Riukish

Riukish
Ribnú
Pronunciation	[riβnʉː]
Created by	Aenil2
Date	2024
Setting	Conworld
Native speakers	L1 : 600 (1872 CC) L2 : 3200
Language family	Isolate Riukish
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-2	brn

Riukish (autoglossonym: Ribnú; Riukish : [riβnʉː]) is a minority language spoken in Lincai (Riukish : Ricda [ricð̞ä]), province in which the majority language is Makari. Riukish is a language isolate, as it is not related to any languages known in the Ragian subcontinent, place where the Proto-Kinavel language evolved. One of the hypothesis about the provenance of Riukish is that merchants from Kalari brought their language to Lincai, around 900 years ago.

Gramatically speaking, Riukish is a fusional language, even though verbs can be considered as agglutinative. It has a split-ergative alignment, with case depending entirely on verb voices, a concept that Riukish makes extensive use of.

Etymology

Following the previous hypothesis, the language name could come from the Early Kalari word «Rŭivnĭu» /rʷiβnʲu/ which, at that time, meant "story, novel". In the now extinct Kalari language, that word became «Ruivnu», and meant "tongue"

Phonology

Consonants

The following table is Riukish consonant inventory. It is composed of 19 phonemes, 5 of which being approximants and 5 of them being fricatives according to the traditional pronunciation.

Consonants
	Labials	Alveolars	Dorsals
Nasals	m /m/	n /n/	ng /ŋ/
Plosives	p /p/	t /t/	c /c/, k /k/
Fricatives	f /ɸ/	s /s/	z /ç/, x /x/, h /h/
Approximants	v /β̞/	d /ð̞/, l /l/	g /ɰ/, w /w/
Trills	b /ʙ̥/	r /r/

Notes :

• In the "neo-phonology", the approximants /β̞/, /ð̞/ and /ɰ/ are pronounced /β/, /ð/ and /ɣ/
• /c/ and /ç/ can be pronounced /kʲ/ and /ʃʲ/

Vowels

There are 9 vowels in Riukish, 8 of which form short-long pairs :

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i,í /iː/	ú /ʉː/	u /u/
Mid	e /e̞/, é /ɛ̝:/		o /o̞/
Open	á /æ:/	a /ä/	ó /ɒ:/

Morphology

Riukish nominal morphology is fusional, whereas verbal morphology is agglutinative. Inflections are mainly suffixes, even though circumfixes are often used.

Verbal

Riukish verbs are inflected with 5 moods, 3 tenses, 2 aspects and 9 voices. Each voice is conveyed using an affix, glued to the verb root before the inflection. There are also are 2 non-finite forms :

• The participle, which serves the role of indicating the agent of an action
• The transgressive, which serves to indicate concurrent actions

Active voice

The active voice is the initial form of the verb, which indicates that the subject is the one who does the action. The arguments of the verb must be in the Nominative/Accusative case

Here is the active voice paradigm :

nírú - to live
Non-finite forms
	Participle		nírúnire
	Transgressive		nunírúti
Finite forms
		Indicative	Conditional	Jussive	Potential	Optative
Absolute	Past	anírú	anírúne	anírúta	anírúldo	anírúru
	Present	nírú	nírúne	nírúta	nírúldo	nírúru
	Future	inírú	inírúne	inírúta	inírúldo	inírúru
Relative	Past	anírúte	anírúva	anírúgú	ánírúngo	ánírúgi
	Present	nírúte	nírúva	nírúgú	énírúngo	énírúgi
	Future	inírúte	inírúva	inírúgú	ínírúngo	ínírúgi

Middle voice

The middle voice indicates that the subject is both the one who does the action and the one who is undergoing change. The arguments of the verb must be in the Ergative/Absolutive case

It is formed by prefixing "da-" to the main root

Passive voice

The passive voice indicates that the subject is the patient of the actions. The arguments of the verb must be in the Nominative/Accusative case. It's subdivided into 2 different voices :

Dynamic passive

The dynamic passive (or eventive passive) is a passive action that was/is/will be taking place.

It is formed using the suffix "-noí" to the verb root

Static passive

The static passive (or stative passive) is a passive action that was/is/will be done to the subject that did/does/will result in a state in the time focused upon

It is formed using the suffix "-té" to the verb root

Adjutative

The adjutative voice conveys the information that the subject is helping the agent.

It is formed by adding "-róu" to the verb root