινάλεγ

| σινιλεγ

| χινελεγ

| χινάλεγ

| χινιλεγ

! Essive

| μινενά

| μινάνά

| μινινά

| σινενά

| σινάνά

| σινινά

| χινενά

| χινάνά

| χινινά

! colspan=2 | Present Indicative

! Positive

! Negative

! colspan=2 | Present Conditional

! Positive

! Negative

! rowspan=3 | Singular

! 1st

! rowspan=3 | Singular

! 1st

! rowspan=3 | Dual

! 1st

! colspan=2 | Past Indicative

! Positive

! Negative

! colspan=2 | Past Conditional

| λόύτιεν

| λόύτιεκεν

! rowspan=3 | Singular

| λόύτιεδιν

| λόύτιεδικεν

| λόύτιετ

| λόύτιεκετ

| λόύτιεδιτ

| λόύτιεδικετ

| λόυτιεβι

| λόύτιεκεβι

| λόύτιεδικε

|-

! rowspan=3 | Dual

| λόύτιενδ

| λόύτιεκενδ

| λόύτιεδινδ

| λόύτιεδικενδ

! 2nd

| λόύτιεδ

| λόύτιεκεδ

| λόύτιεδιδ