Riagi

Riagi
Rīagi
Pronunciation	[/ɾiːaɰi/]
Created by	Miguel Bartelsman
Date	2014
Setting	Aokae world
Language family	Riagi Riagi
Official status
Regulated by	Academy of spiritual and magical arts
Language codes
ISO 639-3	qrr

Riagi is an a priori constructed language designed to be the mother-thong and language-of-the-gods in the constructed fantasy world of Aokae. The language is widely used throughout the world in rituals and scriptures and to communicate with powerful spirits and gods. Even though it has no native speakers, it is believed to have been the first language to be spoken and most languages in the world are derived either directly or indirectly from it.

Its phonology is inspired by the descriptions of the Eloi language given in the book of The Time Machine and by Polynesian languages such as Maori and Hawaiian, likewise, the script it uses is vaguely derived from the Rongorongo inscription found in Easter Island and by Javanese and its parent Old Kawi.

Its grammar is not directly derived from any one language, instead is a mix of grammatical features meant to give it a unique feel. It’s a language focused on the reasons behind actions and their context rather than in actions themselves.

Phonology

Even though Riagi does not have a large amount of different sounds, it compensates for it by distinguishing between long and short vowels and long and short stops changing the amount of phonemes from 13 consonants and 5 vowels to 16 consonants and 10 vowels.

Consonants

	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	/m/	/n/	-	/ŋ/	-
Stop	/p pː/	/t tː/	-	/k kː/	/ʔ/
Fricative	/f/ ~ /ʃ/		-	-	-
Approximant	/β/ ~ /ð/		/j/	/ɰ/	/h/
Flap	-	/ɾ/	-	-	-

Riagi has a wide range of free variation, the labio-alveolar voiceless fricative, being the only fricative in the inventory, has free variation between [ɸ], [f], [θ], [s] and [ʃ]. Similarly, the labio-alveolar voiced approximant has free variation between [β], [ʋ] and [ð]. And because Riagi has no voiced fricatives of any sort, all voiced approximants can be 'correctly' pronounced as their voiced fricatives equivalents.

Gemination

Phonemic gemination is only found in Riagi in the voiceless stops /p/, /t/ and /k/.

Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	/i iː/	/u uː/
Close-mid	/e eː/	/o oː/
Open	/a aː/	-

Long vowels

Unlike consonants, vowel elongation is found in all vowels

Diphthongs

Short diphthongs are formed by a central or back vowel followed by an equal or closer vowel: /ae/, /ao/, /ai/, /au/, /oe/, /oi/, /ou/, /ui/

Long diphthongs are formed by a long vowel followed by /a/: /eːa/, /oːa/, /iːa/, /uːa/

Phonotactics

The syllable structure in Riagi is quite simple, it consists of an optional onset consonant followed by a vowel or diphthong, or (C)V(V).

Stress

Riagi has a predictable stress that falls on the penultimate syllable, irregular words (often loanwords) have their stressed syllable marked by an acute diacritic on the last vowel.

Romanization

The following romanization is going to be used throughout the article

• /m/ → ⟨m⟩
• /n/ → ⟨n⟩
• /ŋ/ → ⟨ng⟩
• /p/ → ⟨p⟩
• /pː/ → ⟨pp⟩
• /t/ → ⟨t⟩
• /tː/ → ⟨tt⟩
• /k/ → ⟨k⟩
• /kː/ → ⟨kk⟩
• /ʔ/ → ⟨ ' ⟩
• /f/ ~ /ʃ/ → ⟨s⟩
• /β/ ~ /ð/ → ⟨v⟩
• /j/ → ⟨j⟩
• /ɰ/ → ⟨g⟩
• /h/ → ⟨h⟩
• /r/ → ⟨r⟩
• /a/ → ⟨a⟩
• /aː/ → ⟨ä, ā⟩
• /e/ → ⟨e⟩
• /eː/ → ⟨ë, ē⟩
• /i/ → ⟨i⟩
• /iː/ → ⟨ï, ī⟩
• /o/ → ⟨o⟩
• /oː/ → ⟨ö, ō⟩
• /u/ → ⟨u⟩
• /uː/ → ⟨ü, ū⟩

Morphology

Riagi is a predominantly agglutinative language with a fair share of fusion. Glossing abbreviations are found next to their respective terms and within parenthesis. Morphemes are in bold.

Nouns

Cases

Riagi has a system of dual noun cases where one marks the syntactic role and the other the semantic role

Argument Cases

Argument cases are cases which mark the different arguments on a sentence.

• Nominative (nom)

  Marks the agent of a transitive verb and the active subject of an intransitive verb

• Absolutive (abs)

  Marks the object of a transitive verb and the passive subject of an intransitive verb

• Dative (dat)

  Marks the indirect objects of a verb

Thematic Cases

Thematic cases are cases which mark the thematic relations between each of the arguments on a sentence.

• Agentive ( - )

  Marks the entity which carries out the action, this theme is exclusive to the nominative case.

• Patientive (pat)

  Marks the patient or theme, that is the entity that undergoes the action

• Instrumental (ins)

  Marks the instrument or entity with which the action was carried out, this can be a tool or a person.

