Auralian

Auralian
Ourolilhónh
Pronunciation	[[Help:IPA|ɔʊ̯ruliˈʎuːɲ]]
Created by	Lili21
Date	Feb 2018
Setting	Calémere
Ethnicity	Auralians
Native speakers	210,000,000 (2312)
Language family	Evandorian languages Southern Evandorian Auralian

Auralian (Ourolilhónh or linurỳ ourolilhónh [linyˈrɪ ɔʊ̯ruliˈʎuːɲ]]) is an Evandorian language of Calémere, belonging to the Southern Evandorian branch and therefore related to Nivarese, Gazimyük, and the Agrôkian languages. It is the native language of the country of Auralia (endonym Ourolilh [ɔʊ̯ruˈliʎ]) in Southern Evandor (Evendöri) and the country's role in the colonization era means that Auralian is also the main language in many countries around the planet, including, notably, the Republic of Zeure [ˈzøːre], the most populated country on Púríton (Purït [pyˈriːt]).

It is the third most spoken Evandorian language (after Cerian and Nordulaki) and the sixth most spoken overall (Chlouvānem and Spocian have more speakers). As a Southern Evandorian language, it shares traits typical to that family, such as the existence of a construct state, but, alone in its branch, it lacks articles. It has also one of the most conservative nominal morphologies among living Evandorian languages, having evolved one more case (the instrumental) and retaining all five Proto-Evandorian cases, the only living Evandorian language to do so.

External History

Auralia, as a name, is somewhat newer than Ceria or Nordûlik, probably dating after 2010 or 2011 (as Skyrdagor or Nivaren). However, for the conlang itself, I did not know which aesthetic to follow. The first time I tried it looked very Greek, but, as I already had Greek inspiration for Nivarese, I decided to differentiate it more. Second time, almost a Dutch giblang... nice, but too giblangy to work. The third time I decided to introduce a Ligurian aesthetic, and I finally decided to develop it all on this. So there are four languages that influenced most of my Auralian aesthetic choices: Ligurian, Occitan, Ukrainian, and European Portuguese - the latter two more in certain phonological or diachronical aspects.

Phonology

Consonants

→ PoA ↓ Manner		Labial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Alveolopalatal Palatal	Velar
Nasals		m m		n n	nh ɲ
Plosives	Voiceless	p p		t t		c k
	Voiced	b [b]		d d		g ɡ*
Affricates				tz ts	č tʃ
Fricatives	Voiceless		f f	s s	s-si ʃ ch ç
	Voiced			z z	x ʒ	h ɣ
Laterals				l l	lh ʎ
Trill				r r
Approximants		b w		j j

/ɡ/ only appears in foreign loans. [b] is a word-initial allophone of /w/.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i u i y ï û iː uː		o u ó uː
Near-high	y ɪ
High-mid	e e é eu eː øː
High-mid	ë ɛː		ö ɔː
Low		a â a aː
Diphthongs	ei ɛɪ̯		ou ɔʊ̯

Orthographical notes:

• /aː/ is written ä when unstressed, cf. ratoâ /ratuˈaː/ "hawks" (nom. pl.) but ratoärûnh /ratuaːˈryːɲ/ "to hawks" (dat. pl.).
• Word-medially, stressed high or low long vowels in open syllables are written as normal vowels; a short vowel in the same position is denoted by doubling the consonant (as in the orthographies of most Germanic and Gallo-Italic languages), cf. rixo /riːʒu/ "you", čippa /ˈtʃipa/ "fire".
• Word-finally, stressed short vowels, including /ɪ/, are marked by an acute accent - cf. linurỳ /linyˈrɪ/ "language".
• /ɛɪ̯/, /øː/, and /ɔʊ̯/ are written as ëi, ëu, and öu if they are preceded by /e/ e or /u/ o, e.g. ratoöu /ratuˈɔʊ̯/ "hawks" (accus. pl.).
• The sequences /u.y/ and /e.i/ are written as oü and eï - e.g. ratoünh /ratuˈyɲ/ "to a/the hawk" (dat. sg.).

Morphology

Nouns

Like most Evandorian languages, Auralian differentiates between front-vowel stems and back-vowel stems. Unlike other heavily inflected languages in the family, Auralian only has these two declensions, independent of nominal gender, though front-vowel stems are mainly feminine, even when in many closely related languages (e.g. modern Nivarese) are masculine.

The front-vowel stem declension has been extensively remodelled following the back-vowel one.

	Back-vowel stem rató, -àx "hawk"				Front-vowel stem nixec, -tz "finger"
	Non-construct		Construct		Non-construct		Construct
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Nominative	rató	ratoâ	ratöis	ratoâis	nixec	nixetzï	nixečis	nixetzïs
Accusative	ratàt	ratoöu	ratateu	ratoöbys	nixetz		nixetzë	nixetzïbys
Locative	ratoba	ratoâba	ratobatzy	ratoâbatzy	nixetzbe	nixetzïba	nixetzbetzy	nixetzïbatzy
Ablative	ratàx	ratoâxy	ratàxys	ratoâxysy	nixeč	nixetzïxy	nixečys	nixetzïxysy
Dative	ratoünh	ratoärûnh	ratoüny	ratoärûny	nixesinh	nixetzisïnh	nixesiny	nixetzisïny
Instrumental	ratomys	ratoârnys	ratonsi	ratoârnyxy	nixecnys	nixetzïrnys	nixecansi	nixetzïrnyxy