Rokadong

Rokadong Rokadong
Progress: 74%
Type
Agglutinative
Alignment
Austronesian
Head direction
Initial	Mixed		Final
Primary word order
Subject-verb-object
Tonal
No
Declensions
No
Conjugations
Yes
Genders
None
Verbs conjugate according to...
Voice		Mood
Person		Number
Tense		Aspect

Rokadong (IPA: [ɾokadoŋ]) is a Nentan language spoken in western Quillan. As one of the primary languages of the Quill Kingdom, Rokadong is spoken by over 50,000,000 people, mostly Kana kanvas, as a first language.

Kanvas are a species of cat-like anthropomorphic beings unique to Spectradom, the world in which Rokadong is placed, and Rokadong reflects that in some ways. However, the language is 100% human-compatible, as the virtually-identical-to-human figure and sketch species also use it.

Introduction

Rokadong is my first conlang, first started in 2020 as part of my worldbuilding projects. Specifically, it is linked to my project "Drawn to AfterLife," though the language itself may see use in my other projects. Inspired most directly by Malay, it is one of the three notable languages of DTAL, alongside the as-yet very incomplete Nentan language Kairitelan and Gomensayan language Liðakuin.

Rokadong, like all of my serious conlangs, is meant to be similar to natural languages in terms of scope.

This is a work of love and I ask any readers that, outside of grammatical mistakes, they do not make any edits without my premission. This work is protected by copyright, and I do plan on using it in monetized material; this wiki is a service both for myself and for any future fans.

Etymology

Rokadong is a contraction of "dong to rokasela," meaning "Rokasela's language." Rokasela refers to the six major islands of the Acrylla Archipelago, where Rokadong originated, and apocryphally, may also refer to the six extensions from the core of a kanva's body: two arms, two legs, a head, and a tail.

Phonology

Consonants

Consonant phonemes

	Labial		alveolar		Post- alveolar/ palatal		Velar		Uvular		Glottal
Nasal		m		n		ɲ		ŋ
Stop	p	b	t	d	t͡ʃ	d͡ʒ	k	ɡ			ʔ
Fricative	f	v	s	z	ʃ						h
Approximant				(ɹ)		j		w
Lateral				l
Trill				(r)						(ʀ)		(ʢ̠)
Tap				ɾ

Notes

• /ɾ/ is a highly variable sound, with exact realization depending on dialect and surroundings. /ʀ/ is considered marginally phonemic, and otherwise every trill and tap is rhotic.
  • [r], the "long r", is usually found morpheme-initially as well as in clusters of /ɾ l/.
  • [ɹ], the "vowel r", is found morpheme-finally in some dialects.
  • [ʀ], the "growl r", is marginally phonemic, as some words in some dialects retain it instead of it merging. It may also appear in imperative or otherwise forceful speech as an allophone of /ɾ/.
  • [ʢ̠], the "purr r", appears in speech that is usually also labialized, if not produced with an entirely closed mouth. This sound is true glottal, and thus is not possible for humans to reproduce, as the only method humans have of producing a glottal trill is through vowels, which are produced with an open mouth. However, it can be imitated through a variety of means if desired, and often is merged with one or more of [r ʀ m], even for kanva speakers.
• Nasal consonants lose their contrast before stop consonants. However, they still contrast in morpheme-final position, so /ŋ/ is still considered phonemic.
• /h/ is frequently elided between unlike vowels.

Orthography

Rokadong may be either written using the Latin alphabet or the native Rokadong abugida.

Other resources

• Rokadong on Star Dragon's Den