• Locative (loc)

  Marks the location or time at which the action was performed

• Benefactive (ben)

  Marks the entity for whose benefit the action occurs, this includes recipients with verbs that express change of possession

• Origative (ori)

  Marks the place, time, motive or cause from which the action originated

• Metative (met)

  Marks the direction, purpose or objective towards which the action aims

Declensions

	Case	Agentive	Patientive	Instrumental	Locative	Benefactive	Origative	Metative
Case	Affix	-ø	-o	-oe	-ae	-a	-i	-ui
Nominative	-ø	ø	-o	-oe	-ae	-a	-i	-ui
Absolutive	-t	-	-to	-toe	-tae	-ta	-ti	-tui
Dative	-m	-	-mo	-moe	-mae	-ma	-mi	-mui

Number

Riagi has number marking for both count and mass nouns. Number is marked after cases.

• Singular (sg) -ø

  The singular form is the default number for count nouns, it indicates a single element (i.e. A pen. A book)

• Singulative (svg) -'e

  The singulative form marks a single unit of a mass noun, the unit is culturally and contextually determined (i.e. A drop of water. A grain of salt)

• Collective (col) -ø

  The collective form is the default number for mass nouns (i.e. Water. Salt)

• Plural or Plurative (pl) -'o

  The plural or plurative form marks both a group of countable nouns and a group of mass nouns (i.e. Pens. Books. Waters. Salts)

Obviative

Riagi has three levels of obviative/proximate distinctions

• Proximate -ø

  The most salient or proximate entity, unmarked

• Obviative (obv) -ge

  The obviative marks a less salient entity

• Further Obviative (fobv) -gē

  The further obviative mark is much less common, it marks an entity less salient than an obviative

Pronouns

First Person (1)		Dual Person (D)		Second Person (2)		Third Person (3)
Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
ē	ō	na	nao	sa	sano	rage	rago
Fourth Person (4)				Fifth Person (5)
Singular		Plural		Singular		Plural
nae		nae'o		re		re'o
Zero Person (0)
Singular				Plural
anga				anga'o

• The First person plural is exclusive
• The Dual person singular indicates both the Speaker and the Addressee
• The Dual person Plural is an inclusive version of the first person plural
• The Fourth person is an indefinite category that encompasses First and Dual persons. "These ones think so" (referring to themselves)
• The Fifth person is similar to the fourth but covers Second and Third persons.
• The Zero person is a completely generic category. "One could say so"

Verbs

Tense

Rjargi has four tenses:

• Past (pst) pōa-

  Sets the reference time of the action in the past

• Present (prs) ø-

  Sets the reference time of the action in the present

• Future (fut) kki-

  Sets the reference time of the action in the future

• Gnomic (gno) ano-

  Does not limit the reference time of the action to a specific time

Aspect

Rjargi has five aspects:

• Perfective (pfv)

  Describes the action as a whole or without interior composition

• Retrospective (ret)

  Describes an action that took place before the frame of reference

• Continuous (cont)

  Describes an action taking place within the frame of reference

• Prospective (prosp)

  Describes an action expected or taking place in the future of the frame of reference

• Habitual (hab)

  Describes an action that takes place regularly within the reference time

Mood

Moods are divided in External, Internal and Evidential

• External
  • Permissive (prm): Used to express permission
  • Requisitive (req): Used to express requests or suggestions
  • Compulsory (cls): Used to express orders and commands
  • Impositive (ims): Used to express expectations or imposed actions
• Internal
  • Promissory (pms): Used to express for promises oaths or threats
  • Desiderative (des): Used to express willingness or intent
  • Aspirative (asp): Used to express hopes, fears or wishes
  • Necessitative (nec): Used to express needs or obligations
• Evidential
  • Factual (fac): Indicates the certainty of the action
  • Probable (pbl): Indicates the likelyhood of the action
  • Improbable (ipb): Indicates the unlikelyhood of the action
  • Potential (ptn): Indicates the posibility of the action

Negation

There are two basic ways to negate

Negating the main verb

Negates the action but not the TAM

You may not-work

Negating the coverb

Negates the TAM but not the action

You may-not work

The coverb needs not to be fully inflected, one may only negate mood, tense/aspect or both, allowing for sentences like I didn't use to need to take my medicines by negating only the tense on I used need to take my medicines

Non-Finite forms

Infinitive

Dictionary form

Used when employing the verb as a noun

Gerund

Used when employing the verb as an adjective or adverb

Derivational morphology

Adverbs and Adjectives

Adverbs and adjectives are essentially the same and can be used interchangeably, their lexical category is only determined by their position on a sentence. Because of this, both will be abbreviated as 'Adx'

Syntax

Word Order

Nouns

Before the verb if its indefinite

After the verb if its definite

Adjectives

Before the noun

Multiple adjectives need a commitative particle

Adverbs

Before the word they modify

Prepositions

Adjacent to the verb

After the verb if the subject is definite

Before the verb if the subject is indefinite

Verbs take only one preposition

Nested prepositional phrases must be separated by a subordinator

Cardinal numbers

Before the noun and it's adjectives and adverbs

Ordinal numbers

Treated as adjectives