Jalaia is the language spoken in the fictitious nation of Kuarjalainankuna as well as the most common language used by the Deities of Anarturia. It is highly agglutinative.

Background

Jalaia is the spoken language of the Kingdom of Kuarjalainankuna in my constructed world of Anarturia. It is heavily based on Uralic and Semitic languages.

History

Use in Lauredonia

Jalaia was used in the Great Elven Kingdom of Lauredonia, one of the four dominant kingdoms of Avrón during the Era of the Beginning. During these years, the language corrently known as Proto-Esseyainan was spoken, which also became the root for the Levynätystä and Eijiouwan languages. It was spoken across the majority of the Skenörrjavage peninsula.

Phonology

Consonants

Bilabial Labio-dental Dental Alveolar Post-alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m̥ m n̥ n ŋ̊ ŋ
Plosive p t d k ʔ
Fricative s h
Affricate θ
Approximant ʋ j
Trill r
Lateral fric. ɬ
Lateral app. l

Vowels

Front Central Back
Close i y u
Close-mid e ø o
Near-open æ
Open ä

Phonotactics

Phonotactics greatly differ between official and colloquial Jalaia. An example of this is the number of consonants that an initial consonant cluster is permitted to have.

Official Jalaia

In official Jalaia, a syllable usually follows the following pattern: (C)(C)V(C)(C)(C). A syllable either begins with one consonant or two consonants, even when in written language the syllable begins with a vowel. In the latter case, in spoken official Jalaia, the syllable begins with an unwritten glottal stop.

A syllable can end with one, two or three consonants, or, in written language, with a vowel. In spoken language, however, the end of the syllable will be marked with an unwritten glottal stop.

An example would be the word "enkyvnästettetinäs", "I do not like you", which is pronounced [ˈʔeŋ̊kyʋ̯næsˌtet:etˌinæs]. Remember this word for the next example.

Colloquial Jalaia

Colloquial Jalaia does not have a written counterpart, but unlike spoken Official Jalaia, Colloquial Jalaia is the most used version of Jalaia in informal situations and for direct communication. A syllable can follow the following pattern: (C)(C)(C)(C)(C)V(C)(C)(C)(C)(C). A syllable begins with any number between zero and five consonants, and can end in any number between zero and five consonants.

Unlike Official Jalaia, Colloquial Jalaia does not require that a glottal stop is pronounced in the locations where it is so required in Official Jalaia. Also in theory any five consonants could make up the consonant clusters, however, only certain consonant combinations will be pronounced in completeness, with on most occasions at least one or two consonants omitted.

We once again take as example the word ""enkyvnästettetinäs", which in Colloquial Jalaia is pronounced as [ˈen̥kʋ̯næsˌtet:eʔˌnæs].

Similarities between Official and Colloquial Jalaia

Vowel harmony

Jalaia uses vowel harmony in all circumstances to the effect that any affixes can be altered if the affix contains a sound that is affected by vowel harmony.

Vowel harmony requires that words have only either front or back vowels, with the central [ä] considered to be front rather than central for purposes of grammatical comprehensibility. This means that the front vowels [ä], [o] and [u] and the back vowels [æ], [ø] and [y] cannot be used in the same word. The vowels [e] and [i] are neutral and can be used regardless of the vowels used in a word.

Whether a word uses front vowels or back vowels can can influence a word's meaning; e.g. compare:


"taa", meaning "river", pronounced [tä:]
"tää", meaning "knee", pronounced [tæ:].


This effect is continued with affixes; e.g. compare:


"taatta", meaning "from the river", pronounced [ˈtä:t:ä] in Official (O) or [ˈtä↘.tä] in Colloquial (C)
"täättä", meaning "from the knee", pronounced [ˈtæ:t:æ] (O) or [ˈtæ↘.tæ] in (C).


This effect continues with all the affixes that contain a non-neutral vowel; e.g. compare:


"taattammasan", meaning "to your location from the river", pronounced [ˈtä:t:äm:äsän] (O) or [ˈtä↘.ʔm:ä̚sän] (C)
"täättämmäsän", meaning "to your location from the knee", pronounced [ˈtæ:t:æm:æsæn] (O) or [ˈtæ↘.ʔm:æ̚sæn] (C)
"taaittaiuuias olanis", meaning "[it] was where one moves inside between the rivers", pronounced [ˈtä:ʲit:ä.i.u:.i.äs ˈolänis] (O) or [ˈtä:↘.täju:jä̚s ˈonis] (C)
"tääittäiyyiäs olanis", meaning "[it] was where one moves inside between the knees", pronounced [ˈtæ:ʲit:æ.i.y:.i.æs ˈonin] (O) or [ˈtæ:↘.tæ̚jy:s ˈonis] (C).
Consonant clusters

Though theoretically in Colloquial Jalaia all consonant combinations are possible, it retains the Official Jalaia's allowable consonant clusters by omitting the consonants that would make an otherwise possible consonant cluster impossible. Five-consonant clusters in Colloquial Jalaia can only exist of two consonant clusters allowed by Official Jalaia, of which one must consist of two consonants and the other of three consonants.

Consonant clusters that can be used at the beginning of a syllable are as follows: /kl/, /kr/, /mn/, /mr/, /nm/, /pl/, /pn/, /pr/, /pt/, /sk/, /sl/, /sm/, /sn/, /sp/, /st/, /sv/ and /tr/. Consonant clusters that can be used at the end of a syllable are as follows: /hk/, /hp/, /ht/, /ks/, /kst/, /lk/, /lks/, /ls/, /lst/, /lt/, /ms/, /mst/, /mt/, /ns/, /nst/, /nt/, /ps/, /pst/, /pt/, /rn/, /rnt/, /sk/, /skt, /sp/, /spt/, /st/ and /ts/. Letters in bold cannot be used in the final two syllables of a verb (see Verbs).

Vowel clusters

Morphophonology

Orthography

Grammar

Nouns

Nouns are a highly used aspect of Jalaia, and are used as both nouns and adjectives. There are two grammatical numbers, singular and plural.

There are five different classes of nouns: rounded open, unrounded open, rounded closed, unrounded closed, neutral open and neutral closed. Open syllables are syllables that end on vowels, whilst closed syllables end on consonants; rounded and unrounded focuses on the vowels in the word, whereby neutral words only have the neutral letters /e/ and /i/.

Number

Nouns have two different numbers, dual and plural. Use of the dual is optional, although it has persisted in several archaic expressions, e.g. "lijusti" (the suns) and "eskiai" (breasts, on a single person).

The dual number is formed by adding the suffix -i to a noun. If the noun is governed by cases, the suffix comes after the suffixes for the cases in question. When the suffix comes after a consonant, it morphs into -ti.

The plural number is formed by adding the suffix -t to a noun. If the noun is governed by cases, the suffix comes after the suffixes for the cases in question. If the suffix comes after a /t/, it morphs into -te.

Cases

Grammatical cases are added to the end of a noun and reflect the situation that one is in. It is possible to use multiple cases on a single noun, but those cases cannot be of the same class (i.e. grammatical, essive, marginal). In cases where the suffix used for a case contains a vowel that is subject to vowel harmonization, this vowel will reflect the roundedness or unroundedness of the words it is attached to.

Jalaian cases
Case Suffix English prep. Example Translation
Grammatical
nominative - - teola house
genitive -(e)m of / 's, when used in reference to another noun adjectival indicator teolam of (a) house / house's
accusative -(e)n - teolan house
partitive -(e)jje - teolajje house (as an object)
Locative (internal)
inessive -iaa/-iää in teolaiaa in (a) house
elative -ie/-iee from (inside) teolaie from (a) house
illative -iuu/-iyy into teolaiuu into (a) house
prolative -(i)kka/-(i)kkä through teolakka through the house
Locative (external)
adessive -(i)ka/-(i)kä at, on, around teolaka at (a) house
ablative -(e)tta/-(e)ttä from teolatta from (a) house
allative -(i)mma/-(i)mmä to teolamma to (a) house
apudessive -(i)ko/-(i)kö next to teolako next to (a) house
Essive
essive -(e)ssa/-(e)ssä as teolassa as a house
exessive -ioo/-iöö from being teolaioo from being a house
antessive -(e)sso/-(e)ssö prior to (being) teolasso prior to being a house
final -esse end (of), meant for teolaesse meant for the house
Superlative
lative -(e)lla/-(e)llä more [adjective]/-er teolalla more homely
superlative -(e)llu/-(e)lly most [adjective]/-est teolallu most homely
Marginal
instrumental -(i)jja/-(e)jjä with (the aid of) teolajja with the house
comitative -sta/-stä together (with) teolasta with the house
temporal -(i)kko/-(i)kkö during teolakko during (the existence of a) house
intrative -itta/-ittä (in) between teolaitta in between the houses*
Vocative
vocative -iu/-iy exclamation, emphasis teolaiu! house!
* This is an automatic plural.

An example word would be:

"neöttessälejjeiyyssäkköiy!"
"neöttessäl-ejje-iyy-ssä-kkö-iy"
"relationship-PARTITIVE-ILLATIVE-ESSIVE-TEMPORAL-VOCATIVE"
"like going into a certain aspect of an ongoing relationship!"

Morphology

Syntax